Johns Hopkins

It is refreshing to see the following report that has been released by Johns Hopkins. For too long, the emphasis regarding cancer has been on the treatment and not the prevention. Please take the time to read this, as it may in the end save your life.

Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins:

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies,changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation, while destroying cancer cells, also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

A. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc. are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg 's aminos or sea salt.

B. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer cells are being starved.

C. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

D. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruit helps put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

E. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

1. No plastic containers in microwave
2. No water bottles in freezer.
3. No plastic wrap in microwave.

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well.
Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr.Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc. should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

Some thoughts on making healthy choices...

One would think that a nation that spends as much money on healthcare as the United States does should be the healthiest nation in the world, right? Well, come to find out, the US is ranked 45th on the list! With obesity and diabetes and cancer on the rise, with 100,000 deaths a year related to adverse effects of properly prescribed drugs, with chronic diseases like coronary artery disease and diabetes entering the pediatric population, we really need to stop and take a good hard look at our current state of affairs. As a student at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in Manhattan, I am blessed to have wonderful speakers who come and provide us with the latest in dietary theory and nutritional news. Teachers like Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Barry Sears, Dr. Walter Willet from Harvard, David Katz, the Director of Prevention Research at Yale, Deepak Chopra, Mark Hyman and dozens of other experts in the field continue to hammer the point back to us, prevention is key. What we ingest into our body is what we become.

This should come as no surprise to anyone. We've heard it before: "Junk in, junk out." "You are what you eat". "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". "An apple a day......." We all know this on some level. So why the difficulty for the people of this great nation in learning how to eat right, exercise and lighten up with our stress level? Eating right is not that difficult, and as a health counselor, I work to help people do just that. Those who want to clean up their diet and lifestyle, and are committed to doing that, can usually be successful. But what about the majority of Americans who continue to make poor food choices and lead stressful, sedentary lives? What can be done to prompt them into a wellness mindset? I am continually shocked as a nurse in a hospital setting to see fellow nurses and health care professionals who make poor food choices and are overweight, stressed out, irritable and doing nothing for their oveall sense of health and wellness.

As a holistic nurse, I see people as a threefold being, made up of body mind and spirit. I believe that when one facet of the whole is negatively affected, the other "parts" are equally effected. We are like one conjoined triplet. Where one part goes the other parts follow. That is why when a person does finally start paying attention to their physical wellbeing, and starts eating right and exercising and decreasing stress, he will naturally experience a better sense of emotional well being, and will naturally be eventually led to a spiritual exploration. Same thing is true of someone who starts down a spiritual path. Before too long, the person will naturally start to face and address any blocks to emotional well being, and start to look at the nutritional piece as it fits in as well.

Which leads me to my point. The many that are not making their health a priority may be suffering on a spiritual or emotional level. Maybe on some unspoken level, they don't see themselves as deserving or worthy of abundance of health. We can have the same attitude towards our health as we can about wealth or success. "It's for everyone else but me, there isn't enough to go around, or I don't deserve it, I'm not good enough to have it." These underlying blocks can stand in the way of someone taking definitive action towards changing their life for the better. So I guess that the answer to my own question of "Why don't people get this whole prevention thing?" is: They can't.

Look, there is enough information out there for anyone with a minimum amount of intelligence to be able to start doing the basics: eliminate refined sugar and processed foods, increase fruits and vegetables, avoid soda, diet and regular alike, take whole food supplements, drink more water, take the steps instead of the elevator.......this is not rocket science. A refusal to pay attention to your health in the richest nation in the world where there are so many food choices open for so many, indicates something on a deeper level. I have seen people treat their car or their pet better than they treat themselves. People, that is not the way it is supposed to be. All of the great religions and spiritual teachings in the world will tell you, "Love yourself, as you love others." That means truly caring enough about yourself to take good care of you. Sadly, most people do not love themselves. On the contrary, they treat themselves rather harshly, speaking negatively to themselves, putting their own needs last, if at all. To care for oneself is not selfish, it is what we are asked to do. For it is only when we are thriving and feeling good about our self, body mind and spirit, that we finally have our best person to put out into the world to live our life's purpose effectively.

So my first question when I work with someone as a health counselor is to explore if the person I am going to work with feels good about themselves enough so that they feel worthy of health. Do they love themselves enough to see themselves as deserving of an abundantly healthy life? I suggest that you explore these questions with yourself, as you make your way on your individual journey in this lifetime.

EFT and Me

If you happen to see me driving to work in the morning, you might notice something that looks strange. You'd likely see me using my fingers and tapping on various points on my face, talking aloud to myself. Odd looking? To be sure, but I've long gotten over worrying about what other people might be thinking of me. So just what am I up to? I'm tapping! I'm doing EFT. I'm preparing myself to have the most wonderful day that I can. EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques, and it's like an emotional form of acupuncture, without the needles. EFT is changing my life. Let me tell you how my path crossed with EFT, and why I am so glad that it did.

About a year and a half ago, I was experiencing some anxiety around some stuff that was going on in my life. It wasn't like I was experiencing a major disruption or anything, I just needed to adjust to some changes that were occuring in my life. I was feeling somewhat anxious and off course. One Saturday morning after a particularly awful night's sleep, I found myself at my computer browsing my usual health related sites, http://www.mercola.com/ being one of my favorites. Dr. Mercola often refers to EFT in his many writings, but I had never felt the pull to explore what EFT was in the past. Until this particular morning when I felt a curiosity to click on the EFT link. I found my way, to Gary Craig's infamous web site http://www.emofree.com/. For hours I explored, and read, and was fascinated by what I learned about this strange therapy called EFT. Gary generously offers his 87 page EFT manuel to everyone, so I decided to download my own copy, and withhold any judgment until I knew and experienced more...

It took about a week to read the entire manuel. I learned the Basic Recipe, and started practicing. And yes, I did feel absolutely foolish as I tapped and hummed and rolled my eyes, and counted, and tapped and said the phrases over and over. I wanted to get the technique down pat befor putting EFT to the test. Once I felt I had a grasp on how to do mechanical EFT, I decided to see if I could eliminate some of my own things that got in my way. As my family witnessed me enthusiastically tapping here and there, they just rolled their eyes and said the usual "there she goes again.....this time it's tapping, and please don't tap on us".

I went right for the big stuff, too. The big heavy baggage that I carried valiantly for many years. The huge resentments. The major guilts. The paralyzing fears. The big emotional gorillas that traveled with me in my circus for many moons. I figured, if EFT is really all that it cracked up to be, then I was going to experience somthing of major proportions. All alone in my bedroom, I started....."Even though I have this..........." And so it began. One by one, I pulled out the old story that kept my negative emotion alive. And I tapped on it until I would have a cognitive shift for the better. One by one, story after story, I opened the cage for those gorillas, and let them go free. The freedom was for me. I was in the course of an hour and a half, becoming emotionally free of my negative emotions!

And after that experience, I decided I wanted to learn everything I could about EFT. I would immerse myself by buying EFT books, and studying Gary's DVDs that he sold on his site. I was tapping on all sorts of things now, even physical things like headaches. It was such a fun and easy tool, I knew I was on to something great. And no one I knew had heard if it either. Eventually I found my way to various EFT related sites, Carol Look's being one of them. Carol Look (http://www.carollook.com/) is one of the EFT Masters, and is quite remarkable in her style and presentation. I also found my way to Bob Doyle's Wealth Beyond Reason site http://www.wealthbeyondreason.com/ . Bob Doyle, who was in the movie "The Secret" is a Law of Attraction expert, and I was learning a lot about The Law of Attraction by studying his course. I was finding that as my tapping continued and I stayed focused on what I wanted rather than focusing on what I didn't have, life was opening new avenues to me, and rather quickly.

A month or so later, I noted that Bob Doyle and Carol Look were teaming up in Atlanta in January to do a combined seminar limited to 50 people, called "EFT and The Law of Attraction". It was almost too weird, but since I was so immersed in both of those subjects, I knew I had to be one of those 50 people in Atlanta with Bob and Carol. So I went. I spent four days with 49 other people from all over the world, with Bob Doyle and Carol Look, learning both EFT and LOA with the experts. How fortunate I felt. It was a totally wonderful life altering experience for me. And it was there where I not only decided to really begin utilizing EFT for myself, but I set an intention that I would bring EFT to the world. There was no reason for me to not become an EFT Master someday.

As a psychiatric nurse, I see the emotional pain that people are in day after day. Talk therapy and mediction, while helpful, sometimes takes a long time before people get any noticeable improvement. EFT can shift energy in minutes, oftentime resulting in immediate positive and lasting effects. I am totally in love with EFT. Over the past year, I completed two certificates of completion in EFT, EFT-CC, and EFT-ADV. I recently attended the EFT Masters Showcase in Boston, where I met Gary Craig himself. I also joined ACEP, the Association of Comprehensive Energy Psychology http://www.energypsych.org/ , attended their yearly gathering in Virginia last April, and met many wonderful energy therapists and practitioners who integrate EFT or some other energy modality in their counseling or therapy practice. As Gary says, "We're on the ground floor of the healing highrise" We really are. I'm not suggesting that we throw away the drugs and the therapy, not one bit. What am suggesting is that we in healthcare remain open to new ideas. If EFT can speed along a person's progress, or help them use less medication, would that not be welcome? I believe that 5-10 years from now, we'll look back to the straight drug/talk therapy model that we have as the primary treatment modality for emotional difficulties and say, "What were we thinking??" To learn more about EFT, do what I did and get started right at the EFT site, http://www.emofree.com/. Then start tapping.

Mangosteen and MRSA

If you have been following the news lately, you will have heard about MRSA, which is Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus, a nasty new breed of bacteria that is wreaking havoc in healthcare right now. Pretty much it goes like this: Get admitted to the hospital for something, go home with MRSA. It's fairly easy to contract in hospitals which are a breeding ground for infection. Even simple procedures in the Emergency Room can leave you with hospital acquired infections, like MRSA or VRE, another nasty infection that is difficult to treat. The experts say that MRSA in time, will kill more people than AIDS. That this is just the tip of the iceberg. That is unbelievable.

And, MRSA is not just in hospitals anymore. It is in day care centers, and locker rooms of schools. The link below from CBS news is a recent story about this health care nightmare, and references a kid that recently died from MRSA. I personally know of people who were in the hospital for simple surgical procedures, and died from MRSA too, so I take this very seriously.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/16/health/main3375017.shtml?source=mostpop_story

As a nurse I cannot sit back and not pass along some good advice that might serve to keep you from becoming a victim. It's too late once the bug invades, and you will be treated with huge and heavy doses of potent antibiotics, which will destroy not only the bad bacteria, but all of the good bacteria that you need to stay healthy as well. And antibiotics may not even work!! Antibiotics, like most medications, have huge side effects. So my advice is to not get invaded in the first place.

Here is something you can do about it.
The xanthones, which are the phytonutrients in the pericarp of the mangosteen fruit have been studied, and the results are promising so far. Click on the link below to read an abstract from one such study that links the xanthones in mangosteen to effectively killing MRSA and VRE. If this is true, than Xango, which is the first drinkable form of the tropical exotic fruit the mangosteen is truly remarkable in its potential for health and wellness. There are over 200 xanthones known in science, and mangosteen contains over 43 of them! Follow this link to view an abstract of a study where the xanthone found in mangosteen stood up to MRSA as effectively as Vancomycin!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=15830842&ordinalpos=16&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Xango, taken on a daily basis, can do so many good things for you. The antioxidant level in this juice is extremely high, so it's mopping up free radicals that are rusting you from the inside out. That is what oxidation is. (Like an apple turning color after it's been exposed to air) It's also a potent anti inflammatory, (its been proven tht inflammation is the root cause of ALL of the chronic illnesses); and the anti cancer properties have also been demonstrated repeatedly in the research, and now, you have something that can even attack MRSA! To read more studies that have been done on xanthones, go to http://www.pubmed.gov/ and type in "xanthones and cancer", or "xanthones and cholesterol" You will be amazed.

If you are taking a few oz of this juice every day, good decision on your part. You should tell your friends and loved ones about this amazing fruit that does so much. If you tried the juice in the past and have since stopped taking it for one reason or another, I suggest you re -think your decision. And if this is the first time you are hearing about Xango, then it's time for you to take a look and see if you would like to take a remarkable product that at the very minimum will be the best preventative supplement that money can buy.

You can't put a price on your health. Please stay healthy! If only people were as serious about prevention as they were as say, running for a flu shot!! Trust me, if you ate well, rested, exercised and supplemented with mangosteen, you would not need that flu shot!
My passionate desire is to have you never have to take one step into the hospital.

www.gomangosteen.net/tina

The Feast

I am convinced that there are three main contributors to the alarmingly prevalent decline in health today. What we're eating, what we are not eating, and our reaction to stress. You don't need to be reminded from one more person about all of the unnatural additives that we take in through our diet; from herbicides, to pesticides, to hormones, antibiotics, chemical additives (go read a food label, and remember that the stuff you can't pronounce is stuff that you really don't want tobe ingesting). Even fresh fruits and vegetables, if conventionally grown, are subject to less nutritive value due to the depletion of essential nutrients in the soil. What we are eating in the typical American diet isn't even real food anymore. Walk through your grocery store and try to imagine what would be there if you removed everything processed. Not a heck of a lot left, just produce, the meat and fish counter, and the bakery. Everything else has been stripped of nutrients and then bombarded with all sorts of harmful additives, that when taken in on a daily basis cause free radical damage in our cells, leading to all sorts of degenerative disease.

Essentially, we're eating far too much of the bad stuff, and eating enough of the stuff we need, the vitamins and minerals that our cells require to run efficiently and smoothly. I see people taking better care of their cars than of their bodies. Remember, you can always buy another car when it wears out, you only get one body. It should be treated with respect and cared for lovingly. You only have one you! Why people don't respect their bodies enough to treat them lovingly and feed them well is a whole other discussion that I'll get to later on....

Having always been interested in nutrition and health, along with prevention, I am always on the lookout for great products that seem to deliver what they promise. I like simple, easy to understand and efficiency. About three months or so ago, I was introduced to a product called "The Feast" put out by a company in Utah called Uri International. My friend told me that he had been taking this product for about a month, and that the difference in his energy level was astonishing. I got on the product, and I agree with him. There is a notable difference in my energy level, and what I really noticed was an increase in mental clarity. I take it twice a day, and actually feel a natural craving for the afternoon dose. I am even sleeeping better.

URI grows acres and acres of fruits and vegetables and other natural foods, on rich organic soil in Utah. Uri harvests right at the perfect time, and then quickly dehydrates the food in 30 seconds, without going over 100 degrees, so there is no pasteurization process, a process that will often destroy the whole and living enzymes in the food. You buy it in a powdered form, so when you then mix it with water, you rehydrate the whole food nutrition of the Uri food, and take into your body hundreds of vitamins, minerals, nutrients, reds, greens, even probiotics. This is one product where you want to read the label and you'll be amazed at the wide variety of foods that are in it. This product is a win win for anyone who wants to flood their poor tired undernourished cells with the richness of a highly concentrated natural whole food supplement. The best part is that it tastes great!

You will hear an awful lot about whole food supplements in the future. People are waking up to the fact that synthetic vitamins and minerals are not only harmful, they are not even absorbed correctly. Vitamins made in a lab are attached to synthetic binders that try to trick your cells into recognizing them to allow absorption. If you take a Centrum or a One a Day, you are not doing yourself any favors. (In fact, put one of them in your toaster oven and you will smell burning plastic aroma.) Get whole food supplementation, and The Feast is the best, quickest and most cost effective way of getting organic food in on a regular basis. Please click here to learn more: www.theorganicfeast.com

Fulfilling my dream.....

"The start of any journey begins with the first step".

So I am taking my first step today, and that is a huge and exciting step for me. May I tell you why you are so fortunate to have come across my blog? Because if you read my blog and return to it often, you may find that you will be led to something that money can't buy. You may already have lots of money or toys or gadgets, or prestige or titles or education or recognition in the world, but you still may be lacking in what I can lead you to. And just what is that? I can lead you to Wellness. Wellness, not health. Please understand that there is a big difference. Many people will describe themselves to be in a state of health. And when I ask them what does that mean, they will say, "Well, I don't have cancer, and I don't have heart disease, and my cholesterol is good, and I get a physical and a flu shot every year. I'm in good health." And they seriously believe that statement. They may even belong to a Health Maintenance Organization, an HMO that makes sure that their health is maintained. Usually these folks are on at least one prescription medication that requires a revisit to the HMO in order to continue to be on this medication. Most folks are on at least two or three if not more prescription medications that they get from their doctor at the HMO. They are now tied in to a system that will make sure that they are "maintained" for a long time, sometimes for life. As a nurse who has worked in addictions, this reminds me of Methadone Maintenance, which is a way that opiate addicted persons can come daily for a dose of something that is legal that will keep them from something that is not. They are tied in, sometimes for life.

Prescription drugs are often dangerous because of side effects, and sometimes the side effect will create the need for yet another prescription drug. I always wondered as I passed out my fair share of plastic medication cups to patients that were brimming with brightly colored and varied shapes of pill, how these little buggers were interacting in the body of my patient. Inherently, I always felt uncomfortable dishing these out, because somewhere in my spirit it did not sit right with me. Who was benefitting, the drug company or the patient? Please read on.....