Happy Healthy Long Life

Prevent and Control Cancer with the Anti-Cancer Way of Life--Dr. David Servan-Schreiber

"If we don't tell people that the science shows how they can protect themselves from disease with their own choices and what they can decide to take into their own hands, we are giving them false hopelessness.

Cancer lies dormant in all of us.  Like all living organisms, our bodies are making defective cells all the time.  That's how tumors are born. But our bodies are also equipped with a number of mechanisms which detect and keep such cells in check.  In the West one person in four will die of cancer--but three in four will not:  THEIR DEFENSE MECHANISMS WILL HOLD OUT."

-Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, Psychiatry Professor, Univ. of Pittsburgh-

Fifteen years ago, when Servan-Schreiber was a 31-year old ambitious neuroscientist he used himself as a research subject when a volunteer failed to show up for an MRI brain scan.  He was completely taken by surprise when the scan revealed he had a brain tumor.

After surgery and chemotherapy, he asked his oncologist what he could do to lead a healthy life style and hopefully avoid a relapse. The oncologist replied, "Lead your life normally.  We'll do CAT scans at regular intervals and if your tumor comes back we'll detect it early."  Servan-Schreiber went back to his usual lifestyle. Coke, McDonald's, working too hard.

The cancer returned and this time Servan-Schreiber took his health into his own hands. After 9 months of research he began to understand how he could help his body "protect itself against cancer."

"The idea of natural healing just wasn't part of my world as a doctor before I had cancer.  There is an enormous amount of scientific data which shows that natural healing mechanisms can be more effective than any drug when it comes to controlling cancer,"  according to Dr. Servan-Schreiber.

Servan-Schreiber is emphatic that there is no alternative approach to cure cancer.  And it would be insane to forgo all the conventional tools that Western medicine has to fight cancer: chemotherapy, surgery, radiosurgery, immunotherapy, and the upcoming molecular genetics. 

However, we are deluding ourselves if we don't seriously utilize the body's natural capacity to protect itself against tumors.  Cancer isn't transmitted genetically--genetics accounts for at most, 15% of cancer deaths. "Genes load the gun, but our environment pulls the trigger."

As we've seen in heart disease, once again, inflammation has a large part in contributing to the disease process.  Wayward cancer cells proliferate; they poison the surrounding cells with chemicals that cause inflammation; which in turn sustains the cancer's growth. Research in the journal Science confirmed that the most "successful", the most aggressive cancers--the ones that ultimately reach the lymph nodes--are the ones that provoke the most inflammation.

"Oncologists at the University of Glasgow have been measuring inflammation levels in the blood of patients with various cancers since the 1990's and have found that patients with the lowest levels of inflammation were twice as likely as the others to live for several years."

So what can we do now to tamp down inflammation, prevent cancer, stop any wayward cancer cells from growing or prevent a relapse if we have cancer?  What did Servan-Schreiber discover through his 9 months of research?

It takes from 10-40 years for the "seed" of a cancer cell to become a detectable tumor. It would be unwise to just wait for a tumor to be discovered before one takes action.  Everything in the "Anti-Cancer Lifestyle" is the same as what's in the "Anti-Heart Disease Lifestyle" or the "Balanced Living Lifestyle".  It's everything we already know.  As my good friend Tess says, "We all know this stuff.  It's just finding the time to do it, in this crazy rush-rush American Lifestyle."

Environmental chemicals to avoid:

    * Dry cleaning chemicals-air garments out for several hours before wearing. (avoid perchloroethylene/tetrachlore-ethylene)
    * Cleaning products such as liquid detergents, disinfectants, and toilet bowl sanitizers that contain alkylphenols (nonoxynol, octoxynol, nonylphenol, actylphenol)
    * Deodorants and antiperspirants containing aluminum
    * Cosmetics, shampoo, lotions, gels, hair color, nail polish, perfumes, and sunscreen containing estrogens or placental products, or those with parabens or phthalates
    * Chemical household pesticides and insecticides
    * Heating foods or liquids in plastic containers made with PVCs, Bisphenol A, polystyrene, or Styrofoam
    * Preparing food in scratched Teflon® pans

Improve your diet--Phytochemicals have a profound influence on our physiology:

    * If you eat animal products, stick to organic grass-fed beef & dairy products. Limit meat to 11 ounces a week. Beans, lentils, soy, tofu are preferred.
    * Reduce your intake of sugar---according to Servan-Schreiber and Nobel Prize winner Otto Heinrich Warburg, "Cancer feeds on sugar".
    * Reduce your intake of white flour, products containing omega-6s (sunflower oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, margarines, hydrogenated fats, non-organic animal fats
    * Increase your omega-3 intake (fish, and grass or linseed-fed animal products)
    * Increase your intake of anticancer products (turmeric, green tea, soy, fruits, vegetables)
    * Filter tap water: use a carbon filter or an inverse osmosis filter, or drink mineral water or spring water
    *Increase cruciferous vegetables, mushrooms, berries, onions, garlic, leeks, chives, beets, citrus
    *Organic produce is best--but eating more fruits & vegetables is key-even if they are grown with pesticides.

Exercise--Reduces cancer recurrence by 50%.

    * Practice 20 to 30 minutes of physical activity per day
    * Expose yourself to sunlight for 20 minutes each day

The Mind-Body connection.

    * Practice a method of relaxation and self-centering (yoga, cardiac coherence, meditation, qigong, tai chi)
    * Focus on what gives you satisfaction--not on what's wrong.
    * Foster balance in your life--stress causes the release of hormones that trigger inflammation which slows down digestion, slows tissue repair, and reduces immune function.
    *We nourish life in ourselves by making the time to spend quiet time alone.

To learn more, read excerpts from the book at the Daily Mail, published in the UK.
Read Julie's Health Club post at the Chicago Tribune.
For recommendations of non-toxic green products, check out the National Geographic's Green Guide, here.
For recommendations of cosmetics, food, and consumer products, check out the Environmental Working Group's site, here.

And be sure to listen to Dr. David Servan-Schreiber tell his story. It's only 7 minutes long. Click HERE  if the YouTUBE video isn't displaying on your screen.
 

After 40 Days of Wandering, I've Learned a Few Things. Google Brain and The Secular Sabbath. Part II

"Not all who wander are lost."

                       J.R.R. Tolkien

   "There's No Place Like Home" 

         Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz

Sleeping on the porch - Refilling my empty nest - Schlepping around the country - Living out of a suitcase in my own house. 

It all adds up to stepping away from LIFE AS USUAL.  It brings into sharper focus the HABITS AND PRACTICES that are working and the HABITS AND PRACTICES that are not.  The "I've Learned a Few Things" List Continues.

6.)  Google Brain.  I've got it, I admit it & it's time to do something about it.  Nicholas Carr describes the condition well in his July/August 2008 essay in the Atlantic Monthly, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" 

When you start getting good at scanning; when the task of reading a full essay in the Sunday New York Times Magazine seems way too time-consuming; when it seems impossible sit down & read a detailed book like Jeffrey Toobin's, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court; when your flitting from one hyperlink to the next, never lingering longer than 2 minutes on a page---You've got GOOGLE BRAIN. 

Carr's description of himself, sounds like he's describing me:

"My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle."

My solution:  Resist the magnetic lure of the computer.  Let's face it, clicking from one site to the next is like eating an energy bar for breakfast, when you really should be eating a bowl of home-cooked oatmeal!  For me, this means I need to find a quiet place--and just read--the printed page. Those wireless TV earphones my husband plans to purchase will definitely help in the "quiet" department.

When I find worthwhile articles or essays on the internet I just print them off so I can read them slowly, carefully, thoughtfully, without distraction.  "Deep reading" on a computer screen?  Forget about it!

We're creatures of habit, and resurrecting old habits (like "deep reading") requires practice. Scanning is good sometimes--when you're looking to separate the junk from the serious information--but watch out if that's all you're doing. You'll soon find out you haven't learned a thing.

7.) Laptop Addiction. I love my laptop, but it was getting out-of-control. It sits on top of my kitchen-family-room island, in the heart of my home.  I start my day checking out my email & favorite sites.  I end my day checking out my email & favorite sites. 

Every single house guest we have had gravitates right to my laptop--asks if they can use it--and then they (like me) quickly get sucked in.  The "net result" is unsatisfying conversations with friends & relatives who are typing away and talking at the same time.

I knew I was hooked when Son #2 and my husband, both big computer users themselves, started to say, "You're always on the computer!"  I started to use it "on the sly" when my husband went out of the room, or my son went to take a shower.   Yep, I was addicted!

When I read about Mark Bitman's own technology addiction in the March 2, 2008 New York Times, "I Need a Virtual Break. No, Really"  I listened up. He knew he had gone too far when he was taking his laptop to bed and making long-distance calls on an airplane.  It was time for "A Secular Sabbath" - "A Techno Holiday".  Bitman describes how hard it was to break free. That twitchy, jumpiness we all get when the electricity goes out.  We don't know what to do with ourselves:

On my first weekend last fall, I eagerly shut it all down on Friday night, then went to bed to read. (I chose Saturday because my rules include no television, and I had to watch the Giants on Sunday). I woke up nervous, eager for my laptop. That forbidden, I reached for the phone. No, not that either. Send a text message? No. I quickly realized that I was feeling the same way I do when the electricity goes out and, finding one appliance nonfunctional, I go immediately to the next. I was jumpy, twitchy, uneven.

I managed. I read the whole paper, without hyperlinks. I tried to let myself do nothing, which led to a long, MP3-free walk, a nap and some more reading, an actual novel. I drank herb tea (caffeine was not helpful) and stared out the window. I tried to allow myself to be less purposeful, not to care what was piling up in my personal cyberspace, and not to think about how busy I was going to be the next morning. I cooked, then went to bed, and read some more.

GRADUALLY, over this and the next couple of weekends — one of which stretched from Friday night until Monday morning, like the old days — I adapted.

This summer I finally had a chance to break free and experience my own Techno-Free Holiday!  No computer access at my mother-in-law's.  And I left my computer behind when we traveled to New York.  I only brought it to St. Louis to get directions around town, and turned it off after that.  Yes, I got twitchy & jumpy & was dying to log on, but I resisted.  And the urge passed. 

I started enjoying the computer-free life. It's still on my kitchen island, but I'm valiantly trying to dial back the online time.  It can be a seductive time-waster if I'm not paying attention, and since I only have so much free time, I'm paying attention.

I haven't tried the Secular Sabbath at home yet, but it's sounding like a fantastic idea. Long walks, reading, no TV, no phone, no computer.

8.) When All Your Instincts Go On Alert Mode-Relax, Take a Deep Breath, Shut-up and Chill Out.  It's in my genetic make-up.  When it's time for calm quick-thinking my brain pumps up my adrenaline and makes me hyper-alert. Not a good thing. 

Picture this: Two hayseeds driving through New York City, with 15 different highways, parkways, and bridges to navigate & the GPS quits.  I've got the maps on my lap. I'm a good navigator, but hubby asks me to reprogram the GPS  ASAP, just to be on the "safe side".  That means I can't pay attention to the roads, the upcoming merges, the maps.  All my instincts say this is a bad idea. My fingers start to fumble, my heart starts to race, but I say to myself, "Take a deep breath, relax. Calm down!"  And it worked.  I reprogrammed that darn GPS, hitched it up to windshield & it was all because I did it slowly and calmly.  I've followed this advice through a torrential downpour, and while driving my nemesis, the "window-less cargo van".  I think I'm on to something!

After 40 Days of Wandering, I've Learned a Few Things.

"Not all who wander are lost."

                       J.R.R. Tolkien

   "There's No Place Like Home" 

         Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz

I never felt so glad to be home.  After 40 days of summer schlepping from St. Louis to St. Lucie to Syosset and more, my 40 days of wandering have finally come to an end.  I'm ecstatic!

When I added it all up, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, we were out-of-town for nine weekends, and a total of 40 Days!  No wonder I was so cranky, whiny and out-of-sorts.

Even when I was home, everything was a little off-kilter.  Our empty nest was suddenly refilled when Son #2 came home for a 2 month visit before starting grad school; my mother-in-law discovered she had ovarian cancer; I was always behind at work with all my unplanned "wanderings", coupled with an already super-short-staffing-situation; and "mitten-drinnen" (the Yiddish word for "in the middle-of-everything") we moved everything out of our bedroom & office to refinish the floors: --bed-dresser-chest-nightstands-books-bookshelves-clothes-pictures-chairs-couch-papers-computer-printers-- EVERYTHING!

For 3 weeks we slept on the porch while the floors dried, the stinky polyurethane smell dissipated, and until we finally had time to "move all the stuff back-in" the bedroom  & office.  It was my husband's dream-come-true.  Camping-out at home! You could see the stars and the moon.  Hear the crickets and the birds.  And who knew that bees start buzzing a 5:00 in the morning?  That was a little unsettling.

It was like living out of suitcase and we weren't even on vacation. I couldn't find a thing with all my possessions crammed into a spare bedroom and the dining room. Hey, we even had out-of-town visitors, but when they saw the accomodations they didn't linger too long.

So What Did I Learn While I Was Wandering Around for 40 Days?  Turns out you often don't know what practices are really working until you're forced to give them up.

1.) Regular sweat-producing exercise & weight training matter.  I tried to fit in exercise while I was away, but often there just wasn't time and in Port St. Lucie, Tropical Storm Fay flooded us out.  Exercise not only burns calories, it keeps me happy.  Since I use a heart rate monitor I can easily compare the calorie burn for the hour walk that I take on vacation to the calories burned during my usual hour spinning class.  No comparison! With my exercise routine disrupted and reduced over the summer I started to gain weight I haven't seen in 24 years; I could even see my muscles start to disappear; and all of a sudden I had an unwelcome visitor called "midriff bulge". Not to mention a new edgy crankiness was invading my usual good mood.

2.) Adding fun into each day is a must.  I had a chance to hear a rerun of an interview with Dr. Stuart Brown, a physician and researcher, who is the founder of the National Institute for Play.  Adults need to play as much as children do.  Without it, we risk becoming depressed, rigid, unable to problem-solve, unsympathetic to others and humorless.  Speaking for himself, Dr. Brown says:

"I give myself over at least three or four hours a day to what, for an old guy, is spontaneous free play.  It could be reading or what I would call as extremely low-quality rogue tennis, hiking, playing with grandchildren.  But, you know, if a day goes by and I haven't, at this age, had some sense of timelessness and freedom and purposelessness, I'll probably be kind of ratty by supper-time."

This summer left little time for goofing off and having "purposeless fun", the kind that recharges my batteries.  Now I know how critical play is for my spirit and I'm going to make sure it gets on my "To Do List". 

For me, play is:  dancing, singing (even though I have a terrible voice), hiking, reading for fun, playing Maj with my gal pals, trying new recipes, and laughing til it hurts.  My husband and I had so much fun dancing at last weekend's wedding that we promised ourselves to sign up for lessons this Fall. 

And in our younger days we spent hours singing with the help of songbooks and an inexpensive guitar. When I read Megan McCafferty's story  in the September 2008 issue of  Health, "Love (and Karaoke) Will Keep Us Together",  I was intrigued.  Who gets to sing anymore?  Megan's brother-in-law bought her & her husband a karaoke video game a few months ago, just for "the fun of it", and she says

"Karaoke has inspired my husband and me to be unself-conscious dorks together, in a way we hadn't been in years!"

They've got their own American Idol  thing going, with Elvis, Christina Aguilera, and Pat Benetar songs.  When I mentioned this to my husband, (who wouldn't do Karaoke in public in a million years) he was game.  Yeah, he's a secret singer, too.  I can't wait to find this video game.  Anyone know what it's called?

3.) Yes, the food diary really works. My very first blog post back in January 2008 was about how well keeping a food diary works.  Problem is, when something is working for me, I often think I no longer need it.  I've started back to tracking my daily food intake with my favorite: MYFOODDIARY.com and there's no doubt that it works.  As my weight started to drift upward this summer, I realized I needed to see what I was eating.  As my exercising dipped downward, my eating stayed the same.  It was clear to me that I needed to exercise to the tune of 400 calories a session, 5 times a week to not gain weight. Or, the less appealing option of just eating less!

MYFOODDIARY.com,  works wells for me, even though there is a monthly fee, because I can enter all my favorite recipes into their database and create my own "Fridge" of my personal "everyday foods".  It takes all the guess work out of it, and even calculates fat, fiber, carbs, protein, sodium, vitamins & nutrients. This summer, the scientific proof of the value of using a food diary was published in the August 2008 issue of The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, in a study that suggests that keeping a food diary doubles one's weight loss.

4.) I need quiet-alone-time.  When you vacation, when you visit relatives and friends, when you have house guests, or your grown kids pay an extended visit, quiet-time disappears.  Someone (& I am guilty, too) is always talking, or the television is always on.  OK, it's fun. It's enriching. But after awhile, one's inner calm needs  a battery recharge.  When I read Katy Butler's piece, "How to Access Your Inner Calm" in the September 2008 issue of More, she reminded me of how much I was missing meditation, and how much noise assaults our peace and sensibilities.

"The loudest sound my great-grandparents heard on an average day was the ringing of their village church bell. Nobody interrupted their dinners with beeps; news arrived by letter or, less often, with a knock at the front door.  They lived in the vast South African desert, and the background was silence.

Contrast that with ordinary life in 21st century America, where the background is a hum of machine noise so constant that it goes unremarked: subways, freeways, leaf blowers, air conditioners, Jet Skis, television.  Technology penetrates traditional boundaries of solitude and sanctuary; cell phones ring during funerals; helicopters buzz the Grand Canyon; bosses e-mail the house on Sunday morning.  And then there are the 16,000 odd words, on average that we each speak every day, and the thousands more we hear."

My resolution:  Insure some quiet-time, some alone-time, or some meditation time every day. 

My husband's promise:  He's buying a wireless head set to use when he wants to watch TV & I want to read or write. Or vice versa.  Why be mad, distracted, or have to read the same page over & over again when you can buy wireless earphones for your TV?  Viva the silence!

5.) The Valerian/Hops combination works! Before I took off on my latest travels I decided to give the Valerian/Hops combo a try to insure a restful sleep before starting out on my journeys.  Dr. Tieraona Low Dog, the herbal expert from the University of Arizona gives a big thumbs up to this herbal sleep remedy.

I had a hard time finding a product that contained just those 2 herbs.  I finally settled on Nature's Ways "Silent Night" formula, which is a proprietary blend of Valerian, Hops, and Scullcap.  I took the advised dosage of 4 tablets, 1 hour before sleep.  I briefly woke up a couple times during the night, which is typical for me, but I didn't get panicky about not falling back to sleep.  I felt sleepy, mellow & fell right back to sleep.  I woke up well rested without any grogginess whatsoever.  I've never taken any sleep medication, so I have nothing to compare this to, but I would definitely use it again.

TO BE CONTINUED....