Eat seaweed for iodine for today's nuke fallout (and other facts and rants)

Eat seaweed for iodine for today's nuke fallout (and other facts and rants)

As low-level radioactive fallout from Japan’s nuclear accident drifts thru our skies, let's review about eating iodine as antidote to radioactive exposure. This essay gathers useful knowledge on the entwined topics of iodine, radiation, seaweed, the thyroid, corporate sociopaths and Solartopia.

Taking iodine can help limit the ill effects of exposure to nuclear radiation. Short version: Eat lots of seaweed and iodised salt, maybe get iodine supplements. Definitely, 2011 is the year of seaweed-miso soup for the whole planet. Seaweed has iodine, and draws out toxins to boot. It won’t hurt anyone to go the health food store and buy Iodine Supplements and Iodized salt and seaweed and enjoy a few months of an intentionally salty seaweed diet. The more the body is filled up with regular iodine, the less inclined the thyroid is to uptake radioactive iodine isotopes created by nuclear fission.

An herbalist friend tells me of a Japanese clinic in '45 that fed everybody miso/seaweed soup. The staff who ate it every day didn’t get cancer and most patients too. But this isn’t just hippie wisdom. (Praise be to the Hippies!) Potassium Iodine (whose initials are: KI) was widely given out after Cherynobyl and it worked great to stop thyroid cancer. In Poland, they gave Potassium Iodine (KI) to 1o.7 million kids, and they didn't get thyroid cancer. In the Ukraine and right around Cherynobyl, people got cancer who didn't get the medicine because supplies ran out (and/or nobody wanted to drive into the nuke’s secondhand smoke with it.)

So the evidence is very strong for encouraging taking the KI pills, especially if you are within 500 km from the radioactive plume. Thyroid cancer was pretty much the only cancer that people got 10 years after Cherynobyl. People who got the KI medicine didn’t get increased rates of cancer. This suggests that Potassium Iodine is super helpful, especially right after initial exposure.

The thyroid concentrates “various radioactive isotopes of iodine produced by nuclear fission. The uptake of radioactive iodine can, in theory, be blocked by saturating the uptake mechanism with a large surplus of non-radioactive iodine, taken in the form of potassium iodine pills” according to Wikipedia. “So what is the thyroid again?” we both ask of Wikipedia. “The thyroid controls how quickly the body uses energy, makes proteins, and controls how sensitive the body should be to other hormones.”

The thyroid system is made of glands including and around the Adam’s apple. If you rub your fingers around your neck to the sides of your Adam’s apple, you’ll be massaging your parasympathetic thyroid, sort of backup glands to the thyroid. Recently I was exposed to some strong industrial chemicals and I noticed my thyroids were enlarged and irritated, as if they were processing toxins.

Taking the KI pills are no piece of cake, so everybody probably doesn’t want to race to Rite Aid for it. Wikipedia suggests that there are some tough "adverse reactions" to the KI medication. More mildly, upset stomach and acne! More seriously and call the doc, skin rash, vomiting, irregular heartbeat. Who should take Potassium Iodine (KI) because of the Japanese nuke explosions? Probably every Japanese person under 18 should take it right away. Young people in nearby Asia, maybe. For those beyond 500 km, it’ probably not worth the unpleasant side effects like nausea, acne, etc.

The World Health Organization recommends the treatment for young people up to 18 in particular, presumably because the thyroid is still growing and thus is more susceptible to some radioactive flyby by some bit of nuke soot. People over 40 shouldn’t bother taking the Potassium Iodine, because they probably wouldn't get the thyroid cancer anyway as compared to the unpleasant side effects from taking it.

The WHO report says there is some disagreement on the dosage amount to take. The WHO recommends 1/10th the dosage that is recommended by the ”International basic safety standards.” On the question of who should take the KI, Wikipedia says that up to 500 miles around Cherynobyl people got thyroid cancer, so, I guess it follows that you'd have to be 500 km from Japan's reactors to get it.

Here are some quotes from Wikipedia on the topic: “The US Food and Drug Administration recommends 150 micrograms of iodine per day for both men and women.

“Iodine is a micro nutrient that is naturally present in the food supply of many regions. However, where natural levels of iodine are in the soil are low and the iodine is not taken up by vegetables, iodine added to salt provides the small but essential amount needed by humans.

“Iodized salt is table salt mixed with a minute amount of various iodine-containing salts. Worldwide, iodine deficiency affects about two billion people and is the leading preventable cause of mental retardation. The use of iodised salt is an efficient way to add iodine to the diet. Iodide-treated table salt slowly loses it’s iodine content by process of oxidation. When table salt comes into contact with the oxygen in the air (oxidation), it releases iodine.” (So open a fresh container of iodised salt and treat the whole dang family to the Salty Food Diet.)

A sailor friend tells of being on a sailboat somewhat near Chernobyl at the time. The gov't's official weather reports suddenly stopped reporting the accurate movements of the winds. The sailors knew the winds because they were watching closely and gathering weather news from other sources. If they had listened to official weather reports they would have sailed to France and gone into the plume. (Cue Bob Dylan: “Don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”) And the wind matters, Chernobyl poisoned the fruit trees in Greece and Turkey, and rain deer in Finland, sheep in Scotland, all depending on the wind drift of the plume.

For years, calm and smart people have been working to get Vermont to shut down the Nuclear Reactor that just like the one that exploded in Japan. Democracy Now reports both were built near the same time, by the same company GE, and with the same crapp-o design, with crap engineering on the too-small containment cooling part. Good thing that Vermont’s Governor Shumlin is committed to shutting down VT’s doppleganger nuke and creating a post-Yankee Comprehensive Energy Plan, complete with citizen input!

Usually I picture Homer Simpson when thinking about nuclear power plant employees. And so it happens, an earthquake and suddenly, “Doe-!Uh!” the cooling system doesn't work cause the power is off, and suddenly this incredibly complicated nuclear fission cooking process is overheating above 2200 degrees and water molecules rip apart and the hydrogen gathers out of the water (H20!) and KA-BOOM! Damn this is a complicated chemical process to be left in the hands of the Homer Simpsons, and worse, the Montgomery Burns of the world. There are reports that the Japanese plant owners waited too long before flooding the plant with salt water because it ruined their investment. Wow, a new low. Oh greedy people, please throttle back and live within the reality of our biologically-based world.

In terms of the Climate Crisis, humanity's excessive burning of fossil fuels may break the sky, and thus expose our soft skin to the radiation coming from our great nuclear Sun. The sky is so precious as our blast shield/sunglasses in cutting the sun’s nuclear glare. There may come a time in the future when people are taking potassium iodine as a daily dietary supplement to counteract the increased radioactivity of the world because of climate collapse. Boy, that’s a dire scenario instead of just early-adopting a green Solartopia future of clean Carbon-Neutral energy.

May the better angels of Humanity’s Nature lead us into a living future.

Eating to protect ourselves from the nuke soot

Here's some good wisdom on what to eat for antidote the nuclear fall-out from Japan.

This healing protocol for exposure to radiation came to me from a west coast healer via local healer Sandra Lory. Take this opportunity to review the protocol and incorporate some of these suggestions into your diet over the next weeks and months. Feel free to pass this along to friends and family.

Best, Annie McCleary, Director, Wisdom of the Herbs School

From Dori Midnight:

As you've probably heard, there may be some radiation moving across the pacific in the next weeks heading towards the west coast from Japan. To keep going, be alive, and not shut down, we need courage, nourishment, and support - make a pot of soup!

1. SEAWEED: eat nori, put wakame, kombu, and hijiki in your soups and stews. The iodine in kelp helps draw out the radiation and protect your thyroid from radioactive uptake.

2. MISO: good medicine full of live cultures, amino acids, minerals, and protein. I'd recommend making a big pot this week, having a bowl everyday and feeding it to all your friends- recipe follows.

3. MUSHROOMS: strengthen your immune system with some shitake mushrooms, sauteed or in soups.

4. Eat vegetables, especially DAIKON radishes and BURDOCK root- stick them in your soup too or make a shredded salad (recipe below). Daikon has been used for drawing out radiation, post nuclear fall out- it's cooling and detoxifying.

5. BATHS in epsom salt and baking soda (1 lb of salt, with a bit of baking soda 2x week)

6. DRINK lots of WATER

7. IMMUNE support: do the things you know boost your immune system- sleep well, eat garlic and Vitamin C rich foods, and go easy on the sugar.

8. LOVE: send prayers, love, healing thoughts for those who need it most. Instead of freaking out or shutting down, let your anger, fear, and grief flow- it's what makes us human and feel connected to what's going on in the world right now. Crying is a potent way to detox, friends.

9. HERBS: if you want to get herbal, some great allies are nettle tea, cilantro (eat a lot of it or take a tincture- it helps draw heavy metals out ), and milk thistle (helps your liver process toxins). Also Yarrow Environmental Essence from FES is a beautiful formula to support the body in environmental disasters.

RECIPES:
Magical Medicinal Miso Soup
Saute one onion, sliced thin, til translucent. Add water, seaweed of choice (I like Kombu and Wakame), shitake mushrooms (dried or fresh), burdock root, carrots, and any other hearty roots you like. Simmer for 25 minutes.
I like to add shredded or sliced ginger near the end, so it's strong, and some garlic, which I like really strong. You can also add greens, like kale or spinach. Simmer another 5 minutes.
Because you don't want to boil your miso, I usually put a large dollop of miso paste in my bowl and then pour the broth on top to dissolve it.
Drink and offer bowls to all your loved ones and neighbors, kiddos and pets, family and friends.

Get your Daikon
Easy Shredded Salad
Shred carrot and daikon radish (2-3 roots)
Mix with sesame oil and a little umeboshi vinegar (also a great medicine!), sesame seeds, whatever fresh herbs you've got on hand (I love mint or cilantro), and a little tamari. Eat and feel alive and well thanks to the plants, the sun, the water and the farmers.

Dori Midnight
community folk healing + magic + apothecary
www.dorilandia.com

http://midnightapothecary.blogspot.com

Annie McCleary, director

Wisdom of the Herbs School

1005 County Road

East Calais, Vermont 05650

802-456-8122

www.wisdomoftheherbsschool.com

in solidarity with Tim De Christopher

funny story about the trial that starts tomorrow:

here it at: http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/47368

This guy goes to protest the auction of federal land to oil companies, walks into the event not really knowing what's next, they say "Are you here to be a bidder?" he thinks "ahhhh....whoa... " says... "why yes." Gets paddle number #BIDDER 7O. Watches auction for 30 minutes and settles down, gets up his nerve and starts bidding. Wins 7 rounds at the auction, out bidding Exxon Mobil and Chambers of Commerce at every turn. Eventually, they pull him into the back room, say "what!??! Good-cop/bad cop, the jig is up!" He says, "I don't actually have any of your requisite hedge-fund-paperwork to pay for this precious portion of Mother Earth."

(I mean people, we're talking about land right near MOAB, UTAH!!! One of America's most beautiful and weird natural lands, some of the most frickin' crazy beautiful land i've ever had the priviledge to stumble around (trying to be careful not to step on the plants, such delicate desert ecology, plants struggling so hard to get water from thin thin thin rains, so hurt by steps and dumb wheeled machines. But I digress... )

Tomorrow, there are SOLIDARITY actions all over Gaia for Tim De Cristopher. Please go to one. If you are you are near Burlington, come to in front of city hall to here me tell this story in real time.

Jai Ganesh!

Inspiration for the Climate Movement from the Vermont 350.org Road Trip

• Vermont 350.org organizers went on a road trip around the state for a Listening Tour on MLK weekend 2011. Organizers visited 8 towns and talked with people about how we can build Vermont’s Climate Movement. I participated in a few stops and here are some of the ideas that inspired me.

1. The Climate Movement is happenin’. Lots of people are working on Climate in diverse ways. Here are some upcoming actions.

The Vermont Climate Day of Action on February 3rd is an important day for Vermont’ Climate Movement. A big turnout of voters will impress legislators. Please organize a carpool with your friends!

The Vermont Chapter of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby is meeting on Feb 26 to learn how to influence politicians.

2. Vermont is ready to lead the US in solving the Climate Crisis. Vermont should “go on the offensive” and take active leadership position that guides the US by positive example. We have a progressive environmental community. Vermont can lead the nation by taking the first steps, showing the way and getting off our butts first.

We should support Vermont’s new governor. Governor Peter Shumlin said he wanted to see solar panels on the top of every Vermont roof. He dreamed big dreams in the 2010 speech to the VECAN conference. He spoke passionately that Vermont should take the lead on climate! After Vermont pulls off a decade of great climate leadership, Shumlin could be the climate movement’s national leader. We should encourage him, aid and uplift him in working on our shared goal of a carbon-free society. Let’s support our allies who are working within the system!

I like the idea of a “Citizen’s Climate Cabinet” to support Shumlin in making positive steps on climate. We would offer ideas and solutions and help where stuff isn’t legislate-able, like lifestyle choices.

Still, Climate Activists need to push gov’t to do the right things that sometimes aren’t politically popular. For example, we want Carbon Taxes! Let’s start small with a penny at Vermont’s gas pump. We want taxes on the things that hurt us, like cigarettes or fossil fuel. The Climate Movement needs to openly endorse and publicly pressure for carbon taxes. Check out the Carbon Tax Center for more info.

3. The Climate Movement should make “the Big Ask”: we want a Carbon-Neutral Great Society. We want our gov’t and society to respond to the Climate Crisis at the scale of the problem.

We need Carbon-Neutral Great Society, where the government and civil society work together to keep humanity alive by aggressively creating a post-carbon world. Let’s not shuffle the deck chairs on the Titanic, let’s steer around the iceberg!

Activists should understand our function. Activists are advocates, the advanced guard. We are the ones who get to ask for big things and dream the “impossible” dream. We push the boundary of what’s possible by our vision.

And so, we ask for carbon taxes. We demand carbon-neutral public transport. We insist Exxon Mobil to pay through the nose when they pollute our sky. We absolutely will save the planet. We solve the climate crisis! We make bike lanes in every town! We encourage the Vermont state gov’t to pass no idling laws, make hemp legal and pass a gasoline tax! Yes!

4. “Solutions to the scale of the problem”. This powerful phrase tells what is actually required. The scale of the Climate Crisis is huge, and requires huge solutions. We need a massive public effort to create a carbon neutral world.

And so we need to work with government. All our small scale private actions are great, but we need government too. The Climate Crisis is really falls under the government’s job description: gov’t job is the stuff too big for individual citizens.

5. The Climate Movement has not told the truth that runaway climate change will cause “The End of The World.” And so people are naturally unwilling to make the difficult changes needed to the scale of the problem. We need to show them the scale of the problem: humanity’s extinction.

People are naturally resistant to make big inconvenient changes to “the inconvenient truth.” They need to see that the Climate Crisis is Really Big, a Total Game Changer, a Planetary Extinction Spasm, the Death of Everything We Know and Love. Runaway Climate Change means the death of Everything. We have been under scaring the children, insufficiently describing the Catastrophic. Bill McKibben politely demurs when describing the future of runaway climate change saying “the future will be unworkable” or “difficult beyond imagination”. Dr. James Hansen is accurate saying “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that one which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that C02 will need to be reduced from it’s current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.”

That’s true. Yet it understates the case by the calm politeness of the language. Runaway climate change means humanity’s extinction, and we need to fight against The Stupid Future with all the strength we can muster. We have a right to live in a world that will live into the future. We need a Climate Revolution to save the planet.

6. The Climate Movement needs to get better at networking on the web.

We need a web-platform to help us work together across the distances of the Green Mountains. For example, did you know about the incredibly beautiful and visionary effort to create Green Island in Bellow’s Falls? They want to turn the industrial wasteland of an island on the Connecticut River into hub for creating a sustainable world. (Cue the applause!) I didn’t know of this effort until meeting those folks on the road trip, and now I want to help them anyway I can.

We need an internet platform that links Vermont’s many climate action groups and helps us work and think together.

7. Climate activists should gather more because it is useful and encouraging. It is worth-the-carbon to drive to get together. Why? Climate activists are islands in a societal sea of ignorance or denial. Our extreme concern about the Climate Crisis is sane, not our own private madness. Our resolve strengthens when we experience that we’re not alone. So it’s important to get together and preach to the choir! And we sing louder when surrounded by a choir.

Further, here is a specialized language for all in-depth topics. The language of climate change includes ice sheets, carbon, 4% temperature increase, sea level, Cancun, etc. We need to meet and speak our climate language.

In summary, Vermont’s Climate Movement is diverse and diffused but alive and kicking. We need to weave ourselves together to win this. As our hero MLK said, “We are tied together in a single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.” May it be so.

The Climate Crisis Fulfills Bible Prophecy of End Times

The Climate Crisis has made the prophecy in the Bible's Book of Revelations true.

Mysteriously, the Bible's prophecy fits the Climate Crisis like Cinderella's slipper, a prophetic perfect fit. And that's sort of fascinating, right?

Humanity is destabilizing the delicate sky and we are on-track to causing the End of the World. It's not over yet. If we stop burning oil and coal, we can save the world. But we must be honest about the SCALE of how much we have to win or lose. The Climate Crisis is an Armageddon battle royale', an epic struggle of good and evil, of planet life versus planet death. So far, the public and our politicians haven't faced up honestly to the SCALE of the problem because CLIMATE ACTIVISTS HAVE BEEN UNDER-SCARING THE CHILDREN by avoiding talk of planet death. Well, kids, let's dig into the Book of Revelation for some spooky talk about the End of the World.

Let me summarize the Book of Revelation, if that's even possible.

Bob Marley introduced me to The Book of Revelation. As a young person, I listened to Bob Marley incessantly. I was fascinated by his rebellious spirituality. Bob's last two records, Exodus and Uprising, were made after he was diagnosed with cancer. The albums were filled with Bible and spirit. As the Immaterial world promises to consume the Material world, wise people settle up with the Eternal. Bob was studying the Book of Revelation closely, and included hundreds of references into his songs.

The Bible's last chapter is John's vision of the End of the World, a wild dark spiritual vision, filled with strange prophecy and epic struggle between good and evil. It's a long, mysterious prophecy about the end of the world, the return of Christ, a battle of good and evil. There are dark metaphors about wine presses of blood. There are cosmic visions of a door opening from Heaven onto the Earth plane and a Supramental energy flowing into the world from the Godhead.

I read the Revelation many times. I was fascinated by it's snap, strange characters, prophetic possibility. The Revelation is a mash-up of images, possibilities and outcomes. It's not clear how it will go.

It's not necessarily the End of the World via Planetary Ecocide Death, but like R.E.M sang "It's the End of the World as We know it, and I feel Fine." Likewise, the 2012 Mayan prophecies predict the beginning of a new Cosmic Age rather than a sudden stop.

The Bible predicts a good outcome after the Armageddon struggle: the 100o year reign of Christ, an Age of Aquarius, a epoch of planetary enlightenment.

Try that trick from the movie "When Harry Met Sally", where Harry always reads a book's last page first, in case he dies before he finishes, then he knows how the story ends. The last page of the Bible's got it all, in cliff-note summary of a really groovy scene of a Christ-lit Age of Aquarius.

Anyway, if we don't stop climate change, we are all going to die. Humanity is in the closed garage with the car running, our shared air slowly poisoned by carbon monoxide. Death, destruction, abomination. It will be the End of the World, as we know it, and we won't feel fine. We'll be among the souls that the Universe views as wimpy, lazy, slacker douschebags because we didn't figure out away to save our beautiful blue green marble.

So open your Third Eye of Vision, the mark of the living God on the Forehead, and wake up to Climate Change and to your own soul's availability to feed you mojo from the Divine realms. All the angels surround you in your ability to do what's required at this magic moment of possibility, when the future pivots on our actions today when we work like horses and dogs to change our society's reckless profligate carbon-based lifestyles.

May the will of the Divine be achieved.

Avoid Arguments to Maximize Healing

When we have arguments, our healing is set back.

Science has proven this to be so, documented in one place here: http://www.thrivingnow.com/arguments-dramatically-slow-wound-healing/

Today I was reminded of this after a stupid and habitual argument with a family "member". Afterwards I felt old wounds and sickness grimly brooding in my mind and flesh.

My family argues: deep grooves of old BS habitual conflict, high octane jousting and old fault line wound-finding. Not pleasant. It's a sad thing to be an adult and recognize in oneself all the dumb habits one perfected as a teenager while pitting mom against dad to get the car keys, I said "OK, then, I'll just hitchhike." Ahh, the perfect schism!

So friends, we are all wounded. We all love our side of an argument. We all are trained to be rational, brain-centered beings who want to argue our way to success. But really, we are emotional, heart-centered beings who are more swayed by emotion than logic. Fierce argument hurts us, and makes us go out of heart-resonance with our friends and allies.

I honor conflict as truth's snowplow, forcing motion to clear the way. Sometimes a rumble is necessary to rearrange the landscape. Sometimes there should be strong and clear and direct words to say what we need or don't want.

But often fights sit in our stomach and gnaw at our bones long afterwards. So let us resolve to not fight, especially about the dumb things, and to dehabitualize ourselves from tasty masochistic arguing.

Let our family relations sit on a foundation of peace coexistence and calm discussion.

May our healing be swift and unhindered by arguments.