in other words
march13
2012
Natural Path to Health: Nutritional Statistics
By Dr. Carol McIntyre
This past Monday, March 5th, I gave my
first of many free health lectures at our own Vernonia
Community Grange. Although the turnout was small,
the message was well received. Many good questions
were asked and comments made. There was also
discussion about what other topics were of interest for
future lectures.
I spoke about some key points of basic
nutrition. There is a government website that, to
my surprise, is actually a nice guide for very basic
nutrition and proper eating habits. The PDF
from that website can be found at: http://
health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2010/
DietaryGuidelines2010.pdf. For those of you
who need to have a reference, this is an OK
place to start.
Statistics compiled on this site were
published in 2010. I would like to share some
of those with you. First, from the US census
bureau, the current population of the USA is
313,142,327 people with a net gain of 1 new
person every 15 seconds. That is over 300
million people and growing.
Now for the statistics. There are 81.1 million
Americans with cardiovascular disease or 37% of
the population. Hypertension is measured separately
showing that 74.5 million or 34% of Americans have
been diagnosed. Even worse, 36% of American adults
have pre-hypertension, bringing the total count for
some level of hypertension to an astounding 70% of
Americans!
Diabetes comes in at a staggering 24 million
people, with 11% of Americans ages 20+ having
diabetes. This statistic does include both type 1 and
2, but the majority of the cases recorded are type 2
diabetes. Again, as with cardiovascular disease, there
are an additional 78 million American adults who
are pre-diabetic. This brings the diabetic total to 102
million people or 1/3 of our entire population! Keep in
mind that childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes are on
the rise as well and these cases are not included in these
statistics, so the number is actually even greater than
1/3 of the population.
This chart comes directly from the government
PDF I mentioned earlier in my article:
These statistics show that since the 1970’s our
rate of obesity in the USA has almost tripled! Another
alarming statistic is that 32% of Children ages 2-19
are overweight with 17% of them being obese. Weight
is measured on the scale of BMI (body mass index)
and anything between 25-29.9 kg/m2 is considered
overweight, with anything over 30 considered
obese.
There are also statistics on cancer, showing
that 41% of Americans will be diagnosed with some
15
type of cancer in their lifetime. Osteoporosis is also
very prevalent, with 1 of 2 women and 1 of 4 men over
the age of 50 having a fracture related to poor bone
density. Most of our bone density is built before the
age of 20, so it is very important for our children to
eat well. From the current stats, I do not feel this is
happening.
Beyond the stats, while giving my lecture this
past Monday, I asked my audience what they thought
the % of children was who were considered overweight
and/or obese. Do you know what their guesses were?
54%, 36%, 70%!!! Yes! Unfortunately, they look around
and see many children that are
overweight right here in our
beloved town of Vernonia, but
we can change that.
It is imperative that we
address these chronic health
issues now. Cardiovascular
disease, diabetes, cancer and
osteoporosis are all influenced
by proper diet and physical
activity. Americans have
become the proverbial ‘couch potato’ and because
of that, we are the unhealthiest developed country in
the world with the highest levels of chronic disease.
As a Naturopathic doctor and practitioner of Chinese
medicine I aim to help people get back to the basics and
eliminate chronic disease. It can be done! We just need
to get back to the basics…
Join me for my next health lecture at the
Vernonia Community Grange on April 2nd at 7pm.
Thank you~ Be Well.
The Gun Doctor: Firearm Maintenance – Part 3
By Wolfgang Rotbart
In this article, I will go into
a bit more depth regarding firearm
maintenance. Just realize these are
general instructions and there are many
varieties of firearms out there and so this
cannot possibly cover all models and
types.
One of the most basic cleaning
operations is bore cleaning. Lead, copper
and powder residue are deposited every
time a gun is fired. This is especially a
problem when using unjacketed bullets.
Unjacketed bullets will have a dark gray
(lead) color as opposed to the reddish-
orange of a copper jacketed bullet.
An extremely dirty bore can actually
become an obstructed bore and cause
severe damage to you, bystanders, and
your firearm.
For decades the bore cleaner of
choice has been Hoppe’s #9 and it works
quite well when used as directed. I must
admit that I have a special fondness for
the aroma of #9, but as I stated in the
last column, it does pose risks if not
used according to directions and with
the proper safety gear & procedures.
Also, the bore must be cleaned very
well afterwards, as Hoppe’s is mildly
corrosive.
To clean the bore, first “clear
the firearm”. I will use this term a lot,
so I want to explain it in some detail.
Clearing a firearm consists of absolutely,
positively ensuring the firearm is
unloaded. I use the following procedure.
Remove the magazine if applicable.
Open the bolt and pull it all the
way to the rear and remove (bolt action),
field strip the action (pistol or semi-auto
rifle or shotgun), operate the opening
lever (hinge action shotgun, rifle or
pistol) or open the cylinder (revolvers)
and remove any rounds.
Visually and tactilely, verify the
chamber is empty, there is no magazine
in place and there are no rounds in the
firearm. I also say out loud “visual,
tactile, visual, tactile” as an added aid.
Remove all live ammo from the room
where you will be working.
Now you are ready to clean the
bore. There are several types of cleaning
rods most of which you use to push a
patch through the bore. However, a few
types are pulled through. Whenever
possible, clean a firearm from the
breach, or rear, end. The area where the
bullet exists, the crown, is very sensitive
to even a miniscule amount of damage
and this can lead to very poor accuracy,
so be careful in this area.
Usually, I start with a cotton
patch to clean out the big chunks and
then switch to a wire brush that is the
correct size for the caliber or gauge. Wet
the wire brush in your choice of cleaner
and run it through the bore several times
to ensure the entire bore is soaked.
Depending on how dirty the bore is, you
may need to let it soak 15 minutes or
even overnight.
Next, run the brush through the
bore several more times and switch to a
cotton patch. These are generally in two
sizes and may be either round or square.
The patch is run through the bore with
a “jag” or a “slotted tip/loop”. The jag
has a pointed tip on which you center
the patch and then run it through the
bore. For a slotted tip/loop, thread the
patch through the loop and use. These
also come in different sizes for specific
calibers or gauges.
I prefer a jag, as it is quicker to
use. Run the patch through the bore,
the turn it over, repeat, put a new patch
on and repeat until the patch comes out
clean.
Use a small flashlight or other
light source to illuminate the bore and
visually verify the bore is clean and free
or any obstructions, rust or pitting. Most
bores will almost be a mirror finish.
Finally, depending on your
mechanical skills and familiarity with
the firearm, disassemble the action to
where you feel competent and clean the
action using an old toothbrush or similar.
Many folks use a solvent such as acetone
to clean out the inaccessible places.
Personally, I use Simple Green in
hot water. It is much safer than a solvent
and requires no rubber gloves or safety
gear. Brush the parts in the solution,
let them soak for 15 minutes or more
and then brush again and dry the parts
thoroughly and quickly. For smaller
parts, I put a piece of newspaper in the
toaster oven tray, set the temperature to
200° F. for 10 minutes or so and stay
in the kitchen with it the entire time. I
can’t recommend this method for safety
reasons, but it works for me.
Regardless, ensure the parts are
completely dry and apply a light coat of
a good grade of gun oil. Make sure to
check the trigger group and safety to see
if there is any sign of a dried oil/grease
build up as this can cause extremely
serious safety malfunctions. If there is,
sometimes it can be removed by soaking
in a solvent; other times it will need to
be completely disassembled. Normally,
a gunsmith should do this as it is very
easy to reassemble a trigger group
dangerously incorrect or you may not be
able to get it back together again.
As for a good gun oil, most any
of the ones made especially for firearms
should work well. Personally, I use
a product called Gunzilla and in the
interest of full disclosure, I am a dealer
for this product.
I like it for several reasons: It is
made from plants and is non-toxic, has a
very mild odor, works very well as a bore
cleaner, gun lube and rust preventive,
does not dry out and become thick like
a grease and does not attract dust like
petroleum-based oils. Also, it cleans the
bore and removes light rust in an entirely
different manner than other products that
dissolve the foreign material. Gunzilla
works by penetrating under the foreign
material and lifts it off the base metal.
So, instead of two or three gun cleaning
products, I only have one to keep up
with.
If you would like more
information on performing these tasks,
please contact me and I will be glad to
be of service.
I welcome ideas for topics for
these articles. Please email them to:
Wolfgang@WolfgangTheGunDoctor.
com or call me at 503-429-7342 10:00 –
5:00 M – F
Wolfgang Rotbart is an AGI-
certified Master Gunsmith and a NRA-
certified Basic Pistol Course Instructor.
He works as a gunsmith and as an
Oregon Concealed Handgun Safety
Course Instructor. You may visit The Gun
Doctor website for more information at:
http://www.wolfgangthegundoctor.com/
Vernonia’s Voice is
published twice each month on
the 2nd and 4th Tuesday. Look
for our next issue March 27th.
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