My Amazing Shaklee Clients!

"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have some amazing Shaklee clients! Here are a few of their stories...

Even though I have a small Shaklee business, because of my decision to start a business 18 months ago:

• Shaklee has planted 50 trees.
• 110,656 bottles of Windex have been saved from the landfills through the sales of Basic H! And I'm not kidding on that number. Every household should have a bottle of Basic H. You'd probably save $100 a year just by switching to that 1 product, and the earth would thank you for it. The White House even uses it.
• One client went from 5 insulin shots per day to 2 shots per day within just 10 days of starting Cinch!!! Her fasting blood sugar was around 260 when she first started the program on September 2nd, and it became normal in 5 days! She says, "I am so excited to have started this journey to change my health. It is so easy and I am not hungry anymore." Her blood sugar continues to be normal, and she'll be going off more medication soon. This client is my aunt!
• Clients have gotten off medication for cholesterol, blood pressure, depression, allergies, and Ambien. And some clients have seen cholesterol changes between 20% to 40%.
• One client went from diabetic to prediabetic all without the use of medication. I'd like to say he exercised and ate super healthy as well, but he didn't. He's my dad! I'm still trying to convince him to exercise at least a few days per week...
• One 9 year old boy has gone 1 year without steroid creams for his eczema. He used to wish for his sister's skin. Now he's got it.
• One 4 year old boy as gone 15 months without a fever and went to the pediatrician just once last year for his well check up.
• One mom's Shaklee business will have grown so large by next summer, she will quit her 60 hour a week teaching job in order to spend more time with her children.

All of this was not just the result of me. Most of this was from me telling one person who told another person, etc. and then that person was serious about improving their health.

Just imagine the impact will be over the next year!! There will be quite a few more people getting off medication, improving their health, and just feeling better.

Not bad for a small business!

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." ~ William James

Vitamin D & Children's Allergies

Spring and pollen is in full bloom! Does you child suffer from allergies? Well read below what a professor from one of the top universities on nutrition has to say about children and allergies.

Vitamin D & Children's Allergies

Author: Dr. Stephen Chaney

With the beautiful Spring flowers comes a whole new allergy season.

And, of course, not all allergies are seasonal. Allergies to foods, animal dander, mold and dust mites occur all year around.

If your children suffer from allergies, here is something that you should know:

Dr. Michal Melamed and colleagues have just reported a major clinical study (Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, published online February 16, 2011) showing that children and adolescents with low blood levels of vitamin D are much more likely to suffer from allergies than those with adequate blood levels of vitamin D.

They looked at vitamin D status (as measured by 25- hydroxy vitamin D levels in the blood) and sensitivity to 17 different common allergens in 3136 children and adolescents aged 1 to 21 in the NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) database from 2005 and 2006.

The data were adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, obesity, socioeconomic status and hours spent watching television, playing video games or on the computer (a measure of activity level - or more strictly speaking inactivity level).

They found that children and adolescents with low blood levels of vitamin (< 15 ng/ml of 25-hydroxy vitamin D) were significantly more likely to suffer from 11 of the 17 allergies tested than those with adequate blood vitamin D levels (> 30 ng/ml of 25- hydroxy vitamin D).

For example, they were significantly more likely to suffer from allergies to peanuts, ragweed, oak, dog dander and dust.

This is an important finding because previous studies by Dr. Melamed and others have shown that up to 70% of children in this country have low blood levels of vitamin D and that the incidence of vitamin D deficiency has increased significantly in recent years - perhaps linked to all the video games & computer use of today's children.

Dr. Melamed suggested that it is perhaps no coincidence that many children suffer from allergies and that the incidence of allergies in children is also increasing. Around 16 million children (16% of the population) suffer from allergies, and the incidence of children suffering with allergies has increased by 18% in just the last 10 years.

So, if your children suffer from allergies, one thing that you could do for them is to make sure that they are getting sufficient levels of vitamin D in their diet.

Dr. Melamed states: "The latest dietary recommendations calling for children to take in 600 IU of vitamin D daily should keep them from becoming D deficient."

Of course, vitamin D is not a magic bullet. It is just one of many things that you can do to reduce the risk of allergies in your children.

A holistic approach to allergy reduction would include a good diet that provides all of the essential nutrients and a supplemental source of friendly bacteria to support a healthy intestine and immune system.

It would also include non-toxic cleaning products to reduce environmental allergen exposure.

My Valentines is now 4 years old!

Dane is officially 4 years old now. He turned 4 on Valentines! Jeff and I won't probably celebrate Valentines on the real day until Dane no longer wants us around. Maybe that won't be until he's 18, but my guess is it will be sooner.

He's had a great year! No more pull ups - that saves us around $40 a month. I had no problem finding something else to buy with the extra money. :) Dane is very independent and ready to be a big boy. He shuts his door while he picks out his clothes and dresses himself. His room is now all about star wars except for the baby jungle animals I still have hanging on the wall. I don't want to part with those, but I guess it's time to take them down.

He's also very healthy now compared to last year. He still gets colds, but usually they are mild. Of course he didn't look so good on his birthday, but Jeff and I both had some type of cold as well. The last antibiotic he had was in April 2010, so the pediatrician was very pleased. For Dane to go that long without an antibiotic is a BIG deal. In previous years, he would have about 8 antibiotics a year (and I'm not joking). And we no longer have the $100 a month doctor/medication bills. He only went to the doctor once this year, and that was in June for having a rash. He still gets his multivitamin & immune booster (to help with allergies) daily. And by watching his diet VERY closely, I've gotten him off Miralax!

Jeff and I have learned that having a real Christmas tree is no longer an option for us. Dane has outside allergies, and I forgot about that when we bought a real tree. It took me most of December to figure out why Dane's nose looked like it used too (green and runny). As soon as we took the tree out of the house, his nose started clearing up. Not one of our shining parent moments.

Now if only I could get Dane to eat vegetables!!! He takes after his daddy...