Health & Wellness Seminar:Got Mold?

Presented by Young Living NW

Visit Young Living Northwest

March 20th, 2007 • 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Edmonds Conference Center
201 Fourth Avenue North
Edmonds, WA 98020

Free to the general public, $10 for YLEO Members

Do you remember the classic spice scented smell of Grandma’s kitchen? The scent of cloves, cinnamon, and citrus permeating the house helped keep mold, bacteria and viruses at bay. Today household mold is a serious problem.

50% of buildings, both old and new, have Mold resulting in a 50-100% increase of it's occupants having respiratory problems - 2 Studies, Harvard and Johns Hopkins Universities

1 in 7 Americans suffers from acute fungal sinustis, resulting from exposure to mold - Mayo Clinic

Bleach, Ozone, and chemicals typically used for treating mold are ineffective and are hazardous to your health - US EPA and the American Industrial Hygiene Association Bob Franks, a retired Quality Assurance Specialist for the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency with a chemistry degree from WSU, will present the latest science on toxic black mold by Dr. Edward Close, Ph.D, PE. Dr. Close is a recognized expert Environmental Engineer with 40 years experience in the field.

Learn what you can do to prevent and eliminate toxic mold in the home and workplace. Dr. Close’s recent research and important discovery support how we can use nature’s plant kingdom to clean-up and protect our indoor environments.

This solution may surprise you!

It smells like Grandma’s kitchen... and is as safe as eating her apple pie!

- This is an educational seminar on Toxic Mold you won’t want to miss -

Pre-register to reserve your seat, contact:

Evelyn at Young Living Northwest

Upcoming Health and Wellness Seminars in Edmonds, WA

April 17th, 2007
KIDS, PETS, FLEAS and PESTS
Are you ready to get toxic products out of your kids & pets lives? We’ll tell you what we’ve done to make a change!

May 15th, 2007
Cooking with Essential Oils
Chef Debra Lane, of Chef To Go, will demonstrate how to expand your cooking repertoire!

Sleep Disorders and Essential Oils

This week, I'd like to share some oils for sleep. If you know someone who needs to get some sleep, this message was created with them in mind. Please feel free to share my information with someone you know that might benefit by using an all-natural, more holistic approach to a better nights sleep.

"A friend suggested that I try using the essential oil of valerian for sleep, so I decided to do a little research; the National Institutes of Health has a website devoted to Valerian for Insomnia and Sleep Disorders. I was amazed how much clinical investigation there was on the properties of this oil. What I read about valerian was that it was very highly regarded as an all-natural sedative. What I learned about valerian from using it was that it is calming, relaxing, balancing, and a sleep aid. Just an aside, Valerian Root is generally regarded as safe (GRAS) for ingestion by the FDA. I would make sure the oil you use is therapeutic grade. " ~ John, Washington ~

It is estimated that Americans spend $14 Billion dollars, every year, on our Sleep Disorders!

• 58% of adults experience symptoms of insomnia a few nights or more per week

• 35% of adults report at least one symptom of insomnia every night or almost every night

• For those looking for a safe, effective, and cost-effective alternative, Young Living's beautiful essential oils stand alone.

• Try some oils tonight before you go to sleep. You may be pleasantly surprised!

"I use Essential Oil of Cedarwood on my feet before I go to bed and sleep like a baby! It stimulates the pineal gland which releases natural Melatonin. I feel this is also good for the brain since Cedarwood is high in sesquiterpenes [brain food]. I have also used Alkalime and Lavender for sleep....love it." ~ Jackie, Texas ~

"When my sister died last year, I found myself facing insomnia for the first time in my life. I'd go to bed as normal but would have trouble even getting 2 hours sleep a night. I had heard that Valerian could be good for insomnia, so I ordered a bottle from Young Living. I'd put a few drops under my tongue and then - because it didn't smell great - I put a drop of Lavender on the tip of my nose which masked the smell. It was a wonder! I was sleeping again and never was groggy in the morning. The National Institutes of Health has a website devoted to Valerian for Insomnia and Sleep Disorders. Just as an aside, I'm a big fan of 19th century Russian literature and one of my favorite writers is Anton Chekhov, who was actually a country doctor as well as a writer. In one of his plays, The Sea Gull, the doctor in the play named Dorn asks his patient if he'd like some Valerian drops for his insomnia. So this has been a traditional remedy. Valerian Root is generally regarded as safe (GRAS) for ingestion by the FDA. I would just make sure the oil ingested is therapeutic grade. I highly recommend the Valerian/Lavender combo for insomnia." ~ Kathryn ~

"I put my daughter to sleep every night with a story and a kiss. Recently, I have added some reflexology techniques and the rubbing of Peace and Calming essential oils to the bottom of her feet, and some in her palms to smell deeply. The two of us become so relaxed and sleepy that we had to change our nightly ritual to stories first and oils last. She sleeps so soundly her blankets stay perfectly neat until she wakes up in the morning. Wonderful!" ~ Stacy ~

"Last year I was having problems with sleeping at night so I decided I would try the Valor oil to see if it would help me out. I tried putting 2 drops on the bottom of both feet and then with the oil on my hands, I would cup them in front of my mouth and nose and take 6-8 deep breaths. Since I started with this routine I have been getting a full night's sleep and waking up very refreshed. My husband has been using it also and is sleeping better with a lot less snoring." ~ Anne ~

Suggested Essential Oils for Sleep:

• Valor
• Lavender
• Dream Catcher (For Nightmares)
• Peace & Calming
• Valerian (Strong)

All of the essential oils for assisting in better sleep are available at my website The Very Essence, once there, click on "Create an Account" to place an order. If you have questions please contact me.

Information found here refers solely to products from Young Living Essential Oils and is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. We urge you to do the health related research necessary to learn what is right for you.

Spring Cleaning Indoor Air

The easiest and simplest way of putting essential oils into the air for inhalation is to use an aromatic diffuser. A cold air diffuser uses room-temperature air to blow the oil up against some kind of nebulizer. This breaks the oils up into a micro-fine mist that is then dispersed into the air. The oils, with their oxygenating molecules, will then remain suspended for several hours to freshen and improve the quality of the air. The anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and antiseptic properties of the oils kill bacteria and help reduce fungus and mold. Essential oils, when diffused, have been found to reduce the amount of airborne chemicals and metallics as well as help to create greater spiritual, physical, and emotional harmony.

Recommended Diffusing Time
While a diffusers can run continuously until it is out of oil, the greatest therapeutic benefit is received by diffusing oils for only 10 minutes out of an hour so that the olfactory system has time to recover before receiving more oils. This also helps to conserve your oils. A simple way to do this is to use a programmable timer that can automatically turn on your diffuser each hour for 10 minutes.

Essential Oils for Air Purification
Diffusing essential oils in the home or work place is one of the best ways to purify our environment. The anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and antiseptic properties of the oils, along with the negative ions and oxygenating molecules that are released when essential oils are diffused, all help to reduce chemicals, bacteria, and metallics in the air.
Cinnamon bark, mountain savory, oregano, and Theives (a blend by Young Living Essential Oils), were all tested by Weber State University and were shown to kill 99.96% of the airborne bacteria present when diffused into the atmosphere.

The information above is from the Reference Guide for Essential Oils by Connie & Alan Higley, and from KID-Radio broadcast, March 5, 1996 with Lance Richardson & Gary Young

Negative Ions
Negative ions are produced naturally by wind and rain. They help stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system which controls rest, relaxation, digestion, and sleep. If you live in a stressful environment, or an environment full of electronic equipment (which produce positive ions), the diffusion of negatively ionizing oils can help balance the ions in the air and produce a more stress free environment.

Essential oils that ionize negatively when diffused include: bergamot, cedarwood, citronella, eucalyptus (citriodora), grapefruit, lavandin, lavender, lemon, lemongrass, mandarin, orange, patchouly, & sandalwood.

Positive Ions
Positive ions are produced by electronic equipment and are typically found in man-made environments. They help stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, necessary for recovering, strengthening, and energizing. If you live in an environment with an over-abundance of negative ions, such as in the country or by the ocean, you may benefit greatly by diffusing positively ionizing oils.

Essential oils that ionize positively when diffused into the air include: cajeput, clove, cypress, eucalyptus, frankincense, helichrysum, juniper, marjoram, melaleuca (quinquenervia), palmarosa, pine, ravensara, rosemary, thyme, & ylang ylang.

Essential oils for the Season: Spring/Summer
Spring and summer connote a light, airy scent, full of life, energy, and possibly a hint of romance!
Essential oils that work well during this time include: cardamom, citronella, coriander, eucalyptus, geranium, ginger,
grapefruit, jasmine, lemon, lime, palmarosa, peppermint, rose, spearmint, & ylang ylang.

The Benefits of Diffusing Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils
1. Increased cell oxygen.
2. Increased secretions of endorphins.
3. Increased secretions of antibodies.
4. Increased production of ATP (energy fuel used by cells).
5. Increased secretions of seratonin.
6. Increased secretions of hormones.
7. Increased histamine release, which speeds up the healing process.
8. Increased circulation and supports immune function.
9. Increased conversion of amino acids and proteins.
10. Helps in dealing with emotional trauma.
11. Helps in promotion of secretion and receptivity of human growth hormone (HGH).
12. They smell wonderful.

If you're ready to do some spring cleaning of your indoor air with essential oils using a cold air diffuser go to my product website, have a look around at the essential oils and diffusers (under "Accessories A-M you will find the diffsers) I offer, and then Create an Account.

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Using Essential Oils for Natural Gardening

Every year we produce and use larger amounts of the most unhealthy toxic chemicals on our food crops and soil. Some of these deadly substances will remain in our food chain for hundreds of years. Our precious soil as well as our water and air become more and more contaminated each day. Our bodies not being able to cope with the assault of these poisons, cry out for help as the break down with physical and mental disorders.

Many of the pesticides, herbicides and other toxic chemical compounds in use today were developed during World War II by scientists seeking to create the most lethal poisons to annihilate opposing military forces. These harmful substances interfere with vital body processes by destroying enzymes, blocking oxidation, restricting the functions of various organs and initiate cellular changes and mutations that can lead to malignancies.

The September 14, 1992 issue of U.S. News and World Report Magazine reported:

"In the past four decades, as the use of pesticides rose thirty fold to nearly a billion pounds annually, more and more insects have adapted to fight the poisons.... [insect] species resistant to insecticides [in] 1948 [were] 8, [and in] 1989 [were] 504."

The late Robert Rodale who was chairman of the Rodale Press and the foremost authority on organic gardening wrote the book "Save Three Lives" which talks about a plan for sustainable agriculture through simple, non-toxic, natural methods. He writes: "Our work at the Rodale Research Center has proven the merits of a technique known to many gardeners for generations: Interplanting food crops with certain (often aromatic) plants repel damaging insects and thus protects the crops.

In some cases the odor of the essential oil from the repellent plant does actually repel insects that would otherwise feast on the food crop. In some other cases, however, the repellent plant simply masks the odor of food crops nearby, and the insect cannot locate the food by smell. If repellent plants were used on a massive - enough scale, there's every reason to believe that many insects would be unable to find food and would die hungry. The numbers of many pest species could be greatly reduced."

Insect problems can be handled in a non-toxic way using essential oils. Select one of the formulas. Combine the ingredients in a fine mist spray bottle, shake well and mist the plant. Use as minimal amount as possible, more is "not" better. Several applications may be necessary a few days apart.

Lavender............40 drops
Sage...................40 drops
Water................. 8 ounces

* * *

Coriander.............30 drops
Cinnamon leaf......30 drops
Citronella.............20 drops
Water.................. 8 ounces

* * *

Sage................... 65 drops
Chamomile......... 15 drops
Water.................. 8 ounces

* * *

Sage.................... 40 drops
Cajeput................ 25 drops
Cedarwood........... 15 drops
Water................... 8 ounces

The Native American people respected nature and held the land sacred. When they were faced with making decisions on important matters they would first take into consideration how the outcome would effect the well-being of future generations who would inhabit the land and rely on it for sustenance.

Each one of us also has an obligation to do our part to help maintain and preserve the integrity of our natural environment and to make this planet a cleaner and better place to live - our sacred and precious mother earth!

Pure Essential Oils catalog can be found here The Very Essence

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Snake Oil & Other After Bite Remedies

by David Stewart, Ph.D., R.A.

Therapeutic grade essential oils are not only good insect repellants, they are also excellent after you have been bitten. Essential oils are great detoxifiers for insect bites because their chemistry can break down the poison and render it harmless.

Because the molecules of essential oils are all lipid soluble and very tiny (less than than 500 amus) they all transdermal. Thus, when applied to a bite, they pass through the skin in seconds, reacting with the toxins injected by the insect and reducing their toxic effects.

I was stung by a wasp recently and, within a few minutes, put Purification oil on it the area that had become red and swollen.
The stinging sensation soon resided and within a few hours I could not tell that I had ever been stung.

Do You Sell Snake Oil?

Those who sell good therapeutic grade essential oils are sometimes accused of "selling snake oil." If you are ever so
accused, your response should be, "Yes, I do. Would you like a bottle?"

There are those in Australia who know what "snake oil" really is because 100-200 years ago the Australians exported "snake oil" to America because it was in great demand from miners, trappers, and families who were moving into the wild and untammed West.

Early pioneers had to contend with many dangers which included not only their exposure to the weather and the threat of hostile Indians, but also the daily peril of rattle snake bites.

But there was a remedy. Traveling salesmen who serviced those early pioneers had an oil that, when applied to a snake bite, would penetrate the skin and detoxify the poison. That oil was Tea Tree (Melaleuca alternafolia). And that is how the traveling merchants of the West came to be known as "Snake Oil Salesmen." In the beginning, it was a good name implying a good and effective product.

Unfortunately, back in the pioneering days, some of the traveling salesmen acquired bad reputations, not because their oils did not work, but because they were dishonest in other ways. But that is no reflection on the efficacy of melaleuca oil as an on-site detoxifyer.

So there you are. Many of you really are snake oil salespeople after all. And you can be proud of it.

~ o ~

I do sell "Snake Oil" and I am extremely proud to be offering it to people who know Snake Oils do work. I personally turn to the Snake Oils whenever I have a cut, bite, wound, ache, pain, and for a nutritional flavoring in my water or in cooking.

NOTE: do NOT use other brands of essential oils in the same ways we use Young Living essential oils as most are not distilled properly and only contain 5% of a poor quality essential oil, the other ingredients that go into filling up the rest of the bottle god only knows.

This link will take you to my product website: The Very Essence

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Could Common Scents Snuff Out the Superbug?

Feb 28 2005

Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail

Research conducted at the University of Manchester has found that three oils usually used in aromatherapy destroyed MRSA and E.coli bacteria in two minutes flat.

Scientists are now suggesting that the oils could be blended into soaps and shampoo which could be used in hospitals to stop the spread of the superbug or MRSA.

Jacqui Stringer, complemen-tary medicine clinical leader at Christie Cancer Hospital, who instigated the research, believes essential oils are so effective because they are made up of a complex mixture of chemical compounds which MRSA and other superbug bacteria find difficult to resist. She is not alone in this belief.

I believe this research could lead to a very practical application which would be of enormous benefit to the NHS and its patients.

MRSA and other hospital- acquired infections kill about 5,000 patients a year in the UK. Many more suffer unpleasant complications to the illnesses for which they were first admitted.

Dr. Peter Warn, from the University of Manchester, who carried out the research, said the essential oils could be used to create much more pleasant inhalation therapies - which are likely to have a much higher success than current treatment, which is only effective in around 50% of cases.

The present treatment for MRSA involves the unpleasant application of disinfectant on the affected area.

The resistance to penicillin of certain strains of bacteria, including the antibiotic-resistant MRSA bug, has been named as one reason for the growth in infection, but there is little doubt that this is not the only reason.

Falls in cleanliness standards have also been blamed by many within the health professions and external commentators. The reduction in hospital cleaners in the past 20 years gives this theory credibility.

But irrespective of why, we need to find a solution, and wipe out the superbug.

Could aromatherapy essential oils be the essential ingredient in this fight? After all, the therapeutic benefits of these oils have been known and harnessed for about 5,000 years.

The ancient Egyptians recognised their antiseptic properties and harnessed their potential for medicinal purposes as well as for embalming their dead, by slowing down their decomposition.

Aromatic bonfires were lit to cleanse the air from the 14th to the 17th centuries in plague- ravaged Europe. Doctors wore nosebags of aromatic herbs (including cinnamon and cloves) to kill germs.

The medicinal action of smells was often associated with religious rites and magical incantations, and at first popular healing developed separately in different parts of the world.

This is known as ethnobotany and one aspect of this is the study of remedies and drugs, known as pharmacoethnography.
Recent research has been mostly in tropical regions, studying drugs used by peoples still living in close contact with nature and relatively untouched by modern civilisation.

Modern aromatherapy is primarily associated with the French chemist Rene Maurice Gattefosse, whose family owned a perfumery business.

While working in the lab he burnt his hand and plunged it into a vat of lavender oil.

His burn healed quickly without scarring and he subsequently discovered the excellent antiseptic qualities of many other essential oils.

His first book, Aromatherapie, in 1928, was the first use of the word "aromatherapy".

Modern science is gradually explaining superstitions and removing errors from popular healing. At the same time, chemical analysis and biological study are frequently confirming things which were formerly known only from experience and which had no rational explanation. This phenomenon is now reaching aromatherapy.

In France today, many medical doctors and hospitals prescribe essential oils as an alternative to antibiotic treatment, whereas in most countries the idea of using natural aromatics as a form of medical treatment is still very radical.

Essential oils are highly concentrated and in the UK they are usually only used externally by qualified aromatherapists, combined with massage to provide a very effective treatment for stress-relief and a host of other well-documented therapeutic benefits.

With this latest Manchester research, we can not only prove the centuries-old belief in the benefits of essential aroma- therapy oils, but also move positively towards finding a simple but effective solution to a growing problem in our health service.

It took Kryptonite to subdue Superman in his comic adventures. Maybe in essential oils we will find the means to subdue the superbug.

Eleanor Burnham is Liberal Democrat AM for North Wales. She is a qualified aroma- therapist.

Source: ic Wales-The National Website of Wales

To learn more about pure essential oils explore my blog here and visit my essential oil website The Very Essence

To learn more about me (Evelyn), what I do and why, visit My Freedom
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Non-Toxic Bathtub Cleaner - Silky Scrub

There's a good-looking recipe for non-toxic bathtub cleaner from Natural Home Magazine. They call it "Silky Scrub," and it's a simple mixture of baking soda, liquid castile soap, and a little antibacterial essential oil.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup baking soda, in a medium sized mixing bowl
1/2 cup liquid castile soap
5-10 drops of antibacterial essential oil, such as lavender, tea tree or rosemary


Procedure:

1. Pour baking soda into a medium size bowl.
2. Add soap a little at a time, stirring continuously, until your mixture has begun to resemble frosting.
3. Mix in drops of essential oil.
4. Store in an airtight jar for up to a year

Of course, the only essential oils I speak for, use and recommend are the Young Living essential oils because of their purity.

To learn more about why I am passionate about Young Living essential oils browse my blog here and/or visit my website:
The Very Essence

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Dr. Stephen Blake, DVM, "The Pet Whisperer," Has A Request...

Networking is what we're all about and all of the Distributor's and essential oil user's from Young Living would like to honor Dr. Stephen Blake's special request. For those who don't know, Dr. Blake, "The Pet Whisperer," is a "natural" veterinarian who prescribes Young Living essential oils for many of his furry, winged, and four-legged "patients." He has a dream, and has asked if we would share it with everyone. Here is is story...

What are the birds telling Dr. Blake about how to get alternative medicine taught in our Veterinary Schools?

"First of all, the balance of power is always based on Economics 101, Supply and Demand theory. NO DEMAND, NO VACCINES and DRUGS.. MORE DEMAND, MORE VACCINES and DRUGS. It is a very simple principle. We need to get the pet caregivers of the world to say "No!" to over vaccination and drugs and the veterinary community will follow."

How do we do that?

"The idea I have had for many years is that we get a holistic veterinarian on Oprah and get her all steamed up about holistic care and the dangers of vaccines and off we go."

How do we get on Oprah with our message?

"We get an email campaign of all the pet caregivers who have had positive experiences with their holistic veterinarian and a little story of the negative side about drugs and vaccines. We give them the topic and the email address: email your positive natural pet experience to Oprah here! and wait and see if we can get someone like me on the show so we can get Oprah's following to do the pushing on the veterinary community."

How does this help our cause?

"When all her listeners start calling their veterinarians and asking for alternative veterinary care, they will be told they do not have the services they are requesting. The veterinarian will search and find there are no alternative veterinarians coming out of veterinary schools anywhere in the United States. This in turn will put pressure on the Veterinary Schools to provide training in these areas so the demand will be provided for."

What can we do to make that happen?

"If we all work together on this project, we can make it happen and see the paradigm shift in our life time. In my book 'The Pet Whisperer,' I wrote that my dream was that alternative veterinary medicine would no longer be 11th hour medicine before I leave this planet. With all of your help, you can help me see my dream come true."

Because many of our common pets do not have the natural lifespan of a human, we are able to see many more generations of animals in "our" human lifetime. What are veterinarians seeing? A very sick pet event, they're saying that 50% of dogs are dying of cancer today and that wasn't always the case.

What's also interesting is that our human population is also seeing a rise in many of these same diseases our pets are getting. I believe this is a BIG wkae up call, not only about ourslves but of our pets. Big companies literally spend billions on advertising to market their products, and condition us into believing they know what's best for us, our kids and our pets.

We are ultimately responsible for what comes into our households and what gets put on the dinner plate, the dog dish, the cat dish, etc. And what kinds of treatments are prescribed when we go to the doctor or veterinarian. When we demand a pure and natural treatment for ourselves and our pets, only then will it happen.

Here is a link to a very well done online video, interviews of veterinarians, with Dr. Stephen Blake and others in the alternative pet care field, what they're taught, what they see, and what they think... Dr. DoMore Video

Young Living essential oils are pure, that means we have far more many ways available in which to use them, for not only humans but for our pets. They are a wonderful addition to any natural and alternative care tool-belt. Young Living has a line of almost 150 different essential oils and essential oil "blends," they can be seen and ordered at my website The Very Essence

A special thanks goes out to our inspired Young Living friend and healer, Dr. Stephen Blake. Thank you for making Young Living essential oils more widely known and used. We will all tune in to Oprah to see you!

Disclaimer: Information found here refers solely to products from Young Living Essential Oils and is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. We urge you to do the health related research necessary to learn what is right for you and your pet(s). Young Living uses only pure AFNOR - ISO grade essential oils. Perfume grade or poor quality oils found in stores may possibly be harmful due to unknown additives and poor plant or distillation conditions. Therefore, never expect to get the same benefits with other brands.
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Thank You Seattle Area Young Living Essential Oil User's

I want to say "Thank You" to all of you who attended our Young Living event in Edmonds, WA this past Tuesday and Wednesday. It was wonderful meeting so many Young Living Essential Oil user's so close to home. Our goal is to create a Young Living community, a regular monthly gathering event where essential oil user's can come together to learn, share and grow.

And a very special thank you to Dr. David Hill and Justin Harrison for being our guest speakers for the event. Your charm, humor, and knowledge provided us with much information and fun... we can't wait for you to come back! A little birdie told they will be making very special appearances throughtout the year and more!

If you were unable to attend keep in mind that every 3rd Tuesday of the month we will have events at the Edmonds Conference Center in Edmonds, WA so please join us!

Here are some upcoming events we have planned:

March 20th 2007

Got Mold?

Learn about toxic black mold and the latest science about what you can do to prevent and elimnate it in your home/workplace. An educational event you won't want to miss!

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April 17th 2007

Kids, Pets, Flea's and Pests

Learn about nontoxic solutions for your kids & pets, and how to use essential oils to keep away flea's and pests... just in time for the summer months!

Mark your calendars now for these not to be missed events, we'll learn what nontoxic solutions we have for those situations.

See you on March 20h!

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Dr. David K. Hill, D.C. to speak in Edmonds, WAFebruary 20th

Please note: I received a call this afternoon from Justin Harrison and was informed that Dr. David Hill wanted to do the essential oil presentation for our seminar.

With the addition of Dr. Hill we have rented a larger room to accomodate the guests. This is going to be a terrific evening of education and fun!

When it rains in the NW it pours!
See you on Tuesday.

~ o~

February Health and Wellness Seminar

Goodbye Superbugs, Hello Health!
Special guest speakers: Dr. David K. Hill, D.C. and Justin Harrison

Presented by Young Living NW
February 20, 2007 • 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Edmonds Conference Center
201 Fourth Avenue North
Edmonds, WA 98020
Free to the general public, $10 for YLEO Members

Learn about superbugs and find out why they find resisting essential oils difficult. Dr. David K. Hill, D.C., one of our most dynamic leaders in the field of natural medicine will be explaining the complexities of what kills more people each year
than AIDS, breast cancer and autoimmune accidents combined. The culprit? Supergerms.

Dr. Hill will discuss how essential oils play a role in offering assistance. The lecture will include the essential oils of: Geranium, Thyme, Oregano, Cinnamon Bark, Clove, Mountain Savory, Basil, Peppermint, Lavender, Lemongrass & Eucalyptus!

And for Young Living Leaders old and new:
Justin Harrison, Young Living’s Director of Sales and Training, will discuss the benefits of your Young Living home-based business.

Exciting information
A glimpse into Young Living's new enrollment packages
Product Discounts
Door Prizes
Hints on how to build your business
and much more!

This is a very special educational seminar you won’t want to miss!

Pre-register with Evelyn to reserve your seat, space is limited:

Evelyn at TheVeryEssence@mac.com


GET EXCITED ABOUT LIVING WITH YOUNG LIVING, ESSENTIAL OILS ARE SCENTS-SATIONAL


Young Living Northwest Upcoming Health and Wellness Seminars

March 20th, 2007
GOT MOLD?
If you answered “yes” then this is an educational opportunity you won’t want to miss!

April 17th, 2007
KIDS, PETS, FLEAS and PESTS
Are you ready to get toxic products out of your kids & pets lives? We’ll tell you what we’ve done to make a change!

~ o ~

Goodbye Superbugs, Hello Health!

February Health and Wellness Seminar

Presented by Young Living NW

February 20, 2007 • 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Edmonds Conference Center

201 Fourth Avenue North

Edmonds, WA 98020

Free to the general public, $10 for YLEO Members

According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) antibiotic resistance isn't a new problem; resistant disease strains began emerging not long after the discovery of antibiotics more than 50 years ago.

"What's different now, is that we've reached a situation where it's no longer an isolated problem of this bug or that bug; virtually all important human pathogens treatable with antibiotics have developed some resistance." - Dr. David Bell, M.D., CDC

What is worrying to doctors now is that a new superbug has appeared that is resistant to the antibiotic-of-last-resort vancomycin.

Essential oils have been around for thousands of years. Research from all over the word has proven, time after time, that Essential Oils are highly effective in dealing with “bugs.” Due to the “complex” makeup of essential oils, viruses and bacteria are not capable of becoming resistant to them.

Join special guest speaker Justin Harrison and the Young Living NW Group and learn how we keep germs and superbugs at bay using nature’s most effective solutions - Essential Oils.

Discover the benefits of: Geranium, Thyme, Oregano, Cinnamon Bark, Clove, Mountain Savory, Basil, Peppermint, Lavender, Lemongrass & Eucalyptus!

Justin Harrison is the Director of Sales and Training for Young Living Essential Oils and Regional Business Director for the Western US. He is passionate, energetic and deeply commited to the principles of natural health and to your success with Young Living.

For Young Living Leaders old and new: Justin will discuss the benefits of your Young Living business - how the money is made, what it will cost, what is your commitment and more.

In addition, if you have been wanting to have your own Young Living home-based business now is a great time...

Enroll as a distributor now and receive $100 worth of FREE Young Living product! Plus FREE reinstatement of your Distributorship if it has expired! Receive training and support from Young Living NW Leaders in your new business!

To Register for both events contact me through my website (to prevent spammers) at The Very Essence and click on my email address below my photo.

Special Announcement for Young Living Leaders: in addition to the seminar join Justin and the Young Living NW Group for brunch on Wednesday, 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM in Lynnwood, WA (location to be announced.)

GET EXCITED ABOUT LIVING WITH YOUNG LIVING, ESSENTIAL OILS ARE SCENTS-SATIONAL

Upcoming Health and Wellness Seminars

March 20th, 2007 GOT MOLD? If you answered “yes” then this is an educational opportunity you won’t want to miss!

April 17th, 2007 KIDS, PETS, FLEAS and PESTS! Are you ready to get toxic products out of your kids & pets lives? We’ll tell you what we’ve done to make a change!

To Register for one or both events contact me through my website (to prevent spammers) at The Very Essence and click on my email address below my photo.
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Essential Oil Quality Tid-bits:

Did You Know . . .

Some oil producers do not actually add chemicals to their oils. Instead, they inject chemical solvents into the water in their boilers during the distillation process, increasing output by about 18%.

Imagine what happens to essential oils when chemicals are added to water, which is boiled into steam and then forced into plants to extract their oil. The very process of forcing chemically-treated steam into the plants fractures the molecular structure of the essential oils. It also seems impossible for an essential oil extracted through this method to avoid containing at least SOME of these chemical additives.

How to be sure your essential oils are therapeutic-grade:

While not everyone has ready access to scientific analysis of essential oils, these questions can help you determine if a product is therapeutic grade:

- Are the fragrances subtle, rich, organic, and delicate?

- Do they feel natural? (An essential oil should not feel greasy like vegetables oils do).

- Do the fragrances vary from batch to batch as an indication that they are pure and painstakingly distilled in small batches rather than industrially processed and mixed on a large scale?

- Does your supplier grow and distill its own organically grown herbs?

- Are the distillation facilities part of the farm where the herbs are grown so they are freshly distilled — or do the
herbs lose their potency as they wait for weeks to be transported and processed?

- Does your supplier use low pressure and low temperature to distill essential oils and preserve all of their fragile chemical constituents?

- Are the distillation cookers vertical rather than horizontal?

- Are they fabricated from costly stainless steel alloys to reduce the likelihood of the oils chemically reacting with metal?

- Does your supplier have representatives traveling worldwide to personally inspect the fields and distilleries where the herbs are grown and distilled?

- Does your supplier buy directly from the grower?

- Does your supplier scrutinize the facilities to ensure that no synthetic chemicals are used?

Ways Young Living Ensures Oil Purity:

1. We plant, harvest and distill on our own farms. The best defense against adulteration is to completely control herb cultivation and distillation. This is why Young Living grows over 15 different herbs, including lavender, clary sage, melissa, thyme, sage, peppermint, spearmint, German chamomile, Roman chamomile, and Idaho tansy.

2. We visit and inspect the farms and distillation facilities of our essential oil suppliers. By personally inspecting the facilities of outside oil producers, Young Living ensures that herbs meet stringent quality specifications.

3. We use state-of-the-art chemical analysis to check every batch of essential oils. Young Living quarantines, inspects, and tests each lot of essential oils for purity and quality. Oils can go through as many as five separate levels of analysis before they are released.

Because Young Living essential oils are grown, handled and distilled properly purity is ensured. You know you are always getting the best.

I have used essential oils for about 20 years. However, Young Living was not in business back when I had begun using essential oils. I still sought out and found the best essential oils I could find in the US. I was looking for essential oils so I could make my own household cleaners, and to use for aromatherapy purposes.

Because the oils I found back then were not stringently regulated and pure I never put a sinlge drop on my body or in my cooking, why? Because they contained chemicals and it would be dangerous. I was only able to use those oils in very limited ways.

Then, about 7 years ago, while attending my classical Feng Shui class, a woman who sold Young Living essential oils did a presentation on how we could use essential oils for purifying negative energy in homes when we were called in to do "Space Clearings." She was also showing us how it was perfectly safe to apply these oils to our bodies and use them in cooking because of their purity.

Well, one smell of the Young Living oils and I KNEW that what I had been buying was junk!

I placed a very large order, over $500, and when I got home I literally threw-out all of the oils I had gotten from that other company. Besides, after smelling pure, high quality oils, the ones I had at home actually smelled horrible and like they could be toxic. Since then, I have only using Young Living oils.

I decided to sell these wonderful oils and essential oil enhanced products about 1 1/2 years ago mostly because I want people to know that the vast majority of what's available out there is junk and they are not safe to use. I wanted people to know there is a better option to choose from. An option that is not adding more chemicals that pollute our lovely earth and bodies.

Even if I were not selling the Young Living line, I would still be buying and using their essential oils and products.

Take a look around my blog here to get familiar with some of the many ways essential oils can be used, this is just a small sampling.

My product website will explain and show you even more ways to use pure essential oils - The Very Essence.

And as always, please feel free to contact me shoud you have any questions and wish to learn more.

~ o ~

Call of Life:Facing the Mass Extinction

This is a preview from "Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction," a feature documentary now in production.

The loss of biodiversity on earth has become so acute that scientists are now calling it a "mass extinction event." The crisis has many causes, all of which are related to human activity. Through interviews with eminent biologists, psychologists, anthropologists, historians, and many others, the film not only presents the facts of the shocking decline, it also explores the ways in which culture and psychology have conspired to determine our collective and individual response to this situation, and how the latest insights into natural systems could help us turn back the tide.

The film weaves biology, psychology, and cultural history into a clear and accessible story of our changing world. The audience is taken into the depths of the human psyche, through the toughest problems of our times and into the cutting edge of what nature has to teach us. The mass extinction is quite possibly the greatest threat that humanity has ever faced. Those of us alive today have been given a choice—one last opportunity to save the diversity of our planet. The decisions we make or fail to make in the next few years will affect the habitability of earth for millennia to come. This is the greatest adventure of all time—with the future of life itself in the balance.

Species Alliance
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Are Your Air Fresheners Killing You?

AIR FRESHENERS AND AEROSOLS

Who would have thought that air fresheners could be harmful? In a major longitudinal study, frequent use of air fresheners during pregnancy and early childhood was associated with higher levels of diarrhea, earache in infants and headaches, depression in mothers.

In New Scientist a 1999 study revealed that in homes where aerosol sprays and air fresheners were used, mothers experienced 25% more headaches and were 19% more likely to experience depression.

ARE YOUR AIR FRESHENERS KILLING YOU?

It's rare that we know what ingredients are in those air freshening products. Those products that scent everything from bathrooms, toilets, our friends homes, those stinky paper scented pine trees dangling from car rearview mirrors, and so forth. Unless we have the opportunity to read the list of ingredients we have no idea what it is that we're exposing ourselves and children to.

For some of us, our noses tell us when we are inhaling a toxic chemical and we may have symptoms of burning noses and eyes, coughing, sneezing, upset stomaches, headaches, asthmatic responses, and more. For me personally, when I go into any store or household that sells anything with toxic ingredients my sinuses and eyes burn so badly that it makes me want to protest and get the stores to stop selling those poisons to people. I actually think it should be criminal to manufacture and sell such poisonous products to uninformed innocent people. And we wonder why the health of Americans is so bad.

The main toxin in room fresheners, urinal cakes, moth balls and certain things like paints ,cleaning products, and vehicle exhaust fumes is 1,4 dichlorobenzene (1,4 DCB). A recent National Institute of Environmental Health Services (NIEHS) study published in Environmental Health Perspectives showed that among 953 adults 1,4 DCB was linked to a reduction in lung function.

Go into your cabinets and see if any of the products in your home contain 1, 4 DCB.

Labels often omit inactive or inert ingredients that make up 90% of that products volume.

About a month ago, I went into a local department store to purchase common products people buy and use daily for a presentation I was to make. This was something I haven't done in 20 years... I was horrified by what I saw in shoppers carts and in total shock by what I didn't see on the labels.

I couldn't believe how many of these products didn't even list ingredients, but did carry "warnings: do not inhale vapors. If inhaled immediately go outdoors for air." These are products manufacturers expect us to buy and use?!

Of the over 17,000 chemicals used in these products only 3 in 10 are ever tested for human safety. I wouldn't allow those products in my home if they gave me a free lifetime supply!

HERE'S HOW YOU CAN FRESHEN YOUR AIR WITHOUT POISONING YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY

By using therapeutic-grade organic essential oils you will be cutting down or eliminating unwanted microbes, such as fungus, mold, pathogenic viruses and bacteria.

You will want to use a 'cold-air' diffuser with therapeutic-grade organic essential oils. You NEVER want to heat an essential oil as heat will destroy the beneficial properties. And remember, the essential oils found in the stores are 'perfume-grade', which means they can be derived from any source, synthetic-chemical fragrances, and sold very cheaply to the uninformed public. See my previous posts on essential oil quality: Intro To Therapeutic-grade Essential Oils and The Experts Agree About Essential Oil Quality and Smell Testing an Essential Oil. Never expect to get the same results with any store bought essential oil as you will get with a Young Living essential oil.

COLD AIR DIFFUSERS

A cold air diffuser is different than other means of getting an essential oil into the air. It is electric, and nebulizes the essential oil which creates an extremely fine mist that allow the essential oil to permeate your room(s). It uses only cold air. Here is a picture of what one looks like...


Item # 3830

Diffusing essential oils in your home or office is a perfect way to help relieve tension, dispel odors, kill germs & viruses, eliminate and prevent mold, and create an atmosphere of peace and harmony, terrific Feng Shui.

The Young Living Essential Oil Diffuser is designed with an innovative air pump that disperses the oils in a micro-fine vapor so they stay suspended in the air for several hours. The diffuser disperses the oils without heating them, so they retain their therapeutic benefits. Essential oil blends that contain vegetable oils may diffuse slower than other oils.

This diffuser can be purchased at my website:
The Very Essence

WHICH THERAPEUTIC-GRADE ESSENTIAl OILS DO I CHOSE?

These are two, among many, terrific choices that I use: Thieves Blend (item # 3423), Purification Blend (item # 3399).

Other Young Living essential oils that I enjoy diffusing are - Citrus Fresh, Lemon, Brain Power, Joy, Orange, Evergreen Essence, Sacred Mountain, and Peace & Calming.

A cold-air diffuser on a light timer so it turns on and off by itself, highly recommended. Use it in your home, office, studio, store, or any indoor place that you would want to freshen the indoor environment safely and effectively.

If I can assist you please contact me.

To you and your families good health!

The Dance

I had the honor this past summer to attend the first annual 3 day event, 2006 Flute Quest, near Seattle. It was perhaps the most spiritually beautiful publc musical event I've seen. Three days of live Native American Flute music filled the air. Native American flute players from across the US performed all day and into the evening, chatted with attendee's, and set up tables displaying their amazing handcrafted works of art, flutes.

Daily workshops were held for those desiring to learn more about the flute and how to play. Another workshop lead by Robert Mirabal and his brother Patrick Mirabal on how to make these simply stunning wooden instruments. Robert and brother Patrick presented a most entertaining performance one evening. Their wit, charismatic sense of humor, animation, and music was absolutely the most touching and entertaining I've seen. Mary Youngboold was amazing as well as Ron Warren, Coyote Oldman and so many others. It was a terrific event, I can't wait until the 2007 Flute Quest!

Other flutists and musicians included: Mary Youngblood, Ron Warren, Coyote Oldman, Jeff Ball, Vince Chafin, Ash Dargan, Gary Stoudtdos, Clint Goss, Brent Haines and many others.

Taos Tales CD by Robert Mirabal

REFLECTIONS

EXCERPTS FROM MIRABAL'S NOVEL SOON TO BE PUBLISHED.

There are no goals…, just to explore the facade…,
to explore the false _____ that are inside me…, that lay dormant underneath dusty smiling little lies.

Let the out law track me down and crucify.
Gone will be me…, “That one that used to be.”

Allow me to be the rain in the fall. The leaf
that holds on but eventually forgets the task
and lets go.
Like the earth, let me accept my changes…,
nobly, gracefully, naturally.

Dance I will…, but never the same dance,
and then…, still…, ever so still.

Mirabal Flutes website

To see some extremely artistically crafted flutes visit
Coyote Oldman Flutes website

And be sure to check out
The International Native American Flute Association
to learn about Flute Circles in your area.

The Native American Flute is fun and relatively easy to learn to make a decent song from.
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Lemon Essential Oil

Heartburn is a burning pain felt behind the breastbone. It is most often the result of acid reflux, that is, when stomach acid rises up the esophagus where it irritates the lining. Lemon is one of the best remedies for heartburn, as it causes the stomach to stop excreting digestive acids. Simply add a drop or two of lemon to a small glass of water and drink.

Did you know that Lemon essentail oil has many traditional uses?

Lemon has antiseptic-like properties and contains compounds that have been studied for their effects on immune function. According Jean Valnet, M.D., the vaporized essence (essential oil) of lemon can kill meningococcus bacteria in 15 minutes, typhoid bacilli in one hour, Staphylococcus aureus in two hours, and Pneumococcus bacteria within three hours. Even a 0.2% solution of lemon oil can kill diphtheria bacteria in 20 minutes and inactivate tuberculosis bacteria.

Lemon essential oil has been widely used in skin care to cleanse skin and reduce wrinkles. It promotes clarity of thought and purpose, as well as health, healing, physical energy, and purification. Its fragrance is invigorating, enhancing, and warming. Lemon has been shown to have antidepressant effects in research done by Komori, et al.,1995. It serves as an effective insect repellent** and works well in removing gum, wood stain, oil, and grease spots.

More ideas:

- Use 6 drops of Lemon essential oil (item # 3578) and 6 drops of Purification essential oil blend (item # 3399) in a spray bottle mixed with distilled water to use in the bathroom as an air freshener.
- Use 1-2 drops of Lemon essential oil to remove gum, oil, grease spots or crayon.
- Use 1 drop of Lemon oil to add flavor to baked goods or beverages.
- For homemade lemonade, in a blender mix 2 drops of Lemon oil, 2 tablespoons of honey and two cups of pure water. Adjust the amount of each ingredient to suit your own taste.
- Rub a drop of Lemon essential oil on a corn, callous or bunion mornings and evenings.
- To clean and increase the shelf life of fresh fruit, fill a bowl with cool water and 2-3 drops of Lemon oil. Drop your cleaned fruit into the water and stir. Be sure all surfaces of the fruit contact the lemon water.
- Add 2-3 drops of Lemon oil to water and spray counter tops to sterilize them.
- Soak your dishcloth overnight in a bowl of water and a drop of Lemon oil to disinfect and kill germs.
- Add a drop of Lemon oil to your dishwasher before the wash cycle.
- Rub a drop of Lemon oil on your hands after using a public bathroom.**
- Use a paper towel soaked with several drops of Lemon oil to sanitize bathroom fixtures.
- Place a drop of Lemon oil on cold sores, herpes or other mouth ulcers to lessen pain and aid in healing.**
- Put a drop of Lemon oil on bleeding gums caused by gingivitis or tooth extraction.
- Put a drop of Lemon oil on oily skin or acne to balance sebaceous glands (oil glands).**
- Rub several drops of Lemon oil on cellulite to improve circulation and help eliminate waste from the cells.**
- Rub two drops of Lemon oil topically to clear athlete's foot.
- Rub several drops of Lemon oil on varicose veins to improve circulation and relieve pressure on the veins.
- Rub a drop of Lemon oil on a wart morning and night until it disappears.
- Rub a drop of Lemon oil to clean a butcher's block or other cutting surfaces.
- Put 10-15 drops of Lemon oil in each gallon of carpet cleaning solution to help pull out stains and brighten the rug. This also leaves a fresh smell in the room.

* * Note: any citrus oil can cause photosensitivity. Therefore to not apply directly to skin that will be exposed to sunlight within 12 hours. Ingesting lemon essential oil does "not" cause photosensitivity. Please use any citrus oil mindfully and with respect.

Disclaimer: Information found in this post and blog refers solely to products from Young Living Essential Oils and is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. We urge you to do the health related research necessary to learn what is right for you. Young Living uses only therapeutic-grade AFNOR -ISO standard essential oils. "Perfume-grade", "Food-grade", or other poor quality essential oils may possibly be harmful due to unknown additives and poor plant or distillation conditions. US labeling for essential oils is governed by the Perfume Act, allowing labels to say "100%"pure essential oil" and by law contain only 5% of any grade oils. Those are not the garding and standards used at Young Living.

Click here to learn more and visit my essential oil website:
The Very Essence

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Estrogen and Hormones:What we women need to know

I've been doing a lot of research these past several months and one of the things of great interest to me is... Why are the people of the USA the most ill and diseased in the world?

There's so much to sort through and attempt to make sense of, big companies and pharma want us to use their latest great products, action groups are battling to be heard and taken seriously, and everything in between.

We are at best left to feel confused, like we cannot do anything about the problem, and we haven't a clue, nor the time, to discover what's fact and what's fiction and what exactly is safe to eat and use these days.

There is hope!

Whenever I moved or arrived in a new town, the first thing I would do is find a place to buy organic food and some restaurants that didn't insult my taste buds and food intellect. Years ago fulfilling those criteria was a great feat in itself. As the years passed it became easier as natural foods became more and more main-stream. I've bought organic everything for the past 25 years. However, over the past few years I've been having conversations with my sisters and friends where we're saying to each other things like... "the organic produce looks and tastes exactly like the regular produce, what's up?"

Even this afternoon I took an apple out of the fridge and it felt "sticky" to the touch, not because it had gotten something sticky on it but because it's sprayed with some type of wax, which is no doubt a petro-chemical. I have paid extra, for the past 25 years to "not" have those types of things on my food. And up until the FDA and USDA took over the regulations on the organics things like petro-chemical waxes were forbidden.

What was also forbidden was to send a organically raised cow to a feed-lot for fattening up. Well gang, not any longer! All those little conversations I've had questioning, "is this really organic?" have come to a halt. Of course we had to suspect something was up when super market sized natural food stores began popping up virtually overnight and so-called organic products filled the shelves.

I am extremely sad to see that a perfectly fine, truly organic industry has been ruined and manipulated. I laughed when I heard WalMart was getting into organics... WalMart couldn't do real organics if their life depended on it! How do I know this? Because that chain is massive and even if you combined all the organic farms in the world together you still wouldn't be able to fill the shelves. True organic farms aren't capable of supplying a massive industry. This is why we are seeing additives and things like petro-chemicals in our organic foods today.

Do you know that according to the FDA and USDA it is perfectly acceptable for a Genetically Modified soybeean to be used in organic products? Or, that Genetically Modified corn is ok too?

Do you also know that the Genetically Modified crops can and do cross pollinate with crops that are not GM crops?

Do you know that "soy" is NOT a health food? It is in fact a poison that we shouldn't consume. Those studies they did some years ago on the Japanese soy-rich diet... well, the Japanese never ate the soy products that big industries have shoved in our faces claiming them to be healthy foods. Yes, we were duped.

In fact, the soy products the Japanese did eat were "fermented" for years before they were ever consumed and for the most part were used as condiments rather than a main dish. The very long process of fermenting soy is slow and expensive.

Also "soy protein" is a by-product, a waste-product. A product that even scientists agree should not be consumed. In the US, we don't see fermented and aged soy products that are ok to eat in very small amounts.

I believe that we women are getting a seriously bad deal here, our kids, and you guys are too. They say cancer is the number one killer in the US.

Are you also aware that cancer can "only" grow under certain conditions?

Cancer can only grow in "acidic" conditions. And, it can only grow in an "estrogen" excess environment. And that is precisely what we have with our diets and our health in this country. It's no wonder that we are the sickest country in the world!

Where does the estrogen and estrogen mimics come from? Genetically Modified crops (corn, soy, cotton & alfalfa), anything soy (and yes I do mean any form of soy), feed-lot animals. Those crops also get fed to the animals we eat. There are also tons of chemicals, household and industrial, that mimic estrogen.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

Read labels. If any product has a list of ingredients you cannot pronounce (excluding latin names), and if the list is long, don't buy it. I refuse to buy any product that has any form of soy, or any form of corn in it. Same with cotton seed. I avoid all of those ingredients like the plague.

Buy Locally. No matter here you live in the US there is going to be a real organic farmer near you.

Eat Seasonally. Our bodies are suppose to get seasonal foods, not food trucked in some 3,000 miles from some far off location.

Eat only 100% Free-Range poultry products. Search out a local person who raises their own chickens and allows them to run freely, it doesn't take much ground to raise some chickens so there's no doubt someone is close to you.

Eat Grass-Fed beef, Bison, pigs, sheep, chicken, goat. I have found a fantastic source. I've had different cuts of their Bison, and beef and not only does it taste better than store bought, but it tastes better than the organic! I have also tried their butter, yes it is expensive, but I will say this... I will never again put any other kind of butter in my mouth! The flavor is absolutely astonishing. For the first time in my life, when I eat the grass-fed products, I can honestly say that every cell in my body has a smile. And, I truly feel that I've been slowly starving to death because the organic meats I have gotten are from feed-lots and not grass-fed. Check out their website and place a small order and you'll see what I mean...
US Wellness Meats

Here's a short artcle that I think you'll find interesting too...

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF HORMONES

by Sherrill Sellman

"Supplementing one's diet with plant-based digestive enzymes available from the health food store is becoming necessary for people of all ages.

Women and hormones equal big business these days. Like animals lured into a snare by a trail of crumbs, women have been cajoled with scientific studies, media advertising, patient hand books and drug samples to accept Hormone Replacement Therapy as a magic potion. HRT is praised as the cure for hot flashes and all the other symptoms assigned to the menopause pantheon. In addition, it is considered an and-aging medicine acting as a talisman to ward off osteoporosis, heart disease and Alzheimer's.

Millions of menopausal women flock to their doctors' offices. each year seeking relief from such complaints as hot flashes, night sweats, bloating, indigestion, allergies, headaches, insomnia, fatigue, depression, high blood pressure, weight gain, head hair loss, facial hair growth, mood swings, aging skin, irritability, foggy thinking, lack of concentration, anxiety attacks, heart palpitations, bone loss, and heavy bleeding.

The common panacea prescribed for all these symptoms is usually HRT. All these presenting symptoms are lumped together into the menopausal pigeonhole; estrogen deficiency is the diagnosis, and synthetic estrogen replacement becomes the cure. It's an obvious and simple solution for hormonal imbalance--or so we are led to believe.

But what if these symptoms that mostly plague 40 and 50-year-old women are not at all about menopause?

What if it's not estrogen deficiency but rather estrogen excess that is the cause of these discomforts?

What if the real physiological problems are, in fact, being ignored, misdiagnosed or misunderstood?

And what if the pathological condition of "menopause," the supposed cause of a midlife woman's lament, doesn't even exist?"

OTHER GREAT LINKS

Vital Choice Seafood

Weston A. Price Foundation

Local Harvest

Seeds of Deception

Weston A. Price Foundation

The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food Revealed

And if you haven't watched this 90 minute video yet I highly recommend it: The Future of Food
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Seattle Area:Winter Cleansing & Wellness Seminar Jan. 23rd

Who's ready to get the New Year off to a terrific start?

We are hosting a "Winter Cleansing & Wellness" seminar in the Seattle area on January 23rd, just in time to help you shake off those winter blues and (dare I say) some of those ingredients from holiday feasts and treats. We'll also be covering some of the hundreds of ways you can use essential oils for your wellness and around the house.

Learn about and experience the many benefits of the 'Essential 7' kit.

Learn about the '5-Day Nutritive Cleanse'

Learn how to use AFNOR-ISO grade Young Living Essential Oils to enhance your well-being

Learn about and sample essential oils, ask questions, sample a tasty snack, and spend the evening with like-minded people who are making a difference in their lives for the New Year.

FREE to the general public and guests, $10 for current YLEO Members.

DATE: Tuesday, January 23rd

TIME: registrtion 6:30pm, seminar starts at 7:00pm - 9:00pm

LOCATION: Edmonds Convention Center, 201 Fourth Ave. N, Edmonds, WA 98020 Get Directions

Please state at the registration desk that Evelyn Vincent told you about the event so I can meet you.

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The Future of Food

There is a revolution happening in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America - a revolution that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat.

THE FUTURE OF FOOD offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade.

From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply.

Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, THE FUTURE OF FOOD examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world's food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.

Watch this documentary film "The Future of Food" (each part is about 10 minutes):

Part One


Part Two:


Part Three:


Part Four:


Part Five:


Part Six:


Part Seven:



Being a gardener (of mainly heirloom & native varieties), a native plant enthusiast, landscape designer, and a lover of excellent quality and naturally unique foods-I found this film to be very well done and enormously educational.

I believe that purchasing a copy of the DVD and hosting 'free' screenings in neighborhoods across the country would help to enlighten people as to what exactly is going on, it's available at The Future of Food. I honestly cannot believe that 'if' people knew what Monsanto and other large corporations have been doing that they would continue to buy food, or any product, that has been 'Genetically Engineered' (GE).

Take the time to watch this film, it will effect the rest of your life... one way or the other.

Plastic: are you aware of this?

Here are excerpts from a Frontline transcript, June 2nd 1998, that I thought was worth putting in the spotlight.

The complete transcript can be found at Fooling With Nature

Fredrick Vom Saal is a Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri. A leading researcher in the field of developmental biology, Vom Saal has studied the effects of both natural and synthetic hormones at extremely low doses. His studies have shown that extremely low doses of hormones can permanently alter development of the reproductive system in mice. He has also studied how manmade chemicals, including plastics, can mimic hormones at extremely low doses.

Interview conducted in February 1998 by Doug Hamilton, producer of FRONTLINE's "Fooling With Nature."

DH: You've said that the doses at which hormones affect the body are extremely low. Give me an example to make me understand that.

FvS: The issue of the amount of hormone that actually causes effects is very difficult for scientists to talk to people about because we're dealing with numbers that are outside of the frame of reference that anybody is going to be thinking about. We see changes, profound changes, in the course of development of essentially the whole body of experimental animals, and we're working with mice and rats, and we see these changes at fifty femtograms of the hormone per milliliter of blood. That's 0.05 trillionths of a gram of this hormone in a milliliter of blood.

DH: And what sort of effect does it have?

FvS: We see changes in the functioning of the prostate. We see dramatic change in the sprouting of glands within the fetal prostate. We see changes in testicular sperm production. We see changes in the structure of the endocrine control region in the brain, which is accompanied by changes in sex behavior, aggression, the way these animals behave towards infants, their whole social interaction, the way they age, the time that they enter puberty, the age at which they cease reproduction. It changes their entire life history, and these changes are capable of occurring at very low levels of hormones.

I remember when we first did this and I was a post doctoral fellow, and my advisor and I looked at the hormone levels and said, "My God, these levels are so staggeringly small and the consequences are so immense it's amazing." Even to biologists, it's amazing.

But what you have is the entire field of toxicology thinking of a millionth of a gram of a hormone or a chemical as being this staggeringly tiny amount, and to most people if I said there's only a millionth of a gram of it here you'd say, "How can it do anything?" A millionth of a gram of estradiol in blood is toxic. The natural hormone is actually operating at something like a hundred million times lower than that. So when you have a physiologist thinking of a millionth of a gram, you have that physiologist thinking this is a toxic high dose. When you are raised in the field of toxicology you are looking at that from the other perspective of "My gosh, that's such a tiny dose, it couldn't do anything."...

DH: Can you again describe the results, the developmental effects in your laboratory mice, that you are seeing with these unbelievably small changes in hormone levels?

FvS: We published a paper just a few months ago in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" in which we experimentally elevated estradiol levels in mouse fetuses during the period when their reproductive organs were forming. And what we did was we experimentally elevated estradiol by one tenth of one trillionth of a gram of estradiol in a milliliter of blood. We estimate that we're increasing estradiol by about one molecule of estradiol per cell in the body. Okay? The consequence of this is that at the end of the first day of development of the prostate in the male fetuses we could see dramatic change in the sprouting of prostate glands. We rendered the prostate abnormally enlarged, and this was detectable within twenty-four hours of the beginning of its embryonic development. And when we looked at these treated animals as adults, that difference had persisted. They had abnormally enlarged prostates that were hyper-responsive to hormones.

Now, prostate disease is for every male in this country and for every male in the world a very, very serious concern. It's the largest bill to the medical community. It's the most prevalent disease of aging in humans. Seventy percent of men, by the time you're seventy years old, will have an abnormally enlarged prostate. We caused this to happen at the first day of embryonic life with that change in estradiol. That's how sensitive embryonic organs are to these staggeringly tiny changes in hormones....

DH: These hormone levels you're talking about are inconceivably low, staggeringly low. How do we even begin to measure them?

FvS: For some chemicals, and for some hormones, the technical capacity to measure them is actually less sensitive than the body's ability to detect them. We've been working with a chemical, bisphenol-A. It's what polycarbonate plastic, hard plastics, are made out of: CD's, the plastic in your glasses' lens, milk containers, baby bottles. It's the chemical that they use to line cans with, it's the chemical they put on your teeth as a sealant and it is a very potent estrogen. It mimics the hormone that women produce in their ovaries, and it mimics this hormone estradiol that is actually being produced in fetuses and during pregnancy that is a major coordinator or an alligator or any other animal.

Estradiol plays a critical role in development and then normal functioning of the body for the rest of an individual's life. The amount of estradiol you're exposed to throughout your life is also the best predictor of breast cancer. This chemical mimics that hormone. The body can't tell the difference between bisphenol-A and estradiol. In other words, it sees this chemical and it thinks it's getting exposed to its natural hormone....

DH: So you're saying that the hormone that has the clearest link to breast cancer, the hormone that is responsible for sexual development in any animal or human, is found in plastics?

FvS: Absolutely. The plastic materials, if they are polycarbonates, are made with this chemical bisphenol-A. And you can think of polycarbonate as a house made of bricks. Essentially you take this brick, this building block, which is bisphenol-A, and you link it together with other bisphenol-A molecules. That's a polymerization reaction. The bisphenol-A is the monomer used to construct these plastic materials. When it's attached to another one, that forms a polymer. And unfortunately in the process of making these plastics not all of the bisphenol-A gets linked together. So you put your food or other material in the plastic and it absorbs the unreacted bisphenol-A into it. And now in your food is a sex hormone...

DH: And what are you finding to be the effect?

FvS: Okay, the chemical bisphenol-A passes out of the plastic or out of the dental sealant that's put on your child's teeth or out of the lining of cans, into the food or liquid that's in contact with the plastic. Now the important point about detection by instrumentation of the bisphenol-A is that, based on our research, the ability of the current instruments used to monitor for bisphenol-A in food is a much lower level of detection than what our animals are able to detect. It's a huge difference as a matter of fact. So that you can put food that you have in contact with plastic into a chemical analysis and say there is no plastic material there. We extract from that same food, put it into animals and we get a big effect. The animals are more sensitive to the chemicals than the machinery...

DH: So the plastics we use in daily life, the baby bottles, the food containers, leach chemicals into the food at levels that cause effects in lab animals?

FvS: One of the things that we started doing a number of years ago is we started looking at the effects of the materials that plastics are made out of in cell culture. We used human cells to see how responsive these cells were to these chemicals, and at what doses the chemicals could influence human cells to start growing and doing things differently. So, in other words, we're getting biological responses out of the cells and we were astonished at the incredibly small amounts of these chemicals that were actually able to alter human cell function...

So what we did in mice was based on the studies using human cells. We know that mouse cells are essentially identical to human cells in the way that they respond to these hormones. That's been known actually for quite a long time...

Now one of the surprising things is that when we started looking into the literature concerning the amounts of these chemicals that were being released into food from plastic containers, and we compared that to the doses active in our cell culture studies, they were the same doses. But they were also doses that the toxicological community was saying were absolutely safe...

...But there were no actual experiments that had ever tested to see if that was true. So we did something that had never been done...

DH: And what did you find?

FvS: For the males, decreased sperm count and enlarged prostates. The treatment altered virtually every aspect of the reproductive system...

...In other words, in every aspect of physiology that we look for, we see effects. And they're permanent. And the important thing about what I'm talking about is we are only exposing babies to these chemicals for very, very short periods of time in development and the consequences are for the rest of the life of that individual. Once you change the development of an organ there is no way to undo that effect. It's a life sentence -- that's a lifetime consequence. Medical science can't undo the development of organs.

DH: And you're finding that organs are affected at levels as low as those that are leaching into our food from common plastics?

FvS: That's correct...

DH: Could I just get you to repeat that in simpler terms?

FvS: OK. If you look at the fish or the human or the frog or the bird at the earliest stages of embryonic development, when the reproductive organs are forming, you're hard pressed to tell them apart. And if I were to show you the developing prostate in a human at the very beginning of its development, and the developing prostate in a mouse at the beginning of its development, you wouldn't tell them apart. And at the functional level they're essentially identical...

DH: One of your colleagues actually stumbled onto this problem with plastics. How did that happen?

FvS: Well, it's a fascinating detective story. At Tufts University, they were doing the same types of studies that we have been doing with human cells: culturing them and then looking at the ability of the cells to respond to chemicals in the environment. They had purchased some new test tubes and the test tubes were made of polystyrene plastic, and the cells that we're using to detect estrogens require estrogens to grow and to proliferate, to go through development. And they put the cells in these test tubes and they started growing. And so the natural assumption was, "Somebody spilled some chemical in the lab that is infiltrating all of our cultures, and oh my gosh this is a disaster." Contaminated labs are a real serious problem.

Instead, after months and months of work, they realized that the lab was absolutely clean and that it was the test tube that was causing the cells to grow. So they called up Dow Corning, from whom they had purchased these test tubes, and said, "Your test tubes are causing our estrogen-responsive cells to grow. They must be releasing an estrogen. What could that be?" And Dow Corning said, "We won't tell you. We won't tell anybody what's in our products." And I'll come back to this because this is an extremely critical issue with regard to knowing what chemicals we're exposed to. Because the chemical industry will not inform scientists or the public what the chemicals in the products we're using are, and so it took months of work, of chemical analysis of these plastics, to realize that it's an additive material.

It's an antioxidant that stops discoloration of the plastic and it's added to the plastic to stop it from discoloring, and it's present in soaps, detergents, hand creams, vaginal creams. It's used in loads of different types of products. This same chemical is also used as an antioxidant in plastics. And it's a potent enough estrogen that when you put human cells into a plastic material made of polystyrene, but it's got this additive material in it, it can cause human breast cells to start proliferating. That's not a good thing...

DH: Could it be cancer causing?

FvS: Well, you can't have breast cancer if you don't have enough estrogen to cause the breast cells to undergo differentiation in development...

DH: And this is coming from soaps, creams, plastics that are in our daily lives?

FvS: That's correct...

DH This issue can't be talked about without getting into politics, it seems. Why is that?

FvS: The political aspects of dealing with the endocrine disrupter issue have really altered the course of what is happening dramatically...In the case of the endocrine disrupter issue, where the chemical that we're publishing about happens to be one of the fifty top chemicals made in the United States, it is worth billions of dollars to a few major corporations such as General Electric, Shell Oil, Dow Chemical. Each of them makes billions of dollars from this chemical...

MC: Steve Safe said to us that the levels of chemicals in the environment have all gone down.

FvS: DDT is at much lower levels in the United States today than it was in the 1970s. Of course it's also being used all over the world, and it's in the atmosphere. And the very current evidence is that while levels decreased after it was banned, we're now somewhat stabilizing. The same with PCBs. Those two chemicals do not encompass endocrine disrupters...

...Every four years, one trillion pounds of plastics are made in the world. They are being thrown away in the landfill. They are leaching these products back into our water. No one is looking for them. So as a general statement, to say that all endocrine disrupting chemicals are at lower levels today than they would have been twenty years ago is just ludicrous. Because nobody's looked. Nobody knew they were endocrine disrupting chemicals...

...what you have is the entire field of toxicology thinking of a millionth of a gram of a hormone or a chemical as being this staggeringly tiny amount, and to most people if I said there's only a millionth of a gram of it here you'd say, "How can it do anything?" A millionth of a gram of estradiol in blood is toxic. The natural hormone is actually operating at something like a hundred million times lower than that...

...We published a paper just a few months ago in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" in which we experimentally elevated estradiol levels in mouse fetuses during the period when their reproductive organs were forming. And what we did was we experimentally elevated estradiol by one tenth of one trillionth of a gram of estradiol in a milliliter of blood. We estimate that we're increasing estradiol by about one molecule of estradiol per cell in the body. Okay? The consequence of this is that at te components of plastics. Every four years, one trillion pounds of plastics are made in the world. They are being thrown away in the landfill. They are leaching these products back into our water. No one is looking for them. So as a general statement, to say that all endocrine disrupting chemicals are at lower levels today than they would have been twenty years ago is just ludicrous. Because nobody's looked. Nobody knew they were endocrine disrupting chemicals.

The complete transcript can be found at Fooling With Nature

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