When I first read that the Canadian company Upaya Naturals provided online customers with raw food delights, I wondered what kind of idiot can’t just buy a raw carrot from the local food store and eat it.  Even if you are a shut-in, local stores deliver, so where is the market for Upaya Naturals?

Silly me. Upaya Naturals provides online shoppers with hard to find, all natural, vegan cheeses and ice creams that actually taste good while providing lots of nutrients.They arrive on ice to your very doorstep, where you can be waiting, crackers in hand, or spoon in fist, in eager anticipation of the yummy, delectable treats that are being delivered to your home. 

Cashew-based Ice Cream. It tastes like dairy ice cream, without the guilt.

If you find the wait too exciting, be sure to order aromatherapy essential oils that calm the nerves, and smell divine.

Get all of your favourite blender recipes at the ready also. Upaya Naturals carriesVitamix and Blendtec blenders, the cadillac of blenders/juicers on the market today. You can prepare bread mixtures, and soups, as well as smoothies and ice creams, without having to fiddle with numerous attachments. Push a button and you are off to the races.

The Vitamix Deluxe 5200 is touted as the best blender on the market, but the following videos offer conflicting evidence in this regard. You can also buy Vitamix at your friendly neighbourhood Costco store, if interested. You can save yourself the shipping fees that way, as they are presently on sale, and therefore cost the same as ordering from the company online. Ask for a demo before you buy.

The Vitamix Blendtec Kitchen Aid Challenge. You decide. The facts in these two videos conflict. Kitchen Aid is far less expensive and appears to do the trick.

The Vitamix Blendtec Challenge. 

 Why pay for Blendtec or for Vitamix if Kitchen Aid is just as efficient, if not moreso?  And it’s half the price at $199.00 How do they all fare with breadmaking? We want more tests please, before we take a Vitamix home!

Upaya Naturals also carries Superfoods, Greens etc. that are vegan-friendly. Power up so that you will have th strength inyour arms to lift that spoonful of healthy cashew-based ice cream to your lips, over and over again. After all, you have many delectable flavours to try. You need muscle mass.

So please, do yourself a favour and check out Upaya Naturals’ website.

I can hardly wait to try the cashew-based ice creams. I have never tried them before, but everyone says that they are great. I know that there are some almond and soy-based ice creams that are out there these days that are absolutely delicious. I wonder if the cashew-based ice creams give them a run for their money?

And don’t forget to brush your teeth! Yep. Upaya Naturals carries healthy,  flouride-free tooth cleansers also. And skincare products. And the kitchen sink. Okay, everything but.

Speaking of the kitchen sink. Upaya Naturals carries one of, if not the best, water filtration systems on the market today: Wellness Kitchen S-III Filtration. This countertop water filtration system can also be easily mounted under the sink with the purchase of an adapter kit. What is most wonderful about this Wellness filtration system is that trace mineral that we need for our health are added back to the water supply after filteration has occurred. If you are concerned about pharmaceuticals, heavy metals and fecal matter making it into your drinking and bathing water, this filtration system will give you the quality of water and the peace of mind you need.

Unless, of course, you enjoy all those pharmaceuticals in your water!

Perhaps we could just bottle it and sell it ourselves to those chronics residing in families that have purchased water filters.

Hmmm.

Just an evil, entrepreneurial thought.

Pat.

Song sunscreen.

Alright. Who invented ultraviolet rays anyway, and what good are they? What bad are they seems obvious enough. They leave us with serious radiation burns and damaged retinas, followed by a good chance of developing cancer. Great planning there, gods that be. Psychopathic geniuses. Over-the-edge creators of destructive forces. WTF! Do you want us here or don’t you?

Regardless, we want to continue to be here since we are here already and don’t enjoy looking forward to the prospect of hiding indoors for all eternity, or to frying like bacon sizzling in a pan 30 seconds after we venture forth into the sunlight on our ozone depleted planet.

We need sun protection that works.

And chocolate.

We need chocolate.

And air conditioning.

So the chocolate doesn’t melt.

I am sure that all those African children forced into slave labour on cocoa plantations wouldn’t want their efforts to provide me with a perfect chocolatey treat to be thwarted by 45 degree Celsius heat.  And someone had better step up to the plate and provide those kids with UV  protection. Oh yes, and while they’re at it; an education, adequate food, clean water, clothing, housing, sanitation, and access and/or return to their families.

Fair trade or no trade.

Chocolate is too complicated. I’ll settle for apple juice from Ontario. And potato chips, from Ontario.

And suncreen and sunglasses from whoever makes the best, safest products on the planet. Sans slavery or child labour or evil commercial practices.

Who could this be?

I’ll let you know, as soon as I find out.

Apparently, the right amount of UV rays helps us synthesize Vitamin D. Vitamin D is thought to be essential for the growth of healthy bones and teeth and for the proper functioning of the thyroid. Too little can result in osteoporosis and breast cancer, as well as tooth loss and thyroid trouble. Melanin production is supposed to offset and repair the mild damage this correct amount of UV ray exposure causes.

UVA rays are just a visit from the anti-Christ. They cause deeper, nastier, radiation damage to the skin and the eyes.

UVB rays are the friendlier folks that help us make Vitamin D when they react with certain chemicals in our skin.

Sunshine Superman.

And Sunshine Superwoman!

And all of us in between.

But Sunshine Superman et al had better be wearing Sunshine Superman sunscreen, sunglasses, hat and loose-fitting long-sleeved shirt and light cotton pants over their Speedos if they want to escape Kryptonite poisoning.

Vitamin D is added to milk cartons and vitamin supplements in order to provide us with that bone-mass building boost without risking free, yet unwanted laser therapy from the sun.

I think we need to rethink that phrase, “sunny disposition”.

The sun obviously hates us.

Yellow is not mellow.

Which sunscreens are safe and effective? The Environmental Working Group, EWG for short, has published research on 258 sunscreens popular and available on the world market today. Only 40 of these sunscreens did not contain ingredients that were either ineffective or dangerous, or both. Please check out the list at their website, http://ewg.org/.   Or google ewg suncreen.

The EWG is a stand alone organization that depends upon donations from you, the public, in order to fund its very important research. Their aim is to keep everyone safe from commercial greed and stupidity and financial desperation, any combination of which allows deadly and questionable materials to be utilized in cosmetics, foodstuffs, health care and beauty products. Please check out their site. You will be impressed with the vast amount of information they have provided on thousands of products that we use every day — and often shouldn’t.

The EWG even notes which companies have been using animal testing and which ones are not. The EWG does not condone animal testing.

Good for them.  The EWG sunscreen safety list is a godsend.

It’s a dog’s life. EWG sunscreen list rocks.

I am currently researching the ethics utilized with regard to treatment of workers employed at the various green-lighted companies, so that we can be sure to promote companies  that are attempting to provide proper wages and safety conditions for their employees, as well as excellent products for consumers.

Ditto with regards to sunglasses manufacturers.

Please note that sunscreen should be applied once every two hours regardless of its SPF rating. Higher ratings are supposed to ensure that one can stay out in the sun longer without turning red, but this has not proven to be the case. And if one does not turn red, apparently, UV damage can still take place. The delayed appearance of redness can indeed be contributing to long-term UV damage, by lengthening the amount of time people stay out in the sun.

That’s just great.

From personal experience, kukui oil works amazingly well. Not only does it heals burns and scarring and get rid of little age lines, I did not burn once on a trip to Hawaii after I discovered and used this local product prior to venturing out into paradise. I have no idea as to whether I have suffered long term UV damage, but I do know that I burned to a crisp the first day in Hawaii, when we went to Waikiki Beach. I was only frolicking in the water for a few minutes and was lobster red. I applied aloe vera, which usually does the trick for me, both as a sunburn preventative and as an after burn fix, if I had not had the opportunity to apply anything before venturing outside.

The aloe vera did not work at all this time. One of the lovely locals told me about kukui oil, so we all gave it a shot.

Kukui nut

Kukui oil is a miracle from heaven. It is full of vitamins A and E and other goodies that a great for the skin. And it truly stopped us from burning. We were in Hawaii for two weeks. I would put some kukui oil on before swimming and after I got out, or once every two hours if I was swimming any longer than that, or hanging around on the beach. We went on a whale watching expedition on the Big Island of Hawaii, and kukui oil kept us from burning under the glaring sun.

Take it from me; kukui oil could be the friendly, god-given product that you are looking for.

Well.ca and Amazon.com  and Herbal Remedies.com all carry excellent kukui oil products. I just use plain kukui oil because it did the trick for me.

Why mess with perfection? 

Macadamia nut oil is supposed to be really good for the skin also, and some brands offer a combination of the two oils, as well as grapefruit seed oil and lavender essential oil. Lavender oil is used to treat skin burns and as an antiinflammatory. Grapfruit seed oil is used  in massage oil to break down cellulite.

For  a review of excellent sunglasses, and why they are excellent, please check out my sunglasses blogs at this website, Over The Hill Health Matters. Right here. Simply go the the Categories section and punch up Vision. It’s easy. You can do it. It’s a lot easier than me writing it all over again, when nothing has changed with regard to the information available on sunglasses, except to warn you that some inexpensive sunglasses have been found to be better than some very expensive ones. None of the styles in the brands that I have noted are bad for anyone. Just make sure that you get as much protection for the side of the eye as you do for the front, and all will be well if they are graded as at least  UPF 400. This means that you need to buy sunglasses that have wrap around lenses or very wide temple arms, or both. Opting for stylish but stupid isn’t going to matter too much to you or your fans if you go blind, now is it?

Think smart.

Don’t be a tart.

Getting ready for the beach. Leaving the mud mask on.

Forget bringin’ sexy back, boys and girls. 

Get those godawful goggle wrap arounds. Wear that goofy, wide-brimmed hat and those baggy cotton pants and top. Lather your face with thick viscosity motor oil. It doesn’t burn in engines, so it should protect you from the sun. Carry a giant umbrella. Wear gloves. And oh yes; always wear socks with sandals.

I guess the extremist Muslims are right: buy a burqa and wrap around sunglasses, or stay indoors.

Song sunscreen

That goes for you men too! Unless you prefer the balaclava/sunglasses look.

But then you will be shot as a thief or a terrorist.

Better to be a boy in a burqa.

Song sunscreen. (traffic generating phrase)

Actually, try out some of the latest sunscreen clothing on the market today. SunSoul UV Protectant Clothing, brought to you by The Freedom Store.ca.

Pat.

Emily Isaacson, a certified naturopath from the Xa:ytem First Nation of British Columbia, has designed The Rainbow Program. Six small meals a day as opposed to the more usual three square (plus elevenses for we Hobbits).

And Rainbow is not just a cute name. Rainbow refers to the fact that if you select one serving from each of the food colour groups each day, you will be providing your body with a completely balanced intake of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients such as antioxidants, in the correct amounts to boost your metabolism, slim down, and stay energized and become mentally sharp.

If you choose a starch from one of the colour groups, for example, you would balance that out with a choice of a protein from another colour group, and a fat from yet another group. Each of the six small meals must cover one of the colour groups not included in the other meals. Fruits are taken away from other foods in order to aid in effective, non-overtaxed digestion.

Apparently, this colour-coded culinary approach works like a charm.

Eat losing weight. (Necessary keyword phrase for the search engines, folks. Gotta do it.)

Please check out Ms. Isaacson’s successful, delightful, and extremely colourful nutritional program at the following URL: http://www.therainbowprogram.com/. Eat losing weight. (Keyword phrase necessary for traffic. My apologies.)

Also check out the Xaytem Healing Program and Xaytem Longhouses. Perhaps you will find this path to health is just for you!

Just think of the fun we could have with colour-blind people.

Yes.

I mean, no.

Pass me a carrot.

And some avocado.

And some nachos?

Fine. No nachos.

Chips? No chips.

cheeburger, pepsi, coke, no pepsi

I miss you John Belushi.

But I don’t feel like joining you anytime soon, so I’ll try the Rainbow diet.

And oh yeah; eat losing weight.

Bad grammar brings big traffic. New online mantra. It’s the only way I’ll get used to the use of keyword inserts.

Pat.

My eyes are dim, I cannot see. I have not brought my specs with me. I have naw ot brought my specs with me.

That’s because I do not carry a purse and the glasses case is too bulky for my pocket.

I want folding reading glasses! Half-eye folding glasses, actually. I am always looking up and around from whatever it is that I am reading, whether it be momentary, or my nose pressed into a book for hours at a time.

I must look around. And I always pay for it.

Bam

My eyes are smashed by an evil focal point.

Knives-in-my-eyes.com. My new URL.

I believe it’s taken, actually.

“Be near-sighted, goddammit! Don’t try to look past your paperwork.”

I don’t wear my glasses when I should because I keep hurting myself. And because they are never with me.

Half-eye lenses are actually harder to find than folding reading glasses. Eye Bobs dot com has a lot of cool and funky styles, but only one half-eye lense frame, as they call it. Lots of folding glasses, though. But they do not have half-eye lenses in them.

I hate you Eye Boobs! I mean, Bobs. You were to be my funky cool internet saviour. But nooo.

Not much else out there in Webville. So I guess I’ll just hit the local mall and see what’s in-store for me there. Get it?

Remember, always get your eyes checked by a qualified physician. Your opthamolgist knows best. Just buying reading glasses from Walmart without getting a thorough eye examination can result in eye conditions going undetected in their early stages.

And we don’t want that.

Eye Bobs‘ frames are fully compatible with prescription lenses, so punch in the URL and check out this fun sight.

I mean site.

I want folding half-eye lense glasses.

Wah.

If you know where I can find some, please let me know.

Thanks!

Pat

Then I’ll put some clothes on.

I’m sure this image will help you all stick to your diets!

See; I’m always thinking about you.

I have only begun to wear reading glasses this year. I just can’t see the tiny print on small bottles. Being in food service, I can’t not know what ingredients are in the dishes that I am making.

As I have mentioned before, I work in the Toronto film industry. Once a certain continuity lady on set asked me whether  the brown rice and a million vegetables and cashews and cheddar cheese risotto had any red peppers in it. “Why, no,” said I. “Great”, she said, “because I break out in hives and then my throat closes down and I have to be rushed to the hospital.”

I take the finished dish out to the crew craft table amid the myriad of condiments that have been placed there at an earlier time. I return to the truck, but I keep getting a nagging feeling that all is not well in risotto land, so I go back on set to check things out.

Here is the continuity lady sprinkling some pale red spicy-looking stuff on her risotto. I grab the container after she has finished and run to find enough light to read the ingredients, begging her not to taste another morsel until I get back with the verdict.

I cannot read the infinitismally small writing and need to find someone who can.

That was no-one.

The type-face was so small that we had to find a guy with coke-bottle lenses and borrow them.  Does Emily listen and stop mowing down risotto a la hives?

No.

Is the container full of dried red pepper, and only dried red pepper?

Oh, yes it is.

Do I tell her this and advise that she stops eating it immediatement and get ready for a free trip to the nearest hospital?

Yes, I do.

Does she listen?

No.

I was going to say “of course not,” but  the answer really isn’t “of course not”. If you were deathly allergic to red pepper, and you accidentally ate a ton of it because it didn’t look like any rep pepper product that you had ever seen before, don’t you think that you would stop eating it, freak out in circles and grab the nearest person by the throat and demand to be taken to the hospital for a shot of some epinephrine or whatever because you were so stupid that you didn’t carry an epi-pen with you? I think the odds are quite high that you would.

This woman ate another entire bowl of red pepper-laced risotto.

“Was that wise?’ I asked, cooly, but incredulously. “It’s delicious! I’m sure I’ll be alright!”

There are times when “delicious” and “alright” are not copacetic. Usually when one has a deadly allergy to something yummy. One does not usually eat something that one does not find delicious. Hence the danger of delicious-tasting deadly food.

We were filming and the room was velvet black. I left under this cover of darkness, retreating to my truck in order to regroup my thoughts — and my nerves. Any moment now, that stubborn woman would require medical attention, clutching at her throat and pointing wildly with her other hand at the culprit risotto on the table. “Red pepper”, she would gasp with her last breath. Every one would remember that I had come running in and dashed off with Mr. Dash, or something just as suspicious. I had come back in with the same bottle and replaced it on the table. Then Emily had helped herself to more of this substance and poured it all over her risotto, as I had watched from the corner with terrified eyes. “Pat poisoned the spice bottle!” they would say.  “Emily was alright after the first bowl, but the second one killed her!”

They are film people, after all.

An obvious allergy and a person too stupid to not eat it or read a label before dowsing their food with their own personal death-bringer, would be the last thing to cross their minds. It is easier to blame craft service.

If the soup on the stove is hot, and they help themselves and drink it, they still blame us because it wasn’t at perfect drinking temperature.”Hey! This soup is too hot!” And the porridge. You guessed it. “Hey! This porridge is too cold! That’s because it is lunchtime Goldilocks and I’m using it as an ingredient in a cranberry oatmeal loaf for this evening.

No matter. Daggers shoot from everyone’s eyes at a craft person if something is not right on set.

“Hey! This light isn’t working! That’s because the craft person must have tripped and tugged it out of the wall.”

“Hey! This dress doesn’t fit the actress anymore! That’s because she ate too much food from craft service. I told them not to feed her, no matter how much she cries.”

“Hey, that guy just pushed all the shades off the edge of the truck! That’s because the craft person didn’t tell him the gate platform wasn’t down.”

“Hey! My stash is missing!”

That’s because this craft person gave it to the director, so he could function and get this shit-hole of a movie finished.

Kidding.

On the last part.

No-one takes personal responsibility on set if there is someone else to blame for their own mistakes.

Just remember; it wasn’t Craft Service, it was Locations.

As for Emily- which isn’t her real name; I had already informed a production assistant along route that someone was about to need medical assistance due to a previously unannounced food allergy. I had already ordered some allergy medication be sent to set. Short of dragging her out of her chair by her hair, there really wasn’t much more that I could do.

It has been my experience over the last ten years working in Craft, that film people also lie. A lot.  Let’s be nice and call it “taking creative licence.”

Emily did get hives, but the antihistamine worked like a charm. Had she been as allergic as she had said that she was, it would not have made a dent. She had eaten enough red pepper powder to kill a horse — with allergies of course.

She had not read the label, and neither had I. No-one could. So I have bought reading glasses so that I can read very tiny script.

Emily should too.

My reading glasses are okay, but I am on the search for fun and funky.

I’m checking out many sites to see what is out there in the online community. I’ll post my results tomorrow. If anyone has great suggestions with regard to this search for quality products at great prices, please let me know!

I’ll give your suggestions a go.

Pat

Ouch, that hurts.

But not as much as vision distortion or eventual blindness from not wearing any sunglasses at all.

There are some excellent sunglasses out there on the market these days, as anyone with a regular pay cheque probably already knows.

As I said before, ophthalmologists recommend sunglasses that cut glare, leave the colours looking as natural as possible, and protect you from the side (peripherally), as much as from the front, because UV rays do not differentiate. Having said that, aviator glasses remain one of the most popular styles for driving, and for pilots.

Check out Gargoyles brand sunglasses for excellent protection and styling.They rank among the best in the world. They carry Gargoyles Men’s The Steward Aviator Sunglasses which are bevelled aviator sunglasses, and many other excellent styles such as Gargoyles Men’s Shakedown Resin Sunglasses and all sizes. Most of their styles are more suited to men than women, however. Bolles are amazing also. Check out the stylish and safe Bolle King Sunglasses.

The founder of Bolle has come up with a new company recently, dedicated to sports goggles and sunglasses made with polarized lenses:

Haber Vision has top of the line products that are only available on the internet, thus cutting down on costs. The savings, as they say, are passed directly onto you and I — the customers. Love it. The styles are cutting edge, and there are plenty of choices for both men and women. Check out Habervision Dallas Sunglasses and the Habervision Newport Creme Sunglasses.

Smith is another name that is famous for excellent, protective and stylish sunglasses and sports goggles. Check out the bevelled aviator style of Smith Optics Serpico Sunglasses. And I like the cool Smith Optics Proof Sunglasses too. Smith has lots of styles for both women and men.

Dragon sunglasses are very popular these days with both sexes and all ages, and Ray-Ban are still the best sellers world-wide, but their site is anything but user-friendly. Check out the Dragon Riff, the Dragon Cage, the Ray-Ban Bubble Wrap Aviator Sunglasses and the Ray-Ban Original Wayfarer Sunglasses.

My son is a big guy, and often has trouble finding frames to fit his face. I know a lot of men that make my son look short and narrow. Gargoyle and Smith and Dragon make large-framed sunglasses and sports goggles that don’t distort your vision, and apparently can take a bullet!

Who thought up that test? GangstaLenses.com?

Polarized and mirror lenses are the best for cutting glare and the amount of light getting safely to your eyes.

Lenses that adjust their darkness in response to the amount of light available have been suspected by some ophthalmologists of possibly allowing in too many UV rays. These are referred to by a number of terms, such as polychromatic, polychromic, polarchromic, polarchromatic. Too much UV?

This is debatable.

I like to avoid debates if at all possible, especially where my eyesight is concerned. So true or not, I am sticking with the definite; dark green, grey or brown polarized lenses are the best multi-purpose colours for sunglass lenses. All the websites by schools of optometry touching on the subject say so.

Check out the University of Waterloo’s School of Optometry website as an example, if you like. Dr. Chou will tell you that if you suffer from or wish to prevent macular degeneration, cataracts and/or glaucoma from the potential damage of UV rays, wear wraparound sunglasses!

Choose your favourite style of bullet-proof sunglasses from Gargoyles or Smith. They are also crush and drop/scratch resistant. Haber Vision also makes extremely impact-resistant lenses, but whether their high impact resistance is of the calibre needed for a police officer in the field or an undercover narcotics officer, I do not know.

Of course, buying such excellent eye wear presents a bit of a catch-22. With this economy, the guy with the gun coming your way will probably be after the shades on your face.

In which case, he’ll aim for the leg.

Hmmmm.

Pat

The wrap-around style popular with hardcore cyclists are considered the best for blocking the evil and sneaky UV rays that like to launch an effective surprise attack from the periphery. The lenses should ideally be brown, grey or dark green, so as not to distort the natural colours while still reducing glare.

Apparently, if one is driving, orange lenses can make traffic light signals hard to differentiate. Since blood is not my favourite colour, I think I will do what I am told — on this matter

Every bevelled pair of sunglasses I have ever tried to wear, has resulted in a major distortion of my visual field that did not become too apparent until after I had left the store and was walking from my Craft truck to set, two or more blocks away.

Suddenly, upon stepping out of the truck, food trays in hand, the ground would rise up to meet me.

I felt like a 6 year-old.

I have been accused of acting like a six year old on more than one occasion, but I had never had the unexpected and untimely delight of seeing things from a three-foot-tall perspective in quite some time. Not that I mind the altered state (for free!) all that much, but I don’t want to be fired for being suspected of being under the influence of some illegal substance as I scramble to find my centre of gravity. There is also a certain loss of dignity that doesn’t appeal to me in the middle of downtown traffic.

I know; it’s a little late to worry about dignity now.

Shut up.

All sunglasses, with side visors or without, give me pink-eye. Something to do with not enough air circulation in front of the eye, I suppose. If anyone has a solution, please let me know. I don’t want anymore UV damage than I already must have after years of not being able to wear glasses or goggles of any kind for driving, swimming, working or sports, without getting good old pink-eye within twenty minutes of putting them on my face.

Speaking of pink-eye however; good old reliable Herbal Remedies.com has eye drops that work like a charm.

I would like to try Swiss Army brand sunglasses, just because the name sounds cool. They are advertised in a number of places, but just try to order any, and there, the dream breaks down. Now I want to get a pair just to prove that I can.

Not the ones all covered in leather. They look cool for an ex-airforce pilot that shoots baby lambs in his spare time, but not for me. I would like to hunt down and buy the new styles certain sites are advertising, but then, when you click on the site, no-one has the glasses.

Phantom Swiss Army glasses.

Neat.

The challenge is on.

Pat.

Blurry vision, things changing shape, and colours no one else is seeing. It sounds strangely familiar.

Since the last time you tried Purple Microdot was when you were 19, if this is happening to you, chances are you are not having a flashback. I mean, it is possible that you are having a flashback, especially if you are on a severe weight loss diet that has caused your fat cells to break down and release all the LSD you thought that you had stored in them for posterity.

Release all the LSD you have ever taken. All of it, all at once.

Oh my god, what a thought.

I mean, lucky I never touched that stuff back in the day.

No. Instead, the wobbly lines that appear in front of me on the computer monitor when I cover my right eye are probably a sign of macular degeneration.

Lovely.

One eye is often worse than the other with this condition. Objects might also appear smaller with one eye than with the other.

Often, macular degeneration has begun and you don’t even know it yet. The results are not initially evident to the victim, only to the specialized equipment used by your friendly opthamologist.

If you are around fifty years of age, with excellent eyesight, it is still a good idea to get your eyes checked for macular degeneration, as the early stages are undetectable to simple home tests. Don’t wait for blurry vision and distorted images to show up.

The good news is that a recent “blind”  (”hee hee“, okay, “groan“) study undertaken by the National Institute of Health and by the National Eye Institute of the United States, has shown that vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid, taken together, can slow down and possibly prevent the progression of macular degeneration. This study was entitled AREDS, an acronym for “age-related eye disease study”.

Macular degeneration occurs when the arteries feeding the retina are not functioning properly, possibly due to clogging from plaque build-up. Plaque is caused by an evil amino acid known as hymocysteine. Individuals taking these B vitamins and folic acid had significantly reduced levels of this harmful amino acid in their blood stream. More info at www.bloomberg.com.

Including nutritional supplements high in anti-oxidants and zinc in your diet, helps to prevent or delay the progression of age-related macular degeneration, according to the folks at www.emedicinehealth.com. They say that doctors recommend eye-specific supplements that include vitamins A, C, and E, copper and zinc, and possibly lutein and zeaxanthine. The latter two ingredients are responsible for the pigmentation of dark green leafy vegetables and are thought to nourish the eye and/or the blood vessels providing the blood and nutrients to the eye.

Just eat your vegetables.

Or perhaps not.

A recent major study conducted on over 100,00 men and women for 12 to 20 years respectively, concluded that fruits, not vegetables, reduce the incidence of macular degeneration.

Bananas and oranges came out on top. Veggies: zero.

Check out USNews.com

Which is exactly what the doctors prescribe. And your fruits and berries high in anti-oxidants. See my last post, please.

Folic acid is necessary for the formation of red blood cells, and the B vitamins have been linked to a healthy metabolism and nervous system, among many other things. They are highly touted in much of the literature for their importance in the maintenance of eye health. This recent ARAD study bears this out.

Herbal Remedies.com provides quality nutritional supplements at great prices.

Wearing an excellent pair of UV filtering sunglasses is also highly recommended by opthamologists in order to prevent potential retinal damage.  Macular degeneration, cataracts, and glaucoma are all suspected of being caused in whole or in part by overexposure to ultraviolet rays. Apparently, pilots of Icelandic Airlines have a far greater incidence of cataracts than the general population of Iceland (www.bio-medicine.org). It is thought that this is because they are exposed to stronger UV rays at higher elevations. There haven’t been any other reports released regarding how other countries’ pilots are faring in this regard, and probably won’t be. I mean, wouldn’t such studies give rise to across the board demands for a raise in pay due to greater perceived personal danger?

Coastal Contacts is an excellent website for finding top of the line, brand name sunglasses with maximum UV protection at affordable prices. They specialise in the distribution of high quality contact lenses, also at extremely affordable prices, worldwide. Largest distributor on the web.

Check them out at www.coastalcontacts.com.

Seeing is believing!

Tee hee.

Or, no more pilots.

Funnily enough, the vote would probably be for blind with more pay. It’s time for socialism, I say!  Then we would be safe and financially coddled. Not wealthy, but safe.Then we wouldn’t be forced to make employment choices that would ruin our health…or would we?

Now for the latest breakthrough: hydrochloric acid supplements help to prevent, and indeed help to reverse, macular degeneration. It is sold as Betaine with pepsin. Not Beltane with Pepsi — although a little sexual activity might help the old blood flow.  And we should all give it a go if we are not producing enough hydrochloric acid.

Betaine with pepsin, that is.

The sex is your own business.

Let me know if it helps.

Either one.

Ask for a hydrochloric acid availability test from your health practitioner. Or count your birthdays.

I’m 27. Forever.

Apparently our bodies stop producing hydrochloric acid at around 40 years of age, and all that heartburn, gas and bloating is not due to too much stomach acid as it would appear to the logical mind, but rather to not enough. Not enough hydrochloric acid in the system affects the efficacy or actual presence of digestive enzymes, and thus, the quality and amount of nutrients getting to the eyes or anywhere else for that matter. (Franklin Sanders interviews Dr. Wright, in The Moneychanger, among many other sources)

On top of this reduction in the manufacture of hydrochloric acid, we have the proliferation of the use of aspartame in everything from chewing gum and breath mints — after dinner breath mints, to artificial coffee and tea sweeteners and any and all calorie-reduced foods. Aspartame is made with phenylalanine, which every chemist on the planet insists destroys digestive enzymes.

So why in God’s name do we still allow the stuff to be used in any food or drink? I don’t care who owns the rights to it; they are killing us. Japan did studies on artificial sweeteners and has only allowed Stevia for the last 25 years. What is wrong with us? Are we utter morons? Get rid of aspartame people. Unless you can also digest glass or entire computers like the French guy in the Guinness Book of Records.

Herbal Remedies.com carries an excellent Betaine with pepsin capsule. The HCL or hydrochloric acid is derived from beets. It is only $8.95. Very affordable.

I love my eyesight. I’ll be eating a balanced diet of colourful fruits and vegetables, resplendent with dark green leafy stuff and berries of every kind. NO aspartame in my diet. And a vitamin and mineral supplement from Herbal Remedies.com, my favourite website for quality, choice and excellent prices.

Pat

No.

I should not.

OcuPhase eye drops,  originally formulated in Europe, dissolve cataracts. This removes the need for traditional surgery in one hundred per cent of newly forming, fledgling cataracts, and in 80 per cent of full-blown cataracts.

That is the phenomenal jist of my last post.

Check out OcuPhase at www.puretango.com

The only fear connected to the use of these eye drops is that they will be banned in North America if the word gets out that there is indeed an extremely viable alternative to eye surgery. Expensive, scary, pocket-lining eye surgery.

Cataract prevention and adequate nutrition.

What constitutes poor nutrition when it comes to providing the body with what it needs to assist in the prevention of cataracts? Numerous sources say that we need certain B vitamins.

It is my understanding that It is always safest to take all the vitamin B complex together in the correct balance, so I will not get into which B that would be. Take them all together so you don’t risk going insane from an imbalance. I have been told this by a number of mainstream health practitioners, as well as not-so-mainstream practitioners, so I go by it. If you have conflicting advice, let me know.

Obviously, it didn’t work for me.

Always check with some form of medical authority that you trust. I am not a doctor. I am simply whittling down the results of my research, both online and off.

The main point that most nutritionists and researchers make, is that since oxidative free radicals are believed to contribute greatly to the formation of cataracts, then we should irradicate the little bastards with the introduction of anti-oxidants to our diet.

“How do you do, diet? I am an anti-oxidant.”

Good for you.

No, really; they are good for you.

What exactly are free radicals anyway? It sounds like they are the Taliban of the human body.

Free radicals are atoms or molecules (groups of atoms) that are highly reactive to other atoms and molecules because they do not have the “right” number of electrons to form a stable essence. They find stability by stealing an electron from another atom or molecule, which is thus rendered unstabilized.

Just like poor drunks at a bar! If you take one guys drink, he’ll lose it until he steals a beer from someone else.  And so on.

Your body is the scene of the resulting bar fight!

This process of taking electrons from healthy, balanced cells is called oxidation because in the human body, the free radical is usually the oxygen molecule.

Evil, unstable oxygen.

Evil glycated proteins. They make fifty times more free radicals than normal proteins. (See my last post).

But just like the bouncer at the bar, or someone buying free rounds, for that matter, anti-oxidants should offset the havoc induced by the presence of the body’s thieving drunken brawlers, those electron-stealing free radical oxygen molecules.

Have I made things clearer? Of course not. I muddied it up with a totally unnecessary bar fight analogy.

We need anti-oxidants in our diet to prevent a myriad of complaints, incuding cataracts and other eye conditions. Free radicals bond to anti-oxidants without causing a bar fight.

There are a lot of food sources and herbal and vitamin supplements that provide anti-oxidants to the body.

The trick is that you have to eat them.

You must cut down on free radical causing foods and contaminants at the same time.

Natural sources of anti-oxidants include turmeric, cranberries, blueberries, pomegranates and the highly touted bilberry. Darkgreen vegetables and brightly coloured fruits and vegetable are also high in anti-oxidants and should be devoured daily.

Bilberry is usually found in a herbal supplement form and has been demonstrated to contribute greatly to overall eye health, including assisting in the treatment of glaucoma and  in slowing the growth of cataracts, which is the subject of today’s post.

I use bilberry. An acquaintance of mine had his glaucoma entirely disappear many years ago, solely through the introduction of bilberry into his diet. It is still in remission. He can’t tell enough people about it. He is always extolling the virtues of the bilberry plant. I know him personally, so I believe him. I’ve seen the results first-hand. His doctor said it was nothing short of a miracle, but John believes that this vision restoration is possible for many. He insists that we all take bilberry supplements, and we do.

Herbal Remedies.com has information on many anti-oxidant supplements. Check them out. The site is extremely user friendly, and everything is very reasonably priced. I recommend them for the quality of their information and products, and their prices. Let me know what you think.

Vitamin C, vitamin A, lutein, and vitamin E are also examples of antioxidants purported to lessen the risk of cataracts.

Stick to a healthy diet of five to nine servings of dark green and colourful fruits and vegetables every day, accompanied daily by three servings of whole grains and your favourite source of Omega-3 fatty acids twice a week.

This is the advice of  Shereen Jegtvig, Certified Nutrition Specialist, and Dr. Brian S. Boxer Wachler, MD.  They contribute to a column found at All About Vision (www.allaboutvision.com). They are joined in agreement with the legions of other nutritionists and medical practitioners who advocate  the reduction in the amount of red meat, sugary, fatty, simple carbohydrate and additive-heavy foodstuffs in our diets — all free radical contributors, and an increase in the consumption of healthy plant life.

Speaking of eyesight and healthy plant life; shall we take at look at relief from glaucoma and the use of medical marijuana cookies?

Yes. I think we shall.

It just so happens that I have a recipe!

For medicinal purposes only, you understand.

No-one else can read this.

You won’t be able to read this either if you have one of my cookies.

Don’t have two.

Ever.

You’ve been warned.

Pat

Yes. I think we shall.

Are your eyes getting the nutritional ingredients they need to fend off macular degeneration? Glaucoma? Cataracts?

Age-related eye conditions such as those just mentioned have long been thought irreparable by most laymen and health practitioners. Of course, there is surgery to remove cataracts, but can we prevent them in the first place?

What can be done to prevent, or, in fact, reverse glaucoma?

And what can we do to slow or prevent macular degeneration?

Let us begin by finding clear definitions of these terms.

Cataracts.

The most common form of cataract is the nuclear cataract. It is a condition characterised by a cloudy haze forming inside the lens. Our eyes are basically made up of a sophisticated combination of lens proteins known as crystallins, and water. Cataracts form when the lens proteins fail to maintain their ordered structure and begin clumping together. The result is the opaque film that is the cataract.

The condition is aptly named, as the source of the word “cataract” is thought to stem directly from two distinct greek words, one meaning a flow of white water, and the other, an obstruction.

As cataracts become more substantial, they block the amount of light that can pass through the lens. They also scatter the light that does manage to get through, resulting in a less focused image as the light no longer merges at a precise point on the retina. Thus, we can have a blurry image, and colours can be less intense. We might also see a halo around bright objects such as street lamps.  Cataracts often progress to a point where we cannot see clearly at all.  Traditionally, surgery has always been our only hope.

What causes cataracts?

Like many conditions, cataracts can result from a number of causes. These include: heredity, too much exposure to ultraviolet rays, (either over time or briefly and suddenly, but in too great an amount), poor nutrition, smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease, and the long-term use of corticosteroids.

The culprit common to all of these causes, is the presence of oxidative free radicals. These are thought to result in the breakdown of the lens proteins’ orderly structure and produce the protein clumping.

A report from the Health Sciences Institute (www.HSIBaltimore.com), states that the other major cause of damage to the eye is something called glycation. Glycation is the condition which results from sugars combining with proteins to create something called glycated proteins, which are ultimately responsible for the protein clumping and the formation of the milky white film we know and abhor as the cataract.

Apparently, this new compound, the glycopated proteins, produce fifty times more free radicals than normal proteins.”The fix” as the Health Sciences Institute puts it, is to undo these protein cross-links, which then gets rid of the cloudy film.

Someone in Europe has found a way to do this, without resorting to eye surgery. Presently, this surgery often has to be repeated as the cataracts often regrow, since nothing has been done to alleviate the cause of the actual milky film growth, the source of tons of evil free radicals, the gycopated proteins.

Doctors in Europe have have formulated eye drops that dissolve cataracts safely and painlessly!

Reports coming out of Europe claim to have a one hundred per cent success rate with newly forming cataracts, caught in the initial stages, and an 80 per cent success rate for individuals who have full-blown cataracts and are looking at surgery to restore their sight, if another solution can’t be found.

Please see the more complete report available at the Health Sciences Intstitute’s website www.HSIBaltimore.com. In this report, they will refer you to a company which has patented the eye-drop formula, Tango Advanced Nutrition, or Pure Tango, as it is otherwise known. Tango also has a report that I believe you should download and run by your eye doctor, if you trust them to be open-minded to  documented research and results from across the pond.

I am obviously not a doctor of anything, but I am looking into this product for my mother, who is seventy-nine and has the beginnings of cataracts. She cannot believe that the doctors have told her that she has to wait until she has full-blown cataracts before she can do anything about her blurry vision, and then, she is looking at surgery.

I firmly believe that this eye drop formula has had enough success in Europe to warrant its mainstream use in North America, and all other parts of the world.

Half the world is going blind from cataracts, literally, and not everyone can afford  eye surgery. And who the hell would want surgery if we can use relatively inexpensive eye drops not only to dissolve existing cataracts, but to prevent their formation in the first place?

Pure Tango claims that their OcuPhase eyedrops can indeed actually prevent the formation of cataracts by using two drops of their formula every day.

I strongly urge you to give it a try.

I gain nothing financially by advocating this product, but I think that we are all bloody fools if we don’t give it a go.

Blind fools.

The website address for OcuPhase information and product ordering information is www.puretango.com. Their phone number is 866-778-2646.

Tell them I sent you.

Maybe they will give me a discount!

That’s enough for this blog entry. Let’s look at what is meant by poor nutrition contributing to cataracts in the next blog.

My eyes need a rest right now.

Everything is blurry.

Uh oh.

Pat