Alicia Keys Gives Back to Kids Affected by HIV and AIDS

Singer/songwriter and new mom Alicia Keys tells WebMD what drives her to travel the world to help children, plus how you can help!

Fourteen-time Grammy Award-winning artist Alicia Keys, 30, had her first baby more than a year ago, a handsome bundle of joy named Egypt. He has "the most perfect eyes and beautiful nose, the sweetest lips, and skin so soft and kissable! Never have I felt such disbelief, such awe, humility, godliness, such strength, power, and possibility," the singer gushes about her son on her blog. Keys and her husband, music producer, rapper, and entrepreneur Swizz Beatz, 33, chose the unusual moniker as a nod to the enduring power of the ancient pyramids built more than two millennia ago in Africa.

Long before Keys fully understood the enduring power of a parent's love, she found the massive scale of suffering among the world's children too dire to ignore. After touring impoverished South Africa for the first time eight years ago, she saw up close how that suffering compounds when HIV is involved.
"I couldn't turn my back on all I'd seen," Keys tells WebMD. She'd witnessed AIDS orphans and widows across that continent struggling to survive; babies and kids of all ages battling the ravages of the disease they'd inherited from their infected parents; and the elderly -- poor and often incapacitated themselves -- caring for their dead children's offspring because no one else was left to do the job. An entire generation had been destroyed.

Keys: 'To Have to Deal with All These Things'

 

Enter AIDS activist Leigh Blake. She is the innovative producer behind the 1990s' "Red Hot + Blue," the first concert event and album that banded together musical artists for AIDS efforts. Blake invited Keys to join her on that first eye-opening trip back in 2002, lobbying the voice behind such hits as "Fallin'" and "A Woman's Worth" to use her clout to shine a light on the global AIDS movement and to get involved herself.

The two toured threadbare medical clinics and destitute villages where the poorest of Africans needed the simplest of interventions: antiretroviral medications (ARVs), which at that time were neither affordable nor accessible in third-world nations.

"We don't see more than 16 million U.S. orphans in America because we don't allow it to happen," Blake says. "In the United States, if you need the drugs, you get the drugs. But not too long ago, if you were poor in Africa and had no voice, you didn't. And you died."

When a pharmaceutical company began making a generic version of ARVs in 2003 for just $500 annually -- the original patented drugs tallied $11,000 per year, an astronomical figure for all but the world's wealthiest citizens -- they knew mass distribution had finally become feasible.
"Leigh said to me: 'I think I can find a way to engage the public and provide these medicines,'" Keys recalls. "So I said to her: 'You figure that out, and I'm there!'

"At the time, I didn't have a child" -- Keys was then 22 -- "but I was empathetic to these young people I met [in Africa], so close to my age. It really struck me how I had to pay attention. What if I was 15 going through what these kids are going through, and nobody paid attention? To have to deal with all the things a teenager has to deal with, on top of being the 'parent' and breadwinner, and putting food on the table for younger brothers and sisters who might be 3, or 7, or 10…it wasn't about how impossible it was, but, rather, if I can help one person, five people, 10 people, 100, 200, 100,000 people…that's what's real."

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Alicia Keys Gives Back to Kids Affected by HIV and AIDS

Overworked & Under Spray- Pesticides' Danger to Young Farm Workers

The dangers of pesticides on our food aren't limited to the ramifications for those who eat the chemically-sprayed food. In addition to our soil, air and water which come under attack, the health of the farm workers responsible for planting and harvesting suffers.
A short documentary released last week by Toxic Free North Carolina illustrates the dangers. Even more unsettling? The subjects of "Overworked & Under Spray" are six teenagers who worked the fields. Thanks to Pesticide Action Network for spreading the word about the video.
(If you do not see "Overworked & Under Spray" below, click here to watch it.) 

By The Delicious Truth 
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Overworked & Under Spray- Pesticides' Danger to Young Farm Workers

Plants- The real Thing

Broccoli. Blueberries. Lentils. Oatmeal. Beans. Apples. The list goes on and on. If you want to reduce your risk for all cancers, two-thirds of what you eat every day should be plant based. The closer to raw the better, but even that’s not a big deal. That’s the conclusion of a study by the American Institute for Cancer Research.

The question is why? It may be that the vitamin and mineral content of the plants are higher than a diet based on enriched foods. It may be the phytonutrient content of plant foods—those are the substances in foods that seem to help vitamins and minerals do their jobs; even dark chocolate, coffee, and tea have beneficial phytonutrients in them. Or it may be the fiber in plant foods that’s missing from animal foods.

On the other side of the coin, it may be that if you eat that much from the produce section, then you don’t eat a lot of meat, you don’t eat a lot of refined carbohydrates, and you don’t eat as much saturated fats. I don’t think it’s clear which one is more important, but this I can tell you: if you’re concerned about reducing your risk of all types of cancers, then you should start shopping in the produce section first and filling two-thirds of your plate with those foods at every meal.

By Dr. Chet
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Plants- The real Thing

Will Eating fat make you fat?

Eating too much of anything will make you fat, but dietary fat itself doesn't have any magic weight-gain properties. However, fat does contain more calories than either carbohydrates or proteins; per gram, carbohydrates and proteins provide about 4 calories, whereas fats yields 9 calories per gram. So the more fat you eat, the more calories you consume in downing too many calories every day will put you on the fast track to growing a big old gut.

But in general we are far, too afraid of fat. It's a fact of life and a critical part of our body. It encases our internal organs, courses through our veins, and provides a nice cushion wherever we take a load off of our feet. It's even where you never expected it, it's inside our skulls, were it provide 70% of our protective coating for our brains and makes up to 60% of our grey matter. The main reason you shouldn't fear fat is that as long as you are eating the appropriate number of calories every day, your body won't store it in the soft spots but rather burn it for energy. Research even shows that diets containing up to 60% fat are just as effective for weight loss as those in which that provides only 20% of the calories. The bottom line is that fat is filling and flavorful, both of which can help keep your belly from feeling deprived.  And that means that you can eat natural fat in meat, cheese, milk, butter, avocados, nuts, and olive oil without batting an eye.

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Will Eating fat make you fat?

Do you believe that chemicals in products sold to consumers have been proven safe?

Think again. 
 
Most chemicals in modern use have simply not been tested for their impacts on human health, even very basic effects. 

According to a report by the Environmental Working Group, Beauty Secrets:

"No pre-market safety testing or approval is required under any federal law for chemicals in cosmetics, toys, clothing, carpets, or construction materials, to name just a few obvious sources of chemical exposure in everyday life. This little known fact is the premeditated result of an orchestrated campaign by the chemical industry to avoid testing and regulation of their products. It largely explains why products like hair spray, hair dye, pacifiers, stain repellants, glues and children's toys get on the market, only to be found to contain highly toxic compounds at unsafe levels after decades of widespread use."

If tests have been carried out, they usually are far too simplistic to anticipate many important health effects.

This graph shows the percentage of high production chemicals made in America that have never been tested for different health effects. Most have not been tested. from Environmental Defense

For example, many cosmetics including nail polish, eye glitter and anti-perspirants, contain phthalates, including types of phthalates that are known reproductive toxicants. 

A growing number of studies with animals have discovered that modest fetal exposure to one or more of several phthalates causes reproductive birth defects --including males with feminized reproductive systems-- but there are virtually no epidemiological studies examining the impacts of exposure to phthalates on the reproductive systems of people exposed in the womb. 

Based on the animal studies, the safest prediction is that they will cause problems for people, too. But industry claims that because there are no data proving harm, there are no effects. What is really a proof of ignorance they claim instead is proof of safety.

Industry's argument is superficially more plausible than that. They point to the fact that some phthalates have been in use for decades. They argue that were they not safe, we would have discovered their risks by now. But the reality is that no study has ever looked at the effects of exposure in the womb to phthalates on subsequent reproductive health during adulthood, or indeed many other plausible health endpoints, exactly the sort of studies that would be necessary to lay to rest concerns raised by the animal studies.

And heightening those concerns, the Centers for Disease Control has discovered that women of child-bearing age are the most likely of Americans to have high concentrations of phthalates in their bodies. Beauty Secrets, by the Environmental Working Group, revealed that the source of these phthalates is likely to be cosmetics. The CDC's study did not sample children, but many of these products are intended for use by children.

For more information on the myth that the current approach to chemical testing establishes their safety, visit The Chemical Industry Archives.


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Do you believe that chemicals in products sold to consumers have been proven safe?

An Introduction to Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

From the EPA

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids. VOCs include a variety of chemicals, some of which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects. Concentrations of many VOCs are consistently higher indoors (up to ten times higher) than outdoors. VOCs are emitted by a wide array of products numbering in the thousands. Examples include: paints and lacquers, paint strippers, cleaning supplies, pesticides, building materials and furnishings, office equipment such as copiers and printers, correction fluids and carbonless copy paper, graphics and craft materials including glues and adhesives, permanent markers, and photographic solutions.

Organic chemicals are widely used as ingredients in household products. Paints, varnishes, and wax all contain organic solvents, as do many cleaning, disinfecting, cosmetic, degreasing, and hobby products. Fuels are made up of organic chemicals. All of these products can release organic compounds while you are using them, and, to some degree, when they are stored.

EPA's Office of Research and Development's "Total Exposure Assessment Methodology (TEAM) Study" (Volumes I through IV, completed in 1985) found levels of about a dozen common organic pollutants to be 2 to 5 times higher inside homes than outside, regardless of whether the homes were located in rural or highly industrial areas. TEAM studies indicated that while people are using products containing organic chemicals, they can expose themselves and others to very high pollutant levels, and elevated concentrations can persist in the air long after the activity is completed.

Contents

• Sources
• Health Effects
• Levels in Homes
• Steps to Reduce Exposure
• Standards or Guidelines
• Additional Resources

Sources

Household products including: paints, paint strippers, and other solvents; wood preservatives; aerosol sprays; cleansers and disinfectants; moth repellents and air fresheners; stored fuels and automotive products; hobby supplies; dry-cleaned clothing.

See entire article

Green products:  Legacy of Clean brand line of  powerful and environmentally sensitive cleaning products.

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An Introduction to Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)