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Articles from Bette Dowdell | Selfgrowth.com
- Dorito Dangers - by Submitted on Nov 17, 2011 from Bette DowdellDoritos Well, looky here! I read that the CEO of Frito/Lay describes Doritos as a ‘healthful snack.’ Well, I had to check that out. Who knows? Maybe I could start eating Doritos. So off to the web! Holey Moley! It takes a special kind of dictionary to describe Doritos as ...
Views: 8417 - The Problem With Sheep - by Submitted on Jul 03, 2007 from Bette DowdellYou want dumb as a brick? You want too dense to get out of their own way? Get yourself some sheep. Quarry rocks have higher IQs than sheep. In any cavalcade of dumb things, sheep always lead the parade. Animal lovers argue about animal intelligence. Pigs, they say, are really intelligent. ...
Views: 7849 - ***The Potency of Parsley - by Submitted on Dec 21, 2010 from Bette DowdellParsley is the Rodney Dangerfield of herbs; it gets no respect. Probably not even from Rodney Dangerfield. We’re talking NO respect. Once upon a time, most restaurants used parsley as a perky, colorful accompaniment on your plate, whatever you ordered. Most eaters ignored it, though, pretty ...
Views: 3484 - This Is Your Endocrine System - Hypothalamus - by Submitted on Feb 25, 2010 from Bette DowdellThe hypothalamus controls both our nervous system and our endocrine system. Which adds up to pretty much everything that goes on. It’s the tiny king of a vast realm. About the size of an almond and the shape of a little, lumpy pancake, the hypothalamus tucks up under the base of the brain, ...
Views: 3408(2 votes) - Concussions Can Change Your Life - by Submitted on Jan 07, 2011 from Bette DowdellWe’re way too casual about concussions. In fact, when I suffered a concussion in a car accident a few years back, the doctor didn’t tell me. And when I asked, she told me it wasn’t important. And she was wrong. Concussions are huge. You see, most concussions damage the pituitary gland, ...
Views: 3197 - Why Thyroid Meds Don't Work - by Submitted on Aug 16, 2009 from Bette DowdellSo, you go to the doctor and spill your bucket of symptoms–fatigue, weight gain, hair loss, etc. If you happened upon an alert doctor, you’ll get a thyroid test. And you’ll celebrate that help is on the way. Well, maybe. While doctors love blood tests–and disdain symptoms–thyroid tests aren’t ...
Views: 2781(2 votes) - How To Relieve Aching Muscles - by Submitted on Oct 26, 2010 from Bette DowdellOne of the many miseries that can accompany a whacked-out thyroid–or any member of the endocrine system, for that matter–is muscle pain. Your muscles knot up. They lose flexibility. You creak like you’re 102. And through it all, you ache. One thing for sure, you don’t want to learn to live ...
Views: 2675(1 vote) - The Bread Problem - by Submitted on Jul 15, 2010 from Bette DowdellPeople used to call bread “the staff of life.” But those days seem to be gone forever. Bread is now a problem of life. Let me count the ways. • Celiac disease: Caused by an intolerance to gluten–part and parcel of grains–celiac disease gets diagnosed a lot as irritable bowel syndrome, ...
Views: 2563 - How Big Pharma Controls Medicine - by Submitted on Jan 20, 2010 from Bette DowdellThe large pharmaceutical companies–Big Pharma–control medicine in the U.S. And they stand between us and good medical care. Let’s be blunt about it. Big Pharma is all about money. First, last and always, it’s about the money. They dress it up with talk about the frontiers of science, ...
Views: 2523(4 votes) - How Your Body Gets Out Of Whack - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2010 from Bette DowdellCarve this in stone: Your body will balance itself no matter what you think, do or say. This is one of the many things they don’t teach us in school. And I’ve never seen a headline about it on a magazine cover, either. It seems to be somebody’s secret, but we need to let that cat out ...
Views: 2495 - ***Thyroid, Cholesterol and Statins - by Submitted on Feb 14, 2014 from Bette DowdellHalf of us have thyroid problems–most without realizing it. And thyroid problems can cause high cholesterol levels. Few doctors know this however. Besides, it’s easy to prescribe a statin drug, but harder than blue blazes to figure out thyroid problems. So guess what you’re getting, ...
Views: 2464(1 vote) - Everyday Life With Hypothyroidism - by Submitted on Sep 22, 2009 from Bette DowdellSo, there you are, dragging your patooty through one grey day after another, wondering where your brain went, why your body aches and if you’ll ever feel good again. Even doctors who test for thyroid problems typically prescribe the ineffective medicine Synthroid or its generic equivalent. It ...
Views: 2442 - This Is Your Endocrine System: Gonads - by Submitted on Mar 26, 2010 from Bette DowdellThe gonads, testes and ovaries, play a huge role in how the endocrine system works. And we seem to be doing everything we can to put them on the disabled list. We need to talk about this. Everybody has–and needs–estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. Now, obviously men and women, boys and ...
Views: 2412(1 vote) - This Is Your Endocrine System - Pituitary - by Submitted on Mar 02, 2010 from Bette DowdellThe pituitary gland is King of the endocrine hill. A tiny teardrop sort of arrangement, the pituitary hangs from the base of the hypothalamus portion of the brain, not too far behind the bridge of the nose, a vulnerable location for such an important actor. Studies link concussions to ...
Views: 2351(2 votes) - They've Gone And Messed With Popcorn - by Submitted on May 17, 2010 from Bette DowdellYou know the world’s upside down when you have to cast a wary at popcorn. Popcorn! What in the world could be wrong with good old popcorn? Well, they’ve gone and messed with it, that’s what. It’s not the simple, innocent, family treat of yesteryear. First off, corn ranks number two in ...
Views: 2335(2 votes) - The Danger In Baby Shampoo - by Submitted on Oct 08, 2009 from Bette DowdellThe labels on baby shampoos sure sound good. Gentle. Non-irritating. Everything a good mother could want. And some have pictures of smiling, happy babies to seal the deal. Most of those labels don’t tell the truth. They can’t, because if moms knew the truth, they wouldn’t buy the shampoo. ...
Views: 2328 - ***6 Reasons to Love Saturated Fat - by Submitted on Sep 14, 2010 from Bette DowdellWe’ve probably all heard about Omega 3 and Omega 6 fats. And a lot of what we’ve heard is wrong. Not just a little bit wrong, but standing-on-its head wrong. Let’s check this out. With some exceptions, Omega 6 fats come from plants and Omega 3 fats come from animals. Omega 6, the ...
Views: 2307(1 vote) - Thyroid or Adrenal? - by Submitted on Aug 26, 2009 from Bette DowdellSo, there you are, dragging your patooty and wondering what in the world happened to you. A friend suggests that you probably have thyroid problems. Another friend jumps in to say, no, you probably have adrenal problems. So you poke around the internet, getting nowhere. When they talk about ...
Views: 2136(1 vote) - Busybodies Can Literally Make You Sick - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2009 from Bette DowdellSome years ago, self-appointed busybodies screamed and yelled and hollered about McDonalds using beef fat to cook their fries. Deciding ahead of time that McDonalds was evil incarnate, they accused McDonalds of purposely risking our very lives with saturated fat. And so it was in 1990 that ...
Views: 2117 - Holy Basil: The Rest of the Story - by Submitted on Nov 04, 2011 from Bette DowdellHoley Moley, Chester, be careful out there! As you know, stress is the big kahuna of problems nowadays. And maybe stress-R-you. But just because somebody says something’s good for stress doesn’t mean you should take it. You need to know the rest of the story. An example: Holy Basil, a herb ...
Views: 2110 - The TSH Gotcha - by Submitted on Jun 08, 2009 from Bette DowdellWe have before us multiple scenarios, all of which start and end in the same place. (This is going to be a tad long, so grab a cup of coffee to see you through to the end.) The adventure starts when you drag into the doctor’s office complaining about weight gain, extreme fatigue, thinning ...
Views: 2093 - ***Mold Allergies And The Immune System - by Submitted on Dec 16, 2014 from Bette DowdellMold allergies are as common as dirt. Perhaps because the mold spores that cause the allergy are in dirt–from sea to shining sea and around the world, and dirt is out to play dirty tricks on you. Of course, any body of water, such as a lake, produces clouds of mold spores to play havoc with ...
Views: 2072 - How Insecurity Can Kill Sales - by Submitted on Jan 25, 2010 from Bette DowdellWhat’s up with the lamebrains who speak in the potty-mouth dialect without even a hint of a thought about how others will receive their message? If you’re in sales in any way, this one’s for you. Step this through with me: Unless we’re speaking to ourselves (which is another topic for ...
Views: 2043 - Poison Soy - by Submitted on Jul 14, 2010 from Bette DowdellI study health issues for many hours a day. While I focus on endocrine health (thyroid, etc.), I have to cover the health waterfront because the body insists on living as an integrated whole. A balanced, integrated whole. If one part of the body suffers, they all suffer as the body balances ...
Views: 1986 - Get Off That Treadmill! - by Submitted on Jul 16, 2009 from Bette DowdellIf you belong to the longer-is-better treadmill school of thought, you might want to reconsider. And if long distance running takes your time, you really need to think it through. Especially if you buy into the idea of high carb fueling. High carb fueling burns the fire hotter, that’s for ...
Views: 1956(2 votes) - Meeting Your Protein Needs - by Submitted on Nov 17, 2009 from Bette DowdellGood health requires protein. It’s protein that repairs the cells in our body, builds and maintains our muscles and bones, gives us energy and rides herd over a lot of what goes on inside us. And it’s protein that keeps our endocrine system chugging along. Diets with inadequate protein lead down ...
Views: 1920(1 vote) - If You Wanna Get Pregnant, Don't Eat Canned Food - by Submitted on Sep 18, 2009 from Bette DowdellWhat in the world, you might ask, does eating canned food have to do with getting pregnant? Well, it’s a risk. As is drinking anything that comes in a can. You see, to prevent corrosion, companies coat the inside of food and beverage cans with the plastic Bisphenol A (BPA), which, despite ...
Views: 1855 - “Expert” Claims Cure For Thyroid Disease! - by Submitted on Apr 23, 2010 from Bette DowdellSo there I was, standing in line at Walmart, waiting to pay for my hair spray. As I checked out the scenery, such as it was, a Woman’s World magazine leapt to my attention. Oh, it wasn’t the cover picture of Oprah. I mean, the magazine rack looked like an Oprah retrospective, or family album ...
Views: 1813(2 votes) - ***Mrs. Obama's Salad Bar Caper - by Submitted on Dec 23, 2010 from Bette DowdellMichelle Obama is taking a star turn about putting salad bars into schools. One look at the cast of characters supporting this idea makes it obvious the salad bar hype isn’t about health or children or anything else one can praise. This misbegotten idea is about control Let’s look at ...
Views: 1805 - Is It Leptin That Won't Let You Lose Weight? - by Submitted on Nov 05, 2009 from Bette DowdellThe old curse says “May you live in interesting times.” Well, ‘interesting’ is one way to describe the times we live in. ‘Mind boggling’ might be another. In either case, I think my head’s going to explode. Let’s talk about the new ugly of body fat. Researchers discovered leptin in 1994, ...
Views: 1796(1 vote) - Enzymes Mean Health - by Submitted on Aug 27, 2010 from Bette DowdellDisease rates are rocketing to the moon, with no slowdown in sight, because we don’t know how our bodies work. Most of what we’ve been taught is wrong, and doctors, cornered by insurance companies into ten-minute office visits, simply don’t have time to offer instruction. When it comes to ...
Views: 1792(1 vote) - This Is Your Endocrine System - by Submitted on Feb 23, 2010 from Bette DowdellGather round as I tell you about something so important that it controls almost everything that goes on inside your body, but so secret that almost nobody knows about it. Oh, a few may know the name of it, but they couldn’t explain it to you–even if you offered them a million dollars. What is ...
Views: 1792(2 votes) - Understanding Hormones - by Submitted on Oct 22, 2009 from Bette DowdellTo most of us, talking about hormones means estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. True enough, they’re hormones, and we all have all of them. Men, women and children have them, in different proportions of course, but none of us can make it without all three working together. But these ...
Views: 1781(2 votes) - A Happy Health Food - by Submitted on Jan 23, 2012 from Bette DowdellI’m not much on the idea of eating bugs and twigs. And a lot of so-called healthy diets sound pretty twiggy to me. Seems like efforts to make the right health moves should lead to a reward, as in delicious. So today I’m writing about butter. Not just any butter, but KerryGold Irish Butter. ...
Views: 1772 - Flaxseed: The Ticket to Where You Don't Want to Go - by Submitted on Apr 27, 2009 from Bette DowdellFish oil’s good for you. Everybody says so. Yeah, fish oil, that’s the ticket. Well, what about all the warnings about mercury in fish? Okay then, flaxseed’s good for you. Everybody says so. Yeah, flaxseed, that’s the ticket. Begging your pardon and all, but there’s a teensy problem ...
Views: 1772(1 vote) - Synthetic Estrogen - by Submitted on Dec 09, 2011 from Bette DowdellSynthetic estrogens create a huge toxic threat to our health. These estrogens form an advancing army that surrounds us. And we risk our health–even our lives–if we don’t learn what they are and how to avoid them. Bogus estrogens have cut the average testosterone level in half in the last ...
Views: 1772 - How to Stay Healthy Every Day - by Submitted on Feb 04, 2012 from Bette DowdellPerhaps you noticed that I didn’t joined “The sky is falling!” crowd worried about fallout from Japan’s triple disasters. You know, like the warnings to start gobbling down potassium iodide by the handful. Well, actually, while iodide’s great stuff, potassium iodide is a kinda cheap form of ...
Views: 1737(1 vote) - Thyroid Treatment Problems - by Submitted on Sep 24, 2009 from Bette DowdellThyroid treatment fell apart in the 1960s. That’s when thyroid blood tests and Synthroid first appeared. Doctors hailed the blood tests as a means of making thyroid treatment scientific. Blood tests eliminated the need to deal with symptoms, which, as any thyroid patient can tell you, are ...
Views: 1723 - How Much Exercise is Good Exercise? - by Submitted on Jul 06, 2009 from Bette DowdellExercise can kill you. Well, so can lots of other things, but people tout exercise as all good, all the time. Before couch potatoes get excited here, life as an inanimate object doesn’t get excellent results either. Well, then, obviously, some middle ground exists. However, since slugs ...
Views: 1705 - Detox: Friend or Foe? - by Submitted on Apr 28, 2010 from Bette DowdellThe short answer is, for people with endocrine problems, detoxing is a foe. Let’s talk about it. Our endocrine system and our gastrointestinal system–that part of us we’re thinking of detoxing–are joined, in a manner of speaking, at the hip. You can’t affect one without affecting the ...
Views: 1701(1 vote) - Moobs, PMS And Other Disasters - by Submitted on Nov 23, 2009 from Bette DowdellIf you’ve read much of my stuff, you know that I do go on–and on–about the evils of soy. Why is soy bad? Besides stealing all your minerals, giving you kidney stones and depressing your thyroid function something fierce, soy is, among other things, estrogenic. That is, it adds bogus estrogen ...
Views: 1693(3 votes) - The Toxin in Your Pantry - by Submitted on Feb 05, 2014 from Bette DowdellGather round and hear the story of how we’re losing a war to an enemy most people don’t know about. The whole thing started in the 1930s when chemical poobahs decided to create a synthetic form of estrogen and make boodles of money with it. And so it was that they created Bisphenol A ...
Views: 1693(1 vote) - Silent, Good-looking Help For Allergies - by Submitted on May 06, 2010 from Bette DowdellHalf of us have thyroid problems, mostly undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. A whacked out thyroid tends to drag down the whole endocrine system, of which it is a part. In turn, a misbehaving endocrine system can drag along all kinds of stuff. Stuff you’d never in a million years figure out had ...
Views: 1679(2 votes) - Rejected By A Doctor - by Submitted on Sep 10, 2009 from Bette DowdellMy doctor no longer practices medicine, so I had to find another. Like most long-time thyroid patients, I’ve been through the proverbial mill. I knew for sure I didn’t want to be bullied into taking Synthroid, which most doctors prefer–even though it doesn’t work. I found a listing for ...
Views: 1673 - What Causes Thyroid Problems? - by Submitted on Aug 09, 2009 from Bette Dowdell50% of the U.S. population has thyroid problems, most of which go undiagnosed. I don’t have worldwide statistics, but I can’t imagine they differ by much, if at all. And the numbers keep heading up! Yikes! And the thyroid never suffers alone. When one endocrine gland, such as the thyroid, ...
Views: 1665 - Defining Christianity Down - by Submitted on Oct 27, 2009 from Bette DowdellA fellow-attendee at a Bible study I attend, a self-professed mature Christian, said her sister had always been a Christian. While the sister had been a Buddhist and a few other religions from time to time and currently lives a life high in hedonism and low in integrity, she “has always been a ...
Views: 1663 - Natural Killers - by Submitted on Aug 12, 2010 from Bette DowdellI’m talking killers, and I’m talking about you. You have natural killers in you. And these natural killers are a good thing. A very good thing. Which is why I’m going to talk about how to keep your natural killers in top shape, ready for action. First, let’s talk about the company ...
Views: 1658 - This Is Your Endocrine System: Pancreas - by Submitted on Apr 05, 2010 from Bette DowdellThe pancreas is below our stomach, front and center, near the bottom of the rib cage. It may be the busiest twelve inches going. First off, just to make things more complicated (and who in the world thought that was necessary?), the pancreas is both an exocrine and an endocrine organ. The ...
Views: 1644(2 votes) - Killer Milk - by Submitted on Nov 13, 2011 from Bette DowdellMilk and cookies make a great snack, right? Well, maybe not so much. Besides the fact the cookies almost certainly have high fructose corn syrup in them, everyday milk is a killer. Literally. I mean, you don’t keel over right away, but take it from me, you’re asking for trouble. Here’s ...
Views: 1628 - Death by Doctor - by Submitted on Sep 03, 2009 from Bette DowdellI ran into an acquaintance at a conference the other day. We got to talking about vitamins. (Somehow I always end up talking about vitamins; I could bore a stone.) Doctors recently installed her second pacemaker. She said her ejection fraction–the force with which her heart pumps blood–was ...
Views: 1627(2 votes)