I believe that I know how Michael Jackson turned into a white man.
I worked as a moderator and a writer for two years on an ‘acne’ site on the Internet, and I have done research on skin conditions/treatments for over ten years. I know a little about how our skin works, and what different products do to our skin and why.
Michael Jackson often talked about how he had a chronic acne condition as a young teen, and how the acne scared both his face and his personality. Yet to look at Michael as an adult you could not see a single acne scar on his face. Yet he insisted that he did indeed have deep acne scars on his face as a result of the acne he suffered as a teen.
I am sure that the acne scars Michael Jackson developed on his face were the result of the greasy, oily make up that both stage and TV stars wore back when Michael was a young teen. I remember the makeup that was used back then because I am older than Michael would be if he had lived, and I remember other actors and stage performers who also developed acne from the greasy makeup they had to wear on stage.
Michael Jackson mysteriously turned white while he was still a young man sometime in the mid nineteen eighties. He had been burned while filming a Pepsi commercial, and his transformation started at around this time.
He claimed at the time that his skin losing color was due to a skin condition called Vitilgo . When this happened to him, and the fact that Vitilgo leaves a black person’s skin with a pink tinge to it instead of a white pallor, I don’t believe that Michael Jackson had Vitilgo. I say this because M.J.’s skin was a deathly white color all over, not in patches, and not a pink color as I have seen on other dark skinned individuals who actually had Vitilgo.
Another explanation that has been handed down to the public for his transformation was that he suffered from Lupus. Lupus does have a skin condition associated with it called a Malar rash. Another symptom of Lupus is a loss of body hair, which is called Alopicia. Lupus patients have to avoid the sun the same as a person who has lost the melanin in their skin therefore a Lupus patient always shields themselves from sunlight because sunlight makes the symptoms of Lupus worse.
Normally Vitilgo, which has been the primary reason given to the public for M.J.'s transformation presents itself in patches on the skin NOT as an all over condition. Vitilgo normally takes a long time to cover a large area of the victims skin; the condition does not present itself 'overnight' all over a person's skin as what happened to Michael Jackson when he 'suddenly' turned white in the mid nineteen eighties.
I believe that M.J. underwent a chemical peel on his face sometime around the time he was burned in the Pepsi commercial to remove his acne scars that he often referred to in conversation but were not seen on his face later on as an adult. Within the chemical peel originally developed back in the nineteen seventies to remove acne scars was a chemical called PHENOL.
Phenol completely destroys melanocytes within the skin. Melanocytes are commonly called melanin.
Melanin cells within the skin are the cells that manufacturer and carry our skin color.
The darker our skin is the greater the number of melanocytes we have within our skin. Even light skinned persons have some melanin within their skin. Those creatures including humans that are born completely withOUT melanin within their skin are called Albinos, and their eyes are often pink in color, and their hair is completely without color, and is white. Being an Albino is a condition that affects the complete body not just a part of the body like the skin.
Back in the mid nineteen eighties when Michael Jackson suddenly turned white, there were two methods used to remove acne scars from the face.
Neither method was perfected yet or was desirable.
The heavy dermabrasion method incorporated using a hand held sanding device to sand the patients face after freezing the skin first by spraying it with nitrogen aerosol spray. This method often left the patient with more scars that it removed because doctors using this method back in the nineteen seventies when it was first introduced and later on in the mid nineteen eighties were not skilled enough yet to be doing this type of facial skin surgery. Even today I would not recommend this procedure to anyone for removal of deep acne scars.
The second method that was often used in the nineteen seventies and the nineteen eighties to remove acne scars was the chemical peel that I mentioned already that contained the chemical called PHENOL. Phenol is a dangerous chemical to apply to the skin because it does completely destroy the melanocytes (melanin) within the skin.
Most skin lighteners that you find in a jar today that are incorporated into a cream don’t destroy melanocytes completely because they contain Hydroquinone, which destroys some of the melanin cells but not all of them. So creams containing Hydroquinone have to be used over and over to maintain a lighter skin. Generally speaking from what I have read Hydroquinone is a ‘safe’ method to lighten the skin. Hydroquinone is commonly prescribed today by doctors/dermatologists in both the United States and in Japan to patients that want to lighten their complexions.
After M.J. healed from his chemical peel he had to use products that lightened his neck, hands, arms etc…to try to even out his skin color. If he did indeed suffer from Vitilgo he may have gone through with the chemical peel to both even out his skin color and get rid of the acne scars that he so often referred to in interviews. It is possible that after undergoing the peel he used products containing Hydroquinone or he may have had Phenol incorporated into a cream base by a Compounding Pharmacists, and then used this cream to completely remove the color producing melanin from his neck, hands and arms.
Without melanin in our skin we cannot go outside into the sun. A person suffering from Lupus cannot go outside into the sun either because sunlight makes Lupus symptoms worsen.
If we go into the sun without melanin in our skin we burn terribly, and skin cancer is more likely to happen at a much younger age because the skin does not have it’s natural defense of color to protect it from the sun’s rays that cause skin cancer.
However Michael lost his melanocytes (melanin) knowing what happens to skin that is not protected by melanin helps to explain WHY we always saw Michael Jackson with a sun-brella in hand whenever we saw him go outside.
Phenol is still used today by some doctors/dermatologists in their chemical peels. The difference today from the nineteen seventies and the nineteen eighties is that today doctors caution anyone who has a darker skin tone to stay away from any product that contains Phenol because once melanocytes (skin color) are destroyed you cannot regrow them.
Remember that hydroquinone is Good for whitening the skin to a natural lighter color. and PHENOL is very Bad for anyone to put on their skin at any time because Phenol completely destroys melanin within the skin and turns the skin a deathly white color.
Carol Garnier Dutra
Copyright © 2011 by Carol Garnier Dutra
.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Wet Ones Kill Virus/Germs Yet Are Gentle To Skin...
Wet Ones are an antibacterial wipe containing Benzethonium Chloride 0.3%. This product is patented and made in the United States; distribution is by Playtex Products, LLC. Wet Ones are a GOOD product; much needed by many modern shoppers.
I prefer Benzethonium Chloride to drying alcohol products for ‘germ’ control because BC is much kinder to the hands and face. Wet Ones are excellent to use to wipe the face to remove an accumulation of oil during the day or while working out at the gym because along with removing excess oil this product kills off the bacteria that accumulates on the skin that causes skin infections including ‘adult acne’ that is commonly called Roseacea.
So a pack of Wet Ones should be in the daypack/purse of any teenager or adult who suffers from oily skin, breakouts or other skin infections.
I always carry a ‘travel pack’ of Wet Ones in my purse to use when I go grocery shopping or go to any store where I will be using a cart to hold my purchases. I wipe off the grocery cart handle to kill off all of the accumulated germs and or viruses on the cart handle, and I prevent myself from getting these viruses/germs on my hands where they can easily be transferred to my face, near my mouth, eyes or nose where cold and or flu infection can be transferred to the moist tissues of the eye, mouth or nose.
I have been carrying and using Wet Ones for over five years now, and I noticed the first year that I got fewer colds. May I recommend Wet Ones to everyone who cares about stopping the spread of infection, especially to themselves.
Thanks for reading hope you stay healthy this winter,
Carol Garnier Dutra
Copyright © 2010 by Carol Garnier Dutra
.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Lower Your Sunnyslope Water District Water Bill...This Is GOOD!
To all those who find themselves viewing this page, and are customers of Sunnyslope Water District in Hollister, California; I have GOOD news for you!
Following is a letter I composed and sent to all of our neighbors back in December 2008 that explains what my husband and I learned about how the charges to our Sunnyslope District water bill are determined.
If you are a Sunnyslope customer, I am sure you already know that the major portion of your water bill is for ‘sewer’. There is a way to lower your ‘sewer’ charge for each month for the coming year, and also lower the ‘rate’ that you are charged for water for the entire year. Please read on...
Carol Garnier Dutra
Copyright © 2010 by Carol Garnier Dutra
.
Following is a letter I composed and sent to all of our neighbors back in December 2008 that explains what my husband and I learned about how the charges to our Sunnyslope District water bill are determined.
If you are a Sunnyslope customer, I am sure you already know that the major portion of your water bill is for ‘sewer’. There is a way to lower your ‘sewer’ charge for each month for the coming year, and also lower the ‘rate’ that you are charged for water for the entire year. Please read on...
Carol Garnier Dutra
December 14, 2008
Dear Neighbor,
Last year, my husband Dick and I noticed that while our monthly Utility Service Bill from Sunnyslope County Water District is on the expensive side, the major portion of our water bill charge every month is for ‘sewer’.
We proceeded to find out how we could reduce the amount of money we were being charged for the ‘sewer’ portion of our water bill.
What we learned from our inquiry at the Sunnyslope County Water District’s office was that the Sunnyslope County Water District averages out our water usage, each and every single year, from the amount of water we use from January 15 to March 15 of that particular year!
This means that each homeowner’s monthly sewer charge on their monthly Utility Service Bill from Sunnyslope County Water District has a sewer charge that is not the same as their neighbors sewer charge, and this charge can vary from year to year depending on how much water is used for each household from January 15 to March 15..
Dick and I learned that by REDUCING our WATER USAGE during these TWO months, January 15, 2008 to March 15, 2008 we were able to reduce our total sewer charge for the following 12 months. For us that is a reduction of $60.00 a month for a grand saving for us of $720.00 for the entire water billing year, which will end after March 15, 2009. The water-billing year begins and ends on approximately March 15th each year. For some customers it will be a day or two later because it takes time for the water meter readers to get around to all of their customers homes to read the meters.
We base our savings by comparing what we paid for sewer on our Utility Service Bill for the previous year. The Utility Service Bill we will receive in May 2009 will contain our new sewer charge, which will be based on our water usage from January 15, 2009 to March 15, 2009.
When we installed a new water heater we chose one that has a 30 gallon water tank because it takes less energy and less water to heat up a 30 gallon tank, and we are not big consumers of water because we have a small family. We also have a blanket on our water heater to conserve energy by keeping the water in the tank hot, longer.
A 60 gallon water tank would take more energy and more water to maintain, and is not worth the extra cost for us.
We’ve replaced our water softener with a new energy conserving unit that takes less water, and less salt to do the water softening process. Old, less efficient water softeners can use a lot of water, and put more salt/sodium into the sewer system.
Good luck in lowering your Sunnyslope water bill!
Dick and Carol Dutra
Copyright © 2010 by Carol Garnier Dutra
.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Simplify Online Purchases With ShopSafe...This Is Good!
If you have a Bank ofAmerica Visa credit card I hope you give ShopSafe a try. I have been using the ShopSafe system for online and phone purchases for some time now and I love how simple and worry-free it is to use.
This is how I found ShopSafe:
One day, while checking on our Bank of America online Visa charges I noticed on the page I was looking at that BofA was offering something new that they were calling ShopSafe. I clicked the ShopSafe online address that I saw on my online Visa charge page, and I was directed to the ShopSafe page.
Here's how easy ShopSafe is to use:
I quickly learned that I could assign an amount of money to a 'surrogate' credit card number and use the 'new' number to make a purchase either online or over the phone. If something were to happen to the database at the merchant's online store, where my 'surrogate' credit card number was stored, no one could use my credit card number because it had already been used by the merchant where I made my purchase. Each ShopSafe number becomes a 'dedicated' Visa credit card number that can be used by only the first merchant that enters it into the Visa database.
In addition to this safeguard, the amount of money that I assigned to the credit card number can not be changed by anyone, not even the merchant. The only person who has control over the ShopSafe number, and the amount of money that is assigned to the ShopSafe Visa number is the owner of the original Visa credit card number.
Example: Say I assign three hundred dollars ($300.00) to a ShopSafe number, and I spend two hundred and twenty of those dollars ($220.00) on a purchase that leaves eighty dollars ($80.00) in the number that has not been used. I can go back to the same merchant and charge the remaining money on another purchase but I cannot use the remaining money to make another purchase with a different merchant. To make a charge with a different merchant I have to get another surrogate Visa number for the new merchant, and assign whatever amount of money that I need to the new number. Numbers have a 'shelf life' that the owner of the Visa assigns to them. I usually get six (6) months assigned to each number that I take out at the ShopSafe online page.
How it works for the merchant:
When the merchant calls in to Visa with the number you give him or her for your purchase it goes into a database, and the charge is re-routed by the bank to your 'real' Visa credit card number. The next day you should be able to go online to look at your Visa credit card charges, and see the charge from the merchant who used your 'surrogate' ShopSafe Visa credit card number to make the purchase at his or her online store. It's as simple as that! You never have to tell the merchant that you are using ShopSafe.
I don't know why Bank of America is not advertising ShopSafe. I know others that use the ShopSafe system for online and phone purchases, and they love it as much as I do.
Of course when I purchase goods in person at a store I use my regular Visa credit card instead of ShopSafe.
Carol Garnier Dutra
Copyright © 2010 by Carol Garnier Dutra
.
This is how I found ShopSafe:
One day, while checking on our Bank of America online Visa charges I noticed on the page I was looking at that BofA was offering something new that they were calling ShopSafe. I clicked the ShopSafe online address that I saw on my online Visa charge page, and I was directed to the ShopSafe page.
Here's how easy ShopSafe is to use:
I quickly learned that I could assign an amount of money to a 'surrogate' credit card number and use the 'new' number to make a purchase either online or over the phone. If something were to happen to the database at the merchant's online store, where my 'surrogate' credit card number was stored, no one could use my credit card number because it had already been used by the merchant where I made my purchase. Each ShopSafe number becomes a 'dedicated' Visa credit card number that can be used by only the first merchant that enters it into the Visa database.
In addition to this safeguard, the amount of money that I assigned to the credit card number can not be changed by anyone, not even the merchant. The only person who has control over the ShopSafe number, and the amount of money that is assigned to the ShopSafe Visa number is the owner of the original Visa credit card number.
Example: Say I assign three hundred dollars ($300.00) to a ShopSafe number, and I spend two hundred and twenty of those dollars ($220.00) on a purchase that leaves eighty dollars ($80.00) in the number that has not been used. I can go back to the same merchant and charge the remaining money on another purchase but I cannot use the remaining money to make another purchase with a different merchant. To make a charge with a different merchant I have to get another surrogate Visa number for the new merchant, and assign whatever amount of money that I need to the new number. Numbers have a 'shelf life' that the owner of the Visa assigns to them. I usually get six (6) months assigned to each number that I take out at the ShopSafe online page.
How it works for the merchant:
When the merchant calls in to Visa with the number you give him or her for your purchase it goes into a database, and the charge is re-routed by the bank to your 'real' Visa credit card number. The next day you should be able to go online to look at your Visa credit card charges, and see the charge from the merchant who used your 'surrogate' ShopSafe Visa credit card number to make the purchase at his or her online store. It's as simple as that! You never have to tell the merchant that you are using ShopSafe.
I don't know why Bank of America is not advertising ShopSafe. I know others that use the ShopSafe system for online and phone purchases, and they love it as much as I do.
Of course when I purchase goods in person at a store I use my regular Visa credit card instead of ShopSafe.
Carol Garnier Dutra
Copyright © 2010 by Carol Garnier Dutra
.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Carmine Food Color Is From Bugs ... Do You Want To Eat Bugs?...
This is my ‘Rant’ on bug bits and bug parts used as food coloring in our food chain, and the same bug parts used for coloring cosmetics. Often this food/cosmetic coloring made from bugs is to blame for 'hidden' allergies that affect both adults and children. It is often difficult to diagnose this allergy because most people are not aware that Carmine coloring comes from crushed beetles.
Sometimes these allergies manifest in adults that have become sensitized as they age. But children are more often the ‘victims’ of this insidious red/pink/purple food color when it is in foods such as Minute Maid Fruit Punch and brightly colored yogurts and candies.
This insidious food color is often called 'NATURAL' because it comes from bugs; bugs are 'NATURAL' but why would anyone in the civilized world want to consume BUGS?
Carmine, not my uncle Carmine but instead the red/pink or purple coloring that is used to color some foods and commercially available, drugstore variety cosmetics, especially lipstick and blush, is obtained from the Cochineal or the Polish Cochineal Beetle, which is a scaled insect that is raised on beetle farms specifically for the purpose of harvesting the red/pink or purple color from the beetles hard shell, body casing. I guess you know by this second paragraph that this post is about both the BAD and the UGLY in our consumer world!
Some cosmetic brands that use Carmine coloring in their products are Revlon Cosmetics, Maybelline Cosmetics, L’Oreal Cosmetics and many other cosmetics that are commonly found in drug stores or regular grocery stores.
There are cosmetics available that do NOT use Carmine as a red/pink/purple coloring agent. Stores like Whole Foods and some shops that sell vitamin preparations often carry such cosmetics that don’t contain Carmine. And the prices of the cosmetics without Carmine are about the same as the price of the cosmetics that do contain Carmine.
There are also many shops on the Internet that sell Carmine FREE lipstick and blush colored with either mineral or vegetable coloring.
Check labels on all cosmetics for the coloring agent used.
Because I don’t like the idea of beetle body parts providing the red/pink/purple coloring in my lipstick, I buy and use a lipstick made by a manufacturer called Gabriel that makes some red and pink colors that I use that are NOT colored with Carmine. Here again you have to read the ingredients to make sure that the lipstick you choose does not contain Carmine.
I obtain my Gabriel brand lipstick through the Internet at a shop called White Rabbit that is located in Half Moon Bay, California. Most Gabriel colors do not contain Carmine and they do NOT contain petroleum either. Petroleum dries out the skin and lips so it is best to NOT have petroleum in any cosmetics.
Petroleum products at first seem to moisturize the skin and lips but as time goes on the constant use of petroleum products produces a drying effect. Chapstick brand lip balm in the tube is a good example of a petroleum based lip balm that has a drying effect on the lips. The reason petroleum is used so often in lip balms sold in regular drug and grocery stores is because the profit margin to the manufacturer, and the resale profit margin to the store, is greater cheaper ingredients are used to make products, and using petroleum in cosmetics is much cheaper that using oils like jojoba or safflower in a lipstick.
Another place where Carmine is used is in the food industry, especially in yogurts and fruit juices, and it can be found in some ice cream.
I love Activia Yogurt but I will buy only the vanilla or the peach flavor because these are the two flavors where they do NOT use Carmine to color the yogurt.
Minute Maid brand fruit juice uses Carmine to color their fruit punch flavor, fruit drink a bright red color. Many mothers serve this brand of fruit punch to their children because they trust the Minute Maid brand name, and they may NOT be aware that it is Carmine that is used to make this juice a bright red color.
I have read that Carmine food coloring can cause some people to go into anaphylactic shock. Anaphylactic shock can kill a person.
If a woman is wearing a lipstick colored with Carmine, and she kisses a child on the face that is allergic to Carmine it can cause a reaction on the child’s skin. If the same woman kisses a man on the lips, who is allergic to Carmine, the allergic reaction can be much worse that an allergic reaction on the surface of the skin.
Most allergic reactions have been reported to Carmine when it is used as a coloring in food products.
The beetle that is crushed to obtain the red/pink or purple color from its outer shell is a living creature, and because these bugs are living creatures they are composed of their own form of protein in the form of amino acids that are particular to their species of beetle.
All living creatures are composed of amino acids arranged into whole proteins. We know that allergic reactions are to proteins. Some of the beetles protein must remain in the Carmine food color in order to produce the allergic reactions that have been reported.
Such allergic reactions can be especially tragic in children because often parents are not aware that it is the natural food coloring called Carmine that is causing their child’s asthma or other allergies.
Fruit drinks colored with vegetable food colors like the red color that comes from red beets are a better deal for young children to drink.
Please, don't confuse beets with beetles; beets are a vegetable, while beetles are bugs.
Check labels on both yogurt and fruit juices for the word ‘Carmine’ and if you see this word, you will know that ground, dried, beetle bits were boiled to extract the carminic acid from the bug bits, and then a product like alum or cream of tartar, stannous chloride or potassium hydrogen oxalate was used to precipitate the settling of the bug bits to the bottom of the container that is being used for this process. The settled red bug bits are dried, and in this form they are added to products to obtain red, pink or purple beetle juice color.
Say, wasn’t that the title of a movie about dead people about twenty years ago, Beetle Juice, Beetle Juice…I don’t dare say it three times…
Copyright © 2010/2011 by Carol Garnier Dutra
The following is an abstract taken from a larger article written for PubMed, which is a U.S. government publication.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13679965
An alimentary allergy refers to a disease of the digestive tract.
Sometimes these allergies manifest in adults that have become sensitized as they age. But children are more often the ‘victims’ of this insidious red/pink/purple food color when it is in foods such as Minute Maid Fruit Punch and brightly colored yogurts and candies.
This insidious food color is often called 'NATURAL' because it comes from bugs; bugs are 'NATURAL' but why would anyone in the civilized world want to consume BUGS?
Carmine, not my uncle Carmine but instead the red/pink or purple coloring that is used to color some foods and commercially available, drugstore variety cosmetics, especially lipstick and blush, is obtained from the Cochineal or the Polish Cochineal Beetle, which is a scaled insect that is raised on beetle farms specifically for the purpose of harvesting the red/pink or purple color from the beetles hard shell, body casing. I guess you know by this second paragraph that this post is about both the BAD and the UGLY in our consumer world!
Some cosmetic brands that use Carmine coloring in their products are Revlon Cosmetics, Maybelline Cosmetics, L’Oreal Cosmetics and many other cosmetics that are commonly found in drug stores or regular grocery stores.
There are cosmetics available that do NOT use Carmine as a red/pink/purple coloring agent. Stores like Whole Foods and some shops that sell vitamin preparations often carry such cosmetics that don’t contain Carmine. And the prices of the cosmetics without Carmine are about the same as the price of the cosmetics that do contain Carmine.
There are also many shops on the Internet that sell Carmine FREE lipstick and blush colored with either mineral or vegetable coloring.
Check labels on all cosmetics for the coloring agent used.
Because I don’t like the idea of beetle body parts providing the red/pink/purple coloring in my lipstick, I buy and use a lipstick made by a manufacturer called Gabriel that makes some red and pink colors that I use that are NOT colored with Carmine. Here again you have to read the ingredients to make sure that the lipstick you choose does not contain Carmine.
I obtain my Gabriel brand lipstick through the Internet at a shop called White Rabbit that is located in Half Moon Bay, California. Most Gabriel colors do not contain Carmine and they do NOT contain petroleum either. Petroleum dries out the skin and lips so it is best to NOT have petroleum in any cosmetics.
Petroleum products at first seem to moisturize the skin and lips but as time goes on the constant use of petroleum products produces a drying effect. Chapstick brand lip balm in the tube is a good example of a petroleum based lip balm that has a drying effect on the lips. The reason petroleum is used so often in lip balms sold in regular drug and grocery stores is because the profit margin to the manufacturer, and the resale profit margin to the store, is greater cheaper ingredients are used to make products, and using petroleum in cosmetics is much cheaper that using oils like jojoba or safflower in a lipstick.
Another place where Carmine is used is in the food industry, especially in yogurts and fruit juices, and it can be found in some ice cream.
I love Activia Yogurt but I will buy only the vanilla or the peach flavor because these are the two flavors where they do NOT use Carmine to color the yogurt.
Minute Maid brand fruit juice uses Carmine to color their fruit punch flavor, fruit drink a bright red color. Many mothers serve this brand of fruit punch to their children because they trust the Minute Maid brand name, and they may NOT be aware that it is Carmine that is used to make this juice a bright red color.
I have read that Carmine food coloring can cause some people to go into anaphylactic shock. Anaphylactic shock can kill a person.
If a woman is wearing a lipstick colored with Carmine, and she kisses a child on the face that is allergic to Carmine it can cause a reaction on the child’s skin. If the same woman kisses a man on the lips, who is allergic to Carmine, the allergic reaction can be much worse that an allergic reaction on the surface of the skin.
Most allergic reactions have been reported to Carmine when it is used as a coloring in food products.
The beetle that is crushed to obtain the red/pink or purple color from its outer shell is a living creature, and because these bugs are living creatures they are composed of their own form of protein in the form of amino acids that are particular to their species of beetle.
All living creatures are composed of amino acids arranged into whole proteins. We know that allergic reactions are to proteins. Some of the beetles protein must remain in the Carmine food color in order to produce the allergic reactions that have been reported.
Such allergic reactions can be especially tragic in children because often parents are not aware that it is the natural food coloring called Carmine that is causing their child’s asthma or other allergies.
Fruit drinks colored with vegetable food colors like the red color that comes from red beets are a better deal for young children to drink.
Please, don't confuse beets with beetles; beets are a vegetable, while beetles are bugs.
Check labels on both yogurt and fruit juices for the word ‘Carmine’ and if you see this word, you will know that ground, dried, beetle bits were boiled to extract the carminic acid from the bug bits, and then a product like alum or cream of tartar, stannous chloride or potassium hydrogen oxalate was used to precipitate the settling of the bug bits to the bottom of the container that is being used for this process. The settled red bug bits are dried, and in this form they are added to products to obtain red, pink or purple beetle juice color.
Say, wasn’t that the title of a movie about dead people about twenty years ago, Beetle Juice, Beetle Juice…I don’t dare say it three times…
Copyright © 2010/2011 by Carol Garnier Dutra
The following is an abstract taken from a larger article written for PubMed, which is a U.S. government publication.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13679965
[Asthma and allergy due to carmine dye].[Article in Spanish]
Tabar AI, Acero S, Arregui C, Urdánoz M, Quirce S.
Source
Servicio de Alergología, Hospital Virgen del Camino, Pamplona.
Abstract
Cochineal carmine, or simply carmine (E120), is a red colouring that is obtained from the dried bodies of the female insect Dactylopius coccus Costa (the cochineal insect). We have evaluated the prevalence of sensitization and asthma caused by carmine in a factory using natural colouring, following the diagnosis of two workers with occupational asthma. The accumulated incidence of sensitization and occupational asthma due to carmine in this factory are 48.1% and 18.5% respectively, figures that make the introduction of preventive measures obligatory. Occupational asthma caused by inhaling carmine should be considered as a further example of the capacity of certain protein particles of arthropods (in this case cochineal insects) to act as aeroallergens. Carmine should be added to the list of agents capable of producing occupational asthma, whose mechanism, according to our studies, would be immunological mediated by IgE antibodies in the face of diverse allergens of high molecular weight, which can vary from patient to patient. Nonetheless, given the existence of different components in carmine, it cannot be ruled out that substances of low molecular weight, such as carminic acid, might act as haptenes. Besides, since we are dealing with a colouring that is widely used as a food additive, as a pharmaceutical excipient and in the composition of numerous cosmetics, it is not surprising that allergic reactions can appear both through ingestion and through direct cutaneous contact. We find ourselves facing a new example of an allergen that can act through both inhalation and digestion, giving rise to an allergolical syndrome that can show itself clinically with expressions of both respiratory allergy and alimentary allergy.
PMID:
13679965
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Free full text
An alimentary allergy refers to a disease of the digestive tract.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Good Is Shopping, Good Is The Stinking Rose of Gilroy...
Good is shopping. I love shopping. Anthropologists’ say that men evolved through the centuries to be hunters, and women evolved to be gatherers. I am a gatherer; I am a shopper!
We moved here to Paradise back in April 2004, and Kohl’s Department Store opened its doors in Gilroy six months later, on October 1st 2004. Yes, I confess, I am a Kohl’s customer; I am a Kohl’s brat!
What I love about Kohl’s besides the occasional 30% discounts on everything I get because I am a charge card customer at Kohl’s, is that what Kohl’s sells reminds me of what was available in Macy’s Department Store, many years ago when Macy’s was the best department store in silicone valley. .
Yes, it is good to have a major department store just 15 miles away down highway 25, past acres of grass filled with herds of feeding cattle, past fields filled with lettuce, strawberries, and broccoli growing on either side of the road.
Gilroy, California, once claimed to be the garlic capitol of the world until China took that title away. China produces approximately 75% of the garlic grown and distributed around the world today. If you didn’t know about China, you would swear that Gilroy was still the garlic growing capitol of the world based on the heavy ‘fragrance’ of garlic in the air at harvest time, in July every year. They don’t call garlic ‘the stinking rose’ for nothing!
Ahh, Paradise extends in peace beyond Hollister into the fields of highway 25. Paradise extends a greeting in the delightful smell of the growing community of Gilroy, California.
Carol Garnier Dutra
.
We moved here to Paradise back in April 2004, and Kohl’s Department Store opened its doors in Gilroy six months later, on October 1st 2004. Yes, I confess, I am a Kohl’s customer; I am a Kohl’s brat!
What I love about Kohl’s besides the occasional 30% discounts on everything I get because I am a charge card customer at Kohl’s, is that what Kohl’s sells reminds me of what was available in Macy’s Department Store, many years ago when Macy’s was the best department store in silicone valley. .
Yes, it is good to have a major department store just 15 miles away down highway 25, past acres of grass filled with herds of feeding cattle, past fields filled with lettuce, strawberries, and broccoli growing on either side of the road.
Gilroy, California, once claimed to be the garlic capitol of the world until China took that title away. China produces approximately 75% of the garlic grown and distributed around the world today. If you didn’t know about China, you would swear that Gilroy was still the garlic growing capitol of the world based on the heavy ‘fragrance’ of garlic in the air at harvest time, in July every year. They don’t call garlic ‘the stinking rose’ for nothing!
Ahh, Paradise extends in peace beyond Hollister into the fields of highway 25. Paradise extends a greeting in the delightful smell of the growing community of Gilroy, California.
Carol Garnier Dutra
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Sunday, July 18, 2010
Simple health solution stop excess stomach acid...with Kefir...
As a consumer in our American culture I am often dismayed at how GOOD, simple solutions to health problems are overlooked in favor of solutions that involve the taking of prescription or over the counter drugs that have harmful BAD , long-term effects. We the American public, end up taking drugs that are big money makers for the drug industry but are harmful for us. This is a shame when ‘simple’ remedies are available that do not have harmful effects on our bodies, in the long term.
One of these common problems that has a simple solution but is often treated with long term harmful medications is excess stomach acid. I never understood how painful this condition was until it happened to my husband, and then in turn happened to me.
Our doctor knew that h. Pylori was the cause of excess stomach acid. My husband was the first to have the blood test to determine if he was infected with h. Pylori. His test came back positive for this common infection of the gut.
Both of us tried antibiotics to kill off this BAD gut bacteria but it worked only while we were taking the antibiotics, and once off the antibiotics the h. Pylori returned. The medications worked to stop the excess stomach acid but we knew from reading on the subject that in time the medications would be harmful.
This BAD bacteria strain is a nasty one to deal with! We needed a 'simple' solution to control our excess stomach acid, and we found one in the grocery store.
I wrote and posted an article on h. Pylori infection in one of my food blogs. You can control h. Pylori by drinking Kefir liquid yogurt with ten ‘live’ bacteria strains. When you stop h. Pylori from reproducing in your gut you stop excess stomach acid. There are several brands of Kefir available, and I am sure it is available around the United States as well as in other countries.
Following is the post I placed in one of my food blogs on the benefits of drinking Kefir, because it bears reproducing…
What is Kefir? Kefir is not a brand name but I have seen the word Kefir used as a brand name. Kefir consists of a lacto bacillus culture, yogurt in liquid form, consisting of ten friendly 'live' bacteria cultures in one liquid yogurt that you drink instead of eating with a spoon.
I’ve read several stories about where the original Kefir recipe came from; one of these stories is that the Kefir culture was developed by the tribes that originally came from the base of the Caucus Mountains in Eastern Europe. That would make Kefir a Celtic yogurt drink because the Celts were the people who originated at the base of the Caucus Mountains. The Celtic peoples migrated across Europe, finally settling in Ireland, Wales and Scotland.
Kefir is superior to other yogurt cultures because its ‘signature’ is that it always consists of ten ‘live’ bacteria cultures that are friendly for the human gut. Yogurt that does not contain 'live' bacteria is nothing more that a good source of calcium and protein. It is the ‘live’ bacteria that do all the good work in the gut to keep us healthy.
Friendly bacteria in our guts help us to digest our food, and also helps fight off invasion of unfriendly bacteria like the unfriendly bacteria called h. Pylori, which is short for helicobacter Pylori.
Helicobacter Pylori is the unfriendly bacteria that causes humans to secrete excess stomach acid sometimes called ‘acid reflux disease’, and if left untreated, h. Pylori will cause stomach ulcers as well as stomach cancer. In both cases it is the erosion action on the gut from the excess stomach acid that causes disease.
Unfriendly bacterial infection called h. Pylori is spread from two main sources.
The first and most prevalent is through flies landing on your food. Flies carry the h. Pylori bacteria on their legs and bodies.
The second most common method of contamination of h. Pylori is through human-to-human contact. A food server may have h. Pylori, and this person wipes their mouth as they are serving food. If the hand that was used to wipe the mouth touches the food they are serving, then h. Pylori is passed along to the person who eats the food.
Medicines used to stop excess stomach acid do work. A problem with these medications is that they often stop ‘all’ stomach acid from entering the gut. We need some normal acid secretions in our stomachs in order to absorb minerals from the food we eat. Minerals like Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Potassium, etc…. We all know we need Calcium and Magnesium for strong bones, and Potassium is important because it acts as an electrolyte in our bodies. Potassium’s job is to carry nutrients into our cells, and then carry waste out of our cells. Muscle cramps can be the result of a Potassium in-balance.
Taking medications that stop stomach acid completely may be all right to take for a very short time, but we shouldn’t take such medications for the long term. The lack of minerals being absorbed in the gut can result in Osteoporosis, porous bones, and can also result in excess muscle cramps.
A better solution to battle the excess stomach acid problem is to eat yogurt that contains friendly 'live' bacteria because this bacteria stops the h. Pylori from reproducing in the gut. With the h. Pylori stopped, the excess stomach acid stops.
Taking antibiotics to kill off h. Pylori may not work in the long term. My husband tried taking antibiotics when he was first diagnosed, but the h. Pylori returned causing the excess stomach acid problem to return.
After taking the antibiotics and having the h. Pylori return, my husband’s only resource to stop the acid was to take the medications. But we knew that the medications could also have long-term bad effects so we had to find something for him to stop the excess acid that would not hurt him. It was after doing some reading on the subject when I learned about Kefir. Taking kefir is working for him, it keeps excess stomach acid away. Some time after he was diagnosed with h. Pylori I found myself also having the same excess stomach acid problem. So I also have become a Kefir drinker, and it works for me too.
Today we keep Kefir in our refrigerator all of the time. We prefer the Kefir we are buying at Trader Joes. It comes in strawberry flavor and is NOT colored with Carmine.
One of the additional perks of drinking Kefir, is it is loaded with Calcium, which you need for strong bones, healthy skin and a healthy nervous system. Drinking liquid yogurt Kefir is far superior to stop h. Pylori than taking pills.
Kefir is GOOD!
Cooking and freezing kill ‘live’ cultures. Frozen yogurt ice cream is loaded with calcium and protein but doesn’t contain ‘live’ cultures. Live cultures can be found only in 'fresh' yogurts and Kefir; always look on the label for the words ‘live cultures.’
Copyright © 2010 by Carol Garnier Dutra
.
.
One of these common problems that has a simple solution but is often treated with long term harmful medications is excess stomach acid. I never understood how painful this condition was until it happened to my husband, and then in turn happened to me.
Our doctor knew that h. Pylori was the cause of excess stomach acid. My husband was the first to have the blood test to determine if he was infected with h. Pylori. His test came back positive for this common infection of the gut.
Both of us tried antibiotics to kill off this BAD gut bacteria but it worked only while we were taking the antibiotics, and once off the antibiotics the h. Pylori returned. The medications worked to stop the excess stomach acid but we knew from reading on the subject that in time the medications would be harmful.
This BAD bacteria strain is a nasty one to deal with! We needed a 'simple' solution to control our excess stomach acid, and we found one in the grocery store.
I wrote and posted an article on h. Pylori infection in one of my food blogs. You can control h. Pylori by drinking Kefir liquid yogurt with ten ‘live’ bacteria strains. When you stop h. Pylori from reproducing in your gut you stop excess stomach acid. There are several brands of Kefir available, and I am sure it is available around the United States as well as in other countries.
Following is the post I placed in one of my food blogs on the benefits of drinking Kefir, because it bears reproducing…
What is Kefir? Kefir is not a brand name but I have seen the word Kefir used as a brand name. Kefir consists of a lacto bacillus culture, yogurt in liquid form, consisting of ten friendly 'live' bacteria cultures in one liquid yogurt that you drink instead of eating with a spoon.
I’ve read several stories about where the original Kefir recipe came from; one of these stories is that the Kefir culture was developed by the tribes that originally came from the base of the Caucus Mountains in Eastern Europe. That would make Kefir a Celtic yogurt drink because the Celts were the people who originated at the base of the Caucus Mountains. The Celtic peoples migrated across Europe, finally settling in Ireland, Wales and Scotland.
Kefir is superior to other yogurt cultures because its ‘signature’ is that it always consists of ten ‘live’ bacteria cultures that are friendly for the human gut. Yogurt that does not contain 'live' bacteria is nothing more that a good source of calcium and protein. It is the ‘live’ bacteria that do all the good work in the gut to keep us healthy.
Friendly bacteria in our guts help us to digest our food, and also helps fight off invasion of unfriendly bacteria like the unfriendly bacteria called h. Pylori, which is short for helicobacter Pylori.
Helicobacter Pylori is the unfriendly bacteria that causes humans to secrete excess stomach acid sometimes called ‘acid reflux disease’, and if left untreated, h. Pylori will cause stomach ulcers as well as stomach cancer. In both cases it is the erosion action on the gut from the excess stomach acid that causes disease.
Unfriendly bacterial infection called h. Pylori is spread from two main sources.
The first and most prevalent is through flies landing on your food. Flies carry the h. Pylori bacteria on their legs and bodies.
The second most common method of contamination of h. Pylori is through human-to-human contact. A food server may have h. Pylori, and this person wipes their mouth as they are serving food. If the hand that was used to wipe the mouth touches the food they are serving, then h. Pylori is passed along to the person who eats the food.
Medicines used to stop excess stomach acid do work. A problem with these medications is that they often stop ‘all’ stomach acid from entering the gut. We need some normal acid secretions in our stomachs in order to absorb minerals from the food we eat. Minerals like Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Potassium, etc…. We all know we need Calcium and Magnesium for strong bones, and Potassium is important because it acts as an electrolyte in our bodies. Potassium’s job is to carry nutrients into our cells, and then carry waste out of our cells. Muscle cramps can be the result of a Potassium in-balance.
Taking medications that stop stomach acid completely may be all right to take for a very short time, but we shouldn’t take such medications for the long term. The lack of minerals being absorbed in the gut can result in Osteoporosis, porous bones, and can also result in excess muscle cramps.
A better solution to battle the excess stomach acid problem is to eat yogurt that contains friendly 'live' bacteria because this bacteria stops the h. Pylori from reproducing in the gut. With the h. Pylori stopped, the excess stomach acid stops.
Taking antibiotics to kill off h. Pylori may not work in the long term. My husband tried taking antibiotics when he was first diagnosed, but the h. Pylori returned causing the excess stomach acid problem to return.
After taking the antibiotics and having the h. Pylori return, my husband’s only resource to stop the acid was to take the medications. But we knew that the medications could also have long-term bad effects so we had to find something for him to stop the excess acid that would not hurt him. It was after doing some reading on the subject when I learned about Kefir. Taking kefir is working for him, it keeps excess stomach acid away. Some time after he was diagnosed with h. Pylori I found myself also having the same excess stomach acid problem. So I also have become a Kefir drinker, and it works for me too.
Today we keep Kefir in our refrigerator all of the time. We prefer the Kefir we are buying at Trader Joes. It comes in strawberry flavor and is NOT colored with Carmine.
One of the additional perks of drinking Kefir, is it is loaded with Calcium, which you need for strong bones, healthy skin and a healthy nervous system. Drinking liquid yogurt Kefir is far superior to stop h. Pylori than taking pills.
Kefir is GOOD!
Cooking and freezing kill ‘live’ cultures. Frozen yogurt ice cream is loaded with calcium and protein but doesn’t contain ‘live’ cultures. Live cultures can be found only in 'fresh' yogurts and Kefir; always look on the label for the words ‘live cultures.’
Copyright © 2010 by Carol Garnier Dutra
.
.
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