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 »Babystep #2 : Pantry
BabyStep #2: Wean yourself of Processed Foods
It seems like an impossible step, and I’m still working on it. Not sure we will ever NOT have something processed in our home, but minimizing is possible. And enjoying fresh, God-foods versus man-foods is enjoyable!
Finding your local farmers’ market is a great step. Trying out foods that actually came out of the ground they toiled over…you will be shocked at how much better the fruits and veggies taste. We are not aware of how the super-market raises our food…there are chemical washes as well as ripening in chemicals. There are also wax polishers that we’re ingesting along with their pesticides. Documentaries like Food, Inc and Fresh are good to watch in learning more about what big companies are doing to our foods. Knowing our farmers helps us to some extent to know where our food comes from. The tastes is so much fuller and satisfying as well.
A great website is www.eatwild.com!! Check it out for grass fed beef, chicken, eggs, and milk in your area.
On a practical KIDNOTE: It takes time, but we started not having snacks in our house that were processed. When the kids come in from playing they are allowed to choose a fruit of veggie as a snack. I keep edamame, carrots, celery, and cucumbers cut up in the fridge and a fruit basket full of apples, bananas, tangerines, and grapes in the freezer. It took them about 6 months, but now they know to come in and ask for a fruit of veggie! They even love a smoothie. I am going to try freezing some protein smoothies into popsicles for the summer.
Real Food Has Curves, a new book written by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, offers a 7-step plan for weaning yourself off processed foods:
Seek true satisfaction. Enjoy genuine flavors, rather than fat, sugar, and salt added to mask the metallic taste of chemical additives.
Read labels wisely. You can find food with “real” ingredients in the supermarket if you read labels carefully.
Relish what’s on your plate. Devote time solely to enjoying the pleasures of eating.
Wean yourself off excess salt, fat, and sugar. You can also cook with smaller amounts of these ingredients by using natural substitutes like strong spices.
Give your palate time to change. You’ll gradually lose your taste for excessively sweet and salty foods.
Go for higher-quality foods. Look for products that contain the least amount of processed ingredients.
Treat yourself well by not skipping meals. Try eating three meals a day at fairly regular times, plus a mid-afternoon snack.
Sources: U.S. News & World Report June 4, 2010 and www.mercola.com
Read More »The Wonder Oil
I’ve recently been learning about how wonderful coconut oil is for us! We’ve just begun to replace most of our sautéing and baking with it. I can’t tell a flavor difference. Of course, I love extra virgin olive oil, but it’s been known to change it’s properties when heated. So, in order to enjoy the benefits of Olive Oil, we should never heat it up, but instead enjoy it in salad dressings and finishing of plates.
Coconut oil has a much higher “smoking” point, which means you can heat it up without the health properties changing. We have recently purchased a large tub from Amazon.com but you can also get a great value from a reputable website called www.tropicaltraditions.com. Another site that is a dear friend of ours in Costa Rica has just started shipping to the US, his site is Costa Rican Noni.
Look through the benefits below. They have been compiled from a few different sources. I’m sure you can find many further research materials on your own. But these were enough for me to go buy a big bucket full!!
In sautéing, heat slowly… in baking, maybe replace up to half of the fat required for the recipe…and in smoothies, just add a teaspoon! ENJOY!!!!
Hair Care: Coconut oil is one of the best natural nutrition for hair. It helps in healthy growth of hair providing them a shiny complexion. Regular massage of the head with coconut oil ensures that your scalp is free of dandruff, lice, and lice eggs, even if your scalp is dry. Coconut oil is extensively used in the Indian sub-continent for hair care. It is an excellent conditioner and helps in the re-growth of damaged hair. It also provides the essential proteins required for nourishing damaged hair. It is therefore used as hair care oil and used in manufacturing various conditioners, and dandruff relief creams. Coconut oil is normally applied topically for hair care.
Stress Relief: Coconut oil is very soothing and hence it helps in removing stress. Applying coconut oil to the head followed with a gentle massage helps in removing mental fatigue.
Skin Care: Coconut oil is excellent massage oil for the skin as well. It acts as an effective moisturizer on all types of skins including dry skin. The benefit of coconut oil on the skin is comparable to that of mineral oil. Further, unlike mineral oil, there is no chance of having any adverse side effects on the skin with the application of coconut oil. Coconut oil therefore is a safe solution for preventing dryness and flaking of skin. It also delays wrinkles, and sagging of skin which normally become prominent with age. Coconut oil also helps in treating various skin problems including psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema and other skin infections. Therefore coconut oil forms the basic ingredient of various body care products such as soaps, lotions, creams, etc., used for skin care.
Premature Aging: Coconut oil helps in preventing premature aging and degenerative diseases due to its antioxidant properties.
Heart Diseases: There is a misconception spread among many people that coconut oil is not good for the heart. This is because it contains a large quantity of saturated fats. However, coconut oil is beneficial for the heart. It contains about 50% lauric acid, which helps in preventing various heart problems including high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure.
The saturated fats present in coconut oil are not harmful as it happens in case of other vegetables oils. It does not lead to increase in LDL levels. It also reduces the incidence of injury in arteries and therefore helps in preventing atherosclerosis.
Weight Loss: Coconut oil is very useful in reducing weight. It contains short and medium-chain fatty acids that help in taking off excessive weight. It is also easy to digest and it helps in healthy functioning of the thyroid and enzymes systems. Further, it increases the body metabolism by removing stress on pancreases, thereby burning out more energy and helping obese and overweight people reduce their weight. Hence, people living in tropical coastal areas, who eat coconut oil daily as their primary cooking oil, are normally not fat, obese or overweight.
Pancreatitis: Coconut oil is also believed to be useful in treating pancreatitis.
Digestion: Internal use of coconut oil occurs primarily as cooking oil. Coconut oil helps in improving the digestive system and thus prevents various stomach and digestion related problems including irritable bowel syndrome. The saturated fats present in coconut oil have anti microbial properties and help in dealing with various bacteria, fungi, parasites, etc., that cause indigestion. Coconut oil also helps in absorption of other nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and amino acids.
Immunity: Coconut oil is also good for the immune system. It strengthens the immune system as it contains antimicrobial lipids, lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid which have antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties. The human body converts lauric acid into monolaurin which is claimed to help in dealing with viruses and bacteria causing diseases such as herpes, influenza, cytomegalovirus, and even HIV. It helps in fighting harmful bacteria such as listeria monocytogenes and heliobacter pylori, and harmful protozoa such as giardia lamblia.
Healing: When applied on infections, it forms a chemical layer which protects the infected body part from external dust, air, fungi, bacteria and virus. Coconut oil is most effective on bruises as it speeds up the healing process by repairing damaged tissues.
Infections: Coconut oil is very effective against a variety of infections due to its antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial properties. According to the Coconut Research Center, coconut oil kills viruses that cause influenza, measles, hepatitis, herpes, SARS, etc. It also kills bacteria that cause ulcers, throat infections, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and gonorrhea, etc. Coconut oil is also effective on fungi and yeast that cause candidiasis, ringworm, athlete’s foot, thrush, diaper rash, etc.
Liver: The presence of medium chain triglycerides and fatty acids helps in preventing liver diseases as they substances are easily converted into energy when they reach the liver, thus reducing work load on the liver and also preventing accumulation of fat.
Kidney: Coconut oil helps in preventing kidney and gall bladder diseases. It also helps in dissolving kidney stones.
Diabetes: Coconut oil helps in controlling blood sugar, and improves the secretion of insulin. It also helps in effective utilization of blood glucose, thereby preventing and treating diabetes.
Bones: As mentioned earlier, coconut oil improves the ability of our body to absorb important minerals. These include calcium and magnesium which are necessary for development of bones. Thus coconut oil is very useful to women who are prone to osteoporosis after middle age.
Dental Care: Calcium is an important element present in teeth. Since coconut oil facilitates absorption of calcium by the body, it helps in getting strong teeth. Coconut oil also stops tooth decay.
HIV and Cancer: It is believed that coconut oil plays an instrumental role in reducing viral susceptibility of HIV and cancer patients.
Fitness: Finally, coconut oil is often preferred by athletes and body builders and by those who are dieting. The reason behind this being that coconut oil contains lesser calories than other oils, its fat content is easily converted into energy and it does not lead to accumulation of fat in the heart and arteries. Coconut oil helps in boosting energy and endurance, and enhances the performance of athletes.
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