Here comes the sun... And I say... It's Alright - The benefits of Vitamin D and the Sun.

The Beatles had it right!!   Shelly and myself are substantial sun-worshipers and sun-chasers. It would seem we are on the endless search for the warmth of the sun. Even our Dog's beloved pass time (besides eating) is laying in the sun. He literally chases patches of sun coming in through windows all over the family home. But this post is not about the love of the sun, but the need for it.
Research clearly show that as many as three out of four Americans suffer from Vitamin D deficiency. A study published in 2009 in the Archives of Internal Medicine (a leading scientific journal), identified that 70% of Caucasians, 90% of Hispanics and 97% of African Americans in the US have inadequate blood levels of Vitamin D. Undoubtedly, it’s considered to be the most prevalent medical condition in the world, influencing over one billion persons and we now have research showing just how crucial Vitamin D is to well being.
In our world of sunscreen, hats, indoor living, and nominal sun exposure, we are in effect producing a greater dilemma than sun exposure.
U.S. and Norwegian researchers have determined that people who live in higher latitudes are further prone to Vitamin D deficiency and more susceptible to developing typical cancers and succumbing of them. The University of Maryland put out an article that shows all the problems that Vitamin D deficiency induces.
Major Ailments Caused by Vitamin D Deficiency (and there are more)
· Obesity
· Cancers -colorectal and pancreatic primarily
· Heart Disease -The number one killer by far
· High Blood Pressure - causes strokes
· Diabetes
· Multiple Sclerosis
· Osteoporosis
· Parathyroid Issues
· Depression
So what is killing America?
The CDS Says

1. Heart Disease:  616,067
2. Cancer: 562,875
3. Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 135,952
4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 127,924
5. Accidents (unintentional injuries): 123,706
6. Alzheimer's disease: 74,632
7. Diabetes: 71,382
8. Influenza and Pneumonia: 52,717
9. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 46,448
10. Septicemia: 34,828

WHAT? So let me get this right…. One scientific study says approximately 70 and 97 percent of all Americans, women and men, are vitamin D deficient. This deficiency can cause all of the posted ailments? Now, 4 arguably 5 (obesity causes all the above) of the top killers in America are coincidentally the identical conditions interconnected to Vitamin D Deficiency. Try and find another vitamin or mineral that can offer same thing.
What is Vitamin D and how much do you need?
Vitamin D is a group of fat-soluble seco-steroids. In humans, Vitamin D is unique both because it operates as a pro-hormone and because when sun exposure is ideal, the body can synthesize it (as Vitamin D3). There are two types of VitaminD ; ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) and cholecalciferol (vitamin D3). Some investigating implies that cholecalciferol is more effective at improving levels of vitamin D in the blood. So the greater absorbed vitamin D for our bodies is the kind that our body makes (D3) because it is better utilized in our bodies through our bloodstream. The most beneficial way to determine whether or not you are lacking is to have your Vitamin D blood levels measured and re-supply as required.
The new minimum reference intakes for vitamin D: (These are the minimum we should have per day.)
0-12 months: 400 IU/day
1 - 70 years of age: 600 IU/day
71+ years of age: 800 IU/day
Pregnant/lactating: 600 IU/day
0-12 months: 400 IU/day
Tolerable upper intake levels of vitamin D. 
The Tolerable Upper Intake Level is defined as "the highest average daily intake of a nutrient that is likely to pose no risk of adverse health effects for nearly all persons in the general population". Although tolerable upper intake levels are believed to be safe, information on the long term effects is incomplete and these levels of intake are not necessarily recommended. Which is actually part of the problem.
0-6 months of age: 1,000 IU
6-12 months of age: 1,500 IU
1-3 years of age: 2,500 IU
4-8 years of age: 3,000 IU
9-71+ years of age: 4,000 IU
Pregnant/lactating: 4,000 IU[39]
Some schools of thought believe 4000-12000 is optimum.
In healthy adults, sustained intake of more than 1250 micrograms/day (50,000 IU) can produce overt toxicity after several months of use.
Direct exposure to sunlight for extensive periods of time does not commonly cause vitamin D toxicity. Within about 20 minutes of ultraviolet exposure in light skinned persons (3-6 times longer for pigmented skin), the levels of vitamin D precursors produced in the skin accomplish an equilibrium, and any extra vitamin D that is produced is degraded. According to a handful of sources, endogenous production with full body exposure to sunlight is approximately 250 µg (10,000 IU) per day.
So long story made short. If you get 20 minutes to 120 minutes of unprotected sun exposure (depending on your skin pigment) you get 10,000IU/Day vitamin D and the rest is degraded, meaning to be toxic you would need another 40,000IU/day to become toxic over several MONTHS of prolonged use . Unheard of! So what’s your excuse for not getting more sun/ UV exposure? Oh yeah, skin cancer.
So what are the Cons to prolonged sun exposure and un-protected sunbathing?
No matter what you may hear at tanning salons, the cumulative damage caused by UV radiation can lead to untimely skin aging wrinkles, lax skin, brown spots, as well as skin cancer.
So really, the major pitfalls of exposure to the sun is cosmetic. Are we really that vain as a contemporary culture that wrinkles, relaxed skin and brown spots are the true evils of sun exposure? No, it must be the cancer then. The most widespread form of skin cancer is Basal Cell Carcinoma. We are going to focus on that, because lets face it, It’s the big “C” and a buzz-word that scares nearly all of us. Besides, I assume the risks from under-exposure to the sun ie, hunched backs, MS, Diabetes, Heart Disease (number 1 killer) and depression pales in comparison to the common alternatives of splotchy and sagging skin.
What are the main causes of Basal Cell Carcinoma?
The Mayo clinic Says:
· Chronic sun exposure
· Exposure to radiation
· Fair skin
· Your sex. Men are more likely to develop basal cell carcinoma than women are
· Your age. Higher incidence in people age 50 or older
· A personal or family history of skin cancer
· Immune-suppressing drugs. Taking medications that suppress your immune system, significantly increases your risk of skin cancer.
· Exposure to arsenic
· Inherited syndromes that cause skin cancer. Gorlin-Goltz Syndrome and Xeroderma Pigmentosum
So excluding drugs, radiation exposure, arsenic and unheard of syndromes.... Chronic Sun Exposure stands out as the most common predicament.
What is chronic sun exposure?
Chronic sun exposure is completely subjective to who identifies it. Some say 30 minutes a day, but most say lengthy periods of exposure to the sun resulting in a sunburn. Almost everyone has been sunburned or will get sunburned at some time. Virtually anyone who visits a beach, goes fishing, works in the garden, or plainly is out in the sun, can get sunburned. Improper tanning bed use is also a origin of sunburns. Specialists say, One or more blistering sunburns in childhood or adolescence more than double a individual's chances of forming skin cancer later in life, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.
Conclusion
Well we’re all screwed then correct? So soak up the sun and fight off all the diabetes and depression we can.... while we still can. That’s silly. But in all seriousness, we have to be careful in the sun, at the level we become sunburned, we then have too much sun. It is suggested that to get the benefits of Vitamin D3 synthesis in the body, we need to be exposed to the sun, but not in high doses. If we are cooking in the sun, developing sunburns, day in and day out, we enhance our risks of getting skin cancer. But if we do not bake in the sun and alternatively get some moderate sun, studies show that we are less probable to produce all those life threatening, and debilitating illnesses. So get out there and get some sun!

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The Four Agreements - Wisdom for Spiritual Warriors

My friend Kira posted this on her facebook page, and I read a blog by a guy who follows the teachings of a man named Don Miguel Ruiz. http://miguelruiz.com/
Interesting the Toltec influence here is nearly as ancient as the Maya who interest me so much.  Infact one of the NEW 7 wonders of the world, Chichen Itza, in the Yucatan, Mexico has more toltec influence than Maya.    There is much to be learned from ancient wisdom applicable today.   This information is from the website of http://www.toltecspirit.com/
I am not going to post the entire article, you can read that on his website, but The Four Agreements are:
1. Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.
This book has been around for over 30 years and still has impact in peoples lives today as it did in ancient times.   Don Miguel also talks about these truths as being ancient wisdom coupled with modern application.   Thanks again Kira.... Great stuff!
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Food Matters - A Nurse's Perspective

My friends Chris and Missy converted me to a documentary that claims we can easily improve chronic illness with effortless self-care. I went home and downloaded it on netflix right before cancelling my account, which is yet another blog post altogether.

 

The frightening facts and figures inside was not only sobering, but without a doubt true. How come we don’t hear about this stuff too often? The inciteful new documentary called “Food Matters,” seeks to further jolt the trillion dollar worldwide so-called ‘sickness industry’ by affirming a range of scientifically established alternatives for preventing disease the natural way. Nutritionists now filmmakers James Colquhoun and Laurentine Bosch, have produced a bold film based upon on a problematic and potentially startling subject matter;   that with the right type of foods, supplements, and cleansing strategies, we will be able to steer clear of, arrest, and quite possibly reverse chronic illness.  This show will probably break the story on the belief offered to us by present day medicine, that there is ‘a pill for every ill.   “We’re not suggesting that pharmaceutical drugs don’t have their place, we’re saying that our overburdened health care practitioners perhaps do not have the time to educate people about alternative treatments and healthy living.”  states the film-makers.  

 

This is something I can testify first hand being a registered nurse. It is amazing the raw fact in this statement. It’s not that the physicians are being malicious about their intentions, but rather they simply aren’t schooled on the true benefits of nutrition. In the hospitals where I have worked, food and nutrition is dreadful!   Highly processed foods and pre-packaged sludge is fed to the sickly and those people who need nutrients the most.

“There are simple lifestyle adjustments that we as people can make to commence reversing the rising levels of serious illness. At a moment when our stressed-out  healthcare system is under evaluation and universal health care reform is urgent, many of the world’s leaders in nutrition and organic healing, offer astonishing new statements about alternatives to treat major depression, obesity, alcohol dependency, heart disease, cancer, dementia, and a multitude of additional incapacitating conditions, without the necessity for drugs or surgery.     In fact, there are sobering statistics of hosptial and drug related deaths that far out number the deaths of those who simply take MEGA doses of vitamins to cure illness.

• Can high doses of Vitamin C really cure cancer? 3000mg intravenously was given to patients with INCREDIBLE results. Pictures and testimonials, and years of scientific studies to substantiate it.
• Can two handfuls of cashews deliver the therapeutic equivalent of a prescription dose of prozac? Yes! And high quantities of niacin (found in cashews) CURES DEPRESSION!

Andrew W. Saulb. a rather nasal commentator who truly stated various tid bits of information throughout the movie, says that our “health care systems are in fact disease care systems, and that there is no money to be made in reducing levels of sickness and disease.” He states: “Good health makes a lot of sense, but it doesn’t make a lot of dollars.”  A second of the film’s qualified commentators, Charlotte Gerson, organizer of the Gerson Institute which is dedicated to fix and eliminate chronic diseases using natural therapies and has helped better the lives of 100′s of cancer patients utilizing the “Gerson Therapy”, states that a standard, healthy body has a potent defense mechanism that will not acquire cancer or any other chronic disease.   All we need to do, is become healthy.   Another interesting point is how cooking food actually cause something called….   Leucocytosis.
In 1930, YES 1930!!!!!!! Nearly 82 years ago!! Research was conducted to reveal the effect of food (cooked/processed vs. raw/natural) on the immune system.  It was proven and acknowledged at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry in Lausanne, Switzerland, under the direction of Dr. Paul Kouchakoff.
Dr. Kouchakoff’s breakthrough discovery concerned leukocytes (the white blood cells in our body that fights infections). It was determined that after a individual eats cooked food, his/her blood responds quickly by raising the amount of these cells.   A rise in the number of leukocytes shortly after eating was a well-understood phenomenon called “digestive leukocytosis.”   Since digestive leukocytosis was typically observed after eating,  it was considered a common physiological response.     No one knew why the number of white cells would get higher right after eating. It appeared to be a stress response-as if the body was responding to something undesirable, such as an exposure to toxic chemicals, an infection, or some sort of trauma.   The culprit, and direct correlation to an increase in our body’s defense?   Cooked food! Yes cooked food causes our body to treat it as a foriegn pathogen, or harmful substance. Tell me a packaged food that isn’t cooked beyond all recognition of nutrients?
“Food Matters” will educate people about ways to avert sickness, rather than encourage them to depend on a system in crisis that mearly treats symptoms once sickness takes hold.   Doctors and hospitals are notorious for treating the symptoms not the cause of illness, therefore making our healthcare system a renewable resource.   If we can help people to become knowledgeable of the solutions available to them, they can begin to cut down their dependence in our current healthcare system.   As a nurse, It’s about education, not just medication….. We leave that to the doctors.   With accessibility to reliable information and facts, men and women invariably make good selections for their well being, it’s purely the lack of edcuation of our society and the road we have traveled that makes it troublesome to make sensible decisions, we simply rely in the “medical experts”.

The Art of Letting it Go

“The Art of Letting It Go” is something that I haven't yet learned, But my own adventures in life have shown me certain wisdoms that have granted me to discover my potential in a fascinating way. Following my feelings. I suggest that we all have an innate power to sense situations. It is truly is our sixth sense. Dogs and cats have it. Animals in the wild need it. Most specialists would call that instinct.

We all possess an gut instinct to " sense " when a situation is damaging or fantastic, this includes persons when you initially meet them. Whether Agnostic or Christian, the cosmic forces of nature or the holy spirit communicating to you. We ALL contain this potential. I believe that we are certainly guided by forces outside of our control. The Art of Letting It Go is the potential to listen and go wherever that intuition is telling you. I also believe however, that as human beings we have the special potential and responsibility to do good. Pursuing a raw instinct to harm, or extinguish life is in no way the eventual purpose and this is what distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom.

Social Experiment 1

Eye contact. I have just recently become aware that I do not hold adequate eye contact. Commencing soon. Everyone you pass or interact with, maintain eye contact with them until they look aside. A small hint of a smile will perk up your eyes and express friendliness in the gaze. Even a nod may help differentiate oneself as a pleasant person and not a psycho stalker. Do this for one week.

How much favorable human interaction did you receive?

Did you ever perceive someone that appeared dismal, depressed, or negative?

Social Experiment 2

For one week starting today. You will pursue every positive hunch that comes to your mind. If you sense you ought to take a left instead of a right….. don’t debate. Just do. Wake up every day for one week practicing the art of sticking to your intuition, no matter how absurd it might seem . This is the ART.

Did you become aware of any difference in the path of intuition, verses the path of resistance and indecision?

Do our daily psychological tennis volleys of decisions keep you any more secure than following your intuition?

Social Experiment 3

There are no coincidences. Coincidences are by definition “A amazing concurrence of happenings or scenarios without apparent causal connection.” I do not believe that is true in most cases. I think that every chance happening is just that, chance. But if you see a person, or hear about some thing 3 times or more in a short amount of time. This is not coincidence, this is not chance. Don’t confine yourself to what “short amount of time” means. Just pay attention to it, and then comply with your instincts. You never know why the “coincidence” is happening, just be mindful of what it might be. Pay attention to this for the next week, starting today.

These three experiments can be performed at any time. Simply start all three at this moment, or break it up week by week. It doesn’t really make a difference. It’s a cultural experiment and I might welcome any suggestions or experiences.

I think that people need to step back from the control of life, to one of submission to life. If we “let it go” and enable it to guide us. Its awesome the possibilities that unfold. I believe many call it “Faith”, Other folks call it “Cosmic Intuition.” Either way, don’t fight it. Simply float down that river.

Sani-Tat The orginal Sterile Tattoo Kit

About Sani-Tat

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Reasons To Use Sani-Tat?

1. Minimize infection to clients -  Using this kit is clinically proven to work fight bacterial infections 24 to 48 hours!  24-48 hours post tattoo is the most vulnerable time for tattoos to become infected.  Open wounds are portals for infection and by using the Sani-Tat Sterile Kit, you will drastically reduce the risk of infection allowing your tattoo to heal properly and beautifully. 
2. Protect the artist from lawsuits -  Here are examples of lawsuits filed against tattoo artists for infections.  DON'T let this happen to you!  Protect yourself with sterile techniques that will reduce the your liability!  Lawsuit 1  Lawsuit 2  Lawsuit 3  Lawsuit 4  Lawsuit 5   There are many more! 
3. Reduced incidence of touch-ups - By using this kit your clients will require less touchups associated with difficult healing.  Less touchups saves the tattoo artist time and money.  
4. Provide your client with aftercare products - Each client will receive 5 days of Vitamin A&D, Bacitracin Zinc, and instructions on keeping their tattoo clean while healing.  This is a sell point for the artist, and provides the client with everything needed to keep their tattoo clean.   
5. Profit center for tattoo shops - The kit is available to tattoo shops and artists for nearly half the  suggested retail price.  The price of the kit can either be absorbed into the cost of the tattoo or marked up to the suggested retail price providing the shop with a means to make extra money.  
6. Convenience - Everything needed to keep the skin sterile and equipment clean is included in the kit including supplies for aftercare eliminating the need to buy anything extra to care of their tattoo. 
7. Ease of use - The Sani-Tat Sterile Tattoo Kit includes easy to follow instruction cards for both the artist and the client.  All supplies come in a box that the artist can open and use, then give to the client to take home for proper aftercare of their tattoo. 
8. 110% Satisfaction Guarantee - If an artist or client wants to buy ONE kit at retail price, there is a 110% money back guarantee no questions asked!  You have nothing to lose! Does not apply to multiple kit purchases.

History

• The idea was started in 2009, while Brady Campbell worked as a floor nurse on a busy acute post-surgical unit.  Taking his passion for tattooing and nursing, he combined the two worlds by providing education and products.  As a heavily tattooed male-nurse, Brady knew the techniques used in tattooing and how his own expertise in nursing could provide medical grade sterilization products for the tattoo industry.  The “Sani-Tat” “Sterile Tattoo Kit” was born, by “providing tattoo artists the same wound dressing supplies, and skin preparation products used by hospitals.” Educating the tattoo industry on how wound care is prepped and executed in the medical field will un-doubtfully change public perception with regard to tattooing. 
• In August 2009, while riding in a 1959 Cadillac to Bob Roberts Solo Art Show in LA with his friend and tattoo artist, Brady presented his idea and decided the product would be called Sani-Tat.  His friend gave his opinion on what the kit should include, and confirmed there is a need for this kind of product in the tattoo industry.  After 2 years of product research and studying wound care techniques, Sani-Tat has adopted the medical grade standard for skin prep and wound care, bringing this care to the public in July 2011.

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