When the change you need to make is obvious to everyone but you

Mike, you’re breathing right in my face. Can you back off, please? My wife doesn’t mince words, thank goodness. I was leaning down to look at her computer screen and, apparently, invaded her space. She asked me to have a look, though. What gives? An image came to…

How to grow your own living food (and emergency nutrition) with EasyGreen sprouters

(NaturalNews) It’s one of the top concerns of people everywhere — how do we grow our own food for superior nutrition and food sovereignty? How do we store an emergency food supply that can get us through a crisis when conventional food deliveries to grocery stores may be cut off? One of the most powerful answers to all this is sprouting , and sprouting is no more complicated than having a ready supply of sprouting seeds , then adding water and sprouting your own living nutrition for mere pennies a serving. Three big reasons why people sprout People sprout for three primary reasons: Reason #1) Vegans and vegetarians sprout seeds to eat high-protein living foods which make up the bulk of their diets. Reason #2) Surthrivalists sprout seeds to grow their own emergency foods indoors, using no soils and having a compact food storage benefit (seeds are really tiny, but they sprout into larger foods). Reason #3) Smart consumers sprout seeds in order to save money on their grocery bill, as sprouted seeds provide high-density nutrition at a fraction of the cost of traditional superfoods. Sprouting, in other words, is one of the few strategies used by vegans, vegetarians, survivalists, practical household moms and everybody else who wants to grow their own powerful nutrition for pennies a serving. It’s almost a form of ” micro-gardening ” because you’re practicing small-scale agriculture right on your kitchen counter. Kinda fun, actually… Why sprouts can keep you alive (and more…) Sometimes people joke about those who eat a lot of sprouts (“It’s rabbit food!”), but the science behind sprouting is no joke. Scientifically speaking: • Sprouts synthesize their own natural VITAMINS. • Sprouts are high in blood-cleansing CHLOROPHYLL. • When grown in the right water, sprouts absorb numerous MINERALS and convert them into organic, bioavailable forms for safe human consumption. • Sprouts are LIVING food that provide enzymes and other supportive benefits to human health. • Sprouts are HIGH PROTEIN foods that can also help maintain or even build muscle mass. • Some types of sprouts contain ANTI-CANCER nutrients such as I3C, which are widely documented and also common in cruciferous vegetables. The bottom line is that sprouts can give you living vitamins from plants — and this is something you can enjoy on a daily basis or during a food crisis, if that’s what you reserve it for. How to sprout for (almost) FREE I wouldn’t want to live on sprouts alone, but neither would I want to live without them! For me, they are part of my daily diet of superfood smoothies (avocado chocolate smoothies, for example), quinoa lentil soups and occasional sources of high-quality free-range meats (I’ve been eating more quality meats since working on a ranch in Texas). Sprouting can be as easy as placing seeds in a nut milk bag (or a sprouting bag) and soaking them every few hours to maintain their moisture. This approach, of course, requires a lot of attention to keep the seeds moist but not overly moist to the point where they start to grow mold. But it’s the most affordable way to start sprouting. Video teaches you how to sprout for nearly FREE Check out this awesome video on NaturalNews.TV by Jamison , who shows you how to sprout for (nearly) free: http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=66095ABDE53CD5AC994E73DBFE3EEF0B Here’s also another interesting video from YogaBodyNaturals.com showing “soil-free wheatgrass sprouting” http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=88E6C66F15E7FFFE65CE4B0E04507E56 Automated sprouting For those who want to automate countertop sprouting , there are a couple of machines on the market that maintain the proper sprout moisture for you. I’ve tried three sprouting devices over the last few years, and the best overall device that I found is called the EasyGreen Sprouter . It’s a countertop unit that helps you grow five trays of sprouts (and you can put a different sprouting seed in each tray) simply, affordably and reliably. In essence, it controls the moisture for you and “waters” your sprouts on a repeating timer while maintaining the right humidity. Using this machine on my countertop (you need to use it next to a sink because it has a small drain tube), I’ve been able to grow masses of sprouts for just pennies a serving: Broccoli sprouts (yeow!), mung bean sprouts (like in Chinese food), wheat grass sprouts (for juicing!), and my favorite, alfalfa sprouts . You can also grow radish sprouts, which are rather intense in their flavor but also contain strong medicine. The EasyGreen Sprouter EQMV The EQMV is the newest model of the EasyGreen Sprouter, which has become a mainstay among healthy living advocates. It comes with: • The EasyGreen MikroFarm sprouting machine (18″ x 24″ x 7.5″) • Mist generator • Activation timer (for controlling the misting frequency) • 5 Food-grade growing trays • Owner’s manual CD This is the unit I own and use (I plan to shoot a video about it soon, like my recent video on cactus fruit juicing.) It allows you to germinate, grow and harvest large quantities of sprouts in mere days, for just pennies a serving. It sits on your kitchen counter and uses water and electricity. That’s it. And the water used to grow your sprouts is never recirculated back into your sprouts, meaning your sprouts are grown in FRESH water only (the used water drains into your sink). You can also add minerals to your sprout water if you wish for them to update additional minerals and transform them into plant-based organic minerals. This is, by far, the healthiest and most natural way to intake minerals — get them from plants! The EasyGreen Sprouter is also stackable , so you can double or triple your sprout production in the same counter space. We’ve got the EasyGreen Sprouter on sale right now at the NaturalNews Store, where it’s being offered at 10% off the normal price for a limited time. This is a great value on a solid countertop device that can significantly enhance your ability to grow nutrition and grow your own emergency food . Click here to see the sale price in the NaturalNews Store . Starting with nothing but seeds and water, you can have edible sprouts in 2-3 days , followed by a much larger harvest in 4-5 days, and you can rotate your trays to continually produce fresh sprouts each day thereafter. You can also produce extra sprouts then refrigerate them while you grow more! So you can “pre-sprout” a larger quantity. If you’re in Europe, purchase through: www.easygreeneurope.com If you’re in Canada, call 888-772-6001 to find out where you can buy it in-country. Sprouting hints and tips It’s better to sprout in a cooler area because a cooler room inhibits any possibility of mold growth. You don’t want refrigeration temperatures, of course, but more like something in the high 60′s or low 70′s (F). By the way, I’ve personally grown teff sprouts , then dried them in a countertop food drying machine after pouring applesauce over the top of the sprouts. This makes a crunchy apple sprout bar that’s an amazing emergency food. Yep, you can “play” with all this and create your own amazing sprouted foods or dried superfoods by using nothing more than a sprouting machine and a food dryer (like the Excalibur units). In fact, I’m so excited about this that I recently purchased a Cabela’s food dehydrator to begin large-scale stored food production. Hopefully I’ll bring you some video reports on that in the weeks ahead! When you get a sprouter, remember to stock up on spouting seeds . These are easy to store (refrigerate them if you have the space), and they provide what seems like a massive amount of sprouts from a relatively tiny amount of sprouting seeds. The effect is quite astonishing. And, believe me, for all you survivalists out there (like me), sprouts are far more nutritious than MREs! I personally enjoy teff sprouts and alfalfa sprouts the most. For me, radish sprouts and broccoli sprouts are way too intense and sharp in their taste. I would only use them sparingly. Mung bean sprouts are great for stir-fry dishes, but of course at that point they are no longer raw and living. Dr. Gabriel Cousens likes to sprout sunflower seeds at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona. I’ve toured their facility and they have a fairly large sunflower seed sprouting operation (way beyond the scope of this single machine), but if you just want to sprout sunflower seeds for personal use or family use, this machine is absolutely perfect. Oh, by the way, you can also sprout chia seeds in this machine, although I haven’t experimented with that very much yet. Enjoy your sprouts! And remember, if you want to save 10% on the EasyGreen Sprouting machine , get it on sale at the NaturalNews Store: Click here to see the sale price in the NaturalNews Store . Enjoy!

New NASA images show what appears to be liquid water on Mars

(NaturalNews) Images recently captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter undoubtedly illustrate the strongest evidence yet that the “Red Planet” likely contains liquid water, and potentially even life forms of some sort. Topping previous speculation linked to suggestive observation that frozen water may exist under Mars’ rock and sand formations, the new discovery suggests that during the planet’s warmer months, liquid water actually comes up from the ground and flows on its surface. “If the features identified, recurring slope lineae (RSL), can be confirmed to represent briny flows, this would be a very significant finding,” stated Christopher Carr, a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who is building a device to detect DNA and RNA on Mars. “It wouldn’t dramatically change our understanding of present-day Mars as generally cold and dry, but it would be important to the search for life on Mars.” NASA’s website contains a time-lapse image of the apparent RSL, which researchers believe are gradual trickles of salty water each spanning about half a yard wide and hundreds of yards long. You can view that image here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/pia14472.html Most exploration and research of Mars has been undertaken with the assumption that life may have existed there in the past. But the new observation of liquid water flow during the spring and summer months may indicate that life exists on Mars right now, say scientists. And if this is the case, the next step may be to send manned missions, rather than just unmanned robot missions, to Mars. “That there is water on the surface means that explorers could go to Mars and potentially find extant life on the surface of Mars,” said Robert Zubrin, president and founder of the Mars Society, to SPACE.com. “It underscores the reason why Mars should be the target for human exploration. You’re not going to find life on the moon, you’re not going to find life on an asteroid. We need to send human explorers to the complex environments where the complex skills of human beings are actually useful.” Sources for this story include: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/04/nasa-finds-evidence-of-liquid-water-on-mars/ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/10/scitech/main20090617.shtml

You can’t overdose on homeopathic remedies; Why won’t homeopathy skeptics drink their own medicine?

(NaturalNews) It’s really quite hilarious to see this unfold: Homeopathy skeptics and vicious Big Pharma attack dogs are running around the globe in ludicrous demonstrations where they consume huge doses of homeopathic remedies in public and then claim that because they don’t die of an “overdose,” these medicines therefore don’t work. Notice that they never consume their own medicines in large doses? Chemotherapy? Statin drugs? Blood thinners? They wouldn’t dare drink those. In fact, today I’m challenging the homeopathic skeptics and other medical fundamentalists to a “drink-a-thon” test to see which medicines will kill you faster. But we’ll get to that in a minute… First, let’s get to the understanding of why the idea that you could “overdose” on homeopathic remedies is ridiculous to begin with. It requires an elevated worldview Teaching the so-called “skeptics” about how homeopathic medicine really works is a bit like trying to convince flat Earthers that the planet is really spherical. These skeptics, you see, approach homeopathy as if it were a drug (because that’s all they really know). And in their world, all drugs are dangerous if you overdose on them, which makes sense from their point of view because they’re educated solely in dangerous, synthetically-derived chemicals that are incompatible with the human body. So it may be understandable at some level that since this is all the medical fundamentalists (skeptics) know, they have probably not attained the level of sophistication required to understand the far more advanced mechanisms of homeopathy. It’s a bit like trying to teach a five-year-old child how to play Mozart. And while that may have worked if your child was Mozart, it probably doesn’t work for anyone else. Homeopathy isn’t a drug Homeopathy, you see, isn’t a drug. It’s not a chemical. So you can drink all you want and you won’t overdose on it. That’s not a defect in homeopathy — it’s a remarkable advantage! It means that while 200,000+ Americans are killed each year by toxic pharmaceutical drugs, no one is harmed by homeopathy . Not even those who are desperately trying to be harmed by it! It seems these skeptics really want everything to be more dangerous because the world of toxicity is so much more familiar to them. What these not-so-amazing skeptics would like to see, it seems, is more people dropping dead from dangerous side effects. Then they would believe homeopathy was real. That’s the way ignorant conventional medicine operates today: You know the drugs are kicking in when you start getting worse . Toxicity and conventional medicine go hand in hand. But homeopathy isn’t a chemical. It’s a resonance . A vibration, or a harmony. It’s the restructuring of water to resonate with the particular energy of a plant or substance. We can get into the physics of it in a subsequent article, but for now it’s easy to recognize that even from a conventional physics point of view, liquid water has tremendous energy, and it’s constantly in motion, not just at the molecular level but also at the level of its subatomic particles and so-called “orbiting electrons” which aren’t even orbiting in the first place. Electrons are vibrations and not physical objects. But, oh yeah, I forgot. The skeptics don’t know that yet. That won’t be taught that in university physics classes until probably 2020, at which point most of them will probably be dead from taking pharmaceuticals to treat their own diseases. For now, they’ve all convinced themselves that electrons are — get this — tiny “particles” flying around atomic nuclei and tremendous speeds which just happen to stay in their little orbits like little perpetual motion machines (which they say are impossible), until all of a sudden, these electron “particles” inexplicably leap to a higher or lower orbit without occupying the space in-between those orbits at any moment . Yep, magic teleporting particles! That’s the “scientific” explanation of these folks. No wonder so many of them are magicians: Believing their explanations requires that you believe in particle magic! But getting back to water and vibrations, which isn’t magic but rather vibrational physics , you can’t overdose on a harmony. If you have one violin playing a note in your room, and you add ten more violins — or a hundred more — it’s all still the same harmony (with all its complex higher frequencies, too). There’s no toxicity to it. Homeopathy works much the same way: You can drink a few drops or a few gallons. It’s the same harmony being introduced into your body’s living cells, regardless of the quantity. And drinking a few gallons of it will only make you urinate a whole lot, which I suppose the skeptics have been doing a lot these days, staring down into the toilet bowl with their pants unzipped, declaring, “I was right! I can’t overdose on it!” Talk about expensive urine, eh? It’s hilarious, in fact, that those who would try to disparage homeopathy would even think that attempting to “overdose” on it proves anything at all. What it really shows is that they utterly lack any understanding of the underlying theories of how homeopathy works — theories that Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier — the discovered of the AIDS virus — now publicly supports, by the way. (http://www.naturalnews.com/031210_Luc_Montagnier_Homeopathy.html) Bent on their own destruction What really drives the skeptics crazy is that no matter how hard they try, they just can’t seem to kill themselves . To be so out of touch with the beautiful, loving and holographic nature of the universe around us is to retreat to a self-loathing worldview that can only be resolved through self destruction. These skeptics just want to kill themselves… and they wouldn’t mind taking a few of you along with them, too. Hence their promotion of vaccines, pharmaceuticals, chemotherapy and water fluoridation. These public demonstrations of chugging what they call “drugs” can only be called psychopathic “public suicide attempts” — and they can’t even get that right, either. (They’re drinking the wrong stuff…) I would suggest they try a few fluid ounces of their own medicines if they want to achieve the overdoses they’re looking for. A few ounces of chemotherapy would do the trick nicely. Let me know if one of them tries that, and we’ll carry the news: “Skeptic dies after drinking his own medicine. Story at eleven…” In fact, if these skeptics are looking to kill themselves, they need look no further than the tens of thousands of toxic drugs, vaccines, chemotherapy agents, radiation procedures and barbaric surgical procedures that they claim will heal you! Yep, the stuff they say is good for you is the stuff they won’t drink . And therein lies my challenge… Why I’m challenging skeptics to drink a gallon of chemotherapy I am hereby challenging the skeptics to a public drink-a-thon, each drinking the medicines we advocate. I’ll meet them in a public place, and we’ll each drink the medicines we believe in the most. I’ll bring a gallon of homeopathic remedies and healing raw juices, and the medical fundamentalists and their supporters (the more, the merrier) can each bring a gallon of the liquid forms of chemotherapy, blood pressure medications, coumadin, or statin drugs. We’ll chug them in public and see who’s left standing. The results get posted on YouTube for the whole world to see. We’ll title the video, “SKEPTICS COMMIT MASS SUICIDE BY DRINKING PHARMACEUTICALS AS IF THEY WERE KOOL-AID.” Jonestown, anyone? Do you have any doubt which of us will be left standing? Sure, I may need to pee a whole lot, but the restrooms won’t be crowded, because all the skeptics won’t be needing them anymore. That outcome, my friends, would be sad, but newsworthy. More importantly, it would prove an important point: Medicine should be safe for people to consume , not so deadly that you drop dead after consuming it, which is what often happens with pharmaceuticals. But, alas, my challenge will certainly never be accepted. None of the magicians, skeptics of medical fundamentalists will be publicly chugging chemotherapy any time soon, nor any other large doses of liquid pharmaceuticals. Why? Because they know how toxic those chemicals are. Do you notice the irony here? The only medicines they’re willing to consume in large doses in public are homeopathic remedies! They won’t dare consume large quantities of the medicines they all say YOU should be taking! (The pharma drugs.) And therein rests the truth in all this: Even the skeptics know that homeopathy is inherently safer than their own medicines . No wonder they keep attacking it: If people found out about safe medicine , where would all of Big Pharma’s repeat business come from? After all, the best thing about chemotherapy (from Big Pharma’s point of view) is that it creates repeat business from liver damage, kidney damage and brain damage. All these pharmaceutical poisons are so damaging to the human body — and brain — that these is probably one of the main reasons why the skeptics who take all these drugs are incapable of understanding high-vibration advanced medicine. A vaccine shot every year does wonders for lowering the IQ and killing off the creative thinking portions of the brain, after all. So if you’re looking for safe medicine, definitely take a look at homeopathic remedies. They so safe that even the critics can’t overdose on them… but you have to admit the attempt makes for great entertainment. Oh, by the way, speaking of homeopathy, did you know that Dana Ullman recently joined NaturalNews as a featured contributing writer? Check out his stories at: http://www.naturalnews.com/Author_Dana_Ullman.html

Principle of astrology proven to be scientific: planetary position imprints biological clocks of mammals

(NaturalNews) Mention the word “astrology” and skeptics go into an epileptic fit. The idea that someone’s personality could be imprinted at birth according to the position of the sun, moon and planets has long been derided as “quackery” by the so-called “scientific” community which resists any notion based on holistic connections between individuals and the cosmos. According to the conventional view, your genes and your parenting determine your personality, and the position of planet Earth at the time of your birth has nothing to do with it. Then again, conventional scientists don’t believe the position of the moon has anything to do with life on Earth, either. They dismiss the wisdom that farmers have known for ages — that planting seeds or transplanting living plants in harmony with the moon cycles results in higher crop yields. Even the seeds inside humans are strongly influenced by the moon, as menstruation cycles and moon cycles are closely synchronized (28 days, roughly). Researchers demonstrate scientific principle of astrology Skeptics must be further bewildered by the new research published in Nature Neuroscience and conducted at Vanderbilt University which unintentionally provides scientific support for the fundamental principle of astrology — namely, that the position of the planets at your time of birth influences your personality . In this study, not only did the birth month impact personality; it also resulted in measurable functional changes in the brain . This study, conducted on mice, showed that mice born in the winter showed a “consistent slowing” of their daytime activity. They were also more susceptible to symptoms that we might call “Seasonal Affective Disorder.” The study was carried out by Professor of Biological Sciences Douglas McMahon, graduate student Chris Ciarleglio, post-doctoral fellow Karen Gamble and two additional undergraduate students, none of whom believe in astrology, apparently. They do, of course, believe in science, which is why all their study findings have been draped in the language of science even though the findings are essentially supporting principles of astrology. “What is particularly striking about our results is the fact that the imprinting affects both the animal’s behavior and the cycling of the neurons in the master biological clock in their brains,” said Ciarleglio. This is one of the core principles of astrology: That the position of the planets at the time of your birth (which might be called the “season” of your birth) can actually result in changes in your brain physiology which impact lifelong behavior. Once again, such an idea sounds preposterous to the scientifically trained, unless of course they discover it for themselves, at which point it’s all suddenly very “scientific.” Instead of calling it “astrology,” they’re now referring to it as “seasonal biology.” How to discredit real science It all reminds me of the discovery of cold fusion in 1989 by Fleishmann and Pons, who were widely ridiculed by the arrogant hot fusion researchers who tried to destroy the credibility (and careers) of cold fusion researchers (http://www.naturalnews.com/025925_cold_fusion_Amazon_research.html). After the very idea of “cold fusion” was attacked and demolished by these arrogant scientists, it soon returned under a new name: Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR). LENR has now been verified as true by none other than the U.S. Navy — along with hundreds of other researchers around the world (see link above). And yet, even today, the conventional scientific community still insists cold fusion doesn’t exist and cold fusion researchers are frauds. Just as there is a solid scientific basis for LENR, there is a scientific basis for astrology, too. The relationship between the Earth, Moon and Sun naturally alter light exposure, temperature, gravitational pull and other conditions that may be sensed by living organisms. To believe in astrology, all that’s really required is to grasp the basic concepts of the interrelationships between all living things. Does the position of the sun or moon influence life on Earth? Of course it does: Life as we know it wouldn’t even exist without the moon tugging on Earth and preventing its rotational axis from shifting around to the point where radical changes in seasonal temperatures would make life far more challenging. (The moon, in other words, is one of the key “stabilizers” of life on planet Earth because it tends to stabilize the seasons and keep the Earth on a steady rotational plane.) None of this, of course, means that the position of Saturn today is going to make you win the lottery or find a new love. That’s the tabloid version of astrology, not real astrology. Don’t confuse tabloid astrology with real astrology Even astronomy has its tabloid versions, too, which are entirely non-scientific. For example, every model of our solar system that I’ve ever seen is a wildly inaccurate tabloid version of reality, with planet sizes ridiculously exaggerated and planet distances not depicted to scale. These silly, non-scientific solar system models imprint a kind of solar system mythology into the minds of schoolchildren and even school teachers. Virtually no one outside the communities of astrophysics and astronomy has any real grasp of the enormity of not merely our solar system, but of our galaxy and the space between neighboring galaxies. To show a giant sun the size of a basketball, with a depiction of the Earth as a marble-sized planet three inches away is the astronomical equivalent of a gimmicky horoscope claiming you’re going to win the lottery today because you were born under the sign of Pisces. Both are fictions. And both are an insult to real science. In fact, even the whole idea that an “electron” is a piece of physical matter, made up of other “particles” is an insult to real science. The sobering truth of the matter is that “particle physics” doesn’t have much to do with actual particles at all. It’s all about energies that might, on occasion, vibrate in just the right way so that they momentarily appear to take on the illusion of a particle as measured by our observers — observers who inevitably alter the outcome of the entire experiment, by the way, once again proving the interrelated nature of things in our universe, including observer and experiment. The horoscope predictions in the Sunday paper — as well as much of the hilarious mythology found in the modern description of an atom — are both simplified, comic-book versions of a larger truth — the truth that we live in a holistic universe where every bit of physical matter, every bit of energy and every conscious mind impacts the rest of the universe in subtle ways. There is no such thing as an individual who is isolated from the cosmos, because we are of the cosmos and we exist as the physical manifestations of energies that, for our lifetimes, are momentarily organized as beings. We are made of star stuff, says Carl Sagan. He he’s right: We are not only made of star stuff, we are influenced by that stuff, too. And finally, modern science is beginning to catch up to this greater truth that astrologers have known since the dawn of human existence on our tiny planet.

How to avoid salmonella contaminated eggs

(NaturalNews) In response to the massive egg recall, some mainstream news outlets have begun addressing the real cause of food contamination: inhumane and unsanitary food production methods. A recent MSNBC article explains that organically-grown eggs from chickens who live and feed in natural pastures are healthier and safer than the caged, industrially-grown ones most people buy. According to the report, more than 90 percent of store-bought eggs come from chickens who live in tight, filthy cages. Such conditions actually encourage the growth and spread of dangerous bacteria like salmonella. Commercial chickens regularly eat unnatural feed as well, and are typically unable to go outside and get any exercise, which greatly affects the quality and integrity of both their eggs. “When you put four or five chickens in tiny cages, they can’t engage in normal chicken behavior — pecking in the dirt, dusting,” explained chicken expert Gail Damerow, author of Storey’s Guide to Raising Chicken , to MSNBC. “The pressure of the wire cages against their feet causes infections, their feathers rub off on the side of the cages…they can’t run around and eat flies and take dust baths.” The end result is a whole lot of sick chickens that end up spreading disease around the entire coup, which ultimately ends up contamination the eggs and sickening the public. Pastured chickens, on the other hand, are free to dig around for bugs, worms and forage, which increases both the vitamin and omega-3 fatty acid content of their eggs. Based on analysis, pastured eggs contain roughly twice as much vitamin E and two-and-a-half times more omega-3s than conventional, caged eggs. These free-roaming chickens are also far less prone to become contaminated with salmonella and other bacteria. The best way to obtain safe, healthy eggs is to buy them locally from farmers who raise their chickens on pastures, and that use only organic feed. Or if you have the space, you can even buy or build a small, backyard coup to raise your own chickens. Sources for this story include: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38832993/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/

Solar storms could bring down modern civilization

(NaturalNews) A massive solar storm, considered an inevitable occurrence by astrophysicists, would wreak devastation on modern civilization like a Hurricane Katrina across the globe, U.S. government officials have concluded. “It’s important to understand that, along with other types of natural hazards, [solar] storms can cause impacts,” said Craig Fugate, Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Periodically, eruptions or explosions on the Sun’s surface send bursts of high-powered radiation or charged particles slamming into our planet. Low-level solar weather is responsible for the polar auroras and periodic disruption of radio signals. But truly powerful storms, which occur every few decades, can release as much energy as a billion hydrogen bombs. Government scientists recently carried out a tabletop exercise to analyze the likely effects of such a storm — “what we think could be close to a worst-case scenario,” according to Tom Bogdan of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center. A solar storm in 1859 was so strong that it actually caused fires along telegraph wires. Civilization has only become more vulnerable to such storms in the intervening decades, as dependence on electronic devices has grown to previously unimaginable proportions. In the simulation, the effects of the storm began with the disruption of radio and GPS signals. Ten to 20 minutes later, the storm “basically took out” commercial satellites, disabling television stations, telephones and other data transactions. “When you go into a gas station and put your credit card in and get some gas, that’s a satellite transaction,” Bogdan said. Nearly a full day later, the ongoing burst of radiation reversed the current in electrical lines, knocking out transformers worldwide and leaving millions without power. This quickly led to a shutdown of water, heating, cooling and telephone services. The simultaneous collapse of the whole grid made it nearly impossible to bring power quickly back online, straining the two-to-three-day generator capacity of hospitals and other emergency facilities. The exercise is less speculative than many might hope. On March 13, 1989 a massive solar storm took out the entire Hydro-Quebec power grid within seconds. Sources for this story include: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124125001.

NaturalNews.TV video sharing site connects sponsors with natural living viewers

(NaturalNews) In anticipation of its public launch, the NaturalNews.TV video sharing website is now making inventory available for potential sponsors who wish to reach a natural health / green living audience. The site supports both 5-second pre-roll videos and a horizontal banner ad. Both ad formats are offered at extremely reasonable month-to-month rates with no advertising contracts or long-term commitments. More details about NaturalNews.TV advertising opportunities are available at http://www.naturalnews.tv/Sponsorship.asp Even before its public launch, NaturalNews.TV membership has rapidly grown to over 5,000 members who are uploading and viewing videos. In July, even without being publicly announced, the NaturalNews.TV website served up more than 250,000 video views. This is expected to rapidly expand to millions of views per month through the remainder of 2010. NaturalNews.TV screens all videos by hand, declining videos that are off-topic or contain inappropriate images. This helps ensure the quality of the video viewing experience. Videos can also be rated by the public, and comments can be posted by existing members. The site does not support anonymous comments, and this helps reduce inappropriate comments that you might typically find on other video sites. Advertising is restricted to individuals or companies offering high-integrity products, services or information relevant to natural health, green living, fitness, spirituality or other similar topics in the “health and happiness” realms. No advertising will be accepted from drug companies, cancer industry groups, junk food companies or other organizations selling poison. Advertising revenues are used to support the continued free use of the NaturalNews.TV site by members and viewers. (The largest cost is bandwidth, which is anticipated to require thousands of terabytes of data transfer each year.) The purpose of NaturalNews.TV is to provide a free video sharing platform focused on health and happiness where viewers can find relevant, high-quality videos focused on their favorite topics… without the noise and pollution of irrelevant videos as found on more popular video sites. To see some of the site’s existing videos, visit www.NaturalNews.TV Sponsorship spots are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Reserve your space now at: http://www.naturalnews.tv/Sponsorship.asp The “official” launch of NaturalNews.TV is anticipated to occur within the next 7 – 10 days.

Green tea nutrients may prevent glaucoma

(NaturalNews) Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It comes like a silent thief, gradually stealing sight and usually providing no warning symptoms in the early stages. But as the disease progresses, damage to the optic nerve grows worse and side vision can gradually fail until there’s only tunnel vision left, and then no vision at all. Treatment with drugs and surgery may slow down the eyesight deterioration but there’s no cure. However, new research provides evidence there’s a natural way to prevent glaucoma from developing in the first place — drink green tea regularly. A study just published in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry concludes that phytochemicals found in green tea actually penetrate deeply into tissues of the eyes. This is the first report to document how the lens, retina and other parts of the eye absorb the powerful antioxidants and disease-fighting substances found in green tea and it strongly raises the possibility that green tea can prevent glaucoma as well as other eye diseases and conditions. Scientist Chi Pui Pang, Ph.D., of the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and his colleagues pointed out in a statement to the press that green tea contains flavonoids known as catechins that are thought to protect the eyes. But until now, there was doubt that catechins could pass through the stomach and gastrointestinal tract and end up in eye tissues. However, in experiments with laboratory rats, the scientists showed conclusively that after green tea is consumed, structures in the eye absorb sight-protecting green tea catechins. When the scientists analyzed the eye tissues of the animals used in their study, they discovered that various eye structures had absorbed significant amounts of individual catechins. For instance, the retina took in the highest levels of a catechin known as gallocatechin and the aqueous humor (a thick watery substance that fills the space between the lens and the cornea) soaked up another green tea phytochemical dubbed epigallocatechin . Bottom line: green tea catechins reduced harmful oxidative stress in the eyes that is linked to glaucoma and other eye diseases. What’s more, the protective effect lasted up to 20 hours. As regular readers of NaturalNews are aware, this good news about green tea is one more example of a host of scientific evidence that has accumulated over the last few years showing that drinking green tea is a powerful natural way to protect health. For example, researchers have found that green tea has the potential to prevent and treat osteoporosis and other bone diseases that affect millions throughout the world (http://www.naturalnews.com/027194_green_tea_osteoporosis_disease.html). Phytochemicals in green tea also show promise in preventing and treating serious brain disorders like Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s diseases (http://www.naturalnews.com/027757_green_tea_brain_function.html). Editor’s note: NaturalNews is opposed to the use of animals in medical experiments that expose them to harm. We present these findings in protest of the way in which they were acquired. For more information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20085274 http://www.glaucoma.org/ http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/glaucoma/glaucoma_facts.asp