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CONTENTS: (BLUE indicates recently posted)
1. Dementia Cases in U.S. Projected to Double
2. Alcohol Harms Your Body
3. Firefighters Risk Health to Save You
4. HMSA - Hawaii's largest health insurance company
5. Danger in Wildfire Smoke
6. Tea Drinkers Live Longer
7. Thank you, Warren Braren
8. Message from Dr. D
9. Update from Dr. D - people are asking
10. Pesticides Can Affect Unexposed Future Generations
11. Getting Cancer? - chances are good
12. Alzheimer's Disease Early Stage
13. Alzheimer's 9 Common Risk Factors
14. U.S. Neurological Death Rate Rising
15. Secret Military Tests - Part 1
16. Secret Military Tests - Part 2
17. Wildfire Retardant Danger
Dementia Cases in U.S. Projected to Double
Dr. Josef Coresh, senior author of the study and founding director of the Optimal Aging Institute at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine said the growing population of aging people in the US is likely the primary driver behind the study's projected increase in dementia rates. Solis-Moreira said, “The study's projected rise in dementia cases varied by race. Yearly dementia cases are set to alarmingly double among white adults. And cases among Black adults are even more staggering: their risk is expected to triple.”
It's not as bleak as it may seem. There is some promising information, but you need to be willing to do what you need to do. For example, according to a 2024 Alzheimer's Association report, Alzheimer's and other types of dementia in the US and other high-income countries may have actually declined in the past 25 years. Dr. Nancy McLinskey, neurologist at Stony Brook Medicine, said the decline could come from better treatments for dementia risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes. Keeping your brain active, e.g., continuing education for seniors which promotes learning, may help against age-related brain changes. Those are two better-known examples. In the upcoming webinar I will cover some not-too-commonly-known risks and things you can do to lower your risk for dementia.
Alcohol Harms Your Body
From National Geographic Premium (for subscribers only) here are brief summaries of some recent articles, on alcohol's affects on your body, by National Geographic journalists.
Stacey Colino (July 2024): People have a harder time dealing with alcohol as they get older. We have less body water as we age. If you drink the same amount at 80 as you did at 30, your blood alcohol level will be much higher. Enzymes that help our body metabolize alcohol diminish with age. The aging brain is more vulnerable to effects of alcohol, which can affect coordination and balance, resulting in higher risk of falls.
Leah Worthington (July 2024): When you drink on a plane, alcohol compounds the effects of high altitude on people's bodies, putting an extra burden on the cardiovascular system, reducing blood oxygen levels, compounding dehydration and impairing sleep quality.
Firefighters Risk Their Health to Save You
According to federal data, in 2016 approximately 70% of line-of-duty deaths were from cancer. The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer categorized firefighting as “carcinogenic to humans” due to the high volume of chemicals encountered on the job. One young firefighter's first fire was the Camp Fire in California. He was on the job 2 weeks. That one fire damaged his lungs so badly he had to retire. “It's almost like instantaneous black lung.” Wittenberg reported firefighter, Matt Alba, “spent 11 days in a fiery hell named Paradise” in California in 2018. More than 18,000 buildings burned. He had no lung protection most of that time. He developed a brain tumor the size of a pear. Most of the tumor was surgically removed. He has also been through chemotherapy and radiation. He said, “I just really hope my brain cancer is the only cancer I get.”
If you don't care about climate change, please care about the brave men and women who will endanger their health and lives to save you and your property.
HMSA – Hawaii's largest health insurance company
Scott Norton was required by HMSA to get weeks of physical therapy before HMSA would approve an MRI or specialist care. His son said Norton “just got worse.” He was in a lot of pain, but no one knew he had cancer because HMSA denied the MRI. “The cancer was literally eating his bones at the time that he had to go through physical therapy.” After months of suffering, Norton died. “He was angry. He said we had been paying HMSA all these years.”
Sophie Cocke, for StarAdvertiser, reported, HMSA executives “received hefty pay raises and bonuses during the COVID-19 pandemic” at the same time HMSA was eliminating and outsourcing the jobs of nearly 200 employees. 107 HMSA workers lost their jobs. Another 89 employees now provide customer service for HMSA as employees of a company based in Mumbai, India, or provide tech assistance for HMSA as employees of a company in Maryland and Bengaluru, India.
Gina Marting, HMSA executive vice president and CFO: total compensation rose 20% from $902,402 in 2021 to $1.08 million in 2022.
Janna Nakagawa, HMSA vice president and chief administrative and strategy officer: total compensation rose from $788,287 to $995,633 (26% increase) in 2022.
David Herndon, HMSA executive vice president and chief business operations officer: total compensation rose to $817,361 (3.7% increase) in 2022. Jennifer Walker, HMSA senior vice president for data and analytics and general counsel: total compensation rose nearly 20% to $737,689 in 2022.
HMSA is a nonprofit organization. It reported profits of $48.9 million in 2021 and $26.9 million in 2022. In 2021 employee salary increases were capped at 1.5%. Average increase was 1%. In 2022 average employee raise was 3% according to HMSA.
Danger in Wildfire Smoke
Urban wildfires are more dangerous than wildfires in nature due to more man-made toxic compounds burning such as paints, sealants, insulation, metals, vehicles. A 2023 study by Environmental Protection Agency researchers found “emission factors for some toxic compounds were more than 1,000 times higher in urban wildfires than in fires that burned in woodland areas.” Parshall warned, “Even after wildfire smoke clears, it often leaves behind some of its toxic components.” For example, in ash in homes that survived a wildfire researchers found high levels of compounds linked to conditions such as respiratory problems, infertility, and cancer.
Tea Drinkers Live Longer
Herbal teas do not contain caffeine. They tend to provide antioxidants. They have healing benefits, e.g., rooibos has aspalathin that may help regulate blood sugar. Chamomile helps with relaxation. Peppermint tea may improve alertness.
Thank you, Warren Braren
Tobacco companies lied to the American public repeatedly, even hiring scientists to produce bogus research that showed cigarettes and tobacco do not cause cancer. They were so wealthy and powerful they could get away with it. Now some big corporations that are harming the health of the American people are using the same tactics the tobacco companies used successfully for decades.
Message from Dr. D
This blog is under Hawaii Health Foundation (HHF), a 501c3 nonprofit organization. HHF has no funding except what Dr. Shintani and I put into it. Dr. Shintani provides much of the funding for the HHF out of his own pocket. EES does not fund HHF. My sources of information for webinars and this blog include 10 to12 publications I subscribe to. I pay for the subscriptions myself. For The NY Times I pay $24.04 every 4 weeks. We are grateful for the dozen or so individuals who donate to the HHF every year and the 10 people who donated on this blog.
In gratitude to people who donated to HHF, Dr. Shintani and I are giving a special, private zoom webinar just for donors. Everyone who donated in 2024 or this year will be emailed the link to the webinar. Dr. Shintani and I will give private webinars throughout this year as a perk for donors. If you are not a donor, if you want to get on the webinar list for this year, just make a one-time donation this year. If you prefer not to donate, that's okay, you are welcome to continue to visit this blog.
Update from Dr. D – people are asking
I will cover dementia. Science-based information, they don't tell you because they don't know.
Current medical wisdom says this: Alzheimer's disease and most forms of dementia are considered irreversible, meaning it cannot be reversed, and the progression of the disease typically leads to a decline in cognitive abilities with no cure currently available . . . The vast majority of dementias are progressive, causing a steady irreversible decline until death.
I will present information in January & February webinars to tell you dementia has been reversed; how and what you can do. This is science. This is a donors' webinar. See "Message from Dr. D," above, for information.
Pesticides Can Affect Unexposed Future Generations
Zoë Schlanger reported for Newsweek, that when the pesticide, DDT, was finally acknowledged to be toxic to humans and wildlife, people “turned enthusiastically to Methoxychlor.” We were told it was the safe alternative to DDT, but researchers found exposure to this pesticide “could cause disease three generations later, in offspring who were never exposed to the Methoxychlor themselves.” Today there are even more powerful pesticides and herbicides that potentially may have this affect too. As with DDT and glyphosate, chemical companies will not tell us until they can no longer hide the truth.
Biologist Dr. Michael Skinner at Washington State University found when a rat fetus is exposed to Methoxychlor during first trimester of pregnancy, likelihood of kidney disease, ovary disease, and obesity in their progeny was elevated for three generations. “Multiple diseases were even more prevalent in the third generation than in the second.” Dr. Skinner's earlier research identified transgenerational epigenetic disorders from toxins such as PCBs and DEET through up to six generations.
Getting Cancer? – chances are good
T.J. DeGroat reporting for Lifestyle News, said hearing your doctor say, “you have cancer” is something no one wants to experience. No one wants to hear that ever, but chances are good you and many other people will be hearing those words. Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, oncologist and former deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, said one in two men and one in three women in the US are expected to be diagnosed with cancer. You can keep your lifetime cancer risk lower than the numbers predict because lifestyle does play a role in raising or lowering your risk.
In addition to a healthy lifestyle you need to know how to protect yourself from toxic exposures. There are many different kinds of hazards. These are known to cause genetic damage and gene mutations that can lead to cancer. The gene mutation may appear random because it often takes time, even years before the result of the mutation or a cancer becomes apparent. Dr. David Katz, founder of Yale University's Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, said, “random mutations are not necessarily random at all,” they may arise as a result of lifestyle factors. He said, “Mutation rates are higher in those exposed to toxins and lower in those exposed to health-promoting conditions. Studies have already shown that cancer-promoter genes are turned off and cancer-suppressor genes turned on by healthy living.” In our zoom webinars, Dr. Shintani covers information on promoting health and I cover toxic exposures.
Alzheimer's Disease Early-Stage
Here are some symptoms of Mild Dementia/Early Stage Alzheimer's disease
Diminished short-term memory, e.g., asks the same question repeatedly within the same conversation
Misplacing belongings in odd places (e.g., puts car keys in refrigerator); losing valuable belongings, like wallet or purse
Seems “not himself” and shows uncharacteristic behaviors
Lapses in judgment
Difficulty with mental arithmetic and handling money, e.g., finds it difficult to balance checkbook or determine correct amount of money to pay for an item while shopping
Disorientation in unfamiliar places or situations
Alzheimer's Disease – 9 Common Risk Factors
There is something you can do about every one of these risk factors. For example, (obesity) lose weight if you are overweight; (carotid artery narrowing) lower your cholesterol and inflammation; (high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes) eat a plant-based diet; (frailty) exercise; (high homocysteine) attend Dr. Shintani's webinars to learn about homocysteine and inflammatory processes. Dr. Shintani teaches about all these topics including plant-based diet, how to lose weight, and how get better control of cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and inflammation. You can even improve your education by attending his free webinar classes.
These are the nine common risk factors for Alzheimer's disease:
Obesity
Carotid Artery Narrowing
Low Education
Depression
High Blood Pressure
Frailty
Smoking Habits
High Levels of Homocysteine (amino acid)
Type 2 Diabetes
U.S. Neurological Death Rate Rising
The researchers compared 21 developed countries and found for adults between ages 55 and 74, overall neurological death rates rising 2% for men and 1% for women, but in the U.S., it's 82% for men and 48% for women. For people 75 and older, those considered elderly, overall neurological death rate rose among all the countries 114% for men and 185% for women, but in the U.S., it's 368% for men and 663% for women. According to this research, neurological causes now kill more elderly American women than cancer does.
This kind of difference tends not to be a natural occurrence. Something's going on. So it's important to know potential risks that are out there so you can do something. Knowledge is an important part of taking care of your health.
Secret Military Tests - Part 1
According to the legislation, “Upon leaving service in the Army, veterans of the program could not seek benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs for disabilities relating to the program without violating their secrecy oaths.” They could not report the debilitating health effects which include paralysis, cancer, depression, psychosis. Bob Taylor, 73, former Army private said, “I went to Edgewood, and my whole world fell apart.” He has been diagnosed with multiple cancers, depression, insomnia, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Frank Rochelle, 76, said, “When I went to file a VA claim, I was told that the tests I took part in had never happened. The records were sealed. I had no way to prove my case.”
Hersey reported, “a 2023 ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington is enabling Rochelle and other service members for the first time to obtain VA disability compensation retroactive to their date of discharge.” Mark Jones, attorney for Rochelle, said the court found the secrecy agreements that the participants signed, which carried the threat of criminal penalty if violated, effectively denied them due process and disability compensation to which they were entitled. He said, “This decision importantly opens a pathway for all veterans who are under a secrecy agreement to pursue their claims, whether they are Edgewood Arsenal vets or not.” Jones said though the VA states it now has a process in place for Edgewood Arsenal veterans to file to receive benefits, they continue to delay decisions and deny claims.
Secret Military Test Part-2
Michelle Josephs, wife and full-time caretaker of former Army sergeant, Tim Josephs, 76, said, “We were told it was 'informed consent.' Tim and the others had volunteered. But these were a bunch of 18- and 19-year-old guys who had no idea the government would give them things harmful to them.” She said, “We fought for years for benefits and then finally gave up.” The experiments led to neurological problems that persisted in the decades after military service, including depression, nightmares, extreme anxiety. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease 20 years ago. She said, “We've had a lot of [medical] expenses over the years. At one point his medications were $3,000 a month. . . . We're demoralized.”
Senator Blumenthal's office said he plans to reintroduce the legislation in the new Congress, this year, and he will continue fighting to ensure Edgewood veterans receive full benefits.
Wildfire Retardant Danger
Stanton Florea, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, explained, “Sprayed ahead of the fire, the retardants coat vegetation and prevent oxygen from allowing it to burn.” Red dye is added to the retardant so firefighters can see it against the landscape. It lasts longer because it doesn't evaporate like water.
Tabuchi reported, researchers estimated from 2009 to 2021 more than 400 tons of heavy metals were release into the environment from fire retardants, a third of that in Southern California. Fire retardants are a necessary evil as they are used to fight wildfires, but concentrations of heavy metals end up in rivers and streams after wildfires, sometimes by “hundreds of times.” This water will be consumed by wildlife and ultimately by people.