This is that beautiful time of year when jack-o-lanterns peek through the most amazing variety of colorful fallen leaves,  cool, blustery days are followed by frosty nights, and hints of the coming holidays appear in every store window.  The most obvious symbols of the season are pumpkins: carved, painted and decorated in every conceivable fashion.  Occasionally we even eat them!

Pumpkins are grown all over the world, except Antarctica, and they are a staple in many cultures.  Early settlers always kept pumpkins in their root cellars to provide nourishment through the cold winter months.

Pumpkins are high in lutein and both alpha and beta carotene.

When ripe, the pumpkin can be boiled, baked, steamed, or roasted.  Pumpkins that are still small and green may be eaten in the same way as other squash such as zucchini. In the Middle East,  pumpkin is used for sweet dishes; a well-known sweet delicacy is called halawa yaqtin. In South Asian countries pumpkin is cooked with butter, sugar, and spices in a dish called kadu ka halwa. In China, the leaves of the pumpkin plant are consumed as a cooked vegetable or in soups. In Thailand small pumpkins are steamed with custard inside and served as a dessert.  Also, pumpkin can be used to flavor both alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages.

Pumpkin seeds have many health benefits, some of which include a good source of  protein, zinc  and other  vitamins and are even said to lower cholesterol.  Pumpkin seeds are a good source of magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and phytosterols, which can benefit the liver and can increase immune response.

Pumpkin-seed oil has been a folk remedy for prostate  problems, it has in fact been shown to combat benign prostatic hyperplasia.  Pumpkin seed oil contains fatty acids which help maintain healthy blood vessels and nerves, and are loaded with essential fatty acids that help to maintain healthy blood vessels, nerves and tissues.

Enjoy the season and remember to put aside a few pumpkins for your dining pleasure!

Reprinted with permission from NATURAL NEWS

(NaturalNews) With Breast Cancer Awareness month fully upon us once again, retail stores have been invaded with everything pink, including “pink ribbon” candies and personal care products made with blatantly cancer-causing ingredients. Retail grocery stores like Safeway even hit up customers for donations at the cash register, promising to raise funds to find “the cure for cancer.”

Consumers of course, have virtually no idea where the funds they donate actually go, nor do they know the truths about breast cancer they’ll never be told by conventional cancer non-profit organizations. In this article, I’ll reveal ten important myths about breast cancer, and the truths that can save your life.

Myth #1: Breast Cancer is not preventable

The Truth: Up to 98% of breast cancer cases can be prevented through diet, nutritional supplements, sunshine and exercise

It’s true: Breast cancer can be almost entirely prevented through commonsense changes in diet, the addition of anti-cancer nutritional supplements, boosting vitamin D creation from sunlight, avoiding exposure to toxic chemicals in consumer products, pursuing regular exercise and eating a live foods diet.

The breast cancer industry — which depends on the continuation of cancer for its profits and employment — has so far refused to teach women even basic cancer prevention strategies (such as increasing the intake of vitamin D, which prevents 77% of all cancers). See: http://www.naturalnews.com/021892.html

Myth #2: Pink ribbon products are sold to raise money to support breast cancer victims.

The Truth: Nearly 100% of the funds are used to recruit more breast cancer patients into highly-lucrative treatments that do more harm than good.

You know where all that money goes that you donate to the “search for the cure” and other cancer scams? Virtually none of it goes to actually teach women how to prevent cancer. The World Health Organization says 70% of all cancers are preventable, but the breast cancer industry helps zero percent of women actually prevent it.

Those funds actually go to recruiting breast cancer patients by offering “free” mammograms. This is the clever recruitment strategy of the cancer industry. It’s sort of like a greasy garage mechanic offering a “free” checkup on your car’s transmission. It’s in his financial interest to find something wrong (or to break something), just like it’s in the financial interests of the cancer industry to diagnose a women with cancer and scare her into expensive, high-profit treatments like chemotherapy, radiation therapy or cancer surgery. (Mammogram false positives are commonplace…)

Want proof of where these funds go? Check out this grant list at the Komen for the Cure organization, and you’ll see it’s almost entirely spent on recruiting more women with mammograms: http://www.komenphoenix.org/site/c.nsKZ…

When you read that list, note that there is not a single grant provided for nutritional education to teach women how to prevent cancer with vitamin D, cruciferous vegetables, anti-cancer herbs, supplements or to avoid dangerous cancer-causing food ingredients like sodium nitrite, MSG and chemical sweeteners.

Myth #3: The only proven treatments for breast cancer are chemotherapy and radiation

The Truth: Chemotherapy doesn’t work and radiation causes cancer

Chemotherapy is a fraud, plain and simple. It’s as ludicrous as poisoning patients with mercury and calling it medicine (which is something doctors did a hundred years ago, by the way). There is absolutely no reliable scientific evidence showing that chemotherapy has any positive effect whatsoever on breast cancer. Try to find the science yourself: It doesn’t exist!

Sure, there’s evidence that chemotherapy shrinks tumors. Too bad, however, that tumor size is irrelevant. Artificially reducing the size of a tumor does nothing to reverse the physiology of cancer in a patient’s body. It doesn’t initiate the healing that needs to take place to reverse cancer and stay cancer free. And this doesn’t even take into account the quality of life issues here: Chemotherapy doesn’t help people LIVE any longer, but it sure does make them DIE longer!

Myth #4: Chemotherapy is safe and doesn’t cause permanent damage to your health

The Truth: Chemotherapy causes vomiting, hair loss, muscle loss, brain damage, heart damage, kidney damage and liver damage. Much of this damage is permanent. Read these stories to learn more:

Cancer Drug Causes Permanent Brain Damage
http://www.naturalnews.com/024475.html

Chemotherapy Causes Brain Shrinkage
http://www.naturalnews.com/021200.html

Chemotherapy Found to Cause Permanent Brain Damage
http://www.naturalnews.com/020665.html

Myth #5: Regular mammograms are the best way to detect cancer

The Truth: Mammograms harm 10 women for every one woman they help

Here’s part of a story we published in 2006, called Breast Cancer Screening Harms Ten Women for Every One That it Helps (http://www.naturalnews.com/020829.html)

“A new study by researchers from the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Denmark found that mammograms may harm ten times as many women as they help.

The researchers examined the benefits and negative effects of seven breast cancer screening programs on 500,000 women in the United States, Canada, Scotland and Sweden. The study’s authors found that for every 2,000 women who received mammograms over a 10-year period, only one would have her life prolonged, but 10 would endure unnecessary and potentially harmful treatments.”

Got that? For every 2,000 women receiving mammograms, only ONE would have her life extended at all. TEN women, though, would be harmed with chemotherapy, radiation or mastectomies.

What the study didn’t point out, by the way, is that all these treatments are highly profitable for the cancer industry. That’s the real reason why mammograms are pushed so aggressively onto women. It’s not because mammograms detect cancer; it’s because mammograms make them money.

To the breast cancer industry, a woman is nothing more than a piece of meat with a cash reward attached to it. The push for mammography is a marketing ploy designed to keep women scared, misinformed and lined up to be poisoned with chemotherapy while they shell out their life savings for treatments that, for most of them, aren’t even medically justified!

That’s why I say the breast cancer industry is, by any honest assessment, a crime against women. In America, husbands who beat their wives are considered criminals. They’re arrested and locked away. But those very same men, when wearing a doctor’s coat, can assault women with chemicals, slice off their breasts with scalpels and even kill those women… all with impunity. There’s not a single breast cancer doctor who has ever been arrested for the death of a patient.

The true history of western medicine’s violence against women

In time, of course, this will change. Medical violence against women is a crime, regardless of whether the weapon is a fist, a baseball bat or a syringe full of chemicals that will cause permanent damage to her vital organs. In time, chemotherapy will be outlawed and breast cancer doctors will be put out of work or prosecuted for their crimes against women. Perhaps they’ll even be castrated as part of a “fitting” punishment.

To all the women reading this, note carefully the history of western medicine and its numerous assaults on women over the years. Do you know where the term “hysterectomy” comes from? It comes from the belief by male doctors that women’s emotions were “hysterical,” and they believed the best way to “cure” women of their hysteria was to violently cut her reproductive organs out of her body.

The procedure was widely adopted by male surgeons and used for well over a hundred years to treat women who were diagnosed as suffering from virtually every kind of emotional variance you can imagine. Doctors who didn’t use scalpels to remove these organs from a woman’s body often resorted to so-called “pelvic massages” — a medicalized raping of the female patient by the male doctor, of course.

Even today, tens of thousands of hysterectomies are performed each year with no medical justification whatsoever. Doctors continue to view women’s bodies as diseased and abnormal, surgically removing their breasts and reproductive organs for no justifiable reason whatsoever. It’s even being done today as a cancer prevention procedure, against women who have no cancer at all!

Western medicine’s treatment of breast cancer patients today is little more than an extension of hundreds of years of medical violence against women by the male-dominated medical establishment.

Want proof? Notice that cancer doctors never advise men to surgically remove their testicles as a way to “prevent” testicular cancer? That’s because the male surgeons performing these operations prefer to maim women, not men.

If you have the stomach for it, read the rest of the truth about how conventional doctors and surgeons commit outrageous medical violence against women and children even today: http://www.naturalnews.com/019930.html

Myth #6: BRCA-positive women should consider mastectomies to prevent cancer

The Truth: Cruciferous vegetables target BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, preventing cancer with nutrition

Women who are BRCA positive are being scared into utterly unnecessary double mastectomies — a procedure that benefits no one except the surgeon. What nobody is telling these women is that cruciferous vegetables contain anti-cancer nutrients that specifically target BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, protecting these women from breast cancer.

All it takes is a single ounce of fresh broccoli juice each day, or fresh sprouts, superfoods or other nutrient-dense foods or juices consumed daily.

Cancer doctors, of course, conveniently forget to tell women about these little facts. It would hurt their business if women knew how to prevent cancer on their own, at home, with everyday groceries and simple herbs.

Here’s text from one study that might interest you. It shows that I3C (from broccoli) and genistein (from fermented soy) inhibit estrogen-stimulated receptor activity in a dose-dependent fashion:

“…we showed that I3C induces BRCA1 expression and that both I3C and BRCA1 inhibit oestrogen (E2)-stimulated oestrogen receptor (ER-) activity in human breast cancer cells. We now report that both I3C and genistein induce the expression of both breast cancer susceptibility genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2) in breast (MCF-7 and T47D) and prostate (DU-145 and LNCaP) cancer cell types, in a time- and dose-dependent fashion.

http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v94/n…

Conventional cancer doctors, of course, refuse to tell women about scientific evidence like this. If women could prevent breast cancer with I3C, why would they need cancer doctors? The answer, of course, is that they wouldn’t. You can buy I3C, but the way, right here: http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-I3C-Indole-…

The FDA, of course, won’t allow companies selling I3C supplements to tell you the scientifically-validated truth about their anti-cancer benefits. It’s all part of the censorship and oppression that characterizes today’s cancer industry. The U.S. government, of course, is the co-conspirator in this sad tragedy of misinformation.

It is the job of the FDA and the cancer industry to keep women stupid, uninformed and scared when it comes to breast cancer. The last thing they want is for women to be nutritionally literate.

Myth #7: The cancer non-profits are searching for a cure for cancer

The Truth: Even if one was found, they would never allow a cure to be publicized: It would destroy the cancer treatment industry

It’s the great scam of the cancer industry: We’re searching for a cure, they claim! Never mind the fact that they’ve been using this same con since the late 60’s, when they claimed to be only a few million dollars away from curing cancer forever.

The search for “the cure” is pure deception. It’s a clever con to take money from people for all those silly pink ribbon activities, but the truth is that the cancer industry doesn’t believe there’s such a thing as cure. Just ask the FDA, the AMA or any state health licensing board: Anyone claiming to have a cancer “cure” is immediately considered a quack. Over the last several decades, countless doctors researching genuine cancer cures have been arrested, imprisoned or run out of the country. Read about Stanislaw Burzynski to learn about just one example: http://www.cancure.org/burzynski_instit…

Finally, even if they actually find a “cure” (which they won’t, since that would destroy the profits of the cancer industry), do you think they would give it away for free? Of course not! They’d charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for it, milking the maximum profits out of a terrified population for their newest wonder drug.

Notice, by the way, that not a single conventional breast cancer non-profit group — nor any drug company — has announced that its breakthrough cancer drugs will be given away for free. And that leads me to this question: If they’re not planning on giving away the cure for free, then why are you giving them money for free to pay for their R&D?

Why should people donate money to the wealthiest corporations in the world (the drug companies) who are going to take their money and use it to develop a new wave of drugs that are sold to cancer victims at outrageous price markups sometimes exceeding 550,000% of the cost of the chemical ingredients?

The truth is, anyone who donates money for any such “search for the cure” is being conned outright. There’s a sucker born every minute, P.T. Barnum famously said. What he neglected to add is that most of them are now buying pink products and thinking they’re helping find a “cure” for cancer.

Don’t be suckered. Keep your money, or invest it in vitamin D supplements or anti-cancer herbs. You want to cure cancer? Cure it in your own body first. It’s a lot less expensive, and you get to keep your hair, too.

Myth #8: There is no cure for breast cancer

The Truth: There are MANY natural cures for breast cancer available right now

Just a few hours of research will turn up numerous natural cures for cancer: Vitamin D, cat’s claw herbs, the Essiac formula, medicinal mushrooms, spirulina, cruciferous vegetables, green tea, graviola herbs, Chinese medicinal herbs, oxygen therapy, alkalizing water therapies and much more.

All these cures have one thing in common: They are ALL suppressed by the FDA and FTC. Telling the truth about anti-cancer foods, herbs or supplements is now a criminal offense in America.

Myth #9: If my mother had breast cancer, I’ll get it too

The Truth: Breast Cancer is not caused by bad genes; it’s caused by bad diets

This is another common lie told to woman by cancer doctors to scare them into medically unnecessary cancer “treatments” (which can kill you or harm you). Did you know that radiation treatment for one breast actually causes cancer in the OTHER breast? See: http://www.naturalnews.com/News_000366_…

Your genes don’t control your health, but what you put in your mouth and on your skin has near-total control over your health! If your parents had cancer, they were no doubt eating cancer-causing foods (processed meats) and not using anti-cancer foods, superfoods, herbs and supplements. They were also likely deficient in vitamin D, and they probably didn’t drink fresh anti-cancer vegetables on a daily basis (www.JuiceFeasting.com). Lastly, they no doubt had regular exposure to cancer-causing chemicals: Cigarette smoke, chemical solvents, perfume chemicals, household cleaners, pesticides, skin care products, conventional cosmetics, etc.

Read the truth about processed meats: http://www.naturalnews.com/022288.html

Myth #10: Sunlight causes cancer

The Truth: Sunlight generates Vitamin D in your skin, which prevents 78% of ALL cancers

The disinformation put out by the cancer industry about sunlight has reached a level of absurdity that’s virtually unmatched in the history of medicine. If you believe what the American Cancer Society tells you (still being suckered?), sunlight causes cancer!

Yes, that’s right: Sunlight causes cancer, they claim. According to the entire cancer industry (and most dermatologists, too), you’d be much better off hiding in a cave, or living your life under fluorescent lights or smothered in a layer of toxic sunscreen chemicals (which actually DO cause cancer, by the way).

Somehow, the human race has miraculously managed to survived 350,000 years of natural sunlight without be obliterated. This is nothing short of astonishing, given that sunlight is so deadly. It sort of makes me wonder how the human race survived at all, with sunlight striking any given area of the Earth, say, 50% of the time. Did our ancestors live underground?

The ploy here is so obvious that it’s child’s play to expose their strategy: Cancer industry authorities know that vitamin D prevents 77% of all cancers. Since sunlight exposure causes the skin to generate vitamin D in the human body (for free, no less), the cancer industry has come to the realization that in order for it to continue surviving (and exploiting cancer patients), it has to scare people away from anything that might actually prevent or cure cancer.

This is the whole reason behind the sunlight scare campaigns, of course. It’s all just a clever profit strategy to keep people sick and diseased by enforcing widespread vitamin D deficiency across the human population. Note, too, that this deficiency is especially prominent in men and women of darker skin color, which means the cancer industry’s whole campaign against sunlight is filled with disturbing racial overtones that smack of genocide. (Ever wonder why breast cancer is FAR more aggressive in black women and white women? It’s the vitamin D deficiency caused by the skin color, of course. But cancer docs never tell their black patients anything about it…)

Remember this: Healthy people with abundant vitamin D levels in their blood don’t get cancer and they almost never catch colds. They also don’t need vaccines, by the way. These are three huge profit centers for conventional medicine: Cancer, vaccines and colds. This is why the industry goes to such great lengths to (hilariously) try to discredit the sun.

It’s hilarious because the sun, of course, is the source of ALL life on our planet. Without the sun, there would be no plants, no bacteria, no animals, no fish and certainly no humans. The sun is the single most important source of life on our planet, and without it, we’d all die in a matter of a few hours (from the cold alone). That the cancer industry would declare war on the sun is just a disturbing example of how far removed modern medicine is from the real world.

Why the cancer industry is dangerous to women

The cancer industry people are living in a world of self-reinforced fictions, where sunlight is bad and chemotherapy chemicals are good; where food is useless but pharmaceuticals are essential. Almost everything said to you by a conventional cancer doctor is the opposite of what’s real, and yet they believe their own delusions only because those delusions are so widely shared by their colleagues. It is circular logic at its worst, driven by arrogance and greed, and totally lacking any discernable degree of intellectual honesty or compassion for the value of a human life.

The cancer industry is, in a very real way, a danger to the safety of men and women alike. It is a kind of home-grown medical terrorism, through which the application of fear and disinformation results in massive corporate profits that are only exceeded by the body count of our dead women; our mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts and nieces who fall victim to conventional cancer treatments. They are being lost to a medical regime wielding weapons of mass destruction: Chemical weapons (chemotherapy), radiological weapons (radiation) and weapons of sharp steel (scalpels).

These weapons of medical violence are being directed at our women for one purpose only: To secure profits that go into the hands of a few wealthy men who sit at the top of these organizations, raking in fifty-million-dollar salaries while the cancer treatment centers send women home in body bags.

It is the ultimate act of cruelty to promise a woman “treatment” and then deliver poison.

It is the ultimate act of violence to promise a woman “healing” and then mutilate her body.

The cancer industry, as operated today, is ultimately a criminal organization engaged in acts of medical violence against women.

Why women should revolt against the cancer industry

Even worse, it is being staffed by women, cheered by women and supported by women. In World War II, before the Jews were exterminated, Nazi soldiers pried the gold fillings out of their mouths. The fillings were sold off, and the money went to two places: The pockets of the top Nazi commanders, and the continued funding of the prison camps and extermination chambers. The Jewish prisoners, in other words, paid for their own gas chamber treatments using the gold right out of their own mouths.

Today, women are paying for their own cancer industry chemical assaults using the dollars right out of their own pockets. Those who support the conventional breast cancer non-profits are feeding the very beast that may someday destroy them and send them home poisoned, emaciated, or mutilated beyond repair.

And you know what the pink ribbon non-profits will do to help these women? WIGS. They’ll give them wigs to cover their hairless heads.

Chemotherapy victim or concentration camp prisoner? They both produce these same results. Zyklon B gas, by the way, was manufactured by a pharmaceutical company.

It is no coincidence that women who receive chemotherapy visually resemble the women of the Nazi concentration camps. They become emaciated through dangerous losses of muscle mass and bone mass. They lose their hair, vomit their food and suffer the devastating effects of massive nutrient loss.

They are, in effect, both prisoners of the same system of control and violence against women. It is a system that has existed for thousands of years, taking on new names and new faces as it shifts from one corner of the planet to another.

Today, that system of abuse and violence against women has a corporate logo, a cute pink symbol and a clever slogan. It has hundreds of offices all across the country, and thousands of pink products in retail stores. It is a system of violence against women, painted pink and repackaged as something that cares for women; and in that disguise, aided by the purchasing dollars of gullible consumers, it is ensnaring women in a system of such great evil that it can only be accurately compared to historical events like the Holocaust.

May God save our women from the cancer industry, lest we lose four generations to this modern chemical holocaust that has been unleashed against our mothers, daughters, grandmothers and sisters. And if our government will not protect us from this home-grown terrorism that seeks to turn the bodies of women into corporate profit centers, I hope that the People of America will one day wake up and take all justified (non-violent) measures to protect themselves from the cancer industry.

It is odd, I think, that women will protest in front of abortion clinics in order to save the life of an unborn child, and yet that same woman will say nothing when a cancer doctor destroys the life of her own mother or daughter. It is time to start protesting the cancer clinics and cancer non-profits. It is time to end this chemical holocaust and this medical violence against women. The women should be marching against mammograms and chemotherapy, demanding the arrest and prosecution of cancer surgeons who perform unjustified double mastectomies.

Throughout history, women have fought hard for the right to vote, to pursue an education and to be heard. I believe it is time that women exercised those rights to protect their freedoms and their lives from the conventional cancer industry.

About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher and author with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a manufacturer of mercury-free, energy-efficient LED lighting products that save electricity and help prevent global warming. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He’s also a successful software entrepreneur, having founded a well known email marketing software company whose technology currently powers the NaturalNews email newsletters. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and pursues hobbies such as Pilates, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening.

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Take a look around the room you’re in.  You’ll probably see lots of plastic stuff.  But petrochemicals are in almost everything, not just plastics.
Phthalates make perfumes stick around longer so they’re in just about everything scented.  Scented candles, air fresheners, cleaners, you name it. Phthalates can interfere with the normal sexual development of a fetus or infant. Studies have linked phthalate exposure in infants, especially males, to reduced testosterone and reproductive defects. Phthalates have recently been banned from toys in California, but they are allowed in clothes, and bed sheets.
Researchers measured phthalate concentrations in the urine of 163 infants between the ages of 2 and 28 months. They asked mothers how long their babies had spent playing with teething rings, pacifiers and other soft plastic products in the last 24 hours, and whether they had used body care products such as powders, creams, wipes, shampoos and lotions.

All the infants contained at least one variety of phthalate in their urine; 80 percent of them had seven or more. The urine of babies who had been exposed to lotions, shampoos or powders had four times the phthalate levels of children who had not been exposed to those products. Children under the age of eight months and those who used lotions had the highest phthalate levels
As far as “natural” scent goes, “natural means nothing other than that it probably smells like something in nature such as a green apple or rose or “fresh scent”, but it’s likely made from the same chemicals.
Many toothpastes include ingredients made from petroleum, such as artificial colors and mineral oil.
Petrochemicals are very prevalent in cosmetics. Examples include lip gloss, which is commonly made from petroleum oil, and nail polish, which contains petroleum-derived solvents such as toluene. Many cosmetics on the market contain harmful phthalates.
The benzene family of chemicals tends to have a sweetish aroma that is very popular among perfumers and fragrances. The benzenes are petroleum-based, so they’re cheap, easy to come by, and a known cause of leukemia.
According to the Environmental Working Group, “Fragrance formulas are considered to be among the top five known allergens and can trigger asthma attacks.”

After hearing numerous reports from people who believed that scented products were making them sick, Dr. Steinemann, an environmental engineer, conducted a chemical analysis of three best-selling air fresheners and three laundry products.  She says, “I was surprised by both the number and the potential toxicity of the chemicals that were found.” To avoid legal issues, Dr. Steinemann didn’t reveal any brand names of the products tested.

STUDY RESULTS:
•    In six products, Dr. Steinemann found nearly 100 volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
•    10 of the VOCs are regulated as either toxic or hazardous
•    Three are classified as carcinogenic hazardous air pollutants, which have no safe exposure level according to the EPA
•    One of the VOCs was methyl chloride, linked to nervous system, liver, and kidney damage in animals
•    Each of the six products contained at least one of the 10 toxic or hazardous VOCs
None of the product labels listed any of these VOCs, because U.S. laws don’t require manufacturers of household products to list contents.
Here are the results of another study done in the UK where researchers monitored VOC levels for one year in 170 homes where mothers spent their days at home with children.
STUDY RESULTS:
•    In homes where air fresheners were used daily, mothers averaged nearly 10 percent more frequent headaches than mothers in homes where air fresheners were used once a week or less
•    In the “daily” homes, mothers had more than 25 percent higher risk of depression
•    In the “daily” homes, infants were 32 percent more likely to suffer from diarrhea
•    Infants in the “daily” homes had a significantly higher rate of earaches than infants in “once a week” homes
Researchers noted that the daily use of air fresheners and other aerosol products created a gradual accumulation of VOCs.
Hair mousse, gels, and sprays commonly contain endocrine-disrupting pthalates. Synthetic hair dyes include petroleum-derived coloring chemicals as well as other harmful ingredients such as ammonia and lead. Synthetic hair dyes are known to penetrate skin and to cause cancer in laboratory animals.
Perfume and aftershave usually consist of a combination of chemicals, solvents, and natural essential oils in a base of alcohol, which can include toluene, ketone, and other hazardous substances. Approximately 95% of the ingredients in perfumes are derived from petrochemicals.
Many soaps contain petroleum-derived synthetic fragrances, artificial colors, and mineral oil that may cause skin rashes and other allergic reactions.
Many lotions, sunscreens and body care products contain pthalates, DEHP and DBP.. In animals, these chemicals are toxic to the liver, kidneys, testes, and the nervous system. DBP is used extensively in perfumes, nail polishes, lotions, and hair sprays.
Some sunblocks contain suspected carcinogens, including diethanolamine and related ingredients (DEA, TEA), padimate-o, and titanium dioxide. Other ingredients are suspected endocrine disrupters: benzophenone (oxybenzone), homosalate, octyl-methoxycinnamate (octinoxate), and the parabens (methyl-, ethyl-, butyl-, propyl-). Moreover, sunscreens can contain chemicals associated with skin irritation and rashes, including avobenzone (parsol 1789), benzophenone, octyl-methoxycinnamate, and PABA (para-aminobenzoic acid).
Not only are these chemicals bad for you, they’re bad for the environment. Diethanolamine has been found in waterways around the country, posing a threat to animals and humans. According to the National Toxicology Program, benzophenone has been found in surface water, groundwater, soil, and air, and may affect the liver and bone marrow of animals ingesting large amounts of contaminated water. This and other endocrine disruptors in sunblocks can also enter the water system when we swim or bathe, eventually winding up in fish, amphibians, and marine wildlife, and posing a threat to the animals’ reproductive cycles.
The basic ingredients used in cosmetics, skin and beauty products are mostly the same whether it’s purchased at a high end counter in a fancy package, or for a tenth of the cost at a low end store.
The future of our children and our Earth are at stake here. There is absolutely no reason to be using all these harmful chemicals.  Does it make sense to spend your hard-earned dollars on products that make you and your family sick while polluting the environment?  There are many natural and organic products available.  In the final post of this series I will list many organic sources for products, and also lots of cheap and natural alternatives such as using baking soda for toothpaste, vinegar for cleaning etc.

The amount of energy needed to produce the millions of pounds of toxic chemicals that we consume in the form of processed foods is ENORMOUS. In return we reap cancer, obesity, heart disease and destruction of the environment. On the other hand if we consume plain, fresh, unprocessed foods using sustainable agriculture and animal products from grass-fed animals, we reap health for ourselves, our pets and our planet.

Which do you choose?

We have already discussed the fact that the human body is not designed to assimilate artificial petrochemicals. This is COMMON SENSE. We do not commonly eat paint, rat poison, anti-freeze, brake fluid etc., but we seem to have no problem with ingesting the same toxic chemicals in our favorite foods, and beverages, or inhaling them in scented products, or rubbing them into our skin to be absorbed into the body. ALL MAN-MADE CHEMICALS ARE TOXIC, FOREIGN SUBSTANCES WHICH CAUSE DAMAGE TO US AND OUR ENVIRONMENT. There are no exceptions. If it is not found in nature, it is a foreign substance. There are plenty of natural poisons too, natural doesn’t necessary mean safe.

Pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, fumigants, and fungicides all contain petrochemicals. One way we ingest petrochemicals in food is from pesticides. Many widely used pesticides are classified by the EPA as probable or possible causes of cancer in humans; and many are known to cause damage to the nervous, reproductive and immune systems in laboratory animals. EPA pesticide regulations do not take into consideration potential chronic health effects from low-level exposures that do not cause immediate and obvious harm. The EPA also ignores potential combined effects from exposure to more than one chemical at a time. Current regulations do not consider exposure to vulnerable populations such as children and the immune-compromised.

Dairy products, apples, bananas, broccoli, cantaloupes, and carrots have among the highest rates of petrochemical residues

Chemicals from the petroleum manufacturing process enter our bodies through the foods we eat, especially meat and dairy products from feedlot and drylot animals. Chemicals such as pesticides and antibiotics tend to accumulate in milk and in animal flesh and fat. However, the meat and milk from GRASS-FED animals is safer, higher in nutrition and omega 3 fats, and also far less likely to carry e coli.

Coal tar and petrochemicals are the sources of the artificial colors that go into our foods, and these artificial coloring ingredients in the food supply contribute to all sorts of health problems, the most notable of which are the symptoms diagnosed as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a behavioral pattern often brought on by Yellow #2 food dye. Children are being fed these chemicals in such large quantities that they begin to have nervous system malfunctions that ultimately are misdiagnosed as ADHD, learning disabilities, or violent behavior.

Processed foods contain fragrances that are supposed to mimic real food. Diacetyl, a chemical that gives microwave popcorn its buttery flavor and aroma, also causes serious lung disease when heated and inhaled frequently. Diacetyl is being phased out of microwave popcorn, but not before many popcorn factory workers were permanently disabled by inhaling it.

Soda bottles, water bottles, peanut butter jars, and cooking oil bottles are made with PET: (polyethylene terephthalate) which migrates from the plastic containers to the contents:

Milk jugs, plastic bags, and yogurt cups are made with HDPE: (High-Density Polyethylene) which also migrates into the food that comes into contact with it.

Water bottles, salad dressing bottles, cooking oil bottles, mouth wash bottles, meat wrap, babies’ teething rings, pacifiers, nipples and toys contain PVC: Polyvinyl Chloride which leaches plasticizers (lead, cadmium, mercury, phthalates and the carcinogen, diethyl hexyphosphate)

Produce bags, and food storage containers contain LDPE (Low-Density Polyethylene)

Bottle caps, and drinking straws are made from PP: Polypropylene.

Meat trays, foam take-out food containers and foam cups as well as foam packing materials contain PS: Polystyrene.

Almost all food cans are lined with bisphenol A epoxy resin (sealant) and industry studies confirm that BPA is in canned foods and beverages. Studies of laboratory animals or cultured human cells have shown exposure to bisphenol A can cause neural and behavioral changes, precancerous growths in breast and prostate tissues, early onset puberty and other effects at very low doses. In addition, bisphenol A crosses the placenta and has been found in amniotic fluid and umbilical cord tissue, showing that there is no prenatal protection from a mother’s exposure.

The Environmental Working Group tested 97 cans of name-brand fruit, vegetables, soda, and other commonly eaten canned goods.

Of all foods tested, chicken soup, infant formula, and ravioli had BPA levels of highest concern. Just one to three servings of foods with these concentrations could expose a woman or child to BPA at levels that caused serious adverse effects in animal tests.

For 1 in 10 cans of all food tested, and 1 in 3 cans of infant formula, a single serving contained enough BPA to expose a woman or infant to BPA levels more than 200 times the government’s traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals

British researcher David Melzer, M.B., Ph.D., of Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, and colleagues measured the BPA found in the urine of 1,455 adults between the ages of 18 and 74 years, using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) which was gathered in 2003 and 2004. Dr. Melzer and his team found that average BPA concentrations, adjusted for age and sex, were higher in those diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. In fact, even a slightly raised BPA concentration was associated with a 39 percent increased risk of having cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Those with the highest BPA concentration had nearly three times the odds of heart disease and 2.4 times the risk of diabetes when compared with those with the lowest levels. What’s more, higher levels of BPA concentrations were also associated with abnormally elevated levels of three liver enzymes.

The non-stick coating on cookware also contains petrochemicals which leach into food. Researchers tested the milk from 45 different nursing mothers for two different varieties of perflourinated compounds (PFCs): perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8. PFOA is used in nonstick coatings such as Teflon, while PFOS is an ingredient in stain-resistant fabric.

PFCs were found in the milk of every woman tested, at an average concentration of 131 billionths of a gram of PFOS and 44 billionths of a gram of PFOA per liter.

If we take a good look at all our “convenience” foods it may become apparent that they are no longer so convenient, especially when they are destroying our health, and ultimately life on this planet.

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I do not intend to instill fear in anyone. Fear is counterproductive. However, it is necessary to state with clarity and vision the wanton destruction that is occurring on this beautiful planet. It is absolutely imperative that the following information be assimilated and acted upon NOW or life as we know it will not survive another 60 to 70 years. This is a fact, not an opinion. I don’t sugar-coat distasteful subjects, nor do  I tread lightly when the future of our children and our planet are at stake.

Petro refers to oil, the kind that is non-renewable and drilled from the earth, a destructive process in itself.

Chemicals are man-made, the product of atomic and molecular changes. Petrochemicals are chemicals made from oil, natural gas or other fossilized hydrocarbons. When we think of an “oil crisis”, how many of us take into consideration the enormous amount of petrochemicals we produce and then dispose of every day?

Oil was formed from the remains of animals and plants that lived millions of years ago This is the reason it is considered “non-renewable”. Exploring and drilling for oil disturbs land and ocean habitats After crude oil is removed from the ground, it is sent to a refinery by pipeline, ship or barge. At a refinery, different parts of the crude oil are separated into usable petroleum products. Crude oil and natural gas are then refined into ethane, propane, and hundreds of other petrochemical products including fuel for your car. Refining means that the molecular structure is altered so that the oil no longer resembles anything found in nature. It is now a totally foreign toxic material that can never be changed back into its original form. It does not bio-degrade or photo-degrade. It cannot be removed from the environment, and it damages everything it comes into contact with. The following is a simplistic overview of the process of molecular change:

Atoms extracted from petrochemicals are formed into molecules known as monomers. There are many different types of monomers, which are then used to create polymers, large molecules consisting of repeating monomers. The polymers are often made into plastic pellets called nurdles. The nurdles are melted and dyed to form various plastic products. In the case of plastic bags, the repeating units (monomers) are ethylene, or ethane.

There are thousands of petrochemicals in ink, crayons, bubble gum, dishwashing liquids, deodorant, eyeglasses, records, tires, foods, toothpaste, ammonia, heart valves, the list goes on and on. The problem is that these chemicals are polluting our environment and we CAN”T GET RID OF THEM.

SInce the media almost invariably admonishes us that these petrochemical laden products are “healthy”, “necessary”, and just an everyday part of life that no one should think about or question, what is the problem? WHAT ARE THEY NOT TELLING YOU? There is the simple fact that we can NEVER get rid of them. But there’s more. A LOT more.

The manufacture and incineration of plastics such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC, commonly used in consumer product packaging and medical devices) is a major source of dioxin. Dioxins are also formed as byproducts of chemical processes involving chlorine, such as the manufacture of pesticides and the bleaching of paper.

Two of the most serious health effects of dioxin exposure are cancer and endocrine disruption. The petrochemicals that are so pervasive in our environment have especially adverse effects on rapidly growing fetuses and infants. Laboratory animals exposed before birth to one form of dioxin displayed physical deformities, retarded growth, and changes in physiology. Adverse effects on learning and behavior were also evident.

Many of the most studied plastics and other petroleum products are synthetic hormone disruptors known as xenoestrogens. They mimic the effects of estrogen in the body and disrupt normal hormone function and balance. “Xenoestrogen,” means it’s like the female hormone estrogen, except for two things: 1) it’s foreign to the body, which is what “xeno” means, and 2) it is way more harmful than our natural estrogen for everyone, male and female. Breast cancers are much more of a risk in women who carry a high burden of xenoestrogens, and both sexes are subject to a huge range of other harmful health effects.

Xenoestrogens come from factories, not food. But they wind up in food because they get into the environment, where toxic organic pollutants like DDT can persist for more than 50 years. Even pesticides banned in the US can make their way back to our homes by way of imported fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Xenoestrogens are found in most plastic products, most commonly in bottled water. If you’ve ever wondered why so many women (and often men) nowadays have huge breasts, little girls are developing at younger and younger ages, PMS is rampant, and breast cancer rates are soaring, look at the incredible amounts of petrochemicals we are pouring into our environment every day, and pay attention.

Hormonal compounds disrupt the endocrine system of both animals and humans. Exposure to these molecules, even at low concentrations, can have severely damaging effects on the environment, to organisms, and to humans. The cumulative effect of these compounds is difficult to estimate. They are an immense danger to the environment and to the human population

Over the last 20 years, breast cancer alone has claimed more American lives than the Vietnam war , the Korean war, World War I, and World War II combined. Cancer mortality has risen from 5% of American deaths a hundred years ago to 25% today. Overall lifetime cancer rates for Americans have risen from one in four people in 1960 to 1 in 2 for men and more than 1 in 3 for women. When so many petroleum products and derivatives are known carcinogens, it’s hard not to see a connection.

Every hour Americans use and discard 2.5 million plastic bottles, totaling 22 billion a year. The polycarbonate that these bottles are made from releases a chemical known as bisphenol A, also know as BPA. A full 90% of government studies found harmful health effects especially to children and expecting moms, and also for male sexuality and reproduction.

Men exposed to pesticides (also made from petrochemicals which disrupt hormones) are far more likely to have defective sperm and low sperm counts than men who are not exposed. This is even true for men who do not work on or live next to farms but are likely exposed to pesticides in drinking water. The male sperm count worldwide has diminished an astonishing 50% in the last 60 years. This is unheard of in the entire history of humankind. What will happen in the next 60 years if we continue on this destructive path?

The most far-reaching effects of hormone disrupters from petrochemicals are birth defects and miscarriages. Another effect is a disruption of beta cell function in the pancreas, which creates a pre-diabetes type condition of high blood insulin and insulin resistance.

If breast milk from American women were bottled and sold commercially, it would be banned by the US Food and Drug Administration because it is contaminated with more than 100 industrial chemicals, including dioxins and pesticides. This is still less toxic than baby formula laced with refined sugar and chemicals stored in a can with a plastic coating.

Petrochemicals tend to accumulate in body fat. The most notorious petrochemical in body fat is polystyrene; studies have shown that virtually all people in the United States carry polystyrene in their body fat. The International Agency for the Research on Cancer has classified styrene as possibly carcinogenic to humans. Possibly?

In a study in Mexico, pesticide-exposed children were less proficient at catching a ball, had lower stamina levels, more trouble remembering things, and were less able to draw accurate drawings of people. This study is one of many documenting the negative effects of petroleum products on the brain. However the overall effects of exposure to pesticides, plastics, and air pollution remain largely unstudied. Most of these chemicals have never been tested at all.

Every year over 5,500 people in the US die from asthma.. This rise can be traced to increased environmental pollution, from both household sources, industrial, and motor vehicle pollution. Also implicated are the plastics and other petroleum products used in homes and buildings, such as carpeting and insulation. The “outgassing” of plastics used in building products creates serious indoor air quality issues which are known to cause increases in asthma and other serious allergic reactions.

Common sense dictates that the human body was not designed to consume petrochemicals. So why are we putting petrochemicals in our foods? Why are we slathering them all over our bodies so they can be absorbed through the skin? Why are we breathing them in and giving them to our precious babies to chew on? Why are we pouring petrochemicals by the ton on our crops, yards and water supplies? Why are we mindlessly destroying our environment, our health and our futures?

It is time we became aware of the toxins, endocrine disruptors and carcinogens that we are producing by the ton every day. What do you see for the future of this beautiful Earth if we continue with this mindless destruction?

Resources:

Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence and Survival? A Scientific Detective Story.

Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction

The Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era

The End of Nature

FREE DOWNLOAD HealthBookSummaries:Appetite For Profit:How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health

Why write about love on a blog dedicated to “creating wealth and health”?

We usually think of wealth as having lots of money, and money is great, it certainly can provide the freedom to enjoy a healthy and fulfilled life. True wealth however, would be in having an abundance of all that makes life joyful including friendship, support, laughter, fun and love.

On the other hand it is impossible to enjoy vibrant health if one is feeling unloved and unwanted. What is love anyway? Is it a person to take care of you? A feeling? An emotion? A magical, mystical power that is here, there or everywhere depending on your point of view? Why does it often elude us?

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Quick, picture a cow in your mind…what do you see? If you’re like most people, you’ll picture a cow contentedly grazing in an endless expanse of green grass.

Cows have eaten grass ever since the first cows walked the face of the Earth. This is because they are ruminants. Ruminants eat GRASS. Their digestive systems are designed specifically to digest GRASS.

What happens when you feed a ruminant grains? They gain weight really fast. That’s also what happens when you eat a lot of grains. The problem with a ruminant eating grains is that it makes them sick and quite bloated. So bloated in fact that a hose must be put down their esophagus to relieve the pressure or the cow will die. Of course this causes some amount of stress on the poor cow. The cow also becomes much more prone to disease. Stress and incorrect diet have a tendency to do that. So now we have a fat, miserable, sickly cow who is then given massive amounts of antibiotics just to keep it alive until it can get to the slaughterhouse. Millions of pounds of antibiotics are added to animal feed in the US every year. Animals get more antibiotics than people, and people get a LOT.

An interesting thing about these antibiotics is that they a) screw up the animals intestinal flora, and b) cause antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria to flourish. Even more interesting is that they do the same thing to YOU.

This here picture is of a typical feedlot. These animals are crowded together, fed corn and other far grosser stuff like chicken litter (feces, feathers and bedding) blood, ground up pigs and chickens and of course “downed” animals (just guess), supplemented with antibiotics, and possibly artificial growth hormones.

Corn also causes the rumen to become unnaturally acidic which causes all kinds of problems including diarrhea, bloat, ulcers, liver disease, and weakening of the immune system that leaves the cow vulnerable to other diseases. As the acids cause deterioration of the rumen wall, bacteria enter the bloodstream and collect in the liver causing abcesses.

A corn-fed cow also has a new, acidic environment in its digestive track, unlike the alkaline environment of the grass-fed cow (its natural diet, remember?) Guess what grows well in this acidic environment?
If you guessed:
Escherichia coli 0157 (thats the one that can make people really sick or even dead)
and who wouldn’t …. ? You guessed correctly!!! Oh and there are a few more problems with corn-fed cows::

Measurable amounts of estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, zeranol, trenbolone acetate and melengesterol acetate, all hormones, are found in meat!
These chemicals do not biodegrade, they simply stay around forever causing proven sexual abnormalities in animals and humans.
OK while we’re on a roll here let’s a look at fat. Specifically the fat from a corn-fed versus a grass-fed cow.

Grass-fed cows produce 300 to 400% more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a natural and very beneficial fatty acid which your body requires for many purposes, one of which is to fight inflammation. Corn-fed cows on the other hand have insignificant levels of CLA but high levels of omega-3 fat, which promotes heart disease.

Another consideration is the source of the corn, which is quite often GENETICALLY MODIFIED. I will be writing a post on this lovely worldwide experiment/disaster in the near future. It will be my adventure into the ‘horror” genre of writing and it won’t even be fiction! You might just want to switch over to organic and grass-fed now…

Do you know how much of your supermarket meat is treated with carbon monoxide? Probably not, they don’t exactly display this information prominently. Or at all. I think they forget to tell you about the irradiation too. This is to keep filthy meat from sickly cows nice and sort of sterile. Did I mention growth hormones?

All of this pertains to pigs, chickens, turkeys etc, and you can watch the following video (if you can stomach it) to give you some idea of not only the filth and poisons you are ingesting with your meat, but the cruelty involved in the promotion of feedlot animals.

OK, I am not trying to discourage anyone from eating meat, although most of us could cut down. Everybody must make their own personal choices here. I do eat some meat, lots of farm fresh eggs, and I drink only raw milk from grass-fed cows. The thing is, you want to get your meat, eggs, and dairy (milk, ice cream, cheese, etc) from FREE ROAMING GRASS-FED animals. Well in the case of poultry they do eat bugs and some seeds and grain. LETS BOYCOTT THE FILTH, CRUELTY AND TOXINS FROM FEEDLOT ANIMALS. Here are some good books to read:

Pasture Perfect

Fish, Meat and Poultry: Dangers in our Food Supply

Here is where you can get meats from grass-fed animals: Bon Apetit!

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The Whole Truth About Weight Loss

Before we get into this, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am 51 years old and a mother of 7 kids. I am 5’ 3” slim and athletic and about 108 pounds. Now I’m not bragging here, just letting you know that I do know a thing or two about maintaining a healthy weight, even after having a bunch of kids.

The first thing that you need to understand is that most of what you’ve heard about weight loss is bogus. You are just not going to hear the truth, unless you really dig. The truth is not profitable.

Forget the food pyramid, its recommendations of 6 to 11 servings of REFINED carbohydrates is designed to make you fat. This is obvious, as the obesity epidemic came into full swing shortly after the food pyramid “guide” was thrust upon the public, as well as the push to use fake fats, fake sugars, fake foods (see a connection?) and the perfection of the feedlot.

I am not going to go into too many details, otherwise this blog will easily become a book, but I will recommend books that you can read to substantiate my facts. Also, please don’t use the cop-out that your genes are making you fat. Your genes are merely dumb storage facilities that do very little to influence your health. This is GREAT news as otherwise you’d be helpless to do anything about your health, or your weight, which, of course, isn’t true at all. You can read the book The Biology Of Belief: Unleashing The Power Of Consciousness, Matter And Miracles A few other points of interest: the only two species in ALL of nature that become fat are HUMANS AND THEIR DOMESTIC PETS.That should give you a little clue as to what makes you fat, it sure isn’t a natural, wholesome diet of raw foods! First, here’s all the stuff that makes you fat. 1) SODA and SUGAR Soda contains lots of sugar, usually in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup All sugars cause a rapid rise in blood glucose, however fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar. To compensate for the rapid rise in blood sugar, (more…)

Being the mother of seven kids, there were a few revelations that hit me like the proverbial “ton of bricks”, they were just so obvious I can’t understand how I missed them. Also, I’ve made a fascinating attempt to learn to think like a kid so I could at least begin to understand them.

How would you feel if you were trained for your job by someone who gave you all the specifics about what not to do, while giving you little or no explanation of how to do the job? Would you be frustrated? Do you think you’d do an exemplary job with so little to go on?

Yet as parents, coaches and teachers we do this to kids quite frequently. It seems like I am forever hearing folks say “DON”T….throw your clothes on the floor, slam the door, talk to your brother that way/talk to me that way, yell, swear, cry,” etc etc. Or from us skating coaches “DON’T….look down, turn your head, slow down, talk,”etc. My 12 year old son got an “I won’t forget my book” 100 times writing assignment, he got the same one a few days later….telling kids what not to do does NOT work for a few reasons. (more…)

The Key To Creating Information Products That Sell Even In Overcrowded, Highly-Competitive Markets
By Jimmy D. Brown

I want you to add a new word to your business vocabulary -

The word is “specialization”.

A new age has dawned in information marketing. And it’s the age of “specialization”.

Before I explain how this will help you create information products that sell like crazy, let me give you a very brief history lesson.

(I promise, this won’t hurt a bit.

Information products online have evolved since I logged onto the Internet back in 1999… (more…)

I just HAD to pass along this article! Especially for those who still don’t understand the connection between their thoughts and their reality!

In the future, you will simply “think” your passwords.

SOURCE: Agence-France Press

Canadian researchers hope to soon be able to use brain waves to unlock doors and get access to bank accounts. Some companies are already offering iris recognition systems that many countries want to put into biometric passports. But Julie Thorpe, a researcher at Carleton University in Ottawa wants to take the idea much much further.

She says it is possible to do away with key cards, pin numbers and a litany of other security tools that allow people to retrieve bank money, access computer data or enter restricted buildings.

“A user would simply think their password,” said Thorpe, who hopes to develop the first biometric security device to read your mind to authenticate users.

Her idea, yet to be proven viable for commercial application, assumes that brainwave signals, like fingerprints, vary slightly from person to person, even when they think alike.

“Everyone’s brainwave signal is a bit different even when they think about the same thing. They’re unique just like fingerprints,” she told AFP.

While people may be tricked into giving up their passwords, smartcards may be lost or stolen, as can biometric templates stored on computers for comparing eye or fingerprint scans, so-called “passthoughts” are unique. (more…)