Author: louisaenright

I am passionate about whole, nutrient-dense foods, developing local markets, and strengthening communities.

Interesting Information: Amy Myers MD: The Functional Approach to Preventing the Flu

Interesting Information:  October 15, 2014

The Functional Approach to Preventing the Flu

 

In Camden, Maine, today, there were signs advertising flu shots outside the grocery store and the drug store.

So, it’s “flu shot” season again.

Flu shots are BIG business and enormously profitable.

 

Amy Myers MD is part of the growing movement toward functional medicine–which seeks to find the causes of illness rather than just treating symptoms.

I signed up for Dr. Myers’ blog posts.  Today’s was on the flu shot.

Take a look?  Take a look BEFORE you get a flu shot.  Please.  For one thing, you can see what’s in the flu shot before you allow those ingredients into your body.

Amy Myers MD.

If this link does not work, paste the one below into your browser:

http://www.amymyersmd.com/2013/10/10/functional-medicine-approach-preventing-flu/

Documentary Review and Interesting Information: Bought Movie: Your Health Brought To You By Wall Street

Documentary Review and Interesting Information:  October 14, 2014

BOUGHT

Your Health Brought To You By Wall Street

 

Take a minute and preview this trailer for BOUGHT.

Why?

If we do not collectively understand what has gone radically wrong in our so-called “democracy,” we cannot possibly take the grassroots steps needed to begin to fix it.  Those steps are always going to involve making different consumer choices, beginning with the choices that impact our health the most drastically.

Science is no longer the arbitrator of what is good for human health.  The market–industry–corporations–has replaced science with their need for profits.  They’ve co-opted our regulatory and legal structures so that they are now toothless.

Well-being doctors are caught in “kool aid loops” produced by industry that does not allow conflicting information into the loop.  Doctors are tied to one-size-fits-all “standards of care” that they pretty much have to practice if they want to keep their licenses. Most docs have no nutritional training whatsoever, so do not understand the roll good, or bad, food plays in human health.

Jeff Hays is a respected and award-winning film maker.

Bought Movie | Jeff Hays FilmBought Movie | Your Health Brought To You By Wall Street.

Many of us are sick.  It’s time to make changes.  Start with understanding the problems.

 

PS:  the DVD will be coming out shortly.

 

Turkey Tracks:

Turkey Tracks:  October 14, 2014

“My Salad”

 

We got a bag of mixed lettuce from our CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) farm, Hope’s Edge, last Friday.

Located just west of me, the farm has had some heavy frosts–though our yo-yo weather continues and today is nearly 70!

So, the lettuce was a welcome treat in our weekly share.  This lettuce has…survived.

When one tries to eat within the seasons, lettuce runs out in the fall.  I personally switch to lacto-fermented foods, like sauerkraut, when the lettuce runs out.  I am so not a fan of the lettuce that gets shipped in here from California in plastic boxes.  That lettuce has been gassed and is very old–like about 18 days old.  Whatever zip was in it is long gone.

I’ve been savoring my bag of lettuce–knowing that the cukes, the tomatoes, the celery are all nearing the end of their days.

Here’s another poem from Jeanine Gervais, who seems to be in a creative mood these days.  She’s eating, likely, what’s left in her garden these days.

My Salad

A Zen Buddhist monk book says

to practice

living

in the moment

say,

“I am washing the dishes

to wash the dishes”

and so I eat my salad

to eat my salad

15 seeds

in tiny halved cherry tomato

raspberry dressing

a pink blanket

covers green leaves

speckled by black pepper polka dots

the white of sliced

radishes

edged

in magenta

a still frame

captured.

By Jeanine H. Gervais

October 11, 2014

Interesting Information: Vandana Shiva is One of My Heroes

Interesting Information:  October 9, 2014

Vandana Shiva is One of My Heroes

I’ve been catching up on back issues of YES! magazine.

There is a thought-provoking article written by Vandana Shiva in the Winter 2013 issue of YES!

As always, YES! makes all its content available to you free online, and the url to this article is at the bottom of this blog post.

Here, Shiva is telling us about the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, initiated by Bolivia.

 

When nature is a teacher, we ­co-create with her—we recognize her agency and her rights. That is why it is significant that Ecuador has recognized the “rights of nature” in its constitution. In April 2011, the United Nations General Assembly­—inspired by the constitution of Ecuador and the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth initiated by Bolivia—organized a conference on harmony with nature as part of Earth Day celebrations. Much of the discussion centered on ways to transform systems based on domination of people over nature, men over women, and rich over poor into new systems based on partnership.

The U.N. secretary general’s report, “Harmony with Nature,” issued in conjunction with the conference, elaborates on the importance of reconnecting with nature: “Ultimately, environmentally destructive behavior is the result of a failure to recognize that human beings are an inseparable part of nature and that we cannot damage it without severely damaging ourselves.”

AND, a bit more on the concept of “separatism,” or man being separate from nature, a belief which allows us to plunder the earth without regard for how that plundering affects all of us in the long run:

As philosopher and historian Carolyn Merchant points out, this shift of perspective—from nature as a living, nurturing mother to inert, dead, and manipulable matter—was well suited to the activities that would lead to capitalism. The domination images created by Bacon and other leaders of the scientific revolution replaced those of the nurturing Earth, removing a cultural constraint on the exploitation of nature. “One does not readily slay a mother, dig into her entrails for gold, or mutilate her body,” Merchant wrote.

Vandana Shiva: Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Forest by Vandana Shiva — YES! Magazine.

Interesting Information: EPA Approves ‘Agent Orange’ Deadly Duo Poison. Take the Factory Farm Free Pledge!

Interesting Information:  October 9, 2014

EPA Approved “Agent Orange” Deadly Duo Poison Yesterday

 

It’s interesting news, but very, very sad.

This vote shows the degree to which our country is owned by corporations.

It is beyond unconscionable that any sane body of people would approve these poisons for our food chain.

Take a look:

EPA Approves ‘Agent Orange’ Deadly Duo Poison. Take the Factory Farm Free Pledge! : Conscious Life News.

Turkey Tracks: “Isn’t This Fun?” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  October 8, 2014

“Ain’t This Fun?” Quilt

 

Look what’s on my long arm today.

“Isn’t This Fun?”

I made the blocks last March when I spent a week with my long-time quilting friends in Williamsburg, Virginia.  We’ve been quilting together for close to twenty years now.

For years I’ve been clipping the selvage edges of new fabric and ripping a strip.  And, saving uneven strips left over from cutting or ripping a straight edge across the top of fabric.  I gathered up the HUGE MOUND of these strips and took them to Virginia and about 100 blocks came home with me at the end of the week.

Here’s the resulting quilt top–the lattice work and border treatment ideas came from Bonnie Hunter’s quilt “Tulip Fields” in her book STRING FLING.

 

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Here’s a close-up of some of the blocks:

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I’m quilting with a lime green thread…

I’m really enjoying this project.

Turkey Tracks: “Cherry Tomatoes,” a poem

Turkey Tracks:  October 8, 2014

“Cherry Tomatoes,” A Poem

 

I met Jeanine Gervais on the windjammer J&E Riggin this summer.

We were/are both writing/literature teachers at local colleges/universities.

Since the windjammer trip, we’ve been writing back and forth on email, daily.

Here’s the poem Jeanine sent me yesterday.  It really hit home as I had just been out in my own “mid-October” garden, picking cherry tomatoes.  She wrote it herself, of course.

Enjoy!

 

Cherry Tomatoes

My back bends to pick cherry tomatoes

strung like pearls on winding branches

buried amongst rotted vegetables

blackened leaves

the garden in mid-October a shambles.

Cherry tomatoes hidden under

leaves like umbrellas

protected from wind and cold

holding steadfast, saying

Don’t forget me! Don’t forget me!

I am here. I am strong.

Jeanine H. Gervais

October 7, 2014

Interesting Information: Do YOU Have Acid Reflux or Heartburn?

Interesting Information:  October 5, 2014

Do YOU Have Acid Reflux or Heartburn?

 

My cousin Johanna Sweat posted Dr. Mark Hyman’s video on curing heartburn and acid reflux on Facebook in the past few days.

Dr. Hyman is part of the growing movement called “functional medicine”–which seeks to determine the CAUSE of health problems and to cure the cause, rather than treating the symptoms, usually with drugs–like acid blockers used to treat heartburn and acid reflux.

Dr. Hyman has excellent medical credentials and connections, by the way.   He is the new director of The Cleveland Clinic Center For Functional Medicine, for instance.

In the video below, which I hope you will watch, whether or not you have acid reflux or heartburn, he explains that the acid blocker medicines are (1) very powerful, (2) have serious and dangerous side effects, and are (3) a creature of Big Pharma’s profit drive and are NOT AT ALL about your health.  Too many doctors are prescribing these drugs instead of figuring out what the real problem is–which is part and parcel of why our medical system is so broken these days.  As I’ve said before, doctors are caught in what I’m calling a “kool aid” loop where they are captive by Big Pharma information and where contradictory information is simply not getting to them.  Often, our government regulatory organizations are part of this problem as the foxes own the chicken house.

Having said that, I have done other posts on new information coming out now about acid reflux/heartburn and the acid blockers.  There is at least one well-researched book, for instance.

Diet, of course, is one underlying cause of acid reflux/heartburn, but Dr. Hyman also points to other causes  for which one can be/and should be tested.  And it is very clear that another underlying problem is NOT ENOUGH STOMACH ACID, rather than too much–particularly as we age.   You might have a common parasite that is causing the digestive issue.  Or you might have gut issues that include the overgrowth of certain organisms–which can be cured with diet changes.

Do take time to watch, ok?

3 Simple Steps to Eliminate Heartburn and Acid Reflux – Dr. Mark Hyman.

Turkey Tracks: The Four Seasons Quilts

October 3, 2014

The Four Seasons Quilts

 

I have spent large time chunks this summer making the Coastal Quilters’ 2015 challenge:  The Four Seasons.

We could do one of the seasons, or all four.

We had a length requirement, but could use a range of sizes for the width.

These challenge quilts will be hung at our state show, mounted by the Pine Tree Quilters Guild, in July 2015.

 

I was inspired by the banner show from Italy at the Machine Expo in Manchester, New Hampshire, last spring.  These seasonal banners were hung by the separate seasons–and you can see them in an earlier post here.

But here’s a reminder–here’s spring:

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And I used an idea done by Sarah Fielke in the book by Sarah and Kathy Doughty, MATERIAL OBSESSIONS 2.

 

Fielke supplied the idea for the tree crown–made with a wedge ruler–and the template for the tree trunk.

 

Here are my “Four Seasons”:

Spring:

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Summer:

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Here’s a detail of the pearl cotton quilting used in all the quilts:

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Fall:

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And my favorite, though “Fall” is a close second, Winter:

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Book Review and Interesting Information: MERLE’S DOOR and PUKKA’S PROMISE

October 2, 2014

 

MERLE’S DOOR and PUKKA’S PROMISE

Sometime over the summer, I downloaded an audio book from my local library–which taps into the whole Maine downloaded books system–called MERLE’S DOOR by Ted Kerasote.

(I listen to audio books while I quilt these days in lieu of listening to Podcasts about the state of the world since I’ve decided there isn’t much I can do about any of the grim news that assaults us daily.  This “news break” has been such a gift!)

I knew nothing about either this book or Ted Kerasote–just thought I’d see what this book about a dog was like.

MERLE’S DOOR is a charming book about a man and a stray dog who adopt each other and become fast friends:  brothers, really.

Kerasote lives near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and is a devout outdoorsman and naturalist.  Merle was more than happy to accompany him on hikes, bike rides, camping, skiing, and so forth.  And Kersote allowed Merle to have his own independent life, coming and going through his own door, as much as was possible, which was a lot in a small rural community in Wyoming.

When Merle died at about 13, Kerasote was devastated to lose this friendship.

Kerasote knew he would try to replicate the friendship he had with Merle, and he eventually does so with Pukka (pronounced like hockey puck).

But, first, he does a lot of research, including interviews with university research vets, on how to best extend a dog’s life in today’s times, and PUKKA’S PROMISE contains this cutting age information.

IF YOU HAVE A DOG OR WANT TO GET A DOG PUKKA’S PROMISE IS A MUST READ since much of the information in this book HAS NOT TRICKLED DOWN TO YOUR LOCAL VET.

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Kerasote starts with how to best pick a dog in this era of massive and rampant inbreeding–which is resulting in malformed dogs with all kinds of genetic structural issues that will shorten your dog’s life and cost you a boatload of both emotional angst and money.

Here are some quick highlights:

Should you spay or neuter?

No, spaying and neutering removes the dog’s body’s ability to produce the sex hormones which are crucial to good health.  The adrenal glands simply cannot make up the needed sex hormones.  Dog cancer is one result.  Other diseases are as well.  Tubal ligations, vasectomies, and hysterectomies all serve the same purpose, are much quicker, and, obviously, are cheaper.  Best of all is to leave the dogs intact.  Dogs today don’t run wild through neighborhoods, and females only come into heat twice a year, which can be effectively managed.  It is interesting to note that in Europe, dog owners do NOT automatically spay/neuter their dogs and things have not gone to hell in a handbasket with regard to unwanted puppies.

There are alternative arguments, and Kerasote covers them.  So, the reader walks away with a foundation for any future decision making regarding a new puppy.

What about vaccines?

Ted counted up all the vaccines given to Merle over his 13 years, and it came to about 70.  So, he sets about determining which ones might actually be useful and settles on 4 that are spread out over time:   rabies, parvo, distemper, and adenovirus-2.  He also uses titers to check for vaccine effectiveness rather than mindlessly revaccinating.  As with humans, vaccines can be dangerous for dogs.

What about heartworm meds?

For the past three years, I have nearly killed my aging dogs with heartworm meds.  It took me two years to connect Reynolds’ dire reaction to the heartworm med I gave her in the spring when mosquitoes were just coming out.  We are talking paralysis, foaming mouth, no eating for days with very little drinking of water, for days my having to carry her outside so she could try to pee.  We are talking one sick dog who took a long, long time–most of the summer–to heal.  TWICE, much to my shame.  Then this spring, it happened to Penny, who has a cast-iron stomach.

Kerasote notes that the heartworm parasite in mosquitoes has to have an outdoor temperature above 57 degrees to proceed with its life cycle and it still has to bite your dog to infect him/her.  If the temps drop, even for a few hours, the cycle cannot continue. If you live in parts of the United States that are consistently hot, heartworms are a problem, but they might also be dealt with by giving your dog two yearly treatments–September and December–rather than monthly treatments–since it takes several months for heartworms to develop in a dog.  Bear in mind that the American Heartworm Society that makes treatment recommendations has eight out of ten sponsors that are Big Pharma!

What about ticks and fleas?

You take a huge risk with the available treatments that include pesticides–for you and for your dog.  There are safer ways to cope, and Kerasote lists them.

What to feed:

After a lot of research, including visits or attempted visits to dry dogfood makers, Kersote decides that there is no dry dogfood that is healthy.  Kibble is grain based, and dogs don’t eat grain.  He opts for a type of raw food/cooked food diet for Pukka.  He fed Merle a combo of dry dogfood and raw bones, and noted in retrospect that Merle did have diet-related issues.

There is also a fascinating section on “shelters,” which can actually be massive kill zones.

Sooooo.  I, obviously, highly recommend this book.