Archived News of the Week

Telomeres, Cancer, Side Sleeping and a lot more.

The Telomere, my new best friend: As you prob. know by now, telomeres are the end caps of chromosomes, protecting the DNA from deterioration during cell division, sort of like those little plastic thingies at the end of shoe laces. Our telomeres shorten with time and aging and ill health until there are no telomeres left which means you are soon to be toes up. So, it behooves us to keep them healthy and protective since premature shortened telomeres have been linked to increased risk of cancers, heart disease, dementia and... death. There is a supplement which purportedly protects telomeres, and it is carnosine. I have it in the office if you are so moved to add it to your vitamin regimen

(Regarding the "sitting is the new smoking" that is circulating everywhere: Hogwash. Sitting is not all that bad if you have some sort of exercise program in place and don't spend the rest of your day lying on the couch eating bon bons. But going so far as getting a stand-up desk is going a bit too far for me.)

Second, don't smoke. Third, watch your diet. A federal study of more than a ½ million American men and women found that eating, say, a Quarter Pounder (made at McDonald's or your own kitchen) daily for 10 years gave men a 22% greater risk of dying from cancer compared with men who ate just 5 oz. of red meat a week. Women who ate daily rations of beef had a 20% greater risk of dying from cancer. Fourth, stop the sugar and all related white, processed, unhealthy carbs. We all know the benefits of a diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, so just do it. Amp it up!

Fifth, a lack of physical activity raises your cancer risk. The famous Nurse's Health Study found that moderate exercise of one or more hours a day reduced women's colon cancer risk by 30%. Lately, that daily exercise regime of one or more hours a day which a lot of us find difficult to do, has been lowered to 45 minutes 3 or 4 times a week of moderate exercise. Sixth, limit alcohol consumption. Seventh: Eat more raw foods, as much as you can cram into your little mouth. The more the better. For example, have hummus around, and cleaned veggies already bagged and ready to go. Dip into this once a day.

Other ways not to get cancer: Limit your intake of processed meats and trans fats. Whole Foods has a new addition to their deli department - their own homemade roasted in-house real turkey breast, more expensive, but better than even the good Applegate Farms products. They'll slice it for you and it really tastes like leftover Thanksgiving turkey.

Avoid exposure to environmental chemicals and air pollution. This is getting to be a really big deal, what with the 60,000 plus chemicals in the air today. Watch fumes not only outside but inside the house, too. Exchange all of your cleaning products for safe ones. (I use Mrs. Meyers.) You may want to invest in an ozonator, too, although expensive, can be very valuable to spot clean areas of your house where you suspect molds, such as water leaks in crawl spaces and/or chemicals which are emanating from new couches, beds (flame retardants are the worst), cars etc.

To further prevent cancer, make sure your vitamin D levels are nice and high. I like levels around 70, and if you have or have had cancer, even higher. Lastly, manage your stress as stress is a huge contributor to the suppression of your immune system. Make sure your adrenal glands are up and running, too. I take an adrenal supplement every day.

(NB. A new study has shown that higher levels of D in older people helps to maintain muscle and bone integrity and strength, thus reducing the risk of falling. (Jour Am Geriatric Society, 8/2015))

Since there may be 10 or more years between the exposure to external factors and detectable cancers, start right now to reduce your risk of this frightening disease.

Calorie Counting: To do or not to do: I count calories, not like a crazy obsessed person, but I sort of count up the little numbers in my head as the day goes on just to see how many calories I am doing. It's not hard, and you will learn a lot about yourself  how to eat, where you fail (or fool) yourself, and why you may be gaining weight. However, if counting calories doesn't float your boat, just start eating "nutrient dense" foods with abandon, or, wait, maybe rather than "with abandon", a better idea is to eat to satiety. (Or even better than this, practice hara hachi bu, a Japanese practice of eating until 80% full.) Nutrient dense foods are things like wild Alaskan salmon, bone broth, kale (Why is it always kale! I really wish I liked it), raw garlic, sprouts, organic eggs, and if you can (I can't) organic liver.

The idea is that since our stomach is very valuable piece of real estate and we only have so much room to put food into it, we may as well put the very best - or nutrient dense foods - into our stomach. Salmon not Triscuits, Organic eggs not French fries, bone broth not Coke. Fill our stomachs with only the good stuff from now on.

Side Sleeping: Have we all heard by now that side sleeping may prevent dementia? When we sleep we detox our brains. The cerebrospinal fluid, which surrounds brain cells, scoops up toxic proteins that build up when we are awake (remember those nasty chemicals we encounter on a daily basis?) and this includes the infamous beta-amyloid deposits that clump together, destroying nerve cells and are strongly linked to Alzheimer's risk. Sleeping on your back is the worst position, it's better on your stomach (but a chiropractor's nightmare due to the stress on the neck!), and best of all, on your right side.

The Brain-gut connection: The health of the microbiome in our gut has a lot to do with our thinker. Too much sugar? Too little cognitive brilliance and can't perform tasks as well. Probiotics? Great for the brain! "A high-fat and high-sugar diet, compared to a normal diet, causes changes in gut bacteria that appear related to a significant loss of cognitive flexibility'". . . in our friends the mice. The mice on a healthier diet aced the water maze while their sugar-addled counterparts diddled hopelessly through the maze. (Oregon State University, 8/17/15)

Good Fats: A high intake of PUFA's or polyunsaturated fatty acids may reduce the risk of CVD, or cardiovascular disease. A research study in Sweden (Uppsala University) studied about 5,000 men and women who had existing CVD. By the end of the study, it was revealed that those subjects with the highest blood levels of PUFA's were "significantly less likely to die from heart disease or any cause (all cause mortality) for about 15 years than those with the lowest levels." Or, the ones with the highest PUFA levels, lived on average 15 years longer. They found that DHA and EPA from fish were important as well as ALA, or alpha-linoleic acid. ALA containing foods are, chia seeds, perilla oil, flax seeds, hempseeds, poppy seeds and sesame seeds.

Human Growth Hormone is truly the fountain of youth. However, it is difficult to get anything natural that works like the real stuff you get from your M.D.  shots which cost an arm and a leg and are suspect of many side-effects including death. I have not found any nutritional supplement which does anything to raise HGH levels no matter how highly touted that supplement is. Oh, maybe something called TA-65 which is a "proprietary blend" astragaloid and costs about $600 a month (250 capsules). I am very curious but don't want to shell all that money out for...what? I don't know.

However, there are some simple things we can do to promote BDNF or Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor, a sort of back door to HGH. At any rate if you engage in any of the following, at least your hippocampus will be happy. Take a walk in nature, jump on a trampoline, walk your dogs around a park, jog to a friend's house, dance to your favorite music, take the stairs at work, race your children at the park, swim, do some yoga and join a gym.

Melanoma. This is a sucker you don't want to get. It's the scariest skin cancer, 75,000 Americans are diagnosed each year with melanoma, and each year, nearly 10,000 die from melanoma. Researchers have found that drinking orange juice increases the risk of melanoma! A study of more than 100,000 nurses and doctors found that those who consumed citrus fruits or certain citrus juices 1.6 or more times a day, on average, had a whopping 36% increased risk for melanoma. Why? Citrus contains compounds called psoralens which make the skin more sensitive to sun damage that predisposes people to melanoma. My judge is still out on this finding, but look, OJ isn't that good for you anyway. Too much sugar. Eat the orange instead.

Inflammation: Excuse the horrible syntax, but inflammation is where it's at as far as chronic or even acute illness is concerned. The cholesterol theory of heart disease has gone the way of 16th century blood letting, yet, why oh why are new, even more dangerous drugs (than statins) being introduced monthly to lower cholesterol levels? Oh, yes, the greed factor. Let's all just reduce our inflammation with the following foods and hope for the best  along with, of course, the continuance of our impeccable life style.

Here are some anti-inflammatory foods to add to your daily diet: Wild salmon. Comes up a lot doesn't it? Berries. Best fruit on the planet. Green, leafy vegetables. Remember a salad a day. Deeply pigmented produce such as yams, eggplant, pomegranate, carrots, plums, peppers, peas and red grapes.Nuts. Forego the great tasting roasted and tamaried nuts for the raw ones. Whole grains. If you are Paleo, then quinoa is your best bet. Tea. Cold pressed fresh oils, including avocado, flax and olive in particular. Then there are the spices, like garlic, ginger, turmeric and saffron.

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