Health Articles

Details: Ben Fuchs

Minimize exposure to risk factors including smoking, drugs (including illegal and prescription) and excessive alcohol intake.
Maintain body weight in within a healthy range. The obese and even overweight are more likely to get cancer.
Practice regular, daily deep breathing.
Stay physically active. A sedentary lifestyle is linked cancer.
Eat (and drink) more veggies. Reduce intake of processed dairy and meat.
Avoid fried and otherwise processed and refined fats.
Reduce caloric intake (especially refined flour and sugar) and use intermittent fasting (1-3 days a month).
Supplement with essential vitamins and minerals intelligently and strategically.
Use relaxation techniques including massage, quality sleep (and naps), as well as emotional and mental strategies.
Leverage spirituality by developing a personal relationship and regularly communing with Divine Force through prayer and meditation.

Did you know…

…that the name cancer refers to the crab like way tumors tenaciously grip and spread into adjacent tissues

…the earliest description of cancer was of a breast tumor found in an ancient Egyptian medical treatise dating back to 1600 B.C.

…lung, prostate, and stomach cancers are the most commonly diagnosed cancers in men. Breast, cervix, and colorectal cancers are the most commonly diagnosed cancers in women.

Cancer, Oxygen and Sugar

In the world of health and wellness, there’s nothing quite as terrifying as a diagnosis of cancer. As of 2014, nearly 15 million people living in the United States had a history of the dreaded disease. That’s about 5 percent or so of the population. While that’s certainly significant, it also means that 95 percent of Americans are cancer-free. In other words, despite the fear and angst it engenders, full-blown cancer is a relatively rare occurrence. While cancer has become a prosperous and profit intensive industry generating 125 billion dollars a year in revenue, the infrequency of its occurrence implies a certain resistance to the disease that is built into our biology.

Details: Ben Fuchs

Remember pink slime? That was the stuff that made headlines a couple of years ago, much to the consternation of the fast food industry, which had long been adding the crimson goo as inexpensive excipient to beef up their burgers (and profits). Although the addition of fillers is not necessarily illegal or even unhealthy and has historically been a way to lower food costs to consumers, this particular additive created an unusually universal and vociferous revulsion. Within weeks of the ABC news story that revealed the practice to the public, fast food giants like McDonald’s, Burger King and Taco Bell had officially renounced it and public schools around the country stopped serving it.

However, despite the horrific moniker, the strawberry colored filler with the gloppy consistency that was added to meat was actually not much different than the meat itself. It was chemically treated connective tissue (CT), the rubbery, flavorless chewy stuff most people know as gristle.

Despite its unsavory reputation, the stuff of slime, as well as gristle, is actually a pretty important substance, that is, when it’s a component of our bodies. Connective tissue makes up around 20 to 25 percent of our weight. It’s responsible, as the name implies, for connecting our various components, assuring that our organs and tissues are tightly bound to each other. It’s a type of biological cement that keeps us in one piece, as an intact and coherent whole.

Connective tissue is produced in a special cell called a fibroblast, the birthplace of the three major components of CT which is known as the “matrix”.

collagen (“colla” is the ancient Greek term for glue), a strong, structural protein that gram for gram is more powerful than steel
elastin – a flexible, elastic protein that allows connective tissues to resume their shape after stretching or contracting.
complex sugar molecules (polysaccharides) and sugar-protein complexes (proteo-glycans) which act as a shock absorber and also have a nourishing and detoxifying effect.

The combination of the fibroblasts and the matrix they extrude is what is generally referred to as connective tissue

Details: Ben Fuchs

You don’t hear a lot about it, but it’s one of the most ubiquitous of the all the vitamins. It’s called pantothenic acid, a named derived from the Greek word “pantheon”, meaning “found in all quarters”. Indeed, the nutrient, also known as Vitamin B5, is an essential constituent of every one of the 100 trillion cells in the body.

B5's main role is to help the body process and utilize lipids; it facilitates fat burning inside cells. It can be a helpful supplement to speed healing, especially of the skin and the digestive tract. It's also a player in the production of anti-aging steroid hormones associated with growth, repair and fertility. But, pantothenic acid is not only valuable as an internal nutrient. When it's topically applied it can have some interesting and helpful cosmetic effects too.

One of the most important benefits of pantothenic acid, in its topical form, is its effect on acne. Its fat processing properties help the skin slow down excessive secretion of oils, reducing shine and helping eliminate facial and back acne. Pantothenic acid used directly on the skin has anti-inflammatory and anti-irritant properties too. It can prevent he formation of scars and speed the healing of broken and wounded skin. It has also been effectively used to treat burns and surgical wounds. The first beneficiaries of the power of panthenol were soldiers. In the 1940's Swiss Medical researchers seeking new treatments for burn victims during World War Two, came up with the idea of using the vitamin topically. In short order, the drug company Hoffman Laroche, best known for their invention of Valium, came up with the idea of using it to beautify the hair. In 1947 they started to manufacture a shampoo featuring the vitamin. They called it “Pantene”. It became one of the most successful and iconic hair care brands ever and is still one of the bestselling shampoos in the world.

If you want to take advantage of the power of panthenol for preventing hair breakage, improving shine and radiance or if you want to use the vitamin to improve skin health, you don’t need to spend money on fancy products. It’s easy to go the “do-it-yourself” route as pure panthenol, the cosmetic form of Vitamin B5, is inexpensive and readily available on the internet. It comes as a viscous liquid that can be directly added to shampoos or skin creams and lotions. But you are going to have to make sure you use a healthy dose. According to information published in the Journal of Cosmetic Science, it takes 1.0% panthenol to have an effect on skin integrity. In my experience I’ve had to use even more.

If you find the liquid form too difficult to work with (and it is quite sticky), powdered panthenol is also available. You can dissolve two teaspoonfuls to a cup of water to make a 4.0% solution. Store it in the fridge and add as desired to your favorite hair and skin care products making your own home-made panthenol rich beauty products.