You have just enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast, family time, a little time off, and maybe even a strong dose of the flu that's going around. So what is next: the mad headlong rush to the Christmas or Hanukah season? Then a new year, resolutions and a determination to get healthier, or to look better, or to be better? I have been thinking a lot this past month about Health. Why is it such an important asset in life, yet we often do so little to acquire it fully?

In this time and age, we have so much to be grateful for. We have freedom to the extent never enjoyed by any people. We have luxuries the pharaohs only could have dreamed of. We enjoy comforts never imagined just 50 years ago. Information is at our finger tips, literally. We are empowered in travel to a near magical level. Yet, with all of this abundance, we remain _________________ regarding our health. (you choose the adjectives): a) amazingly disciplined b) lazy c) ingeniously underachieving d) apathetic and delusional. What answer do you like?

As a society, the four greatest killers of your loved ones are all preventable life style choices. What are they? Well, the order is suspect, but probably; heart attacks, medical mistakes, cancer, and strokes; in that order. In addition to this, diabetes, the great crippler, is largely preventable, yet it continues to grow and expand. Our waist lines are ever increasing, our health related budgets (A.K.A. insurance premiums) are growing double the pace of inflation, our pace of life is increasing like a snowball hurtling down a mountain, we are living longer than ever, but our quality of life is not growing or expanding.

So what should we do?

I have a suggestion. While thinking about this problem, a solution has occurred to me. There are three things that are essential to change and progress: 1. Intention 2. Attention 3. Commitment

Any change or positive transformation in life will require these attributes be considered. Now, you have an opportunity to take advantage of a new program that will help with all three of these Attributes of Transformation. Starting January 1, 2007, you can join the "Health Dynamic" group. This will allow you the opportunity to get the help you need on all three aspects needed to upgrade your life to a new and better level. We all need a coach to give us a different perspective, we all need accountability, and we all need a direction in which to travel.

If you are interested in being the best "you", you can be, stay tuned to hear more. In the next few weeks, we will send more specifics about this amazing opportunity. You won't believe the value it will bring to you.

TORONTO--Pitchers with activated carbon filters are the most effective way to reduce potentially harmful chemicals in tap water, Canadian researchers say.

A team at Universite Laval in Quebec City researched ways to cut down on the two main byproduct chemicals produced when chlorine used to disinfect tap water reacts with organic matter normally present in it.

"They (the byproducts) don't affect the smell or the flavor of the water, but in high concentrations they are suspected of increasing the risk of certain types of cancer," research team member Manuel Rodriguez said in a news release.

Rodriguez and his four teammates collected samples from private homes and tested for byproducts known as trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) and subjected them to three common forms of household treatment.

Storing water in a refrigerator for 48 hours reduced THMs by 30 percent, while boiling water before storage cut them by 87 percent. Using an activated carbon filtering pitcher prior to storage cut the byproducts by 92 percent.

Direct storage and boiling had no effect on HAAs, although filtering was found to reduce them by 66 percent.

Despite the results, Rodriguez said HAAs were probably within regulation levels in cities with adequate water treatment, making no additional home treatment necessary.

"However, if I lived in a place where there were regular notifications to boil water or if I knew the water contained high levels of HAAs, I'd consider using home water-treatment devices," he said.

Copyright Reuters 2006.

If you are interested in the best in water purification call us for a referral to get the best help you can to enjoy clean water.

STOCKHOLM--People who drink large quantities of fizzy drinks or add sugar to coffee or tea run a higher risk of developing cancer of the pancreas, Swedish research showed on Wednesday.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute studied the diets of almost 80,000 men and women between 1997 and 2005. A total of 131 developed pancreatic cancer, a deadly form of the disease that is difficult to treat.

"The researchers have now been able to show that the risk of developing pancreatic cancer is related to the amount of sugar in the diet," the institute said in a statement.

The group of people who said they drank fizzy or syrup- based drinks twice a day or more ran a 90 percent higher risk of getting cancer of the pancreas than those who never drank them.

The risk was 70 percent higher for those who added sugar to their drinks about five times a day, and 50 percent for those eating creamed fruit, a sugary, fruit-based Swedish dessert, at least once a day, according to the research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

"Despite the fact that the chances of developing pancreatic cancer are relatively small, it's important to learn more about the risk factors behind the disease," Susanna Larsson, one of the researchers involved in the study, said in the statement.

About 216,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer, mostly in developed countries, are diagnosed each year. The illness is most common in people aged over 60. It is difficult to treat because it is often not diagnosed until it has spread beyond the pancreas.

To ensure your long and healthy life, make good choices on how much sugar, soda, or less healthy foods you choose to eat.

You are not what you eat but what you actually digest and absorb. If you are not eating healthy bacteria or enzyme-rich (preferably organic) foods, your digestive system may not be at peak performance. Without adequate healthy-bacteria and enzymes, food sensitivities, indigestion, bloating, gas, constipation, diarrhea, belching, cramping, or bad breath may occur.

Our body's natural production of enzymes decreases as we age, making enzymes we receive from foods such as raw honey, raw or cultured vegetables, raw or cultured milk and cheese, and raw fruits such as bananas, pineapple, and papaya important for digestive health.

It is estimated that more than 400 species of bacteria inhabit our digestive tracts, weighing up to 3.5 pounds. There are both healthy and undesirable forms. It is important to have enough healthy bacteria to maintain optimal health. They help keep the intestines clean and free of parasites. They manufacture omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin K and the B vitamins. They can decrease cholesterol as well as intenstinal inflammation and food allergies, and enhance liver function. Inadequate healthy bacteria has been linked with chronic disease.

In addition, healthy bacteria make up about 75 percent of our immune cells. This good bacteria is depleted by prescription antibiotics and consuming meat or dairy from animals fed antibiotics, consuming fluoride and chlorine in our water, as well as coffee and alcohol. It is important to replenish this good bacteria on a daily basis.

Eating cultured and fermented foods such as kefir, yogurt, kombucha, miso and cultured vegetables from the refrigerator section can help replenish necessary healthy bacteria.

By: Cynthia Lair and Jennifer Adler, adjunct faculty for the School of Nutrition and Exercise Science at Bastyr University

Women who smoke and also carry high levels of the virus associated with cervical cancer are up to 27 times more likely to develop the most common form of cervical cancer compared with unifected women who also smoke, results of a new study show.

The study by Swedish researchers involved data from Pap tests of more than 100,000 women and identified 499 with cervical cancer that had not extended beyond the outer layer of tissue. They matched them with 499 other women who were similar in age and other characteristics, but cancer- free.

For those women, they compared smoking behavior with concentrations of human papilloma virus-16, the strain most associated with cervical cancer, and found that the combination caused risk to soar.

"Our study would imply a synergistic action between HPV and smoking that would greatly increase the likelihood of women developing cervical cancerif they are HPV-positive smokers," said Anthony Gunnell, a medical biostatistician at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and lead author of the report published Friday in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Specifically:
Women who smoked and had a high HPV load during their first exam had 27 times greater risk of later cancer than women who smoked but did not have an HPV infection.
Women who were positive for HPV (no matter how high the viral load) were 14 times more likely to develop cervical cancer than women who were HPV-negative and smoked.
Non-smoking women with high HPV loads had just six times greater risk for cervical cancer compared with non-smokers who were negative for the virus.

"Clearly, both exposures need to be present at the same time for there to be interaction," Gunnell said.

The study may also partly explain why some women may not get cervical cancer despite smoking or being HPV-positive, which are both known to contribute to the disease on their own.

Government public health authorities in the United States have only recently begun recommending a vaccine against HPV for adolescent girls and young women in an effort to protect them from cervical cancer in the future.

Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths worldwide, and death rates are particularly high in developing countries. In the U.S., although the rate of incidence and mortality have fallen by 50 percent in the last 20 years, this year alone, of 9,700 diagnosed with cervical cancer, about 3,700 will die.

By: Lee Bowman
Scripps Howard News Service

The Claim

Sugary soft drinks increase energy.

The Facts

Turning to a sugary soft drink for a midafternoon energy boost may be tempting, but is that sugar rush all it's cracked up to be? Probably not.
Besides having only short-lasting effects on energy, the sugar high of soft drinks ultimately can work against you, decreasing attention span, slowing reaction times, and putting you to sleep.
In one recent study, published in the journal, Human Psychopharmacology, a group of healthy adults took 90- minute mental tests after eating a small lunch on various days. On some days, about an hour after lunch, they drank a soft drink that had 42 grams of sugar and 30 to 40 milligrams of caffeine. On other days, they drank a similarly flavored drink with no sugar or caffeine.
With the high-sugar drink, the test scores were lower and they had more delays in reaction time and lapses in attention. After a 15-minute rush of energy, they became tired and less alert.
Other studies have found beneficial memory and attention effects for drinks with sugar and caffeine--but only with caffeine levels twice those of a typical soft drink.

The Bottom Line

Sugary soft drinks may make you sleepy.

-The New York Times

A pair of studies in the same journal (Arthritis and Rheumatism) suggest that acupuncture and an extract of tumeric (a spice found in curry) may both offer significant pain relief to arthritis patients.

A German research team found that a combination of acupuncture and conventional medicine can increase the quality of life of osteoarthritis patients.

Meanwhile, American researchers found that a special tumeric extract, composed largely of chemicals called curcuminoids, can prevent both acute and chronic rheumatoid arthritis.

In experiments on rats, the tumeric extract appeared to block inflammatory pathways associated with rheumatoid arthritis. As for acupuncture, the study of some 3,500 subjects showed that chronic osteoarthritis patients who received it in addition to their more traditional care showed marked improvement, with only 5 percent experiencing minor side effects.

Osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis in the United States, is a progressive degeneration of bone cartilage. Rheumatoid arthritis is an immunological disorder leading to painful inflammation of the lining of the joints.

Nearly one in five Americans, a total of 46 million, suffers from some form of arthritis. Another 23 million have undiagnosed chronic joint pain. Some 40 percent of arthritis patients in the United States have turned to alternative medicine to help them with their pain.

Arthritis and Rheumatism November 2006; 54(11): 3452-3464 (tumeric)

NatureRich Deodorant Mist is a total body spray that is a safe and effective "natural" way to combat unpleasant body odor. The natural mineral salts inhibit the growth of bacteria on the surface of the skin and in sweat, eliminating odor without clogging pores and stopping the perspiration process. Perspiration is a necessary process that excretes toxins from your body. Eliminate the bacteria, and you eliminate the odor. It's that simple. The Deodorant Mist is free from artificial fragrances and perfumes, oils, emulsifiers, alcohol, and other harmful chemicals, such as aluminum chlorhydrate (a potential cancer-causing agent). It is non-staining, hypoallergenic and non-aerosol. To use, spray 4-6 times on any part of the body after bathing. Natural Ingredients: Purified water and mineral salts Price: $20 for an 8oz. bottle (lasts avg. 3-4 months)

1. Stop you negative thoughts. If you have a problem stopping obsessive thinking, get an eye patch and patch your right eye. Patching your right eye will shut down the left hemisphere of your brain and the negative, obsessive thinking. It is better than a glass of wine!

2. Zip up your central meridian. Your central meridian is the energy pathway that runs from your pubic bone to your bottom lip. It can act like a radio receiver if it is not zipped up, picking up negative energies and vibes of others around you. Zip it up by imagining zipping up a zipper that runs up this pathway.

3. Go for a vigorous walk everyday. Walking will increase your endorphins, which lifts your mood. Walking also activates your energy flows to cross from left to right, right to left. A healthy crossover flow of energy lifts your mood 40 -60%. (Dr. O adds: Take the eye patch off before you walk! It cuts down on stitches.)

4. Refer to your depression as an experience that you are having that can be healed, rather than an identity you are stuck in. Stop saying, "I am depressed or I am suffering from depression." Your "I am's" define your identity and keep you stuck with more of what you don't want. A healthier way of referring to your experience of depression is to say: "I am experiencing the condition of depression, and it is healing."

5. Believe you can get well. Your beliefs create your reality. If you doubt and fear you may never get well--you may not. If you believe you can get well and will, you call it forth in your life. Consider the possibility that one of the higher purposes of your depression was to allow you the experience of healing it to graduate you into more of your true magnificence.

By: Carol Tuttle

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