NaturoDoc Blog

Medical Journal Article from the Radiation and Public Health Project

Impact Seen As Roughly Comparable to Radiation-Related Deaths After Chernobyl; Infants Are Hardest Hit, With Continuing Research Showing Even Higher Possible Death Count.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – December 19, 2011 — An estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to a major new article in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. This is the first peer-reviewed study published in a medical journal documenting the health hazards of Fukushima.

Authors Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman note that their estimate of 14,000 excess U.S. deaths in the 14 weeks after the Fukushima meltdowns is comparable to the 16,500 excess deaths in the 17 weeks after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986. The rise in reported deaths after Fukushima was largest among U.S. infants under age one. The 2010-2011 increase for infant deaths in the spring was 1.8 percent, compared to a decrease of 8.37 percent in the preceding 14 weeks.

The IJHS article will be published Tuesday and will be available online as of 11 a.m. EST at http://www.radiation.org.

Just six days after the disastrous meltdowns struck four reactors at Fukushima on March 11, scientists detected the plume of toxic fallout had arrived over American shores. Subsequent measurements by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found levels of radiation in air, water, and milk hundreds of times above normal across the U.S. The highest detected levels of Iodine-131 in precipitation in the U.S. were as follows (normal is about 2 picocuries I-131 per liter of water): Boise, ID (390); Kansas City (200); Salt Lake City (190); Jacksonville, FL (150); Olympia, WA (125); and Boston, MA (92).

Epidemiologist Joseph Mangano, MPH MBA, said: "This study of Fukushima health hazards is the first to be published in a scientific journal. It raises concerns, and strongly suggests that health studies continue, to understand the true impact of Fukushima in Japan and around the world. Findings are important to the current debate of whether to build new reactors, and how long to keep aging ones in operation."

Mangana is executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project, and the author of 27 peer-reviewed medical journal articles and letters.

Internist and toxicologist Janette Sherman, MD, said: "Based on our continuing research, the actual death count here may be as high as 18,000, with influenza and pneumonia, which were up five-fold in the period in question as a cause of death. Deaths are seen across all ages, but we continue to find that infants are hardest hit because their tissues are rapidly multiplying, they have undeveloped immune systems, and the doses of radioisotopes are proportionally greater than for adults."

Dr. Sherman is a contributing editor of "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment” published by the NY Academy of Sciences in 2009, and author of “Chemical Exposure and Disease and Life’s Delicate Balance: Causes and Prevention of Breast Cancer."

The CDC issues weekly reports on numbers of deaths for 122 U.S. cities with a population over 100,000, or about 25-30 percent of the U.S. In the 14 weeks after Fukushima fallout arrived in the U.S. (March 20 to June 25), deaths reported to the CDC rose 4.46 percent from the same period in 2010, compared to just 2.34 percent in the 14 weeks prior. Estimated excess deaths during this period for the entire U.S. is about 14,000.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A streaming audio replay of a related news event will be available on the Web at http://www.radiation.org as of 4 p.m. EST/2100 GMT on December 19, 2011.

Here are some creative strategies for protecting our animals and ourselves from damaging radiation in the environment, from organic dairy farmers in Hawaii.  The nuclear physics logic is simplified in order to help regular people understand why and how to use these things.  We carry some of these materials in the NaturoDoc Store, where specific write-ups permit a bit more detailed information, along with an online shopping cart for your convenience.

Please consider these creative and intelligent applications of natural materials for your own family and home.  The end of this excellent article deserves to be quoted here, with our gratitude to Britton and Shekinah for writing it:

“Our prayers and blessings are with the farmers and families closer to the source of radioactive pollution.  We send them our love and hopes for a green, safe future for all on this earth.”

Hear, hear! —Dr. Thomas S. Lee, NMD

And now, the open letter:

Dear Milk Share Members,

Our goal to offer high-quality, safe food to our community has recently been challenged by the reality of the radioactivity being released into our environment.  In the past weeks, radioactive levels have increased in Hawaii, with high spikes and a more current leveling off of radiation levels.  Milk from the large dairies in Hamakua and Hawaii has shown elevated levels of radiation, from 400 to 2,400 times the recognized safe levels.

Why is milk contamination significant in the world of agriculture?  Because milk represents the overall condition of the entire food chain, since cows consume grass and are exposed to the same elements as crops.  So when milk tests positive for radiation, it indicates that the entire food chain is contaminated, since cows eat grass.  When grass is contaminated, everything grown in the same soil is contaminated.  This has proposed a serious concern to us farmers, with us asking what can we do?  After much consideration, research, and conversations with much-appreciated experts in the fields of biological farming and human and animal health, we have found some things which we are able to do to protect our soil, animals, and bodies.

Aside from using the much-recognized supplement potassium iodine as a protection against radioactive iodine, there are a number of ways we can help.  We have remembered our friend elemental boron and the position it plays in the earth.  Boron is the only mineral capable of accepting and ionizing radiation that never changes the innards or the nucleus of the cell.  Spoken simply, boron can take radiation and release it without upsetting its own very delicate balance.

Boron is used extensively in the nuclear industry.  Sodium borate is regularly used for standby liquid control systems in case of emergencies.  It was used in Chernobyl in 1986, mixed with sand to prevent further radiation leakage.  It was also used in 1999 to absorb the massive amounts of radiation after an accident at a plant in Tokaimura, Japan.  Currently it is being dumped on fuel rods and in surrounding waters of the Fukushima plant.  Boron is widely recognized as extremely safe and can be used to capture radioactivity in our soils, gardens, orchards, etc.  It also can be safely ingested by humans and animals.  Boron will accept radiation and ionize it within our bodies, after which our bodies will safely excrete the boron and the radioactivity.

We have begun feeding our cows and goats sodium borate at milking time, as well as adding it to free-choice kelp and water troughs.  In the past years we have monitored boron and other minerals in the soil and have added them as necessary to bring levels up to recognized healthy levels.  As a safety measure, we are planning to implement a boron dosage to all of our pastures, as well as neighboring pastures.  For humans, boron can safely ingested at a dosage of 4-10 mg per day.  Borax, 11% boron, can be used as a tea and sprayed on your gardens or land surrounding your home at a rate of 10 pounds of borax per acre, 1 pound if using elemental boron.  Borax can also be ingested at 1/8 teaspoon to 1 litre of water for women; ¼ teaspoon to 1 litre of water for men.

Fortunately, red wine and coffee are significant sources of boron, as well as non-citrus fruits, red grapes, plums, pears, apples, avocados, legumes.  and nuts.  Boron is known to be non-carcinogenic, non-mutagenic, and has been used internally to protect the astronauts in space as they leave the earth’s protective magnetic field.

(Many vitamin formulations include Boron, such as BioEnhance with DNAble)

Other things we can do to protect our bodies are to consume zeolites and use potassium iodine.

(The most economical and safe form is Lugol’s Iodine Solution.)

Receive plenty of glutathione, the best source of which is found in whey protein.

(Our best is ImmunoPro Rx.)

Eat plenty of supergreens,

(Our best product concentrating these is Organic Greens and Reds)

such as kale but also including chlorella

(Our Chlorella products start here)

and spirulina, maintain healthy mineral levels, and eat lots of good healthy fats, including raw butter and coconuts, which offer a fantastic layer of protection for our cells.

(Virgin Coconut Oil is the premier cooking oil, with medical and nutrient protection benefits.)

Baking soda has been known to diminish the severity of change produced by uranium to the kidneys, which are the first to show radiation damages of uranium.  The dosage is 1 teaspoon to 8 oz water for adults, and ¼ teaspoon in 4 oz water for children.

According to Aboutclay.com, Calcium Bentonite Clay acts as a magnet that absorbs anything with a positive charge, i.e.  radiation and toxicity.

(Our All-Natural Calcium Bentonite Clay is excellent for internal or external use.)

She suggests washing all produce which may be considered radioactive in 1 part clay to 8 parts water in a non-metallic bowl.  Soak for 10 minutes, then rinse and dry as usual.  Bentonite clay can be added to catchment tanks, drinking water, or raw milk to isolate radioactivity, which will not be released once captured by clay.  Also, the body cannot digest clay, but will rather release clay through excrement.  Clay can be added to milk or drinking water at a dosage of 1 oz liquid calcium bentonite to 1 gallon raw milk or drinking water.  Either allow to settle and pour off, or mix and consume clay and liquid.  1-2 oz liquid bentonite clay can be safely consumed per day by an adult, with significant detox abilities.

In these tenuous times, it is all we can do to be honestly informed of the situation at hand and act accordingly.  We are doing our best to protect our soil, animals, and bodies from the elevated levels of radioactivity, and we hope that you will also.  Our prayers and blessings are with the farmers and families closer to the source of radioactive pollution.  We send them our love and hopes for a green, safe future for all on this earth.

Blessings,
Britton & Shekinah
Milk and Honey Farm
Pahoa, Big Island, Hawaii

From www.hawaiihealthguide.com/healthtalk/

This is a current YouTube video describing elevated radiation levels in US drinking water and milk as of April 10, 2011.

Following is a letter from me to a church group departing for a tour of Japan next month. This advice would be appropriate for anyone traveling to Japan at this time.

The past several months have been difficult for much of the world.  With weather, health, and economic challenges, it has been a tough winter.  As difficult as we might have had it, the disaster in Japan has shocked the world with the intensity of suffering and number of lives lost among those kind and elegant people.  And beyond that, the biological disaster will affect our planet for years to come.

This letter is to suggest some supplemental and hygienic protections for those who will be visiting Japan in the near future.  They are suggestions that will be good to consider on a more limited basis for those of us elsewhere as well, as the radioactive contamination continues far beyond the borders of Japan.  Low-dose radioactivity affects everything living thing in some way, and usually in a bad way.

The most dangerous isotopes affecting us in our food and water are iodine, cesium, uranium, and plutonium.  There are others that either have short half-lives or which are bound to less metabolically active metals, so it’s easier to avoid them and keep them out of our bodies.  The more dangerous ones are perceived by our bodies as slightly disguised versions of normal minerals that are important to maintain good health, and the body will take them up, especially if it is deficient in that mineral.

The supplements I suggest here will nourish your body with the minerals that radioactive isotopes “imitate.”  If these good minerals are at optimal levels before exposure, it will be easier for the immune system and digestion to refrain from absorbing into the body the bad isotopes that imitate them.

Iodine nourishes and protects the body from radioactive isotopes of iodine.  Since cesium imitates potassium, uranium imitates chromium, and plutonium imitates iron, it would be a good preventative measure to nourish the body in advance with potassium, chromium, and iron.  Of course, radioactivity of any type will cause death if it is too intense, but nutritional protection will help prevent the body from taking up low-level environmental exposures to these radioactive isotopes that are known to be coming our way from Japan.

For those traveling to Japan, I would encourage you to prepare by taking the following supplements before, during, and after the trip:

• Modifilan (90 capsules)

• Lugol’s Iodine, 5% (1oz liquid dropper bottle)

• SuperSulfur, Organic Pure Sulfur Crystals

• Organic Greens and Reds

SuperSulfur is a crystalline form of MSM, which is so good for the muscles and joints.  This dissolves immediately in a small amount of hot water, and then you can dilute it with any liquid of choice to cut the natural bitterness of the SuperSulfur.  Coffee or grapefruit juice cloak it well.  This form of bioavailable sulfur has been found to improve the ability of tissue cells to absorb good nutrients and quench free-radical damage.  In addition to internal protection, the sulfur helps to eliminate natural and environmental toxins.  This latter group includes radioactive isotopes that generate the free-radical damages within the cell.

The Organic Greens and Reds is a concentrated extract of whole fruits and vegetables.  Stir 1-2 tablespoons into juice or a fruit smoothie and drink that every morning with breakfast.  The nutrients in this concentrate will provide a broad range of protective antioxidants, bioflavonoids, and minerals in a bioavailable form.  This broad range of concentrated nutritional support helps these other single-nutrient medicines cover a more digestively normal range of effects.  This tastes pretty good.  These supplements would not be as important if you already eat a lot of fresh organic produce and regularly juice fresh fruit and vegetables.  Most of us would like to do that, but somehow lack the housekeeping and service staff to keep it going.

Lugol’s Iodine Solution (5%) is one of several iodine sources available, but it is the most reliable and affordable form we know of. If drops of a colorful liquid are too fussy to deal with, you can get it as tablets called Iodoral.  Read up on dosing and testing procedures.

As a starting dose for those unfamiliar with iodine, take 2 drops of Lugol’s Iodine in water or beverages twice a day.  This will approximate 24 milligrams of elemental iodine daily.  Build up with an extra drop per dose every couple of weeks so that when you are traveling in Japan, take about 4 drops twice a day for a total of about 50 milligrams daily.

If you experience any problems from this such as muscle aches or rashes, cut the amount in half and persist.  If you are both iodine-deficient and halogen-toxic (too much chlorine, fluorine, or bromine in your system), you could have an unpleasant cleansing reaction if you take too much.  There’s no need to be uncomfortable, just dose it lower and slower for a while.

Modifilan is a concentrated, dried extract of the brown seaweed, Kombu (Laminaria japonica).  It has a fascinating story that dates back to the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident.  We have had years of experience and amazing reports from clients who use it regularly to remove heavy metals, radiation, and strengthen their thyroid and digestion.  Read up on it and decide if you want to include it in your arsenal.  I recommend that you do so.  Before travel, take 1 capsule with major meals three times a day.  While in Japan, take 2 capsules after each meal, always with a slowly swallowed full glass of water.

These four items will protect and strengthen someone in a radioactively polluted environment.

Finally, be aware that most of the risky exposure is airborne or carried on surfaces you might touch.  Be up on your hygiene and cleanliness.  Take a zip-lock bag with a soapy wet washcloth in your travel bag or purse.  After you touch public surfaces like handles, doors, or counters, take a moment and wash your hands.  At the end of the day, clean and refresh the washcloth for the next day.  You will have access to stores and markets there.  Get containers of baking soda or Epsom salt, and every two or three days take a hot bath with about 3 cups of baking soda for a long hot soak.  This will help to alkalize your skin and draw out toxins. It also just feels good and relaxing.

As for dietary advice, you all have advisors and opinions galore. Basic concepts are that you should not stress out and weaken your digestion by eating too much, and avoid the foods that have little or no nutritional value.  Traditional Japanese cuisine will be wonderful.  For the wine lovers, go slow on that, because wines are loaded with fluorides and sulfides, and alcohol exhausts the adrenal glands and pancreatic functions.  Excess sugar and pastry sweets will also ruin your digestion and energy level.  You’ll enjoy your travel and your body more if you keep the diet light and stay active.

Some of the products I have recommended have become scarce and are hard to find, while my company, NaturoDoc, has them all in stock.  Here are Internet links to the website and blog for more detailed information.

www.naturodoc.com

You can get these products online from the NaturoDoc Store, or you can order by phone from the U.S. and Canada by calling 1-877-867-4743.

My suggestions to products that we sell on NaturoDoc.com are to inform you about them.  I encourage market comparison out there with anything of like quality you have access to.

In the Light,

Dr. Thomas S. Lee, NMD, APH

As we know, radioactive isotopes have been emitted from the three Fukushima reactor meltdowns occurring in Japan.  These have frightened everyone paying attention for several weeks.  But now the public attention span has moved away from this issue and on to other pressing concerns. It is a worsening biological disaster that will continue for months or years. Radioactive exposure will not become safer by not being paid attention to.

A website called Information Is Beautiful has come up with a useful chart to help visualize radiation exposure.

In charts of isotope dispersal in wind and weather, the most graphic and worrisome appears to be Xenon-133.  This isotope is bound to an inert gas that is not very metabolically active, and it has a half life of about 5 days, so upon further study, I would conclude that the health impact for us is minimal.

Government sources are warning that since potassium iodide is in very short supply and will not protect you from radiation, you should not take it.  Several points here deserve clarification:

1.  “Potassium iodide will not protect you from radiation.”  This is dose-related and certainly true for short-term, high-level radiation exposure.  Nutritional biochemicals are helpful and important in correspondingly deficient people, but it obviously isn’t a lead shield or a bomb shelter.

2. Potassium iodide occurs naturally in living things that are high in elemental iodine as well.  It’s found primarily in seafood and sea vegetables (seaweeds), so it easily absorbs and helps your human digestive system.  If your diet is low in iodine-rich foods, your body is low in it too.  If you are deficient, you will be vulnerable to a rapid uptake of radioactive iodine when it’s nearby.

If you are one of the few populations who have a high level of on-board iodine from many years of dietary and supplemental intake, you would not need as much iodine supplementation to protect from radioactive iodine.  For that small population, many of whom are Japanese, by the way, supplemental iodine in the form of Lugol’s Solution or concentrated seaweed products is not necessary for protection from low-level exposure.

3. Supplements of potassium iodide are easy to produce, inexpensive, and should have been available as a general public health policy for decades due to our infatuation with nuclear power and weaponry.  The shortage is no reason to tell you it’s not needed.  Actually, the potassium sources we need are proving to be important for protection from the more serious effects of cesium, uranium, and plutonium isotopes that are being released closer to Japan.

The better method of supplementing is by taking either Lugol’s Iodine, Nascent Iodine, or a tableted version of potassium iodide called Iodoral.  These are presently available and affordable.

Consider either testing your body load using various methods described online, or simply paint  it on your skin in a two-inch circle and notice how long it takes your body to absorb it.  If it takes only a couple of hours, your body is “thirsty” for it and you should build up to about 40-60 mg. daily in your foods or liquids.  If it takes 12-24 hours for your body to absorb it, go with about half that amount daily.

It would be nice to offer scientific evidence for the exact amounts of this that you need, but your living body is unique and the requirements vary for each of us.  Start slowly with any strong medicine or nutrient, and notice how your body responds to it.

The better way to normalize both iodine and potassium levels is to eat the real plant foods that supply these nutrients.   For many reasons written about here, we advocate the use of Modifilan or SuperKombu.  Both are a pure dried extract of the seaweed Kombu (Laminaria japonica) which has proven to be effective and protective back in 1987 during the Chernoble nuclear disaster in the Ukraine.  This particular strain of brown seaweed helps with reducing both radioactive exposure and general heavy metal toxicity.

So yes, don’t expect the single-chemical potassium iodide to accomplish all the protection of an optimal level of iodine and potassium in the body.  Start now to build up levels with supplemental forms while adding food concentrate sources to your diet.

Please also keep up on sensible hygiene and environmental awareness to avoid or limit risk.   These nuclear fallout concerns are becoming eclipsed by the releases of polluted seawater which threaten more of our world’s food supply.

Be smart, and stay as safe as you can.

Dr. Thomas S. Lee

Radiation from a nuclear meltdown is coming our way via the jet stream from Japan.  You can prepare yourself and your loved ones by taking 10 drops of Lugol’s Iodine daily.  Nascent Iodine or Iodoral tablets work well too;  just start getting potassium iodide and iodine into your body as soon as possible.  Taking around 50 mg per day (10 drops) of the Lugol’s Iodine for a few weeks will be protective.

Today, the 13^th of March, 2011, we are hearing that nuclear debris is being pushed into the atmosphere from reactor explosions in Japan.  Our thoughts and prayers fly to the suffering and kind people of Japan.  Japan seems far away for most Americans, but we share the same atmosphere and effects of whatever is in it.

Nuclear Fallout Map

Maps indicate a path of fallout hitting the Western U.S. around March 20^th.  The specifics of how much, how dangerous, what will happen when, and such are unknown.  No units of time measurement for this exposure are provided, and specific amounts of released radiation are not verified.

Still, I suggest we adhere to the Scout motto, “Be Prepared.”  Hope for the best, and plan for the worst.

The cheapest and easiest thing to do for most of us now is to protect our thyroid and adrenal glands by aggressively supplementing iodine, and protecting our food and water from airborne particles.  Probably the cheapest and most reliable iodine is Lugol’s Iodine solution.  A tablet version that has the same ratio of elemental iodine and potassium iodide is called Iodoral.

This material is safe and has benefits to offer beyond the range of nutritional replacement.  We call these medicines “nutraceuticals.”  About 2 drops of Lugol’s represents nearly 13 mg of iodine.  This is approximately what the Okinawans who maintain traditional diets take in daily.  Okinawans were a population studied after World War II that was found to have minimal symptoms of radiation poisoning while having the highest levels of tissue iodine.  Surviving excess radiation exposure is what many of us will soon become interested in as the jet stream from Japan approaches.

To safely benefit from iodine’s protective effects, I recommend that adults consider taking 3-4 times the normal maintenance dose, like 40-48 mg daily for a couple months, based upon a 180-pound adult body.  Then take a break for a couple weeks and compare how you feel.  Repeat as advised by your natural healthcare professional.

NaturoDoc offers one-ounce bottles of Lugol’s Iodine, which is taken internally in water. Lugol’s Iodine is also used for water purification and to boost the immunity against viral, fungal, and bacterial infections.  It also helps to balance hormone levels, and has long been used as a topical antiseptic for wounds, so its usefulness for home health cannot be overstated.  Read the free information about what it is and why I recommend you take it internally over the next several months.

Another way to protect the body from toxic heavy metals and the uptake of radioactive elements into the thyroid is the regular ingestion of a seaweed from the North Pacific called Kombu, or Laminaria japonica.  If you have access to this and like the taste, then it would be the best whole form as a food.  Our product of a dried concentrated extract of Laminaria capsules is Modifilan.  Taking 2 of these capsules a day will also provide many protective benefits.

Seaweed is noted for its ability to bind heavy metals and radioactive pollutants.  Kelp inhibits the absorption of lead, cadmium, and radioactive strontium (one of the most hazardous pollutants).  80 to 90 percent of radioisotopes of Strontium 90 can be removed from the intestinal tract in the presence of seaweed.  Sodium alginates actually chelate the remaining amount out of the bone structure.  So much Strontium 90 has been released by nuclear explosions, power plants, and nuclear weapons facilities that it is believed that every person has detectable levels in their bone tissue.  Many cancers are attributable to this contamination.

This seaweed is available in different forms and price ranges.  Our product is from a pristine source put into the most convenient form.  Choose what works best for you and your family.  Beyond those two products, work with those knowledgeable about organic food, and with the environmentally green technologies of water and air filtration that are increasingly available today.

For those who have already suffered a toxic dose of radiation, NaturoDoc is offering three groups of natural products for radiation detox.  Click here to purchase.

These ideas will help you prepare for and avoid the negative consequences of this latest nuclear tragedy.  Please keep your searching efforts up and share what you find to be the most effective steps for everyone you know.  Your own preparedness will be a gift to our Japanese friends who surely want to minimize the damage to our earth, and our society.

Best wishes to the wonderful people of Japan.

Dr. Thomas Lee, NMD, APH