CONTENTS
1) Editorial
2) Radio Update: Croft Woodruff on CFRO-FM
3) Feature: Chinese Medicine for Infertility
4) Issue Updates
--Help Quebec Win Historic Pesticide Ban!
--Environmental Defence Supports Ban on Non-Stick Chemicals
--To Help Stop Climate Change, Click Here
--Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators, 2005
5) Media Watch
--BC Tops in Health, Manitoba at Bottom, Report
--Conservative Leader Says Canada Might Miss Kyoto
--Warm Weather Isolates Northern Canadian Natives
--2005 Was Warmest Year on Record, NASA
--Provinces Providing More Childhood Vaccines
--Government Should Warn About Mercury in Fish, Says CSPI
--Opening Pandora’s Box: Governance for Genetically Modified Forests
--A Decade Later: Is GM Winning Hearts and Minds?
--Monsanto Moves to Force-Feed Europe Genetically Engineered Corn
--Soy Diet Could Worsen Heart Disease, Study
--Combining Food Additives May Be Harmful, Say Researchers
--Diabetics Often Use Alternative and Normal Therapy
--Stevia: Mum’s the Word
--Ginseng Extract Wards Off Common Cold
--Acai Juice for Cancer?
--Eggs for Breakfast Could Help in Weight Control, Study
--Tea Here Now: Fair Trade
--Do You Have a Sleep Disorder?
--Gruf-f-f Love
--Belly Laughs Make Happy Hearts
--EPA to Accept Pesticide Testing on Humans
--Laptop Dance: Umbra on Choosing a Computer
--Cell Phones Don’t Cause Brain Tumors
--Panel: Teflon Chemical a Likely Carcinogen
--New Car Smell: It’s Not So Sweet
6) Calendar of Events
--The Infertility Cure, Feb 19, Vancouver
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1) Editorial
Dear Members and Friends;
Just before Christmas, Bayne, HANS president, and I had a meaningful conversation about what we’ve achieved as an organization after 21 years, and what we plan to achieve. We talked about the potential of the HANS library (named after his dear deceased wife and our cherished volunteer, Debby Boyes). We talked about HANS On Wellness (HOW) Insurance. We talked about the value of having a large membership with which to participate in government and community health talks. We talked of health care being more than crisis medicine, and the steps needed to develop this integrated approach.
We wondered exactly how we were going to get there.
At that point, I reminded him about you, our members. I reminded him that HANS has probably the most unique membership of any organization I know. Members of HANS are thoughtful, curious, free-thinking and inspired people. And so we invite you into this conversation.
Some of you have skills you can contribute, which we would greatly value. Others may not be able to volunteer, but you have resources or charitable funds to donate to the overall project. Maybe you know a benefactor who is sitting in the wings, waiting to hear about the good works of HANS.
Some of you have your own inspired ideas, which we’d truly love to consider. I told Bayne that this is a membership we can be proud of, so please share any inspired ideas you have.
Warm regards,
Lorna Hancock
Founding Member & Director
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2) Radio Update: Croft Woodruff on CFRO-FM
Who could forget Croft Woodruff’s long-running “Healthy Living Show” in Vancouver, for a time co-hosted with HANS’s own delightful Cathrine Gabriel? Well, Croft’s back every Wednesday between 1 and 2:00 pm on CFRO to talk about health and politics and pretty much anything controversial that grabs his attention. That’s 102.7 FM on the dial. Tune in online at www.coopradio.org.
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3) Chinese Medicine for Infertility
by Michelle Hancock
“Fertility isn’t about seeds and eggs. About what’s coming out of the ovaries. It’s about life,” says Randine Lewis, MSOM, L.Ac., PhD, and author of The Infertility Cure, the Ancient Chinese Wellness Program for Getting Pregnant and Having Healthy Babies.
To the one in six couples who suffer from infertility, creating a baby--perhaps humanity’s most natural, rewarding function--is also about stress. The stress of wanting and fruitlessly trying. The stress to intimacy. To finances. To deciding on treatments.
All that worry, points out Dr. Lewis, worsens the problem.
“Stress has an enormous impact on fertility,” she explains. “All mammals will not conceive under stress. The body can stop ovaries from producing eggs. Stop menstruation. Change the makeup of hormones. Shift blood flow away from reproductive organs. There are a multitude of shut-off mechanisms. In Chinese medicine, we want to get the body back into balance. We don’t force a pregnancy into a body that says no. We get the body into a condition where it says yes.”
A “no” body might receive a Western diagnosis such as amenorrhea, unexplained infertility, endometriosis, polycystic ovaries, tubal obstruction, uterine fibroids, recurrent miscarriage, immunological and male factor infertility. Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after one year of unprotected sex. In one-third of cases, it originates with the female; in 20 to 40 per cent, the male. The remaining percentage is unidentified or problems in both partners.
But traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) takes a 3,000 year old approach to rebalancing the body, and it works. Medical director Dr. Stephen Hudson, FRCS(C) at the Victoria Fertility Clinic is so convinced of TCM’s conjunctive benefits to orthodox treatment that he recommends all patients consult their on-staff practitioner.
“Originally, I knew nothing about TCM and had reservations about how effective it was, basically from ignorance,” says Dr. Hudson. Then he did some research and even took a 10-month TCM course for physicians.
The result: he was impressed.
Numerous studies showing TCM’s benefits to fertility exist. In 2002, for instance, German researchers reported that of 160 women, those who used acupuncture with IVF had a 50 per cent greater chance of getting pregnant. Women receiving electro-acupuncture in a 2003 study claimed reduced pain, nausea and other side-effects after IVF. Of 114 women in a 2004 study, 51 per cent who had both acupuncture and IVF treatments got pregnant compared to 36 per cent with IVF alone. Further, only eight per cent in the acupuncture group miscarried, compared to 20 per cent of IVF-only women.
“Many patients are surprised because it’s not common for a Western doctor to recommend it,” Dr. Hudson says. “Mostly, people are very receptive. Even if they don’t become pregnant, their philosophy toward overall health is improved and they have spin-off health benefits.”
Dr. Lewis will be speaking of traditional Chinese medical treatment of infertility in Vancouver on February 19th. See Calendar of Events below for details.
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3) ISSUE UPDATES
Help Quebec Win Historic Pesticide Ban!
The final stage of the Pesticide Code of Quebec will come into effect on April 3, 2006. In Quebec, 7.5 million people and their environment will be protected from 20 active pesticide ingredients used for lawn care. The banning of these active ingredients means that 212 pesticide products will be eliminated from sale and use in Quebec. Implementation of the Pesticide Code sets an historic precedent for the health of communities everywhere.
However, at a recent conference held by the lawn care industry, it was announced that every effort would be made to remove 2,4-D from the list of pesticides to be banned. If the industry is successful, this would mean that 2,4-D could be sprayed on public spaces in Quebec communities, including where children play.
Take Action now! Please write to the Minister of the Environment urging him to keep 2,4-D on Quebec's list of banned pesticides at http://ga4.org/campaign/quebecPesticideBan.
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Environmental Defence Supports Ban on Non-Stick Chemicals
The launch of Environmental Defence’s Toxic Nation campaign, which raised the issue of toxic chemicals polluting Canadians’ blood, caught the attention of the federal government agency responsible for determining the safety of new chemicals.
Environmental Defence was invited to provide comments on the federal government’s assessment of four fluorotelomer based substances. The substances are related to fluorinated chemicals used as stain repellants and non-stick surfaces.
The four substances are currently under temporary government bans. Environmental Defence recommends that the temporary bans become permanent in order to adequately protect Canadians’ health and the environment.
Read more at Environmental Defence’s Toxic Nation web site at http://www.environmentaldefence.ca/toxicnation/whatG....
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To Help Stop Climate Change, Click Here
Did you know that, according to the David Suzuki Foundation, up to 5,900 Canadians die prematurely each year because of air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels? Rates of childhood asthma have risen dramatically. From 1978 to 1995, the percentage of children with asthma increased from 2.5 to 11.2 per cent. And Canada’s largest cities are choking on smog. Toronto had a record 48 smog alert days in 2005.
Visit their Climate change website at http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/.
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Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators, 2005
Trends for air quality and greenhouse gas emissions both deteriorated between 1990 and 2003, according to a new report on Canada’s environmental sustainability. The report also shows that water quality pollutant guidelines for aquatic life are being exceeded, at least occasionally, at most of a selected number of monitoring sites across the country.
The report, prepared by Environment Canada, Statistics Canada and Health Canada, establishes three indicators: freshwater quality, air quality and greenhouse gas emissions. They are a basis for providing Canadians with more regular and reliable information on the state of their environment and how it is linked with human activities.
For more, visit http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/051214/td051214.....
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4) MEDIA WATCH
BC Tops in Health, Manitoba at Bottom, Report
http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2006/02/01/...
Conservative Leader Says Canada Might Miss Kyoto
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/3...
Warm Weather Isolates Northern Canadian Natives
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9665
2005 Was Warmest Year on Record, NASA
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/3...
Provinces Providing More Childhood Vaccines
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/174/1/20?etoc
Government Should Warn About Mercury in Fish, Says CSPI
http://healthy.net/scr/news.asp?Id=8121
Opening Pandora’s Box: Governance for Genetically Modified Forests
http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseactio...
A Decade Later: Is GM Winning Hearts and Minds?
http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseactio...
Monsanto Moves to Force-Feed Europe Genetically Engineered Corn
http://healthy.net/scr/news.asp?Id=8143
Soy Diet Could Worsen Heart Disease, Study
http://www.nutritionhorizon.com/newsmaker_article.as...
Combining Food Additives May Be Harmful, Say Researchers
http://www.organicconsumers.org/toxic/msg010306.cfm
Diabetics Often Use Alternative and Normal Therapy
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=571&e=3&u=...
Stevia: Mum’s the Word
http://www.janethull.com/newsletter/0106/stevia_mums...
Ginseng Extract Wards Off Common Cold
http://www.deliciouslivingmag.com/
Acai Juice for Cancer?
http://www.cancerdecisions.com/012906.html
Eggs for Breakfast Could Help in Weight Control, Study
http://www.nutritionhorizon.com/newsmaker_article.as...
Tea Here Now: Fair Trade
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/01/05/luttin...
Do You Have a Sleep Disorder?
http://www.newstarget.com/016768.html
Gruf-f-f Love
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?artic...
Belly Laughs Make Happy Hearts
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?artic...
EPA to Accept Pesticide Testing on Humans
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9729
Laptop Dance: Umbra on Choosing a Computer
http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2006/01/18/laptops/i...
Cell Phones Don’t Cause Brain Tumors
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?artic...
Panel: Teflon Chemical a Likely Carcinogen
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&e=4&u=...
New Car Smell: It’s Not So Sweet
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3062
For more current stories, check out “News” at www.hans.org.
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6) Calendar of Events
The Infertility Cure
Who: Randine Lewis, MSOM, L.Ac, PhD, author of The Infertility Cure: The Ancient Chinese Wellness Program of Getting Pregnant and Having Healthy Babies
When: Feb 19, 7 – 8:30 pm
Where: Holiday Inn, 711 West Broadway, Vancouver
Cost: $20 per person, $30 per couple
To pre-register, contact: Melissa, Melissa@acubalance.ca, phone 604-678-8600
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Founded in 1984, Health Action Network Society is a membership-based, non-profit charitable organization dedicated to gathering and disseminating health promotion information.