Organic
Connections JAN–FEB 2008
The magazine of Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality
Sherry Rogers, MD On healing the body naturally Heart Health Why magnesium is good for your heart BMW The ultimate environmental machine?
Natural Calm
®
Relieve stress—balance calcium Over the past year in large natural products supermarkets, scanner reports show
Natural Calm is the best-selling magnesium supplement. (Source: SPINS data ‘06)
W
e hear a lot about the need to take supplemental calcium, but what we don’t hear is that adequate levels of magnesium are essential in order to absorb and metabolize calcium. Today we have diets dangerously low in magnesium and most of us are not getting recommended amounts of magnesium. This is especially important when taking supplemental calcium—both to maintain calcium-magnesium balance and to prevent a buildup of excess calcium.
Natural Calm—The Anti-Stress Drink
™
To ward off the negative effects of a prolonged period of stress or an overreaction to stress, calcium needs to be balanced with adequate levels of magnesium. Going through a stressful period without sufficient magnesium can set up a deficit which, if not corrected, can linger, causing more stress and further health problems. Millions suffer daily from conditions that can result from a lack of magnesium. Because magnesium is so vital to so many bodily processes, deficiency can cause a wide variety of symptoms, such as low energy, fatigue, weakness, weakening bones, PMS and hormonal imbalances, inability to sleep, muscle tension, spasms and cramps, abnormal heart rhythm, anxiousness, nervousness and irritability. Natural Calm is the solution to restoring a healthy magnesium level and balancing your calcium intake. Developed by pioneering nutritional researcher Peter Gillham, Natural Calm features a proprietary process that provides magnesium in a highly absorbable, effective and fast-acting form. Natural Calm handles excess calcium in the body and can gradually reduce accumulated calcium, giving a new lease on life and instant relief to many symptoms of magnesium depletion. Whether you take a calcium supplement or get your calcium from dairy products or green leafy vegetables, you should accompany calcium with the Natural Calm necessary to properly balance it.
For more product information, visit www.petergillham.com.
What kind of a world do you want?
W
hat do you want the world to be like in 5, 10 or 20 years? What quality of life do you want for your children—and their children? This could be either a hypothetical exercise or something worth thinking about and acting upon. Maybe you’re already doing something about it. If that’s the case, thank you on behalf of all of us. But I’ll bet there are people you know who aren’t so proactive. When we tune in to the TV news or read the newspaper (a couple of habits I’ve broken myself of, resulting in a significantly lower stress level), it’s hard not to feel irritated or, worse, apathetic. But the wonderful thing about our species is that when all seems bleak, the indomitable human spirit rises to the occasion and positive change is brought about by intent individuals. It’s easy to dwell on the negative, but why would you want to? I unhooked myself from the daily news feed when I realized that it was a distorted view of what’s going on in the world (it’s not all about “film at 11”). When was the last time you watched the news and came away feeling positive and energized? I wouldn’t go so far as to say that disseminating everything bad or problematic that’s happening as “news” and omitting any real progress or uplifting event is a perfect recipe for making people unhealthy and depressed. But while that might not be the intent, it may well be the result. When there is something life threatening like an earthquake, fire, hurricane or other disaster, the first thing people will do is tune in to the news. That makes sense. But some bright boys (following the example of William Randolf Hearst) figured out that since ratings and readership skyrocket during a real disaster, if they could synthesize a disastrous climate they could maintain high interest. So, sadly, in the end it’s more about the money than an honest attempt to provide the public with a balanced and accurate view of the world situation. But there are many people of good will who are actively working to make this world a better place. In this issue we highlight doctors Sherry Rogers and Andrea Rosanoff, who are tirelessly researching various aspects of health and coming up with natural and effective approaches. We also take a look at BMW and their efforts to make both automobiles and the manufacturing process greener and more sustainable. That’s today’s good news!
In this issue
or•gan•ic |ôr ganʹik| denoting a relation between elements of something such that they fit together harmoniously as necessary parts of a whole: the organic unity of the integral work of art • characterized by continuous or natural development: companies expand as much by acquisition as by organic growth.
4 Sherry Rogers, MD The noted author and researcher talks about the natural way to better-than-normal health.
8 Heart Health Pioneering researcher Andrea Rosanoff, PhD, discusses the importance of magnesium to heart health.
4
11 BMW Check out the BMW Hydrogen 7 and the forthcoming X6 ActiveHybrid. But that’s not all that BMW is doing to change the automotive world for the greener. From factory to showroom, BMW is hard at work on gas-alternative engine technologies, recycling, using secondary raw materials and minimizing environmental impact from manufacturing—all this while not losing sight of the fun factor in driving.
8
11
Ken Whitman Organic Connections is published by Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality 2530 N. Ontario Street, Burbank, CA 91504-2512 National Office (800) 446-7462 www.petergillham.com • info@petergillham.com Statements made in this magazine have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. © 2008 Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality. All rights reserved.
A portion of the profits from the sale of
Natural Calm ® and Organic Life Vitamins™ goes to our Natural Revitalization environmental action initiative addressing global warming, which helps fund Conservation International (www.conservation.org) and Remineralize the Earth (www.remineralize.org).
Sherry Rogers, MD God designed the body to heal
W
doctors. That research took her into the field of natural medicine and, more importantly, into the molecular biochemistry of the body and how it actually heals. Thirty-seven years later, she is semiretired from practice but continues full force as an author (of both books and newsletters) and a researcher, as well as maintaining a phone consultation practice to directly assist those in need. “There are too few people doing “We have everything we need in our bod- what I do,” she says. “Until that void is ies to heal,” says Sherry Rogers, MD, who, filled, I’ll never stop the newsletters and the among her many achievements, can lay books because I feel that’s the main focus— claim to being a noted author and exten- to empower people.” sive researcher of molecular biochemistry. “We’ve seen it happen over and over again Isolating the Causes throughout my 37 years of practice, where folks have healed things for which they’ve “It’s been a very interesting adventure, and a been told there’s no known cause, no lot of fun,” says Dr. Rogers of her research known treatment.” and practice. The December 2006 issue of It’s not a statement heard very often in her newsletter well documents the story of modern medicine, but Dr. Rogers is no a 46-year-old woman, a nonsmoker, a nurse stranger to straying from the beaten path by profession and mother of two children, for the accomplishment of what she clearly who one day simply “didn’t feel well.” She sees as truth. It began with her desire to was diagnosed with advanced lung canbecome a doctor. “I was the oldest of 8 chil- cer—she had 10 lesions on her lung and the dren from a poor family, and had to work cancer had spread throughout her body to my way all through medical school,” she her spine, abdomen and liver. Her doctors remembers. “Plus, in those days women prescribed the standard treatment for such didn’t even go to medical school.” advanced cancer—chemotherapy—which Shortly after receiving her degree, Dr. they admitted wouldn’t solve the problem Rogers again went against the grain and but might buy her a few months. One dose began a thorough investigation of natural later, her weight had dropped from 115 to healing and molecular biochemistry. At 72 pounds, she had become bedridden and first, the reasons were personal—she was been put on oxygen. Funeral arrangements chronically ill with over 20 “undiagnosable” were being made. problems. Seeking solutions, she pored over The woman ceased chemotherapy and her medical texts but came away knowing began a strict diet regimen. Twelve years less than when she started. She basically later, she is totally recovered.* That case, as with many others, is totally found that all illnesses were categorized as documented. “I’m a real reference junkie,” “drug deficiencies,” and when drugs failed Dr. Rogers says. “It stems from being a phythe only recourse was surgery. She began sician, but also the readers want to take the researching how healing was done prior information to their doctors. I always want to today’s widespread reliance on medical
to have all the backup for the physicians.” Dr. Rogers has found that detoxification enemas, enzymes and frequent carrot juicing can reverse cancers. The juicing aspect came from a Harvard University study, cited in Dr. Rogers’ book Wellness Against All Odds, which found that high doses of beta carotene (which comes from carrots) could actually cause the cancer gene, known as P23, to revert to normal. Interestingly, Harvard doctors today seem oddly unaware of this study. “There’s a very funny disconnect in medicine,” Dr. Rogers says. “If you go for your treatments to some of the facilities where the best research is done, it’s as though they never even knew what was going on among the researchers there.” Today, if one goes to Harvard for an oncology service, they continue to only recommend chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Heart Health
A similar “disconnect” occurred with the esteemed Mayo Clinic, at which a study found that far-infrared saunas could improve heart patients who had been labeled as hopeless.1 This study, documented in Dr. Rogers’ book The High Blood Pressure Hoax! enabled patients to detoxify environmental chemicals that had caused congestive heart failure, high blood pressure and other cardiac abnormalities. These patients were able to quit cardiology drugs, their ejection fraction (the amount of blood pumped out of one heart ventricle with one heartbeat) improved, their blood pressure improved, the distance they could walk increased and they had less shortness of breath. Yet to this day, if one reports to the Mayo Clinic for a cardiology workup, they are not advised to do a far-infrared sauna. So Dr. Rogers diligently continues her work. As one might guess from the title of organic connections
5
her book mentioned above, another area for which she has gathered plentiful research deals with the number one health issue in America today: heart disease. And today’s treatments—or, more precisely, their omissions—greatly concern Dr. Rogers. “It generally goes like this: folks will arrive at a cardiology clinic with arrhythmia [abnormal heart rhythm] or angina [severe chest pain]. Then they have a million-dollar workup for all the different causes and are prescribed medication. If the medications
[
another heart health issue, cholesterol. “I of the chelates—chelated magnesium is have here right in front of me, from the supposed to be wonderful, but you have to Journal of the American College of Nutri- take two and three times what the dose says tion 2004 Volume 23, a paper from one of on the bottle to get that level. Whereas with the world’s leading experts in magnesium Natural Calm it’s a citrate, plus it’s a powder, showing how magnesium works just like a and so it’s liquid; you can have it with a lot statin drug and better,” she says, noting that of water and you’re getting those levels in the number one drug currently prescribed right away.” She also says she can tell its for high cholesterol, Lipitor, is a statin drug. effectiveness by patients reporting back to “Magnesium inhibits the HMG-CoA re- her with successes. ductase enzyme that statin drugs work on.2 It promotes an enzyme called LCAT, which Hyperactivity
Until that void is filled, I’ll never stop the newsletters and the books because I feel that’s the main focus—to empower people.
don’t work, stents [small expandable tubes used for inserting in blocked vessels] are inserted. For atrial fibrillation [a specific type of arrhythmia in which the heart’s two small upper chambers quiver instead of beating effectively] it’s even scarier; if medications fail, patients are given cardioversion, which is basically an electrocution of the heart. They are also given blood thinners, which put patients in great danger of bleeding to death. Blood thinners trigger osteoporosis and do a lot of other damaging things that we’ve included in The High Blood Pressure Hoax! and in the newsletter.” Part of Dr. Rogers’ consternation deals with the fact that many physicians don’t consider less drastic (and less expensive) natural remedies. Calcium channel blockers are a primary class of drugs prescribed for heart conditions and these can have side effects ranging from unpleasant to serious. Nature’s calcium channel blocker is magnesium, which has no side effects. Relaxation of muscles—of which the heart is one—is a primary function of magnesium, hence its importance, which Dr. Rogers cannot stress enough. “If you wanted to take the most important, the number one, mineral in the human body that is sorely neglected, and is at the root of just about every disease, and is a component of just about every symptom, it’s magnesium,” she says. “It runs more enzymes than any other mineral in the body—over 400 enzymes. The average American diet, government studies show us, provides only 40%—less than half the magnesium that we all need in a day. So almost everybody is low!” Magnesium deficiency also relates to 6 organic connections
]
can drag cholesterol off the arterial wall and raise the HDL, the good cholesterol, which also is a wheelbarrow that takes the cholesterol off the arterial wall.” Peter Gillham’s Natural Calm
The form of magnesium that Dr. Rogers recommends is Peter Gillham’s Natural Calm— which she’ll go out of her way to point out is not a sponsored recommendation. “I am not paid by them. I never worked for them. I never received a cent from them!” she laughs. “And that’s one of the things I make sure of in my books and my newsletters. I’m the sole researcher, writer and editor, and I do not take any paid advertisements, or any advertisements at all.” She has recommended Natural Calm for years, she says, since she first discovered it. The reasons—as with all Dr. Rogers’ reasoning—stem from detailed research. First, she is one of few who are actually measuring magnesium levels, along with a host of other nutrient levels, in the body. Hence, she was able to readily observe the best-absorbed form of the mineral. “We would measure levels of magnesium oxide, which is the cheapest magnesium form,
[
“Those poor little hyper kids,” says Dr. Rogers, “they’re getting the raw end of the deal in medicine.” Giving prescription drugs for what has been labeled Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is “a very bad thing to do to a child. I would have folks start with Depression Cured at Last! and then The E.I. Syndrome and then Detoxify or Die. A lot of issues of the newsletter have taken this even further with newer findings. “But all these kids with ADD have basically three problems going on. They have a lot of allergies, many of which are foods. They have nutrient deficiencies—magnesium is top among them. And then they have toxic levels. They have levels of cadmium, lead, arsenic, mercury, etc. And you might say, ‘Gee, where do these kids get this stuff from?’ Well, as we showed in the newsletters and in Detoxify or Die, the average newborn baby, the moment he’s born, has measurable levels in his core blood of Teflon, fire retardant, pesticides, mercury, cadmium, lead, arsenic, aluminum—in fact, we’ve so poisoned the world that the polar bears in the Arctic have these levels as well. I mean we just made a mess of it all. “So these kids who are falling apart early with ADD—whatever label they have—you definitely want to look at their chemistry very carefully. And do that panel that we talk about in the books and the newsletters where it looks at every vitamin, mineral, fatty acid, amino acid and organic acid.
The average American diet, government studies show us, provides only 40%—less than half the magnesium that we all need in a day. So almost everybody is low!
and readily available in many health food stores,” she reports. “But it’s less than 50 percent absorbed. Same thing with a lot
]
Because this is the chemistry of how God designed the body. And we now have the wherewithal—we’ve had it for decades—of
how to assay it and correct it and fix it once and for all so that folks don’t have to endure these things. And they don’t need a lifetime of sentence to some drug.” Pioneering the Natural Approach
For anyone who would like to discover the results of her plentiful research, Dr. Rogers recommends beginning with her book Detoxify or Die (unless there is a specific concern such as hyperactivity, as mentioned previously). The book details the many environmental causes of today’s maladies, and their treatments. A great example of an environmental cause was her discovery that three out of four cases of any sort of arthritis suffered from an allergy to nightshade, a family of flowering and fruit-bearing plants. The book covers her treatment of such cases. She then recommends The High Blood Pressure Hoax! since heart disease is so prevalent. She also recommends her newsletter to stay up-to-date with her latest findings. Of her approach, Dr. Rogers says, “With a drug, you’re poisoning someone who’s already down and out—they already have one foot in the hole. That’s why they have a symptom. The symptom is the very first God-given excuse to say, ‘Whoa! Stop the presses! Let’s look at all the chemistry and find out what’s broken and fix it and get this person cured. Get them back to normal or even, in many cases, better than normal.’ ”
[
But all these kids with ADD have basically three problems going on. They have a lot of allergies, many of which are foods. They have nutrient deficiencies—magnesium is top among them. And then they have toxic levels.
]
*To receive a free copy of the December 2006 issue of Dr. Rogers’ newsletter, which fully documents this story, send an e-mail request to orders@prestigepublishing.com. 1. Far infrared sauna therapy is said to duplicate the healthy frequencies of our own cells. This “deep heating,” along with sweating, is thought to be responsible for the healing effects and the other health benefits associated with these infrared rays. 2. HMG-CoA reductase is an enzyzme needed by the body to make cholesterol.
organic connections
7
Heart Health
Andrea Rosanoff, PhD The importance of magnesium to heart health
D Dr. Andrea Rosanoff is a pioneer in discovering the importance of magnesium as a nutrient and is a continuing researcher into its impact on general and heart health. She holds MS and PhD degrees in nutritional science from the University of California at Berkeley and is co-author of the book The Magnesium Factor with Mildred S. Seelig, MD, MPH. She is currently the Directing Scholar for the Hawaii-based Center for Magnesium Education & Research. We recently sat down with Dr. Rosanoff for a very thorough look at magnesium as it relates to heart issues. A Look under the Microscope
Nutritional magnesium is deeply involved in energy production, oxygen uptake, central nervous system function, electrolyte balance, glucose metabolism and muscle activity, including that all important muscle—the heart. To closely examine magnesium’s importance to the heart muscle, we have to pull out our microscopes—yes, it gets right down to the cellular and even the molecular level. “Magnesium plays an essential role in many of the functions of energy production itself,” Dr. Rosanoff says. “It is an integral part of the energy and protein molecules—without which the energy to contract and relax the heart does not occur properly.” Magnesium is also an essential element in the construction of the cell membrane. In that the heart is composed of cells,
magnesium plays a role in the integral only encourages people to exercise if they strength of the heart muscle itself. have an adequate magnesium level. “ExerWhen magnesium levels begin to get too cise is really, really good,” she says. “It appears low the body tries very hard to adapt, but from recent research that exercise makes these basic functions of energy production magnesium more available, moving it from and cell structure are affected. “Magnesium is areas that don’t currently need it as much to important to so many aspects of the cell both areas that do need it. And one of those is, of in structure and function—at the cellular course, the heart. But if magnesium is marlevel, the microcellular level and the protein ginal, exercise can cause problems.” structure level—that lack of magnesium will be first felt there,” Dr. Rosanoff says. Without Calcium-Magnesium Balance enough magnesium, the cell is no longer able to keep up the proper number of high-energy A low-magnesium condition can also be molecules to healthfully function. exacerbated by a high intake of calcium— But it doesn’t stop there. “Once magnesium promoted heavily today by many health falls down below a certain level, just about professionals. Calcium cannot be optieverything starts to go,” Dr. Rosanoff says. mally utilized without a proper balance “The sodium balance starts to go and the of magnesium, and a high calcium intake electrolyte balance starts to go. The cell is without magnesium will further drain any not able to have a fully integrated membrane reserves of magnesium. system. Calcium and sodium start to rush Dr. Rosanoff is quick to point out that into areas where they normally would not calcium is extremely necessary to heart and be and the cell begins to lose its integrity general health. “Calcium is necessary at the of both its electronic energy fields and its cellular level for muscles to contract, for chemistry. It just starts to get weaker and nerves to fire, for hormones to be secreted.” weaker because it doesn’t have the energy “But—and this is new information, really— to do all the things it needs to do.” calcium needs to be balanced with magnesium,” Dr. Rosanoff continues. “If you give too much calcium and too little magnesium, what can Importance of Magnesium Levels tend to happen is the excited firing state of Now, pulling back out of our microscope, biochemistry of the cell will tend to remain how are these occurrences felt and how can that way. In a stress situation such as exercising they affect the individual? “If a person is not more vigorously than usual or when someone is getting adequate magnesium for their indi- suddenly and unexpectedly frightened, muscle vidual needs, they can go into what we call a cells or nerve cells or hormone secreting cells marginal state,” Dr. Rosanoff says. “A certain can go into an overreaction mode—the fighttrauma or onslaught to that organism can or-flight mode. Without magnesium they take the magnesium status from a marginal don’t come back down to resting state; they into a depleted state, which can manifest as stay excited in that firing mode.” hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease and, if it happens suddenly, a heart attack.” Magnesium and Cholesterol Such a trauma can be brought about by strenuous exercise—something heart pa- Another problem related to heart health, and tients are encouraged to do. Dr. Rosanoff one that has received considerable attention organic connections
9
over the years, is cholesterol. A fatty substance found in many areas of the body, cholesterol in large quantities can be dangerous to health. Over time, it can build up on the walls of the arteries and can cause narrowing or hardening, leading to serious heart problems. Because cholesterol has obtained such a bad name, many may not know that it is actually produced in all cells naturally and has important bodily functions. “Cholesterol comes about through a series of chemical reactions,” Dr. Rosanoff explains. “Cholesterol is important because it is a steppingstone to the body’s manufacture of sex hormones like testosterone and estrogen.” One of the reactions involved in cholesterol production is called the rate-limiting reaction because it keeps control of the amount of cholesterol manufactured. The rate-limiting reaction requires magnesium. “The enzyme for the rate-limiting reaction has two phases: an active phase and an inactive phase,” says Dr. Rosanoff. “The inactive phase has to have magnesium tied to it. If you don’t have enough magnesium in the cell, that
cells’ internal magnesium-to-calcium ratio. “In simple solutions, such as salt water, all ions are evenly dispersed,” says Dr. Rosanoff. (An ion is simply an atom with an electrical charge, and on a cellular level elements such as calcium and magnesium exist as ions.) “Not so in living cells. Ions are carefully and meticulously separated in living cells, and this ion ‘packaging’ is vital to life processes and health. Calcium ions, for the most part, are kept outside cells while magnesium ions are kept mainly inside cells. The stress response changes this. During stress response, calcium ions rush inside the cell, and this alters the internal magnesium-to-calcium ratio. This change in ratio exhibits wide effects because, while magnesium and calcium are very similar in their chemistry, biologically these two elements function and react very differently.” Magnesium and calcium are two sides of a physiological coin: they are antagonistic to one another yet operate as a team. For example, calcium excites nerves; magnesium calms them down. Calcium makes muscles contract, but magnesium is necessary for muscles to
Dr. Rosanoff is the Directing Scholar for the Hawaiibased Center for Magnesium Education & Research.
There are numerous reasons, but one of the most fundamental lies with our educational system. Preventative nutrition is simply not taken up seriously in medical education. As for magnesium, Dr. Rosanoff herself was taught very little about it in eight years of intensive study in Nutritional Science for her master’s and PhD degrees at UC Berkeley. Researching magnesium deficiency and its true effects was a long road of discovery for Dr. Rosanoff, resulting in the eventual publication of her and Dr. Seelig’s book. Doctors are also a bit hobbled by what Magnesium is also an essential element in the may very well be a faulty test for magnesium construction of the cell membrane. In that the heart is deficiency. Dr. Rosanoff cites Professor Ron composed of cells, magnesium plays a role in the integral Elin, who in 2000 wrote a paper detailing the strength of the heart muscle itself. fact that the “standard” level of magnesium for lab tests may have been obtained by testing enzyme cannot be deactivated. As a result, relax. Calcium is necessary to the clotting on people who were magnesium deficient that control point is weakened or absent; reaction—essential for wound healing—but to begin with. Hence, a person may obtain cholesterol continues to be manufactured magnesium keeps the blood flowing freely a blood test that shows a “normal” level of and the cell cannot slow or stop it. This can and prevents abnormal thickening when clot- magnesium which in fact is a deficit. result in a cholesterol buildup.” ting reactions would be dangerous. For that reason, Dr. Rosanoff recommends Scientific study shows more and more that anyone getting a blood test for magnesium Stress Requirements that the underlying cellular change level not be satisfied with the results until they enabling the stress response is a low are at least in the top half of what is considered “The magnesium requirement during stress magnesium-to-calcium ratio caused by the “normal” range. soars,” says Dr. Rosanoff. “This includes any a large and sudden influx of calcium into “When faced with our stressful lifestyles, kind of stress coming into the body from cells. The stress response subsides when the coupled with a society presenting a chroniexercise, mental and emotional issues, high cells’ magnesium returns to its dominant cally low magnesium/high calcium diet, noise, chemicals, or any other source.” Even someone regularly taking magnesium as part The magnesium requirement during stress soars. This of a dietary program has far greater nutritionincludes any kind of stress coming into the body from al requirements when they experience a stress exercise, mental and emotional issues, high noise, episode of some sort. chemicals, or any other source. Magnesium requirements also rise during healing from a bodily trauma such as injury presence inside cells, moving extra calcium what is our best defense?” Dr. Rosanoff poses. or an operation. “Part of any bodily healing back to its “normal” position, thus restoring “For many of us, magnesium supplements should include a really good source of mag- the cells’ normal ratio. can help to preserve or restore a healthy nesium as well as other essential nutrients,” magnesium-calcium balance, so important Dr. Rosanoff says. Why Don’t Doctors Know? to our health in these stressful times.” Much study at the cellular, biochemical and Dr. Rosanoff continues with her groundphysiological levels has shown that the stress If magnesium is so important to heart health, breaking work on magnesium and we look response vitally involves the influx of calcium you may wonder why you’ve never heard it forward to more of her contributions in into cells, resulting in a drastic change in the from your medical doctor. the future.
[
]
[
10 o r g a n i c c o n n e c t i o n s
]
The Hydrogen 7
BMW The ultimate environmental machine?
W When one thinks of a high-performance automobile, it’s usually not in the same mental moment as preservation of the environment. In fact, it’s ordinarily quite the opposite: if a person is in the least environmentally conscious, he or she normally feels a bit guilty if they own one. Such vehicles as a rule require high-octane fuel and have a trade-off in lower mileage for higher performance. It may feel great while you’re speeding down the highway, but one glance off to the side at the forest or the ocean or hearing yet another news item about the world’s dwindling fossil fuel supply and those feelings of guilt come back again. Fossil fuel shortages, global warming and pollution are complex problems that won’t be solved until each contributor to these problems is doing his, her or their part to reverse them. Fortunately, BMW has stepped up to the plate and has taken some remarkable steps to address these issues. Coming from the Top
The BMW Group—the parent company of continental BMW companies throughout the world—has a list of guidelines with which they expect compliance from executives and various BMW subsidiary companies. These include the development of transportation technologies with the overriding concept of maintaining mobility (keeping up performance) 12 o r g a n i c c o n n e c t i o n s
without undermining the quality of life and the development of propulsion technologies alternative to the gasoline-fueled internalcombustion engine. The company also employs the use of advanced technology to enhance safety and minimize exhaust emissions, noise emissions and fuel consumption. These guidelines extend far beyond the vehicles themselves to the other area from which environmental harm can stem—the manufacturing processes. The company has committed to use technical and economic means appropriate to conserving resources and minimizing environmental impact in the development, design, production and operation of facilities. They have also developed extensive recycling solutions and the utilization of secondary raw materials. The company additionally encourages their suppliers to follow their guidelines, and in the U.S., suppliers sign on to—and become part of—the BMW environmental program. A Driving Example
But as we all know from years of political and corporate rhetoric, it’s one thing to make pledges, promises and policies and quite another to carry them off. And here is where BMW has truly proven itself—where the rubber meets the road. The company has developed the very first luxury performance sedan with a hydrogen drive, the BMW Hydrogen 7. This 12-cylinder, 260-horsepower piece of supreme engineering runs on the most plentiful element in the world and releases nothing but water vapor. Because the infrastructure for refueling a hydrogen internal combustion engine is not yet complete, the car also runs on gasoline at the push of a button. The vehicle is not yet available for purchase, but has gone
beyond the “concept auto” stage and is in limited production, proving that a luxury performance car—a far cry from the tiny hybrids currently available—can be made extremely environmentally friendly. “Performance and the reduction of emissions are not mutually exclusive,” said BMW U.S. Chairman and CEO Tom Purves in a recent address. “In the case of the Hydrogen 7, it means a car that is capable of running 143 miles per hour top speed yet emitting virtually nothing but water vapor. This is what we consider to be the ultimate driving machine among green cars.” The car is being offered to select users this year, including legendary opera singer and conductor Placido Domingo. Other luminaries have opted to drive the car as well, among them Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori, Jay Leno, Richard Gere and Sharon Stone. The company recently unveiled the X6, termed a “sports activity coupe.” While currently only in the concept stage, nearly identical production models are expected in dealerships in 2008. BMW also announced an ActiveHybrid version of the X6, which the company claims will be 20 percent more fuel efficient. Out in the real world, the company has worked diligently to make their regular line of production vehicles environmentally safe as well. BMW topped an August 2007 “carbon conscious list” in a report entitled “Automakers’ Corporate Carbon Burdens.” The report, compiled by a nonprofit environmental group called Environmental Defense, focused on carbon dioxide emissions from major auto manufacturers between 1990 and 2005, and found that BMW achieved a 12 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions across its entire fleet of cars—higher than that of any other automaker in the study.
Michael Ganal, member of the BMW AG board of directors, recently commented, “Our strategy is clear: We want to reduce fuel consumption across our entire model portfolio. Because this is the only way to really help the environment. Complementing a model line-up by one single eco vehicle sold in low numbers—as some other manufacturers do—is plain window dressing. The positive effect for the environment is close to zero.” BMW also seeks to keep their buyers fully informed. Key environmental data is included within all vehicle brochures, and every car on display in a customer showroom has a label detailing CO2 emissions. Leading in Environmentally Safe Manufacturing
The BMW U.S. South Carolina plant has an environmental design and operation that is unparalleled in the automotive industry. Even before construction of the plant was begun, BMW rearranged the plant layout so that local wetlands would be preserved. Waste water is pretreated before being discharged to the local municipal treatment facility. The
plant is even painted with environmentally friendly water-based primer. Sixty-three percent of the power used to run the facility comes from methane gas generated at a local landfill. The gas is conveyed through a 9.5-mile pipeline directly to the plant. Recent expansion of the landfill gas initiatives has extended to the largest consumer of energy within the factory—its paint shop—and this expansion is expected to achieve a CO2 reduction of approximately 17,000 tons per year. This energy initiative earned the company the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Energy Partner of the Year” award, as well as being cited as a reason the plant was named “2006 Top Plant” by Plant Engineering magazine. “Three of our core principles are innovation, protecting the environment, and being a good corporate citizen,” said Briggs Hamilton, BMW Manufacturing’s environmental section manager. “This is such a positive for everyone involved. There literally hasn’t been a downside to this project. This project allows us to take a previously wasted energy source and use it to generate electricity and heat for our plant, resulting
in lower emissions, which helps to protect the environment and the community.” The plant also recycles material wherever possible, from aluminum beverage cans to containers for entire transmission assemblies. They also utilize returnable shipping containers, reducing cardboard, wood and other packaging waste by 67 pounds per vehicle. Elsewhere at the company’s engine plant in Steyr, Austria, a new recycling system has been implemented that treats all manufacturing waste water and feeds it right back into the production facility. The system affords an annual savings of 7.9 million gallons of water, and even allowed BMW to close the main drainage connection at the plant. While many auto manufacturers seem to be taking mostly a public-relations approach to environmental issues, taking real-world steps only when forced by regulation or bad press, it is comforting to see one that has voluntarily raced out ahead in an effort to preserve our planet. An Inconvenient Truth director-producer Davis Guggenheim receives a BMW Hydrogen 7. According to Guggenheim, every mile covered in a hydrogen-powered vehicle like the BMW Hydrogen 7 makes a difference.
E3 :7AB3<32
5IF QFPQMF BSF UJSFE PG UBLJOH QJMMT BOE DBQTVMFT 5IFZ XBOU B HPPE UBTUJOH CJPBWBJMBCMF EBJMZ MJRVJE XJUI RVBMJUZ OVUSJUJPOBM CBTJDT UP HJWF UIFN FOFSHZ GPS UIFJS GBTU QBDFE MJWFT
BVS @Sd]ZcbW]\ IBT CFHVO
0SHBOJD -JGF 7JUBNJOT HJWFT UIF QFPQMF B GPPE CBTFE CMFOE PG FTTFOUJBM WJUBNJOT NVMUJ GVODUJPOBM PSHBOJD "$5*7BMPF BMPF WFSB KVJDF $PODFO5SBDF USBDF NJOFSBMT BNJOP BDJE DPNQMFY $ISPNBY DISPNJVN QJDPMJOBUF 0QUJ.4. BOUJPYJEBOUT BOE PSHBOJD OPOJ KVJDF DPODFOUSBUF "MM XJUI B HSFBU MJHIU GSVJU UBTUF PSHBOJD SBTQCFSSZ BOE DSBOCFSSZ TXFFUFOFE XJUI PSHBOJD BHBWF OFDUBS
8]W\ bVS ZW_cWR @Sd]ZcbW]\ <8F DBO DIBOHF UIF XPSME > 0-7 /VUSJ 1BDLT
Supplement Facts
4JOHMF TFSWJOHT PG 0-7 BSF BWBJMBCMF JO DPOWFOJFOU /VUSJ 1BDLT XIJDI DPNF JO B CPY PG ¹QFSGFDU GPS USBWFM PGžDF PS QVSTF
Serving Size: 1 oz (2 Tbs)
Servings per Container: 32 Amount per Serving
Calories Total Carbohydrate Sugars Vitamin A
12 3g 3g 15,000 IU
300
Biotin Chromium (as chromium picolinate)** Vitamin C (as ascorbic acid) Vitamin D3 (as cholicalciferol) Vitamin E (as d-alpha tocopherol) Folic Acid Magnesium Selenium Zinc (as zinc picolinate)
6.5 mg 7 mg 20 mg 8.4 mg 100 mcg 300 mcg 200 mcg 180 mg 200 IU 300 IU 400 mcg 35 mg 50 mcg 15 mg
500 500 350 400 1,000 100 167 300 50 1,000 200 9 71 100
Organic Aloe Vera Juice (ACTIValoeÂŽ) Amino Acid Complex Vitamin B15 (as dimethylglycine) Choline ConcenTraceÂŽ Trace Minerals Hesperidin (as bioflavonoids) Inositol Organic Noni Juice Concentrate OptiMSMÂŽ (as methylsulfonylmethane)
4.5 g 50 mg 10 mg 50 mg 450 mg 40 mg 50 mg 63 mg 50 mg
(as beta carotene/mixed carotenoids) Vitamin B1 (as thiamin HCl) Vitamin B2 (as riboflavin) Vitamin B5 (as pantothenic acid) Vitamin B6 (as pyridoxine HCl) Vitamin B12 (as cyanocobalamin)
4RRY ORaaR_ÂąYVcR Y\[TR_
% Daily Value
* Daily Value not established
0
* * * * * * * * *
**As ChromaxÂŽ (chromium picolinate)
'PS QSPEVDU JOGPSNBUJPO WJTJU XXX QFUFSHJMMIBN DPN
>SbS` 5WZZVO[Âśa <Obc`OZ DWbOZWbg & ""$ %"$ <=C@7A6 B63 >3=>:3