Lipid Goals According to AHA

The ADA favors achieving the following lipid goals, in sequence:

• LDL level less than 100 mg/dL
• HDL level more than 40 mg/dL in men and more than 50 mg/dL in women
• Triglyceride level less than 150 mg/dL

The National Cholesterol Expert Panel and the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology suggested an LDL level lower than 70 mg/dL as an optional or reasonable target. To achieve the composite goals requires a combination of hypolipidemic drugs. The ADA, the National Kidney Foundation, and the Joint National Committee Report are concordant with a blood pressure goal of less than 130/80 mm Hg. To achieve this target in diabetic patients with or without chronic renal insufficiency, multiple antihypertensive drugs are needed. Hypoglycemic therapies should achieve a hemoglobin A1C concentration less than 7%. Aspirin is appropriate therapy for diabetic adults with or without vascular disease. Pharmacological treatment is concomitant with lifestyle interventions.

Information on Cancer

Useful Information on one of the deadliest diseases of our time: CANCER

1. Every person has cancer cells in their body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumour size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumour destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to ; ;destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

A. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal,
Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small
amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.

B. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened Soya milk cancer cells are being starved.

C. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

D. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts)and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

E. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water: it is best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

F. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrefied and leads to more toxic build-up.

G. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

H. Some supplements build up the immune system (anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of
damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

I. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a
survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

J. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

Signs of Breast Cancer

Signs and symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer include:

• A breast that appears red, purple, pink or bruised
• A tender, firm and enlarged breast
• A warm feeling in the breast
• Itching of the breast
• Pain
• Ridged or dimpled skin texture, similar to an orange peel
• Thickened areas of skin
• Enlarged lymph nodes under the arm, above the collarbone or below the collarbone
• Flattening or retraction of the nipple
• Swollen or crusted skin on the nipple
• Change in color of the skin around the nipple (areola)

Graveyard Shift Related to Cancer

LONDON - Like UV rays and diesel exhaust fumes, working the graveyard
shift will soon be listed as a "probable" cause of cancer. It is a
surprising step validating a concept once considered wacky. And it is
based on research that finds higher rates of breast and prostate
cancer among women and men whose work day starts after dark.

Next month, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the
cancer arm of the World Health Organization, will add overnight shift
work as a probable carcinogen. The American Cancer Society says it
will likely follow. Up to now, the U.S. organization has considered
the work-cancer link to be "uncertain, controversial or unproven."

The higher cancer rates don't prove working overnight can cause
cancer. There may be other factors common among graveyard shift
workers that raise their risk for cancer.

However, scientists suspect that overnight work is dangerous because
it disrupts the circadian rhythm, the body's biological clock. The
hormone melatonin, which can suppress tumor development, is normally
produced at night.

If the graveyard shift theory eventually proves correct, millions of
people worldwide could be affected. Experts estimate that nearly 20
percent of the working population in developed countries work night
shifts.

Among the first to spot the night shift-cancer connection was Richard
Stevens, a cancer epidemiologist and professor at the University of
Connecticut Health Center. In 1987, Stevens published a paper
suggesting a link between light at night and breast cancer.

Back then, he was trying to figure out why breast cancer incidence
suddenly shot up starting in the 1930s in industrialized societies,
where nighttime work was considered a hallmark of progress. Most
scientists were bewildered by his proposal.

But in recent years, several studies have found that women working at
night over many years were indeed more prone to breast cancer. Also,
animals that have their light-dark schedules switched develop more
cancerous tumors and die earlier.

Some research also suggests that men working at night may have a
higher rate of prostate cancer.

Because these studies mostly focused on nurses and airline crews,
bigger studies in different populations are needed to confirm or
disprove the findings.

There are still plenty of skeptics. And to put the risk in
perspective, the "probable carcinogen" tag means that the link between
overnight work and cancer is merely plausible.

Among the long list of agents that are listed as "known" carcinogens
are alcoholic beverages and birth control pills. Such lists say
nothing about exposure amount or length of time or how likely they are
to cause cancer. The American Cancer Society Web site notes that
carcinogens do not cause cancer at all times.

Still, many doubters of the night shift link may be won over by the
IARC's analysis to be published in the December issue of the journal
Lancet Oncology.

"The indications are positive," said Vincent Cogliano, who heads up
the agency's carcinogen classifications unit. "There was enough of a
pattern in people who do shift work to recognize that there's an
increase in cancer, but we can't rule out the possibility of other
factors."

Scientists believe having lower melatonin levels can raise the risk of
developing cancer. Light shuts down melatonin production, so people
working in artificial light at night may have lower melatonin levels.

Melatonin can be taken as a supplement, but experts don't recommend it
long-term, since that could ruin the body's ability to produce it
naturally.

Sleep deprivation may be another factor in cancer risk. People who
work at night are not usually able to completely reverse their day and
night cycles.

"Night shift people tend to be day shift people who are trying to stay
awake at night," said Mark Rea, director of the Light Research Center
at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, who is not connected
with the IARC analysis.

Not getting enough sleep makes your immune system vulnerable to
attack, and less able to fight off potentially cancerous cells.

Confusing your body's natural rhythm can also lead to a breakdown of
other essential tasks. "Timing is very important," Rea said. Certain
processes like cell division and DNA repair happen at regular times.

Even worse than working an overnight shift is flipping between daytime
and overnight work.

"The problem is re-setting your body's clock," said Aaron Blair, of
the United States' National Cancer Institute, who chaired IARC's
recent meeting on shift work. "If you worked at night and stayed on
it, that would be less disruptive than constantly changing shifts."

Anyone whose light and dark schedule is often disrupted — including
frequent long-haul travelers or insomniacs — could theoretically face
the same increased cancer risk, Stevens said.

He advises workers to sleep in a darkened room once they get off work.
"The balance between light and dark is very important for your body.
Just get a dark night's sleep."

Meanwhile, scientists are trying to come up with ways to reduce night
workers' cancer risk. And some companies are experimenting with
different lighting, seeking a type that doesn't affect melatonin
production.

So far, the color that seems to have the least effect on melatonin is
one that few people would enjoy working under: red.

Lycopene's Anti-Cancer Benefits Extend to the Colon

The carotenoid lycopene from tomato may interfere with levels of a hormone associated with an increase in the risk of colorectal cancer, suggests a Dutch study. The randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blinded crossover study in 71 subjects showed that supplements of lycopene may increase levels of proteins that bind to insulin-like growth factor (IGF), linked with cancer risk. The study, published late last year in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, extends our understanding of the potential anti-cancer benefits of lycopene, most notably linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer.

"This is the first study known to show that lycopene supplementation may increase circulating IGF-binding protein(BP)-1 and IGFBP-2 concentrations, thereby potentially decreasing IGF-I bioavailability," said lead author Alina Vrieling of the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam.
"Thus, it may provide a means of ultimately reducing colorectal cancer risk, and potentially the risks of other major cancers such as prostate and pre-menopausal breast cancer."

Epidemiological evidence has suggested that tomato-based foods can protect men from prostate cancer. One study found that men eating four to five tomato based-dishes per week were 25 per cent less likely to develop prostate cancer compared to men eating tomatoes only rarely. Such findings are boosting the lycopene market, with growth rates forecast at over 100 per cent by Frost and Sullivan, albeit from a low base of around €27m ($34m) in 2003.

Recently, researchers taking part in the Europe-wide European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) reported that increased blood levels of lycopene may reduce the risk of advanced prostate cancer by 60 per cent. "To our knowledge, this is the largest prospective study to date of plasma carotenoids, retinol, tocopherols, and prostate cancer risk,"American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Vol. 86, pp. 672-681).

Why Cola is Bad for Your Health

• In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don't immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
• 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There's plenty of that at this particular moment)
• 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
• 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
• >60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
• >60 Minutes: The caffeine's diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you'll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
• >60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you'll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You've also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

So there you have it, an avalanche of destruction in a single can. Imagine drinking this day after day, week after week. Stick to water, real juice from fresh squeezed fruit, and tea without sweetener.

Sea Buckthorn Could Help the Liver

A new study on sea buckthorn has found that the extract may ward off liver disease, leading researchers to conclude that it could be incorporated into a nutraceutical food or supplement targeting the condition. The up-and-coming berries have already been linked to numerous health benefits for conditions such as cholesterol, heart disease, and inflammation. A study published today in the Society of Chemical Industry's Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture has found that extracts from the leaf of sea buckthorn also have significant hepatoprotective activity, making it a possible candidate for protection against liver disease. "The results of the present study clearly indicate that leaf extract of sea buckthorn has significant hepatoprotective activity and can be developed as a nutraceutical or food supplement against liver diseases," concluded the researchers.

Diabetics Shouldn't Forget Their Antioxidants

Vitamins C and E supplements may reduce memory loss in type-2 diabetics, a population at risk of increased impaired memory, suggests a new study from Canada. Daily doses of 1000 mg of vitamin C and 800 IU of vitamin E improved mental function after carbohydrate-rich meals and may protect against memory loss, according to a small study with 16 diabetics published in the journal Nutrition Research.

"Results from this study suggest that postprandial oxidative stress is a potential contributor because deficits in [cognitive performance] after test meal consumption could be minimized by co-consumption of the test meal with high doses of antioxidant vitamins," wrote Michael Chui and Carol Greenwood from the University of Toronto.

Green Tea Protects Against Heart Disease

LONDON (Reuters) - A few cups of green tea each day may help prevent heart disease, Greek researchers said on Wednesday. A study published in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation showed further evidence of the potential health benefits from a brew already linked to a reduced risk of a range of cancers and other conditions. The study showed that green tea improves blood flow and the ability of arteries to relax, said Charalambos Vlachopoulos, a cardiologist at the Athens Medical School in Greece who worked on the study.

Calcium Pills Beat Fractures in Clinical Trial

Daily supplements of calcium may reduce the risk of fractures in a healthy population by 72 per cent, according to results of a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Emphasising the importance of the supplements, researchers from University Hospital Zurich and Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire report that the benefits were no longer observed when supplementation was stopped. "Calcium supplementation reduced the risk of all fractures and of minimal trauma fractures among healthy individuals,""The benefit appeared to dissipate after treatment was stopped."

About this Blog

The purpose of this blog is to provide health information to the public. In this day and age when people are becoming more and more conscious about their health, it would help if they had a resource that was comprehensive in terms of discussing about health. Being exposed to polution , chemicals and free radical damage weakens the body and starts the cycle of aging and eventually leads to death. It is imperative that we start taking care of the body temple for us to live longer and better lives. This what Thomas Edison envisioned a while back. He envisioned that doctors in the future would dispense no medicine but would rather facilitate in the care of the body temple. Also we plan to update the blog frequently as we believe that more is better.