Thank you
CONTENTS: (BLUE indicates recently posted)
Hackers disabled the FOLLOWERS feature on this blog. If anyone knows how to fix it, please tell me how to do it.
1. Sleep can Affect Your Health
2. What are Bunker Buster Bombs?
3. Do Good for Others - Better Health for You
4. Lick of Death
5. Doing Good and Survival
6. Sex Appeal
7. We are being Warned
8 . People Need to be Careful
9. A Dirty Industry's Deadly Secret
10. Smart Meter Danger
11. HMSA - Hawaii's largest health insurance company
12. Getting Cancer? - chances are good
Sleep can Affect Your Health
According to experts on sleep, there are health consequences from
not getting adequate sleep. They tell us that sleep deficiency is
linked to significant physical and mental health effects, including
cognitive deficits, cardiac issues, obesity, memory impairment, and
impaired immune function.Research published in the European Heart Journal
from a Norwegian study involving more
than 54,000 people, ages 20 to 89 found that those with multiple
insomnia symptoms had a fourfold
increased risk of heart
failure compared to those who had no insomnia symptoms.
This was an observational study
therefore, the researchers couldn’t say insomnia causes heart
failure, but there is an association between not getting adequate
sleep and heart failure
Research published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research
found poor sleep could make heart disease worse in women. The study
involved 700 people in the U.S. over a period of 5 years. It found
less than six hours of sleep a night and waking too early have a
significant role in raising unhealthy levels of inflammation among
women with coronary heart disease. A relationship between poor sleep
and higher levels of inflammation was not observed in men in the
study. The study found fewer than 6 hours of sleep a night could make
heart disease worse in women.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Aric Prather, a clinical health
psychologist and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University
of California, San Francisco said inflammation is a well-known
predictor of cardiovascular disease. He said, now we have evidence
that poor sleep appears to play a bigger role than we had previously
thought in driving long-term increases in inflammation levels and may
contribute to the negative consequences often associated with poor
sleep.
What are Bunker Buster Bombs?
I do not like war. As
the song says, “War, what is it good for? Absolutely
nothing.” I'm
not naive, sometimes people have to go to war, but too often it's for
the wrong reasons.
Recently, the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities
that are underground, under a mountain. The US used bunker buster [Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP)] bombs. What
are bunker buster bombs?
(UPDATE: The bomb that targeted nuclear facilities in Iran is GBU-57/B. GBU is an abbreviation for “guided bomb unit.” 57 means it's the 57th design in the series of this bomb. B is the designation for the adjustment made by the military engineers.)
I
do not have the latest information on bunker buster bombs. That's top
secret. But I have information I presented a few years ago in one of
our webinars. It was part of my report on the massive fuel spill,
from the Navy's Red Hill jet-fuel storage facility, into the aquifer that
supplies water for most of Honolulu. That site was built inside a
mountain to keep it secret during World War II. For more than 80
years it leaked into our water supply. After the massive spill, many
people were protesting, wanting the facility closed. I showed how the
site was obsolete for protecting the fuel supply because of
bunker buster bombs that can penetrate the mountain's sold rock. The
information below was part of that report. This is from our “Time
Machine
– news still relevant today.”Bunker buster [Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP)] bombs are carried and released by stealth bombers and guided to their
target by GPS satellite guidance. They have a tungsten-tipped warhead
that enables the bomb to punch through solid rock to get to a deeply buried
target beyond reach of other existing (non-nuclear) bombs. It can shatter
reinforced concrete. It penetrates underground before exploding. A
delay fuse protected in the tail of the bomb detonates the warhead
deep inside the target. It's depth of penetration is 200 feet.
UPDATE:
The bomb that targeted the nuclear facilities in Iran is GBU-57/B. GBU is an abbreviation for “guided bomb unit.”
The number 57 means it's the 57th design in the
series of this bomb. B is the designation for the adjustment
made by the military engineers.
Do Good for Others - Better Health for
You
Reported by Harvard Medical School, here
is another factor that
contributes to better health for you, including lower
blood pressure and longer
life span. A study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, published in the journal
Psychology & Aging, found adults over
the age of 50 who volunteered
on a regular basis were less
likely to develop hypertension compared
to non-volunteers. High
blood pressure is an important indicator of health because it
contributes to heart disease, strokes, and premature death. Lead
researcher Dr. Rodlescia Sneed and psychology professor Dr. Sheldon
Cohen studied adults age 51 to 91. They found those who did 200 or
more hours of
volunteer
work were 40% less
likely to report high blood pressure than those who did none.
It was the amount
of
time worked, not
the kind
of volunteer work that mattered. In summary: helping others
can help you.
Lick of Death
There is a rare but real
risk a dog could kill you
or make you very sick, without
biting you. Kristine Phillips, for The Washington Post,
reported a bacteria commonly
found in dogs and cats and present in saliva
of most healthy dogs, in rare cases, can poison your blood and
kill you. This bacteria is Capnocytophaga
canimorsus (C. canimorsus),
Kashmira Gander, for Newsweek,
reported as many as 74% of dogs and 57% of cats have this bacteria in
their mouth.
C.
canimorsus has been called the “lick of death.”
Manteufel was not
bitten by a dog. Saliva
from a dog is believed to have infected him with the bacteria. C.
canimorsus is commonly transmitted by dog bites.
58-year-old Sharon Larson's new puppy bit her causing a small cut.
She came down with flu-like symptoms. Two days later, she died of an
infection. She tested positive for Capnocytophaga.
Gander
reported for Newsweek that about one in 10 people who get infected
with this bacteria die. It tends to be an opportunistic infection.
People with weakened immune systems are at greatest risk. Some
risk factors for life-threatening
infection include alcoholism and not having a spleen or having
a spleen that does not
function normally. Manteufel and Larson did not
appear to have those risks.
Before
you pet a dog you do not
know or allow it to lick your hand or face, remember
the risk may be rare, but there is a risk because this bacteria may
be present in saliva of
most healthy dogs.
Doing Good and
Survival
In this world,
with so much injustice, crime, and corruption, it's surprising doing
good brings good back to you. On the morning of August 6, 1945, the
atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The city was destroyed, more
than 100,000 people died. It's estimated that during the
explosion ground temperature ranged 3,000 to 4,000 ℃ (5,432 to 7,232 ℉), hot enough to turn a
human body into a fine black dust to be blown away by the wind.
That's what Will Matsuda wrote in The NY Times, “Trees
That Survived Hiroshima.” Ginkgo trees are a tree species
that does good. It's one
of the oldest, most resilient trees on earth. A single tree can
live as long as 1,000 years. It survived the asteroid that killed the
dinosaurs. It was some of the only living things to survive the bomb
dropped on Hiroshima. Japanese survivors of the bomb are called
hibakusha 被爆者 [ひばくしゃ]. The surviving ginkgo trees are called hibakujumoku 被爆樹木 [ひばくじゅもく]. Some
of those trees are still alive today. Ginkgo is one of the
best-selling herbal supplements in the US and Europe. Ginkgo leaves
contain flavonoids and terpenoids, antioxidants that stop
free radicals from damaging our DNA and cells. Free radicals build up
as we age and may contribute to heart disease, cancer, and dementia.
Consult your doctor before taking ginkgo supplements. There may be
some potential side effects, including risk it can interact with
medications you are taking.
What is sex appeal? Most people seem to
believe they know what it is, but they cannot define it. One reason
may be because sex appeal is partly in the eye and mind of the
beholder. Movie star, Sophia Loren radiated sex appeal when she was
on the movie screen. She said, “Sex appeal is 50% what
you've got and 50% what people think you've got.” Marilyn
Monroe had sex appeal. She was considered a sex symbol and one of the
sexiest women of her time. But she may not have felt sexy because she
struggled with insecurities, anxiety, depression, and substance
abuse. She said, “Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to
carry, especially when one is tired, hurt, and bewildered.”
Scientists have pondered and actually
studied sex appeal, researching what attracts people to each other.
Most of the research on attraction involves heterosexual or straight
people. Ben Healy reported, for The Atlantic, “research
suggests that whether a trait is attractive depends on the type of
connection you're looking for.” Attractiveness is influenced
by the heart, mind, and eyes of the beholder. Some times,
depending on gender, the beholder may be wrong when it comes to
determining whether someone is attracted to them. Healy reported, a
study published in Evolutionary Psychology and another
in Evolutionary Psychological Science found “women
often mistake males' indications of sexual interest for expressions
of friendliness, men consistently mistake females' expressions of
friendliness for sexual interest.”
Remember what Sophia Loren said, “sex
appeal is 50% what people think you've got.” People
may be able to create their own sex appeal. Movie star, Audrey
Hepburn, was skinny and small-breasted. Someone with her body type
would probably not be considered sexy. She said, “I
don't need a bedroom to prove my womanliness. I can convey just as
much sex appeal picking apples off a tree or standing in the rain.”
Her movies proved she
was right about that, at least
in the movies.
Do You Like Chocolate?
If you like chocolate, you may like the
Vegan Double Chocolate Banana Macadamia Nut bread at Down To
Earth (DTE). That's a pretty long name. The label says:
“Double ChocBana Mac Nut” It
says it's “vegan” on the ingredients list on the shelf. I like it a lot. I get it at the Kakaako DTE.
It's made fresh in the store's kitchen. Different DTE stores may
offer different fresh pastries so I don't know if other DTE stores
have it. If you shop at a different DTE store, you can call and ask them. The
loaf is $8.59. I buy it by the slice because I'm afraid if I buy the
loaf I may eat too much of it at one time. I actually have done that.
It's a good-size slice for $3.49.
DTE Kakaako also
sells banana walnut bread by the slice which is around $2.99 for a
thick slice. I like this too.
Disclaimer:
I am not compensated for sharing information about Down To Earth
(DTE). I shop at DTE because I like DTE products because they are
good for health, including fresh, local, organic produce; a large
variety of quality grocery items; freshly-baked pastries; vitamins &
supplements; skin-care & hair-care products; household cleaning
products; made-to-order pizzas; hot deli buffet; and more.
We are being Warned
Bad news continues to get worse, as
what's happening in this world continues to worsen. EarthWeek:
Diary of a Changing World by Steve Newman reported meteorologists
in Alaska issued the state's first-ever heat advisory as
temperatures were forecast to hit 86°F as climate change accelerates
warming in Alaska.
Homes in Alaska are designed to trap heat and lack air conditioning
for summer, “making
even mid-80s temperatures a public health risk.”
Alaskan summers are
expected to get hotter and
more hazardous.
In
the rest of the world, “new
NASA data reveals that droughts and floods have intensified
dramatically over the past 5 years, occurring more
frequently, lasting longer and covering larger areas.”
Weather extremes last year (2024) were double
the 2003 to 2020 average.
Researchers point to climate change as the likely reason. “Scientists
said the steep rise in intensity is 'alarming'
and outpacing even the rate of global warming. Experts warn that many
communities and industries, particularly water utilities, are
unprepared for these abrupt and destructive shifts.”
“Greenland's
ice sheet melted 17 times faster than normal during a
record-setting May heat wave.”
Marine
(ocean) heat waves were once rare. Now they are “spreading
rapidly across all the world's major ocean basins, driven
overwhelmingly by climate change.”
We now have “super
marine heat waves”
that reach “unprecedented
intensity and are devastating ecosystems from coral reefs to
fisheries.”
Last year, “more
than 40% of ocean surface temperatures surpassed heat wave
thresholds, contributing to coral bleaching, rising sea levels, and
extreme weather such as
intensified tropical cyclones.” The
term,
“tropical
cyclone”
seems less serious or threatening than the word “hurricane,”
but a hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone. Once a tropical
cyclone reaches maximum sustained winds of 74 miles per hour or
higher, it is then classified as a hurricane, typhoon, or tropical
cyclone, depending on where the storm originates in the world. In
Hawaii, it would be a hurricane.
People Need to be
Careful
Roxane Gay
reported for The NY Times, “Making people
uncomfortable can now get you
killed.” In Kansas City, Missouri, a 16-year-old rang
the wrong doorbell, to pick up his younger brothers. He was shot by
an 84-year-old man in the
house. In upstate New York, a car turned around in a driveway. The
65-year-old home owner fired
twice at the car, killing a 20-year-old female passenger. In
Illinois, a man was using leaf blower in his own
yard. A 79-year-old neighbor
who started arguing with him, shot and killed him. 84-years-old,
65-years-old, 79-years-old, they may be cognitively impaired with
early-stage dementia. Should they have guns?
Please Help
If you benefit from this blog, please consider making a donation.
Click DONATE button near top of this page.
Donations go to Hawaii Institute of Integrative Health
dba Hawaii Health Foundation
501(c)(3) nonprofit organization - tax deductible
A Dirty Industry's Deadly Secret
Science journalist Justin Nobel, in
Sierra magazine, reported, “The oil and gas industry has
experienced record profits in recent years, and its CEOs take home
multi-million-dollar earnings. Meanwhile . . . the people who perform
the jobs supporting the industry face a harm that few in the public
see.” When fossil fuels are pumped out of the ground, “an
incredible amount of waste---often loaded with carcinogens,
heavy metals, and shocking amounts of radioactivity---comes
to the surface, and an invisible workforce inside the oil and gas
industry toils away handling it.” Nick Fischer believes the
job destroyed his health. He is 38 years-old. He lost 40 pounds
because he cannot keep down food; he has difficulty breathing,
arthritic pain in his neck, spine and knees; he loses feeling in his
arms, for months at a time; he has severe fatigue.Oil and gas extraction bring
radioactive elements to the surface. Fracking waste water can be a
radioactive brew corrosive to metal machines and rubber boots, but
workers are often not informed about health or radioactivity risks.
In one abandoned fracking wastewater treatment plant, Geiger counter
readings showed more radioactivity than 99% of the Chernobyl
Exclusion Zone. “About 96% of the oil and gas industry's
brine [waste water] is disposed of at facilities called injection
wells, where high-pressure pumps push the waste deep underground. . .
. the US Geological Survey has linked them to earthquakes across the
country. In Ohio and Texas, they have been documented leaking
fracking wastewater back to the surface, contaminating surface
water, pastureland, and other oil and gas wells.”
Nobel said risks of working with
radioactive oil and gas waste have been documented in scientific
journals and the industry's own reports. The toxic substances
oil and gas waste workers are exposed to can cause cancer, heart and
brain damage, liver and kidney problems, central nervous system
issues, birth defects. “Legal cases from the oil and gas
fields of Louisiana and Mississippi have been successful in linking
the harms to the bones and bodies of workers.” The
industry's own consultant wrote in the Society of Petroleum
Engineers' Journal of Petroleum Technology, “contamination
of oil and gas facilities with naturally occurring radioactive
materials is widespread” presenting “serious health
hazard” to workers.
The late New Orleans attorney Stuart
Smith won many cases suing companies like Shell, Chevron,
Exxon-Mobil. “Smith linked many of the industry's most
common jobs to radioactivity risks that pile up over time and may
lead to lethal cancers. His legal team used an analysis program
developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for
nuclear weapons workers.” They showed with over 99%
certainty leukemia, and lung, liver and colon cancers his clients
developed “were caused by radiation exposure in their work
in the oil and gas industry.” Smith said, “These
men are guinea pigs.”
A lot of salt is pulled out of the wastewater. A facility engineer explained in a community meeting that
the salts would be used as a deicer [on icy, winter roads] or even on
food. This salt is radioactive. One wastewater treatment plant
operator “packaged
the salts . . . and, in 2017, several chain stores began selling the
product branded as Clorox pool salts. As of late January, both
Walmart and BJ's were still selling the salts online.”
The industry has already shown it is not concerned about its workers.
They don't seem to have any more concern for the public.
Smart Meter Danger
Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) installed smart meters on homes to replace analog, odometer-like meters. Smart meters use wireless technology to transmit your electricity usage to HECO offices or service trucks. Some people worry about health risks from being bombarded by the electromagnetic signals transmitting your usage many times day and night. A smart meter is a connected smart device, a small computer with enough power to monitor and control your home's power and send information. Utility companies say these “digital meters and two-way communications systems enable customers to better understand their energy consumption and more effectively manage their electricity use, thus helping them save energy and better manage their overall energy bill.”
Tech Wellness warns that while the smart meter communicates with your utility company all day and night, “some pretty big-time EMFs [electromagnetic fields] are spitting out too. Depending on where your meter is located (e.g., close to bedrooms), you and your kids could be unhealthfully near a device that is shooting intermittent strong bursts of EMF radiation at you, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” If you live in a condominium building, meters for all units are often all in one room. “If you're unlucky enough to live near that big bank of meters that many complexes have, you're being blasted by all of them together, all the time!”
Smart meters use radio frequency microwave radiation similar to WiFi and cell phones. In 2011 the World Health Organization placed the frequency range of wireless devices in the “possible human carcinogen” category. See the graph on this post from a research report by Dr. Ronald Powell, a retired career US government scientist, who worked for the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He earned a PhD in Applied Physics from Harvard. The graph is from his research report, “Symptoms After Exposure to Smart Meter Radiation.” (click on graph to enlarge) Some symptoms are head aches, nausea, dizziness, ringing in ears, concentration and memory problems, eye problems, pressure in eyes, fatigue, cardiac symptoms, palpitations, arrhythmia.
Many people may not have noticeable symptoms when exposed to radio frequency (RF) radiation from smart meters or other wireless devices. Whether you notice symptoms or not, there is growing evidence about biological effects from being exposed to RF radiation. Healthline reported the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified EMFs in the RF range as Group 2B, possible human carcinogen. These fields are produced by cell phones, smart devices, tablets. “The current IARC evaluation from 2011 pointed to a possible link between RF radiation and cancer in people, particularly glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer.” The gliomas were often found on the same side of the head that people use to speak on their cell phone. The multi-trillion-dollar wireless industry assures us the technology is safe. This is what industry does, produces its own biased research, as did tobacco, DDT, asbestos, glyphosate. It took years of harm to many people before industry could no longer hide the truth. Now people are winning multi-billion-dollar lawsuits against glyphosate (Roundup) after decades of being told by the industry that glyphosate is safe.
HMSA – Hawaii's largest health
insurance company
Daryl Huff, for Hawaii News Now,
reported some doctors and families say, too often, HMSA [Hawaii Medical Service Association] is
refusing to pay for care they need. Hilo attorney, Ted Hong “compiled
the stories of more than 30 patients who say they were denied needed
care by HMSA's pre-authorization process.” Tammy Souza told
her husband, Craig McKinzie, HMSA refused to cover radiation treatment for her breast
cancer. He said, before she died, “The last thing she wrote
was, 'I want everyone to know that HMSA was basically
responsible for my death.'” 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.”
Charlene Orcino was examined by an
OBGYN who prescribed medication to stop her premature labor. She went
to two different pharmacies that told her HMSA refused to honor the
prescription. She had to be medivaced to Honolulu for emergency
delivery of an extremely premature baby at 25 weeks gestation. The
baby is “substantially disabled.” 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.
Total compensation to Mark Mugiishi,
HMSA President and CEO, rose from $2.5 million in 2021 to $3
million in 2022 (18.6% increase).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.
Nakagawa said compensation for the top
officers is determined by HMSA's board of directors. The board “also
voted to begin compensating itself.” Board Chair, Robert
Harrison was paid $105,000 in 2022. HMSA has 14 directors. Elizabeth
Hokada was paid $99,500; Lisa Sakamoto was paid $93,500. Other
directors received between $67,000 and $88,000 in 2022. According to
HMSA bylaws, the board is required to hold at least four regular
meetings a year.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.
Getting Cancer? – chances are good
Kate Kelland reported for Reuters that
an analysis published in The Lancet found “people
around the world are living longer, but many are also living sicker
lives for longer.” The study of all major disease and
injuries in 188 countries led by Dr. Theo Vos, a professor at the
Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of
Washington, found general health has improved world wide, but healthy
life expectancy has not increased as much, so people are living more
years with illness and disability. One illness that detracts from
quality of life and imposes heavy costs is cancer.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.
Information in this blog is not intended for diagnosis or treatment of any health condition. It does not take the place of medical advice from your physician or healthcare provider. Obtain advice from your own healthcare provider before making changes in your decisions or actions pertaining to your health.
Alert to FOLLOWERS: Thanks for clicking the FOLLOW button on this blog. FOLLOWERS are NOT notified when this blog is updated or when new posts are posted. The system that operates the entire platform does not do that.
