Reaching out Beyond the Garden
On a mild day in mid-January, close to twenty elders, mentors, and leaders who work with youth gathered at Commonweal Garden. They came for an introduction to the Regenerative Design Institute’s (RDI) Ecology of Leadership training, and stayed for the next 24 hours to help plan an important new RDI initiative—the formation of a Youth Leadership Program.
Inspired by our desire to work with urban youth and support young leaders, the concept for the program evolved through many years of conversations, meetings, and discussions. Although there are a number of programs offering young people a chance to experience the natural world, there are few opportunities for young leaders who work with youth to receive the training and care they need to give fully of their hearts and souls. The intention of the Youth Leadership Program is to fill that need.
Funded through the generosity of the Kalliopeia Foundation, the Youth Leadership Program will bring together leaders, ranging in age from 21–35, who serve youth organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. They will be invited to spend four days with the Regenerative Design Institute, participating in a retreat led by wise elders, RDI staff, and other guest instructors to collaborate, nurture themselves, and develop a strong connection to each other and the natural world.
Following the retreat, those participants willing to commit to working together for the next three years will dive into a five month Ecology of Leadership training. Each will develop a plan that will help the communities they serve to better connect with the natural world, and RDI will work with them to make their visions a reality.
The undertaking is ambitious and rewarding. The inspiration, for ourselves, the elders who gathered in January, and those who will participate in the retreat, comes from the amazing gardens and the wildlands that comprise Commonweal Garden. Vibrant and buzzing with life, the gifts they offer spread out far beyond the fenceline—breathing new energy into the corners of our cities and urban neighborhoods in need of nature and nurturing.
The Regenerative Design Institute at Commonweal Garden is supported through the generosity of the Jenifer Altman Foundation, Morning Glory Family Foundation, Stinson-Bolinas Community Fund, Kalliopeia Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration BWET program, and the donations and time of many individuals to whom we are very grateful.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Sadja Greenwood’s Supplement Recommendations
Dear Readers:
This is a summary of a talk I gave at Commonweal on March 7, 2010. Below are some suggested supplements that may help to give you maximum health. However, eating a good diet is the first key to health. This country is blessed to have great organic farmers giving us wonderful vegetables and fruits. Have these every day, along with local diary products and eggs, and small amounts of poultry, fish, and meat. Walk, run, or bike— And remember to give thanks to your local farmers, especially organic farmers, for their hard work and provisions.
WOMEN 18–50
*Multivitamin with iron: Take daily. For folic acid in case of pregnancy. Folic acid helps prevent birth defects. Multis should contain iron because of menstrual blood loss.
*Calcium: 600–1000 mg daily—to get 1200 mg from pills and diet. Calcium helps bone strength and may help with premenstrual tension.
*Magnesium: 300–350 mg daily. Magnesium helps bone strength and has numerous positive effects on the body.
*Vitamin D: Take daily. 1000–2000 IU—or enough to keep blood level of 25 hydroxy vitamin D 35–40 ng/ml. People with darker skin may need more D to get to these levels. Vitamin D helps with bone strength, prevention of infection and cancer, and keeps your brain sharp.
*Vitamin C: 500 mg daily—taking 250 mg twice a day is ideal.
*Fish oil: Capsule daily—or eat fish 2–3 times a week. The omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil help your heart and are important for your brain and mood.
*Probiotic: Daily on arising. These contain beneficial bacteria that help your immune system fight off colds, and infections of the vagina and bladder.
WOMEN OVER 50
*Multivitamin without iron: Take daily if diet is haphazard.
*Calcium and Magnesium: As above.
*Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Probiotic: The same as for women under 50.
*Fish Oil capsules: Two daily.
*Vitamin B12: 500–1000 mcg sublingually once or twice a week. A level of 500pg/ml is desirable. As you get older, you may not absorb this essential vitamin from the meat, fish, dairy, or eggs that you eat. B12 prevents anemia and keeps your brain sharp. Letting it dissolve under your tongue will take it directly into your bloodstream.
MEN 18–50
*Multivitamin without iron: Take daily if diet is haphazard.
*Vitamin D: Take daily. 1000–2000 IU—or enough to keep blood level of 25 hydroxy vitamin D 35–40 ng/ml. People with darker skin may need more D to get to these levels.
*Vitamin C: 500 mg daily—taking 250 twice a day is ideal.
*Fish oil: Capsule daily—or eat fish 2¬¬–3 times a week.
*Probiotic: Daily on arising.
MEN OVER 50
*Multivitamin without iron: Take daily if diet is haphazard.
*Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Probiotic: The same as for men under 50.
*Fish oil capsules: Two daily.
*Vitamin B12: 500–1000 mcg sublingually once or twice a week. A level of 500 pg/ml is desirable. As you get older, you may not absorb this essential vitamin from the meat, fish, dairy, or eggs that you eat. B12 prevents anemia and keeps your brain sharp. Letting it dissolve under your tongue will take it directly into your bloodstream.
Sadja Greenwood, MD, MPH
For more information, go to Sadjacolumns.blogspot.com
This is a summary of a talk I gave at Commonweal on March 7, 2010. Below are some suggested supplements that may help to give you maximum health. However, eating a good diet is the first key to health. This country is blessed to have great organic farmers giving us wonderful vegetables and fruits. Have these every day, along with local diary products and eggs, and small amounts of poultry, fish, and meat. Walk, run, or bike— And remember to give thanks to your local farmers, especially organic farmers, for their hard work and provisions.
WOMEN 18–50
*Multivitamin with iron: Take daily. For folic acid in case of pregnancy. Folic acid helps prevent birth defects. Multis should contain iron because of menstrual blood loss.
*Calcium: 600–1000 mg daily—to get 1200 mg from pills and diet. Calcium helps bone strength and may help with premenstrual tension.
*Magnesium: 300–350 mg daily. Magnesium helps bone strength and has numerous positive effects on the body.
*Vitamin D: Take daily. 1000–2000 IU—or enough to keep blood level of 25 hydroxy vitamin D 35–40 ng/ml. People with darker skin may need more D to get to these levels. Vitamin D helps with bone strength, prevention of infection and cancer, and keeps your brain sharp.
*Vitamin C: 500 mg daily—taking 250 mg twice a day is ideal.
*Fish oil: Capsule daily—or eat fish 2–3 times a week. The omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil help your heart and are important for your brain and mood.
*Probiotic: Daily on arising. These contain beneficial bacteria that help your immune system fight off colds, and infections of the vagina and bladder.
WOMEN OVER 50
*Multivitamin without iron: Take daily if diet is haphazard.
*Calcium and Magnesium: As above.
*Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Probiotic: The same as for women under 50.
*Fish Oil capsules: Two daily.
*Vitamin B12: 500–1000 mcg sublingually once or twice a week. A level of 500pg/ml is desirable. As you get older, you may not absorb this essential vitamin from the meat, fish, dairy, or eggs that you eat. B12 prevents anemia and keeps your brain sharp. Letting it dissolve under your tongue will take it directly into your bloodstream.
MEN 18–50
*Multivitamin without iron: Take daily if diet is haphazard.
*Vitamin D: Take daily. 1000–2000 IU—or enough to keep blood level of 25 hydroxy vitamin D 35–40 ng/ml. People with darker skin may need more D to get to these levels.
*Vitamin C: 500 mg daily—taking 250 twice a day is ideal.
*Fish oil: Capsule daily—or eat fish 2¬¬–3 times a week.
*Probiotic: Daily on arising.
MEN OVER 50
*Multivitamin without iron: Take daily if diet is haphazard.
*Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Probiotic: The same as for men under 50.
*Fish oil capsules: Two daily.
*Vitamin B12: 500–1000 mcg sublingually once or twice a week. A level of 500 pg/ml is desirable. As you get older, you may not absorb this essential vitamin from the meat, fish, dairy, or eggs that you eat. B12 prevents anemia and keeps your brain sharp. Letting it dissolve under your tongue will take it directly into your bloodstream.
Sadja Greenwood, MD, MPH
For more information, go to Sadjacolumns.blogspot.com
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
ANTIBIOTICS (STILL) AT RISK
How You Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm?
[San Francisco Medicine, April 2010]
by Steve Heilig, MPH, Director of Public Health and Education
Bacteria are likely the best creatures known for teaching and demonstrating evolution in action. They reproduce so fast and are so responsive to environmental selection pressures that one can alter a colony’s genetics in very little time. It’s literally a textbook case of Darwinian survival of the fittest.
Of course, that’s not always a good thing for other species. And with bacteria and antibiotics it has been war from the start. Drug-resistant strains and colonies began to arise as soon as antibiotics came online; the race to keep ahead of them is constant and escalating. In fact, Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin, warned about just this threat in his 1945 Nobel Prize address.
Efforts to develop new antibiotics, coupled with ever-vigilant efforts to refine prescribing to avoid unnecessary use, are crucial and ongoing. Still, at this point, antibiotic-resistant infections kill tens of thousands of Americans each year and have been estimated to cost the U.S. up to $34 billion annually. Brad Spellberg, MD, infectious disease specialist and author of Rising Plague, warns, “We are seeing infections ... that are literally resistant to every antibiotic that is FDA approved. These are untreatable infections. This is the first time since 1936, the year sulfa hit the market in the U.S., that we have had this problem.” Dr. Fred Tenover of the CDC added in Science in 2008 that “this is a major blooming public health crisis.”
As far back as the 1970s, some experts were warning that we were using too many antibiotics in agriculture; namely, as growth promoters and infection pro¬phylaxis in meat production. The concern was that this other reservoir of selective pressure might spill over into human infections, worsening the overall threat. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, 70 percent of antibiotics used in this country are fed to healthy livestock; another 14 percent treat sick livestock. The remaining 16 percent go to people and pets. And about that time, newer molecular tracking techniques started indicating that indeed, some resistant strains of human pathogens were finding their way from feedlots and farms into hospitals and humans. As an old song asked, “How you gonna keep ‘em down on the farm?”
Apparently, we cannot. A 2002 Clinical Infectious Diseases meta-analysis of more than 500 studies found that “many lines of evidence link antibiotic resistant human infections to foodborne pathogens of animal origin.” The Institute of Medicine concluded in 2003, “Clearly, a decrease in the inappropriate use of antimicrobials in human medicine alone is not enough. Substantial efforts must be made to decrease inappropriate overuse in animals and agriculture as well.” In 2004, the World Health Organization reported that increasing resistance was linked to “nonhuman usage of antimicrobials.”
That’s a brief summary of expert opinion and evidence. In light of this, the European Union has banned the use of antibiotics in livestock except to treat illness—and the evidence grew stronger. The most intensively studied country, Denmark, saw a 50% decrease in total antibiotic use without negative impacts on farmers or consumers but a large public health benefit. But what about here in the USA?
Back in 2002, the San Francisco Medical Society convened a conference (co-sponsored by Commonweal) on this issue, co-chaired by two living legends of American medicine and public health, Philip Lee, MD, and Lester Breslow, MD. One result of that meeting was a policy resolution urging the phaseout of routine use of antibiotics in agriculture; this policy was adopted by the SFMS, CMA, and AMA. But, to be frank, not much has changed in practice.
The latest federal legislation introduced to stop the use of important human antibiotics in the feed and water of animals that are not sick is called PAMTA—the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (HR 1549/S.619). Hundreds of health, medical, and consumer and environmental groups have endorsed it. In a Congressional hearing, a former FDA Commissioner held that using antibiotics on healthy farm animals has to stop.
And what do farmers think? Many smaller producers, especially in the “organic”-type sector, already forego antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. But “big agriculture” lobbyists fight any restrictions. They have argued that restrictions in Europe have led to outbreaks and higher costs, but again, authorities there say that this is a “creative” and untrue rumor. And now even the USDA holds that the cost savings of using antibiotics is a mirage in most cases.
Once again, the sad precedent of the “tobacco wars” is conjured. The evidence of a severe health threat is strong; corrective measures are proposed and endorsed; political lobbying gridlocks the remedy. The risk keeps growing, and people suffer and die. PAMTA (Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act), at a minimum, needs to be enacted. Even more regulation is likely warranted. Will our leaders listen before uncontrollable disaster strikes?
Martin Blaser, MD, a past president of the Infectious Disease Society of America, warns of “lethal pandemics” if antibiotic resistance is not brought under control. In fact, some longtime observers of this threat fear that, rather than a nuclear or other threat, it might well be our smallest, longtime, invisible enemies that prove the end of humanity, coming “not with a bang, but with a whimper.”
For more information, see http://www. keepantibioticsworking.com
[San Francisco Medicine, April 2010]
by Steve Heilig, MPH, Director of Public Health and Education
Bacteria are likely the best creatures known for teaching and demonstrating evolution in action. They reproduce so fast and are so responsive to environmental selection pressures that one can alter a colony’s genetics in very little time. It’s literally a textbook case of Darwinian survival of the fittest.
Of course, that’s not always a good thing for other species. And with bacteria and antibiotics it has been war from the start. Drug-resistant strains and colonies began to arise as soon as antibiotics came online; the race to keep ahead of them is constant and escalating. In fact, Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin, warned about just this threat in his 1945 Nobel Prize address.
Efforts to develop new antibiotics, coupled with ever-vigilant efforts to refine prescribing to avoid unnecessary use, are crucial and ongoing. Still, at this point, antibiotic-resistant infections kill tens of thousands of Americans each year and have been estimated to cost the U.S. up to $34 billion annually. Brad Spellberg, MD, infectious disease specialist and author of Rising Plague, warns, “We are seeing infections ... that are literally resistant to every antibiotic that is FDA approved. These are untreatable infections. This is the first time since 1936, the year sulfa hit the market in the U.S., that we have had this problem.” Dr. Fred Tenover of the CDC added in Science in 2008 that “this is a major blooming public health crisis.”
As far back as the 1970s, some experts were warning that we were using too many antibiotics in agriculture; namely, as growth promoters and infection pro¬phylaxis in meat production. The concern was that this other reservoir of selective pressure might spill over into human infections, worsening the overall threat. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, 70 percent of antibiotics used in this country are fed to healthy livestock; another 14 percent treat sick livestock. The remaining 16 percent go to people and pets. And about that time, newer molecular tracking techniques started indicating that indeed, some resistant strains of human pathogens were finding their way from feedlots and farms into hospitals and humans. As an old song asked, “How you gonna keep ‘em down on the farm?”
Apparently, we cannot. A 2002 Clinical Infectious Diseases meta-analysis of more than 500 studies found that “many lines of evidence link antibiotic resistant human infections to foodborne pathogens of animal origin.” The Institute of Medicine concluded in 2003, “Clearly, a decrease in the inappropriate use of antimicrobials in human medicine alone is not enough. Substantial efforts must be made to decrease inappropriate overuse in animals and agriculture as well.” In 2004, the World Health Organization reported that increasing resistance was linked to “nonhuman usage of antimicrobials.”
That’s a brief summary of expert opinion and evidence. In light of this, the European Union has banned the use of antibiotics in livestock except to treat illness—and the evidence grew stronger. The most intensively studied country, Denmark, saw a 50% decrease in total antibiotic use without negative impacts on farmers or consumers but a large public health benefit. But what about here in the USA?
Back in 2002, the San Francisco Medical Society convened a conference (co-sponsored by Commonweal) on this issue, co-chaired by two living legends of American medicine and public health, Philip Lee, MD, and Lester Breslow, MD. One result of that meeting was a policy resolution urging the phaseout of routine use of antibiotics in agriculture; this policy was adopted by the SFMS, CMA, and AMA. But, to be frank, not much has changed in practice.
The latest federal legislation introduced to stop the use of important human antibiotics in the feed and water of animals that are not sick is called PAMTA—the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (HR 1549/S.619). Hundreds of health, medical, and consumer and environmental groups have endorsed it. In a Congressional hearing, a former FDA Commissioner held that using antibiotics on healthy farm animals has to stop.
And what do farmers think? Many smaller producers, especially in the “organic”-type sector, already forego antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. But “big agriculture” lobbyists fight any restrictions. They have argued that restrictions in Europe have led to outbreaks and higher costs, but again, authorities there say that this is a “creative” and untrue rumor. And now even the USDA holds that the cost savings of using antibiotics is a mirage in most cases.
Once again, the sad precedent of the “tobacco wars” is conjured. The evidence of a severe health threat is strong; corrective measures are proposed and endorsed; political lobbying gridlocks the remedy. The risk keeps growing, and people suffer and die. PAMTA (Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act), at a minimum, needs to be enacted. Even more regulation is likely warranted. Will our leaders listen before uncontrollable disaster strikes?
Martin Blaser, MD, a past president of the Infectious Disease Society of America, warns of “lethal pandemics” if antibiotic resistance is not brought under control. In fact, some longtime observers of this threat fear that, rather than a nuclear or other threat, it might well be our smallest, longtime, invisible enemies that prove the end of humanity, coming “not with a bang, but with a whimper.”
For more information, see http://www. keepantibioticsworking.com
AmeriCorps Volunteer at Commonweal
Photo right: The spirit of AmeriCorps reflects the dedication and enthusiasm of our Commonweal volunteers, like Chuck Oakander, seen here. Chuck generously shared his knowledge and expertise in forest management, fuel-load reduction, and local habitat with the AmeriCorps team members.
Above: Team Member Dane (Jadi) Miller refurbished and cleaned windows
“Service is renewing. When we serve, our work itself sustains us…We are servers of the wholeness and mystery in life.” Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., ISHI Director
Service-learning is the concept that AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) is built around—making connections between service, social issues, and the greater community need for long-term solutions. With deep gratitude and appreciation Commonweal welcomed 12 members of AmeriCorps NCCC Silver Team One for three rainy weeks in January. Here are some of their outstanding accomplishments:
• Removed fire ladders (brush and hanging dead limbs) and reduced the fuel load (dead wood); a major contribution to our fire prevention efforts.
• Restored paths throughout the Retreat Center grounds with chips created from their tree work.
• Scrubbed and power-washed the Retreat Center Buildings.
• Painted Building Number Nine next to the Main Office.
• Catalogued over 1600 books in the Julie Hopkins Neilson Library.
• Painted and renovated a previously unusable storage area, creating a beautiful room.
• Lovingly and carefully relocated thousands of items from the Sandtray Room to their new home in the conference room and cleaned and painted the old Sandtray Room, creating a new office space.
Their enthusiasm, hard work, and wonderful energy made it a delight and honor to host these young volunteers. Commonweal sends a heart-felt “thank you” to our AmeriCorps team and to the AmeriCorps NCCC Pacific Region for making their stay with us possible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)