Current Health News and Studies Concerning Nutrition & Exercise

May 7, 2011: Just when you think you've heard it all about health-endangering practices of the meat industry - factory farming, inhumane treatment - another dastardly, industry-wide practice comes to light. And as usual, the consumer is on the losing end.

Most consumers know that ground beef contains meat from hundreds of animals from around the globe. This affects everyone who buys ground beef to make their own hambugers or to cook a meatloaf, as well as low-income Americans who can't afford to buy prime cuts of meats. But an Australian newscast broke the story of a practice that affects high income consumers too.

The practice consists of using a "meat glue" to combine tiny portions of meat together that are too small to sell. The practice is also deceptive because the meat industry passes this glued meat as prime cuts of meat.

What exactly is meat glue? It is an enzyme known as transglutaminase. There are different methods of preparation. Some meat glues are made by cultivating bacteria. Others are produced from the blood plasma of pigs and cows, in particular, the coagulant which makes blood clot.

Meat glue forms cross-linked, insoluble protein polymers when sprinkled on meat. These protein polymers act as a veritable 'super glue' holding the pieces of meat together with almost invisible seams.

The process is completed by rolling the glued meats in plastic film, and refrigerated. Meat manufacturers have become so good, that even expert butchers can't tell the difference between genuine prime cuts and faked 'prime' cuts.

Meat glue is also used in pork/ham, chicken, imitation crab meat, processed meats, and fish products such as fish balls.

The law doesn't require meat manufacturers to disclose their processes. And because many of them are unethical - looking to make additional profits from meat too small to sell - the consumers health is put in jeopardy.

Studies show that glued meat increases the risk of getting food poisoning. Bacterial contamination of glued meat is hundreds of times greater than from a solid piece of steak. And if you are a consumer who likes your meat cooked rare, the risk is magnified.

As you are well aware, America has a serious problem with food poisoning. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) estimates that between 6 to 81 million Americans contract food borne illnesses every year. Food poisoning takes up to 9,000 lives annually.

This problem will only become exasperated by super glued meat. Government agencies which are supposed to be watchdogs for your health are lax and allowing big money meat interests to continue their deadly practices.

How can you protecty yourself against factory-farmed and super glued meat? Purchase meats from farms you trust who raise grass-fed, organic animals.

By the way, the European Union has banned super glued meat in 2010. They, unlike the American government, care about their citizens.

May 10, 2011: According to studies, vitamin E has been shown to protect against ten different kinds of cancer. Vitamin E stands guard on the outer layer (the membrane) of all your cells. It's the cells first line of defense against attacks from pollution, toxins, and other free radical damage.

ORAC, the scale devised to measure the antioxidant power of foods, is based on comparing foods to the antioxidant power of vitamin E. It measures the "trolox equivalent" of foods. Trolox is a vitamin E derivative used as the benchmark to measure free radical fighting power.

Vitamin E helps to prevent cancer, and the body's cells rely on it.

Vitamin E's biggest value is stopping free radical attacks on cell membrances which are able to cause carcinogenesis. It blocks the formation of carcinogens, especially nitrosamines.

Nitrosamines are cancer-causing compounds that originate from cigarette, chimney, or industrial smoke. They can also form in the stomach from nitrites in the cured (processed and preserved) meats) typical of the Western diet.

Here are a few studies documenting the effectiveness of vitamin E against cancer:

• High intakes of vitamin E reduced pancreatic cancer risk by 40 percent
• The Nurses Health Study looked at 83,234 women for over 14 years. Pre-menopausal women with a family history of breast cancer who took the greatest amounts of vitamin E had 43 percent fewer cases of breast cancer
• A study published in Cancer Prevention Research examined vitamin E against lung cancer. Researchers used animals with lung cancer and then gave them vitamin E. They found that the delta-tocopherol of vitamin E strongly inhibited tumor growth. Human studies have shown that high levels of vitamin E do indeed protect against lung cancer
• The Harvard School of Public Health performed a large study on supplements and colon cancer risk. Over 676,000 people were used and followed during periods ranging from 7 to 20 years. Taking a dose of vitamin E greater than 200 mg from food and supplements reduced the risk of getting colon cancer by 22 percent
• Other studies show that people with cervical, colon, stomach, rectum, liver, and pancreatic cancer have low levels of vitamin E

Vitamin E is compsed of eight parts: 4 are known as tocopherols and 4 are known as tocotrienols. All are antioxidants.

Alpha tocopherol is the form you'll see on many commercial vitamin E supplements. More of it is available in your body than any other form. Taking too much of this form though causes a decreased absorption of gamma- tocopherol.

Gamma greatly benefits heart and blood vessels. Tocotrienols have benefits that tocopherols don't. They help to lower triglycerides and blood pressure. Tocotrienols lowers cholesterol by "attacking" a cholesterol-creating enzyme called HMG-CoA.

New research aimed at helping the brain shows that tocotrienols in natural vitamin E supplements build up in the blood and protect the brain.

High levels of tocotrienols can be found in palm and coconut oil and wheat germ. Soybean and sunflower oils contain no tocotrienols.

Foods containing vitamin E are:

• Pecans and Brazil nuts have a good amount of vitamin E; the kings though are almonds and hazel nuts
• Alfalfa leaves have a lot (seeds and sprouts don't.) Asparagus, Brussels sprouts spinach, and broccoli have vitamin E.
• Black currants, blackberries, avocado pears, and raisins have vitamin E.
• Grass-fed beef has 4 times the vitamin E of grain-fed beef

Since most people don't eat a wide variety of foods to get enough vitamin E, it is important to supplement. Keep the following in mind:

• You need a mix of tocopherols and tocotrienols
• Take no more than 200 IU of vitamin E daily
• Separate consumption of tocotrienols from other vitamin E sources by a few hours so that alpha-tocotrienol doesn't lessen its benefits.

Source: Health Confidential by Al Sears, MD (March 2011, Issue #62.)

May 14, 2011: There are certain concepts that on the surface would indicate that more of them applied would increase the benefits. It's the "if a little is good, more is better" philosophy.

Many tend to apply that principle to nutrients, vitamins, and exercise programs.

As a bodybuilder who has trained for 32 years, I had the "more is better" concept for a great many of those years. I used to work out six days a week, training each bodypart twice a week with inadequate rest and recovery time in between.

And as sure as two nickles will get you a dime, I overtrained and my workouts became counterproductive.

"It's well known in the world of peak performance that those that adopt the "more is better motto" are the ones that fail to progress, are frustrated at their inability to consistently perform at their best and most often have an endless string of nagging low-grade micro-injuries that follow them around day after day, endlessly zapping their mental, emotional and physical strength," says Dr. Jeff Spencer, Olympian, "Sports Chiropractor of the year", and author.

Dr. Gene Logan is the co-developer of the SAID principle. SAID, specific adaptation to imposed demands, states that in order to increase the fitness, strength, or size of any muscle, it must be targeted and strained. No strain, no change. Or in bodybuilding language, "no pain, no gain."

If you want to increase the fitness or size of your bicep, you have to do bicep curls. The imposed load must be sufficient enough to tear down the muscle in order for the body to build it to a higher fitness level and larger size.

However, the healing of the micro tears imposed on the bicep occurs during rest and recovery - not during the actual exercise itself. Adequate recovery time is crucial to any athlete's goal.

Exercise imposes a strain or load on your body. This strain or load is also known by another name - stress.

But the body cannot differentiate between the stress of a workout and the stress caused by fatigue, being sleep deprived, rushing to get to work, etc. during the course of a day or several days. Your body perceives these as one giant total load.

Over the course of time, this total load or stress can break down your body causing burnout, injury, or illness.

As far as exercise is concerned (using weight lifting as an example), there are several ways to increase total training load. You can increase the weight, do more sets and/or repetitions, or decrease rest periods between sets.

How hard do you work out? Here are three surprisingly accurate rules to judge:

• Easy- If you can maintain a conversation with someone when exercising then the intensity of the workout is considered easy.
• Moderate- When working out if you can speak in words, but not sentences, and don't really want to talk then that's the classic sign of a moderate workout.
• Hard- The key sign of a hard workout is that it's impossible to talk during the workout.

Dr. Jeff Spencer recommends exercsing easy twice for every hard workout. He says that you may want to even consider a ratio of three easy workouts for every hard workout.

One or two moderate trainings should be separated by two days of total rest; hard workouts should be performed once or twice in a week with a minimum of three days rest in between.

Just as there are physical indications of burnout or an inadequate recovery, there are physical signs of a successful workout.

• You should recover fully within 30 or so minutes after completing a workout. If the recovery period is substantially longer, you need to take it easy the next couple of days
• Although this may be slightly subjective, you should feel better at the completion of a workout than you did when you started it
• You will get sore if you have changed any of the following factors: number of sets, number of reps, decrease in rest time, using a heavier weight; you will also experience soreness if you stopped exercising for a period of time. To experience regular soreness though indicates that your body hasn't fully recovered.
• Your heart rate should elevate during a workout and drop to slightly above normal within five minutes of finishing. Shortly thereafter, your heart rate should drop to normal levels.
• You should also stop perspiring after having completed a workout. If you continue to sweat 20 to 30 minutes after the workout, it was too hard and you require a few days to recover from it.

Getting fit or getting bigger muscles requires training intensity; it also requires total recovery. Successful training is a balancing act. You have to balance intensity with not so intense workouts.

That was a hard lesson for me to learn. But I learned it. And hopefully you will too.

May 18, 2011: French citizen Jeanne Louise Calment had the distinction of having the world's longest human lifespan - ever! She died in 1997 at the astounding age of 122 years! (Photo left shows Jeanne in 1996 celebrating her 121st birthday.)

Jeanne was born in Arles, France on February 21, 1875 and passed away August 4, 1997. She took up fencing at the 'young' age of 85, and continued to ride her bicycle until her one hundredth birthday. And yet, more remarkably, she showed no signs of dementia.

Naturally the medical and scientific world was amazed at Jeanne's longevity, and sought to discover why she lived so long. It turns out that she used large amounts of olive oil.

According to Jeanne, she put it on her food at all times. She even used it to keep her skin healthy and supple.

It turns out that olive oil contains a little known but powerful antioxidant called tyrosol. Tyrosol can eliminate free radicals ten times better than green tea, and twice as well as CoQ10.

Tyrosol is an anti-aging nutrient; it turns on a group of longevity genes called "forkhead box" genes, or FOXOs.

Cells in your body that multiply quickly use antioxidants to protect themselves against free radical damage. White blood cells are an example. But your body has a lot of other cells which don't multiply as fast and don't have the protection of antioxidants.

It turns out that FOXOs were protecting these cells against free radicals. FOXOs were shutting down the aging of these cells when under attack, and directly increasing amounts of the body�s "master antioxidant," superoxide dismutase (SOD).

Tyrosol has been shown to "turn on" FOXO genes. (Photo right shows in 1895 at the age of 20.)

A study that was published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition has found that tyrosol from olive oil is very absorbable. The olive oil you want to use is extra virgin. I generously pour extra virgin olive oil on my raw veggies.

May 20, 2011: Did you know that there is a parameter that better predicts your risk for heart attacks than body weight? Also, did you know that BMI (body mass index) is too vague a number to be an accurate predictor?

Look at the following quote from CNN:

"As in previous studies, a high BMI was associated with a lower risk of death. But researchers found that heart patients with a high ratio of waist-to-hip circumference or a large waist size -- greater than 35 inches for women, or 40 inches for men -- were 70 percent more likely to die during the study period than those with smaller waists. The combination of a large waist and a high BMI upped the risk of death even more," (CNN, May 2, 2011.)

A new study which was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that male participants with waists greater than 40 inches and female participants with waists greater than 35 inches were 70 percent more likely to die during the course of the study than people with smaller waists.

Your body has two distinctly different types of fat: visceral and subcutaneous. Subcutaneous fat lies just underneath the skin. Visceral fat is dangerous and unhealthy. It is located in and around the abdominal region surrounding your vital organs like the heart and lungs.

Researchers have definitively linked visceral fat with type 2 diabetes, heart disease, strokes, and other chronic diseases. How does this happen? It is thought that visceral fat is related to the release of hormones and proteins which can cause inflammaton.

Among other things, inflammation can damage your arteries; it can also enter the liver and affect how your body breaks down sugars and fats. When the body routinely stores excess visceral fat, your risk for developing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, vascular disease, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), and thicker heart walls increase.

Interestingly, waist size is a predictor of insulin sensitivity too. Studies show that the measurement of your waist is one of the greatest ways to predict diabetes risk.

Did you know that you can have dangerous visceral fat if you're skinny too?

Regarding the Journal of the American College of Cardiology study, CNN stated:

"Even heart patients with apple-shaped bodies and BMIs in the normal range were at increased risk of dying sooner, which drives home the fact that normal-weight heart patients may need to lose some weight in their bellies too..."

How do you know if your waist size is in the healthy range? Take a tape measure and measure the smallest circumference just below the rib cage and above your belly button. Men are considered to be overweight if their waists are between 37 inches and 40 inches, and obese if greater than 40 inches. Women are considered to be overweight if their waists are between 31.5 inches and 34.6 inches, and obese if greater than 34.6 inches.

Fat cells produce hormones. One of the hormones it makes is called leptin. It is known as the "satiety" hormone in that it signals the brain that you are full. It increases fat burning and decreases fat storage too.

Leptin does these things if your body operates the way it was designed and leptin effectively communicates with the brain.

The standard American diet (SAD) is high in sugar, fat, and grains. Sugar and grains (yes, even whole grains) produce inflammation in the body when they are metabolized. Stored fat releases surges in leptin too.

If your body is exposed to too much leptin over the course of time, it will become leptin resistant. In other words, it will not respond to the leptin hormone communicating that you are full.

May 24, 2011: Researchers have discovered that a substance in coffee can prevent the most dangerous form of prostate cancer by an amazing 60 percent!

The research was conducted by scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health, and published in the web edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. It shows that men who are regular coffee drinkers had a lower risk of developing any type of prostate cancer, especially the type most likely to kill.

New research shows that coffee drunk in moderation is entirely safe for most people. Scientists say that some currently unknown substance in coffee may protect against such diseases as Parkinson's, type 2 diabetes, gallstones, liver cancer and cirrhosis. Coffee may also protect women from breast cancer.

What led Harvard scientists to the study of coffee is that it naturally contains compounds known to act as antioxidants, reduce inflammation, and regulate insulin. All of these are thought to play a role in prostate cancer reduction.

This particular study is unique in that only a relatively few studies have looked specifically at the association between regular coffee intake and the risk of developing the lethal form of prostate cancer.

This lethal form is important to prevent because it spreads to the bones and causes death.

The study looked at 47,911 men who volunteered for the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study; they reported their coffee consumption every four years beginning in 1986 and ending in 2008.

During that twenty-two year period, 5,035 men weer diagnosed with prostate cancer, including 642 metastatic, fatal cases.

The men who drank the most coffee (6 or more cups daily) had a 20 percent lower risk of developing any type of prostate cancer compared to men who didn't drink coffee. What's more, it doesn't appear to matter if the coffee is decaffeinated or not.

Just drinking one to three cups of coffee daily lowered the risk of the deadly form of disease by 30 percent. And men who drank the most coffee saw their risk of lethal prostate cancer plummet by 60 percent.
Source: NaturalNews.com.

May 26, 2011: How would you like to reverse the first thing people see when they look at you? I am referring to facial aging, and skin aging in general.

This can not only be accomplished without cosmetic surgery or drugs with possible side effects, but it is completely natural.

I am talking about astaxanthin - a carotenoid and very powerful antioxidant.

There are only two main sources of astaxanthin�the microalgae that produce it, and the sea creatures that consume the algae (such as salmon, shellfish, and krill). Carotenoids such as beta-carotene, alpha-tocopherol, lycopene and lutein can't even begin to approach the potency of astaxanthin.

Astaxanthin is a natural sunscreen. By consuming this carotenoid, you create an internal sun protection mechanism. Athletes say that astaxanthin allows them to stay in the sun for longer periods of time without becoming ill or sunburned.

A 2001 study showed that astaxanthin protects your skin when taken topically too. Hairless mice were used in this study.

The mice were exposed to UVB radiation for 18 weeks to simulate photo-aged skin. The mice that had astaxanthin applied to their skin demonstrated reduced wrinkles when compared to the control group, as well as younger-appearing collagen. In fact, the collagen of the astaxanthin mice looked as if it had never been exposed to radiation.

A Japanese study conducted in 2002 looked at the effects of astaxanthin on women around 40 years of age. They consumed 2 mg of this carotenoid for four weeks.

Researchers were stunned when nearly every aspect of the women's skin showed dramatic improvement after only two weeks. After four weeks, there was further improvement [Yamashita, E. (2002). "Cosmetic Benefit of Dietary Supplements Containing Astaxanthin and Tocotrienol on Human Skin." Food Style. 21 6(6):112-17.]

The list of skin improvement included fewer fine lines, better moisture, increased skin tone and elasticity, smoother surface, fewer freckles, and less under-eye puffiness.

Avoid any type of synthetic astaxanthin. It is made from petrochemicals. Synthetic astaxanthin dominates the farmed salmon industry worldwide.

If your salmon label does not read "wild" or "naturally colored," you're probably going to be eating a coloring agent somewhat closer to motor oil than antioxidant. Natural astaxanthin is more than 20 times stronger as an antioxidant than synthetic astaxanthin.

Wild salmon are 400 percent higher in astaxanthin than farmed salmon, and 100 percent of their pigment is natural astaxanthin, rather than synthetic. In addition, wild salmon have much higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids than the farmed version.

Dr. Mercola recommends starting with 2 mg of astaxthin daily. He takes 8.
Source: Mercola.com.

June 1, 2011: According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) 2010 Sleep in America Poll, very few Americans get adequate sleep. Of everyone who responded, only four out of ten stated they received a good night's sleep every night, or almost every night.

Recently the NSF looked specifically at the links between communications technology and sleep patterns. Twenty percent of Americans who took place in the poll reported being awakened by phone calls, text messages, or emails a few nights a week.

In addition, ninety-five percent report using some type of electronic device within an hour os so of going to bed.

Lately, scientists have begun to direct attention to the harmful effects technology has on sleep. Sleep deprivation can have far-reaching effects on your weight as well as physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being.

Scientists think the reason sleep deprivation is able to so adversely affect health is because the circadian system "drives" the rhythms of biological activity at the cellular level. Therefore sleep interruption spirals outward throughout the entire body.

When circadian rhythms are disrupted, the body makes less melatonin - a hormone and antioxidant - which reduces the ability to fight cancer, and promotes tumor growth. It can increase corticosterone (a stress hormone) too. This has the result of fewer brain cells being created in the hippocampus.

Sleep deprivation contributes to premature aging by interfering with your growth hormone production which is normally released by the pituitary gland during deep sleep. Growth hormone helps you look and feel younger.

A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) says that sleep deprivation can make chronic disease symptoms worse. Some of these diseases and medical conditions are Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, Multiple sclerosis, Gastrointestinal tract disorders, kidney disease, and behavioral problems in children.

In general, adults require between 6 and 8 hours of sleep every night. There are exceptions though. Some thrive on as little as five hours. The key is listening to your body.

The amount of sleep you need can also drastically change depending on circumstances. For example, most people need more sleep when feeling ill, or during emotionally stressful times. Pregnant women also typically need more sleep than usual during the first trimester.

June 2, 2011: Because of an effective marketing campaign, many people are buying into the highly popular low-fat eating strategy. But because this strategy is based on flawed studies and biased food manufacturers, the exact opposite result is being realized by millions.

Do you know a fool-proof way to make pigs as fat as possible as fast as possible? Feed them low-fat milk. If a pig is fed full-fat milk, it becomes satiated and therefore satisfied. It won't eat anymore.

But if that same pig is fed low-fat milk, it will also eat the grain fed it because there is not enough fat in its diet.

Now look at a typical American breakfast. The media and our mainstream healthcare system has drummed into minds that in order to lose weight, we must eat low-fat foods. Our breakfast therefore consists of cereal (grains) saturated with low-fat milk.

Contrary to what the media and mainstream nutritionists would have you believe, the uncompromising science of the low-fat diet cannot do anything but make you FAT.

The only fat that is your enemy is man-made fat - namely - trans fat. However natural fat is essential to your health.

Fats drive nutrients into organs that need them. Vitamins A, D, E, K and CoQ10 cannot be absorbed without fat.

Fat maintains your brain (without it, your brain would be frog-sized,) and keeps you alive. Without enough fat, you could suffer demyelination, where your nerves lose their insulation and can�t transmit their signals efficiently.

You know the old saying, "you can't fool mother nature?" Well it's true. You can't fool your body.

If your body even senses that you are depriving it of essential nutrients, it will slow its metabolism and begin storing fat. It is VERY EFFICIENT at that task.

Unfortunately, eating an abundance of carbohydrates (in the form of grains like corn, wheat, and oats) and depriving yourself of protein and fat causes it to store fat.

Listen to what alternative mnedical doctor Al Sears says:

"Your daily requirement of carbs is zero. You don�t need carbs at all. You can easily make carbs from fat or protein."

June 6, 2011: Hunger is triggered by the hormone ghrelin. But factors other than physical hunger can stimulate hunger too. Factors like stress, depression, anxiousness, and loneliness will trigger emotional eating.

You want to avoid emotional eating at all costs. This is what plays havoc with body weight.

Thwarting hunger can be accomplished simply by eating enough protein. Start the day with a high protein meal. Free-ranged eggs or a whey protein shake will work fine.

Replace potato chips and other junk food snacks with healthy nuts like almonds, walnuts, cashews, or pecans. Or you can snack on organically grown fruits and vegetables. A simple liquid like water can fill you up and remove the hunger urge.

June 10, 2011: Did you know that food substances can be just as addictive as drugs like morphine or cocaine?

Zioudro, Streaty, and Klee coined the term exorphins in 1979 to describe these food substances (Loukas, S., Varoucha, D., Zioudrou, C., et al, "Opioid activities and structures of alpha-casein-derived exorphins," Biochemistry Sept. 13, 1983;22(19):4567-73.) Grains such as wheat, barley, and rye and milk are exorphins. Snack foods like bagels and pretzels can be just as addictive as narcotics. The only difference is that grains and milk are addictive biologically.

Exorphins are deceptive. They signal that the food was tasty and to eat more of it. Of course this is one process driving the global obesity epidemic.

Your body makes natural "narcotics." They are small proteins known as endorphins. Endorphins bind to other proteins designed to receive them. These receivers are your "opiate receptors."

The result of endorphins binding to opiate receptors is the stimulation of your pleasure response. They alert the brain to prepare to receive a reward. They also act as sedatives, and deadens pain.

Fruits have this effect, but so does a mouth-watering cheeseburger. This is the reason you crave them.

God designed this effect in fruit and meats in order for you to get adequate antioxidants from the fruit, and natural fats from meat in order to transport fat-soluble vitamins throughout your body.

The exorphins in grains and cow's milk exploit this process and trick you because they act just like natural endorphins. But there�s nothing natural about them.

Exorphins replace your endorphins and bind to your opiate receptors. This makes you feel artificially pleased and rewarded.

One study reveals how exorphins can fool you. They found that two exorphins from cow�s milk carry information with them as they bind to opiate receptors. The message delivered to the brain is essentially, "go to sleep, feel bad, but eat more anymore."

The brain will also substitute exorphins for neurotransmitters. This process can hamper memory and learning ability.

Follow these basic steps in removing exorphins from your diet:

• Eliminate gluten. You can find gluten in some unlikely places, like pasta, beer, soy sauce, certain medications, toothpaste and even lipstick. It can also hide in sausage and hamburger filler, ketchup, ice cream and mayonnaise, and pre-packaged grated cheese. These food substances have gluten exorphin too: distilled grain vinegar, malt/maltodextrin, hydrolyzed protein, yeast extract, food starch, rennet, semolina.
• Avoid cereals and bread. They are made from your typical grains like wheat, bran, and buckwheat; this includes whole grain too. Coconut flour and almond flour are excellent choices to replace flour from wheat, bran, buckwheat, millet, and other grains if you want bread. If you can�t find them, rice flour makes a good alternative.
• Eat more protein and less grains. The USDA's food pyramid places too much emphasis on exorphin laden foods like grains. Ignore it and eat more protein red meat, fish, poultry, and eggs.

June 11, 2011: Back in the early 1970s, Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski discovered that cancer patients lacked a certain peptide while those who were cancer-free had a surplus of it. Based on this discovery, he developed a medical therapy which he named antineoplastons.

His drugs behind antineoplastons consisted of a mixture of peptides and derivatives of amino acids.

The peptides and amino acid derivatives acted as molecular switches. But as genome research grew, and medical science marched forward, Dr. Burzynski found out that they also acted as genetic switches.

This is the key to the success of antineoplastons; they have the ability to "turn on" the genes that suppress cancer, and and at the same time "turn off" oncogenes (cancer genes.)

Dr. Burzynski comments:

"Our bodies contain two categories of genes that allow cancer to flourish: oncogenes, and tumor suppressor genes. When someone has cancer, they have a higher level of oncogenes switched on, with a higher level tumor suppressor genes switched off.

The goal is to tell the body to both switch back on the tumor suppressor genes, and turn off as many oncogenes as possible."

Cancer drugs which target genes now exist. But they can only affect a small number of specific cancer genes.

Antineoplastons on the other hand are able to target about one hundred cancer genes simultaneously. To put this in perspective, antineoplastons are to cancer what a broad-spectrum antibiotic is to infectious disease.

Dr. Burzynski's breakthrough cancer therapy is unbelievably effective. That is the reason why you have probably never heard of it. It was suppressed by the state of Texas, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), and the United States government.

Why? The reason is simple. It threatens conventional medicine's gold standard of surgery (cut), chemotherapy (poison), and radiation (burn.) Compare the following clinical trials of conventional cancer treatment and antineoplastons.

Radiation or Chemotherapy Only	Antineoplastons Only
5 of 54 patients (9 percent) were cancer free at the end of treatment	5 of 20 (25 percent) were cancer free at the end of treatment
Toxic side effects	No toxic side effects

In order to test the effectiveness of antineoplastons, Dr. Burzynski decided to try them on difficult and "hopeless" cases. Childhood brain tumors fit this description.

Jessica Ressel was diagnosed with brainstem glioma - an incurable brain tumor - at the age of eleven. Jessica's doctors told her parents that she would die no matter what radiation or chemotherapy treatment she received.

The family decided against any conventional treatment.

They found out about the work of Dr. Burzynski, and chose antineoplastons. They had literally nothing to lose.

Twelve months later - after having initially been told she had but a few months to live, and given no chance of survival at all - MRI's confirmed she was cancer-free. Her brain tumor was completely resolved. Today, Jessica is a healthy 24-year old woman, pregnant with her second child.

Here's a comparison of the results of conventional treatment for brainstem gliomas versus antineoplastons:

Chemotherapy Only	Antineoplastons Only
1 of 107 patients (0.9 percent) were cancer free at end of treatment	11 of 40 patients (27.5 percent) were cancer free at end of treatment
0 of 107 patients (0 percent) survived past five years	11 of 40 patients (27.5 percent) survived past five years

The National Cancer Society's (NCI) 2010 budget was $5.2 billion. NONE of that money finds its way to Dr. Burzynski - not one red cent. His 35 year research into antineoplastons has been funded out of his own pockect.

Despite what they say, the powers to be are NOT attempting to find a cure for cancer. For them to embrace antineoplastons or the many other alternative cures, they would have to dismantle their existing medical paradigm.

There is just too much money in established procedures. Cures don't generate money. But treatments like surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation do.

June 16, 2011: While researching MSG (monosodium glutamate,) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill scientists determined that there is an association between MSG consumption and weight gain. Study leader Ka He said that the weight gain was modest.

The fact that the weight gain was modest is offset by the fact that MSG is highly popular throughout the world. And although it is more popular in Asian countries, Americans eat a lot through their unprecedented consumption of processed foods.

Experts estimate that Americans eat roughly one-half gram of MSG daily; Japanese and Koreans are estimated to eat anywhere from one and a half to ten grams.

Ka He's research team followed over 10,000 residents of China for an average of five and a half years.

The researchers measured MSG intake directly by before-and-after weighing of products, such as bottles of soy sauce, to see how much people ate. They also asked people to estimate their intake over three 24-hour periods.

Study results show that people who ate a median of five grams MSG daily were about thirty percent more likely to become overweight than those who ate a median of less than one-half gram (median defines the mid point between a high number and a low number.)

When the researchers removed study participants who were overweight at the beginning of the study, the risk rose to thirty-three percent.

The specific reason for the weight hasn't been established. Some scientists think that people gain weight simply because they eat more food containing MSG. Monosodium glutamate enhances the taste. An opposing view is that MSG interferes with leptin signaling.
Source: Reuters May 27, 2011.

June 16, 2011: Many people believe that a high protein diet causes calcium to leech from the body (Read this article). This was primarily due to some previous studies showing that people would lose a lot of calcium through their urine after eating a protein-rich meal.

An article printed in The Lancet contributed to that belief. It stated that calcium from bones is utilized to compensate for the acidity produced when meat is digested.

Here's what the latest study says in the Journal of Nutrition:

"No convincing data have been published showing that a high protein diet, using complex proteins for prolonged periods of time under strictly controlled dietary conditions, causes calcium loss.

"Dietary proteins other than red meat, such as milk and cheese...do not cause calcium loss in controlled studies in humans. The generalization that 'protein' causes calcium loss or may be a risk factor for osteoporosis, without specifying the type and source of protein, is therefore incorrect" (Spencer, Herta, Kramer, Lois, Osis, Dace, "Do Protein and Phosphorus Cause Calcium Loss?" J. Nutr. 1988;118: 657-660.)

Study participants were given a pound of red meat every day for four months!

Vegetarians who hold to the calcium-leeching belief have been misinformed. As a matter of fact, the latest study shows that plant protein rather than animal protein causes calcium to leech from the bones and contribute to osteoporosis.

That particular study used 572 women and 388 men from 55�92 years old living in Rancho Bernardo, California. Results showed that for every 15 gram per day increase in animal protein intake, overall bone mineral density increased, especially in the hip, neck and spine. And the more plant protein the participants ate, the lower their bone mineral density became.

Surprisingly, this study also showed that the women who ate the most calcium lost bone mineral density.

The amino acid rating tells if a food is a good essential amino acid source and their proportion. The higher the number, the greater the source of protein it is. A rating of over one hundred means that the food is a fairly good source of protein in the correct proportions.

Note the amino acid ratings of milk, eggs, and red meat. The avocado has a rating of 129 while soy and flax have a 96 rating.

June 20, 2011: In a study conducted by researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University, obese women who ate a large breakfast lost much more weight than participants who ate smaller breakfasts. As a matter of fact, they lost five times as much weight.

The study consisted of 94 obese and inactive women. The small breakfast group ate a total of 290 calories with 7 grams of carbohydrates and 12 grams of protein. The large breakfast group consumed 610 calories with 58 grams from carbohydrates, 22 grams from fat, and 47 grams from protein.

The study lasted eight months with the big breakfast group losing five times as much weight as the small breakfast group. Also, the small breakfast group regained an average of 18 pounds initially lost while the big breakfast group continued to lose weight.

The typical big breakfast consisted of three ounces of meat, two slices of cheese, two whole-grain servings, a serving of milk, one fat serving and one ounce of chocolate or candy! This group ate a small lunch and even smaller dinner.

Research director Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz explains that this seeming anonmaly centers around the chemical serotonin. Brain chemical serotonin is at its peak first thing in the morning.

Hunger is not felt when serotonin levels are high. However serotonin declines as the day wears on. The brain then craves sweets in order to drive the levels back up.

If you give in and eat the sweets, your serotonin levels spike, your brain feels happy, and that triggers an addictive cycle where you associate sweets with the serotonin high and constantly crave them.

The big breakfast group also reported reduced hunger throughout the day. Explains Dr. Jakubowicz, "[A low carbohydrate diet] exacerbates the craving for carbohydrates and slows metabolism. As a result, after a short period of weight loss, there is a quick return to obesity."

I don't take exception to study results, but I do to the menu of the big breakfast group. Fruit should be substituted for pastries and chocolates, and other carbohydrates should come from vegetables.

Conventional meat is laden with hormones, pesticides, and antibiotics. Substitute grass-fed, organic meat. Milk should be raw and cheese should come from grass-fed, organic cows.

June 22, 2011: There is a fruit that grows in South America which Dr. Al Sears says tastes like a cross between berries, chocolate, vanilla and pineapple. The fruit is called cupua�u and it has a chocolate/vanilla aftertaste.

Cupuacu has been used by South Americans as medicine for centuries; doctors give their patients the seeds to relieve stomach pains. Shamans give it to women who have difficult pregnancies.

Researchers analyzed cupuacu. They discovered to their amazement that it contains two previously unknown flavonoids, theograndins I and II.

Upon testing the theograndins, the researchers found that type I is an antioxidant while type II kills cancer cells ([1] Yang, H., Protiva, P., Cui, B., et al, "New bioactive polyphenols from Theobroma grandiflorum." J Nat Prod. 2003 Nov;66(11):1501-4.)

Cupua�u contains nine other antioxidants. Four of them are glucuronides. They bind to toxins that your liver traps, and helps flush them from your system.

Another antioxidant which is common to members of the chocolate family is epicatechin. It acts like insulin, helping lower your blood sugar when you eat cupua�u.

South Americans use cupuacu as a stimulant too. It contains theobromine which is similar to caffeine but without the adverse effect on the nervous system.

Cupuacu also contains quercetin. It is chock full of saturated fatty acids. Your body can pack these kinds of fats together very tightly. This let�s your body store a lot of energy very efficiently.

Although it is difficult to buy fresh cupuacu in the United States, you can now find different cupua�u products in health food stores.

Mostly you�ll find it in ice cream and juices. You might see cupua�u included in various energy drinks, but you don�t get the full effect that way. The best thing to do if you can�t get fresh cupua�u is to find cupua�u powder, or frozen cupua�u pulp.

When you make the juice, you�ll get a rich, buttery-smooth, tropical-looking drink like a poured milk shake with a fruity but chocolaty taste.

June 23, 2011: The nation's First Lady Michelle Obama and USDA Scretary Tom Vilsack recently unveiled a new food chart (See right.) It isn't your typical 'pyramid' but instead 'plate' shaped. Makes sense.

The plate shape is a lot more intuitive than the pevious shapes - including the pyramid. This means that the average American can readily understand and apply it.

The new pyramid is also an improvement in overall food nutrition as well as visual design. The government is recommending that Americans eat a lot less grains. In the previous food model, grains were the base indicating that a lot more should be eaten.

Formerly, it was advised that Americans eat 6 - 11 servings of grain (bread, cereal, rice, and pasta) be eaten daily. But people were eating most if not all grains in a highly processed state. These refined carbohydrates help to fuel the global obesity epidemic.

Marion Nestle, a professor in the department of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University told CNN: "It [the 1992 food pyramid] promoted eating so many grain servings, it was promoting obesity."

Although fruit is good for you, Americans today are eating 500 percent the amount of fructose (fruit sugar) that their counterparts ate in 1900. This is far too much.

Unfortunately, fructose, primarily in the form of HFCS (high fructose corn sugar), is the number one source of calories in America. So, in actuality, the size of the fruit section in the new model should be much smaller.

Three-quarters of Americans are insulin resistant. This is the result of too many high glycemic carbohydrates (again, mainly in the form of high fructose corn syrup.) Dr. Mercola recommends that if you are insulin resistant to keep your consumption of fructose (fruit only) to below 15 grams per day.

As this food model recommends greater servings of vegetables, keep in mind that many contain high levels of pesticides. This article details those fruits and vegetables which contain acceptable and unacceptable levels of pesticides. Those which contain unacceptably high levels should be eaten organic.

One other shortcoming of the new model is that no fats are specified. This is a mistake. Saturated fats from organically raised, grass-fed cows (in the form of raw milk, butter, and cheese) and coconuts are healthy. Saturated fats were blamed for the rise in heart disease when all the time trans fatty acids were the culprit.

Monounsaturated fats from extra-virgin olive oil and nuts is also healthy. And perhaps the most important fat of all - omega 3 fatty acids - has been left out in the cold.

Like its predecessors, the new food model is flawed. But it does have some improvements which I have mentioned. But ultimately the one size fits all model does not work. Determine your own specific metabolic (nutritional) type and eat according to it.

June 27, 2011: Science has already shown that conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is very effective as a muscle builder and in getting rid of body fat. But now a new study shows that it may improve the airway hyper-reactivity in asthmatics.

The study was conducted by scientists from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and published in this month's journal Clinical & Experiemental Allergy.

According to statistics, age-adjusted asthma rates in the United States are up over 75 percent since 1980. About 23 million Americans, 7 million of which are children, now suffer from asthma.

Asthmatics suffer because their bodies produce higher than normal levels of leukotrienes. Leukotrienes are fatty molecules of the immune system. They are at minimal 1000 times more potent than histamine at causing bronchial constriction.

When the enzyme 5-lipoxygenase (5-lipox) acts on the fat arachidonic acid, highly inflammatory leukotrienes are produced.

Many of the inhaled prescription drugs that treat asthma do so by reducing leukotrienes.

The natural and thus best way to fight asthma is to prevent inflammation by reducing 5-lipox and arachidonic acid formed in your body. CLA fights inflammation by converting to DHA and EPA internally. DHA and EPA are both potent anti-inflammatories.

The best source of CLA is grass-fed beef; grain-fed beef contain greatly reduced levels of CLA. The university scientists used Tonalin CLA in their study. The doseage was 4.5 grams daily.

Your average asthma medication is no solution. Fast-acting asthma inhalers can lose their effictivenesswhen overused, the medical term is tachyphylaxis, and this can start to happen after as little as one dose. Also, all beta2-adrenergic agonists have been shown to have negative effects on your heart and your body's metabolism.

Dr. Mercola states that fast-acting inhalers have saved the lives of asthma suffers during acute attacks and do have an important role in managing this debilitating and chronic condition. But they should be used as a last resort.

June 29, 2011: A new study affirms that family togetherness at the dinner table promotes healthy weight in children. This new study was published in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Researchers from the University of Illinois concluded that children who shared five or more meals with their family members per week were 25 percent less likely to develop nutrition related health issues. In addition, they were more likely to have healthier eating patterns and have higher consumption of fruits and vegetables compared to the consumption of unhealthy foods.

The university researchers analyzed data from seventeen studies. These studies looked at a total of 18,200 children and adolescents ranging in age from 2 to 17. Data involved weight, food consumption, and eating patterns. They looked into how strongly these factors were associated with sharing meals.

Barbara H. Fiese, a professor of human development and family studies, stated:

"Most family meals only last 18-20 minutes but can be one of the most powerful times for promoting health... The opportunity to protect children's health can be accomplished in four meals or 80 minutes - that's less than three 30-minute TV shows."

July 1, 2011: Back in 1911, one hundred years ago, the British newspaper the Daily Mail mounted a campaign to improve Britain's bread. Surprising to me is the fact that their bread back then was "white" bread.

During 19th century Britain, the Industrial Revolution forced many citizens from the coutryside into the cities. The nation's diet got progressively worse, and the government thought that many health issues were linked to it.

By 1902, the Army had been forced to reduce the minimum height requirement for recruits by six inches, to just five foot. And still it rejected 40 per cent on grounds of poor health and bad teeth.

Low quality bread (white) was seen by the government as a major contributor to the health dilemma. Forty percent of the diet of Britain's poor consisted of white bread.

At the time, unprocessed whole grain bread was looked upon as the diet of the poor. White, processed bread was seen as food belonging to high society.

The bread of early 20th century Britain consisted of salt, cheap fats, alum, lime powder, and bleaching.

Here's a quote from the Daily Mail:

"But as we now know, refined white flour contains very little of the natural minerals and vitamins that bread made using the whole wheatgerm does...In particular, vitamin B deficiency causes a whole range of illnesses that the Victorians called 'wasting diseases', such as anaemia. Worse, the white flour our ancestors used was usually contaminated, often with the toxic chemical alum (made with human urine), which made bad quality flour look whiter."

Britain isn't the only country that sold white bread. It was and still is popular in America too.

My father told me that white bread was used as an adhesive to hang wallpaper back in his early days. He was born in 1898. Distaining the processed grain, he ate stone ground whole wheat bread only.

Consider the nutrients that are lost when whole grain is processed:

• Half of the beneficial unsaturated fatty acids
• 50 percent of the calcium
• 80 percent of the iron
• 50-80 percent of the B vitamins
• Virtually all of the vitamin E
• 70 percent of the phosphorus
• 98 percent of the magnesium

This list is not exhaustive as many other nutrients are lost.
Source: The Daily Mail June 15, 2011.

July 2, 2011: Most health authorities recommend eating 6 to 8 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. This can become quite a challenge unless you juice.

There are three compelling reasons to juice:

(1) It is the only way to get the maximum amount of nutrients into your body. Unwise food choices over the years compromises the digestive system. Juicing pre-digests the nutrients allowing even a compromised system to absorb them.

(2) Juicing is the only method to get an optimal amount of fruit and vegetables into your body in an efficient manner. Carbohydrate types need to eat one pound of raw vegetables for every 50 pounds of bodyweight. Consuming this amount of vegetable matter the conventional way can be unthinkable - or maybe even impractical.

(3) And finally, juicing allows you to add a wider variety of vegetables into your diet. Variety is important in order to avoid developing a food allergy.

Juicing has another benefit that most people would wholeheartedly welcome - weight loss. A couple of studies performed last year found that people who drank two glasses of vegetable juice a day lost four times as much weight as those who didn't!

If you are a diabetic or insulin resistant, juicing with low glycemic vegetables and fruits can be highly beneficial. And in order to boost the fat burning benefits, add coconut oil.

Diabetics or insulin resistant people should concentrate on using dark greens. And instead of diluting your juice with water, use cucumbers instead. This way you avoid fluoride and other toxins in tap water.

Three tablespoons of coconut oil a day can be considered a therapeutic dose. But you may have to gradually work your way to that amount. Start with a teaspoon to one tablespoon per day.

Vegetarians and vegans can have dangerously low cholesterol levels. Coconut oil is a healthy way to remedy that situation.

The best vegetables to use for protein types (like myself) are celery, spinach, asparagus, string beans and cauliflower; a source of fat is needed too. This can come from raw cream, eggs, butter, avocado, coconut butter, or freshly ground organic flax or hemp seeds.

July 6, 2011: The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has made it a crime to drink raw milk. And what is their evidence to justify that ruling? Nada, nothing, zilch, zippo!!!

"If we are not even free anymore to decide something as basic as what we wish to eat or drink, how much freedom do we really have left?," asks Representative Ron Paul.

In 1987 the FDA imposed a ban on the interstate sale of raw milk for human consumption. No serious attempts to enforce this ban was undertaken by the FDA until 2006.

But now there is an all out effort by the FDA to enforce what is in reality an unconstitutional move. They have initiated "sting" operations and conducted armed raids on farmers and their customers.

"Even if the FDA were correct in its assertions about the dangers of raw milk, its prohibition on interstate raw milk sales would still be, as Paul termed it, 'an unconstitutional misapplication of the commerce clause for legislative ends' ...

"Saying he is 'outraged' by the FDA's raids on peaceful dairy farmers and their customers, Paul has introduced legislation ... 'to allow the shipment and distribution of unpasteurized milk and milk products for human consumption across state lines,' in effect reversing the FDA's unconstitutional ban on such sales" (The New American, May 20, 2011.)

But what do I mean when I call the FDA's activities 'unconstitutional?' Attorney Jonathan Emord, who has beaten the FDA in court eight times, points out that it is Congresses responsibility to create new laws. But they have delegated it to some 230 independent regulatory commissions - the FDA being one of them.

Jonathan Emord says, "...That delegation of governing power from Congress to the unelected heads of the regulatory agencies violates the Constitution, which vests exclusively in Congress the obligation to make law."

An Amish farmer by the name of Dan Allgyer was recently caught in an FDA 'sting' operation. The FDA planted a spy in a buying club which Dan supplies with raw milk.

His farm was raided at gun point, and eventually the Department of Justice, at the behest of FDA, filed suit in Federal District Court to obtain an injunction prohibiting Allgyer from transporting and selling raw milk across state lines.

Upon hearing of that case, Ron Paul introduced House Bill HR 1830: To authorize the interstate traffic of unpasteurized milk and milk products that are packaged for direct human consumption.

The government is attacking our freedom to make informed choices about the food we eat. If this is allowed to continue unopposed, what else will be next? Will our right to eat healthy foods like vegetables and whey protein be made unlawful next?

You don't have to take this outrage lying down. The Farmer to Consumer Defense Fund has created a petition page for HR 1830; it automatically faxes your concern to your US Senators and House Representative.

Make your voice heard. Sign this petition now.

July 8, 2011: How many of you out there want to severely curtail your sex life (women as well as men)? If you do, eat soy.

Buddhist monks live a life of strict deprivation. That includes what God has given to every human being - the sex drive.

They, like Catholic priests are taught to adhere to, avoid all sexual contact and try to eliminate natural urges. And of course they cannot marry.

In order to help them in this completely unnatural quest, they eat soy.

Soy - yes that same soy that mainstream health authorities say is healthy and should be included in your diet - fights testosterone. It is testosterone which helps promote sexual desire and energy.

Soy has two primary estrogen-like hormones - genistein and daidzein. They create in your body a resistance to testosterone. Genistein and daidzein accomplish this by preventing your sex hormones known as androgens from reaching their receptors.

There exists three ways in which soy promotes testosterone resistance - interrupting testosterone from binding to its natural hormone receptors, increasing SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin) , and by lowering the amount of testosterone your body makes.

The attachment of genistein and daidzein is so great that they actually take the place of testosterone in the body. Researchers discovered that soy is very destructive in the sexual development of boys.

SHBG (serum hormone binding globulin) regulates your sex hormones. When SHBG builds up too much, it lowers free testosterone and knocks your hormones out of whack. That can lead to impotence and low libido.

Japanese researchers performed a study with soy. They gave the participants 60 mg of soy for three months. The men's SHBG levels sky-rocketed, and their testosterone virtually went into a nosedive.

The researchers found that the effects on women are worse. Low SHBG levels can cause infertility, polycystic ovaries, acne and uterine cancer.

Scientists researched methods of reducing testosterone in prostate cancer patients. And they discovered a fail-proof way to accomplish that - feed them soy.

Animals were fed less than 1 mg of soy, and subsequently their testosterone plummeted like a rock.

The soy in question is unfermented soy. But unfortunately, it is the unfermented variety which is in widespread use in assorted processed foods.

Avoid unfermented soy at all costs. The following ingredients either contain or are made from soy:

• Albumin
• Bulking Agent
• Carob
• Emulsifier
• Glycerol monostearate
• Guar gum
• Gum arabic
• Hydrolyzed plant protein
• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
• Lecithin
• Liquid smoke
• Mixed tocopherols
• Mono- and di-glyceride
• Monosodium glutamate
• Natural flavorings
• Protein
• Protein concentrate
• Protein extender
• Protein isolate
• Smoke flavor
• Stabilizer
• Textured vegetable protein
• Thiamine mononitrate
• Thickening agent
• Vegetable broth
• Vegetable gum
• Vegetable oil
• Vegetable shortening

Unfortunately soy isn't just confined to processed food. It is also present on your fruits and vegetables.

The shiny fruit like apples that you see in your local grocery store are sprayed to look that way and to seal in moisture. Although these waxes can be made with petroleum, many are not.

Many waxy coatings - including officially organic-approved food-grade coatings made from vegetable, beeswax, carnauba wax or lac resin - contain soy protein in order to thicken it.

In the case of organic vegetables such as apples, buying organic will not avoid the soy question.

The answer is to buy fresh, locally grown produce.