The FDA has dished out some pretty bad advice over the years… but this one takes the cake: Crestor, a cholesterol-lowering statin drug, has been approved for completely healthy people with normal cholesterol levels.

I warned you this day would come… but that doesn’t make this dose of bad news any easier to take.

Under the new guidelines, docs can now give this dangerous drug to people with “other” risk factors for heart problems –-such as elevated levels of C-reactive protein.

But this decision didn’t come after an exhaustive series of studies… and it wasn’t based on the overwhelming body of scientific evidence.

It was made based on a single study funded by the drug’s maker. Not only that, but they pulled the plug on this study two years early–essentially the moment they got the result they wanted.

And even then, the researchers didn’t uncover any real stunners. In fact, a recent article in the New York Times points out that 500 people would have to take Crestor for an entire year–at a combined cost of $638,000–to avoid a single usually survivable heart attack.

That’s a lot of prescriptions–and a lot of money–for not much benefit. Those pills cost $3.50 each–and you’ll be paying for them whether or not you actually take Crestor, since the FDA approval means insurance companies will have to cover it. That can lead to higher premiums for everyone, and more money will be needed for taxpayer-funded medical plans.

Of course, it’s not about cost alone–most of us would gladly pay nearly any price for something that could truly help us to live longer, healthier lives.

But statins aren’t going to do that for you.

These meds have been linked to debilitating muscle pain, liver damage and even an increased risk of diabetes. And they’re not even the best way to achieve their original goal of lower cholesterol levels.

Lifestyle changes will beat these meds every single time. You don’t need to make dramatic changes–just simple choices like eating better and getting more movement into your life will do the trick.

The time to act is now–before your own doctor begins pressuring you to take these meds.

Then again, even if you’re perfectly healthy, you can expect to hear a statin sales pitch any day now thanks to the FDA.

Being obese is never good at any age, but for years many have considered chubby kids something to worry about later.

Now, we have some real reasons why your child’s weight is something you might want to be concerned about today.

The latest research finds that obese kids, some as young as 7 years old, already show indications that heart trouble might be in their adult future, according to a study presented in June at a meeting of the Endocrine Society.

Obese kids had 10 times the normal levels of C-reactive protein, a compound associated with inflammation and linked to heart disease. They also had high levels of fibrinogen, also linked to heart disease in adults.

The kids, who were all in the top 5 percent of weight for their age, did not show other indications of potential heart problems – they were not suffering from high blood pressure or cholesterol levels.

But it is worrisome, especially when you consider how big a problem obesity has become, and how many overweight adults battle coronary problems.

At the same time, don’t panic. If your child is overweight, don’t rush to put him or her on a diet. For most children, dieting isn’t really a great idea, in part because their bodies are changing so much.

Instead, no matter how much your child weighs, take a close look at what he or she is eating. It’s never too early to teach them good eating habits, and that starts with the foods you give them every day.

If you start enforcing good eating habits in your home, chances are your kids will do pretty well, and most will eventually end up weighing right around what they should once they stop growing.

That means keeping them away from the sugary snacks, sodas and candies they love. It also means staying far away from any place with a drive-through window.

It’s cheaper and healthier to make good meals at home, and these meals don’t have to be time-consuming to be delicious.

Stick to healthy meats, good fats and fresh veggies – and go organic if you can.

If you don’t have kids – or if yours have already flown the coop – it’s still a good idea to take a look at your own eating habits now and again.

Diet is one of those issues that can be a lifelong challenge for many. But if you stick with good eating habits, that life has a much better chance of being a longer one.

Food is overrated, but your child’s health is not.

Our old friends at Big Pharma are at it again – trying to get more people to take a drug they don’t need, for something it wasn’t even made for.

Millions of Americans are already taking statins to help manage their cholesterol. The drugs are already unnecessary for most people, because cholesterol can be controlled through your diet. It’s that simple, and I can show you how.

But that’s beside the point for now, because the newest plan to get even more people on statins has nothing to do with cholesterol management.

Now, Big Pharma wants you to take them for a completely different purpose altogether.

They’re pointing to a new study, called JUPITER, which shows that statins can help lower levels of C-Reactive Protein, or CRP, in people with normal LDL cholesterol.

High levels of CRP could be one indicator of inflammation in the arteries, which could lead to heart attacks.

The problem is, no one can tell you just how reliable CRP levels are as an indicator of heart disease risk, because no one knows for sure.

But they want you to take those statins anyway.  They have their eyes on one number right now, and it has nothing to do with LDL or CRP levels. That number is 11 million – the estimated number of new patients who could start taking statins for their CRP levels.

Statins are the industry’s favorite kind of drug. They don’t heal or cure, and they don’t treat the underlying causes. They simply “manage” the condition. In this case, “manage” is a codeword for a drug that you need to keep on taking if you want to keep getting the benefit.

The result: A drug people need to take forever. You can’t even imagine how happy that makes some people who wear very expensive suits.

Here’s one other truth about statins that Big Pharma can’t hide: Patients without a history of heart disease don’t live a single second longer when they take statins to control their cholesterol. This has been confirmed in study after study after study.

It’s just one more case of the wrong drug, for the wrong people, for all the wrong reasons.

March 2009 PDF

The heart attack you’ll never see coming…
Mainstream medicine is keeping you in the dark on the deadliest threats to your heart—here’s what you need to know now.

It seems a month doesn’t go by without the media fawning over some new study touting drugs or surgery—the two most lucrative treatment options—as the magic bullet for heart disease. The latest research you might have heard about was the JUPITER study, which claims the cholesterol-lowering statin Crestor is the new “sliced bread” for reducing heart attacks (to learn why that’s all bunk, check out What you didn’t hear about Crestor).

The worst thing about these studies—and the thoughtless, robotic way the press covers them —is that they give people an overly simplistic view of heart disease. We’ve become a nation of cholesterol watchers and pill poppers, and, when that doesn’t work, we head straight for the surgeon’s knife. My question is…

If pills and surgery are the answers for heart disease, why are we still dying at a record pace?

The answer is simple—heart disease is a many-headed monster, and there are several, key factors that can cause it.

In fact, I tell my patients all the time…

You can have perfect cholesterol…and one foot in the grave

Just ask Larry. He became my patient shortly after his 60th birthday. He had just received a heart disease diagnosis and a stent (not my idea…) to prop open a blocked artery.

You might think that if your arteries were clogging, you’d have plenty of warning—maybe a consistently high cholesterol number would tip you off to plaque buildup. That’s what Larry thought, too. The problem was, his cholesterol was fine… and if it wasn’t for the hunch of a talented cardiologist—who suspected Larry’s three months of arm pain wasn’t just from overuse—Larry would be dead.

Larry had plenty of risk factors for heart disease…just not the ones Big Pharma would have us look for. He grew up with a demanding father, and, in adulthood, became a driven, type A personality, always under some sort of stress or anxiety. His career and family kept him constantly busy, and by 30 he had high blood pressure. By 50, he was 30 pounds overweight and had a paunch.

Larry’s father had a heart attack around age 50, and his mother was diabetic. These are all pretty serious risk factors for heart disease, as I’ll show in a moment. But if all you paid attention to was Larry’s cholesterol, you’d miss them all…

The fact is, about half of all first heart attacks occur in people with “normal” LDL levels. If you haven’t had a heart attack, research shows that…

There’s a 98% chance statins won’t keep you from having a heart attack!

And they have yet to show a reduction in overall mortality. Wow! And this is a $28 billion market that drug companies and mainstream docs get so starry eyed about! If that doesn’t make you shake your head, wait until you hear about..

The surgical procedure that’s useless at least half the time!

If you ask a surgeon what causes heart disease, here’s what he’d say—it’s the accumulation of plaque in your coronary arteries, which starves your heart of oxygen and can only be detected and corrected through some type of “procedure.”

In fact, many heart attacks—maybe most—occur when there is no significant blockage. And the diagnostic “procedure” surgeons are so hot to perform may give you no idea whatsoever if you’re about to have a heart attack.

Let me explain—coronary angiography, where a cardiologist snakes a catheter through a vein in your groin to your coronary arteries to look for blockages, was always thought to be the “gold standard” for uncovering heart disease. Coronary angiography is looking for plaque that is blocking an artery (occlusive) and doesn’t pay any attention to the plaque that isn’t blocking your arteries (non-occlusive).

That would be fine if only occlusive plaque caused heart attacks. But, as I said, it’s actually non-occlusive plaque may cause the majority of heart attacks. That makes these catheters worthless more often than not (as opposed to Computed Tomography Angiography, which injects a dye and actually looks for occlusive and non-occlusive plaque).

You see, heart attacks occur when plaque ruptures and a clot forms as a result. The original plaque may be partially blocking an artery or not. This is why so many heart attacks occur without warning in people who have never had any symptoms—or who may have had a clean catheter and stress test.

And heaven help you if a surgeon finds occlusive plaque. He’ll likely talk you into a stent—even though stents don’t improve survival. If you’ve got occlusive plaque in one place, you’ve got non-occlusive plaque elsewhere, just as likely to pop open and cause a heart attack and possibly sudden death.

Stents are like putting a finger in a leaking dike.

What you should be learning here is that Big Pharma and the surgical crowd advance a limited understanding of what causes and how to treat heart disease. If you really want to prevent a heart attack, you need a more well-rounded explanation—and they’re not offering that, because there isn’t enough money in it for them.

It’s insulin—not cholesterol—you should watch like a hawk

Lots of patients (Larry was one of them) have low LDL cholesterol readings, but their triglyceride (TG) levels are on the high side and their HDL (“good”) cholesterol is on the low side. Their ratio of TG to HDL is greater than 4-to-1, which suggests insulin resistance. It also promotes the formation of small, dense LDL particles, which can be dangerous even if your LDL levels are low.

Chronically elevated insulin levels are bad news and have a lot more to do with heart disease risk than LDL levels. Aside from promoting unfavorable LDL particle types, elevated insulin promotes high blood pressure and inflammation—all drivers of heart disease risk.

Many people think a diet high in fat is the cause of insulin buildup and resistance, but that’s not true. Fat doesn’t trigger high insulin levels. Cheap, processed carbs do. These carbs can make you fat and destroy your heart, while delivering far fewer calories than you might get from foods rich in fat.

Really, fat doesn’t make you fat unless, as with anything, you eat too much of it. Plus there are healthy fats like the omega 3 fats found in fish. Mono-saturated fats found in olive oil, nuts and avocado are healthy fats, and are a dietary staple in Mediterranean countries that have a far lower rate of heart disease than America. Even moderate amounts of saturated fats from healthy organic or natural sources are OK, although you still should avoid the trans fats so common in processed baked goods, frozen foods and margarines. Trans fats—and high fructose for that matter—have no place in the human body. Period.

The lesson here is that insulin resistance will tell you far more about your heart disease risk than some crude cholesterol test. And if you want to prevent insulin resistance, try a diet that incorporates more healthy fats and fewer cheap, processed carbs.

Your immune system is attacking your heart—here’s how to make it stop

Another huge risk factor for heart disease is inflammation. When your immune system perceives a threat—such as infection or injury—it revs up. This is inflammation. Once the threat is contained, your immune system is designed to dial itself down.

So far, so good. But when your body perceives a constant threat, often because of stress or other lifestyle issues, you end up with chronic inflammation that has been associated with diabetes, arthritis, dementia, cancer and, yes, heart disease.

High levels of inflammation promote unstable plaque. You can measure inflammation with a test called highly sensitive C reactive protein (hsCRP). Levels above 2.0 are a red flag and should be a call to action. The most common cause of elevated hsCRP’s in my practice appears to be obesity. Fat cells pump out a horde of pro-inflammatory chemicals called adipokines. It’s also worth noting that hsCRP may be temporarily high if you have an infection or allergy problem. I prefer to follow-up an elevated hsCRP with another one or two measurements over two or three months to get a better idea, if necessary.

You can bring down inflammation by losing weight and changing to an anti-inflammatory diet that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, healthy fats and natural-source fish, poultry and other meats. Even incorporate some full-fat organic dairy, if you like. Other inflammation fighters are exercise (especially muscle-building strength training), adequate sleep, identifying and removing heavy metals such as lead, mercury or cadmium, and reducing stress. Also try fish oil (1000-2000 mg total DHA and EPA) and vitamin D3 (1000-2000 IUs daily).

While insulin resistance and inflammation are two overlooked causes of heart disease, there are three other risk factors that require your attention—belly fat, stress and genetics.

What your pants size tells me about your heart

The message here is simple—belly fat is deadly. Belly fat pumps out loads of inflammatory chemicals that sub-cutaneous fat layered evenly around your body doesn’t. Men with a waist size over 40 inches and women over 35 inches are at particular risk here. With patients who fit this profile, I often see other factors, such as HDL under 40, TGs over 150, blood pressure over 135/85 and fasting blood sugar over 110. Put any three of these factors together, and you’ve significantly increased your risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke. Notice that LDL cholesterol doesn’t factor into this equation.

Why a little stress can do a whole lot of damage

Stress may start in your head—but it ends in your heart. Your brain is in constant communication with your immune system and your endocrine system, which regulates the production of stress hormones (cortisol and adrenalin) and insulin. When your brain processes a threat, real or imagined, your body reacts. Your body becomes loaded with stress hormones, which in turn notches up blood sugar and insulin levels. So what starts out as a case of stress can quickly become dangerous insulin resistance—and heart disease may not be far off. If stress is a constant problem for you, consider meditation, breathing exercises, or connecting more with your spiritual side.

You genes—what they can and can’t predict about heart disease

Genes play at least some role in heart disease. A major tip-off is if an immediate family member had a heart attack before age 55. This has been accepted medical fact for years, although how big a role genes play is coming under review.

You may have a heard a little about the human genome project, which is providing a much richer, more complex picture of our genetic make-up than scientists ever imagined. For all but a few of us, our genetic make-up is not the heavy determinant of our fate that it was once thought to be.

Genes interact with our environment in a multitude of ways. It’s these interactions that determine how genes express themselves—which means that your environment, as much as your genes, plays a key role determining your heart disease risk. Still, if you have a genetic predisposition to heart disease, that’s something worth sharing with your doctor.

What you didn’t hear about Crestor

You may have read the ecstatic reports of how Crestor, a relatively new statin, hit a home run in the famed JUPITER trial by reducing risk of heart attack and death in people without heart disease and who had normal cholesterol levels and elevated hsCRPs. The study was allegedly so successful that they stopped it after 1.9 years.

Here are some facts that didn’t get reported: to prevent one death from all causes per year, you need to treat approximately 345 people with Crestor at a cost of just over $500,000. Treating the 7 million people who fit the study criteria would cost nearly $10 billion (diet and exercise seem like the better bargain for our scarce health care resources).

The study offered no clue about the long-term consequences of treating so many people for 10, 20, or even 30 years. Plus, low cholesterol counts are associated with muscle damage and memory loss, and may be associated with cancer and heart failure. In fact, a recent study shows no benefit from Crestor in people whose heart disease has progressed to the point where the heart is no longer pumping normally. Is Crestor a silver bullet? I’m not anywhere close to sold.

10 books that could save your life
These scientist-authors blow the lid off a corrupt health-care system and uncover truths that could add years to your life.

You probably became a reader of Health Revelations because you noticed something I’ve been saying for years—there is something clearly rotten in the state of our health care system. We’re the most heavily medicated society in the history of the world, but health care in America consistently lags behind other countries of the world—we were 37th in an oft cited World Health Organization study from 2000.

You know by now why this happens—primary care physicians have practically become indentured servants to the drug and insurance companies, which continue to game the system and taint the science to protect their bottom lines. It’s a perverse nightmare, and it has nothing to do with good patient care.

You may wonder sometimes whether anyone is even paying attention. The good news is that there are plenty of people working to change our health care system. It’s a movement that I’m only one part of. In fact, in this issue of Health Revelations I’m going to introduce you to 10 books written by doctors and scientists who are rebelling against the medical status quo and who refuse to stop asking questions. Any one of these books may change how you view health care in America—and some could even add years to your life.

Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine
John Abramson, M.D.

Abramson has done his homework, and you’ll come away from this book absolutely outraged. The pages drip with anger and frustration as Abramson exposes the sham science that was bought and paid for by Big Pharma—but is ruining the health of Americans. This exposé is well-researched and surprisingly easy to read—it has developed a bit of a cult following among many fed-up doctors, like myself.

Detoxification and Healing: The Key To Optimal Health
Sidney MacDonald Baker, M.D.

Baker is a brilliant, Yale-trained physician who writes beautifully on a subject most doctors still pooh-pooh. He shows you how thinking is changing in the medical community as the increasingly surprising results of the human genome project come to light. Baker is recognized as a key early figure in what is known as “functional medicine,” a scien­tifically rigorous practice that considers how patient individuality influences wellness and disease.

The Secret History of the War on Cancer
Devra Davis, Ph.D.

Davis, a highly-credentialed epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, blows the lid off the role environmental toxins play in cancer, and how Big Business and Uncle Sam collaborated to sweep the facts under the carpet. She shows how our reactive approach to cancer—and our denial of scientific evidence—has been responsible for an appalling death toll over the last 50 years. This is a truly gripping read.

Diagnosis: Mercury—Money, Politics & Poison
Jane M. Hightower, M.D.

You heard me talk a bit about this book in a recent column on fish. Hightower is one tenacious front-line physician who kept asking questions about why patients were coming to her San Francisco practice with such unusual symptoms. In the process, she uncovered the dirty truth about mercury poisoning and the creepy medical politics that go with it.

Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, and Miracles
Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D.

You know by now that I believe there is a spiritual side to good health and healing. And it’s so refreshing to see a hard-core researcher like Lipton, a noted cell biologist, uncovering the science behind it. Lipton writes about Epigenetics, an important new field now coming into its own as a result of the surprising discoveries of the human genome project, which tell us we are not the pawns of our genes after all. This book is a refreshing antidote to efforts by mainstream medicine to disregard thousands of years of spiritual healing traditions.

The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease
Uffe Ravnskov, M.D., Ph.D.

As you know, the link between cholesterol and heart disease has been hotly debated within mainstream medicine for years. Dr. Ravnskov’s carefully researched and indignant study of the problem is a must-read on the subject. For a highly entertaining, truly outspoken book on the cholesterol myth, also check out The Great Cholesterol Con by Dr. Malcom Kendrick, a Scottish physician who lambastes the cholesterol establishment with wit and clarity. Read them both.

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the conventional wisdom on diet, weight control and disease
Gary Taubes

Taubes is a top journalist for Science, the world’s leading journal of scientific research. In this book, he pulls the rug out from underneath the deadly low-fat lies that are making Americans obese and conning them into believing they are eating healthy. Taubes shows how highly-paid doctors and scientists in the service of industry and government are putting their personal interests above the public good.

Should I Be Tested for Cancer? Maybe Not and Here’s Why
H. Gilbert Welch, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Welch is a serious physician and researcher—he’s a member of the Dartmouth Medical School Faculty—who is asking some serious questions about our overly aggressive screening for cancer. Welch takes on this billion-dollar screening industry that may be hurting more people than it helps. This book is a bona fide page turner that deserves a much wider readership than I expect it has received (I’m sure its controversial subject matter didn’t win Welch too many friends in the medical mainstream). Give it a read.

Say Good Night to Insomnia: The 6 Week Solution—A Drug-Free Program Developed at Harvard Medical School
Gregg D. Jacobs, Ph.D.

Before you reach for some dangerous Big Pharma sleeping pill, read this clear, how-to guide to better sleep from a Harvard therapist whose sleep clinic has experienced a high success rate over the years. Jacobs show how most sleep problems have a major behavioral component and are best managed with minimal medication, if any. For the price of a soft cover book, you get Jacobs proven program. If you’re having trouble getting to sleep, learn about this program and stick with it.

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrat
Sally Fallon and Mary Enig Ph.D.

Dr. Enig is a highly recognized nutritional biochemist who has always been ahead of her time. She started to blow the whistle on trans fats in the 1970s, and was basically booed off the scientific stage. Now, she’s being hailed as a pioneer. In Nourishing Traditions, she and Fallon have written a cookbook that makes a difference. The book is based on the pioneering work of Dr. Weston Price, a Harvard-trained dentist and groundbreaking nutritional anthropologist who traveled the world in the early 20th century studying traditional diets. He concluded that good teeth, general health and physical fitness were being destroyed by the introduction of highly processed foods. Fallon and Enig build on Price’s work to offer delicious and nutritious recipes, history and smart science in one fascinating package.

I also recommend Enig’s excellent Know Your Fats, a more technical discussion and critique of the food industry and the doctor-driven anti-fat hysteria that cost many thousands their lives.

Check out Amazon.com or other popular online booksellers to purchase any of these books.

Forgotten cures
Chinese herb defies the two scourges of aging

If there’s one complaint I hear from people as they age, it’s that they feel like they can’t do the things they love any more. Perhaps you enjoy performing home improvement projects, but you just don’t have the strength. Maybe you’d like to spend more time in the garden, but it’s hard to find the energy.

The Chinese are famous for staying strong and energetic well into old age, and there’s a secret to how they’re doing it—rehmannia glutinosa, a highly respected herb in traditional Chinese medicine. This wonder herb may just be…

The secret to keeping you strong and energetic long into your golden years!

You see, the Chinese have been using rehmannia for centuries to help mend broken bones, injured ligaments and tendons, and wasted muscles—similar to what we now call sarcopenia, a muscle loss in the elderly that results from being inactive, not eating well and stress. In fact, the Chinese believed rehmannia was useful for speeding recovery time and nourishing muscles that can literally waste away during our advanced years as they are starved of key hormones.

Give fatigue the boot for good!

In modern times, rehmannia is more commonly known as a treatment for hormonal problems, such as menopause, underactive thyroid and adrenal exhaustion—three conditions that can result in devastating energy loss.

Research has shown that the active components of rehmannia, known as iridoid glycosides, coax the adrenal glands into increasing and normalizing the production of steroid hormones. One of these hormones is cortisol, which can be depleted in later stages of adrenal exhaustion.

Adrenal exhaustion is fairly common in the middle aged and elderly, the result of years of stress under the American “pedal to the metal” lifestyle. And while you may have heard that excessive levels of cortisol are unhealthy—they’re associated with increased insulin resistance and obesity—if your levels are too low, you can find yourself completely sapped of energy.

By acting on the adrenals, rehmannia can also support estrogen and testosterone production and help relieve the symptoms of menopause (and, yes, it may even stimulate your sex drive!). Because of its anti-inflammatory effects, it has also been used in China as a treatment for asthma.

Rehmannia is a health powerhouse in its own right, but it can be even more effective when combined with other herbs and natural cures. I’ve seen it prescribed in combination with as man as 10 other herbs, depending on the individual needs of the patient. You’ll also see it combined with Boswellia for increased anti-inflammatory effects, or with ginseng and rhodiola for improved stamina and energy.

Reliable, high quality forms of rehmannia, often taken in a tonic, can be obtained from the Australian company Medi-Herb (www.mediherb.com). Australia has perhaps the strictest set of regulations on the manufacture and sale of supplements. As always, you are best off working with a health care professional experienced with herbs.

Your Questions Answered

Antibacterial products aren’t just useless—they can be killers

Q. I’ve been using antibacterial soap to prevent the spread of germs around my house. But now I’m hearing these soaps may actually increase the risk of infection. What gives? Are they safe or not?

––Robert A., Burlington, VT

A:In a word, no. Antibacterial products are absolutely not safe, and are potentially quite dangerous.

Here’s why. As we age, one of the greatest risks we face is developing an infection. An infection, especially if it lingers, can unleash a variety of life-threatening complications. Antibacterial products may actually increase your risk of getting an infection because they encourage the growth of resistance bacteria. Resistance bacteria are very hard to kill, and if you become infected with them, your illness may be harder to treat.

How is this possible? Well, it appears the main culprit is usually a chemical called triclosan, which is found in antibacterial soaps, tooth­paste, mouth wash, deodorants, first-aid creams, kitchenware, clothes, and toys. For a complete list by brand, go to www.beyondpesticides.org.

Triclosan kills bacteria—at first. But research has shown that prominent bacteria such as e.coli, salmonella, shigella and other intestinal bacteria become resistant to it pretty quickly. These bacteria learn to use an internal pump to expel the triclosan when they come into contact with it. Bacteria has an instinct for survival—it was around before us, and it will be here long after we’re gone.

But the bad news about triclosan doesn’t end there. It is what we call an endocrine disruptor, and may interfere with normal functioning of your thyroid hormone and estrogen. It’s associated with allergies and can become contaminated with dioxin, a known carcinogen. This is particularly troublesome, because triclosan stores itself in fat. That’s right…

This deadly chemical actually accumulates in your body!

The FDA and EPA are responsible for regulating this chemical—and, frankly, they’ve done almost nothing to inform the public of its risks. Instead, they’ve stood by while the manufacturers of products containing triclosan continue to tout its germ-killing ability and prey on the ignorance of the germophobic public.

The marketing for triclosan products has been so effective that some people are afraid to wash their hands—or anything else for that matter—without an antibacterial product. Let me put your fear to rest—study after study (after study) has shown these products are no more effective than regular, old-fashioned soap and water.

Use warm water to lather your hands vigorously for at least 15 seconds and then rinse for another 15 seconds. Then take a clean towel to dry your hands and sweep any remaining bacteria off your skin. If you need to use a hand sanitizer, make it one with alcohol, which flat out kills microbes without helping them develop resistance.