Warning: Today’s Post
You may need to get your favorite beverage and set aside some time to plough through today’s newsletter. I have probably broken every rule for blog writing re: word count, sentence length, content, reading level, and the amount of time it will take to read through the information, etc., etc…. But if you have ever thought about your own diet, your kids’ diet, the immune system (of which the gut is critical), illness/disease, and how to live in this time of so many pesticides, herbicides, poisons, toxins, superbugs, and the threat of epidemics/pandemics…and…if you have concerns about how to live well with healthy guts, vaccine free, and in vibrant health DESPITE all the bad news, then you will understand my passion (and length) for this topic. (This would be a good time to get that beverage. ☺)
(One fast way to get to the good news is to check out all the links after a read through the content first.)
Here we go!
GOOD NEWS OR BAD NEWS?
Are you typically a good-news-first, bad-news-after type of person? Or are you more…OK…give me the bad news first, let me deal with it, mull it around, and then ask… “So what’s the good news?”
The Bad News
I fall in the “give me the bad news first” category. Apparently that is Dr. Mercola’s approach too. (But if you really and truly are a good-news-first type person, please feel free to go to the good news. Just scroll down, and voilà. There really is something for everyone in today’s newsletter.)
According to Dr. Mercola’s recent newsletter, humanity is on the brink of the perfect superbug bacterial storm. (The cause? Overuse of antibiotics.) Already a major concern in hospitals is MRSA (an antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus infection).
The bad news to come? There is evidence of “a gene that confers ‘super resistance’ to a growing number of lethal antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in India and at least 35 other countries.” And… “Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB), which has a 40% mortality rate, is also on the rise around the globe.”
Check out the prophetic documentary and the story-at-a-glance summary to the right of the video. The statement that the “drug companies have little financial incentives to create new antibiotics to replace those that germs have grown resistant to, therefore few new alternatives are in the works” is startling.
For Mulling
The documentary continues to use the metaphors of war. Maybe there is another narrative? I think so… Check out the work of Dr. Philip Incao, and in particular his articles “Urgent Need for a New Kind of Thinking” and “Understanding Infection: Not a Battle but Housecleaning.”
More for you to mull post bad news: a quote from Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan:
“…the simplest and most ancient organisms are not only the forebears and the present substrate of the Earth’s biota, but they are ready to expand and alter themselves and the rest of life, should we ‘higher’ organisms, be so foolish as to annihilate ourselves…
(This leads to my mulling over the use of antibiotics, destruction of internal microflora of the gut, toxins/poisons via environment, vaccines, and processed foods.)
…the view of evolution as a chronic blood competition among individuals and species, a popular distortion of Darwin’s notion of ‘survival of the fittest,’ dissolves before a new view of continual cooperation, strong interaction, and mutual dependence among life forms. Life did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking. Life forms multiplied and complexified by co-opting others, not just by killing them.”
(This microcosmos live inside us in our gut/body and in our external world as well.)
The hope? Dr. Mercola has some excellent suggestions within his article, fermented food (think ‘healthy bacteria,’ like probiotics called prebiotics) being one of them. Hang in there…some really, really good news to come with a very special shout-out to someone who is part of a great new fermented food movement! As Gracie would say, “Wait for it!”
FIRST: MORE BAD NEWS. REALLY??
My mom used to have a saying: “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” Maybe today I can change that to: “Two or three pieces of bad news can make for some really, really good news.”
According to Dr. Larry Brilliant, epidemiologist, the world is on the brink of a viral influenza pandemic. (His prediction? This event will be a certainty within our children and grandchildren’s lifetime.). This will be a virus that humans have never before encountered, caused by mutation and likely by a cross over from animal/insect to human contamination. We will have NO immunity to the new virus. For those who are healthy, we will recover; for those who are less healthy, elderly, or are babies/children, there will be risks of secondary complications, depending on the severity of the symptoms.
Dr. Brilliant’s personal story is remarkable, and includes connections to Google and eBay—notable because he could envision using the Internet for worldwide surveillance of outbreaks of infectious disease. His TED talk from 2006 was the inspiration for the movie Contagion in 2011. Here is a recent interview that gives you the background on Brilliant and his work in epidemiology.
While I can admire Dr. Brilliant on so many levels, I do take exception to one of the stories he told where he force vaccinated (by pinning down) an elderly man in India. (I guess if vaccination is the only treatment you know, you insist on giving it to everyone, whether they want the vaccine or not.) The gentleman was very conciliatory given that he was bullied, so the story has some redemption in it.
For Mulling and Movie Night: About the Movie Contagion
While the movie is all about the pandemic influenza virus and its instantaneous global reach through air travel, it is also about the panic to create a vaccine to prevent/halt the spread. While working to create the vaccine, many people die. Everyone is quarantined and the hospitals are inaccessible. Think…1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic or SARS in 2009.
More to Mull
Homeopathy offers some ‘brilliant’ alternatives to outbreaks of epidemics. Here is one link to some research, another on the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918 (there are two parts to the article…simply do a search within the site), and more recently, an epidemic of leptospirosis in Cuba.
Maybe Dr. Brilliant just doesn’t know about homeopathy…yet.
AND THE WORST BAD NEWS? AUTISM.
Huh? What has autism got to do with virus/bacteria superbugs, pandemics, and fermented foods? Lots…just ask any parent of a child with autism. Mommy talk includes a lot of stories about poop, gut problems, intolerance to wheat/dairy, allergies, toxins, and all kinds of food-related reactions. Add chronic ear infections, coughs/colds, pneumonia, and endless prescriptions of antibiotics to that mix, you have yet another ‘perfect storm.’ Far too many children are suffering.
Parents of children with autism know that there is something wrong in the guts of their kids. And they know about fermented foods, and how these foods are an important part of recovering their children from autism.
Mulling Moments
If you have some more time to mull, listen to Andrea Lalamma’s “Autism One” talk. This video is an eye-opener re: the gut, bacteria, and autism; you will see the connection. (It’s a long presentation but worth the time.) Ordinary moms doing research on the net and making the microbiological connections… We do anything and everything to heal our children and keep them healthy! You will also likely make the connection to any chronic illness your own child may have from eczema and allergies to asthma.
So what to do with all this bad news?
SHARE THE HOPE of homeopathy, health, and recovery and…
Here’s the REALLY, REALLY, REALLY GOOD NEWS!
THE SHOUT-OUT!
Finally! This month’s SHOUT-OUT! Now you can get up and do the happy dance. Your butt is likely sore from sitting and reading and mulling! So here it is…drum roll please…
Meet Adrienne Percy who has been teaching traditional foods to people around the world for several years, with hundreds of people learning the art of fermentation in her online class. Last year she traded pavement for prairie and now homesteads with her husband and two children about an hour north of Winnipeg.
Here’s from Adrienne to you:
Bringing traditional wisdom into the modern kitchen
Have you ever looked at the ‘latest’ food science/study/article (Eggs or no eggs? Carbs are good/carbs are bad…) and thought, “Why does this have to be so complicated?”
Do you want to prepare *truly* nourishing meals for your family — but not spend *all* your time in the kitchen?
You are certainly not alone if you have felt frustrated or confused. After all, you are just trying to do your very best to truly nourish your growing family…
Well, if you’ve ever had a sense that there had to be at least a ‘general blueprint’ used by people around the world before marketers, multinationals, and diet ‘experts’ made it all seem so confusing, you can breath a sigh of relief. Because your instincts are right.
Adrienne launches a new class this fall that will equip you with the skills and confidence to prepare nutrient-dense, traditional foods for your family.
Traditional Wisdom, Modern Kitchen teaches the why and the how of making traditional (nutrient-dense and healing) foods families will love.
In the course you will learn:
- Lacto-fermentation (the probiotic pre-cursor to canning that nourishes our inner ecosystem — something like Sauerkraut, but so much more!)
- Nourishing bone broths
- Proper preparation of beans, nuts, and seeds (how to make them truly digestible)
- Nose to tail eating (including nutrient-dense organ meats)
- Sourdough breads
- Traditional fats (one of the most overlooked building blocks for good health)
And, if you want to make a living sharing your passion for wholesome, unprocessed food, you might want to check out Canada’s first traditional foods teacher training.
So if you want to go beyond the latest fad and nutritional headline to something that *feels right* and has roots in food wisdom that has been held sacred by cultures around the world…this may be the course you have been waiting for….
p.s. Can’t get to Winnipeg for the class? Be the first one to know when you can take it *online.* Just sign up at the bottom of this page describing the course.
There you go…an amazing resource in the recovery and maintenance of an inner digestive ecosystem that is cooperative, communicative, and how nature intended us to live with virus and bacteria. A how-to and what-to-do that draws on traditional ways and, at the same time, presented for the modern kitchen. What an amazing point of view for the next Food Network Star. (I confess… I watch cooking shows and for sure I’d be watching Adrienne if she had her own show!)
See you next week where you will get your first comprehensive flu remedy. Another resource to give you hope despite all the ‘bad news’ about the next flu pandemic. You will be ready!
