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Naturopathic physician Peter Glidden began by stating that humans are genetically designed to live to the age of 120 years, if we're healthy. The most important issue to Glidden is to keep your body supplied with plenty of minerals. As an example he related how cattle ranchers provide plenty of minerals in feed while cattle are growing and then stop about four months before they sell the animal in order to get the cow to eat much more. Since the cow is trying to get the nutrients it needs, it will eat much more and therefore fatten itself for market.

"You can trace every chronic disease to mineral deficiency" Glidden said. He said that pesticides and herbicides kill the bacteria in the soil that allow plants to absorb them, so that most fruits and vegetables are lacking in many essential minerals. As for the seeming rise of gluten intolerance, Glidden said the real issue is that gluten inhibits absorption of nutritional elements. He believes that best way to increase health and longevity is to be careful about the source of your food and to add pure supplements to your diet. Glidden also cautioned listeners with his opinion that "your doctor is not trained in health care, he is trained in disease management."

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.

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