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- Ben Fuchs
Our world is illuminated and energized from the light released by the sun streaming earthward in the form waves. Those light waves are similar to the movement of water in the ocean, except solar waves, originating 90 million miles away and taking about 8 minutes to get to Earth, take on distinct wavelengths. Three of those wavelengths, known as UvA, UvB and UvC are invisible and have been associated with the damaging, and sometimes deadly effects conventionally attributed to solar radiation.
UvC, the shortest of the three wavelengths, is associated with skin cancers and is considered to be the most dangerous, but (theoretically anyway) the earth’s atmosphere offers protection.
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- Ben Fuchs
If you’re one of the hundreds of millions of Americans who've gotten a prescription this year, you probably noticed that the text was illegible. And not because of the doctor’s calligraphy. Even typewritten scripts are impossible to understand. That’s because they’re written in Latin. Hmm…now isn’t that interesting. Does your doctor or your pharmacist speak Latin? Probably not. So, what could possibly be the purpose of writing instructions and details for something as important, potent and very dangerous in an ancient language that is not only arcane and inscrutable, but that hasn’t even been spoken commonly for 2000 years?
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- Ben Fuchs
Yum cholesterol, eat up! Despite the fact that for decades doctors have demonized cholesterol as a molecular monster, these days the conventional understanding has changed. Earlier this year the United Sates Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee reversed its longstanding words of wisdom about avoiding egg yolks, shrimp, lobster and other cholesterol containing foods, proclaiming that the much-maligned substance is “…no longer a nutrient of concern”. No longer a nutrient of concern? Great, it’s about time! But what’s missing from the lifting of the medical and social stigma associated with eating cholesterol-containing foods is some actual love for what the under-appreciated biochemical really is and what it does to keep the body healthy.
Cholesterol is an anabolic (building) chemical. It plays an important role in the production of the hormones of youth, fertility, and growth. Its mere presence tells the body that anti-aging and repair can proceed and its production is stimulated by stress and tissue breakdown, which, in just the right amount, functions as growth signals. This partially accounts for our societal tendency to have higher blood cholesterol levels than we actually need. Our cultural inclinations to long term chronic stress and degenerative diseases, along with high blood sugar and insulin (there’s a reason that diabetes and elevated blood cholesterol go hand-in-hand), not to mention the physiological burden of nutritional deficiencies, are the ultimate cause of elevated cholesterol and the real bad guys in the epic decades-long drama called “CHOLESTEROL-MANIA”.
