Do you love shopping for antiques? Is your cupboard filled with thrift store trinkets? Do you serve food out of a pewter dish that was passed down from generation to generation? Did you ever think that it might contain lead? Read on…

Not long ago, it was reported that lead and cadmium were found in children’s drinking cups given out by a fast food restaurant. Even more recently, lead was found in reusable shopping bags. Now, another report has found that many items purchased from second-hand or antique shops contain dangerous amounts of lead.

Surface lead concentrations of more than 700 times the federal limit were found on items such as toys, home décor, kitchen utensils, and jewelry. Researchers purchased items from stores in Virginia, New York and Oregon, and were able to purchase an item that contained lead from every store they visited!

Nineteen out of 27 products exceeded the federal standard for lead, which is currently 600 parts per million. One salt shaker lid contained 714 times the federal limit! Regulation of the sale of second-hand and antique items would be both difficult and expensive, so a national public health education campaign will be launched to inform consumers of the dangers of these products.

Children are especially at risk for exposure to dangerous levels of lead and should not come into contact with antiques or use products that may contain lead. Used dishes and kitchen utensils, as well as construction debris and salvage items should be avoided until tested.

Avoiding all toxins is impossible, I know, but we can all take a few steps to lessen our toxic burden. Remember to support your body’s natural detoxification processes by eating a healthy diet high in fruits and vegetables, getting plenty of exercise, and cleansing regularly.

Share this Post...

antiques, cadmium, Children, Cleansing, concentrations, contain, dangerous, detoxification, diet, dishes, exercise, exposure, fast food, food, fruits and vegetables, Health, healthy, jewelry, kitchen utensils, lead, levels, limit, natural, pewter, products, restaurant, risk, tested, thrift store, toxic burden, toxins, toys

I often blog about the widespread negative effects of chemicals and pesticides. We live in a toxic soup, and the more people realize that, the more likely they will be to make changes. Ultimately, the more natural products and services you buy, the more those products and businesses will appear until one day (in my perfect world) we will be able to live without all these toxins!

Take a couple of recent studies (out of many) on pesticide exposure—as it turns out, prenatal exposure to pesticides is linked to lower IQ in children at age 7. And people exposed to pesticides near the workplace are at increased risk for developing Parkinson’s disease. Everywhere I look is another study to add to the mounds of evidence that the toxins we are regularly exposed to in everyday life are destroying us. Literally.

In the prenatal pesticide exposure study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, for every ten-fold increase in organophosphate pesticides detected during pregnancy, the child experienced a 5.5 point decrease in IQ score by age 7. The study found a correlation with prenatal exposure specifically, suggesting that there is a critical time period to which the baby in womb is susceptible.

In the Parkinson’s study, researchers found that exposure to the three commonly sprayed crop pesticides—ziram, maneb and paraquat—while at work was associated with a three-fold increase in risk of later developing Parksinson’s disease. Working near a field (not necessarily in direct contact with the pesticides, as they tend to drift up to several hundred meters from the fields) was enough to increase risk.

These are two small—yet significant—reasons to try to eat organic when possible, and to support your seven channels of elimination—colon, liver, lungs, lymph, kidneys, skin and blood—with regular cleansing and detoxification.

Share this Post...

blood, chemicals, child, Children, Cleansing, colon, detoxification, drift, exposure, increase risk, IQ, kidneys, liver, lungs, lymph, maneb, natural products, negative effects, organic, organophosphate, paraquat, Parkinson’s disease, pesticides, pregnancy, prenatal, seven channels of elimination, skin, susceptible, toxic, toxic soup, toxins, ziram

Girls are hitting puberty at an increasingly younger age. A recent study published in the journal Pediatrics found that about 15 percent of girls studied had already begun breast development by age seven. The median age for breast development has dropped from age 10.9 years in 1991 to 9.9 years in 2006.

What makes young girls mature? Hormones. Yet, hormone disruptors are unfortunately all around them. Exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals like flame retardants found on furniture and electronics, phthalates and BPA found in plastics and vinyl, and the herbicide atrazine found on non-organic produce could all be contributing to this early maturation.

Hormone disruptors interfere with normal hormone function. Some of these chemicals have been confirmed in human studies to interfere with male sexual development, but the research in humans is only just beginning. In fact, a recent study has found for the first time that daily exposure to BPAS increased levels of testosterone in the blood of men. Another human study found that BPA may decrease the quality and concentration of sperm in male humans. Hopefully more research will expose the dangers of endocrine disruptors in females, too.

My book Detox Strategy will help you find everything you need to begin your personal detoxification journey and take the first steps toward cleaner, healthier living – at any age.

Live Clean!

Share this Post...

age, atrazine, blood, BPA, breast development, chemicals, cleaner, dangers, detox strategy, detoxification, development, endocrine, exposure, flame retardants, function, girls, healthier, herbicide, Hormone, hormone disruptors, hormone-disrupting, journey, live clean, living, non-organic, pediatrics, phthalates, plastics, produce, Puberty, research, sexual, sperm, study, testosterone, vinyl, younger

You can say you’re the best all day long, but when Better Nutrition says it, then you know it’s true! I’m happy to say that the magazine’s elite panel recently awarded CleanseSMART™ and Ultimate Flora Critical Care 50 Billion™ Best of Supplements Awards based upon reader feedback and surveys from experts in the medical and nutritional supplements industries.

In the Cleansing and Detoxification Category, Renew Life’s CleanseSMART™ was recognized among the best, while Ultimate Flora Critical Care 50 Billion™ received a Best of Supplement Award in the Probiotics Category.

Here’s how they won them: Surveys were conducted that included questions about quality, ingredients, formulation, price points, customer satisfaction, popularity, and widespread availability. The results led to 76 winners in 31 categories that spanned everything from fish oils and antioxidants to multivitamins and herbs. In the Cleansing and Detox and Probiotics Categories, we are among the top three products in each category.

It’s not surprising to me since CleanseSMART advanced total body cleanse has also been voted the #1 Cleanse by health food retailers for the last 7 years. It’s combination of 23 natural ingredients help support the body’s natural detoxification processes. Like all Renew Life products, it doesn’t contain any added ingredients or fillers. Ultimate Flora Critical Care 50 Billion probiotic is also a huge favorite among customers, and is formulated specifically for people who are engaging in or have recently completed a course of antibiotics to help them re-establish a healthy balance of good bacteria in the digestive tract.

So thank you to everyone who chose CleanseSMART and Ultimate Flora Critical Care 50 Billion. Renew Life will take such high praises any time!

Share this Post...

antibiotics, antioxidants, Best of Supplement Award, Better Nutrition, cleanses, CleanseSMART, Cleansing, detoxification, digestive tract, fish oils, good bacteria, herbs, medical field, multivitamins, nutritional supplement field, Probiotics, reader feedback, surveys, Ultimate Flora Critical Care 50 Billion

We all know air pollution is bad for you. That’s a fact. But it can be hard to determine just how bad it really is. There have been many studies that link air pollution to harmful health effects. Recently, a strong link between diabetes and air pollution was found, even at air pollution levels that are lower than the current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safety limit.

Previous studies in animals have linked insulin resistance (a major component of type 2 diabetes) and inflammation (a trigger for insulin resistance) with exposure to air pollution particles. In another recent study, air pollution was linked to breast cancer development. Specifically, post-menopausal breast cancer was found to be highest in places that were most polluted and lower in places that were least polluted. No big surprise there.

While knowledge of the air pollution link to diabetes and breast cancer is relatively new, it has been known for a while that air pollution contributes to the development of asthma. In yet another recent air pollution-related story, it was found that air pollution exposure suppressed the immune system’s regulatory T cells. This suppression lowered lung capacity and worsened asthma symptoms. This is a hallmark study because of the difficulty of tracing negative health effects directly back to air pollution. Further, this study shows that air pollutants do not simply irritate the lungs, but interfere with the complex immune system and can have more far-reaching effects than asthma.

While it can be difficult to avoid the thousands of toxins we come into contact each day, there is something you can do to minimize their effect on your body. Maximizing our health by avoiding toxins when possible, eating well, and supporting the body’s detoxification process can help to minimize harmful effects of pollution.

Share this Post...

air pollution, asthma, breast cancer, detoxification, diabetes, environmental protection agency, EPA, harmful, Health, immune system, inflammation, insulin resistance, menopausal, negative health effects, particulate matter, polluted, symptoms, toxins, type 2 diabetes

Great news, folks! My long-time friend and colleague Dr. Leonard Smith will soon be joining our online community with regular guest blog posts about important topics like gut health, nutrition, colon hydrotherapy, natural detoxification and more. And who better to give us advice about keeping our bodies and our digestive systems in good shape?

Dr. Smith has spent his career helping people live healthier through things like good digestion and diet, and he is a true mentor and an inspiration to me. He spent many years as a gastrointestinal surgeon before beginning his own successful private practice, and his knowledge of natural healing therapies is both impressive and inspiring. I have had the privilege of working side by side with Dr. Smith while writing several of my books, and I’m so excited he’ll soon be joining us here on brendawatson.com. Welcome, Dr. Smith!

Share this Post...

advice, blog, bodies, books, colon hydrotherapy, detoxification, diet, digestion, digestive, Dr. Leonard Smith, gastrointestinal, good, guest, gut, Health, helping, improved, natural, natural healing, nutrition, people, shape, surgeon, system, therapies

My Weekly ‘Renew You’ Challenge - Eat a rainbow everyday! Sounds pretty goofy, doesn’t it? But be honest, it’s not the first time you’ve heard this piece of advice, so why not give it a try? In fact, it’s such a good tip even I’m going to jump on the bandwagon!

Eating a diet that includes of a rainbow of colors (and we’re talking natural colors folks, not those scary chemical additives they use to make neon-bright candy and other foods) helps to ensure that you’re getting a wide variety of phytonutrients—important nutrients found in fruits and vegetables that we need to stay healthy.

Phytonutrients include carotenoids, flavonoids, lignans and polyphenols, all of which include their own nutrients (for example, anthocyanins found in purple and deep red plant foods are a type of flavonoid) that work in a multitude of ways to keep our bodies in great shape. Mostly known for their antioxidant properties (which helps protect healthy cells), phytonutrients also promote a strong immune system and help with detoxification.

So your challenge (and mine!) this week? Let’s try to eat a rainbow every day—and remember, that doesn’t mean a bag of Skittles®! I mean fresh, colorful, natural plant foods. You might think you’re doing a good job by eating a salad every day, but if it only has lettuce, cucumbers and carrots, you’re missing out on the red, yellow, blue and purple ingredients. Toss some raisins into your salad, have some red and yellow bell peppers with dinner, and snack on some blueberries for dessert. Oh, and don’t forget white—cauliflower, white beans, white eggplant, and even jicama can make your rainbow complete, so let’s get started!

Share this Post...

anthocyanins, antioxidant, beans, bell peppers, blueberries, carotenoids, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, detoxification, diet, eating, eggplant, flavonoids, foods, fresh, fruits, healthy, immune system, ingredients, jicama, legumes, lettuce, lignans, nutrients, phytonutrients, plant-based, plants, polyphenols, rainbow, raisins, salad, vegetables

Every one of us needs to be more aware of how dangerous pesticides can be. There are many different types of pesticides that affect the human body in many different ways, all with negative health results.

Some pesticides have an effect on our nervous system, some are carcinogens (cancer-causing), some irritate the skin and respiratory system, and most all are endocrine disruptors. What does that mean? Endocrine disruptors act just like our natural hormones in our endocrine systems, only with really bad results—sort of like our hormones’ evil twins. They get in there deceptively and cause havoc and disrupt the normal functioning of our own hormones.

Health effects attributed to endocrine-disrupting compounds include a range of reproductive problems such as reduced fertility; male and female reproductive abnormalities; skewed male/female sex hormones; miscarriages; menstrual problems; changes in hormone levels; early puberty; brain and behavior problems; impaired immune function; and even various types of cancer.

As children are especially susceptible to the toxic effect of pesticides, it can be pretty scary stuff—and I don’t scare easily! Pesticides are one of the most dangerous chemicals you and your family can be exposed to. With a shopping list of serious health effects, including even a link to suicidal thoughts, it’s time to get pesticides out of your home and yard, and the sooner the better!

Share this Post...

cancer, dangerous chemicals, detoxification, endocrine system, Endocrinology, Environmental effects of pesticides, Hormone, miscarriages, Pesticide, Puberty, toxic substances, toxins

In this video blog I discuss a new study from Columbia University that looked at CT scans of over 1,700 persons and found that those who grew up with smokers had more “emphysema-like” holes in their lung tissue. Why is smoking so addictive? What are you exposed to when you light up? Why can’t you stop? I answer these and more in this video.

Share this Post...

Brenda Watson, dangers of second hand smoke, detoxification, emphysema, Smoker's Cleanse

As of May 12th the first US state has banned the use of the chemical BPA in baby bottles. The state of Minnesota has ruled it illegal for manufacturers of baby bottles and sippy cups containing the toxic chemical BPA to sell them to retailers in the state. Similar bans are under consideration in California, New York and Connecticut. A nationwide ban has been proposed to Congress.

I think this is the first step to the realization of how toxic this chemical is to human health. Just like with DDT it unfortunetly takes us (meaning the US government) 40 to 50 years to acknowledge the harmful health effects of a chemical we (meaning the US government) put into commercial circulation.

BPA, which is Bisphenol A, has been used in commerce for more than 50 years, even though the first evidence of it being hazardous to human health was shown in the 1930s. It is one among many chemicals used that is an endocrine disruptor, meaning it can mimic the body’s own hormones but with terrible health consequences. It is especially harmful to babies in early development. The ban of use of BPA in baby bottles is only the first step to ridding the environment and the human body of this chemical. It is a key component in the production of almost everything made of clear, hard plastic, as well as used in medical and dental devices, dental fillings and sealants, household electronics and coatings on the inside of almost all food and beverage cans.

The best thing for babies and young children is to avoid using or buying products containing BPA, such as the baby bottles, sippy cups, teething rings, pacifiers, and toys. There are many companies now that are making such items as BPA free.

For those adults also concerned about the health effects of this chemical, as we all should be, in addition to trying to avoid use of products with the chemical, consider a round of detoxification programs. This would be programs including Renew Life’s CleanseSMART, Liver Detox, and Kidney Cleanse products. These products can help stimulate the natural elimination of chemicals such as BPA from your body.

In the meantime, avoid buying BPA containing products, and keep your fingers crossed all of the United States will join Minnesota’s lead.

Share this Post...

BPA, Brenda Watson, CleanseSMART, Cleansing, Cleansing & Detox, detox strategy, detoxification, Kidney Cleanse, Liver Detox