What's It All About Anyway?

So here I sit in my home office in Marin on a gorgeous sunny day looking for ways to help people get accurate information they can actually use in their daily lives. My goal? To get as many people as possible to take back their health from Big Pharma and Big Agra! We have given up so much of our personal responsibility to corporations and agencies that really only look out for their own bottom line, not our health. This includes those health insurance companies that are finally under scrutiny for shady practices.

One simple truth is: you have a LOT of control over your current and future health through the little decisions you make everyday about what to eat and drink, how much stress you fool yourself into believing is "normal", and whether or not you get out of your chair and move. It has been shown time and time again that a huge percentage of chronic disease can be avoided simply by eating less junk and moving more, and yet we continue to choose to believe the clever marketing by big corporations rather than what we know to be true. So I'm working on deciphering ways to motivate people to first SEE and then change their health trajectories. It can be as simple as deciding to eat breakfast instead of substituting a quad espresso drink. It can be as easy as a 10 minute walk at lunch time and taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

I recently returned from a trip to Virgina where I taught a 3 day intensive on the principles of a healthy lifestyle. The participants were all enthusiastic and energized. They had great questions and by the end of our time together, all were highly motivated to make changes for themselves and their families. What struck me was that even after being so jazzed about our discussions for 3 days, they all took the elevator down after the last class and walked to the front row of parking spaces where each of them parked. I walked passed and waved as I made my way to the opposite end of the parking lot. It takes more than just seeing what needs to change, you have to begin to make it who you are from now on. I'm working on figuring out how to help that transition more effectively.

Nanoparticles: What's the big deal?

You may be aware of the newest catchword in advertising: nanoparticles. These are some of the very smallest pieces of molecules that scientists have been able to manipulate. The reasons? Similar to the reasons for creating smaller faster microchips for computers, if certain aspects of a food or a material or a medicine can be made smaller, it is thought that it will function better and faster. Well, this may be the case in ways we never imagined. Part of the concern now is that these extremely small particles are able to create really big problems. They can undergo drastic structural changes really quickly which can cause them to react with their environment in unpredictable ways. Some can react in volatile ways with other chemicals, and others can change the way intracellular processes happen. There are reports that the toxicity of these nanoparticles increases as their size decreases. Until we know more about the long term effects on human and planetary systems, it is probably best to avoid products that tout these Frankensteinian characteristics. Choose a non-nano face cream, especially when it comes to sunscreens.