Will the environmental, pollution and green building advances spurred on by the Beijing Olympics have a lasting effect in China?

To be sure, there were many issues around the politics, internet and media prohibitions and human rights aspects of the Beijing games, That’s an issue unto itself.

But, we also saw a race towards greener buildings that use resources wisely and more cleanly. There was a shift from coal use to electricity.

We saw an effort to reduce smog and pollution in the air, however late the effort came. We saw that air pollution can’t be solved in just a week or a month. We saw the health concerns brought forward vividly by athletes who refused to come and athletes who came with breathing masks.

We saw the introduction of organic produce and what was said to be hormone and antibiotic free organic meats, even if it came after countries wanted to bring their own food to avoid toxins and positive banned hormone tests. And even if it came from a select number of purveyors, seemingly organized just for the Olympics.

We saw a spotlight on the health effects of pollution on the Chinese people. Just as we saw a glimpse of Chinese graciousness…despite how choreographed it might have been.

Have things really changed, or was it all a show?

Change…

That slow, lumbering, reluctant beast.

That can sometimes morph into an excited adolescent, eager to take on the world…

What do you think?

Has China really begun the journey towards being a greener, less polluted, healthier place? Or not?

Will the changes spurred on by the Olympics become a long lasting legacy for China and the world? Or not?

Arsenic! Yet another thing to be linked to type 2 diabetes…

We’ve known for a long time about the presence of arsenic in the environment. But a new study has found that even small amounts of arsenic have a link with diabetes.

That’s right. Small amounts.

Researchers looked at how much arsenic was in the urine of the folks in the study. Those with arsenic had a 24% increased risk of having diabetes than those that had no arsenic. We already know that arsenic exposure can lead to cancer and other health problems, but the diabetes link is a new one.

But where is the arsenic coming from, you may ask? Good question.

The assumption is that arsenic is coming from the water supply, as the researches discounted the non-toxic natural arsenic in food and fish sources.

Arsenic can find it’s way into the environment and water supply from coal burning and copper smelting. It’s found in the pressure treated wood used to make decks. It’s also found in some insecticides and fungicides, though that is banned in many countries. Arsenic gas is even used in microchip production.

It can also be found naturally in rock and soils. That’s been a problem with well water and chronic arsenic illness in rural China and places such as Vietnam and Bangladesh.

But another source of arsenic is nutritional supplements. Sea algae and kelps can contain a lot of arsenic too.

Arsenic binds and disrupts the sulfur containing metabolic enzymes that help us produce energy. Previous studies have found that pancreas cells, where insulin is produced, produce less insulin when treated with arsenic. Less insulin leads to diabetes.

It’s actually unclear in this study if the arsenic contributes to diabetes, or if something about diabetes causes the arsenic to clear from the body differently.

Urine can be tested for arsenic, as they did in this study. You can also check hair and even nails, but those may not be reliable because of external contamination.

Luckily, filtering the water is something we can all do. On the public level, cities can beef up testing and filtering for arsenic. And at home, this study provides just one more incentive for filtering of tap water.

You can also use treated wood to build decks that has not been treated with arsenic. And you can make sure to use integrative pest management techniques to avoid harmful insecticides and fungicides.

Arsenic and diabetes. Who knew?

Dara Torres pulls it off. An Olympic swimming silver at age 41 amidst rumors of faked asthma and doping…

We’re not going to comment on doping because who’s to say. We would like to think everything is on the clean.

So we though we would weigh in how Dara might be doing it on her own, from the organic, eco, healthy point of view.

It’s no secret that a lot of swimmers develop asthma over time. And there is a growing body of study evidence pointing to chlorinated water exposure as contributing to that trend. So, we don’t think it’s surprising, giving the amount of time the average top level swimmers spend in the water that Dara might have developed asthma over time. She’s got a lot of company.

It’s one of the reasons we are keen on pools that don’t use chlorine. It doesn’t seem fair to blame swimmers for asthma that they could very well have gotten from simply practicing their sport for hours on end, year after year.

There has been a lot of emphasis on the inhalers and medications that swimmers with asthma use, but in fact, if you don’t have asthma, those medicines don’t help you swim faster. And if you do have asthma, at best, they just bring your lung function up to the same as competitors that don’t have asthma.

On a different note, it’s no secret that nutrition is different than it used to be. We have a much better understanding of how the biochemistry of energy production and muscle strength in the body works. How individuals are slightly different, with slightly different nutritional needs. And there are all sorts of nutritional supplements to optimize performance.

And then there is good old food. There is the idea of nutritional value of food and how the right food can maximize the health and performance of anyone, including athletes. The concept of “food as medicine” exemplifies this perfectly.

Then there is the idea that organic food grown in nutrient rich soil and without toxins, antibiotics and hormones is different and worth it. It is so worth it that the US is said to be importing some of it’s food for the athletes. And China has made extra efforts to produce organic foods and institute strict monitoring of produce and meats. In great part, due to pollution and hormone contamination concerns.

We don’t think Dara’s been eating mostly McDonald’s like Ryan Lochte. And we don’t think, if Lochte decided to compete at age 41 he’d be eating McDonald’s then either. But anyone that can pull off a world record backstroke IM double header, more power to him.

So if Dara’s doing it on her own, which we hope she is, we hope she’s doing everything green, eco and healthy that she can to do it.

The Olympic Water Cube is a green, energy saving, engineering marvel. Yes, yes, that’s nice, but did you know - it uses UV sanitation instead of chlorine to keep its water clean?

It is estimated that up to 20% of swimmers have asthma. So a pool that cuts out the chlorine to reduce asthmatic effects can only help athletic performance. And if it helps reduce the chances of children developing asthma from swimming over the years, so much the better. So from a health point of view, the Beijing Olympic pool is anti-asthmatic.

For sanitation, the pool will rely on a combination of filtration types: zeolite, coarse sand, aeration, high capacity UV disinfection and only a very small amount of chlorine for residual. This should also do a good job of removing environmental toxins such as silver, mercury, cobalt and arsenic. A good idea given environmental toxicity concerns.

That may not seem like such a big deal, but having asthma affects performance and general well being. For these Olympics, Peter Vanderkay, Dara Torres and Jessica Schipper and Park Tae-Hwan are just some of the swimmers with asthma. And in 1972, the US swimmer Rick DeMont had his gold medal in the 400 meter freestyle taken away because of testing positive for a banned asthma medication and was disqualified from another event.

Ironically, some youngsters take up swimming to help with asthma and others develop asthma over the years. Either way, it only makes sense to use a method of water sanitization that does away with the asthma inducing effects of chlorine, and that is exactly what the Water Cube pool does.

Competitive swimmers spend a huge amount of time in pools. Which means, they have a huge potential exposure to the effects of chlorinated water. The problem is that chlorine reacts with body debris like sweat, skin flakes and ammonia causing the chlorine to turn into trihalomethanes and other respiratory irritants that sit above the water where they are breathed in. In closed natatoriums, that problem tends to be even worse than in outdoor pools. Adding to the complexity is the increasing evidence that different people are able to detoxify chemicals in their systems more (or less) efficiently than others.

Studies have found higher rates of asthma in swimmers who train regularly and in people who work as lifeguards or around chlorinated pools. Research has shown that breathing these chemical can contribute to the development of asthma. This is particularly the case in indoor pools.

Chlorine exposure during childhood happens at a time that is particularly important for development of the lung. And most swimmers start early and swim for many years. In fact, researchers have found that exposure to chlorinated water before the age of 6 corresponded with higher rates of asthma at age 11 whether or not there were symptoms in the meantime.

So even though some folks question the high rate of asthma in swimmers and wonder about athletes just using asthma medications to get a performance edge, there really are scientific reasons that point to chlorine exposure and airway reactivity as being a real problem. If you are competing against the likes of Michael Phelps, you need normal lung functioning, and the best asthma medications in the world might just bring you up to even if you have asthma.

Luckily, there are some methods that drastically reduce the need for chlorine in pools. The two main alternative methods are ozone and UV sanitation. Europe has been using ozone filtration since the 1950’s. In the US, we are just catching up.

We think it would be great, actually, if all pools were chlorine free.

Rain to the rescue! The Beijing olympics air pollution levels are down…

As of today’s air pollution index, the level is down to 38. It had been hoovering up around 80 to 100.

According to forecasters, the cooler, wet weather will continue. Whew…what a breathing relief.

Here’s the question. Has the sky gotten a little technological help to produce this rain?

When the olympics were slated to open in August, there was concern that there could be rain on the opening ceremonies parade. No problem. Just move the rain for those days to a different time and place.

It’s called cloud seeding, and apparently, it’s done fairly commonly in China……more

Air pollution is a big question hanging in the Beijing air.

Is it so polluted it will be harmful to the athletes or worsen their performance?

There are many reason for athletes to be concerned about pollution exposure. We think they are wise to limit their total exposure. According to recent reports and measurements, the pollution levels are somewhat improved. But the athletes, especially those will asthma and allergies, are concerned.

But why is it such a concern?

Well, here it is. It’s a little technical and a little long-winded, but we though you might be curious anyway…

Even though there has been a major effort to reduce pollution, athletes will still be exposed to what is called PM 10 particulate pollution. These tiny particles are known to have cardio pulmonary effects. Exposure is linked to asthma and lung disease, heart disease, and even stroke and blood clotting problems.

Studies have shown that these particles can reach the deeper lung areas. The smaller the particle, the deeper, and also the most oxidative damage. But pollution exposure also sets off a complicated cascade of inflammation and regulatory factors. Various cytokines and interlukins and kinases can become involved in addition to detoxification systems.

The lungs are, obviously, a major interactor with the environment. And they have built in detoxification mechanisms to deal with that. One of the things that they have are special cells called Clara cells that are rich in detoxification enzymes like Glutathione-S-transferase and Cytochrome P450 and the major antioxidant, glutathione.

Even though we are designed to cope with toxins, this system we have can become overloaded. And that is the concern with pollution. The bottom line is that it can all add up to oxidative stress and inflammation out of control. Shortness of breath. Asthma. Air hunger. Chest tightness.

Most of these athletes are young, and they are all in excellent physical condition. At the top of their form. So, their coping mechanisms are likely maximized. But we also know that some of these systems vary from person to person genetically, so that some athletes may be more at risk than others.

For instance, various Glutathione-S-transferase enzymes can vary or even be absent in different people. And there are other important detoxification enzymes that can vary as well, such as Super Oxide Dismutase, N-acetyl Transferase and different types of Cytochrome P450 enzymes.

Top athletes have superb ability to take in oxygen and use it in the mitochondria, the little power generators of our cells, to convert food to energy in the form of ATP. And, of course althletes have a well developed cardiovascular system to deliver that oxygen to the mitochondria in various muscles. All of the intricacies of how toxins and regulators and enzyme systems contribute to mitochondrial efficiency are still being worked out.

So, needless to say, if you are trying to coax your body into a world record performance, the last thing it needs to be dealing with are all of these nasty effects of pollution!

Luckily, there are some things the athletes can be doing to help out their detoxification systems. Besides trying to avoid the pollution as much as possible, they can eat plenty of colorful fruits and vegetables and foods like the brassica vegetables (broccoli, kale, cabbages). They might even consider supplementing with glutathione precursors like N-Acetyl Cysteine or undenatured whey. Hopefully they will get plenty of sleep, drink filtered water and avoid foods with other potential toxins such as heavy metals like cadmium, mercury, arsenic and cobalt.

It’s clear that the air quality is better in Beijing than it was before the Olympics. That speaks to what can happen when we put our minds to clearing the air. We hope that the Chinese will figure out a way to keep the air clear long after the Olympics are over.

And, we wish all of the athletes good luck!