Welcome to my Keeping Each Other Well Blog!

Boons for Road Safety!

There’s a new trend in Interstate Highway Rest Areas. On a recent trip to Virginia, I discovered that Connecticut and West Virginia Welcome Centers include people walking areas (not just pets!), so that aside from providing “the facilities,” it’s possible to take a loop walk or wheelchair ride along bright regional flower beds in continuous bloom.

 Scattered every 30 miles along Interstate highways, Rest and Welcome Centers invite us to get out and let our bodies breathe, open our joints and aerate the cells we need to keep us awake and alert behind the wheel. A long trip does not have to be exhausting if we take regular breaks.

 On  I-84, the Danbury, CT Welcome Center has not only all the above, it has numerous small stone cairns placed in amongst the flower beds. They are not only a calming delight for eyes grown tired of juggling lanes amidst heavy trucks; they let you know that you’re on a safe path. The cairns also keep the ground cool and modestly shade and support the flower beds.

 Lots of picnic tables generously spread around a spacious grove of trees provide an easy place to have that lunch packed to avoid the hassle of finding user friendly food stops. In West Virginia, picnic tables nearest parking areas are reserved for handicap access.  Highway choices seem limited to fast foods and family restaurants with no place to stretch and relax beyond parking lots. It was great to be able to find one stop for all needs.

 Danbury even has an area for RVs and there’s a weighing station for trucks near the highway as part of the complex, but the rest of the site feels like a big park. By whatever means of travel, all are welcome!

 The Welcome Centers are staffed with people who can update us on possible side trips and events in their area and they know how long it takes to get there and a few things we can expect that aren’t necessarily in the brochures.

 As we enter the next three months filled with weddings, family reunions, vacation trips, and any other reason for travel we can negotiate, making good use of travel rest stops will go a long way toward keeping each other well. Enjoy!!!

It’s All About Water

What’s all this about water? Why is a health columnist so worried about our water supply? We’ve got plenty of water in NH. Just take any hike and you’ll probably have some brook to contend with. Isn’t health about eating three squares and getting enough exercise, making some friends, and breathing diaphragmatically?

 Keeping well involves all of the above and more, but it begins with drinking enough safe water. It may seem needless to be alarmed at what’s happening to lake Mead and LakePowell; they’re out west, but I like to think we can learn from what happens out west so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes here in the northeast. Mead’s at 40  percent capacity and could cease being able to generate electrical energy by 2013, much less provide the area with adequate drinking water.

 Large dams cause people to relocate and businesses to develop below the dam which continue to depend on the dam after it has exhausted the environment.

 The Klamath Basin Restoration Project in Oregon involves dismantling old dams and restoring the river areas. The cost to repair a dam is 2-5 times the cost of original construction, something Pacific Corp is not interested in doing. The AP reports that “some farmers, conservation groups and Indian tribes in the basin support dam removal as part of a larger plan to solve a century of conflicts over sharing scarce water between fish and farms.” History we can learn from.

 While we have been assured that Hydro Quebec is not interested in damming up our rivers in the distant future, please note that HQ  already owns a dam on the Connecticut in Stewartstown, NH. The James Bay Project completed 3 dams by 1984 and already reports decreases in the reservoirs behind those dams (30 years later), as HQ continues to build more dams moving on down through the Rupert.  40-50 years from now, depending on the rate of global warming,  HQ may have a new agenda that includes NH rivers.

 Our goal is to continue to have accessible drinking water. There may be as much water in the world today as there ever was,  but much of it is polluted and desalinization purification systems are both costly and high energy consumers. Now, more than ever, we need to protect all rivers and refuse to support new hydroelectric power that we now know outlives its usefulness in 80 years or less.

 Now is the time to dream up sustainable innovative ways of producing/utilizing energy. How can we harness the energy people generate in gyms: spinning, treadmilling, weight lifting, swimming,…?

Deer Tick Time

Warm, sunny days are here again, the wildflower parade has started, and we humans have switched to spring mode, glad to leave heavy boots and jackets behind as we make fresh starts into the woods. Ticks are also strutting their finest in this parade and they need to bite friendly hosts to survive. Hopefully they will not bring us a new round of Lyme Disease.

  If you get a bite, here’s an easy way to remove ticks: apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball. Cover the tick with the cotton ball for 15-20 seconds and it will fall off on its own and stick to the cotton ball.

 To know what we’re dealing with and how to prevent bites, it helps to understand the life cycle of the Deer tick and what it needs to survive. The tick gets its name because the preferred host is a deer. Adult ticks feed on the deer’s blood, mate and, once the female eggs are fertilized, both the male and female die and drop to the ground where the eggs hatch to larva. The larva seeks a new host, a mouse or whoever is handy. The larvae molt to nymphs and continue to feed on mouse blood and other small mammals. Ticks are usually found on grasses, waiting for other victims, like us and deer, to pass.

 Currently, the Centers for Disease Control recommends DEET, Picaridin, and Permethrin for insect repellants. All are registered with the Environmental Protection Agency. In the past, readers responded that DEET had not served as a protection from tick bites for them. Permethrin is the insecticide that people are finding effective against tick bites. Pyrethrum is a natural insecticide made from the flowers of a species of the Chrysanthemum plant. Permethrin is a synthetic insecticide whose chemical structure is based on natural pyrethrum. As an insecticide, it is currently sold as a 0.5% Permethrin Pump Spray.

 When used as directed, Permethrin appears to have no harmful effect on the environment. It is NOT used on the skin. It is sprayed on your clothes (shirt, pants, socks, everything but your underwear) and one treatment will last up to six launderings or six weeks before clothing has to be treated again. You need to wash the sprayed clothes between wearings or check the product label for specific instructions.

 Other readers have found Permethrin Tick Tubes to be effective, especially if you live in a wooded/grassy area, have pets, and need protection right in your own yard. Tick Tubes are designed for the little critters. The tubes are biodegradable cardboard tubes filled with permethrin-treated cotton balls. Mice gather the cotton for their nests. Deer ticks intending to feed on the mice are then killed when the mice return to their nests.

However, the mice and other mammals are not harmed. Put these tubes around your yard and the mice will love you for it. Caution needs to be taken that children do not take them apart out of curiosity and handle the cotton.

 If you are interested in purchasing either of these products, check your local camping or hunting supply store. Otherwise, both products are available on line.

 IMPORTANT CAUTIONS: DEET comes in varying strengths and preparations, in roll-ons, sprays and liquid. If applied to the skin (which hikers and gardeners often do,) it needs to be thoroughly washed off with soap and water when home safely. DEET is potentially toxic. Body checking, especially the head and hairline, remains a must. Our heads have a rich supply of blood just under the surface. Check and re-check each other after time spent in tick-infested areas, especially if near grasses; get out of your clothes, do a complete body check, and shower well.  Wash clothes to avoid spreading ticks to your home. Check pets routinely. Walk on the center of trails and save bushwhacking for winter.

 Permethrin is ONLY applied to clothing, NEVER to the skin. It is highly toxic to humans but safe when applied to clothing and not when clothing is being worn. For safety, clothing is sprayed according to specific directions on the bottle and left to dry for 2 hrs. before wearing. One reader has a separate bag he stores Pmethrin sprayed clothes in between wearings.

 A Deer Tick may only be the size of a sesame seed but if it has been sucking your blood, it will swell up much larger. If you are bitten and the tick has been on you for more than 24 hrs, or if you develop a fever, chills, headache, muscle & joint pain, fatigue, rash or any other symptom that seems odd for you, bring yourself and the tick to your health provider.

 Time to spread the word and send in suggestions for what works for you. Thanks!

 

Checking out what happens when….

Spring sets off a bunch of questions about what to plant, what new foods to try, what to look out for, and what really works to keep us healthy. A big discussion on the how to prepare okra erupted at the Pemi Choral rehearsal this week. New director, Rob St. Cyr is clearly an expert on how to best present okra and choristers eagerly added their own tips as well as “yuk” groans from a few singers.

 Bottom line is, we all have our favorites, and there’s no one diet for all of us. Each of us has to figure out what works best for our constitution. And the clearest indicator to guide us is what I call the ‘what happens when’ signal.

 The ‘signal’ went off for me last week when I put a hunk of cheese in my pack for a day hike. Then, instead of returning the remainder, which was in a sandwich bag, to the refrigerator, I absentmindedly tossed that big hunk of gouda into my pack as well. Bottom line, I moved right through that extra cheese after the hike and the next day, my lower legs swelled up in protest. That happens to be my body’s special ‘signal’ that things are just not moving on through. This condition was accompanied by other noisier sounds as well!

 But I have a remedy that has bailed me out many times. When I went home the next day, I cooked up a bowl of creamed kale with a dash of turmeric, cumin, coriander, and garlic to power it up and, voila! 24 hours later, my ankles were back to normal.

 I’m not recommending this foolish dance to readers. I’m fully aware that most of us have bouts of eating too much and some of us just need a good alibi, like putting a chunk of extra cheese in the pack ‘by mistake’ and then feeling entitled to eat it. I shamelessly admit that I’m human and subject to human frailties, despite faithful tapwater consumption..

 Which is why most of us need to pay special attention to the signals our bodies send out if we want to claim our drive to be well. What we eat isn’t nearly as important as what happens AFTER we eat. Cheese is a perfectly good food for me, taken in moderation. If I want to be well, I need to remember what happens when….

 One of the great things about spring is the parade of magical greens that has already begun with asparagus, and is bound to continue when cooking up fiddlehead ferns and stinging nettles, all geared to spring clean our bodies whenever we indulge.

 

Safe Water Rights

Large Dam Hydroelectric power is not clean energy. Hydro Quebec has cost the Crees their homes and livelihood. It has wiped out fish as a food source and the mercury released through flooding behind the dams poisons the remaining fish and those who eat them. Mercury will continue to pollute the water for 20-30 years. All this at a time when many of our ocean fish are suspect, threatening our food source further. There’s nothing clean about any of this.

 For a peek at the extended forecast, check out theHooverdam, which has been in effect for 75 years. So much silt has built up behind the dam, there’s no place to put the silt even if it could be removed.Lake Meadhas evaporated to 40% of its capacity. That’s a standard pattern for large dams. Fresh silt contains nutrients a river needs, nourishes the river and gets flushed out to sea to continue the water cycle. Silt buildup raises salt, mineral, and rotted debris to toxic levels. The Colorado River is drying up and no longer reaches the sea.

 What our grandchildren and their offspring are going to need is drinking water. Allowing HQ to put their power line through will encourage them to put even more dams in theRomaineRiverand evaporate more of earth’s water in their reservoirs.

 And that’s not just Quebec’s problem. It will be our problem as well. HQ is just one of many corporations monkeying  around with our future water supply. There’ll probably be enough water for today’s retired folks but definitely not enough for generations to follow unless we safeguard it.

  Water is our greatest need and it exists in pockets all over the earth, the Northeast being one of them. We may be able to create autonomous communities for energy but water is going to have to be shared, and not in little plastic bottles.

 The scary thing is that many large dams have already done irreparable damage to the environment, are drying up our water supply and continue to ruin the health of our rivers. Some are being dismantled at great financial cost in the hope of restoring river life.

 This issue has nothing to do with “not in my backyard.” The message we need to be sending HQ is “No New Dams.” People can survive with less electricity or even without electricity. No one can survive without water.

Spring change of seasons and viruses

As we continue adapting to the change of seasons, clearing out sheds and swapping summer equipment for winter, we usually clear spaces in attics, barns and sheds to reorganize storage. Soon we’ll be rummaging around attics for the trappings of the Season of Light, however we celebrate it.

 Spurts of sorting are happening and, amidst all this, some of us have been dealing with the first round of mice looking for winter quarters. Rodents are typically drawn to our storage spaces. Be aware that rodents are carriers of viruses, some of which are deadly, and if we inhale dust from their saliva, urine or scat that they leave behind, we can contract a virus.

 While some rodents, like the white-footed mouse, have been identified as carriers here in the Northeast, they’re all potential carriers of viruses and bacteria.

 Without going overboard, here are a few things we can do.  To avoid breathing in rodent dust, spray any rodent nests or droppings with a solution of disinfectant or bleach, before attempting to clean up. Wear rubber gloves or cover hands with plastic bags to avoid touching what we clean up, and double bag it for the dump.

 Avoid touching dead rodents or birds. Special attention must be given to children who are often fascinated by dead wildlife and need to be forewarned as they explore the wonders of our area.

 Be aware that most of us normally touch our hands to our faces several times an hour (check it out!) Thus, depending on our attention to hand-washing, we risk inhaling organisms that spell trouble.

 It’s up to all of us to make sure that the flu and whatever other viruses hover around us don’t amount to anything in our area this year. It’s all about applying our New England ingenuity.

Each other includes each ‘other’ in the world!

Daily, worldwide accounts of the estimated 1.8 billion people who are still drinking unsafe water include US citizens, not just people in Africa, India and other third world countries. Both our Southwest and Southeast are competing with irrigation, landscaping, and swimming pool draws that compromise our drinking water.

 Here in New England, and especiallyNew Hampshire, abundantly flowing brooks and rivers can easily mesmerize us into thinking that we have an endless supply of water. The reality we need to grasp is that we will be called on to share some of our water with the rest of the world. The question is: will we be able to share our water equitably and avoid the predicted World War III, the Water War?

 Subsidiaries like Poland Spring are gradually draining the aquifers in water-rich pockets of  theUSto sell bottled water at 10,000 times the cost of perfectly safe tap water. By selling us something most of us don’t even need except in emergencies or when traveling in uncertain places, private water companies make huge profits. People trash 75 percent of the bottles; only 25% are recycled.

 Landowners, tricked into selling their land, realize their demise too late.  Lovewell’s Pond inFryeburg, ME is fed by the Ward’s Brook  Aquifer that Poland Spring draws from. The pond is now much lower and covered with green scum (cyanobacteria) since Poland Spring’s pumping station went in. Townspeople worry that their main source for water will dry up.

 Nestlé Waters bought Poland Spring in 1992. Swiss based Nestle owns 72 brands of bottled waters in 38 countries and is the largest food company in the world, according to Tom Bearden, News Hour correspondent. There is something wrong with this equation. Do we want water to be privatized, rather than recognized as a human right?

 Many of us maintain a frenzy of activity in pursuit of the American dream, or just trying to stay connected to others amidst constant new technology updraft. We are often too distracted or exhausted to pay attention to corporateAmerica’s inroads on our basic rights.

 Time to turn a bald eye on our priorities. Safe drinking water will hopefully head the list. Without safe water, there is no life. Water, food, and energy do have a pecking order. Once we have our priorities straight, decisions about pesticides, fertilizers, plumbing, wastewater treatment, GMO seeds, livestock, irrigation, dams, energy, products, …, all fall into place.

 Every ‘other’ person in the world is us. Now to treat us well….

 

Welch-Dickey’s Free Health Spa

We’re lucky to have free health spas in or adjacent to every town in Northern New Hampshire. Every mountain is a potential spa, depending on whether you choose to check in and get with the program. Welch Mountain is usually one of the first in NH to be clear of snow in spring and this year’s balmy opening week must have claimed a record!

 Health spas, the paid ones, usually include massage, saunas, hot tubs, swimming, and some sort of calming practice like meditation or yoga. The main goal is to cleanse and relax the body from the inside out as well as from the outside in. That means keeping hydrated with plenty of water. Think 2 liters.

Sweat is the body’s most natural way of cleansing. Sweat heats up and massages all of our systems and uses sweat glands to wring them out so every system has a fresh start. Every joint gets well oiled. It was already 65 degrees F. when I started up Welch and my back was wet under my pack by the time I reached the Welch Ledge, a popular destination for folks who want a short hike on a well maintained trail alongside a lively brook.

Hiking on a balmy March day practically guarantees a successful spa treatment, especially on a day when the summit is 80 degrees F. There are no black flies and the trails are so well groomed that you can avoid ticks by walking in the center of the trail and steering clear of branches. (Yes, ticks are here year round and so are the deer and four-leggeds that carry them.)

The walk itself can be a meditation, even if there’s some chatting going on. Conversation tends to be a sorting out, rethinking, brain cleanse, with the last leg of the hike to each peak often being in silence to better access fresh air.

Blueberries calmly covered the Welch and Dickey summits and open cliffs with red buds, just waiting to pop out and provide us with lush berries this summer.  A few Jack Pines greeted me; they’re the ones that benefit from forest fires because the heat pops open their seeds. They are only found in four places here in NH, this mountain loop being one of them. Mounds of slivery blue reindeer lichen perked up and showed off fresh sage-green tufted offspring. A new generation of deep green partridge berry leaves peeped out from under leaves. It’s a time of year when every hike seems like a new adventure.

Hiking poles make the hike kinder to your knees and hips by spreading the weight bearing load to include the shoulders and arms as well, while still allowing you to build up a good sweat. They also encourage a good upper body workout and help to maintain balance around muddy areas or the occasional ice remnants.

If you want to hike in a truly relaxed state, breathing 2:1 is the way to go. Just make your exhalations twice as long as your inhalations. The easiest way to practice this breath is to count your paces. You may start out breathing 6:3, then shift gears to 4:2 and 2:1 as you gain elevation. If you cannot exhale for 2 paces to every 1 inhalation pace, it’s time to stop and rest. This practice develops the habit of deeper breathing regularly.

So, your free health spa takes care of your cleansing sweat massage and by the time you pass the summits, you may be lucky enough to be fully soaked.  As you cool down in that delicious breeze (if there is one) you may even need to put on that extra layer in your pack while you enjoy lunch, the view, your friends, and maybe even a little siesta.

The trip down via the Dickey end of the loop did have some remaining stretches of ice in areas shaded by spruce trees but they were negotiable with tree help.

Depending on the day and the temperature, you may need the extra layer as you cool down, hike out, go home and take a salt bath or shower to complete your free spa treatment.

PS: In cooler weather, I carry at least 2 liters of water, a wind/rain shell, light fleece, hat, first aid sack, high protein sandwich, nuts, and an orange to assure the full treatment!

Whoever controls water, food, and energy, controls the people consuming it.

Wow! Have I opened a Pandora’s Box with regard to Dams! The dams that I am opposed to are the 3000 MW generating dams in Quebec. These large dams have wreaked havoc on the James Bay area, displacing Cree Indians, eliminating their fishing livelihood, ruining back country tourism, and destroying the wildlife that depended on the rivers. There’s nothing renewable about that. No rains will replace those loses.

 The Canadian government acted in violation of treaties with 5,000 Cree and 3500 Inuit in a pressured deal with them.  I don’t want to support that project, even as a line through NH to supply CT and MA, not only because it’s had such a lethal effect on Canada and Canadians; it has the long range potential to put our small dams out of business and discourage our exploration of other forms of renewable energy. 

I appreciate Jeremy Rifkin’s book, The Third Industrial Revolution. In it, he talks about autonomous municipalities of the future, which is what we essentially have in the NH small dam configurations. Most generate between 1-18 MW. Fifteen Mile Falls Dam, at the head of the Connecticut river, the largest dam in NH, generates 192 MW and is owned by TransCanada Hydro Northeast.

 Hydro-Quebec’s Plan Nord is an example of a huge monopoly designed to control large areas. Whoever controls the water, food and energy, controls the people consuming it. Think about that. If the NP goes through, what do you think Hydro-Quebec’s long range plan is for the Androscoggin River in NH? Or, TransCanada Hydro’s plan for the Connecticut River?

 Whether building a new dam, maintaining an existing dam, dredging or selectively dismantling a dam that has outlived it’s usefulness, several factors need to be considered. Smaller dams in NH provide fire protection, flood control, hydropower and water supply.

Many have been in place for over 30 years and wildlife has evolved over time that is compatible with changes caused by the dam.

 NH Dept. of Environmental Services (DES) notes that some dams that are old, unsafe and uneconomical, may be good candidates for removal. DES refers to studies that show repairing such a dam can often cost three times more than removing the dam and that there are many more potential funding sources both private and public, that can help offset the removal costs and river restoration projects than are available for repair.

 I continue to oppose construction of new large dams without consideration for the effect such a dam will have on our future water supply, the nutrients rivers need to thrive, the relocation of residents, their livelihoods, wildlife habitat, and recreation.

 If we want to keep each other well, we need to take care of our water. We are only one of nature’s species, and our decisions will have immediate effects for us all. Like it or not, we can’t afford to turn a blind eye on any aspect of our water supply.

What’s gotten into us?

Miracles happen to people. We  call them miracles because they can’t be replicated on someone else. That’s what happened to McKay Jenkins, an English professor at  he wrote a book about it entitled, What’s gotten into us? 

As a runner, Jenkins was having trouble with his left leg and thought he had some orthopedic problem. Diagnostic tests showed that he had an orange-sized tumor in his abdomen that was pressing on his femoral nerve and there was a chance that it might be cancerous.

 The miracle is that it was not cancerous, had not spread to or damaged other organs, was isolated and surgically removed. But what caused the tumor in the first place? His was growing out of a nerve cell and the surgeon was able to peel it off the femoral nerve (which runs down the leg from the spinal cord.)

 Jenkins became obsessed with figuring out what caused the tumor in the first place. That quest took him to the 1918 birth of synthetic chemicals when a German scientist, Fritz Haber, figured out how to make synthetic nitrogen. Since then, petrochemicals have been used to make plastics, fertilizers, pesticides, clothes, personal care products, cars, bedding, cooking utensils, home cleaning products, and more. As they ushered in the Synthetic Century, products have proliferated faster than our ability to monitor their effects on our bodies or our environment.

 The good news is that our bodies come equipped with an immune system organized to get rid of any foreign matter. Hence the orange-sized tumor, a benign collection of stuff the body needed to get rid of. Sometimes, a powerful immune system will actually break the unwanted growth up and get rid of it. The bad news is that sometimes the tumor has damaged a vital organ beyond repair or become invasive elsewhere. In Jenkins case, the fact that his body warned him with pain, and his surgeon’s timely skill was able to remove it safely, gave him a miracle.

 However, Jenkins wanted to know the root causes, why this century spawned so many deaths whose roots related to insecticide and pesticide exposure. Tumors previously related to old age now are being found increasingly in children.

 Rachel Carson’s question was, “Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for life?”

 Just as Michael Pollan has advised us not to buy any food with more than 5 ingredients listed on the label, we need to also check ANY product we buy and realize that the synthetics we’ve become so dependent on may be contributing to our health problems. Skin products are easily absorbed: lipstick, skin creams, toothpaste, sun block, soaps. Cleaning products like detergents, furniture polish, tile cleaners, car wash. Toys like rattles made of plastic, teething rings, and small plastic animals, stuffed animals made of synthetic material and stuffed with more synthetics. Clothes for active sport and work breathability. Fabrics for drapes and stuffing for furniture and pillows. Building supplies like insulation, paints, plastic woods and blowing sawdust.

 Compound this responsibility with the fact that labeling often only includes an “active ingredient” and may or may not include all the chemicals in the product. In theUS, corporations control what is allowed on labels. Unless we buy organically grown foods, we have no guarantee that the food is synthetic free. Plastic containers have taken over most cooking oils and products. Even a can of organic food my be lined with bisphenol A, a plasticizer known to cause hormone imbalances that can then lead to breast and other cancers.

 So, what’s the bottom line? To reduce medical bills and the inconvenience of health problems, we need to begin taking small steps and consciously simplify our food, clothing and shelter needs, monitor our water supply, and push for clear labeling in English with appropriate warnings as needed. We need to shop smarter and vote better. Every small step counts.