The Glasses of Glasses

So everyone has heard the hype that is going around lately: pinhole glasses. From controversial issues to conspiracy theories, pinhole glasses have continued to attract charm and disgust. The orthodox medical world said it is a hoax (that it can't cure eye diseases such as myopia) while the alternative medicine world has harped on its efficacy in treating myopia and also preventing acquired myopia syndrome so innately common in prescription glasses wearer.

Basically, it boils down to this: when we use too much of lenses, we will have some sort of dependency (duh, everyone knows that) and it can, too, cause our eyes to deteriorate and later on, exaggerate our eye condition seriously. So what's the best bet? If you were to ask me (as a prescription glasses wearer), I would prefer to eliminate glasses from my life forever but this will be impossible. However, what if I told you that you do not need to wear glasses with lens but you can still see, nonetheless, as clear as you were wearing one? Too good to be true?

Come to it, the utilisation of pinhole glasses is very convenient. We do not need to have our glasses replaced each time and we do not need to worry about our myopia worsening by using glasses. There is one website that caught my attention lately and it is http://www.pinhole-glasses-direct.com and their products are one best bet. The service is fast and yet, they have friendly customer care too. This is what I call service!

The Science Jargon Mumbo Jumbo Behind All This

There are a lot of people who asked about this: how can a glasses perforated with so many holes with opaque lenses can help me see things clearly! There are a few peoples too, if I did not remember wrongly, upon seeing the glasses cuss like mad but after they wore it they smile like they are in heaven. They can see clearly and no matter how bad their eye condition is, they can still see clearly.

So how does this thing work?

When light is travelling, they did not travel in one ray of light. Several rays of light can be reflected from a  same point and then it enters our eyes. When it enters our eyes, our lens will help to focus the ray into a single point, hit on the screen at the eyeball and voila you get an image! The illustration on the right illustrate this.

However, you don't get this pretty picture when you have short-sightedness, long-sightedness, or astigmatism.   Refer the lower picture on the right, the rays of light I've mentioned did not hit the screen at a point at the back of the eyeball (the retina), hence the image formed is blurry.

Then, how does pinhole help to improve this condition? Simple!

When a single ray of light enters through our lens, it won't be refracted at all (provided the ray of light is travelling straight) and it will hit the retina straight. So we will get a crystal clear image without the need of using a glasses. It will be all okay then.

This is the benefit of pinhole glasses and to understand more about this click pinhole glasses.

True Benefit

The true benefit after all those jargons are this: You do not need to change your glasses to higher power at a regular interval. Your eye sight might worsen (because of exposure to radiation and UV light) but you do not need to change your glasses. I have another nifty trick which I've done with my pinhole glasses (which I procured from pinhole-glasses-direct.com). I attached a clip-on sunglasses to my pinhole glasses and it looks way cool (and it helps when I am walking from class to class too). Anyhow, it is not advisable to use them for driving and a person with refractive disorder of 6 diopters.

Where It All Started

What prompted me to write this review is because of the discovery of the website Pinhole-glasses-direct.com. Quite a mouthful but nevertheless, a very good service site where you can order their glasses online. Free shipping and then you will get fast service and a bunch of friendly people waiting to serve you. To order your shipping free glasses, click here: pinhole glasses.

If you have any question regarding their product, you can always refer to their FAQ.

Bear in mind that this is a good way of reducing stress to your eyes. Though this is not herbal in relation but this is a safer alternative to the eye-straining glasses. Good in term of health and it saves your wallet from getting a hole.

So, the natural way is the better way. Opt for pinhole glasses and save your money from being burnt again.

Pesticide Management at Home

Everyone knows that pesticide poses problem to the society at large; but yet, some of us just don't plain  care. All of us should know that proper cleaning of produces should be done wholeheartedly to prevent excess residues of pesticides to accumulate in our body. detoxification therapy is centred around this idea, where accumulated toxins get detoxified. According to Doctor Leon Chaitow, detoxification therapy is likened to a little nudge to our body, where normally it will perform neutralisation of toxins naturally and automatically.

For everyone's convenience sake, I have listed a few food that are rich in contaminants. Bear in mind that this data is procured from the United States and this might not be representative of all data in the whole wide world. I am not even sure will this data be applicable to food imported from the states.

Here is the list:

Test Results: Complete Data Set

Rank (worst to best)	Commodity	Combined Score	Percentage of Samples Tested with Detectable Pesticides	Percentage of Samples With Two or More Pesticides	Average Number of Pesticides Found on a Sample	Average Amount (in ppm*) of All Pesticides Found	Maximum Number of Pesticides Found on a Single Sample	Number of Pesticides Found on the Commodity in Total
1	Peaches	100	96.6%	86.6%	3.1	1.134	9	42
2	Apples	96	93.6%	82.3%	2.8	0.894	9	50
3	Sweet Bell Peppers	86	81.5%	62.2%	2.4	0.138	11	64
4	Celery	85	94.1%	79.8%	3.0	0.413	9	30
5	Nectarines	84	97.3%	85.3%	3.0	0.576	7	26
6	Strawberries	83	92.3%	69.2%	2.3	0.799	8	38
7	Cherries	75	91.4%	75.8%	2.8	0.290	7	25
8	Lettuce	69	68.2%	44.2%	1.7	0.142	9	57
9	Grapes - Imported	68	84.2%	53.2%	1.8	0.284	8	37
10	Pears	65	86.2%	45.7%	1.6	0.586	6	33
11	Spinach	60	70.0%	31.2%	1.1	1.240	6	24
12	Potatoes	58	81.0%	18.0%	1.0	1.655	4	18
13	Carrots	57	81.7%	48.3%	1.6	0.046	6	31
14	Green Beans	55	67.6%	42.0%	1.4	0.199	6	35
15	Hot Peppers	53	55.0%	27.5%	1.0	0.290	6	51
16	Cucumbers	52	72.5%	31.7%	1.2	0.057	6	40
17	Raspberries	47	47.9%	23.3%	0.9	0.906	6	21
18	Plums	46	74.0%	27.1%	1.1	0.666	4	15
19	Oranges	46	85.1%	34.6%	1.3	0.100	4	18
20	Grapes - Domestic	46	60.5%	23.4%	0.9	0.104	7	31
21	Cauliflower	39	84.6%	14.6%	1.0	0.004	5	15
22	Tangerines	38	66.7%	33.3%	1.2	0.375	3	4
23	Mushrooms	37	60.2%	22.3%	0.9	0.158	5	16
24	Cantaloupe	34	53.3%	19.4%	0.8	0.026	4	25
25	Lemon	31	55.6%	10.0%	0.7	0.188	5	10
26	Honeydew Melon	31	59.2%	14.2%	0.8	0.012	4	16
27	Grapefruit	31	62.9%	15.2%	0.8	0.056	4	9
28	Winter Squash	31	41.3%	11.6%	0.6	0.017	5	26
29	Tomatoes	30	46.9%	13.5%	0.6	0.029	5	16
30	Sweet Potatoes	30	58.4%	10.0%	0.7	0.198	3	17
31	Watermelons	25	38.5%	13.2%	0.6	0.021	4	13
32	Blueberries	24	27.5%	10.0%	0.4	0.327	4	11
33	Papaya	21	23.5%	5.0%	0.3	0.053	4	19
34	Eggplant	19	23.4%	6.9%	0.3	0.013	4	15
35	Broccoli	18	28.1%	3.2%	0.3	0.004	3	19
36	Cabbage	17	17.9%	4.8%	0.2	0.121	3	18
37	Bananas	16	41.7%	2.0%	0.4	0.029	2	7
38	Kiwi	14	15.3%	3.4%	0.2	0.160	3	8
39	Asparagus	11	6.7%	0.6%	0.1	0.026	2	19
40	Sweet Peas - Frozen	11	22.9%	2.3%	0.3	0.010	2	5
41	Mango	9	7.1%	0.5%	0.1	0.057	2	13
42	Pineapples	7	7.7%	0.6%	0.1	0.002	2	7
43	Sweet Corn - Frozen	2	3.8%	0.0%	0.0	0.005	1	3
44	Avocado	1	1.4%	0.0%	0.0	0.001	1	2
45	Onions	1	0.2%	0.0%	0.0	0.000	1	2

Note: We ranked a total of 44 different fruits and vegetables but grapes are listed twice because we looked at both domestic and imported samples.

* ppm means parts per million

*This is procured from http://www.foodnews.org/fulldataset.php and Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce by Environmental Working Group is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

The Bad News

Time to list out the top Twelve of the Most sinister Produces.

12 MOST Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables

• Apples
• Bell Peppers
• Celery
• Cherries
• Imported Grapes
• Nectarines
• Peaches
• Pears
• Potatoes
• Red Raspberries
• Spinach
• Strawberries

Those produces used in the test were prepared in a standard manner i.e. washed, peeled, cored etc. as they are prepared before we ate them. Latest FDA standard dictates that a large amount of the produces be used for sampling so the data procured here is not just estimation, this is real hard cold data (for the States).

The problem we have here is this; the twelve most contaminated food are eerily common and consumed almost routinely. What options do we have here then? Surely all of you have heard of detoxification therapy (this is the best bet) but is this a long run to exhaust our body (i.e, consuming toxic to burden our liver, kidney etc.)? How about organic food? That is another best bet but sometimes, how organic is ORGANIC food? Some of them don't even pass tests and their certificates are counterfeited. This has appeared a number of times in the news and has cause quite an uproar in the community.

So, buy organics that you have confirmed its authenticity. Do not buy food arbitrarily without any verification on the organic certification. Check with your local authority to ensure this.

The next best thing to do is to clean them thoroughly. What I feel as a best tool is to wash them thoroughly with a teaspoon of sea salt (richer in ionic content) and a tablespoon of vinegar (half of a lemon might be more appropriate) added to a Basin of water. This will remove most of those chemical residues in the produce. Peel apples, melons, and cucumbers even tough the skin is supposedly to be good for all of us. The amount of pesticides just does not worth it. If you want to eat those peels, try buying organic produces that you have verified.

Good News

Then those produces least contaminated (consistently clean) are:

12 LEAST Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables

• Asparagus
• Avocados
• Bananas
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Corn (sweet)
• Kiwi
• Mangos
• Onions
• Papaya
• Pineapples
• Peas (sweet)

So maybe it is better for us to eat food from the LEAST contaminated group than the MOST contaminated group. This is, no doubt, common sense but some of us just prefer the food in the MOST list (just because of habit?). It is time to rethink our food intake...

The Apothecarist's Solution

However, if you are still unconvinced and wanted something that will work well to rid yourself of pesticides, herbicides, fertilisers, and slow suicides, our apothecarist has sourced in a reliable but yet economical solution. It is our apothecarist's very own brand: Mayura Apothecary VegeFruit Wash. This enzyme-based fruit wash will help you to remove unwanted additives while remaining gentle to your hands and vegetables as well as fruits.

Take a look at the product by clicking on this link: http://www.mayuranatural.com/webshaper/store/viewProd.asp?pkProductItem=12

A short and comprehensive guide can be downloaded, http://www.foodnews.org/pdf/EWG_pesticide.pdf.

Some Common Example of Gums

Gums and mucilages are two products in which carbohydrates formed the main components. Gums are pathological products, meaning that they are harvested after the tree or plant is injured considerably. Gummy exudates, will be secreted from the tree and when it hardens, it will be ready for harvesting. Most gums dissolve in water and if hydrolysed, it yields a lot of sugar molecules. This will be highlighted below.


Tragacanth Gum

• Astragalus gummifer. Tragacanth gum came from the dessert.
• Flattened, ribbon-like pieces.
• Contains Bassorin and tragacanthin.
• Used as emulsifiers, for oil and resins.
• Hand lotion, demulcent, emollient, Cloth Sizing, Confectionary.

Acacia Gum

• Gummy exudate from the stems and branches of Acacia senegal.
• Known as Gum arabic.
• Spheroidal tears, angular fragments or flakes of a myriad of sizes. Very brittle.
• Consists of Arabin, mixture of Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium salts of Arabic acid.
• Suspending agent, demulcent in the form of mucilage.

Sterculia Gum

• From Sterculia urens and S. tragacantha, from incisions made to the heartwood.
• In tears, irregular appearances, crystalline in appearance.
• Have an acetous taste.
• Swell in water but not soluble in alcohol.
• Consists of D-galacturonic acid, D-tagatose, D-galactose, and Rhamnose.
• Also known as gum Karaya.
• Used as a cathartic, for emulsions and suspensions, wave set solutions and in skin lotions, textile and printing industries, preparing food products, in preparation of composite building materials.

Mesquite Gum

• An arabinogalactan with a β-1,3-galactopyran core and L-arabinose side chains.
• Emulsifying agent. Obtained from Prosopis juliflora.

Ghatti Gum

• Exudation from the wood of Anogeisus latifolia.
• Very soluble in cold water and it will form a very viscous mucilage.