SLIME AND SPORTSSLIME AND SPORTS
OXYGEN
Hey all you out there!!! It’s been too long since my last letter and I DO apologize. It was quite an eventful summer…AFRICA in the mix. That’s an entire other email…but…I’d just like to say…a few of the “outbreaks” IN AFRICA TODAY…are as follows:
measles
polio
tetanus
yellow fever
rabies
meningitis
malaria
leprosy
and yes…swine flu…
So…as much as I do strongly advise that you research the vaccines you choose for your children…and I mean THOROUGHLY research them….be thankful we are not faced with epidemics such as these.
What’s going on in PANAMA…you ask????
Panama Prospecting – Going for the Green
This native San Franciscan is a prospector, but not for GOLD…he’s goin’ for the SLIME!!! ALGAE!!!
What Dr. William Gerwick has been doing for a decade is “mining” the pristine waters off the coast of Panama for potential cancer cures. That’s RIGHT…cancer cures!!! Anti-cancer activity found in this special green slime. At the same time, he and his team of researchers are helping Panamanians preserve one of the world’s last unspoiled refuges for plant and marine life.
The medicinal gold they are seeking is green. Actually blue-green, as in the algae species Leptolyngbyasp. that is being analyzed by the Fogarty-run International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) working on and near Coiba Island. The island lies off the Pacific Coast of Panama, cut off from the outside world…maybe why there was a prison there up until 2004.
Gerwick, an oceanographer at the University of California, and Kerry McPhail, a former postdoctoral student of his from Oregon State University and now a National Cancer Institute grantee, discovered the potent new cancer toxin last year.
After scooping up the blue green algae and extracting its oil, they were left with what Gerwick calls “green goo” that turned out to contain “phenomenal anticancer activity.”
Gerwick, rather than considering himself a bioprospector, says, “We are builders, not destroyers. We are attaching value to these life forms” for the benefit of science as well as the economy and biodiversity of Panama.
While the species of Blue Green Algae being investigated near Panama is only in the research phase, you can join one of the oldest life forms on earth by ingesting it…kelp, edible seaweed, wakame, arame, dulse, hijiki, nori and kombu…and freshwater algae called Spirulina and Chlorella....which all contain an abundance of vitamins and minerals and can be a valuable source of iron, iodine and calcium in ANY diet.
An algae a day keeps the DR away. 
NOW…on a VERY SERIOUS NOTE: Sudden Cardiac Death in Young Athletes
I live in a community where sports can sometimes be the begin all and end all of every school day….especially during sports season…which is basically…ALL school year. I support the team spirit…don’t get me wrong…but I don’t support anything that puts a child/teen at risk because of irresponsibility on the part of the “ADULTS”.
Please read this and ask YOUR (OUR) Coaches what they think about these findings.
Young athletes should be tested for heart abnormalities to prevent sudden cardiac death triggered by vigorous exercise, new Dutch research suggests. Sudden cardiac death is the leading cause of death in young athletes. The findings of the study were published in September in the first of a series of quarterly partnership issues between the British Journal of Sports Medicine and the International Olympic Committee.
The researchers screened 371 athletes between the ages of 12 and 35 over two years. EKG found heart problems in 10 athletes, four of whom were restricted from further participation in sports. In another review of the available evidence, researchers found that trying to pick up potentially fatal heart abnormalities through questionnaires and physical exams alone is ineffective. And, because the survival rate is so low, relying on the use of defibrillators at an event is not considered a viable alternative.
“Health-care governing bodies need to be convinced that now is the time for universal [EKG] screening of all young athletes and make the necessary provisions for nationwide screening programs to commence,” the study authors concluded.
We screen for all kinds of things AND EVEN BUILD pretty stadiums while doing so…Let’s make sure we screen for this…like we do for building codes.
Until next time…KWAHERI…RAFIKI MUSURI!!!
ELIZABETH LEE
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Elizabeth Lee
