Martin

Energy Drinks, Sodas and your Skin

Energy Drinks, Sodas and your Skin

Energy Drinks And Soda

A number of years ago a young fellow that I worked with told me that he was quite overweight when he was young.  He told me he would drink a couple of ‘Big Gulp’ drinks almost every day through high school.  He made a decision at one point to stop and lost 50 pounds without any other changes in diet or activity and in a very short period of time.

These types of drinks can do a lot more damage to your body than just make you obese.   One of the other areas they attack is your skin.

 

Two of the main culprits in sodas and energy drinks are sugar and high fructose corn syrup.  Fructose may not be listed in drinks such as Red Bull but one study showed 17% of its sweetener was high fructose corn syrup.
(University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine)

Energy Drinks

Putting aside what energy drinks can do to your heart, they can wreak havoc on your skin.  In addition to fructose and caffeine one can of Red Bull contains 7 teaspoons of sugar.   

Sugar, amongst other things dehydrates your skin.  It can also break down collagen which, again, damages your skin. 

The extra caffeine in energy drinks dehydrate as well.  That is not what you want.   Suck the moisture out of your skin and you get wrinkles. 

Caffeine

The caffeine in energy drinks, sodas and coffee, contract your blood vessels.  This means those capillaries at the surface of your skin aren’t getting the proper nutrition.  And the waste products are not being carted away.  Anti-oxidants can’t make it to the skin cells.  Less collagen due to fewer nutrients.

Many of the darker sodas, like coke and pepsi have ‘advanced glycation end products’. These react with various proteins, nucleic acids and lipid in the skin cells and accelerate aging of the skin.  These glycation end products (where sugar binds to protein) can cause a whole host of other issues as well such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and more.

Caffeine can inhibit wound healing as well.  So if you are getting acne from all the sugar the healing may be slowed due to the caffeine that is added to the same drink.
(International Wound Journal)

High Fructose Corn Syrup

By any other name.  High fructose corn syrup is used pretty much exclusively in sodas/soft drinks and Energy drinks now. This ingredient inhibits calcium absorption and lowers Vitamin D.  It has come to light in the last 18 months or so due to COVID that Vitamin D is one of the worst deficiencies in North America and other parts of the world.    And Vitamin D is absolutely necessary for healthy skin.  One of the problems for you and wonderful for the manufacturers of High Fructose Corn Syrup is that it is highly addictive.  So, if you are hooked on sodas, energy drinks and the like, it may be very difficult to wean yourself.   Be cautious going for the ‘diet’ sodas, the artificial sweeteners have their own set of  problems.

High fructose corn syrup may not always be listed as such.  Many drinks just call it ‘sugar’ as it is a type of sugar.  But it is much more addictive and damaging to your body than sugar.

So, if you are drinking energy drinks such as Monster, NOS, Red Bull (one of the worst) or sodas like Coke or Pepsi, these are loaded with sugar and high fructose corn syrup.  Given time, they will wreak havoc on your skin.  Dehydrate and destroy the collagen.  Instead of trying to compensate with injections and the like, change your diet

Often when ones tries to wean from sugar or high fructose corn syrup, there is a period that feels like withdrawal.  Your body will adjust, you will get through it.  Afterwards you will have more energy and your skin will feel and look much healthier.

#sugar #energydrinks #soda #redbull #monster #collagen #highfructosecornsyrup

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Immune System and Packaged Foods

Immune System and Packaged Foods

Two generations of packaged/processed food! 

I was chatting with an acquaintance a few weeks ago at the lap pool in town.  She was my oldest son’s age (40+).  She told me that she started working out and changing her diet when she noticed that way too many friends her age were dying of diseases that would normally affect people in their 70s and 80s.  She observed from this: hers was the first generation to survive on packaged foods from start to finish! 

Amongst other things to fix this she was exercising regularly. She was hoping that it wasn’t too late to change her lifestyle and her future.  She was forcing herself to cook, to change her habits in that respect as well getting more exercise. 

The biggest issue, she found, was that it cost way more to eat healthy food.  It’s considerably cheaper to do a grocery shopping for packaged and processed goods than it was for fresh food. 

It is sometimes hard to convince people that if they are healthier and have more energy, that they will be more productive, more efficient and generally much, much happier.

Processed Food: Bad

“Researchers found that for every 5% increase in consumption of ultra-processed foods, there was a corresponding decrease in cardiovascular health. Subjects who consumed less than 40% or of their calories from ultra-processed foods had double the chance of having “ideal” heart health compared to people who ate 70% or more of their calories from ultra-processed foods.”
Life and Health 

Two factors enter into this.  One is that the packaged foods are over processed and the other, often more damaging is the additives.  Most of this comes from the fact that these processed foods will last for a very long time on the shelf or in storage without going ‘bad’. 

Some of the food additives that are in pretty much all of your packaged foods are high fructose corn syrup, Monosodium glutamate (MSG), food colouring, artificial flavours and a number of preservatives.

I’m going to talk about just two of the worst here.  Both high fructose corn syrup and monosodium glutamate (MSG) make you hungrier.  Not considering other damage that they can cause, this is one of reasons people gain more weight from eating fast food and soda.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

It used to be that you could just count calories to control your weight.   High Fructose Corn Syrup changed this.  Some years ago this sugar substitute became cheaper than sugar due to the government subsidization of the corn industry in the United States.   Thus, it became the go to sweetener for almost everything including soft drinks.  It is about half the price of sugar. And way more deadly! 

There are dozens of articles, if you search, on this additive. 

High Fructose Corn Syrup Triggers Fatty Liver Disease

And others:

This article has links that show how High Fructose Corn Syrup can lead to leaky gut and cancer:

“High fructose corn syrup has led to so many diseases found in the American culture today including heart disease, cancer, inflammation, leaky gut, fatty liver disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, and so much more.”

When my kids were growing up in the 90s, I would tell them to go with known evils like sugar.  We would have sit down dinners as much as possible.  This kept the family as a family and also educated the kids on cooking and eating non packaged goods.

The United States spends more than any other country in the world on health care and has the highest obesity rate in the world.  The US rates something like the 34th healthiest.  Behind many third world countries.  Many of those countries are are not eating packaged goods. 

Fast Foods and Sodas

Most of your soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi use high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar.  (In the USA.)  Pretty much anything you order at McDonald’s or Burger King will use high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar.  The same goes for most other fast food in North America.  And because high fructose corn syrup, like MSG below, leaves you hungry*, most people know that they had better 'super size it'.  Thus eating way more than they actually need.

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

I used to be on the road a lot. Microwave cooking in hotels.  I spent over an hour - probably closer to two hours - in a supermarket once, reading the ingredient lists and I could not find one frozen dinner product without monosodium glutamate.  Not one.  This was almost 20 years ago.  From that point on I stayed in hotels with kitchenettes so I could cook. 

MSG by any other name:

I’ll get to the damages caused by MSG in a moment but here are a few names it is hidden under: Yeast Extract, Glutamic Acid, hydrolyzed protein, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, hydrolyzed animal protein, ‘protein fortified’, enzyme modified.  Thus you have ingredients like whey protein isolate, soy protein isolate, autolyzed plant protein, natural flavors,  caseinate, and dozens of others.

Some of the side effects/symptoms that are more immediate are burning sensations, heart palpitations, sweating, chest pain and nausea to name only a few. 

Here is a really scary article on longer term effects of MSG found at the National Library of Medicine:

“Simultaneously it is being implicated for varied pathological condition like obesity, gonadal dysfunction, learning difficulty etc. … “  

And the purpose of MSG is to increase flavor.  Foods are so over processed these days that MSG and way too much sodium need to be added to enhance flavor.

Another article from a site called Truth in Labelling.  Rodents are not naturally fat.  They were purposefully fed MSG to make them fat.  Rats will not normally become overweight.  One of the ‘side effects’ of MSG is that it blocks the ‘I’m full’ receptors in the brain, resulting in continued desire to eat.**  This way various remedies for obesity could be properly tested on rats and mice. 

MSG is now a research tool used to produce obesity...

By the early 1980s, evidence of monosodium glutamate induced brain lesions and resultant endocrine disorders, including obesity, were so well documented that researchers interested in brain function and/or development of drugs with which to treat disease conditions in which glutamate played a role, began to use monosodium glutamate as an ablative or provocative tool with which to kill selected brain cells and induce obesity.”

Take the time and read the full article here: Truth in Labeling 

All of this dramatically weakens one’s immune system.  For example, obesity has been found to make people more sensitive to contracting Covid-19.  These additives also adversely affect one’s cardio vascular system which is another thing that flu type viruses attack. 

I’ve always felt that one’s ‘target’ should be health as opposed to weight loss. If you are eating proper food and getting some exercise regularly, with appropriate supplements, you should end up healthy. 

Eat healthy foods, get outdoors, get some exercise.  Get proper sleep and rest when you need it.   And make sure you get a good vitamin D supplement. 

In conjunction with getting rid of these drinks, use Thentix on your skin.

Other links:

High Fructose Corn Syrup leaves you hungry

**Rats Get Fat

#processedfood #packagedfood #highfructosecornsyrup #fastfood

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Drugs and Your Immune System

Drugs and Your Immune System

How do drugs affect your immune system?

Long term and short term?

The United States of America comes 37th on a list of healthiest countries in the world.  Behind many third world countries.  Per capita, the USA spends more than any other country in the world on Health Care.  What part do drugs play in this scenario?

According to Wallstreet.com:

"America makes up about 5% of the world’s population – but accounts for approximately 27 percent of the world’s drug overdose deaths, according to Vox. The culprit? Prescription opioids like Oxycontin, tramadol, methadone, morphine, fentanyl or Vicodin."

I was speaking to my son recently about vaccines.  I said to him that there was a preponderance of evidence that vaccines might adversely affect the immune system; that there may be a relationship with vaccines and the rapid increase of the incidence of autism over the last 30 years.  He allowed for that but pointed out the increase of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs, and the like, over the same period of time.  He thought that these types of drugs could just as easily, or even more likely, be the cause.  

How many men and women took Ritalin growing up in 80s and 90s and then had children?  Did Ritalin, and later drugs like Prozac, Zoloft and others, affect their immune systems and then the immune systems of their newborns?   

What percentage of the population are currently on antidepressants?

Per the CDC

“During 2015–2018, 13.2% of adults used antidepressants in the past 30 days (Figure 1). Use was higher among women (17.7%) than men (8.4%).”

This is huge! How many of these women were taking these drugs when they were pregnant?  Or breast feeding?  How are the immune systems of the babies affected by these drugs?

The use of pain relievers (legal) has at least doubled in the last 40 years.  The intake of SSRIs doubled from 1998 to 2010.

Since 1990, 450,000 people have died from opioid overdoses.  How many users are there that don’t die?  This from both prescribed and street use of various opioids.  How do these drugs affect one’s immune system?  Short term? Long term?

Tylenol Damage

I know people that eat Tylenol like candy.  In both the USA and in the United Kingdom Tylenol is the biggest cause of liver failure.

“acetaminophen* overdose is the leading cause [of Acute liver failure] in the United States”  NCBI Liver Failure

(*acetaminophen: an analgesic drug used to relieve mild or chronic pain and to reduce fever, often as an alternative to aspirin. Proprietary names include Tylenol.)

How does this extensive damage to the liver affect one’s immune system?

“The liver is a key, frontline immune tissue. Ideally positioned to detect pathogens entering the body via the gut, the liver appears designed to detect, capture, and clear bacteria, viruses, and macromolecules.”  The Liver and Immune System

Other medicines can affect one’s liver and thus the immune system:

“Some drugs, such as statins** (used to treat high cholesterol levels), can increase the levels of liver enzymes and cause liver damage (usually minor) but no symptoms.”
Merck Liver Disorders

(**Statin: “any of a group of drugs that act to reduce levels of fats, including triglycerides and cholesterol, in the blood.”)

Commonly used drugs such as Adderall can severely affect the health of the liver.  Adderall is an amphetamine. This from an article at NCBI on amphetamines and the liver.

“More importantly, several amphetamines have been associated with clinically apparent and sometimes severe or even fatal instances of acute liver injury. These cases typically follow intravenous use, particularly when given in an excessive single dose. The synthetic amphetamine methylenedioxymetamphetamine (MDMA, but known familiarly as “ecstasy”) has been implicated in the largest number of cases, many of which were severe and led to acute liver failure and death.”

Much evidence has come to light over the last 20-30 years as to how antibiotics have affected the immune system.  A necessary evil sometimes.  The problem with antibiotics is that they kill good bacteria as well as bad. 

From JAMA Pediatrics

“This study found that all commonly prescribed antibiotics during infancy are associated with subsequent diagnosis of allergic disease.

Administration of more than 1 class of antibiotic was associated with increased risk, most notably for asthma and allergic rhinitis. This association persisted even after adjusting for the total days of antibiotics supplied.”  JAMA Pediatrics

Ask Questions:

So, ask your doctor questions.  Your doctor is not infallible.  Find out the short and long term affects of the drugs he prescribes.  Do your own homework; it is pretty easy to find side effects of pretty much any drug online. 

Street drugs, even marijuana, well, that’s a little trickier.  Opioids, (Oxy for example), that you buy on the street will not likely have a list of ingredients, telling you how much fentanyl is in it.  Even so called medical marijuana has been found to have mold which can shut down your liver.  Caution your children on the use  of study drugs such as Adderall and Ritalin.  Instruct them on how these drugs can affect one’s immune system over a short or long period of time. 

Good health is your best defence!

Packaged and Processed Foods

#drugs #immunesystem #cdc

 

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Dr. Zach Bush

Dr. Zach Bush

Heal The Earth

Zack Bush, MD is my new hero.  Try as you might, you are very unlikely to bend your government or any of its agencies to your will.  Zack is a very bright guy.  He tried working with sections of the Department of Agriculture to rid the midwest farms of Monsanto’s glyphosate and other harmful chemicals.  These chemicals and poor farming techniques have destroyed much of the farmland in the USA and thus the health of Americans.

Read More

Another article: Sauna, Steam and Your Immune System

#soilhealth #drzachbush #naturalfarming 

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Breathe The Air

Zach Bush, MD

Zach Bush give some very good reasons to get out and go for a walk for both your physical and mental well being:

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