Editor’s Note: We’ve all heard horror stories about asbestos. In today’s guest post, Ben Stillwater from Asbestos News reveals the dangers of this infamous substance, signs of exposure, who’s at risk for asbestos-related illness and who needs to watch out for exposure now.

For almost 100 years asbestos was a miracle product. Asbestos is a fibrous, tough mineral that is remarkably fire resistant, has incredible insulating properties and in some of its forms can be woven into textiles.

It was used in all forms of insulating material, in flooring and ceiling tiles, in gaskets, wallboards, cement, adhesives – the list of industrial and consumer products runs into the thousands. Asbestos products were popular and widespread until asbestos was declared a known carcinogen in the mid-1970s and eliminated from usage in 90% of the products where it could be found.

The danger posed by asbestos is the fibers from which it is composed. They are microscopic, light enough to float in a cloud of dust, and are released into the air by deteriorating asbestos products or by disturbing them though cutting, sawing, drilling or tearing.

When asbestos fibers are inhaled by a human, they remain within the body and eventually, can cause havoc. In most cases where asbestos fibers are inhaled, they either get lodged in the lung or, more often, pass through the lung and work their way into the external lining of the lung, a layer of tissue called the pleural mesothelium.

Tens of thousands of workers were exposed to asbestos fibers in plants where asbestos insulation was used to keep heat down. Auto plants, steel mills, oil refineries, chemical plants – all used asbestos products liberally. So did ships, covering their boilers and engine rooms with asbestos.

The result has been the development of asbestosis or mesothelioma cancer in workers from that era and those industries, as well as workers who used asbestos products like brake shoes and gaskets. Malignant mesothelioma often does not become an active disease until decades after the asbestos exposure has occurred. Thus people who worked in a shipyard or power plant in the 1960s or 1970s are, in some cases, just now getting sick.

Mesothelioma is a relatively rare disease today, with new cases being diagnosed in the U.S. at the rate of about 3,000 annually. Often those diagnoses occur long after the disease has been active because mesothelioma symptoms are so similar to those associated with more common diseases.

A persistent, dry cough can often be ignored for a long period. Many doctors will mistake that symptom for pneumonia; chest pain and trouble breathing is often diagnosed as bronchitis. It is only when the common afflictions have been eliminated that physicians will look for a less common problem. For that reason, a mesothelioma prognosis is often relatively grim.

Asbestos exposure today occurs most often when someone is trying to remove an asbestos product such as flooring or insulation that has been in place for decades. Flooring tiles that are crumbling can release asbestos fibers, as can scraping the adhesive that was used to put them down.

Home insulation that was blown into a wall sometime during the 1970s should be removed by a professional. Those “cottage cheese” ceilings and walls that were so popular in the 1960s and 1970s should be tested for asbestos before a young, enthusiastic do-it-yourselfer turns them into dust.

Information on asbestos in the home can be found at this EPA site, along with suggestions about how to deal with suspected asbestos products.

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Ben Stillwater is a freelance writer for Asbestos News, an online resource on asbestos and mesothelioma cancer.

Healthy living is much more than nutrition and exercise (as we saw in last week’s post, “What is Balanced Living?“). Today’s holistic health article, contributed by Shireen Qudosi of The Logical Native, covers the importance of “being green”.

With our global emphasis on green and sustainable living, many people are actively doing their part to engage in “green acts”. Whether it’s recycling, toting reusable grocery bags, there are a number of ways to engage yourself in balanced living.

Seeing Differently

Step 1 to realigning your lifestyle using eco-principles is to begin seeing differently.  See your entire existence as emerged within eco-living, rather than you as an individual acting out green acts.

Stuart Haygarth would have taken this advice literally, inventing a sustainable eye glass chandelier that uses 620 pairs of discarded lenses to form a globe-like chandelier.  For the designer, perhaps his living art is not only an example of using creativity to craft lifestyle choices, but also symbolizes the visionary work we can accomplish if we begin to see a little differently.

Turning a Domestic Green Leaf

Turning over a green leaf begins with ourselves, in how we think and then in how we carry out those thoughts.  Once we have internal balance, our focus can shift smoothly to an external balance.  And while you may not be able to go save the rain forest, you can begin by changing how you view your home.

View your home as an eco-habitat in itself, and once you perceive your home this way, you’ll treat it with more green care.  The simplest way to begin thinking this way is to look at what toxic elements could be in your home – perhaps in your vacuum cleaner, carpet, paint, whether you have energy-efficient appliances, or even checking to see if the plastics you use to cook and eat with are made with toxic chemicals.  It’s really very simple and just takes a small effort in reprogramming how you think.  Once you shift how you think, your new thought patterns become healthy lifestyle habits.

The Mind Body Equation

Equally as important as your home is another vessel that you inhabit daily – your mind and body.  These two are just as relevant in your eco thinking as your actions. When it comes to eco thinking, your habits aren’t just about what products you use or what daily habits you have that save that extra little bit of energy or water.  It’s about how you think.

Eco thinking is about harmony with one’s environment. And one of the most important things that should be in a harmonious state is our central selves.  If we cannot achieve this, then in essence our eco habits are just frustrated (but not natural) extensions of ourselves.  Achieving an eco balance internally through meditation, exercise, and intellectual stimulation is the simple solution to turning a truly balanced green leaf.

Shireen Qudosi is a freelance writer at Babel Fish Communications. Follow her on Twitter @ShireenQ or email her at shireen.qudosi [at] hotmail [dot] com.

As we move into a more sustainable future, we’re discovering what the ancients have known for a long time: nature is beautiful, powerful and perfect. Today’s fascinating article is about bio architecture and was contributed by Shireen Qudosi of the Qudosi Chronicles.

Several decades ago, a few creative thinkers started redefining the traditional idea of home.  From coast to coast, people started looking at their environment and began building with eco-inspired homes.

Hawaii’s famous Onion House is one popular example of a creative idea, now a national landmark and a beautiful testimonial to shift toward bio-architecture. Designed in tune with the curves of an onion, with a layered feel that mirrors the lucid skins of an onion, the house is a beautiful demonstration of the possibilities when nature is a design icon.

Further down south in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, the Shell House takes the idea literally by designing a house that looks like a magnified shell.  Senosian Arquitectos has the same idea with their design called “The Nautilus”.  This Mexico-based design firm went beyond a shell exterior and designed an entire home patterned after a shell with a winding organic interior.

Nature is the Best Designer

A student of the world’s best designer, bio-architecture seeks to emulate the principles in naturally occurring constructions.  In studying the natural principles of the most long-held designs, this form of aesthetic design looks at fundamental shapes in nature – the most recognizable being the seashell.

The seashell is the best representation of a math-centric natural element that shows why nature is the best designer.  Encompassing the Fibonacci Sequence, or “the Golden Ratio”, a seashell shows perfection in proportion that has been the foundation for some of the greatest designs, including the Parthenon, and by some of the greatest minds, including Leonardo Da Vinci.  The pattern has also been replicated in some of the world’s most cherished poetry by regulating rhyme and meters, as well as in music, such as Beethoven’s Fifth and many of Mozart’s sonatas.

The term “bio-architecture” is also often referred to as “organic architecture”, a thinking that has gained popularity with the rise in eco-awareness.  A shift toward green thinking took bio-architecture a step further and had creative-minded people thinking of how building could merge with the environment as well as reflect it.

Working with the Environment

Bio-architecture can not emulate natural designs, but can become a part of natural constructions.  Rather than create jarring buildings jutting out of plains, this type of architecture looks to emerge as a part of natural settings such as mountains, caves, and wooded areas, as well as present a home that uses resources wisely by cutting utility costs.

Even though these newer designs are based on older shifts toward innovative thinking, the earliest and most architecturally stunning design is still the pyramid.  First built in 2700 BCE, pyramids reflect that most natural and easily recognizable natural element, the sun, by building a structure that represents the descending rays of light. These ancient structures are still being replicated today with the Louvre and Kazakhstan’s Palace of Peace and Reconciliation.

Bio Architecture: Designing with Nature in Mind is written by freelance writer Shireen Qudosi.  Follow her on Twitter @ShireenQ or email her at shireen.qudosi@hotmail.com

Editor’s note: Planning to give your health nut a blender this year? Then you’ll love this guest post from Frank at BlenderBenefits.com.

Since all of the detox drink recipes on Live Lighter depend on maximizing the nutrients one can consume from each plant, it is important to use a blender able to retain as much nutrients as possible during the blending process. Better yet, if you use a blender that actually makes it easier for your body to assimilate the nutritious goodness found in fruits and vegetables, then you’re made in the shade.

Luckily, there are a couple of powerful blending options available to properly blend detox drink recipes and maximize their nutritional value.

You may have seen the very viral video series “Will it Blend?” starring the Blendtec blender. If you’ve seen any of them, you’ll know this blender is one of the most powerful kitchen appliances available (it turned an iPhone into iDust.) [Click here to read Frank's Blendtec post on his Blender blog.]

Although intimidating, it does a tremendous job blending anything you want to add to your concoctions. Harder ingredients like flax seed, nuts and kale, are easily handled by a Blendtec blender and unlike cheaper blenders, blending ice is a breeze.  Recipes like the Ginger Root Boost, will come out smooth and consistent even though you are blending tougher/drier items like ginger root.

The Blendtec blender is renowned in raw foodist circles due to the beneficial health benefits it can provide. High powered blenders like this and the Vita-Mix Blender [read Frank's article here] actually rupture plant cell walls, making it easier for to assimilate the plant’s natural nutrients.

The Blendtec blender is definitely more expensive than other blenders, but the added benefits are worth it. It is the best blender to own if you plan on blending regularly, as it has a very customer friendly 3 year warranty.

For these reasons, the Blendtec Blender is the perfect choice to blend Live Lighter’s detox drink recipes.

Until next time – stay healthy and keep blending!

Visit BlenderBenefits.com to learn how blenders can benefit your life through thoughtful blender reviews and scrumptious blender recipes, and join the community by submitting your own reviews and/or recipes!

Editor’s Note: This guest post features Toronto freelance writer (and my respected friend), Grace Cherian, who specializes in writing for holistic health professionals. Today she shares with us several forms of expressive therapy and their healing potential.

We’re made up of body, mind and soul. If one of these aspects goes out of kilter, that adversely affects our overall health. But the expressive therapies can help us to stay balanced.

Last year, I joined Creative Works Studio (CWS) after seeing a display of the works of some of the artists from the studio. CWS is a community art program of St. Michael’s Hospital which operates in partnership with the Good Shepherd Non–Profit Homes Inc.

The expressive therapies such as drawing, painting and sculpting help us to reconcile inner conflicts, release deeply repressed emotions and foster self-awareness as well as personal growth. They also help us to heal.

On November 26, CWS will be launching our 2010 calendar and an exhibit, the theme of which is Reflections on Joy. I’ve sculpted an elaborate clay peacock candle holder and completed two Joy paintings for this exhibit.

Painting

I go to CWS regularly because I’ve experienced the power of art to heal me. For instance, one of my Joy paintings depicts a baby with a sunrise in the background. The baby represents my youngest brother, Wilson, who died very tragically fourteen years ago when he was just thirty years old. Wils lit up my life. The sunrise in the painting represents that.

As I discussed this painting with Isabel Fryszberg, the facilitator and occupational therapist at CWS, I began to weep. The painting evoked many mixed, deeply buried feelings that had had no other outlet: the joy Wils had brought into my life, regret and guilt over not having done certain things with or for him, etc. But the tears were incredibly cathartic and helped me to heal a little from losing Wils.

Dance/Movement

For some of us, our spirits soar when we let our feet fly. Others, particularly those who prefer more structure or who feel we have “two left feet,” gain the same sense of release and inner peace from the martial arts such as Tai Chi. Those of us who are recovering from physical, sexual or emotional abuse may find these techniques especially helpful for gaining a sense of ease with our bodies. The underlying premise to dance/movement therapy is that it helps us integrate the emotional, physical and cognitive facets of “self.”

Music/Sound

Many of us turn on soothing music to relax or snazzy tunes to help feel upbeat. Research suggests that music stimulates our body’s natural “feel good” chemicals (opiates and endorphins). This stimulation improves blood flow, blood pressure, pulse rate, breathing and posture changes. Music or sound therapy has been used to treat disorders such as stress, grief, depression, schizophrenia, autism in children and to diagnose mental health needs.

Prose/Poetry

Writing provides us with another creative outlet to work through and heal from difficult experiences.

For many of us, healing is a spiritual path, a transformational process and a way of being. The creative process provides us with a powerful healing force. Making art frees our bodies’ healing mechanisms. It unites body, mind, and spirit.

Grace Cherian is a Toronto-based professional copywriter. For more information about her, go to www.gracecherian.com.

Editor’s Note: This guest post was contributed by Nicole White, who writes about masters in health care.

I live alone, so it’s easy to set my schedule according to my pace and moods. I am used to my routine – the early morning jog, the cooking, cleaning and household work after that, then settling down to work, eating lunch, and then on to my regular tennis game with a group of friends, after which it is back to work, dinner and sleep. I pretty much live and breathe this schedule for five days of the week, so when I have guests, expected or unexpected, it sort of irritates me to make the enforced change.

I recently had my sister’s children over for a fortnight while she and her husband were taking a much-needed break and trying to work on their marriage. While I love them very much and am very attached to them, they’ve never stayed over for more than a day or two, usually accompanied by my sister. So you can imagine the chaos and confusion that coexisted with me and the kids during these two weeks.

Suffice it to say that my carefully planned schedule was shot to hell – no morning jogs, more time in the kitchen, less time for work, and more time involved in making sure the kids did not fight, throw tantrums or break stuff around the house and hurt themselves. The first few days were the worst; not having been around kids a lot, I was unprepared for the effort that it would take to look after two children full time. I found myself getting irritated, with the kids at first and then at myself for feeling this irrational frustration.

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Editor’s note: This is a guest post by holistic nutritionist and health counselor, Natural Neda.

You can’t turn on the TV, drive down the road or go to a party without being confronted with America’s hottest obsession: weight. Diets are a billion-dollar industry; companies spend millions and millions luring you to try the latest diet (low carb, high protein, low fat, no fat, you name it) with promises that this will (finally!) be the solution-your shortcut to a thinner body. Advertising efforts also deeply affect our children, who develop distorted body images and are often on diets as early as nine or 10 years of age.

Our culture touts diet pills, celebrity workouts, convenience foods and trendy diets to help us achieve our desired weight, but these quick-fix solutions have backfired. America’s populace has reached its highest weight in history. About half of Americans are overweight; one-third are obese. Diets steer us away from our common sense and dip deeply into our pocketbooks while eliciting few, if any, lasting results.

Diets don’t work because each person is unique, with different needs based on gender, age, ancestry and lifestyle; how could one diet be right for everyone? Diets don’t work because they are extreme solutions. As in physics, if a pendulum swings to one extreme, it has to swing equally to the other. A diet might work for a short amount of time, but research shows that almost all diets result in a 10-pound gain once off the diet. Diets don’t work because they are too restrictive. People who fail on diet plans are not flawed and weak. Diets by nature require discipline and restriction at levels that are unsustainable by a healthy human body.

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