Author Archives: Troy

Weight Loss is a Glass Away

In today’s world of superfoods, fad diets and workout crazes, potential solutions for those struggling with weight issues are everywhere. The only problem is that most of these “solutions” are expensive and involve some weird-tasting drinks or awkward movements. How many infomercials have you seen touting a workout machine (that requires some ridiculously painful-looking contortion) for three easy payments of $59.99?

The truth is, many of these weight loss techniques are great, but only if you first focus on one much more important aspect of your health. The best part about this one aspect? It’s a lot easier than eating seaweed or doing a side bend.

So what is this utopian, so-easy-anyone-can-do-it cure-all for weight loss? Drink more water. Yes, it’s that simple.

How does drinking water help with weight issues?

Lauren Grant, CEO and Founder of The Hungry Heart – a highly-regarded emotional eating and weight loss counseling service in Southern California – explains that “Many times people end up overeating when they are actually dehydrated.”

Grant shares that many of us are simply mistaking our thirst for hunger. An empty stomach often indicates hunger, but in many cases, it’s actually asking for more water. Learning to recognize this can result in some immediate results.

“You may notice your food consumption goes down as you drink more water and eat water-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes or water-based healthy soups,” Grant said.

Simple, right? No need for a fancy DVD or a $300 weekly grocery bill. The first step to losing weight is much easier.

If it’s so easy, though, why don’t more people just drink water? Why don’t we see more commercials for water? There’s several reasons – one is obvious and the other is more subconscious.

The first is that drinking more water than usual results in more trips to the restroom than usual. This is a completely valid concern – no one likes running off to the restroom every half hour. Is it really that bad, however, considering the payoff? If it helps with pesky weight issues, wouldn’t you rather make a few extra trips to the john? If nothing else, at least it gives you some extra exercise (optimism is also important)!

There’s another reason more people don’t turn to water for their weight loss issues, but this one is a little less obvious. We buy into fad diets and buy exotic workout machines because they are different. Our minds are hard-wired to search for new solutions when it doesn’t seem like anything we’re currently doing is helping. Thus, the weirder and more exotic the solution, the more our mind is attracted to it.

Imagine your internal dialogue: “Why would water help me? I’ve always drank water. The key to weight loss is doing a crab walk to Brazilian dance music while eating a flaxseed celery cookie. I’ve never done that before, therefore that is the solution!”

Now that you’re convinced, let’s discuss how much water is enough. I’m sure you’ve heard the classic “eight 8-ounce glasses a day” rule. While following this memorable plan will certainly be better than drinking nothing, it is much too simplified.

Grant argues that the average person needs 80 ounces of water a day, without physical activity, perspiration or a variety of other factors. You actually need even more water if you’re active, on medication, or you drink coffee or alcohol. Bottoms up, folks.

For more information on effective routes to losing weight naturally and keeping it off, check out The Hungry Heart’s brand new Free Video Counseling series. Grant and her talented team have been helping men and women with their emotional eating and weight issues since 1996.

Before you increase your water intake significantly, though, you should be aware of the possible contaminants lurking in your home’s tap water.

What doesn’t kill you makes you sicker

Following last month’s drinking water crisis in Ohio, city officials around Lake Erie started adding more chlorine to the area’s water supply to combat the effects of microorganisms originating from an algae bloom. This is another reminder of the widespread practice of adding disinfectants to city water supplies in order to combat contaminants.

Disinfectants such as chlorine are effective in killing dangerous microorganisms, but they can also wreak havoc on our bodies. Studies have shown that repeated exposure to chlorinated water can cause bladder cancer. form harmful byproducts called tri-halomethanes (THM) that can wreak havoc on our bodies.

One well-known THM is chloroform, which is classified by the EPA as a carcinogen. Other effects of chloroform ingestion, absorption or inhalation include kidney and liver damage, immune system dysfunction and birth defects.

Why worry, though? Even if we drink a little chloroform, why would we absorb or inhale it? This is where it gets scary, folks.

Did you know that we can absorb and inhale more chloroform in a 10-minute shower than we would drinking eight glasses of water in a day? This is because warm showers open up our pores, allowing contaminants to be easily absorbed. Showers also create steam, which we inhale, introducing chloroform to our respiratory system.

Cities have been chlorinating water supplies for over a century. Despite the setbacks, disinfection is necessary to combat microorganisms that would make us very sick, very quickly. Since the practice is not going to end any time soon, it’s our responsibility to manage the water coming into our homes.

The only way to ensure that every drop of water in your home is free from dangerous THMs and byproducts is to install a Whole Home Water System. Be careful in your search, though. Many companies charge thousands of dollars for these systems, using their size as justification for a hefty price.

The Evolution Healthworks Whole Home Water System is extremely effective and is priced affordably. It is also smaller than other similar products on the market, leaving you more room in the garage to store your gear.

Big Fracking Problem: How oil drilling wreaks havoc on your water

The highly controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing – better known as fracking – is back in the news again after a recent report revealed that regulations protecting municipal drinking water sources are not adequate.

This comes on the heels of California’s announcement last months that it would be shutting down 11 fracking wastewater disposal sites for leaks that contaminated drinking water aquifers.

Many expected the Government Accountability Office report to finally raise concerns about fracking’s effects on personal and environmental health, but a study by Media Matters found that the media is dropping the ball on covering the report’s findings.

Fracking has mustered a great deal of support because of its proposed benefits, including increased energy independence and beefy economic stimulus (to the tune of $24-28 billion annually in large fracking states such as California). The practice’s drawbacks, though, negate its benefits.

How does it work?

Oil companies love fracking because it is an an effective method for extracting more oil than regular vertical drilling. The hydraulic fracturing process drills down into the earth and then pumps a mixture of fluid chemicals and sand at a very high pressure to create horizontal fractures, releasing oil from rock formations. The oil – and the chemicals – then bubble to the surface.

The chemicals used for fracking include “ethylene glycol, which can damage kidneys; formaldehyde, a known cancer risk; and naphthalene, considered a possible carcinogen.”

Once separated from the oil, the chemicals are disposed of in “wastewater injection wells.”

The problem

The safety of these wastewater injection wells is basically a crapshoot. The regulations for constructing one vary by location. For example, Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources issues permits to construct wells, but companies in Pennsylvania must go to the EPA for permits. The result? 200 wastewater injection wells in Ohio and only 10 in Pennsylvania.

The GAO’s report suggests that these hastily granted permits (Ohio DNR typically processes applications in 6 weeks versus the EPA’s 6 months) result in poorly regulated wells that are responsible for poisoning water supplies.

Despite being built of mostly steel and concrete, the wastewater injection well casings are highly susceptible to seismic activity, which wouldn’t be as much of an issue if fracking wasn’t also scientifically proven to cause earthquakes.

Frequent earthquakes, caused by the process of injecting water into faults in the earth, damage these deep injection wells and allow dangerous chemicals to leak into the earth, and eventually into your tap water.

Why isn’t this a bigger story?

The fact that constant reports of fracking’s negative effects on municipal drinking water haven’t been covered in the news is highly alarming. The Media Matter study found that in four of the states doing the most fracking (Texas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Colorado), only one major newspaper reported on the GAO’s findings.

Several of these papers have published editorials in support of fracking, likely revealing the reasoning behind their failure to cover the GAO report.

What can you do?

As fracking continues to boom, the number of dangerous wastewater injection wells will also increase.

Check out this map to see if fracking occurs where you live.

As always, you can write a letter to your local Congressman, but unless you’re ready to include a fat check rivaling those oil and gas industry lobbyists are writing, your letter is likely to go unnoticed.

If fracking is happening in your area, your water could be at risk today. Take matters into your hands and find out how a Whole Home Water System can protect you from the carcinogens fracking is releasing into your water.

Update: More info on this topic from a member of the National Resources Defense Council

Toledo’s water crisis: Why we haven’t seen the end of it

Toledo, Ohio’s weekend-long drinking water scare came to an end this morning, but this Midwestern city’s water woes are far from over.

The buzz word in Toledo over the weekend was microcystin, referring to a deadly toxin found in blue-green algae blooms. Dangerous levels of the substance in Toledo’s drinking water led to a advisory against drinking, brushing teeth or bathing in city water.

While death is rare in connection with the toxin, it did cause 75 deaths in Brazil in 1995. Microcystin can also cause liver malfunction, diarrhea and vomiting.

This weekend’s scare was a result of widespread algal blooms in the Maumee Bay area of Lake Erie, Toledo’s main water source. The blooms are not, however, the result of a natural disaster; Toledo’s water crisis is the first of what will likely be many man-made water crises related to unnatural growth in Lake Erie.

The culprit

Algal blooms occur as a result of an inordinate amount of fertilizer flowing into Lake Erie from farms on the watershed.

86% of the fertilizer used on farms in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan is in the form of phosphorus-packed pellets.

The use of fertilizer isn’t necessarily dangerous on its own, but a popular agricultural practice in the Lake Erie region called no-till farming can have some stark unintended consequences.

In order to prevent erosion, farmers avoid plowing their fields, leaving fertilizer pellets on the surface, ready to be washed away. This is where nature comes in. Heavy rains easily wash away about 1 pound per acre of fertilizer into the Maumee River, which feeds into Maumee Bay.

Just as phosphorus is intended to fuel crop growth, it feeds algae in Lake Erie, leading to toxic algal blooms.

A recurring problem

Algal blooms are nothing new in Lake Erie. In the 1960s, rampant agricultural and industrial pollution – to the tune of 64 million pounds of phosphorus per year – fed algal blooms.

In addition to contaminating Toledo’s water supply, the growth led to seriously damaged marine life, a pressure point thanks to the multi-billion dollar Lake Erie tourism industry. U.S. and Canada officials teamed up and spent $8 billion on sewage plant upgrades and cut the amount of phosphates allowed in household products.

It seems obvious that this sixth straight year of increasingly widespread algal blooms necessitates some governmental intervention similar to that seen in the 70s and 80s.

Today, a financial commitment of this stature (which, we might add, would be significantly higher considering inflation) would require much more than Toledo opening her pocket book. Farmers in Ohio as well as Indiana and Michigan (who share the same watershed), would have to commit to cutting fertilizer use or finding an alternative to no-till farming that would also not contribute to erosion. This is a highly unlikely outcome unless officials agree to compensate the farmers who will have to make significant changes to their practices.

In fewer words, don’t expect a solution any time soon.

This is not the end

Lake Erie’s science-fiction-style neon green takeover this past weekend is unfortunately going to be a familiar scene in lakes across the globe. A 2012 report suggested that algal blooms will be “one of the most serious health risks of the 21st century,” appearing in China, Japan, Brazil and Australia. In the US alone, more than 40,000 large lakes may contain microcystin.

With the rising importance of providing food for a booming population and an extreme water shortage hitting America’s largest agriculture-producing state, we can only expect use of phosphorus-laden fertilizers to continue.

Rising temperatures have lead to more frequent and volatile storms, carrying an increasing amount of phosphorus into water sources. Toxic algae blooms thrive in higher temperatures.

The problem is complicated further by foreign species such as Lake Erie’s zebra mussels, which eat non-toxic competitors to blue-green algae and excrete more phosphorus for the toxic algae to feast on.

Lesson learned

The recurring theme every time a water crisis arises as a result of preventable human actions is that it is the citizen’s responsibility to care for his or her own water.

While a municipality’s first interest should always be its own people, we see time and again that political complications often take the front seat. This current crisis will likely be relegated to the back burner until elections have passed.

In the mean time, we recommend writing your local representative and ask about what your municipality is doing to avoid the oncoming dangers of algal blooms. Also, consider a drinking water system to protect yourself and your family from future water crises.

Live near a farm? You might want to read this

Do you live close to a farm? If so, you will want to see the results of a recent University of Minnesota study that found the rate of groundwater contamination rising at an alarming rate.

Researchers indicated that nitrate levels in drinking water are skyrocketing. Nitrates are very dangerous and can cause severe illness and death when consumed above contaminant levels.

The University of Minnesota study explained that not only are nitrate levels already high, but they will increase 45% in the coming years. This is because farm subsidies from the government are allowing farmers to finance the expensive process of wetland conversion.

In simpler terms, the government is using our tax dollars to pay for farmers to begin spreading nitrate-packed fertilizer over groundwater sources. Not only is this costing you money, but it will also begin to cost you your health if you don’t take measures to protect yourself and your family from the coming onslaught of nitrates.

Congress has the ability to pass an appropriations bill that would protect over 1 million acres of land from further nitrate-pollution. Since they’ve proved themselves less than trustworthy, your best option is taking matters into your hands.

Even if you don’t live directly next to a farm, your water could come from an area with significant agriculture pollution. Research your local water utility and see where your tap water comes from. This is especially important in major farming states such as California, where farmers have free reign to fertilize as they wish due to high demand for their crops during this historic drought.

Since it’s highly unlikely that the government will cut back on farm subsidies or move forward with conservation measures, it’s imperative that you take matters into your own hands and personally filter your tap water. Evolution Healthworks offers a comprehensive line of filtration systems that will remove nitrates and 99.9% of other toxic pollutants from your water.

More on this topic from the Environmental Working Group (EWG)

3 Ways Water Gives You Radiant, Youthful Skin

If you’ve ever flipped through a women’s magazine, you’re very familiar with advertisements touting an array of products to give you the perfect skin. While certain products can help give you healthy skin, there is no arguing that the number one factor in your skin’s health is water.

Here’s3 ways water gives you radiant, youthful skin.

1. Make sure you’re drinking ENOUGH water

Your skin is an organ. It’s actually your biggest organ (remember elementary school Science class?), and organs are made up of cells, which are made up of water. Simply put, if you don’t drink enough water, these cells will die, leaving you with dry, flaky skin which leads to wrinkles.

Also, your skin is the body’s last priority. When you drink water, your body sends water to the most important organs first. Since your skin is the least important (functionally… aesthetically, we know it’s important) organ, it is your body’s last priority. This makes it that much more important to stay hydrated at all times if you want to keep your skin looking and feeling good.

2. Make sure you’re drinking the RIGHT water

You understand that you’re supposed to drink water for healthy skin, so head to the tap and fill up, right? WRONG.

It’s crucial that you are drinking only healthy, filtered water with vital minerals.

Trust me on this one, your skin will thank you. Let me explain…

Your skin cells are full of toxins. Drinking water helps to flush your skin cells (and the rest of the cells in your body) of these toxins. The problem here is that the majority of tap water in the U.S. is full of pollutants and contaminants.

So you should just drink bottled water, right? No! A study by the National Resources Defense Council found that bottled water is often no more than just tap water with a fancy label.

Do your skin a favor and make it’s detoxifying job easier by drinking water from a filtration system.

3. Be careful what you put ON your skin

Your skin doesn’t only depend on the water you drink, it also reacts to the water in which you bathe. For the same reasons that water from the tap can be dangerous to drink, it can also be harmful to shower in.

You see, your local government adds chlorine and other chemicals to the water supply to disinfect it, but this creates byproducts that can dry out your skin. That’s not all though, it gets worse.

If you take hot showers (of course you do), you know that it creates steam. If you breathe during your hot showers (of course you do), you’re inhaling these chemical byproducts directly into your lungs. Also, your pores open up and absorb these toxins into your skin.

Whenever you’re done shuddering about that last paragraph, read on and I’ll tell you how to fix this issue. Consider a Whole-Home Water System to remove chemical byproducts and other nasty substances from entering your home.