The Big C

Cancer--just the word stirs up fear and anxiety in most of us. Cancer is on the rise in this country. Interestingly, each year billions of dollars are spent by mainstream medicine and society trying to find a cure while the answer is right in front of us. The real cause lies in our personal and environmental pollution. Consider the following if you are a skeptic, and remember, cancer was never the major disease that it is today. What has changed? The source of what you are about to read is from a medical doctor with an open mind and is someone who looks at the big picture. It's well researched data he offers, not just speculation.

"Based on studies of human remains ranging from 5300 B.C. to the mid-19th century, we know that cancer used to be quite rare.
This is not the case anymore... in 2012, more than 1.6 million new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed, and more than 1,500 people will die from it every day. Cancer now accounts for nearly one out of every four deaths in the United States.¹
What might surprise you is that even the American Cancer Society states that about one-third of cancer deaths could be prevented by making lifestyle changes, as they’re related to excess weight, physical inactivity and poor nutrition (and this does not even account for cancer related to smoking). In fact, the American Cancer Society said that Americans could realistically cut their cancer death rate in half by doing nothing more than making some simple lifestyle changes


15 Top Tips for Cancer Prevention

I believe the vast majority of all cancers could be prevented by strictly applying the healthy lifestyle recommendations below.

1. Avoid sugar, especially fructose. All forms of sugar are detrimental to health in general and promote cancer. Fructose, however, is clearly one of the most harmful and should be avoided as much as possible.
2. Optimize your vitamin D. Vitamin D influences virtually every cell in your body and is one of nature's most potent cancer fighters. Vitamin D is actually able to enter cancer cells and trigger apoptosis (cell death). If you have cancer, your vitamin D level should be between 70 and 100 ng/ml. Vitamin D works synergistically with every cancer treatment I'm aware of, with no adverse effects. I suggest you try watching my one-hour free lecture on vitamin D to learn more.

3. Engage in regular exercise.  There have been loads of recent studies that show a very powerful effect of exercise in dramatically lowering your risk of cancer. It most likely does this through optimizing insulin and leptin signaling.
4. Avoid unfermented soy products. Unfermented soy is high in plant estrogens, or phytoestrogens, also known as isoflavones. In some studies, soy appears to work in concert with human estrogen to increase breast cell proliferation, which increases the chances for mutations and cancerous cells.
5. Improve your insulin receptor sensitivity. The best way to do this is by avoiding sugar and most all grains even organic ones as if you are one of the two thirds of the people that are overweight they could likely be worsening your insulin and leptin signaling.
6. Maintain a healthy body weight. This will come naturally when you begin eating the right foods and exercising. It's important to lose excess body fat because fat produces estrogen.
7. Drink a quart of organic green vegetable juice daily. Please review my juicing instructions for more detailed information.
8. Get plenty of high quality animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil. Omega-3 deficiency is a common underlying factor for cancer, and since most cancers have an inflammatory component, with up-regulated Cox-2 enzyme activity, omega-3 fats – particularly EPA – will directly interfere with the inflammatory process.
9. Curcumin. This is the active ingredient in turmeric and in high concentrations it can be a very useful adjunct in the treatment of cancer. For example, it has demonstrated major therapeutic potential in preventing breast cancer metastasis.² In fact, the biomedical literature now confirms that it has potential in preventing and/or combating well over 100 different types of cancer.³ It's important to know that curcumin is generally not absorbed that well, so I've provided several absorption tips here.
10. Avoid drinking alcohol, or at least limit your alcoholic drinks to one per day for women, two for men.
11. Avoid electromagnetic fields as much as possible. Even electric blankets can increase your cancer risk. Also be very cautious with your cell phone usage.
12. Avoid synthetic hormone replacement therapy, especially if you have risk factors for breast cancer. Breast cancer is an estrogen-related cancer, and according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute,⁴ breast cancer rates for women dropped in tandem with decreased use of hormone replacement therapy. (There are similar risks for younger women who use oral contraceptives. Birth control pills, which are also comprised of synthetic hormones, have been linked to cervical and breast cancers.)
If you are experiencing excessive menopausal symptoms, you may want to consider bioidentical hormone replacement therapy instead, which uses hormones that are molecularly identical to the ones your body produces and do not wreak havoc on your system. This is a much safer alternative.

13. Avoid BPA, phthalates and other xenoestrogens. These are estrogen-like compounds that have been linked to increased breast cancer risk, found widely in plastics, personal care products and other household goods.
14. Watch out for excessive iron levels. This is actually very common once women stop menstruating, and also in some men. The extra iron actually works as a powerful oxidant, increasing free radicals and raising your risk of cancer. Fortunately, checking your iron levels is easy and can be done with a simple blood test called a serum ferritin test. I believe this is one of the most important tests that everyone should have done on a regular basis as part of a preventive, proactive health screen. Ferritin is the iron transport protein and should not be above 80. If it is elevated you can simply donate your blood to reduce it.
15. Make sure you're not iodine deficient, as there's compelling evidence linking iodine deficiency with certain forms of cancer. Dr. David Brownstein,⁵ author of the book Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It, is a proponent of iodine for breast cancer. It actually has potent anticancer properties and has been shown to cause cell death in breast and thyroid cancer cells."

The most foolish thing we can do is to put off till tomorrow what we should begin today. The second most foolish thing? Saying that cancer only happens to 'other' people.

On a lighter note--45 minutes easy running through the park---a lazy day--stretching--walking and calisthenics after.

How to Stay Motivated

Staying motivated, who hasn't had a problem with that at one time or another? Losing motivation is why people give up their dreams and goals. Here are some suggestions on keeping motivated by the great Jack Lalanne. After his I'll add a few comments of my own.

!. Reads books and magazines that have inspiring stories and articles.

2. Organize your day so that you have the time to train.

3.Develop a positive attitude.

4.Set goals, short term and long term.

5.Daily, remind yourself what your goal(s) is.

6.Recognize that willpower has to be nurtured.

7.If staying motivated has been a problem in the past, find someone with a similar goal and have them as a training partner.

8.Break bad habits. No alcohol or drugs to interfere with your commitment.

I like his suggestions but would add one important thing---when you have a goal that you want to reach, you must truly believe that this goal is worthy of your time and energy. For instance, too many people believe deep down inside that the athletic goals they have set are not really 'worthy.' Not  worthy like hitting the $70 thou a year annual income mark or  getting that six figure home in the gated community. Your goal is worthy if you believe it is. Since when is a price tag or an income a sign of the worthiness of a goal(s). I suppose since we've entered the age of money and what you have rules era.

Don't by the lie, be an individual!

Alcohol and the Active Athlete

Like the recovering alcoholic with an agenda--I offer the following admonition to athletes who are still serious about performance--avoid alcohol consumption. Now before you blow off today's post and move on, give the following a read. I'm not talking long term effects here, I'm referring to the here and now. Thanks to former world record holder in powerlifting, Dr. Fred Hatfield, for providing the info. Oh yeah--I'm not an alcoholic, a former episodically heavy drinker maybe, but not an alcoholic.

"Alcohol can damage muscle cells. Some of these damaged cells can die from prolonged exposure to alcohol, resulting in less functional muscle contractions.  Alcohol will also result in increased muscle soreness following training, thereby requiring additional time for recuperation."

Not good, especially if you're a distance runner.

"Alcohol can cause several gastric, digestive and nutritional irregularities. This drug causes a release of insulin that will in turn increase the metabolism of glycogen, thereby sparing fat, resulting in more difficult fat loss. Since alcohol consumption can interfere with the absorption of many nutrients, it is possible to become anemic and deficient in the B vitamins."

In case you don't know, look it up and see how vital B vitamins are to maintaining health.

"Alcohol acts as a diuretic, large amounts of alcohol can place undue stress on your kidneys. With alcohol's diuretic action, large amounts of antidiuretic hormone(ADH) are secreted. This can result in elevated water retention, something no athlete wants."

As they say--knowledge is power. If you find yourself rationalizing or dismissing the facts, perhaps you need to take a look at your relationship with alcohol. Don't get mad, I'm just looking out for you.

A beautiful fall day---hill reps for 25 minutes with a 10 minute warm up and warm down---stretching after.

How 'bout you?

Something To Think About

If the following sounds strange to you, then perhaps you have become too far removed from the natural, physical life, you've become a creature of comfort in this modern society.

"That without strength, efficient organs, intelligence and an absence of secret fears man is only a parody, and for him life cannot be fully lived. He does not dominate his enviroment, it is the enviroment that dominates him. Such a man is not free. Only the mentally free and the physically strong can live this type of life to the full. Nature ordains it this way.There is no catch to it. Nature favors the fit." (Percy Cerutty).

As Cerutty used to say--"only the fit are fearless."

Taking Risks

"To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.

To live is to risk dying.

To hope is to risk despair.

To try is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing.

They may avoid suffering and sorrow but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow love, live.

Chained by their certitudes they are a slave, they have forfeited their freedom.

Only a person who risks is free."



Author Unknown

As they say----Live the life you love--Are you existing or truly living?

Exhausting work day but ran 20 minutes easy in the morning---6 hours at work on my feet the whole timer--lots of lifting and walking.

What did you do?

Principles

"As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods, ignoring principles is sure to have trouble."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I don't believe Emerson was an athlete but the above quote sure is applicable to training.

Not too long ago someone asked me if I had heard of a book on running that advocated a certain way of training. I said that I hadn't but if it incorporated the fundamentals of training for distance runners I was all for it. A large part of the training principles for distance running and other sports teaches that easier work is followed by progressively more stressful work as the body can tolerate it. At the end point,these training principles all lead to the athlete being in peak condition for competition. It's all incredibly simple, logical and sensible.

The running coach I follow, Arthur Lydiard, instructed athletes to follow the principles he laid down but added that the individual could adapt them to their specific needs( the methods).

As far as training principles for sports? They must take into account human anatomy and physiology.
Still, many try to 'reinvent the wheel' and come up with "methods" they believe will revolutionize their sport.

Be very careful when you decide to choose a way to train, or way to eat for that matter, is it adhering to sound principles? Do not be fooled by charismatic hucksters.

Lastly, speaking of Arthur Lydiard: he was a giant in the sport of running, just as Vince Lombardi was in American football, John Wooden in college basketball or Casey Stengel in  pro baseball. Even though Lydiard trained and developed many champions and record holders,  he would always take time to interact with anyone who approached him. I recall back in the '80's writing a letter to him, I can't remember how I found his address in New Zealand, I sort of hoped he might write back but wasn't willing to put any money on it. Sure enough, not quite a month later I received a letter from him. A couple years later I wrote again and the same thing happened. Talking with others, I later found out that, that was just the way he was. Take it from me, this is a rare quality among famous people.

27 minutes at 2/3's pace with a 5 minute warm up and a 10 minute warm down--stretching after.

What did you do today?

Each Day

Each Day is a Gift

Each day is a gift if you have your health.

Each day is a gift if you have a place to live and food to eat.

Each day is a gift if you have someone who cares

Each day is a gift if you have an appreciation...for all that you have.

Each day is a gift because you have the ability to determine the way you live.

A great workout--40 minutes running over a hilly course--walking and stretching after.

How was your day??