Welcome to the New year! Like many, I’ve made my New Year’s resolutions list:

New Year’s Resolutions:
1. Exercise more
2. Lose weight
3. Eat and stay Healthy
4. Save money
5. Spend more time with my kids, Jasmine and Caleb
6. Cook at home more often; learn new recipes

Do some of these resolutions sound familiar? Are they on your list? It seems that the top 4 appear on my list year after year!

In the little spare time I have away from my kids, I get a chance to kick back and relax and read. My favorite reading materials are Alternative Medicine magazines (which I highly recommend), Chiropractic magazines and of course, Dora the Explorer and Disney Princess books.

I found some interesting articles to help achieve the resolutions mentioned above.

In Today’s Chiropractic Lifestyle magazine (Dec/ Jan 2007), there is a wonderful article by Amy Selby titled “20 Fat Loss Secrets”.

The top 5 that I like and is the most easiest are:

1. “Drink a gallon of bubbly or cold water each day. This will burn 150 calories of energy to heat the cold water to body temperature.” (This will also purify your body of toxins, metabolic waste, etc.)

2. “Avoid eating sugar or starches (bread, potatoes, etc) a few hours before bedtime. This can decrease growth hormone released at night and store unwanted calories as fat. ” (My solution: don’t go grocery shopping on an empty stomach and buy only necessities!) Avoid frozen foods, foods in a box or can and junk food. Budget and make a grocery list of only the foods you plan on cooking/ eating. This method has saved me tons of money in the past year. (Fruit roll ups, chips, ice cream…. those are like $2-3 each!)

3. “Dress and sleep cool! The cooler you stay, the more heat your body must produce to keep you warm, and this mean more calories burned! Shivering burns triple the calories as sweating.”

4. “Avoid excessive amounts of exercise. Too much exercise can cause hormonal imbalances, which can cause muscle wasting and aid in fat storage.” Too much exercise have also been shown to decrease your immune system and increase cell damage due to free radicals. 30 minutes to an hour per day of moderate exercise (such as biking, running or brisk walking) is recommended. Rountine is KEY!

5. “Eat slowly and stop when you are no longer hungry, before you feel full.” We, Americans, tend to rush through our food due to our hectic lifestyles- the Europeans and Asians take 2 hour lunches! Another way to also prevent overeating is share your plate when ordering at a restaurant or eat half and take the rest to-go. Restaurant servings tend to be huge! A serving is only the size of a deck of cards! This method will also help you save $$$$!

My 2 cents: don’t forget to take a multi-vitamin! Allergy and flu/cold season is here! Being sick during the holidays is not my idea of fun! (Before you run and get a flu shot, please see this video here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2163175142473074044

The foods that we eat today are not as nutrient rich as it was 20-30 years ago. Our environment is filled with more pollutants and toxins… There is an article in Alternative Medicine magazine (Jan 07 issue, pg 20).
“Allergic disease rates have skyrocketed over the past few decades, and the public and researchers have pointed to a slew of likely environmental culprits. Now you can add plastic to that list, particularly the ingredient di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), which is pretty much ubiquitious in air, water, and most everyone’s body. DEHP has been linked to childhood asthma, and a recent study in Environmental Health Perspectives found that the plastic made allergic reactions in mice much worse……….The strong adverse reaction to extremely low doses of DEHP led to the researchers to conclude that it ‘can be responsible for the recent increase in atopic dermatitis,’ a chronic skin condition often referred to as eczema.”

Nutritional supplements such as vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc. are NOT regulated by the Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA). Therefore, Joe Co. can put a label on it’s product and claims it heals all diseases, when is actually does not. Also, most nutritional companies do not implement a quality control system- this means your vitamins that you are taking may NOT be absorbed and the outcome is what I like to call “very expensive urine”.

In a recent independent study, Lyle Mc Williams, studied and analyzed many popular multi-vitamin formulas for it’s completeness, absorption rate, etc. It found the top multi-vitamin on the market is USANA. The only problem with USANA, is that it is available to members only. (Kind of like a pyramid setting). However, it is rated 96.4% (out of 100) and costs more significantly.

The second highest ranked multi-vitamin is Douglas Laboratories at 95.4%. It is available ONLY to licenses healthcare professionals. (please see www.douglaslaboratories.com). It is dairy, yeast, color, and preservative free too! Perfect for vegetarians! The company itself sends out their products to an independent company for a CERTIFICATE OF ANALYSIS which determines the purity of the product, how well and how long it absorbs into the body; among other things to ensure the best quality of their products!

By the way, if you’re wondering about your multi-vitamin- contact or email me.
FYI- Centrum Performance scored 5.2% out of 100%, GNC Mega Greens scored 46%, and Equate or store brands scored 4.9%)

As a Winter special- I’m offering Douglas Laboratories Ultra Preventative X multi-vitamins for $20. (MSRP is $32; my regular price: $25).

Part 2 of my winter special:
NEW PATIENTS: Exam AND adjustment/treatment: $65 (regularly $75-85). How many others offer treatment the same day? Don’t go home in pain or misaligned!

Refer a friend, family member or loved one- and receive $20 OFF EACH!

Keep in mind that you have only ONE body- take care of it and it will last you your lifetime!

Oh, one last thing on my New Year’s resolution list: Keep up with my newsletters!!!

I love this article that I read in the current issue of Natural Awakenings Magazine. It’s great! With cancer plaguing our society, this article shows how we need to better our lifestyle and food choices to prevent cancer risks. With our modern technologies and depleted soils, the air we breathe, the food we eat- just isn’t as nutritious as before-

Yours in Health,
Doris Chow-Bui, D.C.

Fight Breast Cancer Risk With Healthy Food And Lifestyle

By Christine Horner, M.D.

Ask any American woman what disease she fears the most and her answer will most likely be breast cancer. And for good reason. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in U.S. women. Last year 215,990 women were told they had invasive breast cancer and 40,110 lives were claimed by it. At any given time, two to three million women in this country are living with this disease. The treatments for breast cancer can be horrendous and are often feared more than the disease itself. I know because I’m a plastic surgeon who specialized in the difficult challenge of trying to reconstruct the devastating damage left behind by those treatments.

When my own mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and died from it in 1994, my life changed forever. I vowed to go after her killer. I wanted to find out if this deadly disease could be stopped before it ever started so that other women, including myself, could be spared from the same fate. Why is breast cancer an epidemic in the country? What stimulates and accelerates its growth? Is there anything women can do to dramatically lower their risk? I dove into the medical literature for the answers and after reviewing hundreds of studies, I surfaced with them.

The American diet and lifestyle spells disaster
It should come as no surprise that the American diet and lifestyle are a recipe for breast cancer. Epidemiological studies clearly point the finger at our culture as the principal culprit. For instance, women in Asia have a much lower incidence of breast cancer—at least 6 times lower than women in American. If an Asian woman moves to the United States and adopts our diet and lifestyle, within one generation her risk will match that of an American woman.

So what are we doing that makes our risk so high? Lots. Let’s take a close look at the hallmark American meal, fast food, of course: the burger, soda or milkshake and fries. Research shows that frequent consumption of red meat increases breast cancer risky by 220 percent to 770 percent. Women who eat the most well-done and grilled red meats have a 400 percent higher incidence.

Scientists have identified several properties in red meat that contribute to its carcinogenicity. One is “heterocyclic amines,” or the new carcinogens formed during a high-heat cooking process. Another are saturated animal fats found in red meat or conventionally-produced whole dairy products such as milkshakes that can store cancer-promoting environmental chemicals and growth factors. A study published in the Annals of New York Academy of Science in 1990 illuminates the large impact that these chemicals can have on the risk of breast cancer. The study reported that milk from cows during the 1970s in Israel (a country where incidence of breast cancer was twice that in the U.S. at that time) had 50 to 100 times greater amounts of chemicals, such as DDT and benzene hexachloride, than that found in American cow’s milk. After these chemicals were banned, their concentration in cow’s milk dropped by 98 percent within a few short years and the incidence of breast cancer in young women dropped by 30 percent.
Growth hormones pose another danger. Conventionally raised cattle in the U.S. are routinely injected with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). In response to rBGH, the cow’s bodies release large amounts of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), an extraordinary potent stimulator of, not only breast cancer, but also prostate cancer. Women with the highest levels of IGF-1 have 700 percent increased risk of breast cancer and men with the highest levels have a 400 percent increased risk of prostate cancer.
Saturated animal fats also cause our cells to become more insulin resistant. As a result, insulin—a hormone that speeds up the growth of cancer—tends to stay at higher serum levels.

Fast foods: It’s not just the burgers that batter breast health
The refined carbohydrate white buns served with the burgers and the giant-sized sugar-laden soft drinks or milk shakes to help chase them down cause blood sugar levels to soar and the pancreas to crank out excessive insulin. Both of these physiologic conditions are dangerous when it comes to breast cancer.

Sugar is the preferred food for cancer. The more one eats of it, the faster cancer will grow. In a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention in August 2004, women who ate high carbohydrate diets had twice the risk of breast cancer. Because insulin is a growth factor for cancer, women with consistently elevated levels of it are at much greater risk. A 1998 study found that women with the highest insulin levels were 283 percent more likely to get breast cancer.

And that side order of fries or a bag of potato chips? It’s laden with omega-6s, trans fats, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats that jump start the production of inflammation and oxygen-free radicals, both of which are key factors that fuel cancer as well as most other chronic disorders, including heart disease. And if you think a glass of red wine might undo some of the damage, then think again. Research shows a direct linear relationship between alcohol and breast cancer. One drink a day increases the risk by 11 percent, two drinks by 22 percent to 40 percent and three drinks by 33 to 70 percent.

Plant medicine
Besides avoiding all of these health-destroying foods and habits, there are many additional ways to dramatically lower the risk of breast cancer. Favoring a plant-based diet is one of the most important. Vegetarians have about half the incidence of breast cancer. Plants are packed with nutrients, vitamins and minerals that promote and protect health, especially organic fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Plants also contain hundreds of plant chemicals or phytochemicals that act as “natural” medicines. For instance, cruciferous vegetables, which include more than a dozen vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kale, contain several chemicals with specific actions against breast cancer.

Indole 3-carbinol (or DIM in supplement form), a phytochemical found in large amounts in these vegetables, inhibits cyclin-dependent kinase-2, a key enzyme needed for breast cancer growth; makes the estrogen receptor in the breast less sensitive to estrogen; blocks the estrogen receptor (ER) similar to the anticancer drug Tamoxifen; creates more 2-OH estrone (a “good” type of estrogen) and less 16-OH estrone (a “bad” or cancer-promoting type of estrogen); turns on a “tumor-suppression” gene increases the activity of phase-2 liver enzymes, which makes our liver more effective at eliminating toxins and excess estrogen; decreases the ability of tumors cells to stick together (a quality necessary for tumors to grow); prevents tumors from spreading to other areas of the body; and invading into surrounding tissues and causes breast cancer cells to die.

Other plants that provide extraordinary cancer defense
Green tea provides a stellar defense against almost a dozen types of cancer, including breast cancer due to the many different health-protecting substances it contains, especially potent antioxidants and anti-inflammatories. Japanese researchers found that women who regularly drink green tea have a much lower incidence of breast cancer. Tea drinkers who develop breast cancer are much more likely to survive their disease than non-tea drinkers.
Studies reveal many specific reasons why green tea is such an excellent safeguard against breast cancer. For instance, green tea decreases the production of estradiol, the most abundant and potent form of natural estrogen and the one most associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in the body and increases the number of binding-proteins in the blood thus decreasing total free estrogen. Estrogen binds to certain proteins in the blood and then can’t bind to estrogen receptors in the breast. Only unbound “free” estrogen adds to the risk of breast cancer. For women who are diagnosed with breast cancer, green tea reduces the risk of metastasis and recurrences by inhibiting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a growth factor needed to stimulate new blood vessel growth into tumors (tumors constantly need new blood vessels to grow larger) and by enhancing the effectiveness of chemotherapy and protecting against its damaging effects.

When it comes to actions that combat breast cancer, it would be hard to find a plant that surpasses those found in the Indian cooking spice turmeric. Here is a list of some of turmeric’s astounding anticancer properties.

* Breaks down toxins in liver,

* Prevents carcinogens from forming

* Is a powerful anti-inflammatory

* Contains antioxidants with a potency 300 times greater than vitamin E

* Works synergistically with radiation to enhance tumor cell death

* Stimulates the immune system

* Enhances chemotherapy

* Makes organo-chlorine pesticides act less like estrogen

* Blocks the estrogen receptor

* Makes the estrogen receptor less sensitive to estrogen

* Blocks the COX-2 enzyme (used in inflammation)

* Causes tumor cell death

* Decreases how fast tumor cell grow and divide

* Blocks new blood vessel growth to tumors

* Blocks IL-6 (a substance in the immune system that causes cancer cells to grow faster)

* Inhibits tumor invasion into surrounding tissues

* Inhibits tumors from spreading to other areas of the body

* Is synergistic with green tea. It enhances green tea’s anticancer effects by 8 times and green tea enhances turmeric’s anticancer effects by 3 times

Important lifestyle factors
In addition to foods and supplements, certain lifestyle choices also have profound effects on the risk of breast cancer. Going to bed by 10 p.m. and getting up by 6 a.m. enhances normal hormonal fluctuations, particularly of melatonin. Melatonin, also known as the sleep hormone, is a potent antioxidant and decreases the production of estrogen as well as several other breast-cancer growth factors. Women who work all night and sleep all day have the lowest levels of melatonin and consequently a 50 percent higher incidence of breast cancer.

Daily exercise can cut the risk of breast cancer by 20 percent to 50 percent. Even a brisk half-hour walk a day can significantly reduce the risk of dying in women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer according to a study published May 25, 2005, in Journal of the American Medical Association.

In most cases, breast cancer is not due to bad luck or bad genes. That’s good news. It means that we have the power to drastically lower our chances of developing this deadly disease. By simply avoiding foods and activities that research shows increases the risk and favoring the ones that protect against it, we can tip the odds in our favor.

Christine Horner, M.D., is a board certified and nationally recognized surgeon, author, professional speaker and a relentless champion for women’s health. She spearheaded legislation in the 1990s that mandated insurance companies pay for breast reconstruction following a mastectomy. She is the author of the new book, Waking the Warrior Goddess: Dr. Christine Horner’s program to protect against and fight breast cancer.

Additional Information:
For more information, go to www.protectivebreast.com and www.drchristinehorner.com

Date:
2006/04/27 01:00:00 GMT-5

Article was published in:
National

Welcome to Alternative Healing Concepts!

This Newsletter is a means of conveying the latest health news to you. I’ll be posting interesting articles, medical studies, special offers, and little tidbits here every week or so, so please bookmark this site!

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Here’s a little interesting article regarding Precription medications and how they can affect your nutritional status by Dr. Peter Osborne.

Your Prescription Medication And Malnutrition

In today’s society, prescription medications are very commonly used to treat disease, but what most doctors don’t realize is that many of these drugs can cause deficiencies of vitamins, minerals, and other important nutrients required for normal body functions. Some of these functions include energy production, protection against free radicals, and repairing and replacing worn out cells of the heart, lungs, skin, bone, etc. Initially these deficiencies equate to generalized symptoms such as fatigue, dry scaly skin, weight gain, depression, difficulty sleeping, muscle stiffness, joint aches and pains, and poor memory. Over longer periods, these nutrient deficiencies can lead to malnutrition and a faster progression toward chronic degenerative diseases like cancer, dementia, heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, cataracts, etc.

Why has my doctor never mentioned malnutrition to me before?
Simple, your doctor was most likely not trained in nutrition. Yes, you read correctly. Most medical schools do not even offer classes in nutrition, so if you doctor wanted to receive training in this area, he/she would have to seek it out elsewhere. Currently, there is a grass roots effort in place to teach physicians about prescription medication induced nutritional deficiencies (malnutrition), but until this information becomes part of the medical curriculum, you should take measures on your own to ensure that your nutritional status remains intact when you are taking a medication with known nutrient depleting side effects.

Here’s The Catch 22
In order to prevent heart disease doctors prescribe preventative medicines to lower cholesterol (statins), lower blood pressure (diuretics), thin the blood (aspirin), and reduce inflammation (NSAIDS). Collectively, these medications can lead to deficiencies of coenzyme Q10, vitamin B1, vitamin C, folic acid, vitamin B-12, iron, potassium, calcium, magnesium, selenium, zinc, vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin E, and beta carotene.

So Why is This Harmful?
Example 1:
Prescription medications which lower cholesterol are given to reduce the risks for heart disease, but they can also cause a deficiency of CoQ10 inside the body. A deficiency of CoQ10 is linked to congestive heart failure and high blood pressure. Thus taking the medication over long periods of time may actually increase the risk for heart disease.

Example 2:
Medications which lower blood pressure can induce deficiencies of calcium, magnesium, and potassium. Research now shows that a deficiency in these minerals can cause high blood pressure. Additionally, many blood pressure medications also deplete CoQ10.

Example 3:
Taking aspirin thins the blood, but this may also cause deficiencies in folic acid and vitamin C. Folic acid deficiency causes elevations of a harmful chemical in your blood called homocysteine. Elevated homocysteine is an independent risk factor for heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and osteoporosis.Vitamin C deficiency reduces the body’s overall antioxidant status. Poor antioxidant function is associated with every known chronic degenerative disease.

Common Sense Applies
Although many of the above medications have been shown to give benefit when treating common conditions, they have also been shown in studies to reduce certain nutrient levels. Because we know that long term nutrient deficiencies can and do play a major role in the development of chronic degenerative disease, it only makes sense to take a common sense approach and address these nutrient deficiencies (malnutrition) before they become a serious medical problem. Ask your doctor to monitor your nutrient levels with the appropriate comprehensive lab test to monitor nutrient deficiencies. Find out which nutrients your medication may be depleting and address them with proper supplementation. Remember that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

About the Author:
Dr. Peter Osborne D.C., D.A.C.B.N, has practiced integrative nutrition and chiropractic medicine for the past 6 years. He received his doctorate from Texas Chiropractic College and pursued an advanced accreditation in nutrition through the American Clinical Board of Nutrition. He has been on faculty at Texas Women’s University co-teaching neurophysiology and anatomy. It was this interest as well as his desire to help as many people as possible that led him to begin formulating a product line “ Essential Nutrients supplements” that would help people maintain their nutritional status while on necessary medications.

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Email me at info@ahc-wellness.com to sign up for a monthly newsletter! You’ll be entered in a monthly drawing for a basket of Douglas Laboratories supplements worth $50 in the month of May!

Douglas Laboratories: world-renowned Ultra-Preventive® X (Ten) was rated the #1 multivitamin in the professional healthcare market, and our Vita-Big-Kids™ was rated the #1 children’s multivitamin overall by the independent Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements.