In 2014, I encountered a man named Steve Beddingfield via a Facebook group about chronic illness.  Does it matter which one? Cancer, fibromyalgia, Lyme, this, that, the other  -- take your pick. I make this point 'at the top' and frequently now, because it turns out whether our symptoms are this or that, the underlying cause .... root cause ... is something it seems he has figured out and connected the dots about.  

His work lead him to believe and start teaching others in a little group he created where he'd been filtering people to some degree, that we all have one thing -- 'our disease' some might say, depending upon how you feel about the word 'dis-ease'.   The same cause / the same antidote, via a simple protocol which includes recommendations to prevent further getting 'loaded' with enough 'stuff' that a person will have symptoms. Symptoms are so many little things, too --- it's amazing how many things on the outside (skin) and inside of us were symptoms of unwellness which people were thinking was just part of life! 

And the Earth, which we are one with, has the same thing too.  "Giant Sulphur Bacteria, GSB for short, is able to parasitize algae that it comes in contact with, much like it does with mold, so a new problem maker arises, moss is now invasive."  People in his group end up reporting that they've noticed, or start noticing, moss in places there didn't used to be, in quantities beyond what occurred in the past.  "Look up at the tree canope and then we'll talk" he'd said to me at one point.  When I told him I'm in the desert, technically, I was aware that we all have such different points of reference.  But I have tried to 'notice' in the desert, on the rocks, in the trees, and everywhere, what might indicate what he's talking about. And I eventually could see things that perhaps wouldn't have been there in the past.  In more humid places of the world, they're having more examples ... and problems. 

Meeting Steve Beddingfield on Facebook was similar to how I met Alice in 2009 on Facebook, who I eventually came to call "Amazing Alice" as she had such grace, and was amazing, with all she went through and continued to go through. Early in the days of Lumigrate, after our information helped open her eyes to a whole different way of looking at health, problems, and reversal of symptoms, she creating several wonderful topics that embelished Lumigrate and brought a new dimension of readers to our pages.

Today, 2015, I've not registered anyone new to write in two years and I was able to get really crackin' on creating more content and getting Lumigrate 'flush' with information about things I foresaw the mainstream media playing up, such as Lyme disease.  Steve is wishing the information to get to people, and he wants to continue his work in his 'hillbilly laboratory', so I'm continuing to sprinkle information on Lumigrate in order to help catch people and 'intervene' so they might learn of this very cutting edge but important information. 

Below is the photo that started the conversation shortly after "May Day" 2015, posted by someone in his group who has been studying and then doing the things that he outlines in his protocol.  The group has been kept at under 1,800 people so far and they are trying to get a bulk of people 'up to speed' on the information enough to help others. They hope some will start their own groups eventually as well.

One of the women in the group posted the picture of a pickle after someone in her family had taken the first bite and then before the second bite saw what we see here.  I've gotten permission to include here (thank you!, you know who you are, "PickleGal", I'll call ya).  It was a commercially produced pickle, and one that is a highly known brand in the USA.  

It is in our best interests to realize how 'messed up' the soils are overall, this can happen to any brand, to any home gardener or small food creat-or.  This is massive, from what I have learned and in my opinion (and others'), what is going on with our soils (and water and air) that gets into our foods and then into our guts and throughout our bodies, including into the brain. (The superhighway is the vagus nerve).  There are things we can do to rid some of the things we are ingesting of these 'interlopers'.  So please be proactive about learning and then consider what action you're going to take, or not.  

PickleGal mentioned that she'd been trying to talk her family system into growing food, to have better control over what's in your food, and this perhaps was going to put them more in congruence with her. She mentioned 'the stubborn one' was finally agreeing to start the protocol after this pickle incident.  

 

Photo: 

Courtesy of PickleGal ©2015 Lumigrate

The conversation that ensued in Steve Beddingfield's group was helpful and impressive:

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Steve Beddingfield: Our soil is contaminated, soils need fungi for bio remediation. Everyone must learn how to grow polypores at home, or establish neighborhood operations, best to start today.

 

Members inquired on where to learn about polypores.

 

PickleGal: We all learn differently, so I am attaching one to start. You may already be consuming one while following the protocol. 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/14987072/ [5]

Our terrains are different, we possibly have different needs when it comes to gardening and healthy soil. Similar to our bodies... Some need more liver support than urinary or vice versa.
I hope this helps, it can be "deep", my interest started with desire.                                                         -- A woman commented that rinsed pickles was their comfort food and the PickleGal responded "Ours too, minus the ETs.  The rest of the summer will consist of a cooler filled with a mixture of celtic (sea salt), cucumbers, a few spices, and vinegar.......curing."

Note: Alice, who started this thread long ago had identified and been identified by conventional, insurance-based, organized medicine as having 'fibromyalgia', and below this conversation is going to reflect symptoms from people who have been identified with that in some cases, and with other of the 'overlapping conditions' some would call it (including me, in the past, but I shifted recently and can see it through the paradigm of there's one cause of the health issues that anything and anyone has, for all time, and it's with the increases and interplaying of what's all in the environment that we see today that 'everyone' has 'something wrong with them' either in the way they attend, focus, behave, remember, think, process, sense things, react to things such as balance and reaction time, sense things, move, have soundness of bones, muscles, connective tissues, which means pain or not, energy or not, etc.), so the conversation will go from soils to how this stuff is inside of us to symptoms they were conversing about that are focused about skin in this case.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   These are people who also have many other symptoms, I wanted to clarify that here, before you read on. In the hopes this kind of information helps pull people's thinking through the dots that can connect for cause/ effect. We are the Earth. The Earth is us. And the earth/dirt and what's in it, is us too. All of us. It just depending on where you've been, what the health of the earth/soil, air, water ecosystem is and what's gotten into you AND WHERE YOUR FOODS HAVE BEEN GROWN THAT YOU HAVE CONSUMED. 

Mid May 2015 this ensued on a conversation thread: From one of the more knowledgeable, overall, women in the group and that I've seen in my years on planet Earth and on Facebook: "I saw where you'd been out working in your yard with moss, algae, and mold. Let me just share that whenever I work to clean up outside, work in the yard, in old boxes of belongings, algae bathroom mess, or similar exposure, I immediately start back with horrible itching and crawling. A few days or week later new lesions pop up, and of course the old sites flare. The only solution is to wear protective gear when doing these chores. Disposable, hooded hazmat suits, eye protection, mask, gloves, and a protective barrier applied to the exposed skin are mandatory. Our exposures are constant as long as we live in this world, making it priority number one to protect ourselves. 

Then PosterGal commented: Some areas (of the country/world) really seem to be so much worse than others. I don't get any of that working outside, but I know (woman from comment above, name removed) does. I know that many mention seeing these fibers and algae everywhere. Here, I see stuff mostly in the woods around lakes. Some trees, etc. but not nearly to the extent some are seeing. I don't see algae growing on the sides of houses etc. but I know (above woman, name removed) does.

The woman who had the setback from working outdoors that's inspired this conversation said: We've got algae growing on the fence and other outdoor woodwork. (My partner, name removed) says he's gonna get some Kilz that contains mold killer at $32 a gallon. All the yard work I did was to remove the moss, mold and algae in the grass. Added in cedar shavings (pet bedding material), mulch, and top soil. I created a pathway and a garden for herbs and vegetables. We have moss growing on all the retaining walls that are in mostly shade. I'm determined to make my environment healthy, especially since I know I have one allergy - to MOLD. I'm just wondering how that happened.

The highly knowledgeable woman who reacts to outdoor toxins and suggested the hazmat suit for outdoor work said: "Mushroom fertilizer in a layer under the cedar shavings or wood bark chips will go a long way to inhibit growth of fungi, mold, and algae. One further step is to apply some mushroom spores to the soil." then later "Green and black algae creeping covers all surfaces....concrete, wood fence, brick, iron gate, canvas umbrella, patio furniture....all."  She said the woman's photos of her yard that she says has problems is mild in comparison to hers (she's in California, the other woman I believe is in the Pacific Northwest). 

PosterGal: I can attest to the mushroom. Maybe that's why I don't have it so much in my yard. I always used mushroom manure. Plants love it. I plan on making a tea and spraying it this summer in the whole yard.

Then Steve suggests putting powdered lime on the green areas, after the woman with the current relapse from working in her yard to remediate this stuff said that the only things with green now are the bricks in the path (newly put in) and something else.   This is perhaps what had given some the idea that whitewash, which was replaced by paint, was something to return to. Interesting though -- that had been elsewhere in a conversation thread. 

Then the woman who'd relapsed added a comment: "This would be a good post to share pictures of these hitchhikers.  I mean it's weird to think they were inside, living, eating and making babies.. and for how long? Should I be sad or remorseful? Ummm like they were pets or something like offspring.  ... Let me think about this .... (SHOWING THE SENSE OF HUMOR)(This is a military veteral by the way, on the thread she processed exposures to waters during her deployments, and was doing her work of trying to figure out where things got on and in her and caused the problems.  I think that's helpful for people to do to the extent that it's helpful to them.  My mind is one that likes to have that all figured out. Others, not so much.)

She comes back later with this: I'm using this thread to update you all on my progress. Been doing the protocol since November. Used toothpaste on the lesions, which is the only thing I've used that works well. Unfortunately it burns the skin. Toilet paper and toothpaste, like a spackle job. Here's the last remaining lesions and what they look like. They hurt like HELL and yesterday, after I shaved up my head and saw the real deal, I ended up in bed crying my eyes out feeling sorry for myself. I just want this nightmare to end just like the rest of you. 

I don't have any other option besides to continue the protocol and hope and pray for the best. I have no doctor that can tell me what to do or give me help, they all have no answers. So I'm keeping on and I'll either live this way for the rest of my days, or maybe I'll heal and this will all be just one big long nightmare that will be in my past. 
Don't need any advice for topical or otherwise. I'm doing ok. Just ok. Using head and shoulders as a body wash and giving my skin a break from the toothpaste. I'm using the dog's hydrocortisone spray. It worked for her!!

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• A. I'm getting those cuts mainly all over my hands. I feel when the cuts happen. It feels like there is a glass bug that's slashing my skin. Those glitter mites.

   

  B. I get small paper-cut-like sores that look like little scratches on my hands, out of nowhere.
  Could you describe what glitter mites are?

   

  A. When it cuts me I also immediately feel arthritic pain hell for at least a good 10 mins, like it has injected some poisen, or maybe its gone potty on me. Who knows. im so done with this crap! Every time I accidentally ingest whatever this is, my body starts tremorring like crazy internally. It feels like I'm going to go into a seizure. I've never personally had a seizure before, but have felt on the verge of one numerous times now.

   

  One time it felt like it got into my heart or lungs and I was going to die, the tremoring got so violent, and the hospital did not a damn thing for my tremors. It was definitely not a "panic attack". The next day, it felt like I had suffered a mini stroke because I could not walk straight and couldn't function. It was extremely scary.

   

  I hate (Mardy's adding in she's referring to 'conventional') doctors. Most of them are worthless when it comes to recognizing toxicity and treating it. None of them want to give non prescriptive treatment recommendations. I really feel like they are the very reason my brain has now rotted away, and I pray that I can reverse the severe brain damage that I have suffered and actually begin to finish one simple task. 

   

  They have no idea the detrimental effects they have caused in each and everyone's lives. Physical, mental, emotional, and financial. I have lost my job of 5 yrs because of (the medical system's) incorrect diagnosis of delusions of parisitosis (DP), and I haven't been unemployed/fired/laid off since I started working 20 yrs ago!!! It's f'in sad!!! And to make matters worse my unemployment claim was just denied. I think doctors should be held f'in responsible/fined/jailed for improperly diagnosing any patient with DP!!! That way they are required to take patients much more seriously before dismissing their symptoms.

   

  Then the woman who is so experienced, educated who also reacts if working around things so wears a Hazmat suit when doing so says: "it's comically obvious the doctors have all memorized the same script when they automatically throw around the DP / delusions of perisitosis term. I'd like to put the lot of them in a pit of vipers and spiders then tell them to calm down....it's all in your head.

   

  Another woman entered in to say : Sorry to hear you lost your job, (name removed). Doctors don't understand anything about parasites AT ALL. Glad you ended up here though. We're all working on getting our lives back. How long have you been on Steve's protocol?

   

  Yet another woman entered in to say: I ready do not even go around normals. You cannot mention any of this, they go nuts. I just do not have the energy to debate. I did circles around them, and ate healthier than mostly all of them. I have a few doc's that believe. But just have not found the right tools.

   

  Another woman: I would get the tremors and the heart palps really bad. i would have to lay back down. Once you get the BM's up to 3 a day. they will calm down. Then when you reach 3 a day, hit the omega's for inflammatiom. Steve's famous line "if you could do 10 BM's a day it would not be enough." So true, when I got to 3, my walking was so much firmer on the ground. When i got to sit up longer. i was excited.

   

  Another woman: If you go down the path of conventional medicine, you would probably die, it would be a long, slow suffering ... deteriorating death. Sorry if that sounds awful, but it's true.

   

  And finishing up with the woman who had the exacerbation of symptoms from working in her yard to remediate the mold, algae, bacteria said: it's very true.... Sometimes medicine is necessary, but....

  ---

   

  A woman who has been really on top of things, very proactive, really changing her lifestyle to get out of the environment she was in who Steve had said was one of the most amazing people he'd ever known via Facebook and maybe overall said this: 

   

  I have been researching mysterious tears and wounds 'down there' (on women) and it seems to happen a lot. Some say viral, some say yeast, some bacteria, some scream 'herpes'...some think hormonal.. In general, from all I have read, there is no common factor. I searched because I recently started having these cut things too. confused  something sounds odd... the protocol (Mardy's Note: meaning Steve Beddingfield's protocol for treating 'this stuff' that we all have in us that essentially is one cause, one disease we ALL have in us to lesser or greater extents, with the variety of symptoms that get broken up in allopathic medicine into a myriad of labeled syndroms, diseases, and conditions) should push whatever it is OUT! I put on a drawing salve to help coat the wound, and wearing loose skirts to air things out has helped me. 
  
  I'm curious as to the general concensus on topical steroids? My learnings have been that they tend to push things back in to the body (ie..exzema gets pushed into lungs and turns into asthma with those that use topical steroids). ... And we need to remember that our sex organs/glands are under constant attack with all the phytoestrogen chemicals in everything.

   

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For now, I'll leave it at that, aside from encouraging people to look at Lumigrate for information about cyanobacteria, GSB (giant sulphur bacteria), Steve Beddingfield (and his image, protocol, group, etc.)  I'd recommend a link about cleaning and laundry, there are some of Steve's photos there, and links that lead you to more about his work and information.  www.lumigrate.com/forum/cleaning-your-environment-and-doing-laundry-light-new-information-toxins-and-earths-environmen [6]

 

Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! ~ Mardy 

September 3, 2015: 1022 reads of this topic had occurred when I came to add in my input about making your own pickles or fermented cucumbers.  I've made both this week, and had some cukes that were of good quality for feeding to chickens that were not going to make quality / good pickles. One bad apple can spoil the whole barrel AND one bad cucumber, I learned online researching how I wanted to go about making my own quality controlled produce to enjoy in the near or distant future, can spoil the whole container of fermenting or pickling cucumbers. 

Here are the websites I utilized:

www.lumigrate.com/forum/cleaning-food-vegetables-fruits-eggs-even-some-meats-simple-chemistry-rescue [7]

nontoxicrevolution.org/plasticsucks/the-7-types-of-plastic-what-they-mean-to-your-health/#.VedqyhyAY-I [8]

paleoleap.com/fermented-food-recipes/ [9]

www.instructables.com/id/Refrigerator-Pickles---Quick-n--Easy/ [10]

www.foodsafetynews.com/2014/03/fermenting-veggies-at-home-follow-food-safety-abcs/#.VedvpxyAY-I [11]

pickyourown.org/pickles_oldfashionedbarrel.htm [12]

www.gardeners.com/how-to/pickle-recipe/8550.html [13]

And last but not least, one I added once I started getting bubbly 'scum' that I wondered if I was supposed to skim or not, and was glad I used different search words for that and found this resource, ChiotsRun dot com. 

 chiotsrun.com/2011/07/30/making-traditionally-fermented-pickles/ [14]

I did not use this recipe aside from reading it over and gleaning some nice points I wanted to pass on here to reinforce: 

You can re-use your pickle juice.

If you're going to use ACV with 'the mother' in it, that is affected by heat.  I'd just put up pickled beets using a recipe that called for ACV and then it was one you heated in the water bath to pickle and preserve, and it had not worked that information in.  So this 'nickle pinching' recipe points out some things that I think are worth reading and you might want to know of the overall resource / website www.rodalesorganiclife.com/food/refrigerator-pickles [15]

Primarily, I followed this information from the fermented foods topic/link, above, from PaleoLeap (I included their beautiful picture too and trust they'll see I'm definitely suggesting YOUsers of Lumigrate GO to THEIR WEBSITE to learn more).  I did not soak the cukes in cold water for several hours, I used the Parcell's oxygen bath recipe topic from Lumigrate (topmost link, above in the grey box) and got ready to go for my evening walk while the bath water was doing it's thing, then drained and went to fresh water and instead of letting that sit the recommended 'timed time', I went out and got my evening walk done -- I also had the salt / brine stuff for not just fermenting but pickling of another batch sitting so it could be as dissolved and the proper temperature (some recipes were wanting cold that you'd put on the refrigerator pickles):

Sour pickles

These are a favorite of many and a lot of people miss them when going on a Paleo diet, but the naturally lacto-fermented kind is perfectly healthy, crunchy and sour. This version is flavored with garlic and dill. Your garlic, too, will lacto-ferment and can be enjoyed afterwards as it will be packed with flavor.

Ingredients

1. 1 gallon (16 cups) pickling cucumbers, non waxed;
2. 2 bunches fresh dill;
3. 16 cloves garlic, whole and peeled;
4. 3 tbsp pickling spices (peppercorns, mustard seeds, bay leaves, cloves);
5. 5 or 6 tbsp sea salt;

Preparation

1. Soak the cucumbers in cold water for a few hours then scrub them thoroughly to prevent any mold from forming during the fermentation process.
2. Place the cucumbers, dill, garlic and spices in your fermentation jar and sprinkle a bit of sea salt as you go along.
3. Prepare a brine of 5 tablespoons sea salt to 8 cups water, making sure to stir well to dissolve the salt, and fill the fermentation jar with the brine so it covers the cucumbers.
4. Cover the jar, place it in a warm spot in your kitchen and allow the cucumbers to ferment for 5 to 10 days.
5. A good way to know when it’s ready is to taste it during the fermentation process. It’s ready when you’re satisfied with the taste.
6.  

From pick your own (dot org), link above in the grey box, this is a highlight message I wanted to have for YOUsers..... 

Using the "Old-Fashioned Barrel Pickle" method

Yield: 7 to 9 pint jars

Click here for a PDF print version (coming soon!)

Making and canning your own dill pickles the old-fashioned way, with all natural ingredients has never been easier!!  Here's how to do it, in easy steps and completely illustrated. But this is NOT a recipe for a beginners. Scrupulopus attention to cleanliness and diligence in each step is required. 

And I found the information and background / overview that is provided at Food Safety News (link above in the grey box) to be extremely helpful.  I'm providing it here for YOUsers to read and see easily without taking a link to go see their site but you'll see I leave off with the getting started, so if you're going to take action and DO THIS, or want to learn more, then you'll find the link in the grey box above with the others:

Fermenting Veggies at Home: Follow Food Safety ABCs

[17]Fermentation has become what USDA microbiologist Fred Breidt, Jr., describes as a “movement that’s picking up speed.”

And for good reason, said Breidt, who specializes in the safety of fermented and acidic foods. Referring to home preparers, small producers and restaurant owners, he said that “they like being able to pick up these nice flavors (from fermentation) and making new ones.”

Sandor Katz, author of “Wild Fermentation” and “The Art of Fermentation,” refers to this “food movement” as a “fermentation revival.”

Considered to be “live foods, fermented foods have a natural tart flavor because the sugars and carbohydrates have been broken down and used up during fermentation.” Katz said that, in the case of vegetables, they’re more digestible than raw ones. And, because they contain “living bacteria,” they help digest other foods in the digestive tract.

Fermentation has long been part of human history. In fact, food scientists say that it played a vital role in human survival in the days before stoves and refrigerators simply because it allowed people to preserve food in a nutritional and safe way. Think foods such as cheese, yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchee, olives, salami, jerky and even bread. And think beverages such as wine and beer, not to mention coffee and hot chocolate. All of these — and many more — are examples of fermented foods.

Although we eat one form of fermented food every day, the idea of fermenting our own food conjures up images of strange, iffy, and perhaps dangerous dishes. Surely it would be best to leave it to the experts.

Not so, say food scientists, microbiologists and fermentation advocates — especially in the case of fermented raw vegetables. They point out that just about any raw vegetable can be safely fermented at home, if done properly.

Breidt has often been quoted as saying that the scientific literature has never recorded a case of food poisoning involving raw vegetables that have been fermented properly. But he emphasized that the key word here is “properly,” which some people who quote him fail to include in that sentence.

How does it work? 

Simply put, fermentation of vegetables happens when the natural bacteria in the vegetables break down the components of the vegetables into forms easier to digest and often more nutritious than the raw vegetable itself.

For those who have apprehensions about food safety, Breidt said that fermented vegetables can be safer than raw vegetables, thanks to the ability of lactic acid, which forms during fermentation, to hunt down and kill any harmful bacteria that might be present.

“It’s almost bulletproof,” he said, referring to fermentation of vegetables, which almost always includes adding salt to shredded, chopped or grated raw vegetables.

Breidt refers to lactic acid bacteria as the “world champions for consuming sugars and converting them to lactic acid.” From there, the lactic acid gets to work overpowering any pathogens on hand.

Fermentation was probably one of the first technologies adopted by humans, Breidt said, noting that it likely developed about the same time as pots in which to hold food. “Vegetables and salt got together,” he said, conjecturing about how this happy “food marriage” began.

Humans probably adopted fermentation about 12,000 years ago — at the dawn of civilization — and Breidt said the technology rapidly spread from region to region.

“We still do it the same way today,” he said. “Why? Because it works. It’s hard to mess it up. Things can go wrong, but it’s rare.”

Author Sandor Katz echoed this, telling Food Safety News that home fermentation of raw vegetables is intrinsically safe. He listed cabbage, daikon radishes, turnips, parsnips, cucumbers, okra, string beans and green tomatoes as good candidates for fermentation.

“There’s no vegetable you can’t ferment,” he said, but added that leafy greens such as kale — because of their chlorophyll content — aren’t to most people’s liking.

During an NPR interview, Katz explained that pickling and fermentation are not the same, although they are “overlapping” categories. A cucumber, for example, can be pickled with vinegar or fermented without vinegar, using a salty brine instead. During fermentation, however, vinegar and other acids are produced, which is why fermented sauerkraut and pickles taste “vinegary.”

When looking at fermented foods collectively, Katz said they’re a big part of the food industry, which means that a lot of research has been done, and is being done, on fermentation. Even now, he said, the traditional methods of fermentation continue to work well.

He pointed out that, until a few generations ago, fermentation was a common way to process foods.

“Historically, it was a way for people to preserve the harvest for the winter,” he said.

But now that it isn’t commonly done at home or in the community, people tend not to ferment foods at home because of their fear of bacteria, viewing fermentation as some sort of “mystique.”

Breidt said that, in Germany, sauerkraut was an important way to stay healthy during the winter, thanks to its nutritional value, which includes healthy amounts of Vitamin C. He also said that sailors, including those on Captain Cook’s crew, ate sauerkraut as a way to get enough Vitamin C.

“A large chunk of human history relied on fermentation as a way to preserve vegetables and help keep people healthy,” he said.

Today, fermentation continues to be widespread and practiced in all parts of the world, with regions and nations having their own special favorite fermented foods — kimchee in Korea, for example, and sauerkraut in Germany.

What about food safety?

While fermented vegetables can be safer than raw vegetables, primarily because the fermentation process kills harmful bacteria, basic food-safety practices need to be followed.

Both Breidt and Katz said that it’s important to start out with vegetables that have been grown using good food-safety practices. This includes making sure the vegetables didn’t come into contact with manure or compost that still has some pathogens such as E. coli or Salmonella in it.

“You don’t want to use vegetables that have been contaminated when they’re raw,” Katz said.

“Just normal fermentation will kill the organisms,” said Breidt. “But you don’t want to ignore good handling and good sanitary practices.”

These include washing the produce, your hands, any cutting or preparation utensils, surfaces where the food will be cut or chopped, and any containers you use for the food.

As for quality, both agree that the fresher the veggies, the better.

University of Idaho food scientist Gulhan Unlu, who focuses on food microbiology and bacteriology, told Food Safety News that the biggest concern with fermented vegetables is contamination after the foods have been fermented. This includes handling them with unclean hands, or letting them come into contact with contaminated meat or fish or with surfaces that haven’t been adequately cleaned. But overall, she agreed that, from a food-safety standpoint, fermented vegetables can be safer than raw vegetables.

A World Health Organization report, which focused on the value of fermentation for people in developing nations who don’t have refrigeration — or enough fuel to thoroughly cook their food, or to store it at high enough temperatures, or to reheat it  — shared some similar thoughts about food safety.

“From the food safety point of view, the benefits of fermentation include the inhibition of the growth of most pathogenic bacteria and the formation of bacterial toxins,” states the report.

The report also made it clear that basic food-safety guidelines must be followed and states that “there is considerable evidence that lactic acid fermentation inhibits the survival and multiplication of a number of bacterial pathogens.”

However, the report adds, the potential of lactic acid fermentation to control the harmful effects of food contamination depends on factors difficult to quantify, such as the initial level of contamination, which, in turn, depends on local conditions, levels of hygiene and sanitation, and the resulting degree of acidity.

“On its own, fermentation cannot eliminate all food-related health risks, and it should not be seen as a replacement for observing the principles of food hygiene,” reads the report.

Proper temperature is important. According to USDA, at temperatures between 70-75 degrees F, kraut will be fully fermented in about three to four weeks; at 60-65 degrees F, fermentation may take five to six weeks. At temperatures lower than 60 degrees F, kraut may not ferment, and, above 75 degrees F, kraut may become soft.

The take-home message: Proper fermentation temperature allows for problem pathogens to be “selected” and destroyed, while it also inhibits the growth of organisms that can spoil the food.

Salt is an essential ingredient, and since consumers don’t usually have a good way to measure salt concentration in the finished product, they need to be sure they measure the salt carefully and follow a tested recipe. Types of salt to use are canning and pickling salt, since table salt, kosher salt, or other types of salt cannot be interchanged with canning and pickling salt. Also, salt with iodine added shouldn’t be used since iodine can inhibit fermentation.

The correct level of salt to use varies with the food being fermented. It ranges from 2.25  percent (by volume) for sauerkraut to more than 13 percent for other food items. Again, tested recipes should be followed when it comes to the proper amount of salt to use.

Salt affects the type and extent of microbial activity and helps keep vegetables from becoming soft.

Storage time also affects the texture. The shorter the time, the firmer the vegetables. Storing food that has already been fermented in the refrigerator or a root cellar significantly slows down the rate of fermentation. That’s why fermented foods can be stored for up to three months, or longer, without losing their quality and good taste.

Fermented food needs to reach a pH level of 4.6 or lower (which indicates it is acidic enough to be safe). Fermentation, if done properly, will bring food to the “safe” acid level.

In a case of botulism poisoning in fermented tofu in 2012 in New York City, the city’s health department informed the manager of the grocery store where the tofu was purchased that the tofu needed to be stored below 41 degrees F. in closed containers. The people who fell ill bought from the store’s bulk tofu, which had been kept unrefrigerated, uncovered, and in water-filled bins.

Botulism is an extremely dangerous and often deadly foodborne pathogen.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, only one similar botulism poisoning in the U.S. has been recorded. Yet home-fermented tofu and other fermented bean products are the leading cause of botulism poisoning in China. Again, the proper food-safety precautions, chief among them sanitation, but also temperature controls, need to be taken.

Sauerkraut it is

[18]Breidt encourages people to find tested recipes at university Extension sites or in cookbooks written by reputable food experts.

Making sauerkraut is a good way to get started on the road to fermentation. It’s simple to do but also involves a basic procedure that can be used with other vegetables, although the amount of salt and fermenting time can vary.

Breidt advises beginners to grate, chop or shred the vegetables they plan to ferment because vegetables such as carrots and beets are dense enough that it’s difficult for the lactic acid to get inside of them if they’re in big chunks. The more surface area, the better — and the safer.

However, he said that’s not the case with cucumbers, primarily because they’re about 90 percent water, which makes it easier for the lactic acid to penetrate them.

Getting started

Note from Mardy: ...... as I said, please GO to the Food Safety News website, link's above in the grey box with the others.

 THIS bit of information I gleaned from within the pickling information at Gardeners dot com (I liked the coriander addition, and the 1or 2 inches tip relative to how far to submerge things in the brine:

Pick through the cucumbers and discard any that are bruised or have soft spots. Rinse well under cold water.

In a small bowl, combine peppercorns, peppers, coriander, fresh dill, dill seeds and garlic

Place half of the herb/spice/garlic mixture at the bottom of the crock. And the cucumbers and top with the remaining mixture. Pour the brine over the cucumbers and place the weights on top so that all the ingredients are submerged under an inch or two of brine.

Variations
Relish: If you remove the center seeds and pulp from cucumbers and dice them up with onion and a small red bell pepper, and substitute a pinch of ground cloves for the whole cloves in the sweet pickle recipe you'll get a tasty relish. And you can make all sorts of relishes by dicing vegetables (just one type, or a mixture) to use in either of the basic recipes.

I used the refrigerator pickles recipe from Instructables.com but have to remark about the quality of these ingredients -- there's MUCH that can be said from this photo.  For starters, my mom had that same bowl, or a different shape but same colors and pattern. She'd have had this type of white wine vinegar on the shelves (read the ingredients, it's an area for improvement in my opinion), and sugar (again, an area for learning more about what goes into and comes with the ingredients you puchase and consume).  Good, better, best ... not so good, worse, terrible ...... it's a continuum.  When people have to stretch budgets as most people do, or they have limited availability where they are at the time of putting up food or making something, you can concentrate on what's going to be the better places to focus on the 'ideals' for quality. (I had a pepper grinder or two like that too, I'm still in search of the perfect pepper grinder, grins. )

[19]

Lightly pickled cucumbers. A great snack that involves no cooking and only 2 days in the fridge to season. The flavor variations are endless. I like them because they're quick, taste good, and my daughter taught me how to make them :)
All you need is:

Cucumber spears, I use either 1 English cucumber or about 6 pickling cucs.

2 cups cold water.

1/3 cup white wine vinegar - you can change this to suit your taste, but I wouldn't use balsamic. believe it or not, the cheaper vinegars give me the best pickling flavor.

1 tablespoon salt. Table salt or sea salt. I've never tried pickling salt.

2 teaspoons sugar.

5 whole peppercorns - fresh.

fresh ground pepper (from a grinder is best).

1-2 cloves garlic.

optional flavor additions: fresh dill, jalapeno pepper, onion, habanero pepper, etc.

and a container to put them in. A mason type jar works best, but I usually take the easy route and use a ziplock freezer bag. Don't use a metal container.
 

 

 

Step 1: Sizing the cucumbers

[20]

If you use pickling cucumbers, which are the best, you'll want to slice them into quarters lengthwise. 
For this batch I'm using an English cucumber. That's what they're called here, anyway. I prefer these over regular garden variety cucumbers because they're longer, and they're generally a bit more crisp. 
I usually cut the cucumber into thirds. 
First, though, cut off the ends. These are typically bitter. You might want to slice a bit off the end you plan to use and taste to make sure you've removed all of the bitterness.

 

 

Step 2: Slicing the cucumbers

[21]

And then cut each third into 8 spears. 
Half the round, then half that, then half once again

 

 

Step 3: The garlic..

[22]

You want to peel your garlic clove before you cut it up. 
The easiest way to do this is to cut off the ends and then smack the clove with the flat of your knife blade. A french chef knife works best because there's so much flat area. 
The peel will usually fall right off just like in the picture. 
Then you want to cut the clove up into about 8 pieces. Personally i use 2 cloves

 

 

Step 4: The Liquid..

[23]

In a bowl put the water, salt, vinegar, the ground pepper (I use about 10 grinds of the grinder), and the whole peppercorns. The water is cold, but you want to try to dissolve as much of the salt and sugar as you can.

 

 

Step 5: Bag it (the flavor step)

[24]

Put the cucumbers in the bag, or jar, and dump the liquid in. 
All that garlic you cut up? Put it in now. 
Got some dill? Go ahead and put a sprig in there. 
Jalapenos or habaneros? Throw them in. Be careful here, you only want maybe 2 slices. Trust me on this, at least the first time you try it. 
More garlic? Green onions? sure.. the choice in this step is all yours.

 

 

Step 6: Stick it in the fridge

[25]

This part, for me, is the hardest. Put the whole thing in the fridge for 2 days. If you're using a bag like I do, you want to turn it over every couple hours or so. My biggest problem is that I taste test every time I flip, ha! 
2 days is when the flavors have really worked their way into the cucumbers, but they start to taste pickly after leaving them overnight 


Okay, this is my first time trying an instructables thing, so I really hope it all makes sense :)

---

I learned only recently about Bulletproof by a friend telling me about putting butter and coconut oil into coffee and then you use some sort of emulsifier. So I was curious when someone in a group I've posted about, above, had a link to a video at bulletproof's website, when the discussion was about mold. She said he'd talked about how we messed up our soil. So I wanted to check him out.  I'm glad I did. Besides, everyone's going to be talking about the film Moldy, which he's involved with..

After this video was done the website automatically took me to something where he/Dave Asprey was showing how to make coffee which he said takes four minutes no matter what method is used for getting the ground roasted beans steeped with the water. I make coffee the same two ways he shows, french press or pouring through a metal filter. Except I don't spend four minutes pouring the water, nor letting it steep in a French press. Now I know.

Really, it seems plenty strong right off the bat, then I add more water, and more, and then I can have my 4 cups of coffee I desire, but only 'getting' one cup's worth of caffeine. And mycotoxins, apparently. I have the feeling we're on the cusp of a new era in how we prepare foods and drinks, clean our houses and cars, do our laundry. Yardwork. On and on. Starting with what we drink first thing in the morning, and also last thing at night.  I've been working a lot recently on water information at Lumigrate, so please check that out as well; the focus seemed to be on the coffee product and not the water and I'd say they're both suspect and needing to have our attention. Here's the link, please be sure to see the comment underneath which is an extensive transcription/overview of 3 hours or more of interview of a water expert I found who seems to me to really know his stuff and he's thinking very holistically about water, Joseph Bender's his name. www.lumigrate.com/forum/water-key-environmental-wellness-or-illness-more-important-today-ever-many-aspects-consider [31] 

I want to say up front, there's something very 'commercial' about Dave Asprey's Bulletproof brand website. Maybe that's not the right word -- I feel like something's very intentional about things and we're not supposed to figure it out. I feel 'handled'. Groomed in some way. I think there's not transparency, my radar just 'went off' is all I can say.  It doesn't mean it's evil-doers behind it, it may be benevolent people wanting people to learn about mold in a creative way so they figured what we all figured out on Facebook if we're marketing ourselves --- talk about coffee! 

He certainly has a good idea, or someone did, focusing about coffee because of my time on Facebook, you can always count on people to commiserate and be interested if you Share about coffee. 

I eventually saw that they've already transcribed the video, which you can also get as a podcast if you prefer.  They're doing a lot at this webiste that I think is 'ideal' for getting information to people.  Expensive and time consuming it is, though.  Here's what's said, from the transcription they provide (which is great, thank you!). I've bolded a few things to make them easier to view by Lumigrate's YOUsers. 

Dave Asprey:   Hey, I’m Dave Asprey and you’re listening to the Bulletproof Radio short report. A highly condensed show to bring you the most important ways to upgrade yourself. This isn’t a full episode. There’s no interview, but we’re going to talk about some cool stuff. This is the second one I’ve recorded here at PaleoFX, where I’m a keynote speaker. I’ve been on a couple panels about bio-hacking and just having a good time. Meeting a lot of cool people and a lot of people whose lives have been changed by fat in the morning without protein and carbs. We call that bulletproof coffee [32] around here.

Today’s cool fact of the day is that good coffee is magic, but you all ready knew that. You’re bulletproof. The reason that I’m going to talk about this is mycotoxins. These damaging compounds that you’ve probably heard me talk about, in coffee. At PaleoFX today, I’m handing out a report with 34 studies about the problem of mold in coffee, and how roasting doesn’t fix it. There’s been some confusion out there by people selling coffee that isn’t tested, that says, “It doesn’t make a difference.” I would beg to differ and so there’s a little bit of science behind that.

Mycotoxins are present in almost all coffee, including bulletproof coffee [32], because one part per quintillion is still present. You can push the levels down much, much lower than any government regulates. That’s an interesting thing. One of the studies showed 91.7% of this green coffee had this mold in it. Another study showed 52% of green coffee did and 50% of brewed coffees are moldy. This is a problem, but it’s not always a problem. You may have really clean coffee that is just that way by luck. It must be that way because you followed the advice on my blog to reduce your risk, even if you’re not getting my coffee.

One of my goals is to change the regulations in the US, so that we have mold standards for coffee that are on par with Europe, Japan, and most of South America, because I think you deserve it. I like being able to go to a corner coffee shop and get coffee that always makes me kick ass. This is not meant to be a plug for coffee. It’s just a cool fact that, really there is mold in this stuff.

The reason I’m talking about mold is not because I’m a broken record. It’s because mold is one of those naturally occurring neurotoxins that affects our performance, but it’s hard to see. In fact, it’s so hard to see, that I made a documentary about it. Not so much about coffee, mold, and mold in food, but mold in the environment, which is really a problem.

Mold in the environment is affecting 100 million people in the US, because about 28% have genes where molds from water damage, from condensation, from a broken pipe, from a leaky roof, mold happens. It happens in your house. Suddenly you get sick. You don’t feel well, but you’re not all the way sick, and your brain goes down.

In fact, Doctor Amen in the movie, Daniel Amen, who wrote Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, a very well-known and respected brain scientist, he’s in the movie saying that you can lose 15 IQ points if you’re exposed to a water damaged building. This is profound stuff. This is why I made a movie called Moldy.

What I’m going to do in this short report is just talk about mold a little bit. Also, this is a little bit of a plug for Moldy, the movie, because I think you’re going to want to check this out. I mentioned 100 million people, as 28% is genetically susceptible. The rest of the population is also susceptible, but we don’t get chronic inflammation in that population. What we get is cancer. We get heart disease. We get other direct effects. Autoimmunity is a major trigger. People don’t know this, but Hashimoto’s can be triggered by environmental.

You breathe the stuff in. It can also trigger all of the forms of autoimmunity, including pituitary autoimmunity, where your immune system starts to attack your pituitary gland. It can attack your joints, rheumatoid arthritis.

It’s not just food. It’s not just gluten. It’s actually stuff you breathe. Just like inhaled drugs, like your asthma inhaler, they hit you much faster and more aggressively than things that you swallow. This is why mold in our houses is bad. At least that’s half the reason.

The other reason it’s bad is we did it to ourselves. We did it to ourselves, because about 35 years ago, we sprayed an anti-fungal agent all over the place. This anti-fungal agent killed 98% of soil fungus. Halleluia, right. Now our food doesn’t spoil.

Except the 2% that we didn’t kill had plasmid level genetic mutation turned on. Normally when you get single gene mutation, it takes a long time for something to turn viral and become violent. In this case, plamids are whole groups of genes, and unfortunately, microbes can change plasmids like baseball cards. Think X-Men, the movie. You have Wolverine with claws. You have Mystique who can turn blue, change shape, and all that stuff. Those are kind of interesting, but if your mold is doing that, it’s not that interesting.

What we’ve found is that mold has become much more aggressive and it makes much more mycotoxin than it did before. Not "microtoxin", but "mycotoxin", which is myco, like mushroom, and then toxin.

These molds, when they grow in your home or in your office or in your car, they grow without competition, and they grow in a stressed environment. They’re stressed, in part, because they were basically bred that way over the past 30 years, because we’ve been spreading these fungicides around, but also the paint in your home, almost certainly, contains something that triggers aggressiveness in these molds. The more stressed an environmental mold is, the more toxin it makes, and the more it’s going to make you sick.

The mold itself, the spore, can and will make you sick. It’ll cause immune issues. The poison made by the mold, which is equal to an antibiotic, will also make you sick.

It’s a problem of toxins, which can be in coffee, or food, or wine, beer, chocolate, wheat, peanuts, stuff like this. These are high mold foods. Corn is another one. That’s one thing and you can get those in your house. Some of them even right through your skin, like [trachosothine 00:05:50] can make you quite ill.

You might say, Dave why are you ranting about this. I don’t have a problem. Newsflash, it triggers cancer. It triggers all sorts of other degenerative diseases. It’s just hard to see. Parts per billion affect people, so if the person in the building is getting sick all the time, and they’re telling you no it’s an air quality issue, there’s stained ceiling tiles are around and you’re not getting sick. It doesn’t mean than you’re in an environment that’s optimal for performance. It means that you have a canary next to you, but if you hang around in there for a long time, you might not like the cancer that emerges years later.

Unfortunately, I’m not making this up. There’s 1200 studies about just one of these toxins on the Bulletproof website. That’s also the toxin most common in coffee.

Why did I make a documentary called Moldy? It’s affecting so many people. One of the things that I used to deal with is called mold rage. What happens is when you’re exposed to this, especially if you’re in that 28% of genetic people like me, it makes you unable to regulate your emotions.

In fact, I have a SPEC scan from Daniel Amen, 12 years ago, pointing out this exact problem in my own brain, when I was mold exposed. It’s really interesting in that I’m calm, peaceful, loving, and generally kind to my family. I wasn’t always that way because I didn’t have emotional regulation.

If there’s something in your environment that makes you act like a jerk, and there’s something in your environment that triggers cancer, and triggers all sorts of other health problems in people, something that there’s supposed to be safe levels of, even though individual response curves are quite different, it’s worth knowing about.

I interviewed some of the top experts in the world on environmental mold, how to remove it, and more importantly, what it does to you. We have Dr. Mark Hyman, Daniel Amen, guys I’ve become friends with, Pedram Shojai from well.org, talking about the spiritual affects of this weight on your head. Of course, I interviewed a dozen or so people who were affected by mold, to hear what it did for them. Why it caused unexplained weight gain.

In fact, there’s a great quote from Richie Shoemaker, who’s pretty much the godfather of mold, talking about, “If you have been exposed to these neurotoxins in your environment, you will not lose weight no matter how little you eat. It is hormonally impossible.”

In fact, we talk about some of the things that you’ll also see in the Bulletproof Diet book, about what it does these things like VIP and Melanocyte-stimulating hormone. You don’t have to know about those things. You just have to know, if it smells funky and you’re feeling crappy, there’s probably a correlation. You can do something about it and it matters. Right now, people don’t know about it. They just walk around like zombies getting fat. That sucks. Mold makes you fat and weak. That is true for everyone, more so for some than others.

Let’s see, brain fog, I’m not going to list all the symptoms of mold exposure here, because it’s a very long list. If you’re feeling odd and there’s this long list of symptoms. You go to a normal doctor, who’s not a functional medicine specialist. You list these all. They look at you skeptically. They think you’re a hypochondriac. You might want to be looking at these environmental toxins and see what they’re doing to you, because you have so many symptoms. Doctors are trained to believe that you’re a hypochondriac if you have 20 symptoms.

If you don’t believe me, that’s cool, because Janette Hope, who’s also a physician in Santa Barbara, is also in the movie. Janette’s a physician who’s married to a physician. She had mold in the house. She was affected and her husband wasn’t. They would have just said she was nuts, except that she had a slight temperature, so they knew something was wrong. After biopsying every single organ in her body, which is terribly painful, over two debilitating years of feeling crappy, they figured out it was the mold in the house. They fixed the mold in the house and she got better. Now she specializes in treating mold patients.

This is the kind of stuff that I think is worth knowing about. It’s so worth knowing about that I’ve spent six weeks personally traveling around and interviewing people. Six weeks away from my kids, away from my wife, away from the other Bulletproof things that I do, because this matters, and because it’s critically important that we become aware of this.

When buildings are not maintained well, or they’re built wrong, we get sick and we don’t know why.... It’s not like you just died, you went to the hospital. Although you may end up there with pneumonia or some other problems over time. What happens is it makes you weak. It makes you weak. It makes you less. It diminishes you. That’s not okay.

This is something that’s happening especially in our schools. Schools don’t have enough budget, so what do schools do? They cut back on building maintenance, so the roof leaks. Then a quarter of the kids have behavioral issues. They feel crappy and they get sick. Some teachers get sick and some don’t. Then there’s eventually lawsuits. Then, gee, how many home insurance or professional insurance things now have a mold exclusion? They know it’s a problem and they don’t want to deal with it.

This matters. It’s in our world. We made this problem by breaking our soil. Guess who’s making it worse? People who spray glyphosate on their soil. Glyphosate is not just a herbicide. It’s an antibiotic. When you spray it on the soil, it is documented to increase the toxicity of mold in our food by up to 500 times. Specifically that’s fumonisin, is the one I’m talking about. It’s one of the species of mold, particularly in corn. Although it can also grow in coffee and some other crops.

Interesting that we spray this stuff and then the environment responds. The environment, basically, tries to kick our ass.

This is why Moldy exists. If you want to check this thing out, you can go to Bulletproofexec.com/moldy. If you don’t want to check it out, then you can also just pay attention to your environment. You see water stains. You’re sleeping in a basement or an attic and it smells funky. You just gained a bunch of weight. You just can’t focus. You don’t remember words. Things aren’t as good as they should be, you might want to consider an air test.

In the movie, and especially in the other materials with the movie, I’ll be teaching you how to test your air. It’s remarkable what you can do there. You might also want to consider detox, if you’ve been affected. I have a great video up on the website. One of the first big public talks given about mycotoxins was at the Silicon Valley Health Institute, I think in 2007, 2008, where I talked about my experience and the detox protocols that are still valid today.

Have an awesome day. I hope this was really helpful for you. Check out Bulletproofexec.com/moldy. This has been an enormous amount of work. I’ve never made a movie before. I did this because I care, because it’s worth your time, and because if you look to your left and you look to your right, one of you are likely genetically susceptible to this. The other two are not strengthened, you’re made weaker, just not as weak. This problem affects us all. You want to be in the same world I want to live in. A world where the environment around us helps us kick ass, not takes away our vitality. See you on the next podcast.

So this is really very interesting information they're presenting at this website, I just caution people about getting swept up in things that are being sold along with it without doing your homework to see if it's 1) legitimate and 2) going to be relevant for YOU. It seems to me from what I know that he has a lot of interesting, cutting edge information and products. I'd not be linking to someone I thought was not in the norms of ethics and all.  Whether it's the easiest, cheapest, etc way to accomplish things, what could be adapted, etc., I would suggest everyone think about. 

I encourage people to check it out and recognize that everyone has to make enough money off of their endeavors to support their overhead. So if they are selling products and services, that's a business model, and obviously a common one. Nothing wrong with people getting paid for expertise and products, that's how you get the roof over your head. However, the health bandwagon and massive monies to be made have encouraged a lot of people of various reasons to get in the mix.  

I like where he talks about how you're lucky if you are one that sees someone nearby who gets ill, as they're the 'canary in the cage'.  How many times have I said that, just at Lumigrate topics, alone.  Lots.  So I hope people are going to be interested and proactivate about this information. 

The link about this short video: 

www.bulletproofexec.com/bulletproof-radio-short-report-moldy-221/ [33]

Live and learn. Learn and live better! ~ Mardy

In looking into the links and topics about the new documentary out titled Moldy, which were being shared around Facebook by a large number of my Facebook friends due to the sheer number who have followed the path of information to eventually find out about mold as a contributor or cause of environmental, complex, chronic illness, I found this from Dave Asprey. He's responding to a question inquiring as to how a person would know if they are one of the 28% he refers to, above, with more sensitivity to mold and hence more likelihood of having complex chronic illness / environmental illness.  His response: 

Your HLA genetic subtype determines it. Easier way is if you have hypermobile joints. Can you bend your thumb to touch your wrist, or touch your elbows together behind your back? Those are pretty good indicators. If your wingspan (fingertip to fingertip arms outsreached) is bigger than your height, that’s another sign.

He's said that three years ago, at the BulletProof website, here's the link to the thread I found this on: 

https://www.bulletproofexec.com/mycotoxins-in-america/

It would seem that this might be a tie in with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which is a connective tissue disorder which is very common, yet underdiagnosed at this time. I watched last year as they positioned themselves to have the 'flag' to run up the 'flagpole' and shine the light on yet another disorder with a separate name and set of symptoms that had been blocked previously from having been much known by medical providers. Then what happens is the floodgate is opened by those who control what the national associations eduate their members about, the professional journals, etc., and then it becomes the new hot diagnosis. Same as 'fibromyalgia' in the past, 'chronic fatigue syndrome' too. And ultimately we need to keep looking at the underlying WHY layers and go there. Maybe we'll get to THE root cause. Fix that, fix the problems, all of them. Wouldn't THAT be nice.                                                                   It's very important to know if you have the symptoms, so please look into it; I didn't say go to your insurance-based provider and ask them, by the way. Look into it in whatever manner YOU think is going to ultimately help you get where YOU want to go with your wellness.                                                          

I have a moderate case of it, I believe (not officially diagnosed, I'm rather over it, getting those and would prefer to just know what I'm dealing with and how to address the underlying causes and possibly root cause if it's possible to find that, and focus there. I used to have to get men's jackets until more women had the similarly longer arms and manufacturers changed the lenght. You can find out more about that at our thread on EDS if you use the Search bar, or here's a link: www.lumigrate.com/forum/ehlers-danlos-syndrome-eds-connective-tissue-issue-not-autoimmune-overlaps-other-things-dots-c [35]

And isn't it confirming when someone says it's genes plus exposure -- because we've had Load Theory as one of the foundational concepts at Lumigrate since environmental medicine specialist Marc Spurlock, MD provided that about five years ago; I had it made into a graphic in 2012.   The link to the topic about "load theory": www.lumigrate.com/forum/are-you-loaded-what-i-see-causing-illnesses-soar-children-through-elderly [36]                                                                                                                              ©2012 Lumigrate, Load Theory - Elevator Model

Recently, there appears to be an orchestrated push by mainstream sources that we have come to follow in the US (and beyond) such as Dr Oz and Suzane Sommers, about mold. And now the BulletProof brand and coffee craze which had raised 'awareness' about putting fat in coffee and whipping it up (it's very good!), is getting the third strike. Let's hope it's a home run.             Live and learn. Learn and live better! ~ Mardy