Air Pollution and Our Health

Mark Sulzbach Minnesota Pollution Control Agency When most people think of unhealthy air, they think of a stifling, summer day, plagued by high ozone levels and a thick layer of smog over the Twin Cities. However, Minnesota’s worst recorded air alert occurred during the winter of 2005, and ozone was …

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Cancer and Women: Some Little Known Facts

Betty Beier and Carol Johnson Women’s Cancer Resource Center In June of 2001, the American Cancer Society and others reported that almost all cancer rates declined in the 1990s, a reversal of a trend of U.S. cancer rates that had grown for decades. The biggest factor responsible for the decline …

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Capturing Cardio Power

Do It Green! Minnesota No pain, no gain, right? At the California Fitness Center, the new mantra may be “no pain, no power.” French inventor Lucien Gambarota has created a revolutionary concept in which energy burned through exercise is converted to powering light fixtures. The excess energy is then stored …

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Commingling the Environment & Health Care

Linda Lindquist RN, BSN Healthcare workers are a hidden, next generation treasure of environmentalists. This group includes, but is not limited to, doctors, such as those specializing in infectious disease, nurses of all disciplines in heath care, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, nutritionists, dietitians, pharmacists, and emergency rescue response workers. The …

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Community Building as Healing

John Robbins www.healthyat100.org The choices that we make today as to the way we treat each other, the way we raise our children, the kinds of families and communities we create, will determine how the future unfolds. If we treat each other one way, we can cultivate people driven by …

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Complementary, Alternative & Integrative Medicine

Sraddha Helfrich University Of Minnesota Medical Student It seems like everywhere you go, you hear and see mention of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and Holistic healing. What exactly is meant by these terms and why are more Americans turning to CAM for treatment, making it the fastest growing sector …

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Culinary Diversity in the Obesity Age

Aaron Vehling Writer America has become the land of the unhealthy. About two-thirds of the nation is considered overweight or obese, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some lay blame at the hands of food conglomerates that bioengineer our food for higher profit margins. Others scapegoat our …

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Diet For a Healthy and Peaceful World

Gabriele F. Kushi, BFA, MEA, macrobiotic nutritional consultant/chef/educator The goals of macrobiotics are the realization of planetary health and happiness, world peace and human evolution. Macrobiotic, derived from the Greek word macrobios (large life), is associated worldwide with living and eating in harmony with the season. Macrobiotics embraces the 5,000-year-old …

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Don’t Burn Your Garbage

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Many people in rural areas in Minnesota still use on-site disposal methods like backyard burning to dispose of their household wastes. From burning waste in fire pits and woodstoves to the traditional burn barrel, 45% of rural Minnesota’s municipal solid waste (MSW) is still managed in …

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Environmental Illness

Sraddha Helfrich University Of Minnesota Medical Student What do carpets, meat, paint, household cleaners, perfumes, cigarette smoke, building materials, milk and traffic fumes have in common? They all contain toxic compounds that could be making you and your family sick. Environmental Illness (EI) is a term for diseases caused by …

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Herbal and Synthetic Drugs: A Comparison

Joel Albers Pharmacist, Pharm.D., Ph.D. Prior to the U.S. Civil War, native healers, midwives, herbalists and witches – mostly women – were the primary caregivers. By 1865, the discipline of scientific medicine was imported from Europe, particularly from Germany. The germ theory of disease, specific disease etiology (cause), and the …

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It’s Never too Late to Go Green

Lark Weller Institute for Social, Economic, and Ecological Sustainability Many of us strive to live environmentally conscious lives. However, we often do not realize that we have the ability to make some of the same green decisions regarding our deaths as we have made throughout the rest of our lives …

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Leaving a Natural Legacy

Theresa Purcell Trust for Natural Legacies, Inc. Minnesotans are continually making choices for a greener life and now, with the reemergence of green burial, it is becoming easier to make environmentally aware decisions regarding our deaths. What are the problems with standard burial practices? Embalming fluid contains formaldehyde, a “probable” …

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Legislative Action for Minnesota Naturopathic Doctors

Sourced from mnanp.org Naturopathic medicine is based on the belief that the human body has an innate healing ability. Naturopathic doctors (NDs) teach their patients to use diet, exercise, lifestyle changes and cutting-edge natural therapies to enhance their bodies’ ability to ward off and combat disease. Naturopathic physicians base their …

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Live Non-Toxic in Your Home

Sara Grochowski Do It Green! Minnesota Health is more than just the absence of disease; rather, it is a state of physical, mental and social well-being. We use the term health to describe anything from the physical state of our body to that of our soil. More and more studies …

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Macrobiotics: Diet for a Healthy and Peaceful World

Gabriele F. Kushi, BFA, MEA, CHC, AADP Board certified Holistic Health Practitioner, macrobiotic nutritional consultant, cooking teacher, and director of Kushi’s Kitchen The goals of macrobiotics are the realization of planetary health and happiness, world peace and human evolution. Macrobiotic, derived from the Greek word macrobios (large life), is associated …

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Natural Remedies to Ailments

Jennifer Hawkins Graduate student at the University of Minnesota “Take two of these and call me in the morning” is an adage we have all heard dozens of times. Meanwhile, drug and pharmaceutical advertisements promoting their new “wonder drugs” clutter the pages of our reading material. Listening to the quiet …

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Partnering with Agriculture for the Health of our Communities and our Environment

Mark Muller The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) The difficulties facing the Minnesota farmer are well known. Commodity prices for corn, soybeans, wheat and hogs are below the cost of production. The number of farms in Minnesota is in continual decline and the remaining farms merge and expand. …

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PMS: White Washing the Truth

Joolie Geldner As corporations are mesmerizing menstruating women with images of “summer rain” and “no unsightly accidents” they also white wash the truth behind the health and environmental costs of being able to ride that white horse in your new white chinos. For instance, conventional pads and tampons are loaded …

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Safe Hair Color Options

Kassie Kuehl Kasia Beautiful Health Salon FACTS TO CONSIDER: The average salon customer is in contact with hair color ammonia about every 4-7 weeks while hair stylists have daily contact with ammonia. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, ammonia is listed as a hazardous substance that …

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Simplify for a Richer Eco-Friendly Life

Betsy Barnum Great River Earth Institute In our complicated, stressed-out modern life of speed, consumer pressure, money worries and jam-packed schedules, the concept of living simply has crossed everyone’s mind. The truth is, it’s an appealing, attainable idea, and could make a real difference in your life. Voluntary simplicity has …

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Skin Deep

Did you know that the government cannot mandate safety studies of cosmetics, and only 11% of the 10,500 ingredients the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has documented in products have been assessed for safety by the cosmetic industry’s review panel? You can now search for the beauty products you and …

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Stress Management

Michael W. Smith Meditation Center In a 1980 survey, I asked a group of people: “How do you personally deal with stress?” I received the following answers: panic, scream, cry, get sick to my stomach, churn inside, get a headache, eat chocolate, drink alcohol, take tranquilizers and watch television. Other …

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Sun Protective Clothing

Sara Johnson Blue Sky Guide In a place where the winter can often seem unending, choosing clothing to protect from the sun is probably not at the forefront of any Minnesotan’s mind. However, with skin care and skin cancer-prevention in mind, many clothing companies are introducing “sun protective clothing” (also …

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Taking Care of Our Whole Selves

Andy Mickel Twin Cities Men’s Center The deep-rooted view of a man’s health residing in the hands of his physician must change. We can educate and inspire the men in our lives; our fathers, sons, brothers and friends (regardless of age, status in life, education, color of their skin or …

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The Calcium Question

Jeannette Turner Do It Green! Magazine We hear so much about bone health lately from the dairy industry (celebrities with mustaches), from supplement companies selling calcium pills and from advertisements for calcium-fortified products (everything from cereal to antacids). So calcium is being sold to us, like shampoo or new cars, …

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The Earth’s Health is Your Health

Sraddha Helfrich; Joel Helfrich University of Minnesota Medical Student; The Twin Cities Green Guide In the springtime, we eagerly anticipate the fresh green of the new foliage, signifying the awakening of life in the flora around us after a cold and often long winter. As each season fades into the …

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Tips From John Robbins

John Robbins Do It Green! Magazine Surround yourself with people who see and affirm your worthiness as often as possible Look for opportunities to enrich the lives of others; ask a friend if there is a way to be a better friend to them; tell others what you appreciate about …

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Tips to Reduce Particle Exposure

Check the Air Quality Index and sign up to receive free e-mail notices when air advisories or alerts are called by the MPCA. Go to: aqi.pca.state.mn.us/hourly Drive fewer miles. Bus, bike, carpool or walk more often. Reduce exposure to idling vehicles. Cars need only 30 seconds to warm up, even …

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Toxins in Everyday Products

Julia Earl Preventing Harm Minnesota, preventingharmmn.org Seems these days you can hardly pick up the paper, watch the news, or read a magazine without coming across some sort of article on the perils of toxins in products all around us-toys, drinking bottles, baby bottles, perfume, lotion, and just about anything …

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What’s all the Buzz about My Plastic Bottle?

Eureka Recycling Recently there has been much discussion about the safety of drinking water. Concerns about tap water, bottled water, and reusable plastic bottles can be overwhelming. The main issue concerning plastic bottles is the leaching of the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) which is used in the manufacturing of polycarbonate, the …

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Your Body and Mind: Keys to Overall Health

Sraddha Helfrich University Of Minnesota Medical Student Does the thought of vegan chocolate cake ever make you salivate? Does the idea of giving a speech make your stomach churn and palms sweat? Has a memory of a beloved ever made your heart race? The examples above demonstrate the mind-body connection. …

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