Author Archives: Mark Schauss

About Mark Schauss

History was always a passion for me since I was a little kid. Even majored in it in college. Loved my Russian history professor, the late Dr. Paul Avrich who inspired this podcast. Also to my mother Alla who kept the Russian side of me going. Wish I had listened to her to learn Russian when I was younger.

Change the World, a Little Step at a Time – Part Two

Here is part two of my multi-part series on changing the world by lowering your environmental footprint.

Tip #6 – Don’t shave on weekends. Doesn’t seem like much but if you think about it, all we need to do are a number of small things to make a big difference.

Tip #7 – Recycle newspaper. For every yard in height of newspaper you recycle, you save one tree from being cut down. Remember, trees help suck up the CO2 from the atmosphere.

Tip #8 – Unplug electronic devices. When you leave computers, TV’s and other household appliances plugged in and on standby when they won’t be used for a few hours, they are draining electricity anyway. Unplug your television if you won’t be around to watch it for 8 hours or so. Better yet, reduce your television viewing and not only will you be saving money and electricity, you’ll be finding lots of better things to do with your life. They didn’t call it the boob tube for nothing.

Tip #9 – Buy organic milk instead of regular. Not only will you reduce the use of environmentally unfriendly pesticides, insecticides and hormones, you will benefit from the ingestion of healthier milk, richer in omega-3 fatty acids than regular milk.

Tip #10 – Reuse cooking water. Why dump the water you cooked your pasta in down the drain? Save it, let it cool and water your plants. Same with the water used to cook your veggies. Think about reusing the water you use to cook with and you’ll not only be saving water and money, but you will be adding nutrients to your plants as well.

As I said yesterday, find a couple of things here and there to change your lifestyle and pretty soon, everything you do will be green.

Wasting Time Being Angry

Ralph Waldo Emerson put it so well when he said, “For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” As a person who sometimes is known for being overly passionate, especially when angry, his saying rings so true. There were two people in particular who, when their names were even mentioned, would get me angry because of the nasty things they tried to do to me and my family.

Today, these same two people still try to say inflammatory things about me but I take a new approach which is best summed up by my little saying (not quite as eloquent as Mr. Emerson) “They are still pissing on me but I no longer get wet.”

Hold back the anger, let things slide off your back and relish in the good moments of life because before you know it, they’re gone.

Change the World, a Little Step at a Time

Now that the release of my book “Achieving Victory Over a Toxic World” is only a month away, I thought it’s time to start giving my readers tips on how you can make a difference when it comes to our environment. We tend to think that our footprint compared to big companies and governments are so small that any change we make is miniscule. Furthermore, so many of the books out there remind us that if ¼ of the population were to do something (like change from incandescent to fluorescent bulbs), the environment would improve greatly. This is nice in the abstract but how does this excite me to make a difference. My thought is that it doesn’t matter what everyone else does until you do it yourself.

If you can put your head on your pillow tonight knowing that you did something, even something very small, to lower your environmental footprint, then you will have helped save our planet.

My blog for the next few weeks will focus on tips of ways you and your family can make a difference. No need to do them all; pick a few that you feel you can accomplish and those that pertain to your life. I will be posting those things my family and I will be doing to change our habits to be better stewards of our environment. Together we can and will change this world.

Tip #1 – If you can’t lower your travel, offset your carbon dioxide (CO2) emission by going to the CarbonFund website and make a donation. They have calculators to show how much your travels generate greenhouse gases and what it would cost to offset them. An example is how much my car, a 2003 Saturn Vue would cost to offset for one year. I travel about 15,000 miles a year and to offset the 6.34 tons of CO2 it cost me $34.85 to offset that (My Prius only cost me $13.31). This money goes towards projects that will counter my polluting ways. My next car will be one that is about 20% more efficient than the Vue which is another way to lower my footprint.

Tip #2 – Automate your bill paying. Bills are never fun to pay but paying them online instead of via the mail reduces paper waste, lowers the gas needed to transport the payment and lowers postage costs. My family has been doing this for a few years now and it is much more efficient than the old paper way.

Tip #3 – Cook your meals from scratch. Stop buying pre-packaged foods that are a waste of material, energy hogs (creation of the product to the containers), and is infinitely healthier for you. My two daughters go to a Montessori school and they don’t allow pre-packaged foods to be used for their lunches which I believe is a great thing. The amount of time it takes to make a real meal versus a pre-packaged one is small. Make dinner creation a family event. It will bring you closer and will be good for your health and the health of our world.

Tip #4 – Don’t buy bottled water. Ugh, this one annoys me to no end. Fiji Water could be the worst. Imagine the amount of energy it takes to transport the bottling material from China to Fiji, then to pump the water up to the bottling plant and then shipping it to the US? Sound ridiculous to you? Does to me. I once wrote about this on my blog to show the insanity of buying bottled water. Get a glass or stainless steel container and bottle your own tap water (use a filter if you need to). It’s smart, environmentally right and you will save a bundle of money (remember, bottled water costs around $9.00 a gallon, tap is about .03¢).

Tip #5 – Stop using bleach. There are a number of alternatives and here is an easy one. Instead of using bleach tablets to keep your toilet clean, mix a cup of borax, mix in some vinegar (just a teaspoon should do) and leave overnight. Scrub in the morning and your porcelain is clean as can be and non-toxic. Guess what the Schauss family will be doing today?

The next few weeks I will be sharing lots more of these tips and then I will be uploading a tracker spreadsheet to help you see what kind of an impact you are having. It could become a fun, family affair or you can make it a neighborhood challenge to see who can make the biggest difference.

A Crayhonism – Robert Crayhon Word of Wisdom

Robert Crayhon, a noted clinical nutritionist, author and lecturer, was with me at the latest A4M meeting (anti-aging medicine) in Las Vegas and he, as he is want to do, had a profound statement about health and diet that I want to share with my readers. His comment was as follows:

“Biochemical individuality is the royal flush in the poker game of health. The Paleolithic/No-Grains diet may be the full house of 4-of-a-kind.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

CME’s – The Pharmaceutical Industries Way to Get at your Doctor

CME’s, aka Continuing Medical Education credits, is supposedly the way to make sure your physician is keeping up with the latest in medicine. Instead, it is the way that the pharmaceutical industry is using this tool as a way of “reallocation of marketing money” according to Dr. Jerome Kassierer former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.

In the November 22nd issue of the esteemed science journal Nature, reporter Jim Giles show how drug companies who “sponsor” the CME classes, are getting undue influence over the speakers and topics despite supposed firewalls put in to prevent this. All of the drug companies are up in arms over the research presented by Drs. Jatinder Takhar and Daniel Carlat in separate papers.

The suggestion made in the article that drug companies should pool their CME support money for distribution by an independent body to reduce corporate influence. This would be a good first step.

Another issue that needs to be addressed is the influence these multi-billion dollar companies have in our medical schools. It is my understanding that representitives from these companies continue to infiltrate medical schools influencing the educational process undertaken by the students. This kind of bias building is wrong and needs legislative pressure to come to bear to stop it.

Perchlorates and Iodine – Another Reason to Ban this Substance

Turns out that the molecular pump that drives iodine also does the same to the toxic chemical perchlorate. Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, led by Dr. Nancy Carrasco, found that perchlorate does double damage to lactating mothers and their babies because the chemical depletes the child of much needed iodine.

This finding is proof that perchlorates (found in jet engine fuel) is more dangerous than the industry admits. Isn’t that how it always works?

Since perchlorate is unavoidable, it is yet another reason to make sure you get adequate amounts of iodine in your diet or at least take a supplement (75 mcg should do for healthy people). Better yet, get tested. Doctor’s Data has a great iodine challenge test that everyone should get at least once every five years.

Dr. Emily Senay Continues a Myth on CBS’s Early Show

It just agravates me to no end when television personalities makes statements that perpetrate myths and do it with a straight face. This morning, on a bit about probiotics, Dr. Emily Senay of the CBS Early Show said something that is just boldly untrue. She said that nutritional supplements are not regulated by the FDA. That is a flat out lie. Click here to watch the video.

The DSHEA bill, passed in the ’90s, gave consumers free and fair access to nutritional supplements but it did give regulatory jurisdiction to the FDA. Don’t believe me, go here to the FDA website, look at the left hand column that says “Products FDA Regulates.” Wow, under food it says “Dietary supplements”. So Dr. Senay, either you lied on TV, or the FDA is lying. You have continued this myth over and over and over whenever you talk about supplements. Time for you to come clean.

Don’t give us the “I meant they don’t approve supplements” line either. You said what you said and you have repeated this many times. The FDA does regulate supplements and can pull a product off the market whenever they see fit. Most of the time they do a fine job and will take dangerous supplements off the market.

It is time for reporters and the media as a whole to stop the continuation of a lie. Dr. Senay, it’s time for you to get on the air and tell people the truth.

Another Bad Decision by the FDA

A recent decision to allow pharmaceutical companies to circulate pee-reviewd papers about off-label uses of a company’s products is a bad idea that makes one wonder who’s payroll is the FDA on. Ours or the pharmaceutical industries?

The problem with this idea is that the companies can now go after getting FDA approval for very narrow uses and then promote the drugs for more profitable uses without having to go through stringent testing and scrutiny. My understanding is that the FDA is supposed to protect the public, not the interests of the drug industry. This ruling does the exact opposite and Congress needs to step in which it is now in the process of doing, I hope.

Top Science Stories of 2007 – Part Deux #’s 26-100

Sorry to be a little late on this one. Spent the week at the A4M conference in Las Vegas. To read the complete list from Discover Magazine, go to your nearest newstand and pick up a copy. It’s a great read.

42 – California Bans Phthalates in Plastic Toys – Way to go Governor Schwarzenegger!  Phthalates are bad news health wise despite the industries claim to the contrary. Go to the journal Environmental Health Perspectives and look up the research into this plasticizer. It isn’t good news.

43 – Human Genome Reveals Signs of Recent Evolution – Yes, we are evolving although some wonder whether it is for the better or not. Despite many creationists beliefs, evolution is being seen everyday.

61 – Unsustainable Soil Use Can Cause Civilizations to Collapse – Exactly what we are doing to our soil, especially with the insane amount of corn being grown. Read the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan to understand how bad it is getting.

64 – Cloned Hamburger, Anyone? – We need to protect our food supply from biotech companies all out for profit. Hopefully the FDA will protect us from this threat but I have my doubts.

70 – How the Body Protects the Gut – Dendritic cells seems to be important in teaching T-cells to be tolerant to beneficial bacteria and to intestinal cells.

83 – Why Loneliness is Bad for You – Turns out that being lonely can actually affect your DNA. Time to find a friend.

89 – Food Additives’ Effect on Children – Something we in the alterantive health industry have known for decades is finally being accepted by the general public and the main-stream health community. Cut out the additives and try real fruit juices and water.

96 – Function of Appendix Explained – Turns out the appendix is where the body stores beneficial bacteria. If you had yours removed, I would suggest taking probiotics every day (probably a good idea if you didn’t either).