We Have Moved to a New Blog!

Hey Fellow Bloggers!

We are so glad you have stopped by!  If you are wondering why there have been no new posts, it is because we have moved!  Head on over to www.healthyoates.com and check out our new blog!  We would love your feedback!  Please come visit us there from now on!  We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Nathan and Jenni Oates

5 Secret Reasons You May Need More Vitamin C

by Sherry Baker

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Natural News

Back in the late l950s and l960s, Nobel prize winner Linus Pauling turned his attention to studying and documenting how vitamin C could improve health status and help the human body resist and heal from disease. His reward? By the time of his death in l994, he had been branded a “quack” by a large part of the medical community.

Now, almost 25 years after his passing, not only is his research being taken more seriously but other scientists are documenting how vitamin C can be the key to preventing and treating a host of health problems.

In fact, most everyone knows vitamin C is now lauded for helping to reduce symptoms of a cold if taken in sufficient quantity when sniffles first appear. But what you may not know is that researchers have found evidence strongly suggesting vitamin C can be used to head off some serious diseases and disorders — and may even help you lose weight!

In fact, some of these uses for the vitamin are just plain amazing. Yet you’ll seldom find vitamin C “prescribed” and,instead, are more likely to get drugs to treat maladies after they develop. And the odds are, your family doctor may be clueless about these ways vitamin C can help you.

Here’s the latest on the relatively secret but very real ways vitamin C can improve your health:

1. Burn more fat and keep pounds away.

Researchers in the Department of Nutrition at Arizona State University found that research subjects who had lowblood concentrations of C burned a whopping 25 percent less fat than those who had plenty of the vitamin in their body. The scientists think this may be because vitamin C is a co-factor for the biosynthesis of carnitine, a molecule your body needs to oxidize fatty acids. They concluded inadequate vitamin C could explain why some people have such a hard time losing and keeping off excess pounds.

2. Stop wheezing!

British scientists at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the Institute of Public Health in Cambridge studied 515 adults with asthma and 515 matched controls. They found that adults with symptomatic asthma had the lowest intake of fruit, especially citrus fruit, and low plasma vitamin C levels. These findings, the scientists stated in their research paper, suggest diet may be a potentially modifiable risk factor for the development of asthma.

3. More reasons to smile.

In the l700s, sailors found that eating limes during low sea voyages kept their gums healthy. No doubt the vitamin C in the fruit was responsible. Research published in the Journal of Periodontology showed that people with too little vitamin C have higher rates of periodontal disease. Also, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report inadequate C is associated with weakened tooth enamel as well as the painful inflammation of gums known as gingivitis.

4. Guard your looks.

The NIH also lists rough, dry and scaly skin as signs of too little C. So is dry hair and even split ends. What’s more, research published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that people who ate a lot of vitamin C-rich foods had fewer wrinkles than those with inadequate amounts of the vitamin.

5. Protect your heart.

While we all are bombarded with ads about statins and other drugs that purport to reduce the risk of heart disease, you seldom hear about the mounting evidence a natural therapy — vitamin C — may protect your cardiovascular system. A case in point: Finnish researchers published a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggesting higher doses of supplemental vitamin C cause the incidence of major coronary heart disease events like heart attacks to plummet.

So how much vitamin C do you need? Most experts agree that you can take large amounts. Vitamin C is not stored in the body so toxicity is very rare.

About the author

Sherry Baker is a widely published writer whose work has appeared in Newsweek, Health, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Optometry, Atlanta, Arthritis Today, Natural Healing Newsletter, OMNI, UCLA’s “Healthy Years” newsletter, Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s “Focus on Health Aging” newsletter, the Cleveland Clinic’s “Men’s Health Advisor” newsletter and many others.

Many Vitamin C products are synthetic so your body does not recognize it as a usable substance. Shaklee Sustained Release Vitamin C is a whole food source of Vitamin C and is like eating 1 1/2 oranges every 6 hours!  This means, instead of giving you a mega-dose of C that your body can not process and use in time (so you just go pee it out!), Shaklee’s Vitamin C slowly releases over a period of hours so that your immune system is getting a boost all day! Check it out at our Shaklee Website under “Antioxidants”!

Could Antibiotics Increase Your Child’s Risk of Developing Asthma?

Antibiotics in infancy may double asthma risk

British Columbia Research

Sharon Kirkey

CanWest News Service

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Babies treated with an antibiotic before their first birthdays are twice as likely as antibiotic-free infants to develop asthma, new Canadian research suggests.

And the risk of the chronic lung disease grows each time a baby is prescribed one of the drugs.

“This is the best evidence we have right now, and the best evidence that we have looks like there is potentially an association” between antibiotic exposure early in life and asthma, said lead author Dr. Carlo Marra, an assistant professor in pharmaceutical sciences at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.  “People should not be prescribing antibiotics unless they’re really necessary.”

The researchers, who pooled data from eight studies that included more than 12,000 children, found that children were up to 2.9 times more likely to develop asthma if they had been given an antibiotic before the age of one, compared with children who had not received an antibiotic.

In a second analysis, this one involving more than 27,000 children, the B.C. team found a 16% increase in risk for each additional course of antibiotics given to children.

“A lot of the infections in children — things like otitis media (middle ear infections), bronchitis and upper respiratory tract infections — are being over-treated,” Dr. Marra said.  “Those are the biggest indications for antibiotic utilization, and, particularly for bronchitis and upper respiratory tract infections, a lot of those are viral.” Antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses.

The findings are published in this month’s issue of the journal CHEST.

Asthma, which causes wheezing, coughing and chest tightness, is now the most common chronic disease of childhood.  Between 10 and 20% of children in Canada have it, and about 20 children and 500 adults die each year from asthma, according to the Lung Association.

A study released in January found the percentage of boys in Canada aged eight to 11 who were diagnosed with asthma increased from 16% in 1994/95 to 20% in 1998/99.  For girls of the same age, asthma jumped from 11% to about 15%.

Asthma rates have climbed dramatically in the last quarter century, and researchers have been trying to understand why.  The disease’s rise has been linked to everything from ground-level ozone to chlorinated pools.

But one theory blames exposure to antibiotics and the “hygiene hypothesis” — the idea that kids who are not exposed to enough microbes and germs develop weakened immune systems.

Two types of white blood cells, T-helper 1 cells that fight bacteria and viruses, and T-helper 2 cells that respond to parasites, normally live in harmony.  But children not exposed to enough viruses and bacteria may develop jittery immune systems, with an “underdeveloped Th1 system, and an over-developed Th2 system,” Dr. Marra said.  As a result, children overreact to pollen, dust mites and other normally harmless substances.

Other researchers have probed the asthma-antibiotic connection, but with conflicting results.

The Canadian researchers decided to combine the data to look at whether the use of antibiotics or dose matters.

Dr. Marra’s team reviewed studies that compared exposure to at least one antibiotic to no exposure in the first year of life.  Of the 12,082 children included, 1,817 cases of childhood asthma were reported.

Overall, infants given at least one antibiotic were 40% to roughly three times more likely to develop asthma as childhood progressed.

However, the association was highest in studies where parents of asthmatic children were asked, did your child ever receive an antibiotic in the first year of life?  They may be more likely to report antibiotic use than other parents, because it’s human nature for people with a disease to want to explain it.

It’s also possible that babies who have early asthmatic symptoms are being misdiagnosed with a respiratory tract infection and put on antibiotics, because asthma is difficult to diagnose in children under one.  In other words, the asthma came before the antibiotic.

Bigger and better-designed studies are needed, Dr. Marra said.  The researchers are embarking on a study funded by the B.C. Lung Association that will involve about 200,000 children across the province to determine “if there really is an association between antibiotic association and asthma” and whether there are different risks with different types of antibiotics.

© National Post 2006

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/cnspolitics/story.html?id=26ebae1e-e4ed-4981-9560-d99262d6d0b9

What a Great Weekend!

We had the privilege of being a part of Dr. Josh Axe’s Total Body Revolution this weekend which was hosted at Dave Ramsey’s conference center.  Dr. Josh does a fabulous job of equipping people with ways to improve their health, lose weight, and get the toxins out of their home.  That’s where we came in!  Shaklee Get Clean is the perfect way to rid your home of harmful toxins, AND save money in the process!  One bottle of our all-purpose cleaner, Basic H2, costs around $10 but make 48 gallons of super-powerful, yet completely non-toxic cleaner!

We had a lot of fun meeting new friends who were there with booths of their own: the guys from 9 Fruits Smoothies, Ronda with her amazing Agave and Sprouts machine, and Whitney Nell with Mercy Ministries.

We loved being around 350 other people who were eager to learn more about ways to get healthy and live longer!   It was a great conference! And a lot of people got rid of their harmful chemicals!

Asher, Our little Curious George

Don’t you love it when you leave your kids alone for a few minutes and then find them doing crazy things? At least this time it wasn’t something disastrous!

Asher is our little Curious George.  He wants to know how everything works.  We have found him playing in the potty, sitting on top of the dining room table, and attempting to escape from the house!  He is a busy little boy and soooo much fun!  Today, it was pencils…How does a 20 month old know how to sharpen pencils? Well, he figured it out!

Live Webinar Tuesdays at 8pm: Get Non-Toxic Cleaners & Save Money, Plus Nutrition Info and More!

Tune in every Tuesday night at 8pm Central time to hear Nathan and I talk about Shaklee Get Clean as well as nutrition for you and your family. Get Clean are non-toxic cleaning products that are safe for you, your home, and your planet. With asthma sky-rocketing to 1 in 13 school age children and autism at 1 in 88, we have to start looking for alternatives to the toxic chemicals that our children are being exposed to every day. These chemicals have an affinity for the brain, meaning, once they go in through the skin or through ingestion, they stay!  And they cause severe neurological issues or other problems!

Not only are Get Clean products safe, they will save you wallet!  Here’s one example for you.

Basic H2 is Shaklee’s super-concentrated all-purpose cleaner, window cleaner, and degreaser all-in-one. One 16 oz. bottle costs around $10.  Here is what it is equivalent to:

As an All-Purpose cleaner: Makes 214 28 oz. bottles of ready to use all-purpose cleaner. That’s $.05 per bottle!

As a Window/Mirror Cleaner: Makes 5,704 28 oz. bottles of window and mirror cleaner. That’s $.01 per bottle!

As a Degreaser: Makes36 28 oz. bottles of degreaser. That’s $.33 per bottle.

I don’t know about you, but if I can find something that is safe for my kids, great for our planet, and easy on the wallet, I’m in!  And the great thing is Shaklee Get Clean WORKS!  They are proven to be more effective than leading brands.

We are excited to have you join in our 35 minutes webinar to hear more details!

Click here to register:https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/464722866

Photo by GrayPhotography

Remembering Hosea Today

Almost three and a half years ago we had a beautiful little boy named Hosea Nathan.  He was perfect in every way!  After two girls, you can imagine all of our excitement!  One month later, Hosea passed away from SIDS–Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.  This earth-shattering tragedy rocked me to the core.  There were days I thought I would never see the light again…I thought I would never laugh or smile or be able to enjoy anything again (Picture at right by Julie Buckman with JellieBeanz Photography).

Losing a child is something that is impossible to explain to someone who has never walked this dark road. I ache for other mothers and fathers who know the pain of such a deep  loss.  You literally lose a piece of yourself.

I’m writing about him today because I think we are all thinking about him a lot these days. For some reason when the weather changes to fall, I think we all think of him even more.  There are so many fun things on the horizon…hay rides, PumpkinFest, trick-or-treating, the girls birthdays, daddy’s birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and my birthday…all between now and the end of the year!  It is like one big party once October hits!  But I think I am also reminded of how much I miss having a three year old little boy to enjoy the festivities with us!

But here we are, almost 3 1/2 years later and I can say that we have learned to live, laugh and love again. Our family misses Hosea terribly–the girls still talk about him almost on a daily basis. He is and forever will be a part of our family. But I am so thankful for the incredible healing we have walked through over the past few years and for an amazing husband who has been the glue of our family.  His faith and fight kept me moving forward to. I am thankful for Get Free Stay Free Ministries and all they have done for our family!

The girls can not wait for the day they go to heaven and get to play with Hosea.  They often imagine what he is doing and what they will do with him when they get their.  Eden says she will jump on clouds with him.  Micaiah wants to have a HUGE mansion next to his.  She thinks that he has saved all of the balloons we have ever sent him and that they are in his mansion waiting for her!

The girls love to get balloons, kiss them or write notes on them, and send them of to “heaven” for Hosea to have.  On his birthday we like to buy big bouquets of balloons and send them off one at a time!

 

Meet the little guy!

Morning at the Oates House

We woke up to very happy children this morning!  Beware…they were REALLY hyper!  What did daddy put in there water last night?

Time for breakfast!  Listen closely and you will hear Christmas in October!  Micaiah and Eden love Christmas music and play it all year round!  It definitely is starting to feel like Christmas outside! It went from the 70’s yesterday to 54 degrees this morning!

“I love you dad!”  combined with booger-filled kisses. What more could you want?

And now we are off to soccer games in the freezing cold weather!  Yay!!!

HealthyOates Detox Plan

Did you know that the average American male has 5 pounds of undigested red meat in his colon?

This is just ONE of the many things that can stay lodged in your colon and cause serious health issues unless you detox and cleanse not only your colon, but your other vital organs as well.

HealthyOates Detox:

1. Detox your body with our 3-day or 7-day detox plan–includes Shaklee supplements to aid in the process as well as a meal plan.

2. Eliminate Processed Foods– Rid your diet of white sugar and white flour (which have both been bleached), processed foods, and sodas (the carbonic acid destroys the inside of the body). Wash your fruits and veggies with Basic H2 to eliminate harmful pesticides. Stay tuned in future blogs for more on healthy food prep and options!

3. Get Regular Chiropractic Adjustments–Subluxations (or misalignment of the spine) hinder nerves from sending the proper messages to organs of the body, including the detox organs. Removing the interference on these nerves will ensure proper messages are running throughout the body. Our family sees a phenomenal chiropractor named Dr. Joshua Axe of Exodus Health Care (615.445.7701).

4. Rid the Home of Toxi Cleaning Products–Household cleaners are some of the most toxic and harmful substances known to man, yet we clean our homes with them and expose the people we love to these deadly chemicals. It is important as you detox to get rid of these harmful chemicals as well. Our family uses Shaklee Get Clean products. They are 100% natural and not harmful to our bodies or the environment and an added bonus…they are SUPER concentrated so they are SUPER on your wallet!  And, when you purchase the Get Clean Starter Kit you also make a positive impact on the planet: Eliminate 108 pounds of packaging waste from landfills and Eliminate 248 pounds of greenhouse gas.

Shaklee Detox package includes:

• Herb-Lax
• Garlic
• Optiflora System
• Liver DTX
• Alfalfa

You can purchase these items individually and get all or some of them. We detox twice a year and use all of these products and see incredible results! Contact us if you are interested in a 3 or 7-day detox program that is right for you! We will email you the program when you order your products! Send us an email shakleegobig@yahoo.com.

WHY DETOX?

The human body was designed with its own self-cleaning process. But too much sugar, caffeine, processed foods, foods covered in pesticides, stress, too little exercise, and even over-medication can slow the body’s natural detoxification function to a slow pace. As a result, your body can’t clean itself when it is put up against the increasing number of harmful and toxic substances in the environment.

It’s like a pond.  If no water is leaving the pond, the pond becomes stagnant and polluted. If the outflow of toxins is less than what is coming into our bodies, our bodies similarly become polluted!

Toxins come in many forms: pesticides in produce, formaldehyde in carpets and cosmetics, PCBs from plastic containers, dioxins from bleached paper products, mold in buildings, silver fillings, chemicals in our cleaning products, and more. Each of these toxins is contributing to the overall toxicity of our bodies.

Studies show that indoor air quality is 10 times more polluted and toxic than outside air, and in some cases the pollution was up to 100x the level as outdoor air. Furthermore, the chemicals that are emitted from our household cleaning products are some of the most deadly substances on earth. We clean our floors or counters and wash our dishes with harmful chemicals,that have never been tested by the EPA.

Our skin is the largest organ of the body and it is constantly being bombarded with toxins through household cleaners to personal beauty care products. The chemicals go through the skin, are inhaled, or even orally ingested (from plates and cups being cleaned in toxic dishwasher detergent). Many of these chemicals have an affinity for the brain, which means they lodge themselves in the base of the brain, constantly emitting deadly toxins into the brain and central nervous system (which controls every organ and function of the body). Your body will process and eliminate some of the hordes of chemicals that enter, but overflow gets stored in the liver, lungs, kidneys, fat cells, intestines, blood stream, and skin—which can result in chronic illnesses down the road. Many conditions like ADD, ADHD, Autism, liver, heart, and kidney disease, and many more can be a result of an excess of toxins in the body. When you undergo a detox, you get these toxins out of your system.

Read more on detox at here.

The Sweet Sound of Eden Grace

I had a frustrating night trying to conquer and divide wordpress.org!  We are working on a new site, but sadly, I’m not a “code” guru so it has been more difficult than I planned on!  That’s Ok though!  I woke up to this!  This will brighten anyone’s day!