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Health & Fitness

Environment Plays Huge Role on Health

People respond more favorably to warnings about climate change when it's portrayed as a health issue rather than as an environmental problem.

A National Public Radio story indicates that people respond more favorably to issues framed in a health context rather than an environmental one, connecting
our health to the environment. And there is much to be concerned about, according to three local experts.

The fall NPR story, titled “When Heat Kills: Global Warming As Public Health Threat,” cites emerging science that ”shows that people respond more favorably to warnings about climate change when it's portrayed as a health issue rather than as an environmental problem.” Health officials carry special credibility, the story says, “far more so than politicians, journalists, environmental activists and other widely heard voices on this topic.”

What do two local health-care providers, and a small-business owner whose company helps protect the environment, say about how local environments affect Seacoast residents’ health?

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Healing Hands Community Chiropractic

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Dr. Jessica Caruso of Healing Hands Community Chiropractic, 40 Pleasant St., Portsmouth, notes that a bad indoor environment significantly contributes to people’s health problems. Caruso conducts a workshop called “Hidden Health Hazards in the Home.”

“Today’s smaller, energy-efficient homes trap indoor air pollutants and hazardous chemicals resulting in the air inside your home being worse than outdoor pollution,” she says. “Studies by the federal Environmental Protection Agency have shown that indoor air levels of many pollutants may be two to five times and occasionally, more than 100 times higher than outdoor levels.”

According to the Neighborhood Network’s 2002 Environmental Resource Directory, one of the greatest factors contributing to indoor pollution is hazardous cleaning products. The following chemical contents found in most household cleaning agents — ammonia, bleach, petroleum distillates, and paradichloro-benzene — have been shown to cause and/or trigger bronchitis, asthma, cancer, eye irritation, skin issues and heart conditions, to name just a few.

The solution, Dr. Caruso says, is to make your own cleaners with natural products such as baking soda, olive oil, essential oils and vinegar. More information on natural cleaning products can be found at http://bit.ly/N6VESI. Or, if you use a cleaning company, choose one that produces results using natural and safe cleaning agents. Green Maids of Eliot Maine is one such company; cleaning green is not an option with Green Maids, it’s how all of its houses are kept bright and shiny.


“Off-gassing” is another potential hazard. The term, first used in 1966 to describe the release of gaseous chemicals from a solid, is defined in the Construction Dictionary “as the release of airborne particulates, often from installed construction materials such as carpeting, cabinetry, or paint that can cause allergic reactions and other health problems in building occupants.”The problem is, Dr. Caruso says, “this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Off-gassing also emanates from mattresses; stains and varnishes; insulation; flooring materials such as vinyl, finishes, adhesives; countertops; particle board; paint strippers; and cleaning supplies, according to the Healing Hands Community Chiropractic Web site, http://healinghandscc.org/health/toxic-home-newsletter/. Infants or toddlers and pets may more quickly be affected by prolonged proximity to off-gassing carpeting or flooring.

While avoiding off-gassing sources seems to be the most logical lifestyle choice, it is often not an option. Dr. Caruso recommends her patients undergo a “spinal adjustment,” a highly specialized procedure a chiropractor uses to free the body from a serious form of health-destroying nerve stress called “subluxation.” Chemical toxins are one the primary causes of spinal subluxation.

“The adjustment unlocks misaligned vertebrae and nearby tissues from their ‘stuck’ positions,” Dr. Caruso says, “freeing them to move where the body wants them to go and removing nerve interference. Your family chiropractor knows that a healthier lifestyle will help you avoid the chemical triggers that may cause spinal subluxation.”

Healing Hands Community Chiropractic is a business partner of the Green Alliance, a union of local sustainable businesses promoting environmentally sound business practices, and a green co-op offering discounted green products and services to its members. GA members receive a new patient consult and exam at Healing Hands for just $10.

Great Works Chiropractic & Wellness

Dr. Seth LaFlamme of Great Works Chiropractic & Wellness, 235 Main Street, South Berwick, Maine, is also a Green Alliance business partner. GA members receive a complimentary consultation and examination when they show their Green Card at Great Works.

“It’s hard to say as a doctor that I know everything that’s going on with a person,” Dr. LaFlamme says. “But everyone is carrying a greater toxic load these days. There are so many toxic materials, fumes from carpet and gasoline, for example, that make it harder for bodies to cope, that are causing a toxic buildup making us weaker and sicker as a population.”

Paradoxically, efforts to sanitize our environments may contribute to people becoming sicker, Dr. LaFlamme says, citing the antibacterial soaps we use to wash our hands as one example.

“We are making our environment sterile, but kids in completely clean homes are getting sicker. You’re supposed to have childhood illnesses. They help exercise and build our immune system just like working your muscles out at the gym. In fact, in Britain, kids are being fed soil bacteria in a study being conducted to determine its effect on the immune system. Our immune systems carry innate knowledge on how to keep a person healthy. But we’ve decided to use artificial technology rather than the innate intelligence of our immune system. And because of overuse of antibiotics to treat infections, they don’t work anymore when we really need them. It’s starting to get a little bit scary.”

He adds: “I see so many people — take young women, 17 to 21 years old, for example — who should be in peak condition, but instead are so unbelievably unhealthy, which speaks to the condition of our environment and the way we behave. What else can we look at? I just don’t think it‘s normal and natural for young people to be so sick.”

This brings us back to chiropractic. “There are countless stories out there, about all kinds of seemingly miraculous things achieved in patients who are under chiropractic care. Across the board, we can still do amazing things for people, despite our current environmental challenges,” he says.

Dr. LaFlamme offers a holistic alternative to what he describes as “the prohibitively expensive, symptom-centric, and often wasteful traditional medical fields.” In describing the art and science behind chiropractic, Dr. LaFlamme uses the analogy of an ongoing construction project: Our brain, like a foreman, has the blueprint for vibrant health. It has to constantly communicate this to the crew (your body) to keep things on track. Instead of a phone or walkie talkie, the brain sends commands and gets feedback via the nerves (phone cables) and spine
(switchboard).

As he points out, our bodies are inherently regenerative. Blood cells are replaced every 120 days, our stomach lining every five days, etc., which makes it imperative that we maintain spinal health so these processes don’t go haywire like a work site where no one’s calling the shots. Basically, disorder in the body is disease, and order is wellness. Chiropractic is about restoring order rather than
sweeping disorder and symptoms under the rug.

Green Earth Baby Works

One good example of the conscious choice between apparent health and economy is the resurgence of cloth diapers. A couple generations ago, cloth diapering was commonplace. But the trend for people to use cloth diapers became almost extinct with the introduction of highly absorbent, hassle-free disposable diapers, which were fiercely marketed as healthy and having a neutral effect on the environment. A better understanding now exists about the consequences of disposable diapers’ impact on the environment and the potential ill effects they have on young children’s health. So we see a resurgence of the use of cloth diapers and similar hybrids. That’s why Kim Leo founded Green Earth Baby Works, 285 Calef Highway, Epping, N.H.

GEBW is an online cloth diaper retailer — the only cloth diaper service in New Hampshire — servicing the state’s Seacoast and greater Manchester regions as well as portions of Southern Maine and Northern Massachusetts. GEBW, a Green Alliance business partner, offers GA members 10 percent off on a year's service, and members get the 13th month free.

With a wide range of cloth diaper products, accessories, and services, Leo has forged a uniquely green niche in an industry long chided for its waste and environmental degradation. Indeed, Leo is quick to point out that the average child will go through between 6,000 and 8,000 diapers in his or her first three years. That adds up to a construction dumpster’s worth of toxic plastic and human waste, all of it doomed to between 250 and 500 years in the landfill.

“In speaking of an environmental impact, the largest problem with disposable diapers is untreated fecal matter in landfills,” Leo says. “You’re supposed to dump the waste from plastic baby diapers into the toilet before disposing it. But people don’t do that.”

According to the Real Diaper Association (www.realdiaperassociation.org/ ) “less than one half of one percent of all waste from single-use diapers goes into the sewage system.”

“In a comparison between cloth diapers and disposable diapers, cloth diapers are associated with a dramatic decrease in rashes in babies,” Leo says, “and they are healthier in other ways.”

In May 2000, the Archives of Disease in Childhood published research showing that scrotal temperature is increased in boys wearing disposable diapers, and that prolonged use of disposable diapers will blunt or completely abolish the physiological testicular cooling mechanism important for normal spermatogenesis.

But that’s not all.

“The number of chemicals manufacturers need to make a disposal diaper is astronomical compared to making a cloth diaper,” Leo says. “In fact, most of the chemicals in disposable diapers are connected to potential health issues.”

The RDA says that disposable diapers contain Tributyl-tin, a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals. And they contain sodium polyacrylate, which is linked to causing cancer.

“Sodium polyacrylate is a type of super absorbent polymer, which becomes a gel-like substance when wet,” the RDA says. “A similar substance had been used in super-absorbency tampons until the early 1980s when it was revealed that the material increased the risk of toxic shock syndrome by increasing absorbency and improving the environment for the growth of toxin-producing bacteria.”

Finally, “disposable diapers contain traces of Dioxin, an extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process. It is a carcinogenic chemical, listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals. It is banned in most countries, but not the U.S.”

“Cloth diapers fit perfectly into the environmental and natural mindset,” Leo says. “The modern cloth diapers are much better than the old ones. Technology has changed since your grandparents last used them. They fit a baby better and don’t require pins, which often intimidate the squeamish, and are extremely easy to use and affordable, comparable in price to disposables. And studies show that kids in cloth diapers potty train six months sooner. Best of all, you can reuse a cloth diaper by simply washing it in your machines, or better yet, use the service. There are options for everyone’s lifestyle and budget”

For more information about Healing Hands Community Chiropractic, visit www.healinghandscc.org; for Great Works Chiropractic & Wellness, visit www.greatworkschiro.com; for Green Earth Baby Works, visit www.greenearthbabyworks.com. And for more information about the Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz.

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