Why Dirt Matters to Your Health

• The root ball of a plant acts as the “gut” or intestinal tract of the plant, housing essential microbes, just like your gut does, provided the soil system is healthy
• The cooperation between soil microorganisms and the plants’ roots is responsible for allowing the plant to absorb nutrients from the soil. Without proper soil biome, the food will lack nutrients that are important for your health
• Soil health connects to everything up the food chain, from plant and insect health, all the way up to animal and human health
• Health, therefore, truly begins in the soils in which our food is grown
• Scientists have discovered that gene swapping takes place between your gut microbiome and the soil biome, as well as with microorganisms from other places in your daily surroundings
• One of the reasons for concern about genetically engineered crops is a main characteristic of such plants is resistance to the potent herbicide glyphosate, which decimates soil bacteria
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• Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/23/soil-quality.aspx?e_cid=20131223Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131223Z1&et_cid=DM37599&et_rid=376486017 

Bone Broth—One of Your Most Healing Diet Staples

• Bone broth contains valuable minerals in a form your body can easily absorb and use, including calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur chondroitin, glucosamine, and a variety of trace minerals
• The gelatin found in bone broth is a hydrophilic colloid. It attracts and holds liquids, including digestive juices, thereby supporting proper digestion
• Bone broth also inhibits infection caused by cold and flu viruses, for example, and fights inflammation, courtesy of anti-inflammatory amino acids such as arginine
• Making your own bone broth is very cost effective, as you can make use of left over carcass bones that would otherwise be thrown away. And making your own broth is quite easy
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• Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/16/bone-broth-benefits.aspx?e_cid=20131216Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131216Z1&et_cid=DM35360&et_rid=369143832 

8 Sickening Facts About Flame Retardants

HBO recently aired a documentary, Toxic Hot Seat, which is based on the Chicago Tribune’s comprehensive investigation. The film highlights some of the most disturbing facts about flame-retardant chemicals, which were summed up by Rodale News.² As you read through them, you’ll see how the use of flame-retardant chemicals is easily among the major toxic cover-ups in the US.
1. Studies Have Proven Their Harm

It’s estimated that 90 percent of Americans have some level of flame-retardant chemicals in their bodies, and the chemicals are also known to accumulate in breast milk.
This alone is highly disturbing because many studies have linked them to human health risks including infertility, birth defects, lower IQ scores, behavioral problems in children, and liver, kidney, testicular, and breast cancers.

2. Flame Retardants Produce More Toxic Smoke

If an object doused in flame retardants catches fire (yes, they can still catch fire), it gives off higher levels of carbon monoxide, soot, and smoke than untreated objects. Ironically, these three things are more likely to kill a person in a fire than burns, which means flame-retardant chemicals may actually make fires more deadly.
Flame-retardant chemicals belong to the same class of chemicals as DDT and PCBs (organohalogens), and like the former, they, too, build up in the environment. These chemicals also react with other toxins as they burn to produce cancer-causing dioxins and furans.

3. Banned from Children’s Pajamas but Still Widely Used in Furniture and Baby Products

A flame-retardant chemical known as chlorinated tris (TDCPP) was removed from children's pajamas in the 1970s amid concerns that it may cause cancer, but now it’s a ubiquitous addition to couch cushions across the United States.
It can easily migrate from the foam and into your household dust, which children often pick up on their hands and transfer into their mouths. Tris is actually the most commonly used flame retardant in the US today, used in nap mats, car seats, strollers, nursing pillows, furniture, and more.

4. Female Fire Fighters in California Have Six Times More Breast Cancer

Female firefighters aged 40 to 50 are six times more likely to develop breast cancer than the national average, likely due to California’s early use of flame-retardant chemicals. Firefighters of both genders also have higher rates of cancer, in part because of the high levels of dioxins and furans they’re exposed to when flame-retardant chemicals burn.
According to one firefighter in the HBO documentary:³ “It's Love Canal, and it's on fire… These fires that we're going to now are an absolute toxic soup.”

5. Flame-Retardant Chemicals Provide No Benefit for People

The chemical industry claims that fire-retardant furniture increases escape time in a fire by 15-fold. In reality, this claim came from a study using powerful, NASA-style flame retardants, which did give an extra 15 seconds of escape time.
This is not the same type of chemical used in most furniture, and government and independent studies show that the most widely used flame-retardant chemicals provide no benefit for people while increasing the amounts of toxic chemicals in smoke.
Drops in fire-related deaths in recent decades are not related to the use of flame-retardant chemicals, but instead are due to newer construction codes, sprinkler systems, fire alarms, and self-extinguishing cigarettes.

6. Big Tobacco Was Instrumental in the Spread of Flame-Retardant Chemicals

Flame-retardant chemicals were developed in the 1970s, when 40 percent of Americans smoked and cigarettes were a major cause of fires. The tobacco industry, under increasing pressure to make fire-safe cigarettes, resisted the push for self-extinguishing cigarettes and instead created a fake front group called the National Association of State Fire Marshals. The group pushed for federal standards for fire-retardant furniture…

7. California’s Misguided Fire Safety Law Led to Countrywide Use of These Toxic Chemicals

In 1975, California Technical Bulletin 117 (TB117) was passed. It requires furniture sold in California to withstand a 12-second exposure to a small flame without igniting. Because of California's economic importance, the requirement has essentially become a national standard, with manufacturers dousing their furniture with the chemicals whether they're going to be sold in California or elsewhere in the States. As reported by Rodale News:

“Sadly, though the original author of TB117 had specifically included language requiring that any chemical used to make furniture fire resistant be safe for human health, politicians removed that language before the law went into effect.”

8. The Chemical Industry Has Spent Millions to Keep TB117 in Place

Numerous bills in California have been introduced that would update TB117 to state that toxic chemicals were no longer required for furniture, but the deep-pocketed chemical industry has defeated them each time. The industry even went so far as to hire Dr. David Heimback, a burn expert and star witness for the manufacturers of flame retardants, told the tragic story of a 7-week-old baby who was burned in a fire and died as a result, three weeks later, after suffering immensely. The fire was said to have been started by a candle that ignited a pillow that lacked flame retardant chemicals, where the baby lay.
The story was heard by California lawmakers, who were deciding on a bill that could have reduced the use of flame retardant chemicals in furniture. The problem, as we detailed in a previous article, was that the entire story was a clever hoax, a complete fabrication, from beginning to end!

Read more:  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/11/8-flame-retardant-facts.aspx?e_cid=20131211Z1_DNL_art_2&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art2&utm_campaign=20131211Z1&et_cid=DM34964&et_rid=364063379

Hemp: the multi-billion dollar industry the government crushed

(NaturalNews) The original drafts of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written on paper derived from it. The sails of Christopher Columbus' ship, the Santa Maria, were made of fabric spun from it. Even early U.S. currency was printed on material extracted from it: hemp, a.k.a. cannabis, the most versatile plant in the world that, despite its significance as an early Americana, is still prohibited from being grown in most of America.

Some of our regular readers may already be familiar with the historical record of hemp, including its prominent role in American industry before the days of prohibition. But this important food and fuel crop is still largely misunderstood by millions of people. Not only is industrial hemp non-psychoactive, meaning that it cannot be smoked for mood-altering purposes in the same way as other strains of cannabis, but it also happens to be one of the most versatile plants known to man.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043203_hemp_cannabis_prohibition_cash_crop.html#ixzz2nA7d1wpe

GMOs cause horrible deformities, birth defects in piglets

(NaturalNews) When Danish pig farmer Ib Pedersen first noticed the sudden uptick in disease, deformities and death among his farrow, his immediate reaction was to investigate the diet of his pigs to look for possible causes. And what he found confirms what a growing body of evidence also suggests: that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in conventional animal feed are increasingly responsible for triggering birth defects, deformities, spontaneous abortions and other growth and development abnormalities in both pigs and cattle.

With 13,000 pigs on his farm, Pedersen knows the ins and outs of how to properly raise swine, as well as what is considered normal in terms of pig health. This is why he grew particularly alarmed when many more of them than usual began to come down with strange illnesses. Besides noticeably lower birthrates, Pedersen observed more of his pigs than normal being born with strange defects like spinal deformities and limb problems, and many more pigs than usual were dying.

"When using GM feed I saw symptoms of bloat, stomach ulcers, high rates of diarrhea, pigs born with deformities," explained Pedersen to The Ecologist's Andrew Wasley, who recently conducted an in-depth investigation into the link between GMOs and animal health problems. "But when I switched [to non-GM feed] these problems went away, some within a matter of days."

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043208_GMOs_farm_animals_birth_defects.html#ixzz2nA5x36B4

The Forgotten Organ – Your Microbiota

• It helps to view your body as a “super organism” composed of a diverse array of symbiotic microorganisms. Proper balance of these microbes is essential for optimal physical and psychological health
• Recent research suggests that many people are deficient in beneficial gut bacteria, making it a very important consideration if you’re not feeling well, physically or psychologically
• Gut bacteria influence the processing and utilization of dietary nutrients; help protect against food borne disease, and can impact drug efficacy. Recent research claims chemotherapy drugs need certain gut bacteria in order to work
• Certain microbiota and beneficial bacteria have been found to produce beneficial psychotropic signals such as serotonin and dopamine. Such “psychobiotics” may soon be used in lieu of drugs to treat psychiatric illness
• Researchers have identified specific gut bacteria that correlate with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In the 80s, Dr. Brown suggested RA was caused by a mycoplasma
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• Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/09/microbiota-forgotten-organ.aspx?e_cid=20131209Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131209Z1&et_cid=DM36175&et_rid=362080511 

Magnesium—The Missing Link to Better Health

• An estimated 80 percent of Americans are deficient in magnesium. The health consequences of deficiency can be quite significant, and can be aggravated by many, if not most, drug treatments
• Magnesium performs a wide array of biological functions, including activating muscles and nerves and creating energy in your body by attaching adenosine triphosphate (ATP)
• Magnesium is very important for heart health. Excessive amounts of calcium without the counterbalance of magnesium can lead to a heart attacks, strokes, and sudden death
• An ideal ratio between calcium and magnesium is thought to be 1:1. The recommended daily dose is around 700 milligrams of each
• Anytime you're taking any of the following: magnesium, calcium, vitamin D3, or vitamin K2, you need to take all the others into consideration as well, as these nutrients work synergistically with one another 

Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/08/magnesium-health-benefits.aspx?e_cid=20131208Z1_SNL_Art_1&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131208Z1&et_cid=DM36138&et_rid=360910883