The Fukushima meltdown, and possible melt-through, is the largest ecological disaster of the last 6,000 years. From a yogic perspective, humanity’s asana, broadly interpreted as proper relation to the earth, has been disrupted. This disaster also reflects a collective lifestyle that is contrary to the principle of ahimsa. Yogic life is strongly guided by a lifestyle that minimizes harm; we would do best to return to this lifestyle.

The North American West Coast is being seriously impacted by this radiation. Hawaii is the worst hit, followed by Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and finally, California. In British Columbia, researchers noted a 300% increase in infant mortality since the Fukushima incident. Children currently born on the West Coast are 28% more likely to develop congenital hypothyroidism. In 36 other states outside the radiation zone, hypothyroidism has dropped 3% post-Fukushima, so the hypothyroidism is most likely related to Fukushima. A recent report found that 44.2% of children in the Fukushima prefect have thyroid abnormalities, which further confirms that the I-131 released from Fukushima is the cause of congenital hypothyroidism. Sixty percent of children under 12 living in the Fukushima reactor area have developed type 2 diabetes within the year following the incident. Researchers Janette Sherman and Joseph Mangano published an essay in June 2011 citing a 35% spike in infant mortality in the American Northwest post-Fukushima.

John Gofman, Ph.D., M.D., in his book Radiation and Human Health, writes: “There is no safe dose of radiation since radiation is cumulative. Harm in the form of excess human cancer occurs at all doses of ionizing radiation, down to the lowest conceivable dose and dose rate.”

There is also evidence that the radiation flowing from Fukushima has contaminated fish and wildlife along the North American western coast. Polar bears, seals, and walruses along the coastline are suffering from fur loss and open sores. There is an epidemic of sea lion deaths along the coastline, with 45% of pups born in June of 2013 dying. Fish along the West Coast appears to be bleeding from their gills and eyeballs. Experts have found high levels of Cesium 137 in plankton living between Hawaii and the West Coast. Some California kelp fields are showing significant radiation contamination. One test found that 15 out of 15 bluefin tuna were radioactively contaminated, and Canadian authorities have found sea bass significantly contaminated with radioactive cesium.

All these details add up to the big picture: The West Coast is suffering from excess radiation and its serious, detrimental health effects.

Fortunately, there are some protective actions that can be taken to restore our asana in the face of this radiation.

The most significant antidote I have discovered to neutralize radiation contamination is a high oxygen, homeopathic, radiation-neutralizing liquid with over 100 homeopathic radioactive nucleotides taken from the Fukushima area. It is called Radiation Neutralization. Thirty-two people were part of a study using this radiation antidote. We now have close to 18 months of successful results in which people, after taking this remedy, have remained radiation free. Six people from Japan, 3 from Hawaii, and 23 from the mainland U.S. have used this remedy successfully. I recommend that people who are elderly or ill and those living in Japan or Hawaii take three consecutive bottles. I recommend two bottles for those living on the West Coast, and for the rest of the continent, I recommend one bottle. This is the single most important and effective treatment I have found.

My general approach to radiation protection is seven-fold:

1. Create a positive selective uptake dynamic. If one has enough healthy minerals in their system, the cells become saturated and there is less room for radioactive minerals to be absorbed. Sufficiency in calcium, potassium, iodine, iron, zinc, vitamin B12, and sulfur will inhibit the body’s assimilation of many radioactive elements.

Radioactive iodine (I-131) is a major nuclear plant meltdown contaminant.  Research suggests that 1 milligram of iodine for children and 5 milligrams for adults would reduce the amount of radioactive iodine from direct I-131 exposure accumulated in the thyroid by 80%. Nascent iodine forms are the most effective; my preference is a nascent iodine called Illumodine taken 15 drops, three times daily, one hour from food. Iodine-rich foods include all sea vegetables, Swiss chard, turnip greens, wild garlic and onion, watercress, squash, mustard greens, spinach, asparagus, kale, citrus foods, watermelon, and pineapple.

2. Utilize chelation.  Certain foods actively pull radioactive materials out of the body via the body’s excretory processes.  One such chelator is sodium alginate.  It reduces the amount of strontium-90 absorbed by the bone by 53-80%, and is found in sea vegetables, including kelp, arame, wakame, kombu, and hijiki. Sodium alginate binds with other metal pollutants, such as excess barium, lead, plutonium, cesium and cadmium.  Brown sea vegetables bind excess strontium and iron.  Red sea vegetables, like dulse, bind plutonium.  Green algaes effectively bind cesium-137.  Pectin (found in apples and sunflower seeds), zybicolin (found in miso), phytates (found in grains, beans, and peas), and cellulose and lignin (found in non-dissolvable food fibers), are all excellent chelators.

Clay is excellent for chelating radioactive materials out of the intestines. It is best to use if there is a major exposure. An excellent and moderately priced clay is Therapeutic Living Clay (a natural calcium bentonite purified clay). I also recommend using one pound of bicarbonate of soda and one pound of sea salt (or salts of magnesium) in a bath to remove uranium from the kidneys and total system in the case of heavy exposure.

3. Keep the body high in antioxidant nutrients and enzymes. These nullify the free radicals created by radiation exposure.

4. Certain foods and herbs specifically protect against the overall effects of radiation or radiation treatments. Foods containing chlorophyll protect against radiation.  Research shows that cabbage, leafy green vegetables, spirulina, chlorella, wheatgrass, any sprouts, and blue-green algae all reduce the effects of radiation. According to post-Hiroshima research, long-aged miso offers radiation protection. Beets protect against the uptake of plutonium-238, -239, iron-55, and -59.

Bee pollen is another potent anti-radiation food.  It is high in vitamins A, B, C, and E, nucleic acids, lecithin, cysteine, and vital minerals such as selenium, calcium, and magnesium. It is high in nucleic acids, which a variety of research shows increases the survival of mice against radiation.

Garlic, onions, and ginseng are also protective against radiation due to antioxidants and factor X. Siberian ginseng is an outstanding protective herb as an adaptogen, doubling post-radiation lifespan of rats.  Chaparral contains a potent anti-oxidant known as NGRA.  It was one of the few plants to survive atomic testing in Nevada.  Green tea should be in the number one category for protection against radiation exposure. Studies around Russia, Chernobyl, and China show that spirulina and chlorella are exceptionally effective at detoxifying the body of heavy metals, providing up to a 50% amelioration in side effects from radiation.  The herb rosemary has also been shown to protect against radiation.

5. Alkalize your diet. An alkalizing diet, which is a live-food, plant-source diet, is going to serve us best in these times.

6. Eat low on the food chain. Research at the Department of Radiation adopted from the radiological assessment of the Wyhl Nuclear Power Plant in 1978 by the Department of Environmental Protection at the University of Heidelberg, Germany  showed, as a result of air exposure to radiation, that radioactive materials were concentrated 15 times more in cows’ milk and was 30 times more concentrated in beef than in leafy green vegetables.  Freshwater fish were more concentrated with radioactive elements than seawater fish.  Eating lower on the food chain with a plant-source-only diet is a logical and scientific approach to dealing with radiation. It also best supports the vegan way of ahimsa – a traditional part of the yogic path.

7. Meditation has been shown in studies at Chernobyl to ameliorate the degenerative effects of radiation.

Yoga teaches flexibility and adaptability of body and mind. This teaching needs to be applied to our total lifestyles to protect ourselves from the ill effects of radiation.

Gabriel Cousens

Dr. Gabriel Cousens, MD is the founder and director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona, where a living-food diet is taught and lived. He received his medical degree from Columbia Medical School and is the author of Conscious Eating, Spiritual Nutrition and other books. His work reversing diabetes with living food is featured in the documentary Simply Raw.

www.gabrielcousens.com

The post Remedies for Radiation: The Greener, the Better, for Mineral Balance and Overall Protection appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

• Nut milks and seed milks
• Nuts and seeds
• Juicy and oily vegetables, like avocado
• Low-glycemic fruits, especially berries, such as goji berries
• Other foods with a slight sweetness in taste like apples, carrots, coconut and sprouted grains.
• (Goji berries and bee pollen are not only high in antioxidants, but are tremendously rejuvenative.)
• More oily, creamy, soupy types of food, such as smoothies, are all good for building ojas.

To build ojas, it is important to increase the intake of omega-3 fatty acids. Many people on a low-fat, cleansing, live-food diet become depleted in omega-3 fatty acids. Lack of short-, medium- and long-chain fatty acids weakens the physical nervous system and depletes ojas. Purslane (pictured, above), a common herb that grows almost everywhere, is high in the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, particularly EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid). Recent research by Dr. Timohir Lelas of Zagreb, through the process of tribomechanical analysis verified the existence of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) in aphanizomenon flos-aquae (AFA) (also known as Klamath Lake algae).

Research cited in Primordial Food suggests that not only does AFA have EPA and DHA, but that he AFA, probably because of its high levels of alpha-linolenic acid, increases the DHA and EPA in the blood in rats to higher levels than expected by the DHA and EPA in the AFA alone. In other words, AFA amplifies the EPA and DHA levels in the blood. Monoatomic rhodium and iridium have also been found in AFA. These are some of the only vegan sources we have of EPA. AFA grows almost everywhere. DHA, another important
long-chain omega-3 fatty acid, especially for brain function, is available from a golden algae as well as AFA.

Flax seed and hemp seed will provide most of the short-chainomega-3 fatty acids. Coconut oil is a great oil for building ojas, as are hemp seed and macadamia nuts. Coconut oil increases the conversion of short-chain to long-chain omega-3 fatty acids by three to six percent.

Certain tonic herbs in general, and particularly ashwagandha, shatavari, ginseng and licorice are good for ojas. These are what Ayurveda calls soma-producing herbs.

Spirulina and chlorella – high in protein, fatty acids like GLA (gamma-linolenic acid, which is highest in mother’s milk, second highest in spirulina, and third highest in hemp seeds), sulfanolipids, minerals, and vitamins – are both tridoshic (balance all the doshas) and excellent as ojas builders.

Bee pollen, as the semen of the plant world, is an incredible food for building ojas. It is twenty percent protein (gram for gram, it has five to seven times more protein than meat, eggs, or cheese), is fifteen percent brain-building oils and lecithin, has sixty-three minerals and most of the B vitamins, and has vitamins C and E, nucleic acids, 5,000 enzymes and coenzymes, and essential fatty acids. According to the research by Dr. Eric Erickson from the University of Wisconsin, bee pollen causes a positive electric charge. When bees leave the hive, they have a slightly negative or neutral charge; on returning with the pollen, they have a charge as high as 1.5 volts and their bee pollen is charged. Dr. Nicolai Tsitsin, a Russian botanist found that of those in Russia living past 125 years, many were beekeepers whose main food was bee pollen. Much Russian research has shown that bee pollen has powerful anti-aging and regenerative powers. Bee pollen is the ultimate biogenic food and the procreative force of the plant world.**

**Note: Some vegans choose not to eat bee pollen. Vegan sources of ojas-building foods are listed in this article.

Gabriel Cousens

Dr. Gabriel Cousens, MD is the founder and director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona, where a living-food diet is taught and lived. He received his medical degree from Columbia Medical School and is the author of Conscious Eating, Spiritual Nutrition and other books. His work reversing diabetes with living food is featured in the documentary Simply Raw.

www.gabrielcousens.com

The post Build Vitality through Live Food appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.