Thursday, June 23, 2005

The Major Health Benefits of Going Barefoot (Really!)

by SixWise.com

"Set your feet free and your mind will follow." So goes the logo on the Society for Barefoot Living homepage. Why, you may be wondering, is there a society devoted just to people who love to live barefoot? If you ask the barefooters of the world, chances are the first thing they'll say is that it just feels great.

"We enjoy walking barefoot as nature intended, taking delight in feeling the many textures the world has to offer -- " says the Society.

Not convinced that you're ready to throw your shoes away just yet? Well, going barefoot doesn't just feel good--it's really proven to be good for you! Here are some reasons why:
Say Goodbye to Troubled Feet

The introduction of the now out-of-print book "Take Off Your Shoes and Walk" by Simon J. Wikler D.S.C., states that, " -- Practically all shoes worn daily by men and women in our Western civilization have little relation to the shape of the human foot -- Most adults' foot trouble would either not exist or would be much less bothersome if properly-shaped shoes had been worn during childhood or, better yet, if those people had gone barefoot -- "

The book details a bit about the history of foot trouble, only to reveal that:

a.. There is no record of foot troubles in Biblical times comparable to modern foot ills.

b.. The seeds of foot trouble were first sown in the Renaissance.

c.. The introduction of the elevated heel and the pointed toe marked the beginning of modern foot disabilities.
The book also describes a study performed from 1957-1960 that examined whether a mother's objections to letting her child walk barefoot influenced the health of the child's feet. It was found that children who were allowed to go barefoot often had:

a.. Less deformed toes

b.. Greater flexor strength

c.. More ability to spread the toes

d.. Denser muscles on the bottom of the feet

e.. Greater agility than those who had never gone barefoot

f.. A wider range of hip circumduction and more flexibility of the gluteal and hamstring muscles, which gave them more ability to touch their toes when their knees were held stiff
Keep Your Feet From Getting Lazy

"Shoes often protect the feet so much that certain foot muscles get lazy because they're not being used," said James DeMarco, running coach and sports store owner.

That's why more people than you'd think have taken to running in bare feet. Marathon runners from Kenya do it all the time, but in the United States you're most likely to see a barefoot runner on the beach. Still, there are those who venture to other areas like grassy fields and even hiking trails.

If you're thinking that running barefoot sounds strange, consider the findings of Michael Warburton, a physical therapist in Australia. In a 2001 research paper he wrote that running barefoot decreases the likelihood of ankle sprains and chronic injuries, such as plantar fasciitis. And, wearing shoes actually increases the risk of sprains because they make runners unaware of the foot's position.

It's not as far-fetched as it may sound -- Nike has just released the Nike Free, a "shoe that lets your foot run free on any surface." It's designed to mimic the effects of running barefoot. According to Nike, "Studies show that barefoot training leads to stronger feet, that stronger feet lead to a stronger body, and that natural movement enhances agility."

Fight Varicose Veins

Going barefoot can actually help prevent vein problems. Why? The motion you get from your unrestricted foot helps the leg muscles pump blood back to the heart. The motion may not be as effective if your foot is confined in a shoe.

It's Just More Relaxing
Going barefoot really puts you in a different sort of mindset, and is usually only reserved for those special, relaxing moments.

Think about when you tend to go barefoot -- at the beach, at home on the carpet, walking on cool grass in the summer, -- and you'll get an idea of what we mean. Exercises geared toward strengthening the body and relaxing the mind (yoga, tai chi, martial arts) are also typically practiced barefoot.


"Maybe the whole world secretly understands that free feet produce a different, more philosophical, relaxed, and unbusinesslike mindset. Without shoes, our ambitions would fade away, wolfish trade practices seem too much trouble, international frictions look foolish. Armies would curl up to take a nap. Nobody would get any serious work done," wrote Barbara Holland in Endangered Pleasures. Or maybe we should all take our shoes off next time we're at work, and see just how stress-free we become?

Get More Chi

According to some ancient philosophies, life-force energy called Chi (also called Qi or Prana) can be absorbed through the soles of the feet. Ground Chi is absorbed automatically and unconsciously when walking barefoot, which increases the amount of Chi absorbed by the body.

It's said that you can consciously learn to absorb more Chi from the ground as you walk to increase your vitality, your capacity to do more work and your ability to think more clearly. Now there's a reason for going barefoot more often if we ever heard one!

Sources

The Roanoke Times June 15, 2005

Society for Barefoot Living

Barefoot and Healthy

Monday, June 20, 2005

Gardening with All Purpose H

Thank you Farmers wife, Mildred Smith, from ions ago – who says,

"Shaklee is not a business, but a way of life! "


For Tomatoes: 3oz of all purpose H w/ 1oz of Ligui-lea and 5 gallons of water – apply after planting

Trickler Systems – Flowers: 100 gallon systems – 18 oz of all purpose H w/4oz of Ligui-lea, mix w/ water - Apply twice a week

Spray Formula – Flowers: Mix ½ oz of all purpose H with 1oz of Liqui – lea and 3 gallons of water. Spray twice a week

Apple Scab – 1 quart all purpose H – 100 gallons of water. Spray apples as you would lime sulphur. Spray at pre - blossom and at petal fall, then every 15 days, for the best results.

Orange Groves: To clean irrigation lines: 2 7/8 gallons all purpose H to 90,000 gallons of water

Lawn Care: To increase water absorption 200%!! Buy an Ortho bottle. Fill this w/ all purpose H and hook to your hose. Continually spray your yard, don’t let it soak. Just go along your grass until it is gone. Fill again if it is necessary. Do this 4-5 times per year, beginning in April, making sure to also do it late in the summer

Grubs: 1 ½ quart H – ½ pint Barefoot's Germicide – 10-12 – gallons of water. Spray every 100 ft Use Ortho bottle or injector

Dandelions: 100 sq ft – Use Ortho Spryer or hose w/ valve sytem – 2 quarts of all purpose H – 1 bottle of Liqui-lea – ½ pint Barefoot's Germicide – Should be used with some form of liquid fertilizer. Apply twice a year

Weeds: pull a bucket per day – a sick lawn supports weeds – a healthy lawn does not support weeds.
Trees – nursery stock, seedlings, or seed beds: Mix 1oz of all purpose H with gallon of water. Spray on whole seedling and around entire trunk. Apply every 10 days.

Trees - 3-4 feet tall: Mix 1 quart of all purpose H with 8 quarts of Water. From this mixture, feed at the base of the tree 1 Cup of solution twice per day for the first day , then once a day until the solution is gone.


Trees - 4-8 ft tall: Mix 1 quart of all purpose H w/ 6 quarts of water. From this mixture, Feed at the base of the tree. Use 1 pint of the mixture twice a day for 2 days and then 1 pint thereafter until the mixture is gone. Feedings are of a mixed solution. Do this 3 times per year.

Trees – 8 ft an up: Mix 1 quart of all purpose H w/ 5 quarts of water. Feed one quart of the solution each day until the solution is gone. Do this twice a year.

Small Evergreens: Mix 1oz of all purpose H with gallon of water. Add 1 oz of liqui – lea for proper vitamin needs. Spray on whole seedling and around entire trunk. Apply every 10 days.

Evergreens: Add 8 oz of Liqui-lea to 8 ft an up Mix 1 quart of all purpose H w/ 5 quarts of water. Feed one quart of the solution each day until the solution is gone. Do this twice a year.

Lawn Shrubs and bushes: For any type of evergreen shrub use 1 teas all purpose H and 1 teas of Liqui-lea per gallon of water.

Hard wood shrubs and small trees: Use ½ oz all purpose H w/ 1 gallon of water. Spray once every 2 weeks or if insects appear.

Friday, June 17, 2005

All Purpose H Household Cleaner & Pesticides 101

Written by:
Bonnie Edkin
Environmental Chemist/Nutritional Consultant
Edkin Health & Environmental Services

Note:the Manufacturer name has been changed in this post to all purpose H Household cleaner to meet the P& R Guidelines of the manufacturer..

I've used All Purpose H Household cleaner in spray bottles to kill wasps, ants, etc for years. We
live in the woods - and I do mean IN THE WOODS. At various times of the
year, we will see hordes of carpenter ants trekking their way across our
deck and into our home. What do I mean by "hordes?" At times there are so
many you can actually hear them crawling across the floor, countertop, or
whatever surface they are on. Yes, I am serious. If there are enough of
them, you can hear them. Unfortunately, I am speaking from the voice of
experience.

Now, I'm one of those strange people who actually think almost all "bugs"
are kind of cute. So, creepy-crawlers don't normally creep me out, but when
there are this many - well, that's just way to weird for even me. Also,
finding pieces of chewed up wood (from the 2x4s inside our walls) and pieces
of insulation (also from inside the walls) on the floor where the ants have
marched into the house - that's not exactly something that makes me feel
particularly kindly toward the critters. (Carpenter ants can be more
destructive than termites.) So, when these infestations show up from time
to time, I spray the perimeter of the house with a solution of Basic-H. The
next day there are dead ants everywhere. Multitudinous dead ants
everywhere.

So, yes, All Purpose H (and any other liquid cleaner) will kill ants, wasps, etc.
But, Basic-H isn't a poison, so you don't have to worry about absorbing it
into the skin and it having some sort of negative affect on the nervous
system. The mode of action isn't due to some toxic affect on the nervous
system. Basic H doesn't kill ants in the way a typical pesticidal poison
works. Rather, it's a "mechanical" sort of action.

Perhaps a little lesson in pesticides will help. ;-)

There are various methods of killing "bugs." Some pesticides work on the
nervous system by inhibiting enzymes that are involved with slowing down the
nervous system. Enzymes are needed to both "excite" the nervous system and
to calm it down after the cause of the initial "excitement" is over. By
inhibiting the enzymes that calm down the nervous system, these pesticides
put the nervous system into such an excited state that the bug dies. It's
like having a bunch of electrical shorts in the nervous system. (I don't
mean to be gross, but that's why the poor critters twitch so much after
exposure to this kind of pesticide.) The human nervous system is affected
the same way. Many of these pesticides are called "cholinesterase
inhibitors" (because cholinesterase is the enzyme they block). There are
other pesticides that block other enzymes or that cause death from a toxic
exposure in other ways, but the cholinesterase inhibitors are fairly common,
so I'm using them as an example of pesticides that kill by toxic exposure.

Poison isn't the only way to kill bugs. A fly swatter isn't a poison, but
is still can be quite effective at killing flies. (Btw, when using a fly
swatter, it's helpful to know how flies take off. They first fly backward
and then up and forward. So, to improve your hitting average, always plan
to hit the poor guy from behind. You'll get almost 100% this way.) Other
compounds that are considered pesticides work in a "mechanical" sort of way.
For example, there are some products on the market that contain tiny
crystals that scratch the wax-like coating on the hard shell of the insect
when the critter crawls over it. When this coating is scratched, the bug
dehydrates. It can't retain enough water to survive. These products are
officially listed as pesticides, but they are not poisons. You could rub
them all over your body and they won't hurt you one bit. (Well, okay, you
might scratch the skin a bit since they are gritty.)

All Purpose H is not a cholinesterase inhibitor. It works in a mechanical sort of
way - but just the opposite of the gritty crystals that scratch the waxy
coating on the bug to dehydrate it. All Purpose H, like all surfactants, makes
water wetter. That is, it makes water penetrate things better. So, rather
than causing dehydration for ants, etc, it drowns them. It's basically like
holding the bug under water til it drowns.

Actually, any surfactant will do this. That's what makes them effective
cleaners: they help water penetrate the thing you're trying to clean. Lemon
Joy, Dawn, etc - they are all surfactants and will all kill a variety of
"bugs." For example, if a kitten is too young for the vet to recommend a
poison-type flea killer, the vet will sometimes tell you to wash the kitten
with a mild solution of dishwashing liquid to kill the fleas (not automatic
dishwasher detergent, but the stuff that used for washing dishes by hand).
I'm not saying this to promote the use of those products, but rather to
bring up something that is often misunderstood.

Some distributors have
assumed this indicates the dishwashing liquids must be very, very poisonous.
Unfortunately, it backfires when they tell someone they can do the same
thing with All Purpose H. After all, if you tell a customer that the dishwashing
liquids from the grocery store kill fleas and this "proves they are toxic,"
what is that person going to think when you tell them All Purpose H also kills
bugs? They are going to naturally assume All Purpose H is toxic.

So the "if it kills bugs, it must be toxic" concept isn't true (and if you
use it, it will backfire on you at some point). Although All purpose H is not
registered as a pesticide, it will kill many pests. It accomplishes this
thru a "mechanical" sort of action rather than by toxicity.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Burn Testimony.. Using Barefoot All Purpose Household Cleaner

This post has been removed. For more information contact Cindy McAsey 888-272-6701

or

Buy Shaklee Basic H2 Online or Purchase Original Basic H Online

Thursday, June 02, 2005

The Safest most effective Mosquito Repellent ever...

Here is a testimony from another "Barefoot Secret" distributor about our wonderful All Purpose H as a safe effective mosquito repellent.

Basic-H as mosquito repellent
By: Brenda Kurz

I have a customer that owns a resturant on a lake. There is a deck
over the lake that is used in the summer. She puts small spray
bottles of full strenght Basic H out on the tables for the customers
to use to provent mosquito bits. It works like a charm. She even
did a test with one of her waitresses. The waitress used off and
Linda used Basic H. Long story short, Basic H won.

I can attest to the fact that our all purpose H works great as a bug repellent too. At our house we keep a 16oz spray bottle filled with 1/3 Basic H, 1/3 white vinegar, !/3 water. We use this on all of our animals and on our selves to keep the bugs away. This mixture also works great to keep itching down if you have already been biten.

This is another story in itself... we just got a new puppy over Memorial day weekend. What a joy she is... she was 6 weeks old yesterday. We have started obedience and crate training her, but I thought it would be nice to turn her loose in a large puppy pen for a couple of hours. Well this puppy pen hadn't been used for awhile and happened to have posion ivy growing in it.

Yep... you guessed it she must have rollled in it the whole time she was out there. Long story short... I've got a posion ivy rash all over the inside of my arms, under my chin, and a little on the tops of my legs. This is not something that is new to me... I've had it before and will probably get it again considering we live in rural america. Our wonderful spray mixture (see above) works great to stop the itch temporarly.

Ok... since I'm on the subject here is what I do for my bouts with posion ivy. As soon as I realize I've got it,
I bath with basic H.
Then I rub all affected areas with calming complex and let dry.
Then I apply mineral masque and leave the area alone! ! ! !

I have learned to be mentally tough when I get posion ivy, because I guess you could say I'm vain and don't want my skin to scar...
As soon as the rash has healed to the point of not itching anymore I apply Enfuselle C&E repair cream after bathing.

This weblog actually ended up being 2 testimony's, but the both involve our barefoot secret all purpose H. If you haven't tried this stuff yet I suggest you give it a try. It's very cost effective way to keep your home chemical free.

Buy Basic H Online HERE