Dear Health-Conscious Friend,

The massive, deep currents of the world’s oceans create five gigantic permanent whirlpools. Two in the north and south Atlantic, two in the north and south Pacific and one in the Indian Ocean. You will probably never go within thousands kilometres of any of these gigantic gyres. And they could already be affecting your health in the most disturbing way.
But actually, the gyres aren't the problem. Plastic is the problem.

Keep reading to see what Jenny Thompson has to say...

In the name of good health,

Taryn Strugnell
Managing Editor of Nutrition & Healing

P.S.So you're taking all the steps necessary to stop osteoporosis in its steps... what next? Is it working? Isn't it working? Dr Wright has a solution to finding out...

Your litter is harming you!
Jenny Thompson
Contributor to Nutrition & Healing

For centuries, sailors have avoided the North Pacific Gyre, an area of about 26 million square kilometres. Sailors call it the "doldrums" because an immense high-pressure system combines with powerful currents to make travel slow going.

Captain Charles Moore, an ocean researcher, has a more colourful term for the gyre. He calls it "a toilet that won't flush".

About 12 years ago, Moore sailed straight through the gyre and found something appalling. As he neared the centre he came across more and more plastic objects bobbing on the ocean's surface, all slowly drawn to the centre of the whirlpool.

Even more disturbing was what he saw just below the water's surface: A ceaseless flow of small bits of plastic.

Moore dubbed this vast "micro plastic" debris field the Pacific Garbage Patch. Scientists estimate that it's roughly the size of Texas, Minnesota, Connecticut, Maryland and California, combined.

That's staggering. But even more disturbing: This patch is constantly growing - as are similar patches in the other four gyres.

Every year, the world produces about 100 million tons of "minimal use" plastic, such as cold drink bottles, ink pens and Styrofoam cups. One use and they're discarded. Many of those items end up in streams and rivers, and are eventually washed out to sea. Over time, ocean waves, storms and sunlight break the plastic down into confetti-sized, micro plastic bits.

And into the five swirling gyres they go.

If these garbage patches were only unsightly, that would be bad enough. But birds and marine animals eat the plastic bits, mistaking them for food. According to a Surfrider Foundation report, micro plastic ingestion is responsible for the deaths of more than a million seabirds yearly, as well as thousands of fish and marine mammals.

And this is where it becomes not only a moral and environmental nightmare, but it begins to affect our health.

Toxins from decomposing plastic are ingested at the lowest level of the marine food chain. From there, these poisons work their way up to larger fish, which are eaten by humans. The long-range effects are unknown, but little by little it adds to our toxic load.

In the years since the Pacific Garbage Patch was discovered, environmental scientists have been studying the problem, trying to figure out how to clean these unflushable toilets. It's daunting. We've been pumping plastics into the oceans for decades. You have to wonder if we're up to the task of reversing all those years of pollution.

I recently read about a microchip that can be attached to a leaf on a field crop. The chip senses when the plant needs watering and sends a text message to the farmer's cell phone. "Hey! Water me!" If we can make plants send text messages, you would think we'd be able to clean up the garbage patches in our oceans before they do us all in.

So the next time you throw that wrapper or packet on the ground, think about where it's likely to end up...

Keep your bone density in check

Q: After my last bone density scan my doctor told me that I am showing signs of bone loss and am at risk for osteoporosis. I started taking the nutrients I've read about in your newsletter and some others that can help rebuild bone right away. But my doctor told me that it won't do any good to have another bone density scan right now because it's been too soon since my last one. I'm anxious to know if my situation has changed though, for better or worse. Isn't there any other test that can tell me how I'm doing?

Dr. Wright: Bone density scans are the tests of choice among most mainstream doctors and they can tell you whether you've gained or lost bone. But the main drawback is the one you've just encountered: They can only show changes over a prolonged period of time, usually 9 to 12 months or more.

But there's also a simple, inexpensive urine test, called the NTx test, which can monitor bone loss on a daily basis.

The NTx test checks urine for tiny, tiny breakdown fragments of bone. Bone build-up and breakdown changes every day, so if your test shows too much bone loss, you could start - or, in your case, increase - any corrective measure(s) right away.

Once you've adopted or adapted your bone-building programme, you can repeat the NTx test three to four weeks later to find out if the changes you've made have been effective. That way, you don't need to wait months for your next bone density scan to find out if what you've been doing is effective.

Any doctor and most chiropractors can order this test for you. It can be performed right in your doctor's office. You don't need to fast or go through any special preparations beforehand and the doctor can generally have the results available in a day or two.

One important technical detail: The NTx is a test of bone breakdown. The other half of the equation, bone build-up, still doesn't have a simply done, inexpensive test available. So it's possible to have a normal NTx (bone breakdown) test and still show no improvement on a bone density scan. Fortunately, though, this situation isn't common, partially because many of the same factors that inhibit bone breakdown also promote bone build-up.