To All My Woman Friends

ferncohen.com
Two warnings: bottled water in plastic bottles in heat, and vitamin D deficiency

first, an email from my friend Dorothy DiBuduo

Bottled water left in your car is dangerous to women.
This is how Sheryl Crow got breast cancer. She was on the Ellen show and said this same exact thing. This has been identified as the most common cause of the high levels in breast cancer, especially in Australia . A friend whose mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The Doctor told her: women should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car. The doctor said that the heat and the plastic of the bottle have certain chemicals that can lead to breast cancer. So please be careful.
Do not drink bottLed water that has been left in a car
and pass this on to all the women in your life. This
information is the kind we need to know and be aware
and just might save us!!!! The heat causes toxins from the plastic to leak into the water and they have found
these toxins in breast tissue. Use a stainless steel Canteen or a glass bottle when you can!!!

LET EVERYONE WHO HAS A WIFE / GIRLFRIEND / DAUGHTER KNOW PLEASE!!!


Now for the Great Vitamin D deficiency!

When I was a kid, my mother always told me to play outside. I figured she wanted to get rid of me while she cleaned the house [she was a SAHM and cleaned house every single day]. And I'm sure she wanted to get me out of her hair, but also the sun had benefits. There was an ozone layer to protect us, and little knowledge of skin cancer. And do you remember the days of no children's TV in the afternoon? But another reason was that we got vitamin D from the sun.

Vitamin D is one of those vitamins we don't get enough of from food. We get the majority of vitamin D from the sun. Problem: we are avoiding the sun these days, either by staying inside or slathering on sun block. Especially for pre- to post-menopausal women, this lack of vitamin D can be a big problem.

According to an article in Slate:

It has long been known that vitamin D is crucial for healthy bones. The presence of vitamin D in the small intestine aids in the absorption of dietary calcium—people with vitamin D deficiency are able to absorb only a third to half as much calcium as those with sufficient levels—and calcium is vital to the hardness of bone. The two diseases traditionally associated with severe vitamin D deficiency—rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults—are characterized by deformation or softening of bone. And chronic vitamin D deficiency is strongly linked to osteoporosis, a disease defined by loss of bone density and associated with increased risk of fractures.

the article goes on to say that the vitamin D in supplements or fortified milk is not enough. We have to eat fish like salmon or halibut, and get some sun! This supports the advice of "everything in moderation", and demonstrates how we can really throw the baby out with the bath water. We hear that we should avoid the sun because of skin cancer, so we stay inside or protect ourselves so well, that we keep the sun out and deprive ourselves of the sun's benefits!

This vitamin D deficiency is most damaging to children and women in pre- or post-menopause. In kids, it results in lack of proper bone formation and in adult women, leads to osteoporosis [which has increased]. I say "everything in moderation" when it comes to sun exposure, and let's not throw out the proverbial baby with the bath water.