StoryTime: Karen’s VitaMix Essay
My dear friend Karen is not only someone I love and cherish, but she is our pastor’s wife! She has had an incredible journey this past summer. We encouraged her to write an essay to turn into a VitaMix Contest & SHE WON!!!
Read More »How Can We Prevent Cancer?
Cancer is touching every one of us. Seems like you can ask anybody, and someone in their family has recently died of cancer or they are struggling today. It’s a sad, sad subject.
Personally, I just spent the weekend with my father-in-law who is fighting his cancer naturally. The doctors gave him 6 months to live about 18 months ago. We are thrilled that we’ve had this time to spend with him. He’s has been accepted into the Gerson Institute for a week by week treatment. He will fly to San Diego and receive training on nutrition (which he’s already implemented) and receive some pretty amazing high doses of cancer fighting supplements. His loyal and hard working daughter, Jana, will go with him as his care-giver. We’re hoping this will give him some more time with us on this earth. We move forward with hope.
It conjured up many thoughts and emotions in me about how I live my life and how to raise my children. Unfortunately, we are so accustomed to processed foods, immediate gratification, fast paced life, and lack of training. If we slow down a bit and prepare the right foods, enjoy cooking together, spend time finding quality foods, take care of ourselves physically… maybe, just maybe, we have a chance to fight cancer. I DO NOT have this down. We’re working on it daily. And some weeks we are definitely not successful, actually, we just plain fail and fall into the American lifestyle. But we move forward with hope.
No one says this is simple. But it can save us years of struggling with doctors and hospitals, as well as help us feel great TODAY. I tell people that’s my goal, just to feel good today. I don’t care to live to 100. I actually don’t want to. But, I do want to feel better now.
I ran across this article listed in FoodMatters Newsletter, it was by Dr. Mercola. They give some great tips on lifestyle changes that can decrease your chances of cancer. These are not cures, but things we can do today to help our future.
Cancer is on the Rise, and Toxic Chemicals are MAJOR Factors
According to the latest statistics compiled by the American Heart Association, cancer surpasses heart disease as the top killer among Americans between the ages of 45 to 74. The odds are very high that you or someone you know has cancer or has died from it.
Environmental/lifestyle factors are increasingly being pinpointed as the culprits, such as:
- Pesticide- and other chemical exposures
- Pharmaceutical drugs
- Processed and artificial foods(plus the chemicals in the packaging)
- Wireless technologies, dirty electricity, and medical diagnostic radiation exposure
- Obesity Stress Poor sleeping habits
- Lack of sunshine exposure and use of sunscreens
Genetics have more or less been ruled out as a primary factor, although diet, lifestyle and toxic exposures have been found to turn genes on or off that contribute to the development and malignancy of cancer.
Still, focusing on research into the genetic underpinnings of cancer along with screening methods that can also cause harm cleverly avoids the obvious, which is finding the underlying contributing factors so that people can avoid them!
Breast Cancer Prevention Tips
It’s profoundly sad that one of the so-called leaders against cancer simply will not spread the word about the many ways women can help prevent breast cancer in the first place, and ignores research into safer alternative screening methods and treatment of cancer, choosing instead to protect the financial interests of the biggest contributors to the toxic overload that’s at the root of this growing problem.
Cancer Advancements that Need to Become Mainstream Knowledge
In the last 30 years the global cancer burden has doubled, and is estimated to nearly triple by 2030. We must begin to take cancer prevention seriously. Three cancer advancements in particular merit special mention. These advancements have not yet been accepted by conventional medicine, and they must be.
Number 1: Radically Reduce Your Sugar Intake — Normalizing your insulin levels is one of the most powerful physical actions you can take to lower your risk of cancer. Unfortunately, very few oncologists appreciate or apply this knowledge today. The Cancer Centers of America is one of the few exceptions, where strict dietary measures are included in their cancer treatment program.
Chronic insulin resistance will cause major damage in your body. The most recognized of these is diabetes, but that is far from the only one. As Ron Rosedale, M.D. said in one of my most popular articles, Insulin and Its Metabolic Effects:
“It doesn’t matter what disease you are talking about, whether you are talking about a common cold or cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis or cancer, the root is always going to be at the molecular and cellular level, and I will tell you that insulin is going to have its hand in it, if not totally control it.”
The good news is that controlling your insulin levels is relatively straightforward. First, limit your intake of processed foods, grains and sugars/fructose as much as possible to prevent your insulin levels from becoming elevated in the first place.
Number 2: Vitamin D — There’s overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that vitamin D deficiency plays a crucial role in cancer development. Researchers within this field have estimated that about 30 percent of cancer deaths could be prevented each year simply by optimizing the vitamin D levels in the general population. Countless people around the world have an increased risk of cancer because their vitamin D levels are too low due to utter lack of sun exposure…
On a personal (Dr. Mercola) level, you can decrease your risk of cancer by MORE THAN HALF simply by optimizing your vitamin D levels with sun exposure. And if you are being treated for cancer it is likely that higher blood levels—probably around 80-90 ng/ml—would be beneficial.
The health benefits of optimizing your levels, either by safe sun exposure (ideally), a safe tanning bed, or oral supplementation as a last resort, simply cannot be overstated. In terms of protecting against cancer, vitamin D has been found to offer protection in a number of ways, including:
- Regulating genetic expression
- Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to replicate, could lead to cancer)
- Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells
- Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)
- Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous
Number 3: Exercise — If you are like most people, when you think of reducing your risk of cancer, exercise doesn’t immediately come to mind. However, there is some fairly compelling evidence that exercise can slash your risk of cancer.
One of the primary ways exercise lowers your risk for cancer is by reducing elevated insulin levels, which creates a low sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancer cells.
Controlling your insulin levels and optimizing your vitamin D level are two of the most powerful steps you can take to reduce your cancer risk. For example, physically active adults experience about half the incidence of colon cancer as their sedentary counterparts, and women who exercise regularly can reduce their breast cancer risk by 20 to 30 percent compared to those who are inactive.
Additionally, exercise improves the circulation of immune cells in your blood. Your immune system is your first line of defense against everything from minor illnesses like a cold right up to devastating, life-threatening diseases like cancer.
The trick about exercise, though, is understanding how to use it as a precise tool. This ensures you are getting enough to achieve the benefit, not too much to cause injury, and the right variety to balance your entire physical structure and maintain strength and flexibility, and aerobic and anaerobic fitness levels. This is why it is helpful to view exercise like a drug that needs to be carefully prescribed to achieve its maximum benefit.
It’s important to include a large variety of techniques in your exercise routine, such as strength training, aerobics, core-building activities, and stretching. Most important of all, however, is to make sure you include high-intensity, burst-type exercise.
These exercises activate your super-fast twitch muscle fibers, which can increase your body’s natural production of human growth hormone.
Additionally it is likely that integrating exercise with intermittent fasting will greatly catalyze the potential of exercise to reduce your risk of cancer and stimulate widespread healing and rejuvenation.
Additional Anti-Cancer Strategies
Additional lifestyle guidelines that will help protect you against cancer include:
- Get appropriate amounts of animal-based omega-3 fats.
- Eat as many vegetables as you are comfortable with. Ideally, they should be raw and organic. Cruciferous vegetables in particular have been identified as having potent anti-cancer properties.
- Have a tool to permanently erase the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. My particular favorite tool for this purpose, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique.
- Maintain an ideal body weight.
- Get enough high-quality sleep.
- Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution. (Try Shaklee’s Get Clean Line, great stuff)
- Reduce your use of cell phones and other wireless technologies, and implement as many safety strategies as possible if/when you cannot avoid their use.
- Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them.
Let’s try to implement some of these tips! Encourage the women around you to make some changes in their lifestyle. It’s a “pay now, or pay later” mentality that we can adopt, right?
To your health!
Read More »PureGoodness Act Spotted: San Francisco
Today I was informed that a PureGoodness Act was spotted! Hurray!!
What’s a PureGoodness act? Something done selflessly to help another! Showing love to others not expecting anything in return. Of course, it makes us feel good and we know we’ll get a pat on the back, but really, just planning something out without wanting affirmation or approval for the benefit of others is truly a PureGoodness moment!! Time to celebrate and join in!
Check out what a 3rd grader in San Francisco is doing to help others! The following is a clip taken from a local paper. This happens to be my sweet niece! So proud of her for thinking of others!! May it inspire you to do the same.
Nail Clipper Drive for Haiti
The leading cause of children’s death in Haiti is diarrhea caused more often by hygiene issues than bad water. Dirt under fingernails can carry many dangerous bacteria. Without running water, proper sanitation, or eating utensils, dirty nails can lead to death. Better hygiene slows the spread of diseases like cholera. One set of nail clippers can save five lives.
Hannah McCord, a Miraloma 3rd grader, has enlisted her friends Thea, Lexie and Jessica, to start a Nail Clipper Drive to help the children of Haiti. Please join them in this by donating NEW nail clippers. Look for the box in the office, and drop them in. The clippers will be taken to Sirona Cares and from there, be distributed to families in Haiti.
If you’d like to join in this selfless act of kindness, here’s what you can do:
Mail many NEW nail clippers to:
Hannah McCord
262 Richland Avenue
San Francisco CA 94110
If you spot a PureGoodness Act, email me!! We’d love to celebrate and join in!
Read More »The Choice is Ours
Noah:
Love is what I want to be known for and is how I want to live my life. It is the essential primary way in which people are to embrace God, our neighbor, and the world. The faith community dwells on love of God first and second to that is the love of our neighbors. What is often forgotten is the love of the world. Throughout the poetry of the Creation Narrative found in Genesis, we read of a God who is intimately involved with his creation; a creation that He declares is, “Good”.
In the accounts of Jesus life and ministry, we have snippets of how God cares for his creation. One of the most familiar things that Jesus says are the words found in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world…”. In the original language, the word used for “world” was “cosmos” or creation.
Love is what has led our family into believing that we could do a better job with how we treat God’s earth. We have started recently to realize that we make unconscious decisions that harm the planet. We watch many documentaries that highlight the destructive forces that mankind has had on the world. Without a doubt it is overwhelming. On the other side, there are people who say that Global Warming or carbon footprint is a myth or theory. Regardless of either school of thought, Emily and I have come to a conclusion that we could do better with our consumption, both internally and externally. We decided that, as a family, we should make conscious decisions to live better. Much more could be said on the issue, but the bottom line is this: instead of protesting, fighting the system, or shouting at the world that they could do better; we have decided the choice is ours and it starts with us. In the last couple of weeks we began to make some changes in our lives. Our first step was to recycle.
Emily:
Although Noah and I are still in the initial stages of what we hope will birth a new way of life, my experience thus far has been one of tremendous personal growth and learning. The connections between spirituality and caring for the earth have become undeniable to me. From issues like loving what God loves to struggling with a consumerist heart to having idols to Biblical stewardship, sacrifice, discipline and self-control; the correlations seem endless. When faced with this notion many people become defensive and argue the freedoms we have in Christ, which I wholeheartedly affirm and practice. I have found, however, that in striving to live in a manner that is pure, simple, humble, and holy, a life which involves self-denial, this abundant life in Christ that we have always heard of can be more fully realized. Allowing our personal desires to endlessly consume will only lead us further down the bleak path of self-absorption. For me, this has been and will continue to be a challenge to rid my life of my addiction to consumerism, the disposable life, and ultimately…to love beyond myself.
Noah:
Is there a connection between how we treat the earth and how we treat the Creator? I remember when I was a child my dad made for me a quiver for my bow and arrow set. It was made out of cardboard and rope and I was proud to have it. I had several of my friends come over one day and for whatever reason, one of my friends grabbed it and stomped on it crushing and destroying the quiver. I remember standing in my yard and weeping. The quiver for me represented my dad and his love for me. Seeing it destroyed like that caused my heart to hurt because the created thing pointed to something greater. How we treat the creation is how we treat the creator.
Emily:
Genesis 1:28 reveals to us that we are to exercise dominion over the whole earth. Somehow along the line of history, or perhaps beginning day 1 after the fall of man, we have interpreted that to mean that we have full permission to use and abuse the earth and its resources because we are the ones in control. There are many things wrong with this idea starting with the reality that we are not, in fact, the ones in control. We have been given authority from the ultimate authority.
When we think of a government ruling over a nation of people, we can easily see that their dominion is one where they can choose to rule justly and kindly as one who cares for their subject of ruling, or they can choose to enslave their people and use them for whatever brings satisfaction to them. After all, they make the rules so they can rightfully and with total freedom choose either one. When our Creator generously provides everything that we need to live why would we not take such care of that which we have been entrusted?
For each day of creation, God declared that His masterpiece was good. He loves His creation, and we can choose to share in that love or mistreat an object of His affection. As rulers the choice is ours.
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