Dear Friends,

All of our discussion about eco schools and the education of our children and young adults (and old adults for that matter) over the past few Newsletters has put me in a teaching frame of mind. There will be no Newsletter lecture today because we are having a quiz. Yes, today is your midterm test. Take out a piece of paper, number from one to twenty, to record your answers. You have 10 minutes. Enjoy!

The BioImmersion Newsletter Midterm

1. Which term includes the other two?
   (a) Probiotic (b) Synbiotic (c) Prebiotic (d) None
2. There are 100 trillion microbes in our gut. How many human cells make up the human body?
   (a) No one knows (b) Approx. 100 trillion (c) Approx. 1 trillion (d) Approx. 10 trillion
3. The 100 trillion microbes in our gut produce approximately how many different proteins?
   (a) 100,000 (b) 20,000 (c) 10,000 (d) 1,000
4. Our own human cells produce how many different proteins?
   (a) 100,000 (b) 20,000 (c) 10,000 d. 1,000
5. The microbiome is?
   (a) A class of pathogens (b) A group of enzymes (c) The full collection of bugs that exist within the human body (d) None of the above
6. Bruce Birren, co-director of the Genomic Sequencing and Analysis Program at HMP (the Human Microbiome Project) says that: We’re not individuals, we’re colonies of creatures. What is he referring to?
   (a) Our human body. (b) The global population. (c ) Our brutish attitudes. (d) Our herd mentality.
7. LAB (lactic acid bacteria) are the organisms most frequently commonly used as probiotics because?
   (a) They are the group of organisms most commonly used to ferment foods around the world. (b) They are the only organisms safe for human use. (c) They are inexpensive to produce. (d) They are able to resist antibiotics.
8. The Human Microbiome Project requires mainstream medical researchers to face the reality that:
   (a) We live in a survival of the fittest world. (b) A reductionist perspective must replace systemic thought (c) The human body is not governed by human cells alone. (d) a and b.
9. Combining sequenced genome information + metagenomic analysis will give us what?
   (a) Will enable us to identify the bacteria and to know the genetic capabilities. (b) Will enable us to complete the sequencing of 1000 genomes. (c) The two cannot be combined. (d) None of the above.
10. How many genes do most bacteria have?
    (a) 1000 (b) 2000 to 4000 (c) 4000 to 8000 (d) 8000 to 16,000.
11. Based on your answer above, how many different proteins can a bacteria make?
    (a) 1000 (b) 2000 to 4000 (c) 4000 to 8000 (d) 8000 to 16,000.
12. Most bacteria have how many chromosomes?
    (a) One circular chromosome (b) Two pared chromosomes (c) Three parallel chromosomes (d) Four to six
13. Metabolic pathways are basically pathways of what?
    (a) Proteins (b) Carbohydrates (c) Fats (d) All three
14. The microbiome sites to be studied by the Human Microbiome Project are:
    (a) The oral cavity and the nasophyarynx (b) The skin and the GI Tract, (c) The genitourinary tract and the blood (d) All of the above.
15. That the GI epithelial membrane is a major area of importance for our body is demonstrated by the fact that:
    (a) 70 % of our immune system is located there, making it the body’ s largest immune organ. (b) The enteric nervous system is second only to our brain in nerve cell mass. (c) That the GI tract is the largest surface area of exposure of our body to the outside world. (d) All of the above.
16. Xenobiotics (heavy metal, chemical pollutants, etc.) affect the nervous system and the immune system more that any other of the body tissues because:
    (a) There are more receptor sites in the cell membranes of nerve cells and immune cells. (b) Toxins more easily pass through these membranes (c) They are more spread out throughout the body (d) They are not more affected. All systems are equally attacked.
17. Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli are genuses most commonly used in a formula because?
    (a) Bifido grows in the small bowel and Lacto in the big. (b) Bifido is an aerobic organism and Lacto isn’t. (c) Bifido is an obligate anaerobe and grows only in the colon, where as Lacto covers both. (d) none of the above.
18. Regarding Therapeutic Foods Synbiotic Formula, which formulas have just good bugs and fiber?
    (a) High ORAC Synbiotic Formula, No. 7, Original Synbiotic Formula. (b) Original, Beta Glucan, Supernatant. (c) Triple, Cranberry and Pomegranate, High ORAC. (d) none of the above.
19. Supernatant was created to protect against?
    (a)nosocomal infections. (b) chronic gut inflammation. (c) poor digestion. (d) All of the above.
20. With the Supernatant Synbiotic Formula, the name describes the product. What is supernatant?
    (a) Freeze dried metabolites of the good bugs. (b) Prebiotic and probiotic. (c) A special proprietary ingredient. (d) A type of vitamin.

Well, that is it. Good job! How did you do?

Here’s the answers: 1. (b) 2. (d) 3. (a) 4. (b) 5. (c) 6. (a) 7. (a) 8. (c) 9. (a) 10. (b) 11. (b) 12. (a) 13. (a) 14. (d) 15. (a) 16. (a) 17. (c) 18. (b) 19. (d) 20. (a).

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

On February 11th at 5:00pm PST I will be conducting a webinar entitled, DeEvolution and the Ecology of the Microbiome. It will be 45 minutes of lecture and fifteen minutes for discussion—starting at 5:00pm and ending at 6:00 sharp. We will be looking at what is driving the driving force keeping our GI tract chronically inflammed and how to mediate it through a systemic use of therapeutic foods. If you would like to be a part of it, just send me an email and I will send you the link plus a special attached sheet, entitled-Systemic Use of Therapeutic Foods- that you may print out to take notes on.

The Last Quiz Answer: This gorgeous creature is the Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise, Cicinnurus magnificus. It is a small, up to 26 cm-long, bird-of-paradise with extremely complex plumage. The male has seemingly incandescent yellow wings, an iridescent-green breast shield, blue feet, and is adorned with a yellow mantle on its neck. It has two long, curved, blue-green sickle-like tail feathers. The female is a comparatively drab olive-brown bird with black-barred buffy underparts. It lays two creamy yellow eggs.

The Magnificent Bird-of-paradise is distributed amongst the hill and mid-mountain forests of New Guinea and surrounding islands. Its diet consists mainly of fruits. Like most members of the Paradisaeidae family, the male is polygamous and performs an elaborate courtship display and you will see in this clip.

Next week we will be talking about Food Inc.—a film that lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing how our food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment.

Dear Friends,

As you delve into the wonderful movement we call sustainable living, I suspect you will find the same thing in your neighborhood as I have found in mine: there are people and organizations right in your own community who are doing amazing work to right our world through teaching and implementing sound ecological principles. I am certainly finding that true in the Seattle Washington area.

Over the course of 2010 I will be highlighting my personal interviews with key leaders in the sustainability movement, not only from my own area, but also from all over the world. In the next several weeks I will be staying close to home, sharing with you people from my neighborhood. You will become totally inspired and encouraged, as I have been, from hearing the words of those of us who are really actively participating in the cause of making our world right with nature.

The book that I highlighted in the Green Facts section last week, Smart By Nature—Schooling For Sustainability, by Michael Stone (2009), is a tremendously encouraging and practical resource. Check it out. See where it leads you! Here are a couple of quotes from his book.

There is a bold new movement underway in school systems across North America and around the world. Educators, parents, and students are remaking K–12 education to prepare students for the environmental challenges of the coming decades. They are discovering that guidance for living abundantly on a finite planet lies, literally, under their feet and all around them — in living soil, food webs and water cycles, energy from the sun, and everywhere that nature reveals her ways. (p. 1)

Here is a quote from David W. Orr that is quite beautiful.

What can educators do to foster real intelligence? … We can attempt to teach the things that one might imagine the earth would teach us: silence, humility, holiness, connectedness, courtesy, beauty, celebration, giving, restoration, obligation, and wildness. (p. 1)

Smart by Nature gives you the evidence—examples that a paradigm shift is truly occurring across this country and around the world, and perhaps most importantly, that it is taking place within our schools, with the education of our next generation. I will give a couple of examples that were very surprising to me.

Which city has the expressed goal of becoming the most environmentally friendly city in the world? The answer is Chicago! Mayor Richard Daley’s motto for Chicago is “City in a Garden” and Daley’s Chicago is committed to becoming the most environmentally friendly city in the world. Wow!

The goal for Chicago is to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for all new city facilities, including new schools! This is worth watching closely, isn’t it?

In the chapter, “Greening Chicago – One School At A Time”, Daley’s ordered that the school district and Chicago Park District collaborate to build schools on parkland and to make school facilities more centrally located within existing neighborhoods. This policy comes to life in the building and operation of Tarkington School, which serves as a prototype for what is to be accomplished throughout the city’s schools.

Tarkington School of Excellence, a public pre K—8 school, in an ethnically diverse, industrial neighborhood in Southwest Chicago, opened in 2005 as the first embodiment of the intention. The mission statement of the 1,100-student school, ‘Tarkington students are intrinsically motivated to positively influence our world and become catalysts for social and environmental change’. Their goal is to become Chicago’s first 90/90/90 school, where 90% of the students served are minority, 90% are below the poverty line and 90% meet or exceed state standards. (p. 78)

Pay extra attention to this example as it shows how the environment can steadily de-evolve our health:

The school was built with low-emitting materials, including paints, carpets, wood, and sealants, [that were] used throughout the building [to] improve air quality, while the ventilation system maintains a mixture of outdoor and filtered air. The school is in an area with some of the highest asthma rates in the country. Absenteeism in most schools in the area is high because of this, but not so at Tarkington. Their principal cites a student with asthma who reported that he had frequently missed classes at his previous school but had not needed his inhaler a single time in a year and a half at Tarkington.

The school’s most dramatic green element is its roof, a third of which is planted with drought-resistant tundra vegetation chosen for its ability to withstand Chicago winter. Windows facing the roof garden make it visibly accessible as a teaching tool. The living roof captures rainfall, retuning water to the air through evapotranspiration, while storm water management system delivers naturally filtered runoff water to a lagoon adjacent to the school. The rest of the roof is covered by a reflective white coating rather than a typical black tarred surfacing. Together with the roof top garden, it reduces the urban heat-island effect and lowers the need for air conditioning. (p. 80)

Folks, remember that this is being accomplished within a community that suffers below the poverty level conditions, so we have no excuses not taking care of everyone in our country. This example is a powerful reminder that real change can and must start within all sectors of society, and it certainly has in Chicago!

The faculty has incorporated the green campus into the formal curriculum. ‘The kids know more about the building than I do,’ says the principal. The faculty just last year began to take sustainability to a deeper level. ‘We didn’t really want to be just about recycling and just about conservation, but to be about choices, and how everything interconnects,’ says a fifth grade teacher. The staff identified four sustainability related ‘essential questions’ around which they could organize science lessons, and wove them into the social studies curriculum as well: How does the land affect a culture? How does technology affect a group of people? How does our economics affect culture? How do we affect other people?

Schooling for sustainability is truly our future, isn’t it? Such schools are springing up all over the country and the world. Called green schools, eco-schools, and high-performance schools, they are transforming students lives through achieving an understanding of healthy relationships between human societies and the natural world.

Next week, my goal is to share with you an interview with the Seattle based organization Facing the Future. Their goal is to expose the greatest possible number of students to at least a basic understanding of the meaning of sustainability and other global issues. “We want students to understand that there is a link between the environment, population, consumption, poverty and conflict.”

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

I received a phone call today from a doctor absolutely raving about the Cranberry Pomegranate Synbiotic Formula. She had a 85 year old lady patient who was in a nursing home. The medical staff at the nursing home had to keep this senior on antibiotics most of the time because her chronic urinary track infection would come back within a week or two after getting off the antibiotics. The nursing home doctor was afraid the constant antibiotic use was going to kill her. Several months ago our holistic doctor client put this lady on the Cranberry Pomegranate (one capsule a day), look her off the antiobiotic and the reoccurring UTI vanishing and hasn’t returned! She said this is like a miracle.

Remember the cranberry and pomegranate extracts is this product are rigorously standardized organic freeze-dried extracts containing exceptionally high levels of organic acids, proanthocyanins, anthocyanins, phenols, quinic acid, ellagic acid and quercetin, providing unique bacterial anti-adhesion properties for support of healthy resistance to uro-genital infections.

The Last Quiz Answer: Well, I am sure you guessed that this is a turtle. And, as I said last week it is from the tropics. I saw many of these beautiful creatures in the lagoons of Yap (click here to see a satellite photo of Yap. The part of the island closest to you is where I lived). The species of turtle in the “amazing creatures photo” was called a “Well” in the Yapese language. It was the most common. It is a green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) that can reach up to 400 pounds and about 3 feet in width across its dorsal shell. There was a bigger species, the loggerhead (Caretta caretta) less common that we would see from time to time, called a “Drow”. They reach a weight of 650 lbs with a width of about 4 feet. During the day at high noon you could find them resting at the deepest parts of the lagoon about 40 feet deep. If you were in a carnivorous frame of mind that was a good time to hunt them. That is another story—hunting turtle native style.

Eco-Schools is an international program that provides a framework to help educators integrate sustainable principles throughout their schools and curriculum. The program is currently being implemented in 27,000 schools in 43 countries. In 2008 The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) was designated to serve as host for the Eco-Schools USA program, with enrollment of U.S. schools beginning in 2009. The Eco-Schools program strives to model environmentally sound practices, provides support toward greening the curriculum and supports science and academic achievement. It also works to foster a greater sense of environmental stewardship among young people.

Dear Friends,

How are you doing? Enjoying the winter? Winter weather in Seattle brings out the tropics in me. I just checked out last January’s Newsletter in our website’s archives and was amazed to find that the creatures highlighted were algae and coral. The amazing creatures of the last two week—both from the tropics, as is this weeks. The amazing creature this week I have some personal experience with during my years on Yap Island in Micronesia. Perhaps more on that next week.

The last couple of weeks I have shared with you the chart illustrating the supportive relationship with the various Therapeutic Foods and our body systems. If you haven’t printed out that sheet you might want to do it now, so you can follow along as I highlight some of its important components. Click on this link: Therapeutic Foods—Help Your Body.

As the title says, Therapeutic Foods—Help Your Body. Let’s discuss that.

Nobel laureate Eric Chivain in his book, Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity (2008), maintains that species’ extinction is occurring now at a higher rate than anytime in history. This phenomena is precisely what we have been talking about and devoting our newsletters to over that last year and a half—the de-evolution of life on our planet. The species most affected are the more highly evolved life forms— amphibian, reptiles and mammals. We are severely affected, as the worldwide pandemic of chronic degenerative human diseases serves testimony.

The cause is quite straightforward and right in front of us to correct. The culprit is a conjunction of the following vectors that are driving this pandemic: high levels of pollution, pathogens and stress; poor life style choices, and fast food/highly processed food dietary habits.

When you look at the Therapeutic Foods—Help Your Body Sheet notice that across the top you have the systems of the body, and down the left hand margin you have the different Therapeutic Foods categorized—Oxidative Stress Defense, American Pedigreed Collection, Bulgarian Pedigreed Collection, Board Spectrum Antimicrobials and Patented Mineral Formulas.

Notice on the far right column you have Healthy Aging (anti-aging), and that every one of the Therapeutic Foods has a role to play in making for our good health in old age. The diseases of aging are the diseases of chronic degeneration—cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, gastrointestinal disease, etc. These are also the diseases that account for the worldwide pandemic of chronic illness for all ages.

There is no question that our modern diet is a major part of the problem. We need to address the dietary component in an aggressive way. Our bodies need the intense nutrition of foods. Hence, the Therapeutic Foods platform.

How specifically do Therapeutic Foods Help?

Let’s take the look at the top for starters—Oxidative Stress Defense. In this grouping we have the exogenous antioxidant and anti-inflammatory power of the blueberry and the endogenous antioxidant and detoxification power of the cruciferous sprouts.

What is Oxidative Stress? Oxidative Stress is when there is an excess of Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species in the body (ROS and RNS)—Free Radicals. They are generated by many processes—by the mitochondria when using oxygen in the production of ATP, by the invading pathogens, by our immune system as we fight these pathogens, by stress, by obesity, by poor food choices. The point is, free radicals are in excess today and our bodies are chronically inflamed.

Unchecked, the free radicals react with key organic substrates such as lipids, proteins and DNA creating a chain reaction of the oxidative can damage that can lead to the fore-mentioned disease pandemic our species is facing.

The Wild Blueberry Extract is an extract of the purple part of the wild blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium). It was chosen because of its unusual diversity and quantity of anthocyanins, being rated by the USDA as having the highest ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbant Capacity) value of any berry in North America. It takes us a cup and a quarter of the berries to fill one capsule. The pigment is where all its antioxidants and anti-inflammatories reside. It down regulates not only NF Kappa Beta but also COX-2 and isoprostane levels, which is a marker for lipid oxidation. The chlorogenic
acid component is an extremely potent antioxidant and it able to cross the blood brain barier neutraling free radicals within the brain. We never encapsulate using flowing agents or excipients of any kind. Therefore we are giving you product that is extremely concentrated and pure, that can powerfully mediate oxidative stress in the gut, globally in the body and in the brain.

With Cruciferous Sprouts there is absolutely no ORAC value. So, how do they work as antioxidants and detoxification agents? They accomplish this through their glucosinolate family of phytonutrients. When the glucosinolates are absorbed into the systemic circulation they stimulate the genome of every cell to transcribe Phase 2 Proteins (P2Ps). We measured specifically human liver cells and were able to demonstrate with our product that in 20 days at two teaspoons a day we can increase liver cell output of P2Ps by 2.6 fold. Also we trialed a group of individuals with high oxidized
LDL levels and within one month of dosing were able to reduce these levels on the average by 69%. Animal models where P2P expression is inhibited live 20% less that normal and almost 100% develop tumors. Phase two liver detoxification is governed by these powerful enzymes. Our bodies need, in the world we live in today, a robust expression of Phase 2 Enzymes to arm our Antioxidant Defense System, enabling it to cope with the high levels of oxidative stress.

The next two groupings on the left are the American Pedigreed Collection and the Bulgarian pedigreed Collection of probiotic organisms with their therapeutic foods compliment. Notice in looking at the dosages for each that some are powders and others are capsules. For example in the American Collection the Beta Glucan Synbiotic and the Original Synbiotic are in the power form. Because of this I would call these products offering fiber plus good bugs. In the Beta Glucan product you are getting  per dosage (2 tablespoons) 10 grams of high quality fiber plus 25 billion lactic acid organisms. In the Original 4 grams of fiber per teaspoon plus a 20 billion good bug count. We all know that we need more fiber in our diets. Both products provide this.

The Beta Glucan Synbiotic’s collection of fibers at the 1 to 2 tablespoon daily dose support the lowering of LDLs (bad cholesterol) and raising of HDLs (good cholesterol). They promote a growth of the healthy bacteria in the gut, they prime the GI tract immune system, and ultimately are consumed as food by the good bug, converting these fibers into short chain fatty acids, such as Butyric Acid, which is critical for healthy cell turnover in the gut and a knitting the of guts tight junctions thereby reducing gut permiabilty issues. All this is accomplished by bringing in enough of these high quality fibers in the gut.

The lactic acid bacteria in both of these collections are the other part of the story. We call them pedigreed because they are well-researched strains that have been used in the fermentation of foods and used medically around the world. They protect the GI tract from pathogens, communicate and support our immune system and enteric nervous system, help with detoxification, assist in digestion, aid in mineral adsorption. They are important friends that have evolved over the millennia to be human symbiotic organisms, helping our own body cells and systems to function well.

When you see the encapsulated products within these two collections think of them as good bugs with other therapeutic foods ingredient plus a little bit of fiber (250mg of fiber). For example, in the case of the High ORAC Synbiotic Formula we add virtually a fruit bowel of freeze dried berry extracts—wild blueberry extract, wild bilberry extract, grape and grape seed extract, raspberry and raspberry seed extract, cranberry, tart cherry and prune. That gives you 1500 ORAC per capsule with a 25 billion good bug count. I call it bugs and berries with a little bit of fiber.

The point that I am trying to make here, as I close this newsletter, is that if you are looking for fiber and probiotics then look at our powdered  formulas—the Original Synbiotic Formula, the Beta Glucan Synbiotic Formula and the No. 7 Systemic Booster. Of course remember that you can combine any of these synbiotic formulas in your daily dosing pattern.

Next week I plan to give you a ten to fifteen minute streaming video of my presentation on the Therapeutic Foods—Help Your Body Sheet. In that I will cover all the products. Till then be good.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

All of the above.

The Last Quiz Answer: This amazing creature is a Dugong (Dugong dugon). Sounds very Australian to me. Dugongs are large marine mammals that like the manatees. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia. The Dugong’s closest modern relative, Steller’s Sea Cow, was hunted to extinction in the 18th Century. These amazing creatures live up to 70 years. They are hunted for their meat and oil. Dugongs spans the water of the Indo-Pacific, though the majority of them live in the Nothern waters of yes—Australia. The dugong is a species vulnerable to extinction.

There is a bold new movement underway in school systems across North America and around the world. Educators, parents, and students are remaking K-12 education to prepare students for the environmental challenges of the coming decades. They are discovering that guidance for living abundantly on a finite planet lies, literally, under their feet and all around them—in living soil, food webs and water cycles, energy from the sun, and everywhere that nature reveals her ways. (Smart by Nature, Michael Stone, pub 2009)

Dear Friends,

I hope you had a wonderful Holiday break!!!

2010 is here. It feels good, doesn’t it? A new decade! Are we on the verge of a global paradigm shift that will make right our failing world? I think we are.

Did you see Avatar yet? What a movie—a masterpiece by James Cameron! The story line takes place on a distant planet in the future—Pandora, where a race of humanoids called the Na’vi, live in perfect harmony with nature—a beautiful world of rich biodiversity, with each plant and animal given full respect and a place at the table of life. Then enters the human race from earth, in the person of a transnational corporation, scientists and the military, seeking to exploit the Na’vi for the mineral wealth that lays under the ground of their sacred home. The Na’vi had to be moved to a new territory. The gross insensitivity of our race towards a beautiful indigenous culture that was deeply in-tune with nature, and the rapacious disregard exhibited by us towards their flora and fauna was a mirror of reflection for our present day mishandling of our own earth’s biosphere. Avatar provides a fitting reminder, as we begin our journey into this new decade, that we in the industrialized world have a long way to go and much to correct regarding our actions around our own world.

But I am excited. I am ready for a major sea change, a paradigm shift of global proportions. Bold and audacious goals seem very appropriate this January 4th of 2010. Here are three to grab hold of:

1. Fight For Biodiversity

It comes down to loving the Creation, honoring the fruits of evolution, understanding the value of each of life’s form in the biosphere. Avatar depicts a world of conflict between the indigenous people and the modern industrialized cultural practices

Agroecology, the alternative to the Green revolution, is the solution to displacement, environmental disaster, and life lived outside of nature. As was presented in our December 22nd Newsletter, agroecology is proving its ability to feed our starving world wherever it is implimented. Biodiversity is the key to agroecology. It embraces farming with nature rather than against it. Take the time to check it out. Go to their website—Agroecology, get the book Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice, Pub.2009, by Eric Holt-Gimenez and Raj Patel—

Biodiversity is exquisitely argued for in the book by Nobel Laureate Eric Chivain—Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity, Pub. 2008. In 1996 he founded and still heads the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. One hundred scientists contributed to the writing of this impressive work.

It is a book about our relationship to nature. It defines that relationship by how our health and lives depend on the health of the natural world. In his public presentations, Dr. Chivain brings home his point that other creatures play a vital role in our health through relaying examples from his book—his observations regarding the polar bear, the gastric breeding frog and the cone shell. Here is what Dr. Chivain said in one of his lectures:

Polar bears are the largest land carnivores. It is obvious to all that their survival is endangered by global warming. They are important to human health because they don’t actually hibernate, they go into a state of decreased metabolic rate during which they don’t eat, drink, urinate, or defecate. They are largely immobile. These periods last from 5 to 9 months.

All mammals including humans loose bone mass when they are immobile. We develop osteoporosis. Polar bears do not develop osteoporosis. They recycle their calcium, they actually make new bone while they are immobile. So scientists are looking at the substances in polar bears blood that prevent them from becoming osteoporotic. Osteoporosis is an enormous health problem, killing 70,000 people a years and cost the US economy 18 billion dollars a year. Polar bears don’t get osteoporosis. If we understood that we could possible prevent it in humans.

[Polar bears] also don’t get toxicity from not urinating. If we don’t urinate for a few days it is toxic to our system and there is no treatment for end stage renal disease except dialysis or a kidney transplant. Polar bears reabsorb their urinary toxins, break them down and make new proteins.

Bears become massively obese before hibernating. When we become massively obese our cells develop insulin resistance and we become diabetic. Obesity related diabetes in the US is epidemic, there are over 16 million obesity related diabetics in America today—over 6% of the population. We have to study bears in the wild to understand how they avoid these problems.

Gastric breeding frogs- There are two species of frogs discovered in the rainforests of Australia that are called gastric breeding frogs. The female swallows the fertilized eggs and they hatch in her stomach. And become tadpoles. When the tadpoles reach a certain level of development she vomits them up in to the environment and they continue their development into mature frogs. It was discovered that the tadpoles made and released certain substances that prevent them from being digested by the acid secretions of the stomach. So as scientists were trying to figure out these mechanics the two species went extinct and they were unable to figure out the mechanism that enabled the frog to protect themselves.

We have talked throughout the last year about the accelerating demise of many species on land and in the sea—a process we have labeled de-evolution. Dr Chivian stated that species extinction is occurring now at a higher rate than anytime in history.

Cone snails- The cone snail of the coral reefs are predatory. They fire a poison coated dart that paralyzes small fish. Each snail makes between 100 to 200 different kinds of poisons and there are 700 different species of these snails. They coat these darts with a cocktail of these poisons. Most of the research on the toxins is in their application in pain research. One of those pain killers is now on the market. What is so important about this particular pain killer is that it is not the fact that it is 1000 times more potent than morphine but that it doesn’t cause addiction or tolerance. So here is a watershed event in medicine. In some ways equivalent to the discovery of penicillin. We have the possibility of treating patients with severe chronic pain for the first time. The Cone Snails depend on the coral reefs for their survival and we are killing the coral reefs. Cone Snails may have more potential for treating human being that any other organism.

We have 3½ billion years of evolution that we are destroying and that is a sin whether you are religious or not. Here a fascinating interview of Eric Chivian, Harvard Professor and Richard Cizik, evangelical Presbyterian Minister regarding biodiversity and the environment.

2. Embrace Agroecology and Permaculture- Agriculture Justice

The University of California and the University of Vermont are leading the way in courses and degrees in Agroecology. For those who want a quick immersion in the theoretical concepts behind current global food issues and the solutions offered through agroecological methods, both schools jointly offer a 2 week Short Course in Agroecology, each summer. See their website for this information.

3. Believe a Quantum Leap from Fossil Fuel Energy to Clean Energy is Possible

November 2009’s Scientific American devoted its issue to a plan for a sustainable future. In its featured article entitled, A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030, authors Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and Mark Delucchi, a research scientist at the University of California’s Institute of Transportation Studies, argue that it is entirely plausible that we can be free of carbon based energy by 2030. That is just two decades from now. Here are a few points for their article:

Most recently, a 2009 Stanford University study ranked energy systems according to their impacts on global warming, pollution, water supply, land use, wildlife and other concerns. The very best options were wind, solar, geothermal, tidal and hydroelectric power—all driven by wind, water or sunlight (referred to as WWS).

The plan calls for millions of wind turbines, water machines and solar installations. The plan includes only technologies that work or are close to working today on a large scale. They consider only technologies that have near-zero emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants over their entire life cycle, including construction, operation and decommissioning.

Today the maximum power consumed worldwide at any given moment is about 12.5 million watts (terawatts, or TW) according to the US Energy Information Administration. The agency projects that in 2030 the world will require 16.9 TW or power. Detailed studies indicate that energy from the wind, worldwide, is about 40 to 85 TW and solar alone offer 580 TW (this calculation takes into account wind and sun over the oceans and inaccessible land areas). Currently we generate only 0.02 TW of wind power and 0.008 TW of solar.

Wind will supply 51% of the demand, provided by 3.8 million large wind turbines (each rated at five megawatts) worldwide. Another 40% comes from photovoltaics and concentrated solar plants, with about 30% of the photovoltaic output from roof top panels on homes and commercial buildings. About 89,000 photovoltaic and concentrated solar power plants, averaging 300 mega watts apiece, would be needed. The mix also includes 900 hydroelectric stations worldwide, 70% of which are already in place.

The worldwide footprint of the 3.8 million turbines would be less than the area of Manhattan. The nonrooftop photovoltaics and concentrated solar plants would occupy about 0.33% of the planet’s land. Enough concrete and steel exist for the millions of wind turbines, and both those commodities are fully recyclable.

Taking it to the next level, the Rocky Mountain Institute weights in on a carbon free energy source for the world by suggesting we need to take a quantum leap into a future with a totally clean and renewable energy source. In its 2009 Christmas/New Years newsletter, entitled Reinventing Fire, is aimed at changing the way most people have been getting and using energy since the Industrial Revolution. In their short video Greeting for the New Year and New Decade they spell it out—Our New Year Resolution. View it. Let’s embrace the vision.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

Next week I will have a script for you that goes along with this sheet—Therapeutic Foods Systemic Support.

The Last Quiz Answer: This amazing creature is an Octopus. Octopuses belong to the phylum Mollusca (molluscs), class Cephalopoda (cephalopods), subclass Coleoidea. They belong to the genus Octopus and there are about 50 known species including the common octopus (O. vulgaris), which may reach 2 m/6 ft in length; the Australian blue-ringed octopus (genus Hapalochlaena) that can kill a human being in 15 minutes as a result of its venomous bite; and the giant deep-sea octopus (Architeuthis dux) that can grow to 20 m/64 ft.

From the North to South, the movement of food sovereignty is empowering the poor to reclaim the water, seed and soil that they need to address their own needs. Planting Justice is a unique but simple model: Plant seeds, train people, grow food, work with existing institutions like schools, churches, stores and prisons. Your will be touched and inspired by this video clip on Planting Justice.