Vitamin D For Influenza-From To Your Health Magazine

Antoher flu season is here; what’s your strategy this year? In 2009, many chose the vaccine route, particularly with the “swine flu” (H1N1) making front-page news on a near-daily basis. Whether you choose to get vaccinated or not, it’s important to be aware of a simple, natural way you can help reduce your risk.

CDC Set to Recommend Male Circumcision-From Pathways to Family Wellness Magazine

Approximately 75 percent of the men in the world are not circumcised, and remain intact throughout their lives.

Invisible Hazards-How to Protect Your Family and Yourself from Radiadtion Risks-From Sacramento Parent Magazine

  By Kerry Crofton, PhD

 A mother-to-be sits with her laptop against her growing belly, excitedly e-mailing images from her latest ultra sound while she chats with her mom. Next door, a young mother makes plans for her day while her toddler sits in her lap, playing with her cell phone. Neither sees the risks around them.

Electro-magnetic radiation (EMR) may be invisible, but as physicians and research scientists around the world are telling us, it certainly isn’t harmless, especially for children, babies, and pregnant women.

Credible studies tell us that this kind of radiation affects every system of the body, causing, among other biological effects, DNA damage, suppression of the immune system, disruption of neurological, cardiovascular and hormonal systems, leakage of the blood-brain barrier, and cognitive impairments.

Studies from two European labs, published in Physics in Medicine and Biology (June 7, 2008) show that young children’s brains absorb twice as much radiation from a cell phone as the brains of adults.

It’s not just mobile phones, though. Every wireless device emits EMR, including PDA’s, wireless internet, and cordless phones, especially those high-power digital ones. Work environments can also have invisible hazards.

Researchers at McGill University, who’d been following the pregnancies of a group of women working in a room full of electric sewing machines, have raised concerns that a mother’s exposure to electro-magnetic radiation during pregnancy, or even just before she conceives, may be putting her child at risk of developing certain types of brain cancer.

In Japan, with its massive concentration of electro-smog from wireless communication, an unusually high number of women are reported to be suffering miscarriages in their last trimester. (Men should know that carrying a powered-on cell phone in a trouser pocket has been shown to reduce fertility.)

Prenatal ultrasound scans can be very helpful in diagnosing whether a fetus is growing normally, and there have been no abnormalities linked direct to diagnostic ultrasound; still, obstetricians in Canada and the U.S. caution that there is a theoretical risk for subtle effects on fetal development, since the scan involved targeted energy exposure to the baby.

 10 Ways to Reduce Radiation Risks

 1. If you are pregnant, avoid the use of cell phones, cordless phones and PDA’s. If you must use one, keep calls very brief, and keep the device turned off as much as possible. You (and your baby) are being exposed even when it’s on standby.

 2. Replace all cordless phones with corded landlines. The base emits high levels 24/7.

 3. Use a hard-wired internet connection rather than wireless.

 4. Don’t use a laptop on your lap-put it on a desk.

 5. Keep wireless devices away from babies and small children, especially in their sleeping areas; this includes baby monitors.

 6. Avoid using a microwave oven. If you must use one, stand back at least 15 feet while it’s on.

 7. Avoid using heating pads, electric blankets, and other wired devices-even clock radios-close to your body. Make your sleeping areas low-electronic sanctuaries.

 8. Discuss the risks and benefits of diagnostic ultrasound with your physician, and only have scans when medically indicated.

 9. Avoid full-body security scanners when you’re pregnant. Inform security staff and request a hand “pat down.” This is done by a female security guard and you avoid the radiation exposure.

 10. Choose digital dental x-rays-these have lower radiation emissions.

 Frequent ultrasound just for the thrill of seeing your baby in not recommended. Some technicians in for-profit clinics have been known to turn up the scan intensity and try to reposition the fetus, to get a better photo.

Some radiologists, including one interviewed by BBC News, are concerned about the potential effects of radiation from full-body security scanners on pregnant women. They urge women who are pregnant, or even think they could be, to use caution while traveling.

There are many skeptical people who feel that we will never abandon, or even modify, our dependency on mobile communication. So convenient. So cool. So everywhere.

Still, I am hopeful that a growing number of pregnant women and families will hear this wireless wake-up call and embrace science based solutions.