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VIDEO: Girl, 13 Years Old, New Powerlifting World-Record Holder

The Editors — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:43:05 +0000

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The Survival of Your Family in Times of Emergency

Richard C. Young — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:05:42 +0000

Here are five of my favorite survival items. I would not want to be without any of the five. After initially wading through the 181-page Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, I began ramping up our already beefy personal survival program. The report recommends that the Department of Homeland Security should play a leading role in spreading knowledge of the nature of prudent preparations for EMP attack to mitigate its consequences. The physical consequences of a high altitude EMP attack on the United States, according to the report, would likely include the failure of the electric power grid and degradation of telecommunications systems, computers, and electronic components over large areas of the country. The country would almost certainly be engulfed in total chaos in a matter of days.

Take a few minutes and jot down a checklist of personal vulnerabilities. I don’t think you will like the look of your list. To downplay the threat of a massive infrastructure breakdown flies in the face of all I have read. It is time to get started on your full-scale family survival program. What is the downside of being prepared? As a helpful rule of thumb, I would target 1% of your liquid net worth to survival planning. If this sounds like big money to you, my guess is that you need to focus on your vulnerability a little more.

On that happy New Year’s note, here are five of my favorite survival items. You can add all to your survival program quickly and for light money. (1) Fresh Water. If you find any, how do you easily transport the water home? The simple answer is with the Reliance Hydroller (bought mine through Amazon) (2) Preserving Water. Water Preserver Concentrate is registered by federal and state EPA (also ordered at Amazon) (3) Self Defense. You don’t want to be without a shotgun (I have Mossbergs), and low-recoil ammo is a must. I buy Federal low recoil 00 buck online from Cabela’s. (4) Morning Joe. If you need your daily coffee jolt, you will soon have the shakes if you cannot fire up your electric coffee pot. Deb and I own a number of French presses. Water from your well, for example, can be boiled on a Webber or Green Egg. We love our French press. (5) Personal Protection. Now for the piece de resistance, the Travel Wrench. Yup, it looks like a plastic bike wrench and is clearly labeled Travel Wrench, but the TW is a first rate self-defense weapon. Mine is always in my side pocket. A single, well-aimed crack with the TW and a problematic attacker is out of the game (Check out the Travel Wrench here). Once again I bought these through my Amazon one click shopping account.

There you have it—five cheap-to-buy, easy-to-use and easy-to-order survival preparation must haves. Make a New Year’s resolution to get yourself on track with survival preparation. I am going to greatly expand on this theme in my monthly financial/personal security reports. You will be able to click here often and download my most recent updates. Coming to you soon: my next five survival favorites. You will want all! So Happy New Year to you all. Make it a good one.

Warm regards,

Dick

Your Great Health Find

Richard C. Young — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:00:42 +0000

Flee the big box, simulated food, super stores. I will not step in these feedlot-oriented, packaged foods behemoths and you need not patronize the simulated food boxes either. Why refer to the commercial chains as simulated food purveyors?

It is a reflection of the ingredients labeled on packaged food items and the industrial/feedlot meat, milk and egg offerings. Most of the natural food value has been bled out, replaced by hormone- and antibiotic-loaded offerings or loaded with unhealthy high-fructose corn syrup and cancer-inducing polyunsaturated fats like corn, soy and sunflower oils. Here, of course, I am not referring to beneficial olive oil or high heat oils offered from, by example, Spectrum.

In the past, I have written that the two most important words in food are “shop local.” Debbie and I achieve this goal by patronizing our local farmers markets and shopping at our local natural foods and specialized locally owned markets. Doing so allows us to stick with grass fed meat, wild fish, real free-range chicken and eggs, and local organic fruits and vegetables. As a supplement to our regular “shop local” diet, we buy grass fed meat from U.S. Wellness in the Midwest and organic herbs and cultured whole-food vitamins & minerals from New Chapter. You can find New Chapter’s great whole food products at your local natural foods market or, for your convenience, at amazon.com. New Chapter is a great health find and allows you to maintain a proper health regimen, when on the road, as we are so often. You are not likely to miss New Chapter’s distinctive purple boxes.

Warm Regards,

Dick

Dr. Dwight C. Lundell Fights the Statin Scam

The Editors — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:00:22 +0000

The author of The Cure for Heart Disease, Dwight C. Lundell M.D., worked for 25 years as a thoracic surgeon, performing over 5,000 coronary bypass operations during his career. Dr. Lundell believes that statin treatment for cholesterol is a “scam that is bigger and more harmful than anything Bernie Madoff pulled off, at least his victims only lost money, not their health.” As evidence for his claim, Lundell cites “a study published in The American Heart Journal ( January 2009 ) analyzing 137,000 patients admitted to hospitals in the United States with a heart attack demonstrated that almost 75% had “normal” cholesterol levels.”

Dr. Lundell rips the drug company case for statins apart, writing:

The very best statistical manipulation shows that one must treat at least 10 people for several years for 1 to have possible benefit. I’ll bet that when your doctor told you to take statins you were not told that under the most favorable statistical slant on the data there is only 1 chance in 10 that you will benefit.

The much publicized JUPITER study which led the FDA to approve Crestor® for people with normal cholesterol showed that treating 100 people for 3 years with Crestor® “may” have prevented one heart attack.

Yet the approval was granted and millions of people were exposed to the risks of statins with no possible benefit except to the maker of Crestor®. Do you think the process is pure and clean and free of improper influence?

Just as a point of reference, if I had treated 100 people with the correct antibiotic for an infection 99 would have been cured.

Lundell says the facts are this:

1.) Statins have not been proven to help any woman of any age!

2.) Statins have not been proven to help anyone over the age of 65!

3.) The only group of patients who may, and I emphasize “may” get any benefit, are middle aged men who have had a previous heart attack.

Lundell points to low-grade inflammation as the cause for heart attacks, writing “without inflammation cholesterol would never accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause plaque with its eventual consequence of heart attack and death.”

Read more of Lundell’s article, The Statin Scam by clicking here.

How is Your Family’s Personal Security?

Richard C. Young — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:00:59 +0000

Debbie and I are in Europe as you read this personal security post. It is tough to protect your family as you fly and travel, but I have good and comforting news for you. I travel with plastic packs of razor-sharp pencils that you can buy in any drug store. They’re great for sketching and note taking on the road and a mighty personal defense weapon when used with proper skill. I also travel with my plastic Travel Wrench. These beauties, perfect for an emergency bike repair, are meant to be used as a personal defense weapon. Any provoker getting a proper hack with the Travel Wrench will be instantly out of commission. It is one of the most powerful and fully legal, multi-purpose tools I am aware of. When at home I carry it, mace and my mini Leatherman multi knife set.

Obviously, mace and knives are not winners at airport security, so it is best to professionally improvise, as Debbie and I do. I have learned that there is zero downside in being fully prepared and loads of upside and comfort. Debbie and I both have a Florida concealed weapons license. I suggest that you take the NRA handgun safety course and get licensed in your state where possible. We have a copy of Self-Defense Laws In All 50 States as well as Traveler’s Guide to the Firearm Laws of the Fifty States. Do not get involved with firearms until you have given both guides your serious attention. I am not much of a handgun fan. Each of us has a Smith & Wesson BODYGUARD, which is 38-caliber, five-round revolver with an integrated, red-dot laser. They are nice guns, but are darn loud, have a real kick and not much range. A better choice would be a 1911 45-caliber. Click to Wilson Combat for a look at some world-class 1911 45-caliber firepower.

Being prepared is both a luxury and a comfort. It takes planning, diligence and a fair amount of effort. It is for these reasons that most Americans remain soft and vulnerable targets for those out to do harm. With deadly housebreaks on the rise, one would think that citizens would wish to be prepared. This is unfortunately not the case for most. I hope you will join Debbie and me in securing your family’s self-defense, whether at home or on the road.

Warm Regards,

Dick

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The 2 Most Important Words in Food

Richard C. Young — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:00:23 +0000

For your family, the two most important words in food are, without a doubt,

“shop local”!

I have written before about the fraudulent description of products as “free-range.” The label “organic” is often used to promote food when it doesn’t much matter whether the food is organic or not, in some cases glossing over more important issues. And, of course, you can go almost nowhere without seeing the designation “natural.”

Forget these marketing catchphrases. If you’re looking for genuinely wholesome, healthy food, shop local at farmers’ markets or locally owned specialty food stores like the wonderful Food & Thought in Naples, Florida. (Do yourself a huge favor and seek out the owner, Frank. The fresh local food in the store is often from Frank’s own farm.) In the Hudson Valley in upstate New York, eating local is huge. We love Gigi Trattoria in scenic Rhinebeck. In Rhode Island, we benefit from Consumer Supported Agriculture, which offers a chance to join a local fresh food club.

Patronize fresh food restaurants where the sources of the food you are served are identified on the menu. And don’t be led astray by the Prime beef designations, which mean little more than well-marbled and -aged commercial feedlot beef loaded to the nines with antibiotics. (Cattle cannot tolerate corn and must be pumped with antibiotics to live through the nightmare experience of a crammed feedlot.)

My homepage lists local food resources for your family—the ones we use. Joel Salatin, Allan Nation, Jo Robinson, and Dr. Mary Enig are among America’s leaders in fresh and local food, especially in promoting the powerful health benefits of grass-fed-to-finish meat and eggs, butter, and raw milk. The higher the altitude (i.e. Switzerland), the better the health benefits.

Next week, I will introduce you to a type of cattle you should search out if you’re in the market for healthful grass-fed beef. I have firsthand experience and some neat stories and photos for you, your kids, and your grandkids. Make it a great week.

Your Odds with Statins: 500 to 1?

Richard C. Young — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:00:04 +0000

If you are considering a drug such as a statin, do you and your family know about the “number needed to treat” (NNT)? I’ve been looking into NNT and found a Businessweek article from January 17, 2008 that explains the concept well. Basically, NNT is the number of patients who must be given a specific drug (by example, Lipitor) for a single person to benefit. The article provides a handy table that you’ll want to look at before you consider taking any prescription drug, not just Lipitor. The NNT table indicates that for a single person who has already had a heart attack or has signs of heart disease to benefit from Lipitor, 16 to 23 patients have to be treated with the drug. Presumably the other 15 to 22 patients receive no benefit. The NNT for a patient taking Lipitor who does not yet have heart disease, but has a risk factor like high blood pressure, is 500 to 1. Sound like good odds to you?

Beyond such uncompelling odds, the associated risk factors that come with testing for heart disease—never mind the risk of staph infection on any visit to a hospital—are unattractive. Drug-resistant staph infection is no joke. If I were considering Lipitor, I would consider the potential benefits it offers that would be worth the wide array of risks. Is the treatment likely to extend my life? If so, by how much? I would want to see hard data from all recently available trials. Is lower cholesterol the target benefit? Were I a woman or an elderly male, I would comb the abundant literature that casts doubt on the value of lower cholesterol for these groups.

The more you study, the more questions you’ll want to ask. I have found that those with serious health issues almost always benefit from the assistance of an advocate who asks the hard questions and performs the most rigorous and demanding research. It is often difficult for a troubled person to proceed alone.

I suspect you’ll agree that NNT is compelling subject matter, certainly as it relates to the sticky wicket of statin drugs. Coming installments of Lifesaver will present another chapter in the quest for answers on the statin drug front. In the interim, remember that my goal here is to encourage thoughtful independent research and a rigorous approach to getting the answers you need to better your family’s quality of life—just the approach I use myself.

Taking a Beating in the Stock Market Again This Year: Part 2

Richard C. Young — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:00:24 +0000

In my last stock market post, I explained that I do not rely on corporate annual reports, which I consider relics. Glossy corporate reports are sadly late to the party in terms of providing timely intelligence. In fact, annuals are often promotional devices written by youngsters talking about “growing earnings.” No thanks. Certainly annuals provide income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow numbers, but this info is available in many forms much quicker and easier to use than in annuals.

Every investor benefits from having access to the relevant data required to make sound investment decisions. And I am in the same camp as every other investor when it comes to desiring relevant financial figures, especially since my job is purposely more focused than that of most investors. I am interested only in dividend-paying companies with a tendency to increase dividends over the years. I concentrate on a company’s size and dominance. I do not concentrate on the small fry.

I look for a total of only 32 suitable companies for investment. (Portfolios at our family investment management company are crafted with 32 dividend payers.) My decades-long view has been to seek a stock portfolio yield of at least double the S&P 500’s yield, which further narrows the playing field by concentrating on stocks yielding ideally 4% or more. Yes, I make exceptions, but you’ll not find me digging through lists of 1% and 2% payers. I further concentrate on companies sharing what I analyze to be a sustainable advantage—that is companies with the benefit of a high barrier to entry, which most often leads to utilities, pipelines, rails and consumer staples, such as Coca Cola. As you can see, concentration and a narrow focus are hallmarks of my equities strategy.

Most of the statistical support I need is found in a couple of industry publications that I have long relied upon as timely sources, specifically Mergent’s Handbook of Dividend Achievers and Standard & Poor’s Security Owner’s Stock Guide. The Mergent quarterly tells me that KO, for example, has increased its dividend for 48 consecutive years at a compounded 9.35% annual rate. Obviously KO is a name I would keep at all times on a short list. The Mergent book delivers seven full years of cash flow, income statement and balance sheet data, the most recent quarterly data, and a nice display of annual ratios and percentages in a timely and detailed package. The S&P guide includes detailed statistical info on thousands of issues and certainly extends coverage well beyond my narrowly focused needs. For any company in which I am interested, I can quickly check the current yield, the current indicated dividend, the prior year’s dividend, and the date each company commenced paying cash dividends. In Coke’s case, that would be 1893. Data on cash, debt and stock price returns over various periods is quickly visualized. This too is a veritable treasure trove of timely data available at a glance each month.

I have followed this course of action for a long, long time. The end result is recorded in the complete record of The Retirement Compounders table provided for you.

I am probably more conservative than are most of you, and I also recognize that my keep-it-simple strategy is not for everyone. But at the end of the day, the proof is in the pudding, is it not? Give my framework of reference and consistency outlined above some serious thought. I believe a sense of comfort will come over you. Remember, investing is an individual art not science. I have made no substantive changes in my investment format since I first opened Ben Graham’s Security Analysis back in 1963. It’s a program from which anyone can benefit and prosper.

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The Butyric Acid Miracle

Richard C. Young — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:00:48 +0000

Julia Child knew the answer – butter. In the opening French bistro scene of the super movie Julie and Julia, Madame Child overlooked her plate of incoming sole, sniffed the air and proclaimed, “Butter!” Julia Child was a butter maven for a lot of good reasons, but I doubt for the health promoting benefits of butyric acid.

Many people look at grass-fed raw milk, cheese and butter as road pavers to heart disease. I do not, nor does Nina Planck creator of the first farmers’ market in London, the legendary Greenmarkets in New York and writer of the indispensible Real Food-What To Eat And Why. In Real Food Nina tells us correctly that butyric acid is a fighter of both cancer and infections.

Remember growing up to grandma’s Jewish penicillin? We’re talking chicken soup of the first order. It is however unlikely that grandma knew about that the health foundation of Jewish penicillin. As Nina presents, chicken raised on grass contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) an unusual fat that fights cancer. Chicken fat also boosts immunity. Many folk today insist on skinless chicken and believe the nonsense labeling like free range, natural and organic.

Most industrial raised chicken is not raised outside on grass but inside to never see the light of day. None of the labeling above means a hoot. You want to search out local chicken and eggs from birds raised outside with Mother Nature, on a diet of grass, bugs even pebbles and hopefully some flax seed. As Ms. Planck tells us all “The Jewish penicillin wasn’t skinless chicken breasts; it was chicken soup, with droplets of golden fat that also makes chicken soup silky.”

I love Real Food. Nina Planck is a Sally Fallon, Weston A. Price, and Dr. Mary Enig disciple, all of whom I like a lot. The sections on further reading and resources as well as the glossary are among the best I have come across. In fact, I would rank the glossary #1. I would not want to be without this book for the glossary alone. I cannot imagine any household without Real Food. Buy it. You will thank me for the rest of your life. I read for a living. That’s what I do and on many different subjects. In the field of food and nutrition Real Food is a gold medal winner for sure. And one final note on one of Madame Child, Nina Planck and Dick Young’s favorite subjects butter, search out Delitia butter. This Italian butter has the highest concentration of vitamin A of any Debbie has run down. And Debbie turns over rocks in the butter search. Bon Appétit!

Warm regards,

Dick

P.S. Thanks to my friend Marra for recommending Nina’s great book to me.

A Shocking Health Revelation

Richard C. Young — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:00:38 +0000

Here is a shocking revelation: viruses are responsible for twice as many deaths as cancer. I was surprised to read this, and for good reason. How many of us spend much time reading up on viruses? With all the recent concern about a nasty flu and cold season just around the corner, I decided to take a look at some of the most recent research findings on the subject and came up with a winner I want to share with you. A study by the world-famous MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, reviews a dramatic breakthrough that could affect millions of lives. The study examines how the body’s immune system defenses can destroy the common cold virus. Click here for all the lifesaving details.

RichardCYoung.com » Lifesaver

VIDEO: Girl, 13 Years Old, New Powerlifting World-Record Holder

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The Survival of Your Family in Times of Emergency

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Your Great Health Find

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Dr. Dwight C. Lundell Fights the Statin Scam

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How is Your Family’s Personal Security?

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The 2 Most Important Words in Food

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Your Odds with Statins: 500 to 1?

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Taking a Beating in the Stock Market Again This Year: Part 2

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The Butyric Acid Miracle

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A Shocking Health Revelation

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