Melanoma Risk Part 7

Lastly, keep your immune system strong. A weakened immune system is not always able to protect you from melanoma. Remember that the immune system helps ward off cancers and is killing cancer cells every day of our lives so that they can take hold in our bodies.

Nutrients That Make Your Body Work #4

I mentioned yesterday that minerals are necessary for vitamins to do their job. So you might guess that the next essential nutrients are vitamins. Vitamins are organic substances that are only found in living things. Vitamins help activate chemical processes that release energy within the cells.

The most important function of vitamins is their reaction with oxygen which makes them able to neutralize free radicals which cause damage to the DNA structure. The vitamins are essential to your having a strong immune system. In and of themselves, vitamins do not contain energy, but what they will do is help your body convert fat and carbs into energy.

Best sources are fresh organic fruits and vegetables. If you are not eating organic, be sure that you are on a reputable brand of vitamins. Remember you get what you pay for - if they are very inexpensive, they may not have quality control and your batch may be lacking some of the ingredients.

Nutrients That Make Your Body Work #3

One of the most critical nutrient necessary for our bodies is minerals. We used to absorb alot of minerals through our skin when we went barefoot. Now we rarely go barefoot and the next best source of minerals for us comes from soil and water and are absorbed by plants or eaten by animals. But unless plants are organically grown, the soil and water may be robbed of most of the mineral content. Animals that are grown in feedlots or are never let out of the nest, also don't get the opportunity to eat natural vegetation and many minerals are lost and not available to us when we eat the animals.

Minerals are essential for vitamins to do their work in making the immune system stronger. We need minerals for growth and maintenance of body structures. Minerals are what helps our body maintain fluids in and around cells. Minerals also help us to build tissues such as bone and regulate the metabolic activities.

What Causes Disease? #3

The one process that I believe is the cause of 99% of our disease is stress. The AMA states that it is 95%, but I think we can really look at almost everything as being caused by stress. The body was designed to deal with stress by using what we know as the flight or fright response. The adrenalin starts to flow but there are other chemicals released in this response as well that make our blood pressure rise, heart rate goes up, blood sugar rises, and a host of other things occur.

Now the original design was to make it so that you could get away from the saber tooth tiger. The problem today is that the tiger no longer exists and the stresses in our lives are everywhere and constant, so our bodies are in an endless flight or fright response. I mentioned earlier in this series about needing your immune system to be strong. Well, it won't be for long if you are under a lot of stress.

The fact of the matter today is that we have so many stressers coming at us on a minute to minute basis, that we have become somewhat oblivious to stress and its effects. For more on this interesting topic and how to use your body to combat stress, click here.

What Causes Diseases? #1

You can probably starting naming things that you believe cause diseases, but what you may not know is that there are really only four processes involved in the development of a disease in your body.

By understanding these 3 processes, you can begin to work on those that you really need to work on to help prevent disease.

The first one that I'm going to talk about is free radical damage. Free radicals basically cause damage to the DNA in cells. Your immune system neutralizes free radicals every second of the day, but if your immune system is compromised, it may not be able to neutralize the free radicals or fix the damage done to the DNA. Your role in this battle is to make your immune system as strong as you possibly can. How? Eat 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Organic is better than just whatever is at the grocery store. Bright colors - reds, oranges, dark greens are best. For more information see my posts on antioxidants.

Vibration and Wellness

Have you ever been annoyed by someone drumming their fingers or a pencil. Beating out a rhythm is a natural human impulse. And beating out rhythms helps us stay healthy.

I had the opportunity last summer to participate in a drumming circle. It was an incredible experience. What I saw were people who to start with were sitting on the outside of the circle and before long they were looking for a drum or some instrument to join into the circle. the number of faces that went from a "I don't know about this" look to smiles and active participation was mind boggling. And the best part was, that no one wanted to stop to rest.

What drumming does according to researchers is to improve the cardiovascular system, strengthens the immune system, improves moods, reduces stress, actually helps reverse the effect of stress at the cellular level. Drumming also reduces anxiety, depression, and feelings of loneliness.

Keep Your Immune System Healthy

What's most important for your immune system is to keep it strong and healthy. In this day and age we are bombarded on a minute to minute basis with free radicals, viruses, stress, and multiple other things that can weaken the immune system.

So taking care of the immune system becomes crucial. One way to do that is to get plenty of rest. Make sure that you get your 7-8 hours a day of rest. This is a time when your body is able to actually rejuvenate it's army, the immune system.

Also, as with any army, you need to feed it. Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables as these contain antioxidants which help strengthen your immune system. Supplementing with a good multiple vitamin and mineral supplement is also advisable since our food source have lost a great deal of their nutritional value. Eat organic - these items are really better for you because they contain more of the nutritional value needed by the immune system.

More on the Immune System

Yesterday I talked a little about the immune system. There are some viruses which do not get completely killed off by the immune system. One of the most common is the virus that causes chicken pox - Varicella virus. You may know this virus by its more common name shingles or herpes zoster. If you had chicken pox, you will not have it again, but the virus usually lies dormant in your body, waiting for a time when the immune system becomes compromised so that it can take hold.

This usually happens latter in life, but can happen any time that the immune system becomes compromised. Today we are seeing more of this in younger people because of the stress of our lives. For more on stress, visit a site about conquering stress by clicking here.

When the virus emerges, it attaches itself to the nerves and basically what you end up with is a viral infection that follows the nerve routes. Diagnostic of this virus is the fact that it will only present on one side of the body.

Why You Need Your Immune System

With all of the information out there about swine flu and people being worried about whether they should get a flu shot or not, someone asked me about their immune system. Here's a layman's guide as to how the immune system works for viruses.

When a virus enters your body, your immune system recognizes the virus as NOT you, so it begins to attack the virus and kill it. In addition, the immune system is able to take an imprint of the virus so that is makes something called antibodies, which float around in the blood and attach themselves to that particular virus if it is found in a cell or in the blood stream. The virus is only able to thrive and multiply if it gets into the cells and is not killed by the immune system. Of course, the response depends upon the particular virus and your body.

Many people wonder if this is how it works how come I keep getting colds, isn't that a virus. The answer is yes, it is a virus, but the virus keeps mutating just slightly, so that your immune system does not recognize it when it first enters your system. That's why there are flu shots every year, because the viruses mutate and change.

Sucralose

I was talking about sucralose yesterday and I want to give you more information about this artificial sweetener. I mentioned the problem with chlorine yesterday, but there are other problems with this product. One of the most significant findings in the research is the shrinking of the thymus gland as well as shrinking of the lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus. This is all part of your immune system. So what is happening here is that sucralose affects your immune system decreasing it's abilit to function properly.

Is this important? Yes, by all means! Without a strong immune system your body is not only unable to fight off disease, but it also cannot win the fight against cancer cells which are in our bodies every day of our lives. The reason that most of us don't get cancer is because of our immune system.

Sucralose also affects the liver and kidneys, which in turn affect our ability to produce red cells to carry oxygen around our bodies. It can also affect pregnancy and your unborn child.

Lastly, sucralose can result in diarrhea. Not a lethal problem, but certainly an unpleasant one.

One last thought here for the diabetics out there. Sucralose is not the answer for you. Studies have shown that the hemaglobin A1C actually rises. This blood test is an indicator of glycemic control and we know that as it rises so does the number complications for diabetics.

Laughing and Calorie Burning

Most of us don't associate laughing with burning calories or losing weight. But in fact, laughing can help. You can burn as many calories with 3 minutes of laughing as you can with 10 minutes on the rowing machine.

Laughter has been shown to boost the immune system in general as well as specific areas like the mouth where antibodies increase which in turn fight off upper respiratory infections and infections in the mouth.

Laughing also increases endorphins from the brain which make us feel good. This is what many runners call the "runner's high." Most important here is the fact that laughter decreases stress - it is one of the best stress relievers.

If you are having trouble laughing, look at children. Children laugh about 400 times a day on average. Adults on the other hand laugh about 5 times per day on average. So increase your laughter each day and improve your health, your emotional balance, and your life.

Decreasing Your Cancer Risk

We all have cancer cells in our bodies every day. However, our immune system recognizes them as not normally part of us and destroys them. So keeping the immune system absolutely as strong as you can is the most important thing you can do.

There are some other things you can do to decrease your exposure or risk from cancer causing chemicals. Some of the chemicals to avoid are sodium nitrite found in processed meats (hot dogs, bacon, sausage, etc.) and artificial chemical sweeteners. You should also be aware of the chemicals found in personal care items like shampoo, soaps and lotions. You will absorb these chemicals through the skin and they can be just as harmful as those that you ingest.

The World Cancer Research Fund promotes healthy foods and exercise as a way of decreasing the risk of cancer.

Antibiotics - When Should You Take Them?

I was asked the other day about whether a person should take antibiotics for a cold. This has been a source on consternation for me for years. Colds are caused by viruses. Antibiotics only help with bacterial infections and the antibiotics cannot do it alone. Your immune system in fact has to do most of the work. So having a healthy immune system is by far the most important thing in keeping you well.

Usually when the immune system is compromised by stress, lack of sleep, or something else is when you become sick with a cold. You can be healthy, but stress will really knock your immune system down and open the door for a virus to take hold.

The other thing to be aware of is that viruses usually last 10-14 days. Most people get impatient and want to be better right now. That is not going to happen with antibiotics, so don't rush off to the doctor in search of a magic pill. Rather boost up your immune system so that it can handle the virus.

Benefit #2 of Cleansing

The burden of toxins on the body come out in physical complaints such as stiffness or pain in joints, allergies, headaches, depression, fatigue, and digestive problems to name a few. The more we overload the system with toxins, the more problems that will arise.

Cleansing can help you decrease the load of toxins and make you feel much better in the process. The first time that I did a cleanse, I was having some pretty severe foot and ankle stiffness and pain. After a 2 day cleanse, the stiffness and pain was almost completely gone. I became an instant believer in cleansing. Subsequently I have found other benefits, but this really speaks to this particular benefit.

Most illnesses occur because of toxic overload on the system. These toxins are in the foods that we eat, the air we breathe and the water that we drink and bathe in.

Benefit #1 of Cleansing

One of the biggest benefits to cleansing is that it strengthens your immune system. The job of the immune system is to get rid of all of the toxic wastes, viruses, bacteria, and any infectious materials. The problem is that we are assaulted with way more toxins than the body was designed to handle. Therefore the immune system is so busy trying to keep these toxins in check that it is working overtime to do it. The stores of the immune system become depleted and then you become more susceptible to things like colds and flus. Not to mention that if the immune system is really compromised, mutant cells occur which are cancers and are able to take hold because the immune system is not available to kill these mutant cells.

So the bottom line is we need to help out the immune system to help us stay well. Here's a thought you should ponder about all of this. Antibiotics are really not what cures the infection in our body. It is the immune system which has to cure the infection. All the antibiotic does is help control some of the organisms so that the immune system can do its job.

When you cleanse, what you are doing is using something to help the immune system get rid of the build up without you adding any more into the mix.

One Last Thing About Licorice Root

While traditional Chinese medicine uses licorice to treat a wide variety of illnesses, besides the effects mentioned on 2/6/09, there is little research to support any other uses. However, we do know that licorice root contains flavonoids which are powerful antioxidants. These antioxidants boost the immune system and that certainly helps us combat infections of any type (viral, bacterial, etc.).

There is research that shows that licorice root can kill helicobacter pylori which a bacteria that is known to cause stomach ulcers. Alternative medicines use it precisely for this purpose.

More on Wheat Germ

Yes, there is more to wheat germ. In addition to what I mentioned yesterday, the high levels of vitamin E in wheat germ help prevent cancer, heart disease and aging. This is due to the powerful antioxidant in play. While strengthening the immune system, it also helps to prevent excessive blood clotting.

The vitamin B complex contained in wheat germ helps you cope with stress as well as benefiting metabolism. Homocysteine levels are decreased thereby helping to protect the arteries from damage.

And by the way, wheat germ is a great source of fiber, so it can useful in digestion and preventing constipation.

Kiwi Fruit - Super Food

Kiwi fruit is another one of those super foods. One of the reasons kiwi is considered a super food is because it contains arginine. Arginine is an essential amino acid in the body and although we do manufacture it within our bodies, supplementation is often needed.

Arginine works in the immune system by stimulating the thymus gland to produce T-lymphocytes or you may have heard them called T-cells. If you think of the immune system as an army, the T-cells come in 3 varieties, helper, killer, and suppressor cells. These cells regulate immune reactions and control b-cell development.

What all of the last paragraph means is that T-cells are responsible for controlling the immune system. If the immune system is suppressed, then your immune system will be unable to fight off illness and disease.

A few of the disease entities that arginine helps with are cancer, HIV, any disease that has compromised blood flow (ie heart disease), and improves impotence.

More on the benefits of this super food tomorrow

More on Blueberries

There is a lot of research out there supporting eating blueberries in terms of cancer. Because it is a strong antioxidant, it helps in the prevention of cancer cells. They also help if taken in the months prior to chemo to eliminate the nausea that comes with the therapy.

There is some research out of the University of Mississippi that demonstrates that blueberries have lipid lowering properties. The compound that has been identified by Dr. Rimando is pterostilbene which is similar to resveratrol. Resveratrol is the substance in grapes and red wine thought to help in lowering cholesterol.

More importantly as far as I'm concerned are blueberries anti-inflammatory effects. They have been shown to decrease inflammation and may be of help in people with arthritis.

Blueberry Brain Turn On

I've known for a long time that blueberries are rich in antioxidants and help boost the immune system. They are also a super food that can energize and turn on brain cells.

Blueberries actually help neuron signals be stronger, this is part of the problem in Alheimer's (the signals are weak). The chemical that is required to have strong neuron signals is potentiated by blueberries.

Blueberries can actually help your brain think more clearly.