This is so important Parents for you to be aware of.  It’s not just drugs that your teens are getting a hold of on the outside market, you may be the supplier of the most dangerous drugs your teens are using.  Please read this and pass it along to every parent you know.  Don’t assume your kids aren’t doing them. Be sure to watch the video too.

Source Sue Scheff

Inhalants. They have been in the news and on the teen scene for years now; as a matter of fact, it was reported that there has been a 158% increase in the use of  huffing refrigerant in teenagers.

Most parents will continue to say, ‘not my teen‘, however how do you really know it isn’t your teen?

Just ask Mona Casey in Coral Springs, she lost her son 15 year-old Charles Gray just before his 16th birthday, when he inhaled refrigerant. Especially in Florida, air conditioning refrigerant is prevalent, it is also deadly.  Watch video to see how dangerous it can be.

Throughout her grief, Mona Casey founded a group, United Parents to Restrict Open Access to Refrigerant, (UPROAR). Huffing chemicals such as refrigerant can result in death on the first use. This is a risk we cannot afford to take with our children. One of the goals of UPROAR is to propose solutions to lawmakers and governing bodies to address this problem.

What is inhalant use?


Inhalant use refers to the intentional breathing of gas or vapors with the purpose of reaching a high. Inhalants are legal, everyday products which have a useful purpose, but can be misused. You’re probably familiar with many of these substances — paint, glue and others. But you probably don’t know that there are more than 1,000 products that are very dangerous when inhaled — things like typewriter correction fluid, air-conditioning refrigerant, felt tip markers, spray paint, air freshener, butane and even cooking spray. See Products Abused as Inhalants for more details.

It is time parents stop being ignorant to the fact teens and tweens don’t understand the dangers of huffing.  Kids as young as 11 years-old are huffing and dying.  Watch video.

Talk to your kids today! School will be opening, peer pressure will be starting, school hallways are full of kids trying to fit in and be cool.  Will they take it a step further fit in with a sniff?

Sources: Just News, UPROAR, Inhalants.org

Be an educated parent, you can save a life!


Watch video and read more.

I loved this article from my Doctor,  Dr. Alan Christianson in Scottsdale.  I will be sharing health articles from time to time because it is totally connected to feeling good about yourself, therefore having good self-esteem. Enjoy it and tell me what you think about it.

Aerobic means ‘with oxygen’.  Animals are chemically distinct from plants in that we burn our fuel with oxygen and liberate a lot more energy than chemical pathways that don’t use oxygen.  This gives us power to think and move.  Your brain uses 20% of your energy.  I’m sure you can think of someone who might be using closer to 5%, but really, most brains use 20%.

What does it mean when you are tired and sluggish during the day?  Chemically it means you are not able to generate ATP (your cell’s energy) within your cells at the rate at which you’re burning it. Your body wants to rest and slow down.  How do you get better at producing ATP?  You incrementally challenge your system and let your body adapt.  Your body is amazing at adaption.  Whatever we ask of it, it will accommodate. The most efficient way to challenge your energy production pathways is through aerobic exercise.  Run, walk fast, bike, swim, work out on an aerobic machine, anything – just move a little faster for a little longer than you normally do. If this is tiring, rest up a day and try it again. It’ll get easier, I promise.  You’ll go farther and faster plus be able to shorten the rest periods between aerobic exercises.  And, non-exercise tasks will also get easier.  Your brain will be sharper, you’ll move easier and be less tired during the day.

Think you’re tired because you’re old? It’s not true. The only type of AGEing that really slows you down is if you Aren’t Getting Exercise.

Just a few weeks ago an article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine showed that regular exercise could delay the effects of aging by 12 years!  Senior athletes maintain 90% of their capacity into their 80′s and beyond.  In their sports they are universally superior to sedentary 30-year-old office workers.

Before going out for that jog, here are a few myths I hope to put to rest:

Myth:  I’m too tired; exercising will use up all my energy.
Fact: Give yourself a chance and advance slowly.  You’ll be more energetic for having done some aerobic work.  And, within a short time, you’ll actually come to enjoy it! Commit to getting dressed and out the door to do at least 5 minutes each day.  That’s not too tough.  If you’re still not into it after those 5 minutes, throw in the towel.  But 9 times out of 10 you’ll get into the flow and have fun.

Myth: Lower intensity workouts burn more fat.
Fact:  No, they don’t.  It’s true you burn a slightly higher percentage of calories from fat at low intensity, say 6% vs. 5% at high intensity, but you burn so fewer calories it’s not helpful. For example, say at low intensity you burn 200 calories which 6% are from fat, this equals 12 fat calories burned. For the same amount of time at a high intensity you’re burning 500 calories!  So, even though you may only burn 5% from fat, that’s 25 fat calories!

Myth: If I go to the gym and train hard every day I’ll lose weight.
Fact:  Maybe, but weight loss does take counting calories… calories from HEALTHY foods that is! You know that 500 calories you burned in the high intensity workout above? Without discipline you can blow that at the Starbucks on the way home.

Myth: 20 minutes 2-3 times per week is enough exercise.
Fact:  Well, it’s enough to start or help you get into the swing of exercising, but you’ll get more benefits and gain more energy if you move towards exercising most days of the week at 45-60 minutes each time for an average of 6 hours per week.

Myth: I don’t have that kind of time. Why bother?
Fact:  The average American adult watches TV 29-34 hours per week! If you can’t reduce that time by a few hours, set up a treadmill or exercise bike in front of the TV and have at it.

Myth: I don’t need aerobics as much since I lift weights.
Fact:  Strength training is great, but its maximum benefits for longevity, weight loss and health occur with one session per body part per week. Some papers have suggested even just 1 set may provide this. Aerobics are a wiser expenditure of most of your exercise time.

Myth: I need a sports drink for exercise.
Fact:  If you’re going at it hard for over 90 minutes, OK, otherwise drink water and save the calories for something better.

So get out and generate some ATP, you’ll feel great!

Dr. Alan Christianson, NMD, is founder and President of Integrative Health Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ.  Integrative Health offers a fresh approach to living well by using a novel formula for science-based natural medicine.  The team of physicians discovers the cause of each patient’s troubling symptoms and protects their long-term health and quality of life.

Dr. Christianson’s primary focus is diagnosing hidden cases of thyroid disease and assisting those already diagnosed to resolve hypothyroid symptoms including weight gain, fatigue and hair loss.

Currently, he is co-authoring ‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Thyroid’, for Penguin publishers, due for publication in mid-2011.

He can be reached at 480.657.0003 or www.IntegrativeHealthCare.com

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I found this News Release about cigarette marketing campaign targeting teen girls from UC San Diego Medical Center, and thought it needed to be sent through to my audience.  After reading this I realized that it is really important to talk to your kids about smoking, not just one conversation, but many.  If you aren’t opening up the communication to discuss issues like this, your teens will be left to their own means to make decisions.  The media is very powerful, don’t under estimate it. Our teen listen to the TV, magazines, radio, and internet and it is influencing them to a large degree.

Self-Esteem is critical to teens doing what is good for them, not what others think they should be doing, including the media.

I am actually in the process of another blog about fashion and what a hold it has on our teens. It’s important to talk to our teens about issues and empower them to be able to make good decisions for themselves.  Let me know what you think…I’m pretty sure you don’t want your teenagers smoking.

Date: March 15, 2010 News Release from UC San Diego Medical Center

Recent Cigarette Marketing Campaign Targeted Teen Girls, Study Reveals

The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) prohibits tobacco industry advertising practices that encourage underage teenagers to smoke, yet new research out of the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego has found that a 2007 marketing campaign for Camel brand cigarettes was effective in encouraging young girls to start smoking.

The study, led by John P. Pierce, PhD, professor of Family and Preventive Medicine and director of the Cancer Center’s Cancer Prevention and Control Program, will be published March 15 in an early online edition of the scientific journal Pediatrics.

The research, part of a national study on parenting practices, involved 1,036 males and females who were 10 to 13 years old when enrolled onto the study. Between 2003 and 2008, scientists conducted five telephone interviews, which included questions about smoking. The fifth interview was conducted after the start of RJ Reynolds’ “Camel No. 9″ advertising campaign in 2007.

Consistent with earlier research, the new study showed that youth who had never smoked but who reported having a “favorite” cigarette ad at the beginning were 50 percent more likely to initiate smoking. The number of boys with a favorite ad was stable across all five surveys. For girls, however, it was stable across the first four surveys, but by the fifth survey, which took place after the start of the Camel No. 9 campaign, the proportion of girls who reported a favorite ad jumped by 10 percentage points, to 44 percent. The Camel brand accounted almost entirely for this increase.

“In 1998, the Tobacco Industry signed an agreement with State Attorneys General which included a commitment not to target adolescents with advertising.  Congressional leaders and others have complained to RJ Reynolds that the Camel #9 campaign violated that agreement,” said Pierce. “This national study demonstrated that the Camel No. 9 campaign had a huge impact on young adolescent girls across the country, effectively encouraging them to smoke.”

The Camel No. 9 marketing campaign included ads resembling fashion spreads that were placed in five of the top 10 U.S. teen readership magazines, such as Glamour and Vogue. The campaign also featured promotional giveaways such as berry lip balm, cell phone jewelry, purses and wristbands.

Co-authors on the paper are Karen Messer, PhD, Lisa E. James, Martha M. White, MS and Sheila Kealey, MPH, all of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center; and Donna M. Vallone, PhD, MPH, and Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH, both of the American Legacy Foundation, Washington, D.C. This study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, the American Legacy Foundation, and the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program of the University of California.

This is such an important subject to be exploring as a teen or as a parent for your tween’s entering into puberty.  I started blogging on this and doing my research to make sure I was giving you information that was thorough.  I came across this article on Natural Living for Women that was so comprehensive that I decided to forward it.  I have been using natural tampons for 12 years after my daughters informed me of the harmful affects the non-organic ones.

If you are a Mom that is still using tampons or you have teens that are using them, please read this blog and decide for yourself.  Here it is…

Don’t you think organic tampons make sense for something that comes into contact with delicate tissues of our body on a regular basis?It has been estimated that we can use as much as 9,000 tampons in our lifetimes.  I thought this was an exageration but do the math.  As an example, 4 tampons  for 6 days, 12 months a year for 30 years is 8,640. That’s a lot of tampons.

So What’s The Problem With Tampons?

Most tampons are made from a cotton or rayon-cotton blend. Rayon is a synthetic fiber that is made from wood pulp.  It is highly absorbent and it does it’s job well in our tampons.  Cotton while a so called natural fiber may have been bio-engineered and grown with a mess of pesticides, fertilizers and fungicides. . (See organic cotton.) Both of these fibers undergo a bleaching process before being made into tampons and even though this process has been improved to try and eliminate dioxins, trace levels are still being found.

Dioxins

Dioxins are an environmental pollutant and known carcinogenic by product of bleaching and manufacturing processes.  It is now being found in our soil, air and water.  According to the FDA, this may explain how rayon and cotton may always contain some dioxin. Some groups think even the improved bleaching techniques may contribute to some of the dioxins.The FDA says that levels of dioxin are so low, it is not cause for concern. But some doctor’s and other groups are not so sure and are concerned about the cumulative effects of even tiny amounts of dioxins coming in to contact month after month with a very delicate part of our body. No one knows for sure.

According to the National Research Center for Women and Families, dioxin was found in several brands of tampons and at least one 100% cotton brand.  Companies are required to test and report dioxin levels to the FDA.

Sometimes I feel like we’re in a bit of a chemical soup. Fortunately, if we make better choices we can eliminate some of the harmful chemicals that have become so much a part of our everyday lives.  We can purchase organic tampons or pads that are 100% certified organic cotton, do not contain any synthetic materials such as rayon or chemical additives like fragrances and either no bleaching or non-chlorine bleaching such as hydrogen peroxide.Hydrogen peroxide has not been found to create dioxins.  The elimination of chlorine bleaching to treat fibers and all the chemicals needed to grow conventional cotton helps improve things for both us and the environment.

My Choice For Organic Tampons.

I have used tampon products for years and did not make the switch to organic tampons until a few years ago. I had to experiment with a few brands until I found one I could be happy with. I believe the absence of rayon and it’s high absorbency has been a problem.

The most effective brand I have found is made by Natracare.  Natracare can be purchased at most health food stores and quite a few online sources but check out their website, you’ll find quite a bit of interesting information about this and other forms of safe feminine protection.

My purchase of organic tampons is part of my plan for removing as many unnecessary chemicals as I can from my life for myself, family and the environment. Let’s see 8,640 organic tampons per woman, not bad.

I too have been using Natracare brand for many years and like it a lot. Do your research and pick what product you like the best, this is only my preference.  I do know that from what I have researched, organic tampons are far better for us than non-organic. I just felt like it was important to bring this information to you. Let me know what you think.