Author: Dr. Mercola

How Do You Know if You’re Drinking Enough Water?

(Dr. Mercola) Throughout each day, your body loses water through your urine and sweat glands—even when you’re not purposely working up a sweat. As a result, you have to constantly replenish this fluid, and soft drinks do not count toward this requirement…

Coffee and soda are typically high in caffeine, which acts as a diuretic that can dehydrate you. Worse yet, sodas, fruit juices, and other sweetened beverages are primary sources of fructose, which will only deteriorate your health.

Ditto for artificially sweetened beverages. So the key is to drink pure water. But just how much water do you need each day? While an oft-repeated guideline says you should drink eight glasses of water a day, this may be too much for some, and not enough for others.

Your water requirement can also vary wildly from day to day depending on a number of factors, such as your activity level and weather conditions.

Fortunately, your body is equipped with a mechanism that tells you when you need to replenish your water supply. It’s called thirst. And there’s also a simple way to gauge whether or not you need to drink more water even though you may not be feeling thirsty.

How to Read the Signs for Your Body’s Water Needs

Once your body has lost between one to two percent of its total water content, it will signal its needs by making you feel thirsty. Using thirst as a guide to how much water you need to drink is a good way to ensure your individual needs are met, day-by-day.

However, by the time your thirst mechanism kicks in you may already be a bit dehydrated. Most studies show that about 2/3 of us are dehydrated and need to drink more water.

This is particularly true for the elderly. Therefore, it’s also wise to learn some of the other, more subtle, signals your body sends, indicating you need to drink more water. As noted in the featured article,1 this includes:

  • Fatigue and/or mood swings
  • Hunger even though you’ve recently eaten
  • Back or joint aches
  • Dull, dry skin and/or pronounced wrinkles
  • Infrequent urination; dark, concentrated urine, and/or constipation

The Color of Your Urine Is an Important Marker

Besides listening to your thirst, a good rule of thumb is to look at the color of your urine. You should be drinking enough water to turn your urine a light-colored yellow.

Dark-colored urine is a sign that your kidneys are retaining fluids in order to maintain your bodily functions, which includes detoxification. As a result, your urine will seem highly concentrated and dark in color. You may also urinate less frequently, for the same reason.

Since your thirst mechanism tends to become less efficient with age, older adults need to pay more careful attention to the color of their urine to ensure adequate water intake.

Bear in mind that riboflavin (vitamin B2, which is also found in most multi-vitamins) will turn your urine a bright, almost fluorescent yellow. So if you’re taking supplements containing B2, it may be more difficult to judge by the color of your urine.

Frequency of urination can also be used to judge your water intake. A healthy person urinates on average about seven or eight times a day. If your urine is scant or if you haven’t urinated in several hours, that too is an indication that you’re not drinking enough.

Symptoms of Chronic Dehydration

The primary symptoms of dehydration are: thirst, dry skin, dark colored urine, and fatigue. But there are also a number of commonly overlooked symptoms that may suggest you’re suffering from more or less chronic dehydration. Such symptoms include:

  • Digestive disturbances such as heartburn and constipation
  • Confusion and/or anxiety
  • Urinary tract infections
  • Premature aging
  • High cholesterol

Dehydration Is a Common Problem Among the Elderly

According to recent research, one in five seniors does not get enough water on a daily basis. Among those who do not have a caretaker, that number is even higher—one in four. And seniors with dementia are six times more likely to be dehydrated.

Dehydration also tends to be more common among people taking more medication. According to BBC News:2

“A 2013 analysis of death certificates by the [UK] Office for National Statistics had shown that 1,158 care home residents suffered dehydration-related deaths between 2003 and 2012.

But Dr. [Lee] Hooper said those figures were not clear-cut as patients often stopped eating or drinking towards the end of life. She also stressed that while care homes could sometimes do better, it was important to point out that identifying dehydration and solving its causes was complex.

’The reasons older people do not drink enough are that as we age we lose our sense of thirst so they may not be thirsty. [Or they] decide not to drink because of continence issues, because they don’t have as much social contact or because of frailty or forgetfulness.’”

Why I Do Not Recommend Bottled Water

While drinking water will help flush out toxins, the more unfiltered water you drink, the more pollutants you’re consuming… Most tap water contains an array of harmful contaminants, including fluoride, disinfection byproducts, chemicals, radiation, heavy metals, and pharmaceutical drugs. Additionally, be careful about bathing in unfiltered water as you can easily absorb more toxins by breathing in a hot shower than you can by drinking tap water all day long.

Last year, federal scientists reported3 finding traces of 18 unregulated contaminants in one-third of the water samples collected from 25 municipal utilities across the US, including perfluorinated compounds like PFOA.  So besides making sure you’re drinking enough, another very important consideration is the type of water you drink.

Many instinctively reach for bottled water, but there are many reasons to avoid this option. Drinking from plastic water bottles can pose serious health risks from industrial chemicals like bisphenol-A and bisphenol-S (BPA/BPS), as well as phthalates, which leach from the plastic itself into the contents of the bottle. BPA and BPS are estrogen-mimicking chemicals linked to reproductive defects, learning and behavioral problems, immune dysfunction, and prostate and breast cancer. Phthalates are also endocrine disruptors, and have been linked to a wide range of developmental and reproductive effects, as well as liver cancer.

Bottled water also costs about 1,900 times the price of regular tap water, and may or may not have received any additional treatment. Studies have shown that 40 percent of bottled water is actually regular tap water with possibly no additional filtering treatment. While the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires large public water supplies to test for contaminants several times a day, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires private bottlers to test for contaminants only once a week, once a year, or once every four years, depending on the contaminant.

One independent test4 performed by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) in 2011 revealed 38 low-level contaminants in bottled water. Each of the 10 tested brands contained an average of eight chemicals. Disinfection byproducts (DBPs), caffeine, Tylenol, nitrate, industrial chemicals, arsenic, and bacteria were all detected. Fluoride is also usually present in both tap water and filtered bottled water.

Many bottled waters actually make a point of adding fluoride back into the water, so if you are drinking bottled water, make sure it’s fluoride-free. Last but not least, plastic bottles also cause enormous environmental problems because of the sheer volume of plastic waste they create; the lack of adequate recycling capability for plastics; and the amount of oil required to manufacture them.

The Health Benefits of ‘Living Water’

The answer to all these health- and environmental issues is to minimize or eliminate your use of plastic water bottles. The most economical and environmentally sound choice you can make is to purchase and install a water filter for your home. And, in lieu of plastic bottles, use reusable glass water bottles instead, which have a much smaller ecological footprint.

The very best water, however, comes from a natural gravity-fed spring. I do not recommend drinking distilled water on a regular basis. It’s too acidic, and is not recommended for extended use, although it  can be beneficial for temporary detoxification purposes. The ideal pH of your water should be between 6.5 to 7.5, which is neutral. What you want is pure water that is clean, pH balanced, and “alive.”

Mountain spring water is ideal. Not only does it have a healthy pH, but it’s also “structured” in a way that is not well understood. I’ve previously interviewed Dr. Gerald Pollack on this subject. He’s one of the leading research scientists in the world when it comes to understanding the physics of water, and what it means to your health. His book, The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor, clearly explains the theory of the fourth phase of water, which is nothing short of ground-breaking.

The fourth phase of water is, in a nutshell, living water. It’s referred to as EZ water—EZ standing for “exclusion zone”—which has a negative charge. This water can hold energy, much like a battery, and can deliver energy, too. This is the kind of water your cells contain; even your extracellular tissues are filled with EZ water, which is why he believes it’s so important to drink structured water for optimal health.

I drink vortexed water nearly exclusively as I became a big fan of Viktor Schauberger, who did much pioneering work on vortexing about a century ago. Dr. Pollack confirms that by creating a vortex in a glass of water, you’re putting more energy into it, thereby increasing EZ. Water from deep sources, such as deep spring water, is an excellent choice as EZ water is also created under pressure. FindaSpring.com5 is an excellent resource that can help you find a natural spring nearby. As an added boon, collecting spring water is usually free—you just need to bring your own jugs. I recommend using glass jugs instead of plastic, for all the reasons discussed earlier.

Healthy Additives for a Touch of Flavor

As more people are becoming aware of the health dangers of soda, the beverage industry has created a whole new breed of “healthy” beverages—so called “functional” and enhanced waters, fortified with everything from vitamins and minerals to electrolytes, oxygen, fiber, and even protein. But if you take a closer look at the labels, you’ll discover they’re spiking your punch with a lot of unsavory ingredients, many capable of wreaking havoc on your metabolism, hormones, and other physiological processes. Many contain loads of sugar, making them no better than soda…

For occasions when you do want a dash of flavor, simply add some fresh lemon or lime juice to your water. As noted in a previous Huffington Post article,6 lemon water has over a dozen health benefits, from easing constipation and urinary tract infections, to boosting your immune system, cleansing your liver, and improving your skin.

Sliced cucumbers can also add a refreshing twist. If you want a touch of sweetness, add some natural Stevia or Luo Han Guo, which are among the safest sugar substitutes. Alternatively, simply add a drop or two of natural peppermint extract or a few crushed mint leaves from your herb garden. If you want an electrolyte type “sports drink,” try coconut water, which is a rich natural source of potassium and electrolytes. Look for one that has no additives. Or choose a fresh, young coconut and harvest it yourself.

For Optimal Health, You Need Pure Water, and Enough of It

There’s no doubt that you need pure water for optimal health. Simply swapping out all the sweetened, bottled beverages you indulge in for pure water can go a long way toward improving your health—and your weight.  The amount, however, is something you need to fine tune based on your individual circumstances.

Remember to listen to your body. Thirst is an obvious signal that it’s high time to replenish your fluids. Fatigue and moodiness can also indicate you need to drink more water. Probably the best way to gauge your water needs however, is to observe the color of your urine, and how frequently you urinate. On average, a healthy number of bathroom visits is around seven or eight per day, and you want the color of your urine to be a light, pale yellow.

Warning—BPA-Free Plastic Containers May Be Just as Hazardous

In the past, plastic was thought of as an inert substance. Now we know that plastic chemicals can and do leach from plastic containers, thereby contaminating the foods and beverages they hold.

Among the most hazardous of these chemicals known to date are bisphenol-A (BPA) and phthalates, both of which mimic hormones in your body. Even tiny concentrations can cause problems, and you’re likely being exposed from a wide variety of sources.

Aside from canned goods, they’re found in reusable food containers, plastic wraps, water bottles, personal care products—you name it. In response to consumer demand for BPA-free products, many manufacturers have switched to using a different chemical called bisphenol-S (BPS).

Alas, BPS appears to be just as toxic, if not more so, than BPA… A Mother Jones report1 published earlier this year accused the plastics industry with using a tobacco-style campaign to bury findings linking their products with health problems. More recently, Scientific American2 noted that:

“BPS was a favored replacement because it was thought to be more resistant to leaching. If people consumed less of the chemical, the idea went, it would not cause any or only minimal harm.

Yet BPS is getting out. Nearly 81 percent of Americans have detectable levels of BPS in their urine. And once it enters the body it can affect cells in ways that parallel BPA.”

Health Hazards of BPA

BPA, which mimics the hormone estrogen, has been linked to a number of health concerns, including:

Structural damage to your brain Changes in gender-specific behavior, and abnormal sexual behavior
Hyperactivity, increased aggressiveness, and impaired learning Early puberty, stimulation of mammary gland development, disrupted reproductive cycles, ovarian dysfunction, and infertility3
Increased fat formation and risk of obesity Stimulation of prostate cancer cells
Altered immune function Increased prostate size and decreased sperm production

Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Can Affect Sexual Development and Fertility

Ovarian toxicity appears to be a particularly strong feature of BPA. Harvard researchers have found that higher BPA levels in women are linked to a reduced number of fertile eggs. According to the New York Times:4

“The accumulating research fuels rising concern among scientists that childhood exposure to BPA may well contribute to female infertility, and that adult exposure may result in a shorter reproductive life span.

‘I think most scientists working today agree that BPA is an ovarian toxicant,’ Dr. Flaws said. A review of research into BPA, published this summer in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives,5 noted that ovarian toxicity is among the most consistent and strongest effects found ‘in both animal models and in women.’” 

Meanwhile, in Sweden, a rise in the number of boys born with deformed penises—a condition known as hypospadias—has researchers “stumped.” A notable increase appears in children born after 1990, nearly doubling compared to previous decades.6

Hypospadias is a birth defect in which the opening of the urethra is on the underside of the penis instead of at the end, which affects both urination and sexual function. Scientists are speculating whether endocrine disrupting chemicals such as BPA and phthalates may be at fault.

Researchers have also pointed out links between phthalates and infertility. A report in Chemical and Engineering News7 discusses recent findings8 suggesting a mechanism of action for this link. The researchers found that exposure to phthalates correlate with a biomarker for oxidative damage to DNA.

While this held true in both men and women, the effect was stronger in women. Women also had higher urine concentrations of all but one phthalate metabolite. Cosmetics are suspected of being the chief culprit, accounting for the different levels in men and women.

BPS Appears to Be Just as Harmful as BPA

As mentioned, many manufacturers are simply switching BPA for BPS, which allows them to slap the much-sought after “BPA-free” label on their wares. But BPS, it turns out, appears to have many of the same concerns as BPA.

Last year, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch discovered that even minute concentrations—less than one part per trillion—of BPS can disrupt cellular functioning. Metabolic disorders like obesity, diabetes, and even cancer, are potential ramifications of such disruptions.

Basically, while manufacturers are not lying by stating their products are “BPA-free,” they’re not necessarily telling the whole truth either. Many have simply traded one endocrine-disrupting chemical for another, and health-conscious consumers may be lulled into a false sense of security by the BPA-free label. According to the featured article:9

“A 2011 study published in Environmental Health Perspectives10 found that almost all of the 455 commercially available plastics that were tested leached estrogenic chemicals. 

This study lead to a bitter legal battle between Eastman Chemical Co. and the study’s author, George Bittner, professor of neurobiology at The University of Texas at Austin and founder of CertiChem and PlastiPure, two companies designed to test and discover nonestrogenic plastics.

Bittner claimed in the peer-reviewed report that Eastman’s product Tritan, marketed to be completely free of estrogenic leaching, showed such activity. 

Eastman claimed otherwise and filed a suit. A federal jury ruled in favor of the latter, saying Bittner’s testing methods were inadequate because the tests were done in vitro—in a petri dish rather than in vivo, in a live animal.”

Animal Tests Show BPS Affects Brain and Heart Function

Having learned their lesson, researchers are now focusing their investigations on live animal testing,11 and results show BPS is hardly a healthier alternative to BPA:

  • Researchers studying the effects of BPS on zebra fish embryos found that fish exposed to BPS in similar concentrations as that found in the water of a nearby river experienced explosive neuronal growth, which led to hyperactive and erratic behavior as the fish grew. Fish embryos exposed to BPS had a 170 percent increase in neuronal growth; while those exposed to BPA had a 240 percent increase.
  • Another study using rats found that exposure to either BPA or BPS caused heart arrhythmia in the females. Here, the dose used was similar to concentrations found in humans. The researchers discovered that BPS blocked an estrogen receptor found only in the females, which disrupted the calcium channels. This is also a common cause of heart arrhythmia in humans.

The root of the problem goes back to a lack of regulation—there’s no proper agency testing for toxicity before a chemical is allowed on the market. Banning BPS will not solve this problem, as there are many types of bisphenols, and simply switching from one to another is nothing but a game of toxic musical chairs. At present, you may be paying more for a “BPA-free” product that is no safer than the old BPA-containing variety… You’re also exposed to a number of other chemicals courtesy of food and beverage containers,12 most of which have no warning labels at all.

Another chemical high on the list of concern is styrene, found in Styrofoam cups. According to scientists with the National Research Council, styrene can be “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.”13 Heat and prolonged storage increases the leaching of most if not all of these plastic chemicals from their respective plastic containers, and this may be of particular concern when it comes to Styrofoam, as foam cups are almost exclusively used for hot drinks.

Phthalates: Industrial Strength Gender-Benders

Then of course there are the phthalates, which are used as plasticizers in everything from vinyl flooring to detergents and toys. This hormone disrupter can also be found in soaps, shampoos, and cosmetics of all kinds. They’re even used as food additives!14 Research has linked phthalates with the feminization of males of all species. These chemicals have disrupted the endocrine systems of wildlife, causing testicular cancer, genital deformations, low sperm counts, and infertility in polar bears, deer, whales, and otters, just to name a few. Scientists believe phthalates are responsible for a similar pattern in humans as well. As you can see, the effects of phthalate exposure, listed below, are very similar to that of bisphenols (BPA and BPS), which isn’t surprising considering they all affect your endocrine system and sex hormones:

Disturbed lactation “Decreased dysgenesis syndrome”: A syndrome involving cryptorchidism (undescended testicles), hypospadias, and oligospermia (low sperm count)
Interference with sexual differentiation in utero Enlarged prostate glands
Impaired ovulatory cycles and polycystic ovary disease (PCOS) Numerous hormonal disruptions
Early or delayed puberty Breast cancer, uterine fibroids, and testicular cancer

Chemical Industry Is Reusing the Tobacco Industry’s Playbook…

The Democracy Now video above reveals how the chemical industry uses the same playbook that the tobacco industry became notorious for. The only difference is that they have not been exposed yet, whereas the tobacco industry finally had to admit to the health hazards of its products. For example, many of the studies that found no adverse health effects of BPA were funded by the chemical industry, and as noted in the video, there’s a hidden network here; industry-funded studies get published in certain journals that in many cases have links to the tobacco industry. The chemical industry has also relied on scientists that previously helped discredit the science linking smoking and second-hand smoke exposure to disease.

So, not only has the chemical industry borrowed the tobacco industry’s strategies to keep their products on the market, they’re also relying on the tobacco industry’s “experts” to back up their safety claims. It is now a historical fact that the tobacco industry purposely buried evidence linking tobacco smoking to health problems such as lung cancer, and the chemical industry is now doing the exact same thing; using the same tactics and experts as the tobacco industry once relied on.

As an example, one chemical in particular became the focus of Mariah Blake’s investigation for Mother Jones: Tritan, made by Eastman Chemical. According to Blake, a number of independent scientists have tested this product, and found it has estrogenic activity—in fact, it is MORE estrogenic than polycarbonate, a BPA-containing plastic. Internal documents released during the course of a lawsuit against Eastman Chemical reveals that the company suppressed evidence showing that Tritan is in fact estrogenic. Shocking but true, there are about 80,000 chemicals used in various products sold in the US, and only a tiny fraction of them have undergone safety testing.

And, because of lack of regulation, when a chemical like BPA is taken out of production, the industry simply replaces it with another untested chemical… It’s like a never-ending vicious circle where as soon as one chemical is found to be hazardous, another takes its place and is allowed to wreak havoc for decades until someone realizes the hazard that one poses… As crazy as it sounds, the chemical industry is a largely unregulated field, and as such it poses a tremendous danger to human health. Leaked minutes from a 2009 meeting of the BPA Joint Trade Association are also revealing.

Members of this association include the American Chemical Council, the American Chemistry Council, Coca-Cola, Del Monte, and many others. In this meeting, they explored a variety of messaging strategies, including what they called “fear tactics.” An example of a fear tactic would be to use statements like “Do you want to have access to baby food anymore?” The attendees agreed that “the holy grail spokesperson” would be “a pregnant young mother who would be willing to speak around the country about the benefits of BPA.” As noted by Mariah Blake, one of the most disturbing aspects of the chemical industry’s efforts to hide hazardous effects is that they purposely target those who are the most vulnerable to damage, such as young children and pregnant women.

Tips to Reduce Your Exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Plastic Chemicals

To avoid any number of chemical toxins leaching into your food and beverages, choose glass over plastic, especially when it comes to products that will come into contact with food or beverages, or those intended for pregnant women, infants, and children. This applies to canned goods as well, which are a major source of BPA, so whenever you can, choose jarred goods over canned goods, or opt for fresh whole foods instead. I also recommend avoiding plastic teething toys for your little ones. Considering their pervasiveness, it may be next to impossible to avoid all sources of exposure to BPA, BPS, phthalates, and similar toxins, but you can certainly reduce your exposure dramatically by making more informed choices. To limit your exposure, please consider the following suggestions:

Only use glass baby bottles and dishes for your baby
Get rid of your plastic dishes and cups, and replace them with glass varieties
Give your baby natural fabric toys instead of plastic ones
Store your food and beverages in glass containers
If you choose to use a microwave, microwave food in glass containers, not plastic
Use glass, ceramic, or stainless steel travel coffee mugs rather than plastic or Styrofoam coffee cups
Avoid using plastic wrap (and never microwave anything covered in it)
If you opt to use plastic kitchenware, at least get rid of the older, scratched-up varieties, avoid putting them in the dishwasher, and don’t wash them with harsh detergents, as these things can cause more chemicals to leach into your food
Avoid using bottled water; filter your own using a reverse osmosis filter instead
Before allowing a dental sealant to be applied to your, or your children’s, teeth, ask your dentist to verify that it does not contain BPA

Grounding Is a Key Mechanism by Which Your Body Maintains Health

Have you ever noticed how good it feels to walk barefoot on a sandy beach, or in a forest? There is a reason for that—it’s called the grounding effect. The reason for this sense of well-being is due to the fact that you’re receiving a surge of potent healing electrons from the ground.

The earth has a slightly negative charge, so when you stand barefoot on that sand, electrons from the earth flow into your body, giving you a virtual “transfusion” of healing power.

The featured documentary, The Grounded 2, is a sequel to the film The Grounded, released in 2013. The sequel features Step Sinatra, the son of cardiologist Stephen Sinatra MD, astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, and yours truly, among many others.

Step was a Wall Street trader until his health suddenly began to decline, bringing him to the brink of death. He credits his ultimate recovery to learning about grounding, along with a switch to an all-organic diet.

In 2010, his father, Dr. Stephen Sinatra released a book on the healing power of grounding called Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever?, co-authored with Clint Ober, one of the pioneers in this field.

The Ultimate Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory

Grounding or Earthing is defined as placing one’s bare feet on the ground whether it be dirt, grass, sand, or concrete (especially when humid or wet). When you ground to the electron-enriched earth, an improved balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system occurs.

The earth is a natural source of electrons and subtle electrical fields, which are essential for proper functioning of immune systems, circulation, synchronization of biorhythms and other physiological processes and may actually be the most effective, essential, least expensive, and easiest to attain antioxidant.

Modern science has thoroughly documented the connection between inflammation and all of the chronic diseases, including the diseases of aging and the aging process itself. It is important to understand that inflammation is a condition that can be reduced or prevented by grounding your body to the Earth, the way virtually all of your ancestors have done for hundreds if not thousands of generations.

How the Modern Running Shoe May Be Destroying Your Health

Materials such as metals are electrical conductors. They contain free or mobile electrons that can carry electrical energy from place to place.

Your body is somewhat conductive because it contains a large number of charged ions (called electrolytes) dissolved in water. Your blood and other body fluids are therefore good conductors. Free or mobile electrons can also move about within your body

Other materials, called insulators, have very few free or mobile electrons. Plastic and rubber are good insulators and are used to cover electrical wires to keep the conductors from touching each other and from touching your skin, which could otherwise give you a shock.

Traditionally, shoes were made of leather, which actually conducts electrons and therefore maintains a conductive contact between the earth and your feet. However, modern day rubber and plastics are electrical insulators and therefore block the beneficial flow of electrons from the Earth to your body.

Grounding Is a Foundational Aspect for Optimal Health

Free radical stress from exposure to mercury pollution, cigarettes, insecticides, pesticides, trans fats, radiation, and many others, continually deplete your body of electrons.

This is one of the primary reasons why antioxidants are used, which actually donate electrons back into your body, to help ward off free radical damage to your tissues.

You can also get these electrons by going outside, barefoot. Touching the earth helps neutralize the damaging positive charges of free radicals in your body.

According to Clint Ober, this lack of grounding appears to be an underlying thread in most chronic disease—a phenomenon he calls “electron deficiency syndrome.”

For a visual demonstration of this, review my previous article, which features an experiment conducted by Gary Schwartz, PhD, at the University of Arizona. Using sunflowers, he demonstrates the powerful biological effects of grounding.

The Health Effects of Grounding

When your body is exposed to a lot of free radical stress, your blood tends to thicken, and positive charges accumulate in your body. This causes chronic inflammation, which is a hallmark of most chronic and degenerative diseases.

Grounding effectively helps alleviate inflammation in your body. It also helps thin your blood, by providing your red blood cells with a surplus of electrons so they can effectively repel each other and avoid being sticky, which can lead to blood clots that can cause a heart attack or stroke. Research has demonstrated it takes about 80 minutes for the free electrons from the earth to reach your bloodstream and transform your blood cells.

For example, early (and even some current) birth control pills were notorious for causing heart attacks in women. One of the mechanisms responsible for this increased risk is that synthetic estrogens and progesterones increase blood viscosity. Other biochemical alterations caused by grounding include changes in:

  • Phosphorus
  • Calcium metabolism
  • Fibroid metabolism
  • White blood cells

Grounding also helps calm your sympathetic nervous system, which supports your heart rate variability, which plays an important role in balancing, in your autonomic nervous system. Pain relief, improved sleep, and a generally enhanced sense of well-being are but a few of the health benefits reported by people who try grounding.

Last but not least, when you are grounded to the earth, the negatively charged electrons you receive increase the structure of the water in your cells—just as water increases in structure when a negative charge is introduced by an electrode.

As explained by Gerald Pollack, PhD, author of The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor, living water is negatively charged water. This water can hold energy, much like a battery, and can deliver energy too. In essence, when you ground, you are charging every single cell in your body with energy your body can use for self-healing.

How to Ground, Both Indoors and Outdoors

Walking barefoot is one of the easiest and best ways to get and stay grounded, but you’ll need to do so on the proper surface. Many walking surfaces in today’s modern world will NOT allow for electron transfer between the earth and your body. This includes asphalt, wood, rubber, plastic, vinyl, tar, and tarmac. Surfaces that will allow your body to ground include:

  • Sand (beach)
  • Grass (preferably moist)
  • Bare soil
  • Concrete and brick (as long as it’s not painted or sealed)
  • Ceramic tile

Even indoors, and while flying, there are ways to help you stay grounded. As noted in the film, touching the faucet with one hand while shaving with the other helps you ground. And when flying, you can take off your shoes and place your feet (bare or with socks) on the steel struts of the chair in front of you, as this too will help you stay grounded. There are also grounding pads you can use to sleep or sit on, which can be particularly beneficial if you live in a high-rise building.

Grounding May Be Essential for Life and Health

It’s important to understand that grounding is not a “treatment” or a “cure” for any disease or disorder. Rather, it is one of the key mechanisms by which your body maintains equilibrium and health. The human body evolved in constant contact with the earth, and your body needs this continuous interchange of energy in order to function properly.

Exercising barefoot outdoors is one of the most wonderful, inexpensive and powerful ways of incorporating grounding into your daily life. You can also simply take off your shoes as much as you can when you’re outdoors to take advantage of these natural grounding opportunities.

Do You Really Want to Eat Hot Dogs After Knowing This?

(Dr Mercola) The hot dog is one of America’s most popular foods, with the average person consuming 50 of them per year. Hot dogs are one of the most nutritionally bankrupt foods.

Yet for decades, they’ve been given a free pass, granted one pardon after another thanks to their towering status in American culture. But when you look at what they are giving you in return, you will want to seriously reconsider their status.

The hot dog’s gustatory glow took a significant hit in 2009 when the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) issued its landmark report1 about hot dogs and cancer risk, based on more than 7,000 scientific studies.

AICR determined that every 50 gram serving of processed meat you consume daily—for example, just ONE hot dog—raises your risk for colorectal cancer by 21 percent. Despite these health warnings, frankfurters have been unstoppable.

In 2013, Americans spent $2.5 billion on hot dogs in US supermarkets, which amounts to more than one billion packages of wieners. During peak hot dog season—which is from Memorial Day to Labor Day—Americans belt down seven billion dogs.

On the Fourth of July alone, Americans consume 150 million hot dogs—enough to stretch from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles more than five times! Hot dogs pose another danger for your child that you may not be aware of—they are responsible for 17 percent of all choking cases among children, killing about 80 kids per year.2

Transformation of Slaughter By-Products Into Hot Dogs

Many blame the hot dog’s carcinogenic effects on nitrates and nitrites, but I would argue that this is an overly simplistic view. When you look at what goes into hot dogs and how they are made, there is plenty of blame to go around.

Between the type and grade of “meat” used and its sources, as well as the torrent of chemicals added to make the dogs safe and palatable—of which nitrates are only one—it’s easy to understand how serious health problems could arise.

Most of the meat and meat by-products come from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) where animals are tortured in crowded, unhealthy, unsanitary, and cruel conditions, as the primary goal is cheap food, not quality food.

Here is the not-glorified version. They start with an animal carcass that’s been stripped of all desirable cuts, boil the heck out of it, force it through a metal sieve, add water, grind it up into a slimy carcass paste (“meat emulsion” or “meat batter”), add a bunch of chemicals to make it taste good and binders to make it stick together, then extrude it into links.3, 4

‘And ALL the Trimmings’

Once desirable meat cuts are removed from beef, pork, and poultry (steaks, chops, ribs, thighs, breasts, briskets, etc.), what remains is a carcass consisting mostly of gristle, fat, and offal. The meat industry refers to this as “trimmings.” According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO):5

“The raw meat materials used for precooked-cooked products are lower-grade muscle trimmings, fatty tissues, head meat, animal feet, animal skin, blood, liver and other edible slaughter by-products.”

The butchering process imparts a considerable amount of bacteria to these carcasses, but because hot dogs are pre-cooked, manufacturers can get away with using these pieces and parts even if they are teeming with bacteria.

Cooking helps kill them, as well as separating the remaining muscle, fat, and connective tissues from the head and feet bones. The slimy paste that results from this rendering brew is what’s referred to as “mechanically-recovered” meat. The process of manufacturing hot dogs is colorfully summarized in theDaily Mail:6

“In vast metal vats, tons of pork trimmings are mixed with the pink slurry formed when chicken carcasses are squeezed through metal grates and blasted with water. The mush is mixed with powdered preservatives, flavorings, red coloring and drenched in water before being squeezed into plastic tubes to be cooked and packaged.”

Where’s the Beef?

Now that you know the basics of the process, let’s take a closer look at the ingredients. Meat makes up a relatively small proportion of the average commercial hot dog. And it’s typically low-quality meat and meat by-products—which technically are not meat at all.7

Meat Turkey, chicken, beef, pork, and others Pork must be 20 percent or less due to risk of pathogens
Fillers Corn syrup, dried milk, maltodextrin, cereal grains, and modified food starch Up to 3.5 percent
Salt Sodium chloride One hot dog can contain 670mg sodium, more than 30 percent of your daily allowance8
Preservatives Potassium lactate, sodium phosphates, sodium diacetate, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite, and sodium nitrate
Flavorings Paprika and other spices, artificial flavorings, MSG, carmine (a dye from the shells of small beetles, boiled in ammonia or sodium carbonate), and any number of other additives USDA does not require manufacturers to list these on labels, so just about anything goes when it comes to “flavorings”
Water Water thins the meat batter so that it can be extruded into the desired form No more than 10 percent, per regulations
Casings Derived from beef, pork, lamb, fibers, wood pulp, or plastic Many hot dog casings are removed prior to packaging so they don’t have to be edible; others are made from plant or animal-derived cellulose, dissolved cowhides, or the intestinal tracts of farmed animals9

At least the above list of ingredients “belong” in hot dogs… what’s far worse are the extras. According to reports begrudgingly released by the USDA under the Freedom of Information Act, foreign objects recently found in hot dogs include Band-Aids, glass shards, razor blades, metal fragments, maggots, rat legs, and pieces of eyeballs.10

Large hot dog factories can blast out 300,000 of these dogs per hour. It takes only 30 seconds to build a chain of hot dogs that would span a soccer field twice. When a commercial operation is THIS massive, you can get some rather revolting contaminants.

The Truth About Nitrates and Nitrites

Many are confused about nitrates and nitrites, so let me clear up the confusion. Nitrates are present in many vegetables, such as beets, celery, lettuce, spinach, and most other leafy green vegetables. When you eat nitrates, your body converts a small percentage of them into nitrites. Nitrites and nitrates are not inherently bad for you—in fact, they are the precursor to nitric oxide (NO), which lowers your blood pressure and exerts mild anti-inflammatory effects.

Sodium nitrite is a synthetic preservative added to meats like hot dogs to help them maintain that nice pink color. The problem is, in the presence of heat—especially high heat—nitrites can combine with amines in processed meat to form nitrosamines, and it’s these that are carcinogenic. Nitrosamines inflict cellular damage and have been linked to cancer, typically in your colon, bladder, stomach, or pancreas. Processed meats are far more prone to nitrosamine formation than vegetables, due to being higher in amines and intensively heat processed.11, 12, 13, 14

Vitamin C inhibits some of the nitrosamine formation, which is why 550 ppm ascorbic acid is now required added to all processed meats in the US.15 Vegetables contain more vitamin C, beta-carotene, and other antioxidants, which is another reason why the nitrates in vegetables don’t cause a problem.

According to the University of Minnesota Extension, around 90 percent of the nitrite in your body comes from vegetables, while just 10 percent comes from processed meats.16 When meat or fish is cooked at high temperatures, other potent carcinogens are also created, such as heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and advanced glycation end products (AGEs). If your processed meat is smoked, you can add polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to the list.

What About Nitrates in Organic Hot Dogs?

Natural or organic hot dogs may not be much lower in nitrite—and some may even be higher than conventional hot dogs. Companies that label their products natural or organic must use natural sources of the preservatives, which usually come in the form of celery powder or celery juice, as celery is naturally high in nitrate.

A 2011 study published in The Journal of Food Protection found that natural hot dogs had anywhere from one-half to 10 times the amount of nitrite of conventional hot dogs.17 A similar scenario exists for bacon. So, buying organic hot dogs is not necessarily going to reduce your nitrate exposure—although it will likely result in a higher quality food product in many other respects.

Brainwashing Kids Into Loving Junk Food

Unacceptable rates of childhood obesity and disease are evidence of the damage being done to our children by hot dogs, sodas, and other unhealthy foods. With such grave health dangers, the earlier that fast food habits can be nipped in the bud, the better. Kids are extremely vulnerable to and under constant bombardment by junk food marketing.

If you want to see evidence of how powerful this brainwashing can be, take a look at the eye-opening video of Jamie Oliver’s experiment, where he attempts to educate a group of elementary schoolers about what really goes into chicken nuggets. Of course, he COULD have used hot dogs for the example and the outcome would have probably been the same. Despite his success in disgusting them with what really goes into a chicken nugget, they STILL want the nuggets! This experiment reveals the depth of children’s emotional attachment to fast food—which also shows just how effective fast food marketing is to children.

An even more powerful marketing strategy has emerged for brainwashing your child, which takes advantage of smartphones and other mobile devices. The “advergame” is a game that promotes a particular brand, product or message by integrating it into play. The game IS the advertisement, engaging children to such as extent that they form strong relationships with the product or brand, so they consume more of it—and research proves it works. For example, KFC’s “Snack in the Face,” which mimics the massively popular game Angry Birds, is described as “the future of junk food advertising.”18

The Best of the Wurst

If you are going to eat hot dogs or other processed meats once in awhile, there are a few considerations that may help you reduce your risk of adverse health affects. Again, these options are not ideal as these meats are still processed, but the following guidelines will ensure you are consuming a product that is better for you than the vast majority of processed meats on the market:

  • Look for “uncured” varieties that contain NO nitrates
  • Choose varieties that say 100 percent beef, 100 percent chicken, etc. This is the only way to know that the meat is from a single species and does not include byproducts
  • Avoid any meat that contains MSG, high-fructose corn syrup, preservatives, artificial flavor, or artificial color
  • Ideally, purchase sausages and other processed meats from a small, local farmer that makes those products right on the farm, whom you can ask about the ingredients

Truly Healthy Meats are a Much Better Option

In contrast to eating products that are little more than a heat-processed slurry of reassembled slaughterhouse remains, real meat is a different story altogether. Make sure the meat you consume is grass-fed, organically and humanely raised, preferably from a local farmer you know and trust. Grass-fed beef tends to be leaner and have higher levels of vitamins, minerals, and cancer-fighting CLA. It also has a healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats. Organic farms tend to provide far more sanitary conditions, so the animals are less likely to harbor dangerous pathogens.

Organic, grass-fed standards do not permit non-medical use of antibiotics, and with antibiotic-resistant infections being a major public health hazard today, this is an important consideration. To counteract some of the harmful effects of cooking, add homemade spice rubs, herb-enhanced marinades, or even fresh blueberries to your meat prior to cooking. This will not only augment its nutritional value, but also reduce the harmful substances like heterocyclic amines that are formed during the cooking process. Consume plenty of fresh vegetables along with it, which will further enhance its nutritional value.

What Is Arugula Good For?

The Arugula Advantage

Botanical name: Eruca sativa

(Dr. Mercola) If you ever see a salad green referred to as “rocket,” it’s simply another name for arugula, or roquette in French. Yet another brassicaceae along with kale and cauliflower, its delightfully pungent leaves have been cultivated in the Mediterranean since time was recorded. As such, arugula is a perennial favorite in Italian cooking.

Rather nondescript in appearance, arugula is often added to mesclun mixes, where it adds a delicious zest. While the young, paler leaves have a mild flavor – good for fresh dishes like salad and pesto – the older, darker leaves have a bit of pepper to them, making them stand out in soups and pizza toppings.

Health Benefits of Arugula

Arugula derives a lot of nutritional value from its cruciferous family roots, such as antioxidant benefits from glucosinolates and detoxifying power from enzymes. It’s an excellent source of fiber, vitamins A, C (to boost the immune system), and K (for bone strength), folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and manganese.

Arugula also provides high levels of protein, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, zinc, copper, and pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) for raising good cholesterol levels and lowering the bad. Its flavonoid content has multiple benefits: to prevent cholesterol from sticking to arteries, lower blood pressure, increase blood flow, lower inflammation, and improve blood vessel function.

Arugula Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 ounce (28 grams) of raw arugula
Amt. Per Serving
Calories 7
Protein 1 g
Carbohydrates 1 g
Sugar 1 g
Sodium 8 mgs

Studies Done on Arugula

A research team studying the natural health benefits of arugula1 discovered that it could be associated with fighting gastrointestinal ulcers, possibly through the many antioxidants it contains. Other studies have linked it to relief from gastric ulcer and psoriasis, as well as protection from skin, lung, and mouth cancers.

Arugula is one of the leafy green vegetables that contain cleansing properties to counteract the poisoning effects of heavy metals in the system, particularly in the liver.2 It also has the ability to eradicate pesticides and herbicides from the body.

Arugula Healthy Recipes: Arugula, Asparagus, and Olive Salad with Toasted Pine Nuts

Ingredients:

  • 3 bunches arugula or spinach
  • 2 ½ cups asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 cup kalamata olives (or any other Greek olive)
  • ½ cup toasted pine nuts

For the Dressing:

  • ½ cup olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, pressed
  • 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
  • 2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
  • Juice of 1 lemon

Procedure:

  1. Quickly blanch the asparagus and set aside. Remove seeds from the olives by cutting down the center lengthwise. Combine the arugula, asparagus, and olives in a bowl.
  2. Roast the pine nuts in a shallow pan at 325°F until brown. Whisk the dressing together, pour over salad, and top with pine nuts. Makes 4 servings.

Arugula Fun Facts

Ancient Roman writings reveal arugula to be used as a powerful aphrodisiac from the first century A.D., especially when combined with other natural plants with similar libido-boosting qualities, such as chicory, dill, lettuce, and lavender.

Summary

Arugula is a leafy green vegetable that’s loaded with nutritional benefits for nearly every area of the body, from the brain to the liver, as well as the skin and blood vessels. A zesty addition to any salad, it’s also great in other recipes, such as pizza, pesto, and soup.

Other sources: