Friday, December 23, 2022
Thursday, December 1, 2022
Breath
I breathe in and all dissolves. I breathe out and create anew. Every breath is an opportunity to create. I get to choose that creation as I am recreated with every breath.
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Why do I have hope?
Why do I have hope.
In this time where there appears to be so much chaos. The oceans are dying, the farms are decreasing and things seem hopeless and I have hope.
I have hope because I have love, because I can see the beauty in the world.
I see beauty in the sunrise and i fall in love.
I feel the major shift in conscious awareness.
So many working towards healing their wounds and finding their true selves.
I see love in the eyes of babes and in the reflection in the mirror I finally see beauty and I see you.
I have hope when I see the resilience of Humanity and the return to love of the earth. When I see so many rising up and speaking their truth, loud and proud.
I have hope because I see that we are moving towards oneness. Never have there been so many opening up to truth. From chaos comes order?
I believe that the world can shift in an instant if we all find our alignment and the beauty that we are and this gives me hope. It gives me a vision.
“In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.” ~Carl Jung, CW 9i, Para 66
I HAVE HOPE.
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Numbers 3,4,8 and 9 in your food and regarding your health
What do the numbers 3,4, 8 and 9 have to do with your health and wellness?
You know those little stickers on fruits and veggies? They're called price look-up (PLU) codes and they contain numbers that cashiers use to ring you up. But you can also use them to make sure you're getting what you paid for. If you are interested in staying healthy, here's what to look for:
• A five-digit number that starts with a 9 means the item is organic. Eating organically—or better yet, biodynamically—grown produce is paramount. This can be identified at the grocery store by a five-digit bar code starting with the number "9," or purchased from your local biodynamic grower.
• A four-digit code beginning with a 3 or a 4 means the produce is probably conventionally grown. For example, regular small lemons sold in the U.S. are labeled 4033, large are 4053; small organic lemons are coded 94033, large are 94053. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of food quality when it comes to the prevention of disease. Sure, a conventionally grown bell pepper (identified by a sticker with a four-digit bar code starting with the number "4") will contain the healthy compound beta-cryptoxanthin, but it will also come with a whole host of cancer-causing chemicals on it.
• A five-digit code that starts with an 8 means the item is genetically modified (it has genes from other organisms). You won't see many of those because only genetically modified versions of corn, soybeans, canola, cotton, papaya, and squash are now widely sold. And because PLU codes aren't mandatory, companies can label those items as conventional.
Authenticity and I...
The meaning: genuineness, legitamacy...the quality of being believable or trustworthy
I had to face a shadow side to my authenticity. I found that deep dark, gnarly part of me called inauthentic and she was unrecognizable. I hid her so far and deep for so long that I couldn't recognize her. It was startling. How many times had I been inauthentic? Obviously many, many times, judging from the shadow I faced.
I desire to be authentic in all my dealings and to walk the path of that. However, can one truly always be authentic? Does society allow for this? Am I afraid?
The answer is yes, when we decide to chose that and no, society may not always be open to it and yes, I am afraid!
The dance of life and belonging is always interesting. We humans wish to belong and sometimes we compromise our own individuality and authenticity to do so. I am walking this path and watching myself. There are many days that I wonder who I am and what my purpose is and how am I supposed to show up in the world. I feel lost and unsure. I feel caught between who I chose to be and belonging.
I know on an intellectual level that I am love and divine and have even had real moments of feeling my divinity and the depth of love that I, and we all, are. I do however struggle to maintain that love and peace at all time and I guess that is the experience of life and what we are all here to learn and strive for?
AM I authentic? Do I always say what I mean and mean what I say? I know I am trust worthy. I have lost many friendships since moving to the USA and living in Minnesota, due to saying exactly what is on my mind and in my heart. People tell you that they want honesty but most cannot handle it. I do not say things to hurt anyone and most certainly do not wish anyone harm, however, saying too much has been taken in the wrong light by many.
It is interesting that most of us do not take a moment to check our own reactions to what is being offered in conversation as a gift. An opportunity to see what it is that is affecting us thusly. What is it showing us that needs to be healed, addressed and loved? A gift in the sense that we can shift, grow and change through the experience, through the emotions.
Holding space for each other to be authentic and honest without taking everything personally. I make a sincere effort to always look within when I feel an emotional response to another's comments or conversation. What is there to learn and see in all of this for me.
I also find that my circle is growing smaller and smaller and I tend to be quieter, more cautious and keep my opinion to myself. They are just opinions after all.
It may serve us well to remember that we all have differing opinions and thoughts and beliefs and that they come from our own experiences and programming and maybe our reactions do too? Is our response coming from our true self or from communal programming?
I am paying more attention to being authentic in all my days and ways, and I am being more compassionate and understanding when it is not received as intended. I am making sure that I am trustworthy in my own internal dialogue and promises. Too be trusted one must first trust one self and that builds when we do what we say we are going to do and act as we chose to act. (I am talking about those internal conversations and promises) I am training my brain and creating new programming. I am the master of my brain.
Friday, November 4, 2022
Rotten...Lawyers, Guns and Honey (EPISODE 1)
An amazing documentary on Honey and current corruption from China... (Episode 1)
It was so interesting to learn about the adulteration by China of our Honey supplies in the past and how important it is to know exactly where your honey comes from...MORE and more, it is becoming crucial to follow the money and know where you food is coming from.
The following Episodes cover, peanuts, garlic, milk, cod
Monday, October 17, 2022
Folic Acid Tied to a 44% Reduction in Suicide Attempts
Folic Acid Tied to a 44% Reduction in Suicide Attempts
Folic acid/vitamin B9, may provide a safe and effective approach for decreasing suicidal ideation, new research suggests. After adjusting for multiple factors, results from a large pharmaco-epidemiological study showed taking folic acid was associated with a 44% reduction in suicide events.
"These results are really putting folic acid squarely on the map as a potential for large-scale, population-level prevention," lead author Robert D. Gibbons, PhD, professor of biostatistics, Center for Health Statistics, University of Chicago, Illinois, told Medscape Medical News.
"Folic acid is safe, inexpensive, and generally available, and if future randomized controlled trials show this association is beyond a shadow of a doubt causal, we have a new tool in the arsenal," Gibbons said.
Having such a tool would be extremely important given that suicide is such a significant public health crisis worldwide, he added.
The findings were published online September 28, 2022 in JAMA Psychiatry.
Previous Research "Fairly Thin"
Folate, the naturally occurring form of B9, is essential for neurogenesis, nucleotide synthesis, and methylation of homocysteine. Past research has suggested that taking folate can prevent neural tube and heart defects in the fetus during pregnancy — and may prevent strokes and reduce age-related hearing loss in adults.
In psychiatry, the role of folate has been recognized for more than a decade. It may enhance the effects of antidepressants; and folate deficiency can predict poorer response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
This has led to recommendations for folate augmentation in patients with low or normal levels at the start of depression treatment.
Although previous research has shown a link between folic acid and suicidality, the findings have been "fairly thin," with studies being "generally small, and many are case series," Gibbons said.
The current study follows an earlier analysis that used a novel statistical methodology for generating drug safety signals that was developed by Gibbons and colleagues. That study compared rates of suicide attempts before and after initiation of 922 drugs with at least 3000 prescriptions.
Its results showed 10 drugs were associated with increased risk of suicide attempts after exposure, with the strongest associations for alprazolam, butalbital, hydrocodone, and combination codeine/promethazine. In addition, 44 drugs were associated with decreased risk, many of which were antidepressants and antipsychotics.
"One of the most interesting findings in terms of the decreased risk was for folic acid," said Gibbons.
He and his colleagues initially thought this was because of women taking folic acid during pregnancy. But when restricting the analysis to men, they found the same effect. Their next step was to carry out the current large-scale pharmaco-epidemiological study.
Prescriptions for Pain
Researchers used a health claims database that included 164 million enrollees. The study cohort was comprised of 866,586 adults with private health insurance (81.3% women; 10.4% aged 60 years and older) who filled a folic acid prescription between 2012 and 2017.
More than half of the folic acid prescriptions were associated with pain disorders. About 48% were for a single agent at a dosage of 1 mg/d, which is the upper tolerable limit for adults — including in pregnancy and lactation.
Other single-agent daily dosages ranging from 0.4 mg to 5 mg accounted for 0.11% of prescriptions. The remainder were multivitamins.
The participants were followed for 24 months. The within-person analysis compared suicide attempts or self-harm events resulting in an outpatient visit or inpatient admission during periods of folic acid treatment vs during periods without treatment.
During the study period, the overall suicidal event rate was 133 per 100,000 population, which is one fourth the national rate reported by the National Institutes of Health of 600 per 100,000.
After adjusting for age, sex, diagnoses related to suicidal behavior and folic acid deficiency, history of folate-reducing medications, and history of suicidal events, the estimated hazard ratio (HR) for suicide events when taking folic acid was 0.56 (95% CI, 0.48 to 0.65) — which indicates a 44% reduction in suicide events.
"This is a very large decrease and is extremely significant and exciting," Gibbons said.
He noted the decrease in suicidal events may have been even greater considering the study captured only prescription folic acid, and participants may also have also taken over-the-counter products.
"The 44% reduction in suicide attempts may actually be an underestimate," said Gibbons.
Age and sex did not moderate the association between folic acid and suicide attempts, and a similar association was found in women of childbearing age.
Provocative Results?
The investigators also assessed a negative control group of 236,610 individuals using cyanocobalamin during the study period. Cyanocobalamin is a form of vitamin B12 that is essential for metabolism, blood cell synthesis, and the nervous system. It does not contain folic acid and is commonly used to treat anemia.
Results showed no association between cyanocobalamin and suicidal events in the adjusted analysis (HR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.80 - 1.27) or unadjusted analysis (HR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.80 - 1.28).
Gibbons noted this result boosts the argument that the association between folic acid and reduced suicidal attempts "isn't just about health-seeking behavior like taking vitamin supplements.”
Another sensitivity analysis showed every additional month of treatment was associated with a 5% reduction in the suicidal event rate.
"This means the longer you take folic acid, the greater the benefit, which is what you would expect to see if there was a real association between a treatment and an outcome," said Gibbons.
The new results "are so provocative that they really mandate the need for a well-controlled randomized controlled trial of folic acid and suicide events," possibly in a high-risk population such as veterans, he noted.
Such a study could use longitudinal assessments of suicidal events, such as the validated Computerized Adaptive Test Suicide Scale (CAT-SS), he added. This continuous scale of suicidality ranges from sub-clinical, signifying helplessness, hopelessness, and loss of pleasure, to suicide attempts and completion.
As for study limitations, the investigators note that this study was observational, so there could be selection effects. And using claims data likely underrepresented the number of suicidal events because of incomplete reporting. As the researchers point out, the rate of suicidal events in this study was much lower than the national rate.
Other limitations cited were that the association between folic acid and suicidal events may be explained by healthy user bias; and although the investigators conducted a sensitivity analysis in women of childbearing age, they did not have data on women actively planning for a pregnancy.
"Impressive, Encouraging"
Commenting for Medscape Medical News, Shirley Yen, PhD, associate professor of psychology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, described the new findings as "quite impressive" and "extremely encouraging.”
However, she noted "it's too premature" to suggest widespread use of folic acid in patients with depressive symptoms. Yen, who has researched suicide risks previously, was not involved with the current study.
She did agree with the investigators that the results call for "more robustly controlled studies. These could include double-blind randomized controlled trials that could "more formally assess" all folic acid usage as opposed to prescriptions only, Yen said.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention (US Department of Veterans Affairs). Gibbons reported serving as an expert witness in cases for the US Department of Justice; receiving expert witness fees from Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and Wyeth; and having founded Adaptive Testing Technologies, which distributes the Computerized Adaptive Test Suicide Scale. Yen has reported no relevant financial relationships.
Reference: JAMA Psychiatry. Published online September 28, 2022. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.2990. Association Between Folic Acid Prescription Fills and Suicide Attempts and Intentional Self-harm Among Privately Insured US Adults <https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2796907?guestAccessKey=9b279b0a-926b-4561-8b55-e943fd904f8e&utm_source=silverchair&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=article_alert-jamapsychiatry&utm_content=olf&utm_term=092822>