According to a report by the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice, American people are at serious risk from the daily intake of dioxin. The exposure to this chemical comes in a manner most may not even suspect—it’s in the food we eat.

The risk of getting cancer from exposure to dioxin is 1 in 10,000 for the general American population and 1 in 1,000 for highly exposed members of the population. These risks are 100 and 1,000 times higher, respectively, than the one-in-a-million “acceptable” cancer risk. And we know that the daily dioxin intake of Americans is already too high, exceeding federal risk guidelines.

Dioxin is the common name for the chemical 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). All American children are born with dioxin in their bodies. The greatest impact appears to be on the growth and development of children. Disrupted sexual development, birth defects and damage to the immune system may result.

It has also been associated with low IQ, withdrawn and depressed behavior, adverse effects on the ability to concentrate and focus attention and an increase in hyperactive behavior in children.

What foods contain dioxin? Mostly meat and dairy products—even ice cream. An independent laboratory found unacceptable levels of dioxin in a sample of the vanilla flavor of one of America’s most popular ice cream brands.

Dairy cows and beef cattle absorb dioxin by eating contaminated crops. Dioxins are in the air and settle on the crops. They can enter the air from thousands of sources, including incinerators that burn medical, municipal and hazardous waste.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) holds the view that any exposure, no matter how small, increases the risk of cancer. The EPA has calculated a “virtually safe dose” (VSD) for dioxin—generally regarded as an acceptably low exposure.  The amount of dioxin in the serving of the tested ice cream exceeded that VSD.

Studies conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences show that dioxins are very slow to leave the body and accumulate in our fat tissue. In his book Clear Body Clear Mind, best-selling author L. Ron Hubbard shows exactly how poisons like dioxin accumulate in the fatty tissue of the body and why this causes long-term serious health effects.

The book outlines the only program that can effectively rid the body of substances like dioxin that are stored in the fatty tissue. There are several elements to the program—incremental doses of niacin assist in releasing the toxins and aerobic exercise increases circulation to “mobilize” the chemical residues from the body tissue. Low-heat sauna sweats these residues out. Oil intake helps replace the fatty tissue which is impregnated with toxic substances, and an exact regimen of vitamins and minerals are taken to provide nutritional supplementation.

While no medical claims are made for the program, and the benefits vary person to person, papers documenting the safety and value of the program have been published in the journals of such organizations as the American Public Health Association, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, the Society for Occupational and Environmental Health and the Royal Swedish Academy of Science.

Clear Body Clear Mind is available in a paperback format in your local bookstores and online. For more information on the book and program, visit www.clearbodyclearmind.com.

While it may not always be easy to avoid dioxin in our food, it is comforting to know that there is a safe and effective way to reduce toxic residues that could cause serious long-term health effects.

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If you haven’t been involved in weight strength training in the past, it’s easy to get confused by all the different kind of home gym equipment that is on the market today. It may almost seem like a foreign language at times. But the good news is that just a little bit of information can help you understand that language quickly and easily. So here are some things that you need to know about home gym equipment in order to get what you really need.

First let’s divide this discussion into two parts. In the first part we will cover traditional free weight systems. This may be what many people think of when they think of home gyms. Essentially, they are a collection of free weights and the bars that the weights are assembled on. The responsibility of using the weights properly in each exercise falls entirely on the exerciser in this case. And it’s easy to injure yourself if you don’t use the proper form when doing free weight exercises. For that reason, be sure to get some good guidance and training before you undertake using free weights to make sure you are doing it properly.

But the equipment that you will need is very simple and not complicated. First of all, you will need about 200 lbs. of free weights that have a hole in the center of them. Then you will need a barbell, which is a long metal bar for stacking weight on each end. Next you will need two dumbbells, and these are used for single-handed exercises. The weights have to be held on to both the barbell and the dumbbells with a simple device called a collar, and you will need enough for both ends on each bar. The next piece of equipment is a bench, and this bench should have a standing rack on one end that will support the barbell with a full load of weights.

Really, that is about all the equipment that you need for a very simple home fitness gym consisting of free weights. However, these days more elaborate home gym equipment has been made available that structures all of your exercises and help you keep the proper form as you go. This usually makes for a more safe overall exercise experience.

The most common components of a typical home gym machine includes a bench, and a press, which often are performed lying down, but sometimes are done standing up on some machines. A lat pulldown is often included too, that lets you pull weights down from above to strengthen the lat muscles in your back. Other popular equipment include a leg extension and leg curl at the end of the bench, and a low pulley for single arm curls. There are also the gyms that include leg presses and squats, but you often have to pay more for those features.

You can actually do just as many exercisers with free weights as you can with one of the expensive home fitness gyms, but you have to know what you are doing in order to do it right. Many folks these days are deciding that they prefer to use the structure that a home gym machine gives them for their individual workouts. Whatever type of the equipment you choose, be sure to use them in advance to be sure that they will meet your needs properly before you buy.