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Articles by Bette Dowdell

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140 articles by Bette Dowdell · showing 50

Browse every published article connected to Bette Dowdell, or search within this exact expert archive.

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Why Do Doctors Ignore 500-Pound Gorillas?

Medical research is beginning to look more and more like an old Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney movie. A problem rears its ugly head, our plucky protagonists put on a show, the amazingly talented cast of friends and neighbors sings and dances its way to the finale–after which everybody lives happily ever after. Or maybe they rolled the credits before reality set in. That’s what’s happening in medicine. Let’s talk about a recent example.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,205 views5/5 (1)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

This Is Your Endocrine System: Adrenals

We have two adrenal glands, each perched atop a kidney. With your spine dividing your back in two, you can locate a kidney in the middle of each half, with the bottom of the kidney right around the bottom of your rib cage. A few inches above that sits an adrenal gland, topping the kidney like a little beanie.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,699 views4.5/5 (2)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

This Is Your Endocrine System: Thyroid

Our most well-known endocrine gland is the thyroid. Not nearly as well known is the fact that half the population has thyroid problems, mostly undiagnosed or mistreated. The thyroid, a butterfly-shaped gland located by your Adam’s apple, controls metabolism and affects everything else. You may know about the weight problems, hair loss, brain fog, depression, extreme fatigue, etc. that accompany an underperforming thyroid gland. Some of you have experienced the living on the edge sensation of an overactive thyroid.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,376 views4.3/5 (4)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Synthetic Estrogen

Synthetic estrogens create a huge toxic threat to our health. These estrogens form an advancing army that surrounds us. And we risk our health–even our lives–if we don’t learn what they are and how to avoid them. Bogus estrogens have cut the average testosterone level in half in the last forty years. They cause prostate and breast cancer. They provoke premature puberty in our children.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,878 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***Vote For Your Health

Bette Dowdell Medicine is a mess. Doctors don’t even try to heal chronic illnesses, content to treat symptoms instead. Probably because that’s all they learned in medical school. But it means their patients--that's us--drag through life, out of gas, running on fumes. Even worse, while some doctors are just bad doctors, more are totally hemmed in by regulations–from government and insurance companies, both of which are in cahoots with Big Pharma.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,634 views5/5 (1)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Defining Christianity Down

A fellow-attendee at a Bible study I attend, a self-professed mature Christian, said her sister had always been a Christian. While the sister had been a Buddhist and a few other religions from time to time and currently lives a life high in hedonism and low in integrity, she “has always been a Christian.” Well, what kind of nonsense is that? Christians live their lives by the power of the Holy Spirit, who’s not the least inclined to tolerate such things, let alone endorse them. Where did we go off the tracks to reach this dismal idea? Let me suggest three things:

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,759 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***Body Connections

Quite a few of you responded to the 2014 “What Should Bette Write About” Contest saying you wanted me to continue to write about how the endocrine system works. Well, murder mysteries never go out of style, and neither do the mysteries of the endocrine system. According to studies, 50% of us have endocrine problems of some sort--rarely diagnosed, even more rarely successfully treated, meaning we’re on our own. We can either stay in our misery or learn how to get out of the ditch.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,294 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Coffee: The Health Drink

Conventional wisdom says coffee’s bad. Doctors agree. Magazines second the motion. You can hardly find a kind word about coffee. Which is just a tad bizarre because coffee is a health drink. Since nearly 90% of the U. S. population drinks the stuff, this comes under the heading of good ...Conventional wisdom says coffee’s bad. Doctors agree. Magazines second the motion. You can hardly find a kind word about coffee. Which is just a tad bizarre because coffee is a health drink. Since nearly 90% of the U. S. population drinks the stuff, this comes under the heading of good news.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,354 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Earning A Praise And Worship Brown Belt

Pity the poor novice who innocently walks into a ‘with it’ church to worship. They expect to hear a little music, perhaps a reading from the Bible and somebody talking about God. But in the ‘Church of What’s Happnin’ Now,’ these stunned, would-be ...Pity the poor novice who innocently walks into a ‘with it’ church to worship. They expect to hear a little music, perhaps a reading from the Bible and somebody talking about God.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,317 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***The Unknown Glands of the Immune System

Our thymus gland, leader of the immune system’s world, starts out strong, but as the years go by, sayeth the poobahs, it becomes a shadow of its former self, ending as just a few, lonely fat cells with no power, no glory. And that’s when cancer and other bad guys take us down. This is just the way it is, they claim, and nothing can be done. “Just normal aging,” they say. Well, nuts to that!

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,530 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

This Is Your Endocrine System

Gather round as I tell you about something so important that it controls almost everything that goes on inside your body, but so secret that almost nobody knows about it. Oh, a few may know the name of it, but they couldn’t explain it to you–even if you offered them a million dollars. What is this important, mysterious thing? Your endocrine system.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,904 views4.5/5 (2)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***We Are Seriously Doomed

A while back, Dr. Steve Nissen, president of the American College of Cardiology, along with ten other prominent physicians, offered an outstanding proposal that would immeasurably improve medical care in this country. And what is this great idea? Take control of medicine back from Big Pharma, who have all but destroyed it, and let doctors practice medicine with excellence. See, a most admirable idea. So excellent an idea, in fact, that it doesn’t stand a chance. Zip, zero, nada, as they say.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,409 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***Bette’s Excellent Adventure

Mold is my enemy, and it’s everywhere! In fact, it lives in all the soil, in all the world. Well, you ask, if mold lives in the dirt, how can it jump up and attack? Ah, my little chickadee, it has no need to do anything. The gentlest breeze wafts mold spores into the air where they weasel their way into my body. At which point my very annoyed body yells, “How many times do I have to tell you I’m allergic to mold?” Excuses about how I couldn’t help it get me nowhere.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,548 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Is It Endocrine Problems?

Chances that you have endocrine problems are fifty-fifty. It could well be that’s why you feel lower than a snake’s belly. How can that be? How do endocrine problems happen? Let me count the ways. First, let’s look at the pituitary, the master of the endocrine system. The Pituitary Society says 20% of us have pituitary tumors, most of which, thankfully, are benign. As if that’s not bad enough, study in Europe says 25% of us have pituitary tumors.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,408 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***A Closer Look at Protein

All proteins are not created equal. For instance, animal protein provides more health benefits than plant protein. To make the imbalance larger, a lot of plant protein comes from soy. Besides not having the oomph of animal protein, soy is really hard on the body. It beats up your thyroid, absorbs needed minerals from your body, causes kidney stones, throws your hormones out of whack with bogus estrogen, and on, and on. And most soy is genetically-modified. While we won’t know the results of this medical experiment for years, ominous signs about damaging our DNA are everywhere.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,358 views5/5 (1)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Natural Killers

I’m talking killers, and I’m talking about you. You have natural killers in you. And these natural killers are a good thing. A very good thing. Which is why I’m going to talk about how to keep your natural killers in top shape, ready for action. First, let’s talk about the company your killers hang out with. Natural killer cells are part of the endocrine system–thyroid, adrenals, etc–a bunch of glands that pretty much determine how good we feel. And these guys are a tight group.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,768 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

A Shortage of Grownups

Babies show the world what selfish looks like. On a whim, they set up a wail loud enough to wake the dead–or at least it sounds that way at 2:00 a.m. No matter that others may be tired or sick or have to go to work. Babies want what they want when they want it. So stop sniveling. Some ...Babies show the world what selfish looks like. On a whim, they set up a wail loud enough to wake the dead–or at least it sounds that way at 2:00 a.m. No matter that others may be tired or sick or have to go to work. Babies want what they want when they want it. So stop sniveling.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,388 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

This Is Your Endocrine System: Gonads

The gonads, testes and ovaries, play a huge role in how the endocrine system works. And we seem to be doing everything we can to put them on the disabled list. We need to talk about this. Everybody has–and needs–estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. Now, obviously men and women, boys and girls have different levels of these hormones. But who knows how long that’s going to last? Testosterone levels have fallen way, way down over the last forty years or so. Estrogen levels, meanwhile, have skyrocketed.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

2,524 views5/5 (1)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***Mrs. Obama's Salad Bar Caper

Michelle Obama is taking a star turn about putting salad bars into schools. One look at the cast of characters supporting this idea makes it obvious the salad bar hype isn’t about health or children or anything else one can praise. This misbegotten idea is about control Let’s look at this. • The abysmal nutritional value of today’s school lunches is mandated by the federal government. If nutrition is the goal here, the first step should be getting rid of the heavy burden of regulations that make good nutrition impossible. But, no.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,891 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Understanding Hormones

To most of us, talking about hormones means estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. True enough, they’re hormones, and we all have all of them. Men, women and children have them, in different proportions of course, but none of us can make it without all three working together. But these three aren’t even half the hormone story, just a small part of the endocrine system–the system that keeps life’s wheels turning. And every part of it creates hormones.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,886 views4/5 (2)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***Death by Caffeine?

Perhaps you read about the death of John Jackson, of West Midands, England. The 40-year-old Mr. Jackson, unable to work because of advanced liver cirrhosis, the result of years of heavy drinking, is said to have died from eating mints. How could mints, specifically Hero Instant Energy Mints, kill him? Well, sayeth the poobahs, it was all the caffeine in the mints–82mg per mint.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,500 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

The Fluoride Fraud

Enough with the fluoride already! Communities began adding fluoride to our drinking water based on “scientific” studies–which turned out to be bogus–claiming fluoride would protect our teeth from cavities. Based on the same “science,” companies put the stuff in toothpaste. Fact is, fluoride ...Enough with the fluoride already! Communities began adding fluoride to our drinking water based on “scientific” studies–which turned out to be bogus–claiming fluoride would protect our teeth from cavities. Based on the same “science,” companies put the stuff in toothpaste.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,464 views4/5 (2)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Talking About Aging and Disease

People in the health biz throw around the lingo as if everybody has a clue. Well, some do, but some don’t. And even those that do may recognize the word without understanding its meaning. So, lets talk some terminology. Especially about things that drag us down–including body parts that insist on going south–and not just for the winter. We can wrap up disease and aging in just a few words. Not, of course, all the intricacies and complications, but words that should grab out attention and move us to action.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,674 views4/5 (2)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***Have You Poked Your Lymph System Today?

I tell you true, our bodies are a wonder. Leading the parade of wonder is our endocrine system, a model of intricate cooperation. Part of the endocrine system, the immune system, is a complex mystery all on its own. And a part of the immune system, the lymphatic system, raises mind-boggling to a whole new level. So you'll probably be happy to hear that I'm not going to try to march you through the swamp of how it all works. But we do need to know a few things.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,161 views4/5 (1)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Emotional Strength Through Muscle Building

It’s a much mourned fact of life that watching exercise videos doesn't build muscles. Couch potatoes who can legitimately boast about six-pack abs don’t exist. Reading bodybuilding books doesn't get the job done, either. Reading can take us on many wondrous journeys of the mind, ...It’s a much mourned fact of life that watching exercise videos doesn't build muscles. Couch potatoes who can legitimately boast about six-pack abs don’t exist.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,108 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

It's Not Your Grandmother's Chicken Anymore!

Doesn’t just about everybody like chicken? And doesn’t it bring up memories of the family around the table, enjoying a wholesome meal and good family time? Chicken’s the inexpensive choice, with thousands upon thousands of recipes singing its praises. Well, those were the good old days. I hate to be the one to break the bad news, but they’ve gone and messed with good old chicken.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,660 views5/5 (2)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Detox: Friend or Foe?

The short answer is, for people with endocrine problems, detoxing is a foe. Let’s talk about it. Our endocrine system and our gastrointestinal system–that part of us we’re thinking of detoxing–are joined, in a manner of speaking, at the hip. You can’t affect one without affecting the other. Big time. Your gastro system can cause your endo system to falter; your endo system can likewise do a real number on your gastro system. Which makes it sound like cleaning things up can only be good, right?

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,801 views5/5 (1)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

How To Relieve Aching Muscles

One of the many miseries that can accompany a whacked-out thyroid–or any member of the endocrine system, for that matter–is muscle pain. Your muscles knot up. They lose flexibility. You creak like you’re 102. And through it all, you ache. One thing for sure, you don’t want to learn to live like that the rest of your days. Holding on to pain comes under the heading of truly bad ideas. So, what to do?

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

2,779 views5/5 (1)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

How Insecurity Can Kill Sales

What’s up with the lamebrains who speak in the potty-mouth dialect without even a hint of a thought about how others will receive their message? If you’re in sales in any way, this one’s for you. Step this through with me: Unless we’re speaking to ourselves (which is another topic for another day), when we speak or write, at least one other person gets involved by listening or reading. And I would guess our purpose of speaking or writing would be to communicate with that other person or persons.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

2,145 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***Coconut Oil

What with all the publicity it’s getting lately, it probably won’t come as news to you that coconut oil’s pretty astonishing stuff. A medium-chain saturated fat, wondrous coconut oil blesses the socks off your body. First, since our endocrine system makes its hormones from saturated fat, coconut oil can give sagging glands a boost. Improved metabolism, anybody? More energy? A pumped-up immune system? Coconut oil makes a big endocrine difference.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,560 views5/5 (1)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

It's Always About the Timing

So, here’s the situation: We’re thinking about making some changes in life, and we’re wondering how to spot the perfect time to act. Perfect timing means perfect success, right? Here's a news flash. There are no perfect times. There are bad times, good times, even excellent ...So, here’s the situation: We’re thinking about making some changes in life, and we’re wondering how to spot the perfect time to act. Perfect timing means perfect success, right?

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,065 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

How Much Exercise is Good Exercise?

Exercise can kill you. Well, so can lots of other things, but people tout exercise as all good, all the time. Before couch potatoes get excited here, life as an inanimate object doesn’t get excellent results either. Well, then, obviously, some middle ground exists. However, since slugs receive unending, universal criticism while people who live at the gym reap admiration, I’ll talk about the exercise buffs. Exercise stresses the body. It builds free radicals, those natural enemies that rust out our various and sundry parts.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,808 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

What Causes Thyroid Problems?

50% of the U.S. population has thyroid problems, most of which go undiagnosed. I don’t have worldwide statistics, but I can’t imagine they differ by much, if at all. And the numbers keep heading up! Yikes! And the thyroid never suffers alone. When one endocrine gland, such as the thyroid, goes down, the rest–adrenals, pancreas, gonads, etc.–all jump in to help out. If the problem goes on long enough, they all go south. So let’s look at just a few of the unexpected causes of thyroid malfunction.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,765 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Vaccinate or Else! The Vendetta Against Health

I read that the Massachusetts Senate passed a bill mandating vaccinations of all sorts. And if the good citizens of Massachusetts decline the honor, they get smacked with a $1000 a day fine. Now, Massachusetts proudly passed socialized medicine statutes a few years back, so the Senators obviously think the fact of being elected to public office gives them the right to tell other people how to live their lives. But politicians, never the sharpest knives in the drawer, often get it wrong. Mandated vaccinations provide only the latest example of governmental overreach.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,575 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

They've Gone And Messed With Popco

You know the world’s upside down when you have to cast a wary at popcorn. Popcorn! What in the world could be wrong with good old popcorn? Well, they’ve gone and messed with it, that’s what. It’s not the simple, innocent, family treat of yesteryear. First off, corn ranks number two in genetically-modified foods. (Soy is first.) They’ll tell you they monkey with it to make it better, but if you believe that, be prepared to pay up for a bridge in Brooklyn, too.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

2,440 views3.5/5 (2)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

In Praise of Strong-Willed Children

Cervantes said, "Faint heart ne'er won fair lady." As a matter of fact, a faint heart never won much of anything. But put a little determination and will into that heart, and it can shoot the moon. What you hear, though, is that parents should prefer the faint heart, that is, the passive heart. ...Cervantes said, "Faint heart ne'er won fair lady." As a matter of fact, a faint heart never won much of anything. But put a little determination and will into that heart, and it can shoot the moon.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,305 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

The Problem With Sheep

You want dumb as a brick? You want too dense to get out of their own way? Get yourself some sheep. Quarry rocks have higher IQs than sheep. In any cavalcade of dumb things, sheep always lead the parade. Animal lovers argue about animal intelligence. Pigs, they say, are really intelligent. ...You want dumb as a brick? You want too dense to get out of their own way? Get yourself some sheep. Quarry rocks have higher IQs than sheep. In any cavalcade of dumb things, sheep always lead the parade.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

7,929 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***INNOCENT-LOOKING ENEMIES

We're surrounded by health enemies, and that's a fact. Trouble is, they seem like such a part of everyday life, we don't realize they might not be friends. One enemy was born in 1974, fluorescent lights. First, it was long tubes; now it's curly-cue bulbs. Trouble, I say you've got trouble–because they all contain mercury. And they sit around giving off mercury vapors, even when they're off.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,268 views4/5 (1)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Thyroid Treatment Problems

Thyroid treatment fell apart in the 1960s. That’s when thyroid blood tests and Synthroid first appeared. Doctors hailed the blood tests as a means of making thyroid treatment scientific. Blood tests eliminated the need to deal with symptoms, which, as any thyroid patient can tell you, are many. The problems with this approach went unmentioned. First, the TSH test has little science behind it and came into use based on a vote by endocrinologists. While docors swear by it, results are unreliable. As are the results of the various T3 and T4 tests.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,827 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***THIS SOUNDS WEIRD, BUT . . .

The immune system is kind of a mystery. We don't hear much about where any of our immune system parts are, what they do, how they do whatever it is they do, etc. Well, maybe you've heard of lymph glands. Perhaps a huge lump showed up on the side of your neck–which, you decide, can only mean cancer. So, off you hie to see the doc, who tells you an allergy caused your tender-to-the-touch lump. You breathe a sigh of relief and get on with life, happy that it wasn't more serious.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,490 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***The Power of Garlic

Well, now, you probably think I’m talking about the odor, but no. Powerful as it is, the smell of garlic can’t hold a candle to all the wonders this homely herb can do. And garlic’s no newcomer on the block. Back in 3748 B.C., Egyptian slaves went on strike when they didn’t get their ration of garlic–which they believed gave them courage and strength. About 2500 years ago, Hippocrates recommended garlic for infections, wounds, cancer, leprosy and digestive disorders. The Talmud says good things about garlic as well.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,325 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

What to Do When Life Dumps Lemons All Over Your Head

We’ve all heard the old saying that goes, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade." Now there’s a thought. We surely have to do something with the lemons as they come along. Sucking on lemons takes the enamel right off your teeth, so we don’t want to do that. Letting them ...We’ve all heard the old saying that goes, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade." Now there’s a thought. We surely have to do something with the lemons as they come along.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,318 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

The Cause of Constant Fatigue

I’ve been dealing with an underperforming pituitary gland most of my life–possibly from a seemingly minor head injury when a drunk driver hit my parent’s car during my eleventh month. However it happened, the deal is this: When the pituitary ain’t happy, ain’t ...I’ve been dealing with an underperforming pituitary gland most of my life–possibly from a seemingly minor head injury when a drunk driver hit my parent’s car during my eleventh month.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,396 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

I Feel a Sigh Coming On

We moved a lot, so I went to ten schools in twelve years. I was always the new kid. Take it from me, most teachers are a whole lot less than delighted when the new kid turns out to be a loud, energetic tomboy who doesn’t pay attention, but still scores the highest test grades. As if that weren’t enough, I exhibited a symptom of my whacked-out adrenals (a problem yet to be discovered) that few people know about: I sighed a lot. Totally involuntary. I didn’t even realize I was doing it.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,669 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***Your Connected Body

When it comes to our bodies, everything affects everything because everything's connected. And our endocrine system sits smack dab in the middle of all this connecting that's going on. Here's a quick look at the parts of the endocrine system and what they do (24/7, I might add):

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,323 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Death by Label

The whole world's in the label business. Every time we turn around, somebody's jamming a label on us. Not those “Hi, My name is” stick-ums, Not any sort of tangible, visible label, in fact, but psychological Post-It® notes. Even early on in life, we’re covered with ...The whole world's in the label business. Every time we turn around, somebody's jamming a label on us. Not those “Hi, My name is” stick-ums, Not any sort of tangible, visible label, in fact, but psychological Post-It® notes.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,122 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

Learning Pain's Lessons

I talk to pretty much everybody. Starting conversations with strangers is my normal modus operandi. I mean, why stand in a line mute, an island unto myself, when I can have a perfectly lovely conversation with somebody I haven’t yet met? And I don’t talk about the weather. I talk ...I talk to pretty much everybody. Starting conversations with strangers is my normal modus operandi. I mean, why stand in a line mute, an island unto myself, when I can have a perfectly lovely conversation with somebody I haven’t yet met?

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,226 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

The Road to Death Goes through Tolerance

Tolerance. It’s a good thing, a socially desirable thing, isn’t it? What could possibly be wrong with tolerance? I’m so glad you asked. Here’s what’s wrong: The magnificently sold idea of tolerance is, in fact, destroying our highest and best values in life. Twenty-five years ago, had you described our society as it now exists, nobody would have believed that we would ever fall so far.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

1,281 views

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

This Is Your Endocrine System - Pituitary

The pituitary gland is King of the endocrine hill. A tiny teardrop sort of arrangement, the pituitary hangs from the base of the hypothalamus portion of the brain, not too far behind the bridge of the nose, a vulnerable location for such an important actor. Studies link concussions to pituitary damage. One typical study said 68% of people suffering even a mild concussion ended up with a damaged pituitary. My pituitary problems apparently began when a drunk driver hit my parents’ car, and my pliable 11-month-old skill bashed into the door panel.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

2,456 views5/5 (2)

By Bette DowdellRecently published1 topic

***Unmentioned Ingredients

In 2009, Ronald Ball bought a can of Mountain Dew from the vending machine at work. One swig, and Good Old Ron was throwing up all over the place, sicker than the proverbial dog. Upon breaking the can open and pouring out its contents for a look-see, what to his wondering eyes did appear but a rat. Well, some reports said it was a mouse, but either way, Yikes! Being a good citizen, he immediately called PepsiCo, maker of Mountain Dew to warn them they might have a problem in their cannery.

Primary topic: Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

Immune System and Immunity Enhancement

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