Dr. Arturo M. Volpe

Canadian naturopath Natasha Turner author of the book “The Hormone Diet” has an interesting list of 10 simple steps you can take to lower your risk of breast cancer. I agree with all except one. Here they are:

1. Don’t wear underwire bras because the underwire may compress lymphatic drainage from the breasts.

2. Sleep in pitch black. Any light inhibits production of the sleep hormone melatonin, which not only helps us go to sleep and stay asleep, but also has a balancing effect on estrogen and has been shown to protect from breast and other hormone-related forms of cancer.

3. Eat two cups of broccoli a week. Broccoli and related vegetables like cauliflower and kale contain compounds that help promote a healthy balance of estrogen.

4. Avoid excess alcohol. While small amounts of alcohol actually lower the risk of cancer, too much raises it quickly. Dr. Turner recommends not exceeding one drink per day for four days a week.
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Tags: Cancer
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Though this may seem hard to believe, if research now spanning several decades is accurate, natural cherries or cherry extract have all these benefits and more.

Gout sufferers who are tuned in to natural remedies have known for decades that drinking a bottle (or two) of cherry juice can put a stop even to a severe gout attack. The earliest published study on this that I was able to find is dated 1950 (Cherry diet control for gout and arthritis, Tex Rep Biol Med).

Recent studies show that compounds in cherries lower both uric acid (the direct cause of gout) and inflammatory markers in blood. In particular cherry consumption was shown to lower C-reactive protein (CRP), an indicator of inflammation in blood that is now considered a better predictor of cardiovascular disease than cholesterol levels (Kelley, J Nutr 2006).
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Tags: Arthritis, Cholesterol, Diet, Weight Loss
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Pediatricians routinely order a complete blood count (CBC) at children’s periodic health evaluations. If there are signs of anemia, a child is prescribed iron, but if results are normal it is assumed that iron levels are adequate.

Unfortunately only running a CBC misses milder forms of iron deficiency that are not severe enough to cause anemia but can still lead to meaningful symptoms including sleep disturbance, hyperactivity, lack of focus, and delayed cognitive development.

To fully assess iron levels it is necessary to order a test called serum ferritin. Levels of ferritin roughly below 10 are associated with anemia. However, levels between 10 and 50 are indicative of so-called non-anemic iron deficiency and supplementing iron in these cases can lead to significant improvements.
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Tags: ADD/ADHD
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As I mentioned a few months ago in this newsletter, researchers are now looking at Alzheimer’s disease as a new form of diabetes and the expressions “Type 3 Diabetes” and “Diabetes of the Brain” have been coined. More specifically, in Alzheimer’s disease the brain loses its ability to burn glucose or blood sugar for energy.

As we are all taught in school, the brain – unlike other tissues – cannot burn fat for energy, so as it loses the ability to burn sugar it rapidly becomes starved for energy and begins to die. One thing that is always omitted in physiology classes is that while there is no doubt that brain cells cannot burn fat, they do have an alternative energy source, aside from sugar: ketones.

Not only can the brain use ketones for energy, it will use them preferentially over glucose when they are available, and it appears to function optimally when using ketones as its main source of energy.
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Tags: Alzheimer's Disease, Autism
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There are virtually thousands of chemicals in the environment that have not been properly assessed for safety, and in many cases there is evidence, whether direct or indirect, that they can have harmful effects on health. Many chemicals are fat-soluble and remain in the body for decades, sometimes for life, and can even be passed from generation to generation after being removed from circulation. A typical example of this is DDT, which continues to turn up in people’s tissue samples, decades after being banned.

Other chemicals are rapidly eliminated from the body and become harmful only through daily exposure. Because they don’t stay in the body for long, avoiding them can lead to quick health benefits or at least limit any damage that has already been done. Two classes of chemicals that fall in this category are phthalates and parabens.
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Tags: Chemicals & Environmental Issues
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Since President Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971 we have had a presidential panel with the duty to report to sitting presidents on progress in this war. In the past all the reports focused on new research findings, drug development or new surgical procedures.

In May of this year a President Bush-appointed panel rocked to boat and chose for the first time to report on the role that environmental chemicals play in causing cancer.

In a letter to President Obama, the panel discussed the evidence that chemicals in the environment cause many cancers, and went on to state: “The Panel urges you most strongly to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our Nation’s productivity, and devastate American lives.”
Among its recommendations, the panel stated that eating organic “is vitally important” for children who “are far more susceptible to damage from environmental carcinogens and endocrine-disrupting compounds than adults”. Pretty strong words if you ask me. Now I wonder if other government agencies, like the FDA, will continue to belittle the benefits of organic food or claim that chemicals are harmless…

Tags: Chemicals & Environmental Issues, Diet
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