What's new with Arbonne

Monday, August 9, 2010

Consumer Reports - July 2010 Issue

Alert: Your Protein Drink May Contain Toxic Heavy Metals

Fifteen of some of the most popular protein drinks sold in retail stores were tested by the Consumer Reports team. In summary, here’s what they found:

All of them have arsenic, 9 have cadmium, 11 have lead, 6 have mercury - and 3 are over the maximum limits proposed by the U.S Pharmacopeia!

The protein shakes tested by Consumer Reports are frequently used by not only body builders, but also "regular folks," including some pregnant women, who use them as meal replacements to lose weight and increase muscle mass. Teenagers who want to look like the sculpted images they see in fitness magazines tend to overuse the products, assuming that if one scoop is good, four or five would be even better.

Which Protein Drinks Fared the Worst?

Three daily servings of the ready-to-drink liquid EAS Myoplex Original Rich Dark Chocolate Shake contained an average of:

· 16.9 µg (micrograms) of arsenic

· 5.1 µg of cadmium

The proposed United States Pharmacopoeia's (USP) limits for these two toxins are 15 and 5 µg respectively.

The worst of the products tested was Muscle Milk Chocolate powder, which contained all four toxic metals; three of them at the highest levels of all products tested. Three daily servings of this particular brand and flavor contained an average of:

· 5.6 µg cadmium

· 13.5 µg of lead

· 12.2 µg of arsenic

· 0.7 µg of mercury

Muscle Milk's Vanilla Crème contained slightly less lead, but still exceeded the USP lead limit of 10 µg.

A fourth product, Muscle Milk's liquid Nutritional Shake Chocolate, also tested high in arsenic, providing you with an average of 14.3 µg of arsenic per day, which is very close to the USP limit.

Robert Wright, M.D.., associate professor at Harvard Medical School, who is conducting research on the health effects of exposure to toxic metals, says:

o Not only can these metals pose a danger on their own, “being exposed simultaneously to a mixture of toxins can also potentially increase health risks, particularly when they target the same organs or systems as some metals we detected do.”

o He also states that 2 toxic substances together can pose even greater risks than the sum of the two and not enough research has been done to determine whether that occurs from multiple exposures to even relatively low levels of those heavy metals.

Michael Harbut, M.D., director of the Environmental Cancer Initiative at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Royal Oak, Michigan, states of cadmium: “This is a highly toxic metal, and while there are some cases where decisions have to be weighed against relative risks, accepting that you have to be exposed to any cadmium at all in your protein drink after your workout is definitely not one of them.”

According to ABC News, cadmium also "raises special concern because it accumulates in and can damage the kidneys… and it can take 20 years for your body to eliminate even half the cadmium absorbed today."

It's important to realize that toxic metals such as the ones discussed here typically accumulate in your body over time, where they can cause irreparable damage. Further damage can be prevented by using various detoxing methods to remove the metals, but this can be a slow, difficult process.

Prevention is clearly your best defense when it comes to protecting yourself against heavy metals and other toxins

With Arbonne’s Vegan-Certified Shakes get 20g of Protein – None of the Worry!

In addtion, Arbonne shakes contain no saturated or trans fats, cholesterol, artificial sweeteners, flavors or colors. Loaded with more than 20 essential vitamins and minerals, plus flaxseed, enjoy Arbonne's Go Easy Protein Shakes - in vanilla and chocolate - For a fraction of the cost of most other commercially-available protein powders -- but with none of their shortcomings!!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Babies Under Two and eczema...

Most parents don’t realize how often baby eczema is triggered by food allergies – indeed, how often it is the first sign of food allergies. In one study, about 40 percent of babies with eczema had proven food allergies¹. And the more impressive the rash appears, the more likely there is a food allergy involved. For the third of babies with the worst eczema, more than 96 percent have a proven food allergy connection².

Babies with eczema often have different ratios of beneficial bacteria in their guts, compared with other healthy babies; perhaps these bacteria are part of the allergy-eczema link. In an April 2005 study, researchers investigated whether giving babies probiotics (beneficial bacteria) could improve their eczema. There were 230 babies in the study, ranging in age from 6 weeks to just under one year old. All of the babies in the study were suspected of having a cow’s milk allergy. All of the babies were switched to cow’s-milk-free diets (and their nursing moms to cow’s-milk-free diets). All of the babies were treated with topical medicines. Some of the babies also received daily supplements of probiotics; the rest received placebo capsules. The people evaluating the babies’ symptoms didn’t know which babies belonged to which group.

The results of the study were published in the April 2005 Allergy³. All of the babies in the study improved, by an average of 65 percent. But those babies with either a positive skin test or blood test for food allergy enjoyed a 32 percent greater improvement if they got the probiotic Lactobacillus GG (LGG) supplement than if they got the placebo capsules. More research is needed to clarify the role of LGG, and of probiotics in general, in the treatment of eczema in babies and in older children, but this study suggests that the use of probiotics is promising. I’m especially pleased to see positive results for this gentle treatment shortly after the FDA issued its strong warning against the use of some of the harsh topical creams and ointments in children under age two.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Arbonne, reviewd and recommended

Body: Reviewed & Recommended

March 21, 2010
Posted by marta

Arbonne RE9 Advanced Firming Body Cream- reviewed and recommended

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Arbonne has just launched two new lines (color cosmetics, which we’ll be reviewing very soon) and the RE9 Advanced range of skincare. The “breakthrough” idea (according to Arbonne) behind RE9 Advanced is to take a vitamin C supplement along with topical treatments aimed at boosting collagen production. I am not a big believer in the body’s ability to efficiently process supplements, still I’m prepared to give the skincare products the benefit of the doubt and over the coming weeks will be reviewing some samples, starting with the Firming Body Cream ($68).

This body cream redefines the phrase “sinks right in”. Every time I have used it, Arbonne RE9 Advanced Firming Body Cream just seems to be absorbed within milliseconds, leaving my skin feeling comfortable, hydrated and somewhat firmer. Like the rest of the RE9 range, it has the stamp of a head of research who used to work at Aveda. Think botanicals.

I like the fact that it has seabuckthorn (hippophae rhamnoides), a plant that has plenty of quercetin. This is an important flavenoid and some researchers believe that quercetin is a more potent antioxidant than the much-hyped resveratrol. The aging amongst us, will be pleased to see that isoflavones, which have chemical structure that is similar to estrogen (the hormone we women start to produce less of as we reach menopause), are here thanks to a plant called pueraria lobata, more commonly called kudzu. A native of Japan, this plant is now rampant in North America (if you see trees covered with some invasive vine, it may well be kudzu). So if nothing else, Arbonne is probably doing the Environmental Protection Agency a favor by finding a use for it.

Moving away from botanicals, it is worth giving a shout out to hexapeptide-10, which also goes under the name of serilsenine and is made a Spanish company called Lipotec. A hexapeptide is a chain of six amino acids that stimulate cell activity by interacting with specific molecules. The result is that collagen is rebuilt and fine lines are supposed to be reduced and pore size reduced. Incidentally, hexapeptide-10 is also favorite of the South African brand Dermaxime.

Ingredients

Water, sunflower seed oil, stearic acid, shea butter, dimethicone, squalane, cetearyl wheat straw glycosides*, glycerin, cetearyl alcohol, orange peel oil, hippophae rhamnoides oil, imperata cylindrica root extract, oat kernal extract, lamaria digitata extract, pueraria lobata root extract, ginger root extract, plankton extract, hexapeptide-10, tocopheryl acetate, tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate, panthenol, carbomer, acrylates/C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer, sodium PCA, butylene glycol, polysorbate-20, sodium hydroxide, caprylyl glycol, caprylhydroxamic acid, limonene, linalool, citral.

*Formulated without gluten

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