What to do if you can’t eat anything

There is a food trap that some people fall in to where the number of foods that they feel that they can eat slowly dwindles down to almost nothing.

I’m going to suggest to you that this problem doesn’t make you crazy, but it is largely your brain’s fault (or maybe it is better described as your genes fault).

This problem is probably best explained by the book Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Omnivores have a problem that no other type of eater has: deciding what to eat. A cow, for example, never wonders what it is going to put in its’ mouth, the grass it is walking on is always the answer. Likewise, you don’t see lions or sharks contemplating their dinner choices; if it is running or swimming away then it is on the menu.

We omnivores, though, have to test foods to see if they are okay for us. The key to understand why this might be a problem is to understand that omnivores attach how they feel after they eat something with whether the food is good for them or not. This is a handy tool to have: You eat some berries you think are okay to eat and later you get a stomach ache; next time you see that berry, you stay away from it.

The problem is that this omnivore-avoidance-system isn’t very accurate. Studies have shown that people are poor predictors of what might be good or bad for them. Part of the problem also lies in the complexity of the food we eat; many of the meals we eat are a mixture of many different foods. To add to the difficulty deciding what to eat is that we might be feeling bad for other reasons and just think it is the food we are eating.

So, when you are spiraling out of control and unable to find anything to eat, consider that many things you think are not good for you, may be okay.

What to do next?

Let’s say that you have thought about the above and tried to add in more foods, but still find that there are foods that you still cannot eat. Here is a plan for taking your diet to the next level.

• Testing: Many people want to turn to testing to find out what foods they are allergic to. My experience is that testing generally doesn’t help. Testing done on the skin is silly as the part of the immune system responsible for protecting the skin is different from the immune system in your gut. Blood testing gets you a bit closer, but will only show foods that you are allergic to and not those you have intolerances to (read the Food Allergy vs Food Intolerances part of the previous article). The best testing is removal and reintroducing of foods.
• Brain/Gut: Your brain is closely tied to your digestive system. Scientists are now calling this the Gut/Brain axis: as you think, so your gut feels. If you are stressed out or anxious, your gut will respond. Many people with digestive problems find that they go away when they are on vacation (and they usually eat worse than they normally do). Consider taking supplements for anxiety such as Kava Kava, GABA, theanine, or others.
• Digestive Enzymes: Some of your problems may be due to not having enough digestive enzymes. Get a very high quality digestive enzyme and see if that helps.
• Rebalance Bacteria: The bacteria in your gut may also be part of the problem. Try using a product called Zyflamend that is used for inflammation, but I have found works wonders on the gut. You can also go on an anti-yeast or anti-parasite program; make sure you take enough of the herbs for it to be successful. I recommend these products:
  • CandiGONE – Candida Cleansing Program by Renew Life
  • Paragone – Parasite Cleansing Program by Renew Life

Some combination of the above will work for you. It is a difficult path to return to normalish eating, but one well worth the journey.

People generally think that they need calcium in their diet (and they are right), but they also think that they need a lot of calcium and that milk is the only way to get enough.

There are many reasons why you might want to consider removing milk and milk products from your diet. Studies are starting to show just what kind of negative impact our love affair with the cow has on our health and even on our bones. When I suggest to people that they stop milk, I can almost guarantee that the next thing out of their mouths is, “yes, but where do I get my calcium?” There response speaks to the power, effectiveness, and tragedy (for our health) of advertising.

My answer to their question of where do you get enough calcium is to ask another question: “Where do cows, moose, and even elephants (who all have very strong bones) get their calcium if all they eat is grass?”

Foods high in calcium

While you might think that the only good source of calcium is milk, there are others. Yes, milk does contain calcium (1 cup has 296 mg of calcium), but milk is, by far, not the only good source of calcium. Take a look at these other foods:

• Sesame seeds (1 cup = 702 mg)
• Flax seeds (1 cup = 416 mg)
• Cabbage (1 cup = 380 mg)
• Collard greens (1 cup = 266 mg)
• Spinach (1 cup = 245 mg)
• Orange (1 cup = 104 mg)
• Kale (1 cup = 94 mg)
• Broccoli (1 cup = 62 mg)

What the Doctor Says

If you check with your medical doctor, they often give you the advice that people don’t get enough calcium. It is probably because of our doctor’s advice that calcium is the fourth most consumed supplement taken in the United States. Not only do calcium pills fly off the shelves, but you can also get calcium in your cereals, breads, soy drinks and even in your orange juice and chocolate bar.

But of all the nutritional guidelines a doctor might want to recommend, calcium makes the least sense.

How Much is too Much?

It is very common for doctors to suggest that you get 1200 mg of calcium every day, but where is the precedence for this? Where in our past history have humans consumed that much calcium? The answer is: nowhere. Imagine the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, or Native peoples around the world spending all their days gathering calcium in order that every person receives their 1200 mg a day. It just didn’t happen.

Where does this 1200 mg a day suggestion come from? It comes from research that shows that 1200 mg is the amount of supplemental calcium you need in order to increase the density of you bones.

And yes, it is true, if you supplement with that much calcium, you will increase your bone density. But here is the real question: does it really make any difference to your health to supplement with that much calcium?

Bone Research

A funny thing happened in the bone research lab.

Scientists wanted to find a way to reduce bone fractures, so they started to look for ways to make bones stronger, but the only way they could measure osteoporosis is through a bone density test. What they found out what was that supplementing with calcium did indeed make bones denser, but no one (until recently) questioned whether supplementing with that much calcium made any difference to bone fractures.

Here are the results of a study done in 1986¹

Yes, supplementing with calcium did increase bone density, but it does not reduce bone fractures. As you can see from the chart above, the countries with the most calcium consumption have the largest chance of hip fractures. Why is this?

Too much calcium in the bones actually makes bones more brittle. So you get denser bones when you supplement with calcium, but you are just as likely to break those bones as you were before you 30-year, 1200mg-a-day, odyssey.

More Studies on Milk

But it doesn’t stop there; more studies show that milk and calcium have an effect on fractures (but the opposite of what our milk education said it would).

For example, a 12 year study in 1997 that followed 77,000 women showed that women who drink 2 or more glasses of milk are actually almost 50 percent higher risk of fracture than those who don’t drink milk.².

How to Get Enough Calcium

Stop focusing on calcium as your source for good and healthy bones. The health of your bones has more to do with other factors than it does with how much calcium you can shove into your mouth.

Here is how to optimize your bone health:

• Calcium: Get your calcium from foods. This means that you eat more green leafy vegetables.
• Vitamin D: Make sure you get enough vitamin D. This will be the subject of a future post, but for now, get outside as often as possible and you might have to think about supplementing.
• Exercise: Yes, you have to get out and move your buns around.
• Foods: Both high salt and high protein will reduce the amount of bone you have. Consider a vegetarian or mostly-vegetarian diet.

1. Hegsted DM. Calcium and osteoporosis. J Nutr. 1986 Nov;116(11):2316-9.
2. Feskanich D. et al. Milk, dietary calcium, and bone fractures in women: a 12-year prospective study. Am J Public Health 1997;87(6);992-7.

Most people will agree that one of their greatest fear is death, but what people fear even more than dying is the loss of their mental capabilities. No one wants to forget loved ones and cherished memories, not to mention forgetting how to tie their shoes or needing help to go to the bathroom.

While the exact reasons why we get Alzheimer’s disease remain a mystery, scientist have recently made astounding discoveries that point to a connection between Alzheimer’s and sugar consumption. If the bulk of Alzheimer’s disease can be blamed on eating sugars and foods that act like sugar, then we have a great opportunity to avoid the mental decay we see so often in the elderly.

New Alzheimer’s Discoveries

Scientists have discovered some pretty interesting things about people with Alzheimer’s.

First, scientists discovered that the brain produces insulin. This is astounding because it was previously thought that the only place in the body that produce insulin was the pancreas. What’s more, the amount of insulin in the brain produces plummets in Alzheimer’s patients as the disease progresses. In fact, on of the signs of the beginning of the disease is a noticeable drop in brain insulin. Scientists are beginning to wonder if the progression of the disease can actually be measured by the amount of brain insulin.

These findings point to the possibility of insulin resistance developing in the brain separate from the rest of the body.

Insulin is a hormone and it doesn’t travel alone in the brain. There are other chemicals in the brain known as insulin-like growth factors  and these also decrease when insulin decreases. It is the absence of these insulin-like growth factors that are thought to lead to brain cell death, and the brain cell death occurs especially in areas responsible for memory such as the hippocampus and hypothalamus.

Alzheimer’s Sugar Connection

It has long been known that people with diabetes have a greater chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease, but these new studies are the first to show that there may be a closer relationship between sugar and Alzheimer’s disease. For puzzling reasons, the two diseases are interrelated, but not the same disease. Some people who have diabetes don’t get Alzheimer’s and some people with Alzheimer’s disease don’t have diabetes.

The key question is what causes insulin to drop in the brain? If insulin production in the brain is similar to what happens to the rest of the body, then the drop in insulin is due to an overworked system that is constantly overloaded with too much blood sugar.

Avoid the Inevitable

There are so many diseases we see as inevitable: heart disease, cancer, dementia, arthritis. If you are growing old, you are bound to get one or all of those diseases.

It doesn’t have to be that way! You can avoid a majority of those diseases (including Alzheimer’s) by choosing the foods you eat wisely. The best way to stop or reduce sugar is to take my 30 Sugar Free Days Challenge. It is a great program that leads you from your current high sugar path to a healthier path.

Her latest book, The Calcium Lie: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know Could Kill You covers the many problems that calcium creates.

Startling new statistics on diabetes released by the National Institutes of Health this week show that the rates of diabetes and impaired blood sugar in American are increasing at alarming levels.

Nearly 13% of American aged 20 and over have diabetes, but 40% of them don’t know it. This puts them at high risk for the tragic side effects of diabetes, including heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, impaired circulation that can lead to amputations and more.

If that’s not gloomy enough for you, consider this: From 1995 to 1997, there were 4.8 new cases of Type 2 diabetes per 1,000 Americans. Ten years later, that rate had increased by 89% to 9.1 new cases per 1,000 Americans.

Worse yet, 36% of men and 23% of women and 16% of teenagers have “pre-diabetes,” says the NIH.

The term “pre-diabetes” is a con. It means that you have impaired blood glucose function and without drastic measures, you will soon have diabetes and all of its ugly companion diseases. It lulls too many patients into complacency.

It’s even more frightening when you consider the number of teenagers who are being diagnosed with diabetes or more benign-sounding “pre-diabetes.” The disease now known as Type 2 diabetes was once known as adult onset diabetes.

Diabetes was once the province of senior citizens. The dread companion diseases are more-or less accepted turf there. But there is something inherently wrong when we think of obese teenagers with arterial blockages, having heart attacks at 30 and bypasses at 35, if they survive that long. Just think about where these poor kids will be when they’re 40.

These statistics aren’t just numbers, folks. They are our mothers, father, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives and, sadly, our children. They are real people and this illness takes a toll on everyone around someone with diabetes.

This a tragedy of national proportions. Diabetes is a terrible disease. There are no two ways about it. Once you’re diagnosed, the changes of reversing diabetes are diminished. The chances of controlling it are better. But the best bet is prevention.

How can you prevent diabetes?

1. Stay away from sugar and foods with hidden sugar: This is a good start, but it’s not the entire answer.
2. Control your weight: Most of us know that obesity is a factor in almost all cases of Type 2 diabetes. Studies also show that just losing 10% of your body weight can dramatically lower blood sugars.
3. Exercise is another key factor in diabetes management and prevention., not only for the obvious reasons. Muscle activity actually helps your body to better use the insulin that your pancreas is producing.
4. Know your mineral status and correct mineral imbalances to help prevent a downward spiral of metabolic problems that lead to diabetes and a host of other health problems, according to Robert Thompson, M.D., with whom I wrote The Calcium Lie: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know Could Kill You (InTruth Press, 2008). Learn your mineral status by getting a hair tissue mineral analysis and following the recommendations tailored to your specific needs.

Finally, do what ever it takes to fend off the diabetes monster. It is one of the most terrible diseases we face and one of the most preventable. It’s up to you.

–Kathleen Barnes

http://www.kathleenbarnes.com

Twitter: @KathleenSBarnes

Guest Post: Merri Ellen Giesbrecht of www.cure-your-depression.com

There is a controversy over sugar and depression. Numerous people seem to report a drastic change in their mood after eating foods high in sugar. As a result, sugar has a reputation as an evil food that causes diabetes, obesity, mood swings and other bad health effects. But, recently there was a study released that said the link between sugar and depression is a myth.

What is the truth?

How Did This Controversial Issue Begin In The First Place?

Sugar Blues (William Dufty, Grand Central Publishing, 1975) was probably the first popular culture book that gives insight into the often overlooked link between diet and depression, and how a small dietary change, eliminating refined sugar, can make a huge difference in how good one is able to feel physically and mentally. The author even suggested that cutting out refined sugar from the diet of those institutionalized for mental illness could be an effective treatment for some.

But Is There Truly A Link Between Sugar And Depression?

In 1996, Duke University researchers said that is all a myth. It’s the Omega 6 fat ? found with foods high in sugar — that is the bad guy, said Richard Surwit, research director of the Stedman Nutrition Center at Duke. Sugar got its unsavory reputation, he said, from associating with fat.¹. That seems to be the key. Sugar and depression are linked but via fat.

Simply, There’s A Third Piece To The Topic Of Sugar And Depression: Foods High In Simple Sugars Are Usually Found With High Levels Of Bad Fats That Affect Mental Health.

There’s good fat and bad fat. Omega 3 is good fat while an overabundance of Omega 6 oil is bad. The key is that omega-6 fatty acids, found in everything from margarine and ice cream to snack foods such as potato chips, have replaced the healthy omega-3s. As a result, junk food addicts damage their levels of happy brain chemicals – serotonin and dopamine. (Low serotonin is linked to depression, the risk of suicide, and violent and impulsive behaviors. Dopamine is crucial to decision-making.)². You won?t get depressed from eating sugar in moderation. But, you will get depressed when your diet is heavy on simple sugars and low on complex carbs and protein. Depression, anxiety, or memory problems are caused by a deficiency in vitamins and minerals most commonly, one of the B complex vitamins. Deficiencies of thiamine (vitamin B1), niacin, pyridoxine (B6), or cobalamin (B12) sometimes produce mental or emotional problems, including depression.³.

What’s The Proof On Fat, Sugar And Depression?

A study revealed that unhealthy junk food is causing severe disruptions in serotonin levels, producing depression, anger, violence and suicidal behaviors. These problems can even by transmitted by a mother to her developing fetus. When children and youth eat junk food, the brain may be permanently altered. Comparing the increase in murder rates to the increased rate of unhealthy oils in the diets of 38 industrialized countries, we find a perfect match.⁴.

Investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found back in 1997 that treating clinical depression can help diabetic patients better control their blood sugar levels.⁵.

Researchers have discovered a major link between fructose and obesity. Fructose (a kind of sugar) causes a spike in uric acid levels, which, according to researchers at the University of Florida, disrupts insulin levels and makes you hungrier than you actually should be. The widespread use of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) since the 1980s, with even higher percentages of fructose than sugar, have simply compounded the problem.⁶.

So, What Should You Eat To Beat Depression?

Consuming fruits and vegetables (complex carbohydrates) raises the level of trytophan in your brain that triggers an increase of serotonin which has a calming effect. High protein foods, promote the production of dopamine and norepineprine, which promote alertness. You should also drink plenty of water to dilute uric acid.⁷

Take care to avoid foods high in sugar which are usually also high in Omega 6 fats. Instead eat a diet rich in fruits and veggies which calm you and eat a diet rich in protein which makes you more alert.

There is hope! You are worth it!

Merri Ellen

P.S. Did you know that your depression could be caused by a food allergy similar to sugar addiction? Learn more about food allergies and depression to find hope!

About the Author: From suicidal to impacting the lives of others, Merri Ellen Giesbrecht shares hope for those suffering from depression. When antidepressants made her life worse, she began to research the medical journals to find the truth. What she found would not only change her life but also thousands of others around the world through her website: www.cure-your-depression.com

1. Sun Herald -C1 HEALTH & STYLE – March 19, 1996
2. Dr. Hibbiln, National Institutes of Health, 2001
3. Ronald Pies, M.D. WebMD, 1997
4. Hibbeln JR: Seafood consumption and homicide mortality. World Rev Nutr Diet 85:41? 46
5. Psychosomatic Medicine, May 22, 1997
6. Wang G. & Volkow N., Scientist Find Link Between Dopamine and Obesity, Brookhaven National Laboratory, www.bnl.gov, 24 Sep 07
7. Kris-Etherton P, Eckel RH, Howard BV, St. Jeor S, Bazzare TL. AHA Science Advisory: Lyon Diet Heart Study. Benefits of a Mediterranean-style Dietary Pattern on Cardiovascular Disease. Circulation 2001;103:1823

Allergic to everything is no fun and there is a not-so-easy way out of this mess and it comes in the form of a diet called an allergy elimination diet.

What Does Diet Have to do with Allergies?

The first question that pops into most people’s head when I tell them to try a diet for their allergies is: what does a diet have to do with allergies? After all, they may be allergic to something in your environment. Environmental allergies happens to a lot of people in spring when there are dramatic increases in pollen, but it can also occur in winter when we are spending more time inside and there is less fresh air in the house. But there are good reasons why, even if you have environmental allergies that you would want to try the allergy elimination diet:

The key to understanding using diet to control your allergies are these points:

• The first is that there is very little you can do to change the outside world. Yes, you can stay inside when the pollen counts are high, but what if your problem is the mold in the house?  Food allergies are something you can change easily: simply avoid the food and you solve the problem. By reducing your food allergies, you are reducing the overall “allergic load” on your body, so that when you do encounter environmental allergies, they are less likely to impact you.
• The second reason why using diet works to reduce allergies has to do with your immune system.  Most people are unaware that over 80 percent of the immune system is located surrounding the digestive system. This makes sense because, when you eat foods, you are bringing the outside world into your body and your body has to determine whether this “outside world” or food is safe or not. When you are constantly eating foods that you are allergic to, you cause your immune system to become hyper-aware – leading to a more allergic you.

Food Allergies and Food Intolerance

Before we move on to the diet, I should spend a moment explaining food allergies and food intolerances:

• Food Allergies: A food allergy generally means that your immune system is attacking the food you are eating as if it were a foreign invader. The body produces immunoglobulins (Ig for short) that attach to the protein in the food and then you immune system creates inflammation to try and rid itself of the foreign “invasion”. It is fairly easy to discover food allergies as there are a wide variety of skin and blood tests that can measure your body’s immune response (or the amount of Igs in your body).
• Food Intolerance: Food intolerance is different. The classic food intolerance is lactose intolerance, where your body lacks the ability to digest the sugar in lactose. There are many other intolerances that are the result of different parts of the immune system being activated (other than the Igs), sensitivities to certain foods, inability to digest other foods, or a toxic reaction.

The most common food allergies and intolerances are: eggs, grains (especially gluten grains), soy, nuts, shell fish and seafood.

Allergy Elimination Diet

The best way to uncover your allergies is to do an allergy elimination diet. You will find different types of these diets all over, but this is the one I recommend:

For two weeks, remove the following foods:

• Food Additives: Including monosodium glutamate (MSG), artificial preservatives,sweeteners, flavors and all food colorings.
• Grains: Avoid all gluten-based grains, including: wheat, spelt, barley, kamut, rye, oats or triticale. Avoid pasta, flour, breads, cereals, cookies and other foods made with gluten grains. You should also exclude corn, along with high fructose corn syrup, corn oil, vegetable oils, corn chips and popcorn.
• Alcohol: Avoid beer, wine and other alcohols. If you are really strict, you want to avoid mouth wash with alcohol and cough medicine containing alcohol.
• Citrus Fruits: Including, tangerines, oranges, grapefruits, limes, lemon and any other citrus fruits.
• Shellfish: These include, crab, lobster, clams, mussels and other shellfish.
• Nuts: All nuts, including peanuts, pecans, walnuts, cashews, pistachios and other nuts.
• Diary: All sources of dairy, including butter, cheese, milk, cottage cheese, whey protein, yogurt, sour cream and other dairy foods.
• Soy: Soy is in a lot of processed foods, so you have to watch our for this, including tempeh, edamame, soy nuts, textured soy protein, tofu.
• Eggs: Yolks and the whites.
• Sweeteners: honey, fructose, dextrose, maple syrup, white sugar, maltose.

Foods that may be allowed include:

• Grains: You can choose any of these grains: rice, quinoa, millet, amaranth, foods such as rice cakes or crackers made from these grains are okay.
• Fruits and Vegetables: All vegetables and fruits are okay except the citrus fruits and strawberries. Salad greens are generally great, as are broccoli, cabbage, carrots and other vegetables.
• Beans: All beans are okay except soy beans.
• Protein: Meat is generally okay.

If you find you react to a food that is generally considered safe (I’ve seen this with potatoes), then add that to your avoid list. The foods you crave, unfortunately are often the foods you are allergic to, so be prepared to have some serious cravings. The foods you crave are also the ones you should reintroduce first. I generally recommend that you stay away from all allergic-like foods for two weeks and then start testing. You test by trying just one food at a time (per day), you should also consider eating a lot of it to make sure of the reaction. Wait a day or two and then try the next food.

There is hope if you are allergic to everything. Following an allergy elimination diet is hard, but it is the best way to find foods that don’t agree with you.

READ PART TWO OF THIS ARTICLE: Allergic to Everything, Part Two

Health News:

HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY (HRT): HRT and the risks of breast cancer were reviewed in a recent symposium. It appears that even using HRT for a short time increased the risk of breast cancer. Which begs the question: why use HRT? The risks are not a small increase, but for some women constitute a doubling of their risk for breast cancer.

Dr. Scott’s Comments: Hormones are powerful and can create huge problems in our bodies. Estrogen, in particular, is a problem for women because of the risk of breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancers. Part of the problem lies in the fact that most HRT are synthetic hormones that are not natural to humans. Other problems have to do with the fact that many chemicals in our environment act like estrogens (including plastics, pesticides, and a host of other chemicals). The final question has to be should we be putting hormones in an aging person at all?

HRT is a travesty because there are many natural substitutes that work just as well, without the side effects.

original article

CANCER MUCH WORSE FOR DIABETICS: Cancer is currently the number two killer worldwide and is rapidly approaching number one. People with diabetes are more than 40 percent likely to die in the years right after a cancer diagnosis than people who are not diabetic.

Dr Scott’s Comments: There are no well-established links between sugar consumption and cancer — at least not yet. This new study sheds light on another horrible aspect of diabetes: it makes surviving a cancer diagnosis harder. For me, this adds to the destruction wrought by sugar. Not only is sugar toxic to our blood vessels (witness the kidney, eye and heart damage in diabetics), but it also leads to obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Clearly we have to start avoiding the sugar and foods that act like sugar in our diets.

original article

LOW GLYCEMIC DIET FOR DIABETICS: The prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association has published an article showing that diabetics eating foods that are low on the glycemic index had better sugar control than those that didn’t.

Dr Scott’s Comments: I’m going to borrow a word from my 10 year-old-daughter to describe the finding of this study: DUH! Medical science has come a long way, but they have yet to make any connection between what we eat and the diseases that we get. Maybe this study will change their minds. Yes, diabetes has something to do with the sugar and foods that act like sugar that we eat every day. I think that people eating Eating Below the Glycemic Index would fare even better… maybe even reverse their diabetes.

original article

STRESS INCREASES HEART DAMAGE: People who reported a high amount of stress in their lives increased the risk of a cardiovascular event by as much as 50 percent when compared to people who have a low amount of stress. The increase in disease was evident by the number of heart attacks, bypass surgeries, and strokes that high-stress people suffered from.

Dr. Scott’s Comments: This study shows the strong connection between our minds and our bodies. Stress is a big killer, but is often hard to define or understand. I personally feel the best treatment for stress is exercise. Whenever the world starts weighing too much on my shoulders, I know I have to get out for a run, or hop on my bike, or even just take a walk outside. It also helps to listen to other people’s worries: When you hear someone describe what they are worried about, you realize that many of their fears are ungrounded, maybe yours are too?

original article

A new study out today brings to question the thought that some cancers may go away on their own without any treatment. The findings are remarkable because in this study, the took a look at one of the more common cancers: breast cancer.

Here is what happened:

The study, in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine took a look at two groups of women.

• The first group were women from age 50 to 69 who were invited to participate in breast cancer screening for five years. These women had mammography three times during the years 1996 and 2001.

• The other group were women were of the same age (50 to 69), but who didn’t have mammography screening during the five years between 1992 and 1997. This group of women, though, did have mammography at the end of the five-year period.

What the researchers found out was that the women who were regularly screened (the first group)had a 22 percent higher chance of having cancer than the group that weren’t screened.

The first thought to pop into your head when you read that is to assume that it was the screening (mammography) that might have caused the cancers, but the researchers say that the much more likely cause for the difference in the groups is that some of the women in the non-screening group had cancer and it simply disappeared.

What to Make of the Findings

The first thing you need to understand about these findings is that it was a population study and the researchers were looking back over what happened in the past. The best way to study if cancers actually go away is to have a group of people who have been diagnosed with cancer and then split them into two groups: one that gets treatments and the other that doesn’t. This kind of study, however, will probably never happen and is considered unethical.

This new study, however, does raise some questions:

• We often rush to treat breast and many other cancers. Is the best approach may be to wait and see?
• Does treating cancers with chemotherapy, surgery and radiation actually help spread the cancer and lead to death quicker than if they were just left alone? This has been shown to be true for prostate cancer, where survival rates are unaffected by treatment or no treatment.¹
• Is it better to be screened for cancers or not?

All these questions leave us wondering what we should do with a cancer diagnosis. Certainly, cancer is a horrible disease and many people die from it every day. The question we need to start asking ourselves is this: what is better, to be treated or not to be treated?

My guess is that time will tell us which cancers will fall under the “watchful waiting” class and which will not; which need to be treated aggressively and which do not. Certainly those people who choose to go the “watchful waiting” route have all manner of natural medicines to support them during this time that have been shown to not only to be safe, but effective in the treatment and prevention of cancer, but that is topic for another day.

For now, we can hope that researchers take this new study as an opportunity to take a look at conventional screening and treatment and start to assess the effectiveness of treatments in a scientific manner: deciding which work and which do not.

1. Prostate cancer. Damber JE, Aus G. Lancet. 2008 May 17;371(9625):1710-21

According to recent research, the number of people with diabetes has doubled in the last 10 years.¹ The report, by the Centers for Disease Control or CDC, shows that the nation (and really the whole developed world) is becoming heavier and heavier (see YouTube video) and with that excess weight comes an increasingly large number of people who have diabetes.

Having diabetes is far from a mild disease; it has major implications on the quality of life. People with diabetes are much more likely to have:

• Heart disease
• Kidney disease
• Eye disease (cataracts, macular degeneration, blindness)
• Vascular disease (stroke and poor circulation to hands and feet)
• Loss of nerve sensation (neuropathy)

Life Expectancy

Diabetes is harmful and it will cut your life short. Diabetics lose an average of 12 years for men and 14 years for women from their lives. ⁵ Yes, women are harmed by diabetes more than men.

There is associated problem with diabetes that doesn’t get much attention that has to do with the quality of life lived by a diabetic. The quality of life deteriorates rapidly in people with diabetes: blindness, losing limbs, heart disease, kidney failure and more. When scientists make an estimation of the loss of not only years lived, but also the quality of those years, they come up with something they call “quality-adjusted years”. Men lose an average of 19 quality-adjusted years and women lose around 22 years.⁵

I don’t know about you, but 20 years kicked off of a life seems rather significant.

It is Bad and Getting Worse

Population estimates are hard to come by, but the current number of people with diabetes is estimated somewhere between 4.3 to 16.6 percent of the population,² with certain ethnic groups such as Native American and Hispanics at the high end of those calculations.

But even those percentages don’t tell the whole story. What you really want to know is this: what are your chances of getting diabetes? It is easy to think that your chances of getting diabetes are between 4.3 to 16.6 percent (like the population estimates), but that is not true. To find out your own risk, you have to look at lifetime risk (the chances you will get diabetes some time in your life). What are your lifetime risks for diabetes? The esteemed Journal of the American Medical Association or JAMA made these estimates in 2003:

For people born in 2000, their lifetime risk for getting diabetes is 32.8 percent for males and 38.5 percent for females.⁵

That is incredible: an almost 40% risk of getting diabetes some time in your lifetime.

It Doesn’t Have to be This Way!

Here is the thing you need to know: diabetes is completely preventable. It is the one disease that I can say for sure that you never have to suffer through as long as you follow my dietary advice. No pills, no drugs… just follow dietary advice. I detail just what diet to follow in my book Sugarettes, but let me give you an outline of what you need to do:

• Avoid sugar in all its forms: soda, cookies, candies…
• Eat a diet at or below the glycemic index
• Find ways to deal with your sugar addiction
• Exercise

That is it. Sounds simple, but following it is hard.

Diabetes has doubled in the last 10 years, don’t let you or a member of your family become one of the statistics.

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). State-specific incidence of diabetes among adults–participating states, 1995-1997 and 2005-2007. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2008 Oct 31;57(43):1169-73.
   
2. Ramsey F, Ussery-Hall A, Garcia D, et al. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Prevalence of selected risk behaviors and chronic diseases–Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), 39 steps communities, United States, 2005. MMWR Surveill Summ. 2008 Oct 31;57(11):1-20.
   
3. Magliano DJ, Shaw JE, Shortreed SM, et al. Lifetime risk and projected population prevalence of diabetes. Diabetologia. 2008 Sep 23
   
4. Mainous AG 3rd, Baker R, Koopman RJ, et al. Impact of the population at risk of diabetes on projections of diabetes burden in the United States: an epidemic on the way. Diabetologia. 2007 May;50(5):934-40. Epub 2006 Nov 21.
   
5. K. M. Venkat Narayan, James P. Boyle, Theodore J. Thompson. Lifetime Risk for Diabetes Mellitus in the United States. JAMA. 2003;290:1884-1890.
   

There are two ways to look at cold and flu season. The first is to think that there are bugs out there and if you are too close to someone who has those bugs, you are going to get sick. The second is to realize that there are bugs out there, but there are always bugs out there, and that you only get sick when the conditions are right for the bugs to thrive.

Growing Flowers in a Desert

The best way to understand the second way of thinking is to picture a desert and think about what can grow in a desert environment. Only certain plants and animals can thrive in the desert. If you take a plant from a tropical climate and put it in a desert, it will die almost immediately. The reason why the tropical plant will not thrive and grow in the dry desert is because deserts don’t provide the right conditions for the tropical plant to grow.

The same is true of bacteria and viruses.

If you provide the right conditions for the bugs to grow, then, yes, you are going to get a cold. If you body is more like a desert, then the bugs will never get a hold and you will avoid the cold altogether. There are ways you can prepare for cold and flu season so that you can avoid getting sick.

Tips for Growing Your Own Personal Desert

• Slow down: take time off and spend time with the ones that you love. Remember that winter is the time to slow down; everything in the natural world is getting slower. Take a hint from nature and take a break from your busy schedule. In talking with dying patients who may not have much time left, they often lament the time that wasn’t spent with family and friends. Fall offers us this opportunity to slow down, enjoy our meals, and focus on loved ones.
  
• Eat for Health: You want to focus on vegetables that have been growing all summer and are now ready to eat. The more hearty vegetables should start showing up on your plate. Beets, turnips, parsnips, rutabaga, and winter squashes such as Acorn, Butternut, Pumpkins are a welcome addition to any meal. Add more protein to your diet as you need the extra amino acids to boost your immune system. As always kick sugar out of your diet, it ruins your immune system (and remember to remove the foods that act like sugar too: see my book Sugarettes).
  
• Soup: Both Chinese and Indian culture’s placed high emphasis on what are called “tonifing” soups. These, like your grandmother’s chicken soup recipe for a cold, act to increase the body’s ability to fight disease. Choose fresh vegetables, with emphasis on garlic and onion, chicken or fish may be added to boost protein content. Add plenty of spices: turmeric, thyme, basil, all have antimicrobial properties and also help to support the body’s own healing mechanism.
  
• Sweat: As the weather turns cold, take advantage of any opportunity to enjoy a steam-room or sauna. Not only have this been shown to aid in detoxification, but it also allows you a chance to relax and take some time off. Massage is another good way to aid in detoxification and promote a relaxed atmosphere. I still think you should exercise in winter, but just take it a bit slower.
  
• Sleep: With more nighttime and less daytime it would make sense that we sleep longer. Sleep impacts health in so many ways, getting the right amount of sleep for you is essential to your health and your body’s ability to fight disease.
  
• Herbs and Vitamins: There are many herbs such as Echinacea and others that promote healing and make colds shorter and less painful. These are best when they are chosen for the individual and their particular illness. Consult a professional who can personalize an herbal and nutritional program just for you.
  

What if you do get a Cold?

Okay, even if you do get a cold, you might want to look at it another way.

From a more natural perspective, fall and spring are times for the body to clean junk out of your system and a cold or flu may be a companion to help you clear out that junk. From this perspective, when you get a cold, you are not going to battle it, but accept it as a friend. Take a cold for what it truly should be: a hint that you need to slow down, get more sleep, eat better and take care of yourself.