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A Simple, Inexpensive Trick to Cure a Cold

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

Each year Americans catch more than one billion colds, making the cold virus the most common infectious disease in the United States.

It accounts for more school absences and missed work than any other illness, and it’s the number one reason people visit their physicians — even though most physicians have little to offer in the form of treatment.

It’s a widespread misconception that colds are caused by bacteria. Colds are actually triggered by a virus, which means if your physician prescribes you an antibiotic, it will be absolutely useless.

More on this shortly, but before I delve into simple prevention and treatment strategies it’s important you know how colds are contracted in the first place.

How Do You Catch a Cold?

The most common way cold viruses are spread is not from being around coughing or sneezing, or walking barefoot in the rain, but rather from hand-to-hand contact. For instance, someone with a cold blows their nose then shakes your hand or touches surfaces that you also touch.

Cold viruses can live on pens, computer keyboards, coffee mugs and other objects for hours, so it’s easy to come into contact with such viruses during daily life.

However, the key to remember is that just being exposed to a cold virus does not have to mean that you’ll catch a cold. If your immune system is operating at its peak, it should actually be quite easy for you to fend off the virus without ever getting sick.

If your immune system is impaired, on the other hand, it’s akin to having an open-door policy for viruses; they’ll easily take hold in your body. So the simple and short answer is, you catch a cold due to impairment in your immune system. There are many ways this can result, but the more common contributing factors are:

  1. Eating too much sugar and too many grains
  2. Not getting enough rest
  3. Using insufficient strategies to address emotional stressors in your life
  4. Vitamin D deficiency, as discussed below
  5. Any combination of the above

Vitamin D Deficiency: Another Reason You May “Catch” a Cold

It’s estimated that the average U.S. adult typically has two to four colds each year, while children may have up to 12! One reason for the widespread prevalence may be that vitamin D deficiency is incredibly common in the United States, especially during the winter months when cold (and flu) viruses are at their peak.

Research has confirmed that “catching” colds and flu may actually be a symptom of an underlying vitamin D deficiency. Less than optimal vitamin D levels will significantly impair your immune response and make you far more susceptible to contracting colds, influenza, and other respiratory infections.

In the largest and most nationally representative study of its kind to date, involving about 19,000 Americans, people with the lowest vitamin D levels reported having significantly more recent colds or cases of the flu – and the risk was even greater for those with chronic respiratory disorders like asthma.

At least five additional studies also show an inverse association between lower respiratory tract infections and vitamin D levels, and you can read about them in detail here. But the research is very clear, the higher your vitamin D level, the lower your risk of contracting colds, flu, and other respiratory tract infections.

It’s not surprising, then, that the average American gets so many colds each year, as current guidelines for optimal intake and normal vitamin D levels are far too low — and since most people do not get adequate sun exposure on a daily basis (which is what produces vitamin D in your skin) many are deficient. I strongly believe you could avoid colds and influenza entirely by maintaining your vitamin D level in the optimal range.

How Long Do Colds Last … and How Can You Make Your Cold Go Away Faster?

Most uncomplicated colds last between eight and nine days, but about 25 percent last two weeks, and 5-10 percent last three weeks. Even the most stubborn colds will typically resolve in a few weeks’ time; this is actually one of the ways you can distinguish a cold from allergies.

A cold will last, at most, a few weeks, but allergy symptoms can last all season.

How quickly you bounce back is typically defined by you and your collective lifestyle habits — and this does not mean popping over-the-counter cough and cold remedies or fever reducers. In fact, as long as your temperature remains below 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.9 degrees Celsius) there is no need to lower it.

Cold viruses do not reproduce at higher body temperatures, so a slight fever should help you get rid of the virus quicker and help you to feel better much sooner.

You should avoid taking over-the-counter pain-relief medications as well, as a study showed that people who take aspirin and Tylenol (acetaminophen) suppress their body’s ability to produce antibodies to destroy the cold virus. Aspirin has even been linked to lung complications including pulmonary edema, an abnormal build up of fluid in your lungs, when taken in excess.

You should only use these medications when absolutely necessary, such as if you have a temperature greater than 105 degrees F (40.5 degrees C), severe muscle aches or weakness.

Hydrogen Peroxide: A Simple Trick to Beat a Cold

I don’t advise over-the-counter medications, but one simple treatment you can try that is surprisingly effective against upper respiratory infections is hydrogen peroxide.

Many patients at my Natural Health Center have had remarkable results in curing colds and flu within 12 to 14 hours when administering a few drops of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into each ear. You will hear some bubbling, which is completely normal, and possibly feel a slight stinging sensation.

Wait until the bubbling and stinging subside (usually 5 to 10 minutes), then drain onto a tissue and repeat with the other ear. A bottle of hydrogen peroxide in 3 percent solution is available at any drug store for a couple of dollars or less. It is simply amazing how many people respond to this simple, inexpensive treatment.

So What Else Can You do to Recover From a Cold, Quicker … and Prevent One in the First Place?

As I said above, the number one way to conquer a cold (or flu) is vitamin D. Vitamin D is an amazingly effective antimicrobial agent, producing 200 to 300 different antimicrobial peptides in your body that kill bacteria, viruses and fungi. So optimizing your levels will not only help send a cold virus packing … it will help ward off cold viruses in the first place.

The best source for vitamin D is direct sun exposure. But for many of us, this just isn’t practical during the winter. The next best option to sunlight is the use of a safe indoor tanning device. If neither natural nor artificial sunlight is an option, then using oral vitamin D3 supplements is your best bet.

Based on the latest research, many experts now agree you need about 35 IU’s of vitamin D per pound of body weight. This recommendation also includes children, the elderly and pregnant women.

However, keep in mind that vitamin D requirements are highly individual, as your vitamin D status is dependent on numerous factors, such as the color of your skin, your location, and how much sunshine you’re exposed to on a regular basis. So, although these recommendations may put you closer to the ballpark of what most people likely need, it is simply impossible to make a blanket recommendation that will cover everyone’s needs.

The only way to determine your optimal dose is to get your blood tested. Ideally, you’ll want to maintain a vitamin D level of 50-65 ng/ml year-round.

For an in-depth explanation of everything you need to know before you get tested, please read my latest updates in Test Values and Treatment for Vitamin D Deficiency.

Dietary Strategies to Kick a Cold

If you feel yourself coming down with a cold or flu, this is NOT the time to be eating ANY sugar, artificial sweeteners or processed foods. Sugar is particularly damaging to your immune system — which needs to be ramped up, not suppressed, in order to combat an emerging infection.

So if you are fighting a cold, you’ll want to avoid all sugar like the plague, and this includes sugar in the form of fruit juice and even grains (which break down as sugar in your body).

Ideally, you must address nutrition, sleep, exercise and stress issues the moment you first feel yourself getting a bug. This is when immune-enhancing strategies will be most effective.

So when you’re coming down with a cold, it’s time to address ALL of the contributing factors immediately, which includes tweaking your diet in favor of foods that will strengthen your immune response. Good choices include:

  • Raw, grass-fed organic milk, and/or high-quality whey protein
  • Fermented foods such as raw kefir, kimchee, miso, pickles, sauerkraut, etc, which are rich in probiotics, or good bacteria. Scientific research shows that 80 percent of your immune system resides inside your digestive tract, so eating probiotic-rich foods, or taking a high-quality probiotic, will help support your immune system health.
  • Raw, organic eggs from free-ranging, preferably local, chickens
  • Grass-fed beef
  • Coconuts and coconut oil
  • Animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil
  • Locally grown fruits and vegetables, appropriate for your nutritional type
  • Mushrooms, especially Reishi, Shiitake, and Maitake, which contain beta glucans (which have immune-enhancing properties)
  • Garlic, a potent antimicrobial that kills bacteria, viruses and fungi. Ideally this should be in fresh form, eaten raw and crushed with a spoon just before eating.
  • Herbs and spices with high ORAC scores: Turmeric, oregano, cinnamon, cloves (for more on ORAC, visit www.oracvalues.com)
  • Make sure you are drinking plenty of fresh, pure water. Water is essential for the optimal function of every system in your body and will help with nose stuffiness and loosening secretions. You should drink enough water so that your urine is a light, pale yellow.

And what about the old wives’ tale of chicken soup for your cold?

Chicken soup can help reduce your symptoms. Chicken contains a natural amino acid called cysteine, which can thin the mucus in your lungs and make it less sticky so you can expel it more easily.

Processed, canned soups won’t work as well as the homemade version, however.

For best results, make up a fresh batch yourself (or ask a friend or family member to do so) and make the soup hot and spicy with plenty of pepper. The spices will trigger a sudden release of watery fluids in your mouth, throat, and lungs, which will help thin down the respiratory mucus so it’s easier to cough up and expel.

Three Cold-Busting Lifestyle Strategies

Vitamin D, check! Hydrogen peroxide, check! Healthy diet, check! We’ve covered several of the primary “weapons” you should have in your cold-fighting arsenal, but there are others, too.

  1. High-Quality Sleep, and Plenty of It Pay attention to how you are sleeping. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, or enough restorative sleep, you’ll be at increased risk for a hostile viral takeover. Your immune system is also the most effective when you’re not sleep-deprived, so the more rested you are the quicker you’ll recover. You can find 33 secrets for a good night’s sleep here.
  2. Regular Exercise Regular exercise is a crucial strategy for increasing your resistance to illness. There is evidence that regular, moderate exercise can reduce your risk for respiratory illness by boosting your immune system. In fact, one study found that people who exercised regularly (five or more days a week) cut their risk of having a cold by close to 50 percent. And, in the event they did catch a cold, their symptoms were much less severe than among those who did not exercise.Exercise likely cuts your risk of colds so significantly because it triggers a rise in immune system cells that can attack any potential invaders. Each time you exercise you can benefit from this boost to your immune system.Ideally, establish a regular fitness program, such as Peak Fitness, now, to help you ward off colds and other illness.However, if you’re already feeling sick don’t overdo it. Over-exercising can actually place more stress on your body, which can suppress your immune system — and you don’t want that either. You might just go for a walk if you are coming down with a cold, or simply tone down your regular workout.Any rise in body temperature will be an unwelcome climate for a viral invader, though, so some exercise is likely to be beneficial.
  3. Address Your Emotional Stress Emotional stressors can also predispose you to an infection while making cold symptoms worse. Finding ways to manage daily stress as well as your reactions to circumstances beyond your control will contribute to a strong and resilient immune system.My favorite tool for this is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), a system that helps balance your body’s subtle energies and repair emotional “short-circuits.” EFT may even help you overcome cold symptoms.

Supplements That Send Pathogens Packin’

Supplements can be beneficial for colds, but they should be used only as an adjunct to the lifestyle measures already discussed.

Some of the more helpful options for cold (and flu) — above and beyond vitamin D — are:

  • Vitamin C: A very potent antioxidant; use a natural form such as acerola, which contains associated micronutrients. You can take several grams every hour till you are better unless you start developing loose stools
  • Oregano Oil: The higher the carvacrol concentration, the more effective it is. Carvacrol is the most active antimicrobial agent in oregano oil.
  • Propolis: A bee resin and one of the most broad-spectrum antimicrobial compounds in the world; propolis is also the richest source of caffeic acid and apigenin, two very important compounds that aid in immune response and even fight cancer.
  • A tea made from a combination of elderflower, yarrow, boneset, linden, peppermint and ginger; drink it hot and often for combating a cold or flu. It causes you to sweat, which is helpful for eradicating a virus from your system.
  • Olive leaf extract: Ancient Egyptians and Mediterranean cultures used it for a variety of health-promoting uses and it is widely known as a natural, non-toxic immune system builder.

Remember This Tip: Wash Your Hands Sensibly

Washing your hands frequently is one of the easiest ways to wipe out germs and viruses and reduce your chances of becoming sickened by them. Thorough hand-washing truly is an important step, as you are at far greater risk of passing on an infection by shaking someone’s hand than even by sharing a kiss.

One report even found that regular hand washing may be more effective than drugs in preventing the spread of respiratory viruses such as influenza.

When you wash up, plain soap and water will do. Do not make the mistake of using antibacterial cleansers, as their widespread use is leading to strains of resistant bacteria, or “superbugs,” which cause the ingredients to lose effectiveness for the times when they really are needed, such as for surgeons prior to surgery.

Further, the active ingredient in most antibacterial products is triclosan, an antibacterial agent that kills bacteria and inhibits bacterial growth. But not only does triclosan kill bacteria, it also has been shown to kill human cells.

Antibacterial soaps are also no more effective than regular soaps. One study found people who used antibacterial soaps and cleansersdeveloped a cough, runny nose, sore throat, fever, vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms just as often as people who used products that did not contain antibacterial ingredients. So please avoid making the mistake of using antibacterial liquids and soaps.

Too Much Hand-Washing Can Backfire …

There is another important caveat to remember, and that is your skin is actually your primary defense against bacteria — not the soap.

So resist the urge to become obsessive about washing your hands. If you wash them too frequently you can actually extract many of the protective oils in your skin, which can cause your skin to crack and bleed.

It is rare for a germ on your skin to cause a problem — it is typically only an issue when you transfer that to your nose, mouth or an open wound like cracked skin. So obsessive-compulsive washing can actually increase your risk of getting sick by providing an entryway for potentially dangerous pathogens.

So mild to moderate washing is wise, but excessive washing, especially with harsh soaps, will actually be highly counterproductive.

Avoid the Antibiotics!

More than 300 different viruses can cause colds, so each time you have a cold it is caused by a distinct virus (i.e. adenovirus, rhinovirus, parainfluenza virus, coronavirus). A virus is much smaller than a bacteria; it is a tiny cluster of genetic material surrounded by a protein wrapper.

There are currently NO drugs available that can kill these viruses. Antibiotics, including penicillin, do not have any effect on viruses, but unfortunately have been vastly over-prescribed for this very (useless) purpose. That, coupled with the excessive use of antibiotics in agriculture, has contributed to a steep rise in antibiotic-resistant diseases.

Antibiotic-resistant infections now claim more lives each year than the “modern plague” of AIDS, and cost the American health care system some $20 billion a year!

Further, according to one meta-analysis, the health risk from over-use of antibiotics is also a very personal one, as opposed to simply raising the occurrence of antibiotic resistance in the general population over time.

Whenever you use an antibiotic, you’re increasing your susceptibility to developing infections with resistance to that antibiotic — and you can become the carrier of this resistant bug, and spread it to others.

So please, if you have a simple cold remember that an antibiotic will do far more harm than good.

When Should You Call Your Physician?

Sinus, ear and lung infections (bronchitis and pneumonia) are examples of bacterial infections that do respond to antibiotics. If you develop any of the following symptoms, these are signs you may be suffering from a bacterial infection rather than a cold virus, and you should call your physician’s office:

  • Fever over 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.9 degrees Celsius)
  • Ear pain
  • Pain around your eyes, especially with a green nasal discharge
  • Shortness of breath or a persistent uncontrollable cough
  • Persistently coughing up green and yellow sputum

Generally speaking, however, if you have a cold medical care is not necessary. Rest and attention to the lifestyle factors noted above will help you to recover quickly and, if you stick to them, will significantly reduce your chances of catching another one anytime soon.

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Correction of This Vitamin Deficiency Shown to Improve Seizure Control in Epilepsy

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

Nearly half of people with epilepsy are also vitamin D deficient, but despite this well-known association, only a single study has been published on the effect of vitamin D for seizure control in the last 40 years.

That study revealed that treating epileptic patients with vitamin D2 – the far inferior type of synthetic vitamin D – reduced the number of seizures, and in 1974 researchers concluded that “the results may support the concept that epileptics should be treated prophylactically with vitamin D.“

Now, nearly four decades later researchers have again revealed that “the normalization of serum vitamin 25(OH)D [vitamin D] level has an anticonvulsant [anti-seizure] effect.“

Improving Vitamin D Levels Reduces Seizures by 40%

In the latest study, researchers administered a one-time 40,000-200,000 IU dose of vitamin D3 to patients with epilepsy in order to bring their vitamin D levels out of a deficiency state.

The participants, who ranged in age from 10-42, had vitamin D levels ranging from 4 ng/ml to 34 ng/ml, with a median level of 11.8. This is an absolutely dangerously low level. As you can see in the chart below, anything below 50 ng/ml is a deficiency state.

vitamin d levels

After the treatment dose of vitamin D, the participants’ vitamin D levels did improve to a range of 23-45 ng/ml, with a median of 38 ng/ml. It’s important to note that this is still low according to the latest science … but the improvement still resulted in a decrease in their number of seizures. If their levels were optimized further, it’s likely the results would improve even more.

After increasing their vitamin D levels, the results showed:

  • 10 of the 13 subjects had a decrease in number of seizures
  • Overall, there was a median seizure number reduction of 40%
  • A seizure reduction of greater than 50% was experienced in five patients

The most revealing result, however, occurred among the person whose vitamin D was a dangerously low 4 ng/ml at the start of the study. This person had 450 seizures in a three-month period, but after raising vitamin D level to 43.1 ng/ml, the seizures dropped to 30 in three months! The study did have some limitations, namely the small number of subjects and the lack of a placebo to compare to, but it still highlighted the importance of correcting vitamin D deficiency in epilepsy patients.

Epilepsy Patients are at Increased Risk of Vitamin D Deficiency

The findings are even more important given that people with epilepsy face an even greater risk of vitamin D deficiency than the general population (and even the general population is vastly vitamin D deficient). The reasons are two-fold, with the first being that having frequent seizures may interfere with your ability to get outdoors and stay active.

If you spend most of your time inside, you’ll miss out on regular sun exposure, which is key for the natural production of vitamin D. Even exposing your skin to sunlight through a windowpane will prevent the entry of the UVB rays, which are the specific wavelength that produces vitamin D in your skin. So, it is crucial that you get outside and experience direct skin contact with the sunlight instead of sunning in a sunroom, for instance.

Second, anti-epileptic drugs that are often given to epilepsy patients can interfere with vitamin D metabolism, leading to deficiency. If you take these drugs, it is especially crucial  that you actively monitor your vitamin D levels to avoid this side effect.

Why might vitamin D have such a significant impact on epileptic seizures? Epilepsy is a disorder of the central nervous system, particularly your brain. Vitamin D is not “just” a vitamin; it’s actually a neuroregulatory steroidal hormone that influences nearly 3,000 different genes in your body. Vitamin D receptors can be found in your brain, spinal cord, and central nervous system, and may enhance the amount of important chemicals in your brain needed to protect brain cells, for starters.

The Study Used Supplements, But Sunshine is Better

Researchers used a one-time large dose of vitamin D3 to boost the participants’ vitamin D levels. If you’re going to supplement, vitamin D3 is certainly far superior to the vitamin D2 researchers used back in the 1970s.

Today, however, vitamin D2 is still the form typically prescribed by doctors, so be aware of this if you’re taking this nutrient in prescription form. A meta-analysis of 50 clinical trials looking at mortality rates for “doctor recommended” synthetic vitamin D2 supplements versus natural vitamin D3 shows a 6 percent risk reduction among those who used D3, compared to a 2 percent increased risk among those who used D2.

Research also shows vitamin D3 is approximately 87 percent more potent in raising and maintaining vitamin D concentrations and produces 2- to 3-fold greater storage of vitamin D than does D2. D3 is also converted into its active form 500 percent faster. So by all means use vitamin D3 if you’re going to supplement, not D2 – but even better, simply get out in the sun, or use a safe tanning bed.

The IDEAL way to optimize your vitamin D levels is through appropriate sun or safe tanning bed exposure. While your skin does create vitamin D3 in response to sunlight, which is theoretically the same as the D3 you get from an oral supplement, there’s cause to believe that the vitamin D created from sun exposure may have additional health benefits. Plus, you cannot overdose when getting your vitamin D from sun exposure, as your body has the ability to self-regulate and only make what it needs. You do, however, need to be cautious and avoid burning.

If you cannot get your vitamin D requirements from sun exposure, I recommend using a safe tanning bed (one with electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, to avoid unnecessary exposure to EMF fields). Safe tanning beds also have less of the dangerous UVA than sunlight, while unsafe ones have more UVA than sunlight. If neither of these are feasible options, then you should take an oral vitamin D3 supplement. It will certainly be better than no vitamin D at all, but you will need to monitor your levels via blood testing to ensure you stay within the therapeutic range.

You can learn more about maximizing your vitamin D from safe sun exposure in the video below. If you have epilepsy, it’s possible that doing so could help you decrease seizure drugs (a very good thing, since all seizure drugs can increase your risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and some of these drugs can make you lose your memory and your hair).

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Does Sunshine Actually Decrease Dangerous Melanoma Skin Cancers?

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

Recent research blaming sunlight exposure for the growing incidences of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, has failed to consider crucial information that could turn the entire concept on its head, according to Dr. William Grant, an epidemiologist writing for the Vitamin D Council.

One important point the research missed was that sometimes sunscreen can actually increase your risk of melanoma, especially in the Northern Hemisphere.

There are other studies showing that chronic UV (ultraviolet) light exposure may actually reduce the risk of melanoma.

Allow me to explain …

Are Rates of Melanoma Really Increasing?

The first point that needs to be addressed is whether melanoma cases are really on the rise. As Dr. Grant stated:

“Two recent papers blame increased ultraviolet (UV) exposure for the growing rates of melanoma in the UK. Not considered were other possible explanations for the rising rates of melanoma, including the use of sunscreen, especially at latitudes above 40º, and a combination of underdiagnosis in the past with over diagnosis more recently. [Melanoma mortality rates changed little in the U.S. between 1986 and 2001 while incidence rates more than doubled."

Further research published in the British Journal of Dermatology shows that the sharp increase in melanoma rates over the last three decades may actually be "an artifact caused by diagnostic drift." Diagnostic drift, according to the study, refers to a hefty increase in disease that is being fueled by non-cancerous lesions.

During the study period from 1991 to 2004, there were nearly 4,000 cases of melanoma included in the report, with an annual increase of 9.39 to 13.91 cases per 100,000 per year. The researchers revealed that, rather than being fueled by increasing exposure to sunlight as is commonly suggested, the increased incidence was almost entirely due to non-cancerous lesions misleadingly classified as "stage 1 melanoma." Even the distribution of the lesions reported did not correspond to the sites of lesions caused by sun exposure, leading researchers to conclude:

"These findings should lead to a reconsideration of the treatment of 'early' lesions, a search for better diagnostic methods to distinguish them from truly malignant melanomas, re-evaluation of the role of ultraviolet radiation and recommendations for protection from it, as well as the need for a new direction in the search for the cause of melanoma."

Sensible Sunlight is Protective Against Melanoma

Exposure to sunlight, particularly UVB, is protective against melanoma -- or rather, the vitamin D your body produces in response to UVB radiation is protective. As written in The Lancet:

"Paradoxically, outdoor workers have a decreased risk of melanoma compared with indoor workers, suggesting that chronic sunlight exposure can have a protective effect."

A study in Medical Hypotheses suggested that indoor workers may have increased rates of melanoma because they're exposed to sunlight through windows, and only UVA light, unlike UVB, can pass through window glass.  At the same time, these indoor workers, who get three to nine times less solar UV exposure than outdoor workers, are missing out on exposure to the beneficial UVB rays, and have lower levels of vitamin D. The study even noted that indoor UV actually breaks down vitamin D3 formed after outdoor UVB exposure, which would therefore make vitamin D3 deficiency and melanoma risk even worse. A number of associations between sun exposure and melanoma can be found in the medical literature, such as:

  • Occupational exposure, such as farmers and fishermen, and regular weekend sun exposure are associated with decreased risk of melanoma
  • Sun exposure appears to protect against melanoma on skin sites not exposed to sun light, and melanoma occurring on skin with large UV exposure has the best prognosis
  • Patients with the highest blood levels of vitamin D have thinner melanoma and better survival prognosis than those with the lowest vitamin D levels.

Vitamin D Reduces Your Risk of Cancer

This is an important point, because if you are shunning the sun for fear of skin cancer, you are, ironically, missing out on one of the most potent natural cancer protections available. Vitamin D's protective effect against cancer works in multiple ways, including:

  • Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to replicate, could lead to cancer)
  • Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells
  • Causing cells to become fully differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)
  • Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous

A study by Dr. Grant found that about 30 percent of cancer deaths -- which amounts to 2 million worldwide and 200,000 in the United States -- could be prevented each year with higher levels of vitamin D. As he stated in the featured article, the potential lives saved from optimizing vitamin D levels through safe sun exposure (or a safe tanning bed) far outweighs the reported number of melanoma deaths:

"In 2007, there were 988 male and 837 female deaths from melanoma in the UK, and a total 71,336 male and 65,458 female cancer deaths. Thus, melanoma accounted for 1.4% of male cancer deaths and 1.3% of female cancer deaths. Assuming a 15% reduction in all-cancer incidence and mortality rates with adequate solar UVB exposure would imply 20,500 reduced cancer deaths in 2007, which is 11 times the number of melanoma deaths."

Similarly, in a review of the health effects of sun exposure, tanning beds and vitamin D, researchers again noted that the benefits of vitamin D production outweigh the potentially increased risk of melanoma:

"The overall health benefit of an improved vitamin D status may be more important than the possibly increased CMM [cutaneous malignant melanoma] risk resulting from carefully increasing UV exposure.”

Again, there’s compelling research showing that sun exposure will indeed protect you against melanoma, as a very low level of vitamin D is a major risk factor for this disease. This is, by the way, also a primary reason why using sunscreen every time you go outdoors may actually accelerate, rather than prevent, cancer.

How to Optimize Your Vitamin D While Minimizing Your Risk of Skin Damage

Sun exposure is the best way to optimize your vitamin D levels, because when you expose your skin to sunshine or a safe tanning bed, your skin synthesizes vitamin D3. I believe this is a very compelling reason to really make a concerted effort to get ALL your vitamin D requirements from exposure to sunshine, or by using a safe tanning bed. If neither of these are feasible options, then you should take an oral vitamin D3 supplement. For more information, see my recent video below on how to know if you are getting enough vitamin D from sun exposure.


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Healing Ear Infections – The Root Cause May Be The Gastrointestinal Tract

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By Andreas Moritz 

Hi, this is a question from someone who is suffering from acute ear infection and is wondering whether she should take antibiotics as a last resort.

Basically ear infections have underlying causes that are not directly related to the ears, but to bacteria that evolve and grow in the ears, and in the auditory ducts, but are basically emerging from sections or parts of the gastrointestinal tract.

Most people think that ears are independent from the gastrointestinal tract but this is not the case. In fact there is a duct that’s called the Eustachian tube and that is the duct that runs from the throat all the way up into the ears and that duct, also known as the auditory duct, is connected to the throat centre and the throat is connected to the gastrointestinal tract as we know, are the mouth, the nose, the ears, they are all basically interconnected.

Now when there is lot of trouble in the gastrointestinal tract in terms of undigested food that is being fermented or putrefied, then there is a large amount of bacterial activity and these bacteria which are part of the fermenting team to dispose of undigested foods, these bacteria produce toxins and these toxins are highly irritating, and many of them move up into the chest area and from there to the mouth, into the ear ducts, and then into the ears, and they continue the irritating effect that is also experienced in the lower parts of the body.

So when food is not digested, which is the main culprit here, then it’s better to address the underlying causes while perhaps also addressing the symptoms, because ear infections can be extremely painful.

I would suggest not to take recourse to antibiotics however, because antibiotics can cause more problems than they can rectify, because once an antibiotic has been consumed, the bacteria in the gut which regulate the digestive process and help to absorb nutrients from the foods we eat can be highly disturbed for up to a year after taking one course of antibiotics. So there is a disadvantage taking recourse to such methods as killing germs. It’s better to set the preconditions, clean out the intestines.

I would suggest to have a colonic irrigation, colon hydrotherapy or colema, to clean out the intestine so that there is an outlet for accumulated waste matter that is backing up into the upper part of the body so that the ears and ear ducts can empty, can release whatever has been accumulated there which harbors obviously fermenting or putrefying bacteria.

So bacteria don’t infect healthy tissue. They only infect tissue that has been congested, where toxins have accumulated, where waste matter, metabolic waste and other cellular debris is accumulated, and that’s where the bacteria will accumulate as well, and that’s where they take action.

So we cannot blame the bacteria for causing such infections, but we need to look at what causes the bacteria to assemble there, and to do their so-called dirty job, cleaning up the mess that somehow we have created in our body.

I suggest to make sure in the future to deal with the digestive process, avoiding foods that can cause a lot of fermentation and lead to the proliferation of what is known as the candida bacteria, and these candida bacteria are responsible for fermenting food that we have not been able to digest properly, and in order to stop candida bacteria ending up going into the ears and causing ear infections. It’s important to deal with it at the root cause, not just on the symptomatic level.

However sometimes it is extremely debilitating to have the pain and the congestion in the ears, given the high pressure and the exposure of nerve endings and the sensitive parts of the inner ear that can easily get inflamed and cause a lot of pain. So in that case, I would suggest to take hydrogen peroxide, the solution that you will find in most pharmacies, 3 or 4 percent, which you put in a tiny little bottle and you spray that into the ear a couple of times and you may want to put the head sideways so that the hydrogen peroxide is sitting there for a while taking its action and it will kill bacteria there and this is obviously just to relieve the symptoms, not to cure the problem.

The cure lies in dealing with the underlying issues, i.e. poor digestion, poor diet, poor lifestyle and eating habits that are responsible for that, and perhaps also poor bile secretion because of intra-hepatic gallstones blocking the bile ducts, not allowing you to have enough bile available for the digestive process. Bile keeps the bacteria population in balance and makes sure that food is properly digested and absorbed, and therefore it cannot become a fertile ground for bacterial proliferation and subsequent infection, so it’s good to always use natural ways rather than unnatural ways that just blindly kill germs… doesn’t matter whether they are the good kind or the bad kind.

In my opinion, there are no bad bacteria, there are bacteria for different reasons for different purposes. Some are for constructive purposes like generating… creating vitamins like B12 and then there are others that have to act on food to break it down and to also dispose of waste matter. So all bacteria are actually good bacteria and we should not just indiscriminately kill them off and cause more harm in the body, because once you have taken antibiotics it is very likely that the same issue is coming back, and it is usually worse each time you have used antibiotics, and eventually antibiotics… the bacteria that are involved in these infections… they become resistant to these drugs and there comes a point where antibiotics are no longer going to work, and that causes far, far more serious issues than the initial pain that you may experience with an infection of the ear.

It’s also important to make sure you get enough sun exposure. Vitamin D deficiency is a major reason for infections, infectious disease, because the immune system depends on vitamin D, vitamin D controls the immune system and thousands of genes responsible for natural defenses in the body. So make sure that you expose your skin to the sun on a regular basis. If the sun is too weak to generate vitamin D in the body, then I would suggest to use a vitamin D lamp or UV lamp, you can find them on the internet and use these till the time the sun is not available or capable of producing vitamin D at that time.

So I would suggest you take these measures as a matter of precaution, prevention, so that you don’t have to deal with the painful consequences as such.

Thank you.

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Different ways to get Sunlight exposure and their Effects

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By Andreas Moritz 

Hi, this is a very good question from John and it’s related to sunlight, vitamin D, and UV-A, which are mentioned in my book as very important factors in the maintenance of good health. And his question relates to whether lying down on one’s stomach in a room, and allowing the sun to shine through the open window, whether the closing of the eyes diminishes the positive effects of UV radiation in order to produce vitamin D. Because I do mention in my book “Heal Yourself With Sunlight” that wearing sunshades, sunglasses, will prevent the positive effects of UV-B radiation in stimulating the secretion of vitamin D in our body.

Vitamin D is essential to maintain a strong good immune system and proper digestive functions and cardiovascular functions amongst other positive benefits.

So when a person is wearing sunshades, there is a hormone in the brain that regulates the secretion of melanin in the cells, and that becomes suppressed when we wear sunshades because the body thinks that it is getting darker outside and will therefore diminish the production of these hormones, that basically shuts down the melanin production and therefore the protection against ultraviolet radiation that can then cause burning in deeper layers of the skin, which in turn can cause damage to the skin, not necessarily skin cancer, because that is an entirely different subject which is largely caused by carcinogens such as sunscreen lotion, or foods that are carcinogenic, or have effects of toxicity inside the skin, which is more an internal process of contamination and build-up of toxins rather than something external such as exposure of the skin to the sun.

Now the going back to the original question, which I find is an excellent question. The reason why we have problems with blocking the protective effects of melanin – that particular substance prevents the skin from burning – when we wear sunshades, that effect is diminished, or closing the eyes and sort of looking down like having the eyes facing the pillow, so that there is no natural light coming in, the body will begin will produce less melanin that protects the skin against burning.

So I would encourage you to keep your eyes either open, or the eyelids themselves even if they are closed will still let the body know that there is sunshine, but I wouldn’t put anything on the eyes or over the eyes, so that the body notices that it is actually sunlight, daylight, and it’s not getting dark.

The question is so good because it really shows the mechanism that takes place here that when we are wearing something over the eyes, then the body is more prone to sunburn, and you can easily see that by let’s say, being in the sun and putting sunshades over the eyes or falling asleep.

When you fall asleep, the eyes turn upward or sideways in some cases which doesn’t allow the body to notice that it is actually light outside, and in that case you find that you are burning much, much faster. Many people will fall asleep while sunbathing, they find themselves… when they wake up… their skin has actually been burned, sometimes seriously, and this can cause many, many problems. Whereas if they were awake and they looked around they saw natural sunlight, the eyes were focused towards the world around them instead of inward then the problem with the sunburn would be greatly diminished, and they wouldn’t have the same burning effect, and so that’s why it’s good to keep your eyes open or at least when you close them, don’t put anything over the eyes in order to protect the skin against severe sunburns.

So I hope that answers your question, and there is something to be said about not wearing sunshades or sunscreens or putting sunscreens or lotions on the skin except something like natural coconut oil, which is very protective of the skin.

The other part of the question related to allowing sunlight to come through windows which nowadays have UV reflecting effects, that means UV-B rays that are stimulating the production of vitamin D in the body are reflected or filtered out or blocked out, and this can lead to an actual deficiency of vitamin D in the body.

So driving around in a car all day and having the sun shining on your face or your arms can create a vitamin D deficiency that most people are not aware of.

The reason for that is because UV-B is the principal UV part of the sun that is stimulating the production of vitamin D, while UV-A rays are actually allowed to go through the glass and enter the body and when UV-A enters the body without the UV-B at the same time, then UV-A penetrates much deeper than it normally would. UV-B is responsible for actually removing vitamin D from the body, it’s that part that normally regulates the balance secretion or production of vitamin D in the body, if the person is in the sun for eight hours it could lead to an overproduction of vitamin D, but this doesn’t happen in the presence of UV-A coming into the skin as well, which then removes any excess amounts of vitamin D so you will never ever be overdosed however long you are in the sun. In that respect it’s very important to not be too close to a window when the sun is shining, let’s say sitting inside the house and then the sun shines through the glass unless of course, you have a glass that doesn’t reflect the UV-B part of the sunlight so this is a very important information.

Also if you are getting a good suntan, natural suntan, and you are therefore producing a lot of vitamin D, it’s important to not right away shower after sun exposure, because the Vitamin D is sitting on the surface of the skin, it needs to be absorbed, otherwise we are just washing it off right away, particularly using soaps will get rid of the vitamin D that you have produced, and you will also develop a vitamin D deficiency in spite of having exposed your skin to the sun, even if it has been done for several hours, you still, you will not be able to absorb enough of the vitamin D to make a difference.

So sunlight can definitely create a lot of healing, but it has to be done properly in a balanced fashion.

When you feel burning of the skin make sure you get out of the sun. It shouldn’t redden, slightly pink if fine, that’s the time when you should move into the shade, you still get UV exposure, not as strong of course when you are directly in the sun, but even just being in the shade and being in open daylight, sunlight ,and you will still get vitamin D production in the body.

And so sunlight is our best friend, it’s not an enemy.

The studies that have been done on sun exposure and there are more and more coming out, showing that regular sun exposure is far, far more important and safe than even having the sun burn the skin, you will not increase the risk of skin cancer, the population has been told now for several decades and there is still no scientific evidence that sunlight can cause skin cancer.

If you want to know more about this piece refer to my book “Heal Yourself With Sunlight” which contains all the details and the scientific data that shows that sunlight cannot cause skin cancer.

Skin cancer typically occurs in areas of the body that are hardly ever exposed to the sun like under the arms or under the thighs, in hidden area and not in the typically exposed areas of the skin. So there is a lot of misinformation going around. There are other things that cause skin cancers but the sun is not one of them.

Thank you for listening and I hope you have a beautiful sun-filled day today.

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Immune Boosters ‘Can be’ Counterproductive

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By Andreas Moritz 


This is a question form Diane Austin and she would like me to share what I think about immune boosters, and she is mentioning the IP6 and AHCC, and she is confused if they are counterproductive.

Certainly, I agree with the idea that immune boosters can be counterproductive, because when you interfere or manipulate the immune system, it can go either one way or the other. Either you boost the immune system, you increase it beyond what it is right now, or you suppress the immune system.  We know that vaccines suppress the immune system and they can eventually lead to severe issues unless of course you use an adjuvant, which are like aluminum, which can lead to a hyper reaction of the immune system which is not advisable, because when you do that, you never know when the immune system overreacts and starts turning against the body, because in a hypersensitive immune system, hyper-reactive immune system, it will start inflaming the body’s own cells and it’s called auto immune disease.

So I am not into boosting the immune system, I am not into suppressing the immune system but supporting the immune system, letting the body make sure it is as balanced as it is necessary.

Sometimes the body keeps the immune system lower in order to prevent an escalation, an inflammatory response, that could kill someone because it becomes too obstructive and so trying to boost the immune system when it is low through immune boosters, it can be very risky. So I am not in favor of that.

Many people’s immune systems are low because they suffer from vitamin D deficiency because they are not exposing their skin to the sun on a regular basis. If there’s, during a long winter period, not enough sunlight or it’s simply too cold to be outside, then I recommend using the vitamin D lamp, UV lamp, Dr. Mercola has great standing UV lamps, or there are simpler ones that basically allow you to expose the head, facial area or the upper chest area with tiny smaller UV lamps which can do the job quite well, giving you the necessary vitamin D that keeps the immune system balanced.

And there is a natural built-in mechanism that comes with regular sun exposure, UV-B is producing vitamin D in the body and UV-A that part of the UV light that penetrates deeper into the skin, UV-A makes sure that you don’t produce too much vitamin D. 

So the body knows too much of one thing or too little of the same can be damaging, and therefore there are mechanisms at place to always make sure that we have the right amount of strength in the immune system, not too little not too much.

So it’s better to go to the root causes of immune deficiency rather than trying to manipulate the immune system through immune boosters or any other mechanisms.

A healthy diet, balanced diet, healthy lifestyle, sleeping habits, all of that make sure that the immune system stays healthy. Keeping the liver clean is a great way to keep the immune system strong and balanced.

The sleep particularly is very important. There are studies to show that for every hour that we go to bed too late, and too late means anything after 10 PM, if we go to bed at 11 PM the immune system can already be deficient by 40 % for every hour you go to bed, later the immune system becomes weaker as we go along. So going to sleep at 9:30 – 10:00 PM is an excellent time to keep the immune system balanced and then having enough sunlight exposure.

Make sure that the body makes enough serotonin, that’s a powerful hormone produced in the brain and the digestive system, that keeps the immune system and the digestive system and the brain powerfully balanced in order to keep the body free of disease, and protect the body from contaminants… contaminants found in food or the environment.

So having said that, I hope this gives you some good idea why immune boosters are detrimental to the body and why we should go for the more natural immune boosters that come with a balanced lifestyle, diet, and stress-free life as much as possible, stress being obviously an immune suppressor.

We know that when we get stressed, emotionally disturbed, then that suppresses the immune system by secreting a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol suppresses the immune system.

So making sure that you have proper sleep, a good diet, clean the liver, which all helps to keep our emotions balanced, and if there is any emotional difficulty to perhaps seek help from others, speaking about it, expressing yourself, which all help to keeping the system as much as balanced as possible. 

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The Heart Disease Scam That Generates Billions Every Year… And May Cost You Your Life

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

More than half a million Americans received an angioplasty in 2007 (the most recent year for which data is available).

This invasive procedure involves inflating a thin balloon in a narrowed artery to crush deposits; a stent (a wire mesh tube) is often then left behind to keep the vessel open.

When used during a heart attack, an angioplasty can quickly open a blocked artery to lessen the damage to your heart, and when used in this way can be lifesaving.

However, oftentimes heart disease patients receive angioplasties even though they have not had a heart attack — a decision that goes against the latest medical guidelines and the suggestion of a new study, which found people treated using other less-invasive methods fared just as well as those who also underwent angioplasty with stents.

Angioplasty Offers “No Evidence of Benefit” Compared to Less Invasive Treatment

If you have stable heart disease, research shows that your initial treatment should usually be lifestyle changes. But less than half of heart disease patients are treated using lifestyle changes prior to undergoing angioplasty. According to an analysis of eight clinical trials involving over 7,000 people, angioplasty offers no benefit compared to less invasive treatment of heart disease.

The researchers concluded:

“Initial stent implantation for stable CAD [coronary artery disease] shows no evidence of benefit compared with initial medical therapy for prevention of death, nonfatal MI, unplanned revascularization, or angina.”

As an invasive surgery, angioplasty does come with its fair share of risks, however. Among them:

Because angioplasty does absolutely nothing to address the underlying causes of heart disease, you should know that restenosis, or a re-narrowing of your arteries, is common. This occurs in up to 40 percent of angioplasties without stents, but even with a stent the risk is still around 20 percent (or 10 percent for a drug-eluting stent). And, of course, if your artery becomes re-narrowed the surgery was all for nothing.

Along with saving yourself from the potentially life-threatening risks noted above, avoiding angioplasty will save you a hefty chunk of change. As Consumer Reports noted:

“Angioplasty is also more expensive, the authors report. They said that by following current guidelines, 76 percent of patients with stable heart disease would save approximately $9,450 each in lifetime health-care costs. Other researchers have estimated such a shift would save $6 to $8 billion a year.”

Even Drugs Can Often be Avoided for Heart Disease

The alternative treatment to angioplasty noted in the study was a combination of lifestyle changes and drugs.

” … medical guidelines have for several years said that most people who have symptoms of heart problems, such as angina (chest pain on exertion), but have not had a heart attack, should be treated with lifestyle changes and drugs first. Yet less than half of patients in that situation are treated according to these guidelines before undergoing angioplasty, research suggests,” Consumer Reports states.

This may come as a surprise, but many medications commonly prescribed to heart disease patients can also be avoided. This includes statin drugs, which are taken by millions of Americans. The majority of people who use statin cholesterol-lowering drugs are doing so because they believe lowering their cholesterol will prevent heart attacks and strokes. How many of these people do you think would continue to take them if they knew these very same drugs have been linked to decreased heart muscle function and increased risk of stroke, along with hundreds of other serious side effects?

Not very many, right?

Well, you may want to reconsider your use of statins, as a study in Clinical Cardiology found that heart muscle function was “significantly better” in the control group than in those taking statin drugs! Further, keeping your cholesterol levels higher may actually help you to prevent disease, and is not actually linked to heart disease.

For the vast majority of people, statin drugs are an unnecessary health risk you’re better off avoiding — and you definitely want to avoid the trap of taking them to lower your cholesterol. Other common heart disease medications, like high blood pressure drugs and even aspirin, do absolutely nothing to address the underlying causes of the condition.

It is rare when a drug is appropriate for treatment of a chronic condition like heart disease, but that doesn’t stop pharmaceutical companies from creating more of them. Currently, researchers are working on nearly 300 new medications for heart disease and stroke … but you likely have all the tools you need for prevention and treatment at your disposal right now.

If You Have Stable Heart Disease, Lifestyle Changes Should be Your Go-To Treatment

Most chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, are largely preventable with simple lifestyle changes. Imagine the lowered death toll, not to mention costs to the economy, if more people decided to take control of their health … heart disease and cancer alone accounted for 47 percent of deaths in the United States in 2010, and there are many strategies you can implement to lower your risk of these diseases … and most of the leading causes of death in the United States.

In the case of heart disease, the healthy lifestyle strategies that follow are not only effective as prevention; they’re also useful for treatment. So what does a “healthy lifestyle” entail?

  • Proper Food Choices For a comprehensive guide on which foods to eat and which to avoid, see my nutrition plan. Generally speaking, you should be looking to focus your diet on whole, unprocessed foods (vegetables, meats, raw dairy, nuts, and so forth) that come from healthy, sustainable, local sources, such as a small organic farm not far from your home.For the best nutrition and health benefits, you will want to eat a good portion of your food raw. Personally, I aim to eat about 80-85 percent of my food raw, including raw eggs and humanely raised organic animal products that have not been raised on a CAFO (confined animal feeding operation). Fermented foods are also important, as they are excellent sources of probiotics and vitamin K2, which is important for preventing arterial plaque buildup and heart disease.Nearly as important as knowing which foods to eat more of is knowing which foods to avoid, and topping the list is fructose. Sugar, and especially fructose, act as toxins in and of themselves, and as such drive multiple disease processes in your body.
  • Comprehensive Exercise Program, including High-Intensity Exercise like Peak Fitness Even if you’re eating the healthiest diet in the world, you still need to exercise to reach the highest levels of health, and you need to be exercising effectively, which means including not only core-strengthening exercises, strength training, and stretching but also high-intensity activities into your rotation. High-intensity interval-type training like Peak Fitness boosts human growth hormone (HGH) production naturally, which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor.
  • Stress Reduction and Positive Thinking You cannot be optimally healthy if you avoid addressing the emotional component of your health and longevity, as your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease — from heart disease and depression, to arthritis and cancer. Effective coping mechanisms are a major longevity-promoting factor in part because stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), meditation, prayer, social support and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium.
  • Proper Sun Exposure to Optimize Vitamin D
    Vitamin D is essential for your heart and cardiovascular system. Even if you’re considered generally “healthy,” if you’re deficient in vitamin D, your arteries are likely stiffer than they should be, and your blood pressure may run higher than recommended due to your blood vessels being unable to relax.
    It’s been repeatedly shown that by increasing your vitamin D levels, you can improve your cardiovascular health and lower your blood pressure. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people are severely deficient in vitamin D. In the United States, the late winter average vitamin D level is only about 15-18 ng/ml, which is considered a very serious deficiency state. Overall, it’s estimated that 85 percent of Americans are deficient, and as much as 95 percent of U.S. senior citizens.
    The important factor when it comes to vitamin D is your serum level, which should ideally be between 50-70 ng/ml year-round. Sun exposure or a safe tanning bed is the preferred method for optimizing vitamin D levels, but a vitamin D3 supplement can be used as a last resort. Most adults need about 8,000 IU’s of vitamin D a day to achieve serum levels above 40 ng/ml, which is still just below the minimum recommended serum level of 50 ng/ml.

High Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats

Omega-3 fat like that found in krill oil improves endothelial function, a major factor in promoting the growth of new blood vessels, and has beneficial effects on your heart’s electrical system, preventing potentially life-threatening heart rhythm disorders.

Omega-3 deficiency may actually be a significant underlying factor in up to 96,000 premature deaths each year, including some of those from coronary heart disease and stroke. Even the FDA allows claims for omega-3 for heart disease; it is one of the few food health claims that the FDA allows — and, yes, I view omega-3 fats not as just another supplement, but as an essential foodyou need to include in your diet.

How to Determine Your Heart Disease Risk…

Before deciding on an angioplasty, it’s important to be able to accurately gauge your heart disease risk – and you should know that your total cholesterol level is just about worthless in determining this risk, unless it is close to 340 or higher.

Instead, one of the most important risk factors will be your HDL to cholesterol ratio.

I have seen a number of people with levels over 250 who actually were at low heart disease risk due to their HDL levels. Conversely, I have seen even more who had cholesterol levels under 200 that were at a very high risk of heart disease based on the following additional tests:

  • HDL/Cholesterol ratio
  • Triglyceride/HDL ratios

HDL percentage is a very potent heart disease risk factor. Just divide your HDL level by your cholesterol. That percentage should ideally be above 24 percent. Below 10 percent, it’s a significant indicator of risk for heart disease. You can also do the same thing with your triglycerides and HDL ratio. That percentage should be below 2.

If you have type 2 diabetes, you’re automatically at an increased risk so you can move ahead to my recommendations above. In fact, anyone can use the above recommendations because their only “side effects” are improved health! That’s the beauty of it. Together, these steps can drastically lower your heart disease risk and improve heart health — sometimes quite rapidly. If you’re otherwise healthy and your heart disease is stable, only after exhausting these strategies should more invasive options, like drugs and angioplasty, be considered.

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Slash Your Risk of Cancer – by Breaking This Cardinal Rule

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

UV light from the sun and tanning beds is the main vitamin D source for humans, and researchers have identified an astonishing number of health benefits of vitamin D in the past decade.

But since UV exposure has been suspected of causing skin cancer, many conventional health authorities still warn against it.

A recent review of studies sought to review the health effects of solar radiation, tanning beds and vitamin D.

The researchers looked at data from different time periods for populations at different latitudes, with the aim at looking at the relative risk for cutaneous malignant melanoma associated with tanning bed use, vitamin D and UV effects.

They found that increased tanning bed use was NOT associated with melanoma.

According to the authors:

“Due to the fear of skin cancer, health authorities warn against sun and sunbed exposure.

This policy, as well as the recommended vitamin D doses, may need revision.”

And:

“… The overall health benefit of an improved vitamin D status may be more important than the possibly increased [cutaneous malignant melanoma] risk resulting from carefully increasing UV exposure.”

In fact, Ivan Oransky, the editor of Reuters Health, has previously noted that the real risk of getting skin cancer from a tanning bed is less than three-tenths of one percent—and even then, this is likely only from those who habitually overexpose themselves.

Sun Exposure and Skin Cancer

The authors of the featured review state that while sun exposure is commonly assumed to be the main cause of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM hereafter referred to simply as melanoma, the most lethal form of skin cancer—the matter is actually NOT “settled.”

The theory is still under dispute, and in their analysis, they reviewed the arguments for and against causation.

With a hint of irony, the authors state that “several factors are probably involved, as exemplified by a relationship sometimes found between gross domestic product and melanoma incidence.” They also list a number of associations between sun exposure and melanoma found in the medical literature, such as:

  • Intermittent sun exposure and severe sunburn in childhood are associated with anincreased risk of melanoma
  • Occupational exposure, such as farmers and fishermen, and regular weekend sun exposure are associated with decreased risk of melanoma
  • Sun exposure appears to protect against melanoma on skin sites not exposed to sun light, and melanoma occurring on skin with large UV exposure has the best prognosis
  • Patients with the highest blood levels of vitamin D have thinner melanoma and better survival prognosis than those with the lowest vitamin D levels.

So what about tanning beds—are they more dangerous than regular sun exposure? As you may recall, the Senate’s health-care overhaul bill now includes a 10 percent tax on tanning services to dissuade you from engaging in such “health-harming” activities; a move that is unquestionably short sighted and counterproductive considering the fact that vitamin D deficiency is rampant in the U.S.

Where tanning beds are concerned, the science is more conflicted, with some studies finding no detrimental impact from tanning beds on skin cancer rates while others have found that rates of skin cancer are higher in those using tanning beds than those who do not tan. The reason for these conflicting findings, the authors speculate, could very well be due to differences in UVA/UVB ratios and intensities between different types of tanning beds.

What Makes a Tanning Bed Safe?

I believe they’re likely correct in their speculation that the type of tanning bed may be a major factor in whether or not it will have a beneficial or detrimental impact on your cancer risk. Safe tanning beds have less of the dangerous UVA than sunlight, while unsafe ones emit more UVA than sunlight, and it is the UVA rays, which penetrate your skin more deeply than UVB, that appear to be a much more important factor in causing photoaging, wrinkles and skin cancers.

Another important factor when selecting a tanning bed is the type of ballast it employs, to avoid excessive electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure. Most tanning units use magnetic ballasts to generate light. These magnetic ballasts are well known sources of EMF fields that can contribute to cancer.

If you hear a loud buzzing noise while in a tanning bed, it has a magnetic ballast system. I strongly recommend you avoid magnetic ballast beds, and restrict your use of tanning beds to those that use electronic ballasts.

High-quality indoor tanning devices are safe if you precisely follow the simple guideline of never getting burned. Your skin should only get the lightest shade of pink after using them. The FDA has very strict guidelines that seem overly restrictive and will likely impair most people from getting enough vitamin D.

The FDA also recommends waiting 24-48 hours between doses. The reason for this is that it takes at least 24 hours for the erythema to go away. This exposure schedule can be described as CONTROLLED SUNSHINE, making it a very safe way to receive the benefits of the sun while indoors. Ideally you should do this also when you are initially exposed to sunshine. But once you have a tan you can easily and safely increase exposure to once a day.

IF Sun Exposure Increases Your Risk of Cancer, Just How Great is that Risk?

Even when looking at the research showing an increased risk for skin cancer from sun exposure, just how great is that risk? Ivan Oransky, M.D., editor of Reuters Health wrote an excellent commentary on this last year.

Each year, during the month of May, as the sun slowly begins to thaw away those winter blues, you start getting bombarded with Skin Cancer Awareness ads; all of which pitch the idea that the sun is your enemy. Many will include the statistic issued by the World Health Organization, which states that “use of sunbeds before the age of 35 is associated with a 75 percent increase in the risk of melanoma.”

Sounds horrific, but how real is this threat?

“[W]hat does that really mean? Is it 75 percent greater than an already-high risk, or a tiny one?” Oransky writes.

“If you read the FDA’s “Indoor Tanning: The Risks of Ultraviolet Rays,” or a number of other documents from the WHO and skin cancer foundations, you won’t find your actual risk. That led AHCJ member Hiran Ratnayake to look into the issue in March for The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal, after Delaware passed laws limiting teens’ access to tanning salons. The 75 percent figure is based on a review of a number of studies, Ratnayake learned. The strongest such study was one that followed more than 100,000 women over eight years.

But as Ratnayake noted, that study “found that less than three-tenths of 1 percent who tanned frequently developed melanoma while less than two-tenths of 1 percent who didn’t tan developed melanoma.” That’s actually about a 55 percent increase, but when the study was pooled with others, the average was a 75 percent increase.

In other words, even if the risk of melanoma was 75 percent greater than two-tenths of one percent, rather than 55 percent greater, it would still be far below one percent.” [Emphasis mine.]

So, while statistically true, it’s really misleading, and incites undue fear. By only presenting the relative risk increase (the 75 percent increase) they make the risk sound rather unreasonable. Meanwhile, your absolute risk of developing skin cancer from sun exposure is still, AT WORST, below one percent! And please remember, these highly distorted scare tactics fail to mention the BENEFITS of the exposure, which radically reduce the dangers of the far more common, breast, prostate and colon cancers that are reduced.

Understanding the Difference between Relative Risk and Absolute Risk

Oransky explains the importance of understanding the difference between relative risk and absolute risk in his article:

“Absolute risk just tells you the chance of something happening, while relative risk tells you how that risk compares to another risk, as a ratio. If a risk doubles, for example, that’s a relative risk of 2, or 200 percent. If it halves, it’s 0.5, or 50 percent. Generally, when you’re dealing with small absolute risks, as we are with melanoma, the relative risk differences will seem much greater than the absolute risk differences.

You can see how if someone is lobbying to ban something – or, in the case of a new drug, trying to show a dramatic effect – they would probably want to use the relative risk. … So when you read a study that says something doubles the risk of some terrible disease, ask: Doubles from what to what?”

Tanning Beds Decrease Ten Times More Cancers than they Cause

Another important factor to keep in mind is that vitamin D, ideally from sun exposure, may decrease your risk of many other cancers and chronic diseases.

According to the featured review:

“… it can be estimated that increased sun exposure to the Norwegian population might at worst result in 200-300 more melanoma deaths per year, but it would elevate the vitamin D status by about 25 nmol/l and might result in 4,000 fewer internal cancers and about 3,000 fewer cancer deaths overall.

The lack of sunlight exposure leads to more health problems than bone disease and increased risk of cancer. Other benefits include protection against infectious diseases and non-cancerous diseases (diabetes, CVD, multiple sclerosis, and mental disorders).”

Overall, I believe the less than one percent risk of developing skin cancer from sun exposure or a safe tanning bed is well worth it, as increased vitamin D levels will protect you against so many other debilitating and lethal diseases and cancers… There’s also compelling research showing that sun exposure will indeed protect you against melanoma—the most dangerous form of skin cancer.

Sun Exposure is the BEST Way to Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels

In my view, a safe tanning bed comes in as a close second after natural sun exposure as the ideal way to optimize your vitamin D levels (as opposed to getting it from fortified food items or supplements). In a recent interview, Dr. Stephanie Seneff explained how vitamin D—specifically from sun exposure—is intricately tied to healthy cholesterol and sulfur levels, making the recommendation to get your vitamin D from the sun all the more important.

To review the details, please listen to the interview below.

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Fluorescent Lighting is Harmful for the Body

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Hi this is a question from Donna about florescent lighting and if a person suffers from environmental sensitivities, if there is any advice I can give?

Florescent lighting is very unnatural for the body; I have written about it extensively in my book “Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation”.

It can cause multiple problems that interfere with the biological functions of our brain and nervous system as well as the immune system. There is no natural florescent lighting in nature, and it can be very confusing for the body.

There are certain rays that are missing that the sunlight provides, and if a person who is constantly sitting in an office most of the day under the influence of florescent light, then that can certainly confuse the body.

It has been shown that fluorescent lighting suppresses the immune system and it can have cardiovascular detrimental effects, and can cause damage to the brain and nervous system because light, natural light, is a nutrient, and so once you develop nutrient deficiency, light deficiency, then that can basically lead to deficiencies in the body and therefore damage of the body, and so I definitely recommend to avoid florescent light if at all possible.

And if there is no chance of being able to avoid that, to at least find ways to get out in the sun during breaks, during the working hours, or on weekends, to replenish the body’s nutrient uptake in terms of light.

There are seven parts to the light, as we know it, even though there are other fragments to light but there are seven colors. So when the white light hits the retina of the eye it gets broken down into seven colors including the red, green, blue, yellow, violet, so there are these colors that need to be absorbed, they actually pass into the pineal gland where they are being processed and chemically encoded, and then they are transferred to all the cells in the body, and some cells need more red light, some need more blue light, some green light in order to produce the various secretions like bile, the green yellowish bile, the red blood, and the other parts of the body. So it’s essential to live off light. We need to have proper light exposure.

If you are exposing plants to fluorescent light on a constant basis and depriving them of natural sunlight, you will not achieve a proper healthy growth. It will become… the immune system of the plant will not be able to develop properly, and it becomes susceptible to insect infestation or other problems, it will not grow as healthily as other plants that are exposed to direct sunlight can. It can also interfere with the reproductive capabilities, the spreading of the plants to other areas, and it will weaken the seed production definitely, according to research. So I definitely encourage you to avoid fluorescent light exposure.

It can also increase chemical sensitivities. People who are already chemically sensitized and are prone to headaches or migraines, they definitely suffer from florescent light. That shows that there is a heightened sensitivity when you expose yourself to fluorescent light on a day-to-day basis and if you already have accumulated chemicals or heavy metals in the body.

Always good to, when you have environmental sensitivities… electromagnetic exposure can heighten that sensitivity. So if you are living in a house or in an office where you have a lot of electromagnetic frequency exposure, I recommend to get an ionized stone from my website “Ener-chi.com” and attach one of these stones to the fuse box or the electrical box, that helps with protecting you against the harmful effects of from electromagnetic frequencies.

The other things is obviously cleaning out the liver to make sure that the body can detoxify itself properly again and doesn’t get forced to accumulate toxins instead of removing them.

And kidney cleansing is also very important to make sure that in case the kidneys have accumulated toxins and waste products, that this gets removed, so that the organs of elimination are clean and open and the body is not accumulating waste matter to a degree that leads to heightened sensitivities and reactions like allergic reactions to substances, chemicals, metals and other environmental pollutants.

Thank you.

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This Vitamin Might Ease Menstrual Cramps

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

At least half of reproductive-age women suffer from painful menstrual cramps that begin shortly before the start of menstrual flow and continue for several days.

For some the pain is a mild annoyance, but for others it can be so severe that it interferes with daily activities.

Severe menstrual cramps are actually among the most common reasons for missed work and school days among young women.

For treatment, many women rely on over-the-counter NSAIDs like ibuprofen for pain relief, and conventional physicians may even prescribe birth control pills, which prevent ovulation and reduce the severity of cramps.

Both of these “solutions” carry significant risks of side effects while doing nothing to treat the underlying reasons why menstrual cramps occur.

Now researchers have uncovered another option that might ease menstrual cramp pain naturally via the “sunshine vitamin,” or vitamin D.

Vitamin D Might Relieve Menstrual Cramp Pain

During menstruation, your uterus contracts to expel its lining, a process that’s triggered by hormone-like substances called prostaglandins.

Prostaglandins are associated with both pain and inflammation, and higher levels of these substances are linked to more severe menstrual cramps.

Vitamin D not only helps to decrease the production of prostaglandins, it also helps decrease the production of cytokines, which promote inflammation in your body.

In fact, researchers recently revealed that women with relatively low vitamin D levels (less than 45 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL)) who took a 300,000 IU mega-dose of vitamin D3 had a significant reduction in menstrual cramp pain. Two months after taking the vitamin D, the women rated their pain more than 2 points lower on a scale of 1-10, and all had stopped using painkillers. On the other hand, those who had taken a placebo reported no reduction in pain, and 40 percent were still taking pain medications.

These are impressive results, however I would caution you against taking this massive dose of vitamin D, especially without medical supervision, as it is possible to overdose on vitamin D when taken in supplement form especially when your vitamin A (not beta carotene) and vitamin K2 are not properly balanced. Very high doses of vitamin D3 supplements may lead to hypercalcemia (high blood calcium) over time. This can result in deposits of calcium in your heart, lungs or kidneys, and the damage can be permanent if your vitamin D levels remain elevated for too long.

The ideal way to optimize your vitamin D levels is through safe sun exposure, as this carries virtually no risk of overdosing on vitamin D.

Regular, Consistent Dosing is Best to Optimize Your Vitamin D

Vitamin D deficiency is currently at epidemic proportions in the United States and many other regions around the world, largely because people do not spend enough time in the sun to facilitate this important process of vitamin D production. This is linked to a number of serious health conditions including cancer and heart disease, not to mention that researchers in the above study found that the lower a woman’s level of vitamin D, the more menstrual cramp pain she experienced.

So the first step to ensuring you are receiving all the benefits of vitamin D is to find out what your levels are using a 25(OH)D test, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D.

There are two vitamin D tests — 1,25(OH)D and 25(OH)D — but 25(OH)D is the better marker of overall D status. It is this marker that is most strongly associated with overall health, and it is the one you should ask your physician for. The point of vitamin D testing is, of course, to be sure you are maintaining a therapeutic level of vitamin D in your blood. A few years back, the recommended level was between 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml), but more recently the optimal vitamin D level has been raised to at least 50 ng/ml.

Sun exposure is the BEST way to optimize your vitamin D levels; exposing a large amount of your skin until it turns the lightest shade of pink, as near to solar noon as possible, is typically necessary to achieve adequate vitamin D production. If sun exposure is not an option, a safe tanning bed (with electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, to avoid unnecessary exposure to EMF fields) can be used.

As a last resort, a vitamin D3 supplement can be taken orally, but research suggests the average adult needs to take 8,000 IU’s of vitamin D per day in order to elevate their levels above 40 ng/ml, which is the absolute minimum for disease prevention. The dosage that is right for you will be determined, ultimately, by how much is needed to keep your levels in the therapeutic range above.

For more details, be sure to read How to Get Your Vitamin D Within Healthy Ranges.

What’s Wrong with Conventional Treatments for Menstrual Cramps?

If you visit a conventional physician complaining of menstrual cramps, you’re likely to leave the office with a prescription for one of two medications: an NSAID or an oral contraceptive. Aside from the fact that these only cover up your symptoms, and do nothing to heal the problem, they carry significant risks. These are made even worse since most women with menstrual cramps seek long-term relief, and may take the drugs for many months or even years.

NSAIDs

NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) are linked to serious gastrointestinal risks, like bleeding of the digestive tract, increased blood pressure and kidney problems. This applies not only to prescription medications like Celebrex but also over-the-counter drugs like aspirin, Advil and Motrin. NSAIDs are also notoriously bad for your heart; a study by researchers at The University of Bern in Switzerland revealed that NSAIDs lead to a two to fourfold increase in the risk of heart attacks, stroke or cardiovascular death, noting that it would only take 25-50 patients being treated with NSAIDs for one year to lead to an additional heart attack or stroke.i

Birth Control Pills

Hormonal birth control methods like “the pill” contain synthetic progesterone and synthetic estrogen — something that is clearly not advantageous if you want to maintain optimal health. These contraceptives contain the same synthetic hormones as those used in hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which has well-documented risks, including an increased risk of blood clots, stroke, heart attack, and breast cancer.

In fact, studies have found that HRT increases post-menopausal women’s breast cancer risk by at least one percent per year, and HRT with progestin increases your risk by eight percent per year, potentially going as high as 30 percent after just four years of use!

Furthermore, using birth control pills to relieve menstrual cramps is counterproductive, because you may end up simply exchanging them for another health condition. Birth control pills have been linked to an increased risk of:

More Natural Strategies to Ease Menstrual Cramps

If painful menstrual cramps are interfering with your quality of life, there are a number of safe, natural strategies to consider, in addition to optimizing your vitamin D levels.

  • Evening Primrose Oil: This contains the essential fatty acid gamma linolenic acid (GLA), which is useful for treating pain. It is also helpful to restore abnormal hormone physiology, which can contribute to PMS symptoms.
  • DIM (diindolylmethane): DIM is a natural phytochemical found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts. It has unique properties that allow it to modify the metabolism of estrogen, promoting optimal estrogen balance and supporting healthy progesterone and testosterone production. The severity of PMS symptoms in women has been linked to elevated estrogen, with symptoms becoming more severe as estrogen rises.ii DIM exerts a balancing effect on hormones and may benefit conditions like PMS, which are associated with estrogen-progesterone imbalance.
  • Chinese Herbs: Chinese herbal medicine has been used to treat menstrual pain for hundreds of years, and one study found certain Chinese herbs were more effective than NSAIDs, oral contraceptive pills, acupuncture, heat compressions, placebos, or no treatment at all in relieving menstrual cramp pain.iii Herbs in the study included:
    • Chinese angelica root
    • Szechuan lovage root
    • Red peony root, white peony root
    • Chinese motherwort
    • Cinnamon bark
  • Acupuncture: A review of 27 studies found that acupuncture may alleviate menstrual cramps better than drugs or herbal medicine by stimulating the production of endorphins and serotonin in your central nervous system.iv
  • Dietary changes: Dietary changes can be very useful to relieve cramping and other PMS symptoms. You can try:
    • Avoiding caffeine, alcohol, and carbonated drinks
    • Reducing your sugar intake
    • Avoiding smoked cheeses, meats, and fish (as they can increase your fluid retention)
    • Making sure you’re getting enough nutrients in your diet, specifically vitamin B6, manganese, vitamins A and E, calcium,magnesium, animal-based omega-3 fats and tryptophan
  • Exercise: This is another useful tool that helps to relieve menstrual cramps, perhaps because it raises your levels of endorphins, which are chemicals in your brain that are associated with pain relief.
  • Heat: Using a hot water bottle on your lower abdomen or soaking in a warm bath may provide temporary relief of menstrual pain.

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How Can Sunscreen Cause Alzheimer’s?

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

Alzheimer’s disease is currently at epidemic proportions, with 5.4 million Americans — including one in eight people aged 65 and over — living with Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2011 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures.

By 2050, this is expected to jump to 16 million, and in the next 20 years it is projected that Alzheimer’s will affect one in four Americans.

You do not, however, have to feel powerless against this disease, as although there is no known cure as of yet, there are simple strategies available to significantly lower your risk.

The Alzheimer’s Risk Factor You Probably Haven’t Heard Of …

Do you heed the advice of public health officials who advise putting on sunscreen every time you go out in the sun?

This could very well be raising your risk of Alzheimer’s disease because it blocks not only your body’s ability to produce vitamin D, but also your production of cholesterol sulfate.

Unfortunately most of you reading this have probably only heard of cholesterol referred to in a negative way, but actually adequate cholesterol is essential for good health.

For example, 25 percent of the cholesterol in your body is in your brain, even though your brain is only 2 percent of your body’s weight. The cholesterol is absolutely essential for neuron transport, which is why lack of cholesterol can negatively affect your brain function. But impaired memory and dementia are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to low cholesterol’s impact on your brain. Having too little of this beneficial compound also:

  • Increases your risk of depression
  • Can cause you to commit suicide
  • May lead to violent behavior and aggression
  • Increase your risk of cancer and Parkinson’s disease

That’s a bit of background to get you warmed up to the idea that cholesterol is your friend, not your enemy. Now, getting back to sunscreen and Alzheimer’s, using these products will make it virtually impossible for your body to do what it was designed to do, which is produce important, disease-fighting substances like vitamin D and cholesterol sulfate when exposed to the sun. Dr. Stephanie Seneff, a senior scientist at MIT who has a wealth of information about the importance of sulfur, explains:

” … depletion of sulfate supply to the brain is another important contributor to Alzheimer’s, and I further think that sulfate is supplied to the brain principally by sterol sulfates like cholesterol sulfate as well as their derivatives like vitamin D3 sulfate. Both cholesterol sulfate and vitamin D3 sulfate are synthesized in the skin upon exposure to sunlight, and it is theorized that the skin is the major supplier of these nutrients to the body. This is why I believe that excess sunscreen use and excess sun avoidance are another principal causative factor in Alzheimer’s disease.”

Why is Cholesterol Sulfate so Important?

Your skin produces large amounts of cholesterol sulfate, which is water-soluble and provides a healthy barrier against bacteria and other potentially disease-causing pathogens that might otherwise enter your body through your skin. And, due to its polarity, it can enter both fat cells and muscle cells with equal ease. Dr. Seneff proposes that, because of this, cholesterol sulfate may be able to protect fat and muscle cells from glucose and oxygen damage.

She also argues that when you’re deficient in cholesterol sulfate, your muscle and fat cells become more prone to damage, which subsequently can lead to glucose intolerance, a condition where your muscles cannot process glucose as a fuel. As a result, your fat cells have to store more fat in order to supply fuel to your muscles, and excess fat accumulates as damage increases.

Sulfur also plays an important role in glucose metabolism. She hypothesizes that if a sufficient amount of sulfur is available, it will act as a decoy to glucose, effectively diverting it to reduce the sulfur rather than glycating and causing damage. This would have the beneficial effect of reducing inflammation, as sugar (glucose) is highly inflammatory and wreaks havoc in your body.

What does this have to do with your brain? The process applies not only to fat and muscle cells, but also to cells in your brain (and, in fact, to all cells in your body). Dr. Seneff explains:

“Essentially all cells in the body are surrounded by an exterior coat made up of complex molecules called “GAGs” — glycosaminoglycans. These contain sugars, proteins, and a large population of attached ions, particularly sulfate anions. These serve, I believe, an important role in helping to safely break down sugar. Simply stated, the sulfur atom deflects the reducing actions of sugars away from the vulnerable proteins.

The sulfate anions also provide a negative field around the cell, which is very useful for keeping bacteria out, because bacteria are also negatively charged, and hence repelled by the cell’s negative electric field. So cells with lots of surrounding sulfate are afforded protection from invasive bacteria. If a bacterium does get in, the cell will have to release oxidizing agents to kill it, and the cell itself will suffer damage from exposure to its own defense system. The fats in the cell membrane are more vulnerable to oxidative damage when there is insufficient cholesterol to protect them.”

This means that depletion of the sulfate supply to your brain could leave your brain cells more susceptible to damage and may increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Seneff also points out to recent papers that have also linked insufficient cholesterol with Alzheimer’s and mental decline:

  • Serum levels of cholesterol as well as the ability to synthesize cholesterol are inversely associated with mental decline in the elderly
  • A study directly comparing Alzheimer’s patients with age-matched controls showed a reduced serum level of LDL in the Alzheimer’s patients, with the more severe cases showing further reduction in LDL

Vitamin D Deficiency Also Increase Alzheimer’s Risk

Sunscreen is a double-edged sword when it comes to your brain health, as aside from blocking your ability to produce cholesterol sulfate, it also blocks your production of vitamin D — and there is no shortage of research linking vitamin D to brain health. One such study was actually launched after family members of Alzheimer’s patients who were treated with large doses of prescription vitamin D reported they were acting and performing better than before.

Strong links between low levels of vitamin D in Alzheimer’s patients and poor outcomes on cognitive tests were revealed. Researchers believe that optimal vitamin D levels may enhance the amount of important chemicals in your brain and protect brain cells. Vitamin D may also exert some of its beneficial effects on Alzheimer’s through its anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties. Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation that is also associated with Alzheimer’s.

Safe Sun Exposure Without Sunscreen

If you work outdoors all day as part of your job, or if you need to protect sensitive areas of your face, like around your eyes, that are particularly susceptible to photoaging and not large enough a surface to impact vitamin D levels if blocked with sunscreen, certain sunscreens available in most health food stores, and my Healthy Skin Sunscreen, are safe to use when the need arises. However, I personally use and recommend wearing a hat when you are in the sun as this typically can shade the sensitive skin around your eyes.

I would avoid applying sunscreen regularly as most commercial ones have toxic chemicals that you should not be exposed to. If you do use a sunscreen make sure it is safe and natural. Remember once your skin turns the lightest shade of pink (if you’re Caucasian), it’s time to get out of the sun. Past this point of exposure your body will not produce any more vitamin D and you’ll begin to have sun damage. And sunburn anywhere on your body is not good for your health.

If sunshine outdoors is not an option for you because of the winter or your job, you can get many of the same benefits by using a safe tanning bed (one with electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, to avoid unnecessary exposure to electromagnetic fields). Safe tanning beds also have less of the dangerous UVA than sunlight, while unsafe ones have more UVA than sunlight.

In terms of vitamin D, it’s especially important to get it from sun exposure or a tanning bed, rather than a vitamin D3 supplement if at all possible, because when you expose your skin to sunshine, your body produces vitamin D3 sulfate. This form of vitamin D is water-soluble, unlike oral vitamin D3 supplements, which is unsulfated. The water-soluble form can travel freely in your bloodstream, whereas the unsulfated form needs LDL (the so-called “bad” cholesterol) as a vehicle of transport. Dr. Seneff believes that the oral non-sulfated form of vitamin D may not provide all of the same benefits as the vitamin D created in your skin from sun exposure, because it cannot be converted to vitamin D sulfate.

Coconut Oil Offers Profound Benefits for Your Brain

Coconut oil may help protect you from Alzheimer’s by providing your brain with an additional fuel supply. Your brain actually manufactures its own insulin to convert glucose into the fuel it needs, but recent discoveries indicate that your brain can essentially become “diabetic.” As you may know, diabetes is the condition where your body’s response to insulin is weakened due to “insulin resistance”—your body eventually stops producing the insulin necessary to regulate blood sugar.

Just like with diabetes, your brain can become insulin resistant. If this happens, your brain loses its ability to convert glucose into energy, leading to essentially a starvation state, and this can result in brain atrophy. This is what happens to Alzheimer’s patients—portions of their brain start to atrophy, or starve, leading to impaired functioning and eventual loss of memory, speech, movement and personality. Given this, you can now understand why diabetics have a 65 percent increased risk of also being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease—BOTH conditions are tied to insulin resistance.

This is where coconut oil may help.

Coconut oil provides ketones to your brain, and ketones appear to be the preferred source of brain food in patients with diabetes and/or Alzheimer’s. Coconut oil is a primary source of ketones, since it contains 66 percent medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), a type of fat your body can easily and quickly convert into ketones.

In effect, coconut oil is a fat that acts like a carbohydrate in your body, and carbs are your brain’s favorite food. For more about this, refer to this article, which discusses this in more detail. Therapeutic levels of MCTs can be achieved by taking just over two tablespoons of coconut oil daily (about 35ml or 7 level teaspoons), but I recommend working your way up to 4 tablespoons per day, gradually, beginning with just one teaspoon in the morning, WITH a meal to minimize the risk of stomach upset.

Other Important Tips for Alzheimer’s Prevention

In order to effectively prevent a disease, you must address its underlying causative factors. Although we do not have definitive “proof” of what, specifically, causes Alzheimer’s, a number of factors have been linked to an increased risk of dementia, and we know enough about those to in turn make educated recommendations for preventing this type of brain deterioration. Some of the best strategies for Alzheimer’s prevention, aside from adequate sunlight exposure, include:

  • Fructose. You simply MUST keep your level below 25 grams per day. This toxic influence is serving as the master regulator of brain toxicity. Since the average person is exceeding this recommendation by 300% this is a pervasive and serious issue. I view this as the MOST important step you can take.Additionally, when your liver is busy processing fructose (which your liver turns into fat), it severely hampers its ability to makecholesterol. This is yet another important facet that explains how and why excessive fructose consumption is so detrimental to your health.
  • Keep your fasting insulin levels below 3. This is indirectly related to fructose, as it will clearly lead to insulin resistance. However other sugars, grains and lack of exercise are also factors here.
  • Vitamin B12: According to a small Finnish study recently published in the journal Neurology, people who consume foods rich in B12 may reduce their risk of Alzheimer’s in their later years. For each unit increase in the marker of vitamin B12 (holotranscobalamin) the risk of developing Alzheimer’s was reduced by 2 percent. Very high doses of B vitamins have also been found to treat Alzheimer’s disease and reduce memory loss.
  • Eat a nutritious diet, rich in folate, such as the one described in my nutrition plan. Strict vegetarian diets have been shown to increase your Alzheimer’s risk, whereas diets high in omega-3′s lower your risk. However, vegetables, without question, are your best form of folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies every day.
  • High-quality animal based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil. (I recommend avoiding most fish because although fish is naturally high in omega-3, most fish are now severely contaminated with mercury.) High intake of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA helps by preventing cell damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease, thereby slowing down its progression, and lowering your risk of developing the disorder. Researchers have also said DHA “dramatically reduces the impact of the Alzheimer’s gene.”
  • Avoid and remove mercury from your body. Dental amalgam fillings are one of the major sources of mercury, however you should be healthy prior to having them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the diet described in my optimized nutrition plan, you can follow the mercury detox protocol and then find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed.
  • Avoid aluminum, such as antiperspirants, non-stick cookware, vaccine adjuvants, etc.
  • Exercise regularly. It’s been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized, thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s. Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha. New research has shown that people with Alzheimer’s have less PGC-1alpha in their brains, and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer’s.I would strongly recommend reviewing the Peak Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations.
  • Avoid flu vaccinations as most contain both mercury and aluminum!
  • Eat plenty of blueberries. Wild blueberries, which have high anthocyanin and antioxidant content, are known to guard against Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.
  • Challenge your mind daily. Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Avoid anticholinergic and statin drugs. Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of dementia. These drugs include certain night-time pain relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic pain relievers.A study found that those who took drugs classified as ‘definite anticholinergics’ had a four times higher incidence of cognitive impairment. Regularly taking two of these drugs further increased the risk of cognitive impairment. Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol.As Dr. Seneff reports:

    “Statin drugs interfere with cholesterol synthesis in the liver, but the lipophilic statin drugs (like lovastatin and simvastatin) also interfere with the synthesis of cholesterol in the brain. This would then directly impact the neurons’ ability to maintain adequate cholesterol in their membranes. Indeed, a population-based study showed that people who had ever taken statins had an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, a hazard ratio of 1.21. More alarmingly, people who used to take statins had a hazard ratio of 2.54 (over two and a half times the risk to Alzheimer’s) compared to people who never took statins.”

    For more information, read Dr. Seneff’s essay on statins and Alzheimer’s disease.

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He Murdered a Friend After Taking This Best-Selling Drug

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com


A Canadian judge has ruled that a teenage boy murdered his friend because of the effects of Prozac.

The ruling will not be appealed.

The decision has revived the debate regarding the widespread prescription of antidepressants to young people.

Justice Robert Heinrichs ruled that the 15-year-old boy was under the influence of the medication when he stabbed and killed a close friend.

He was sentenced to 10 months on top of the two years he had already spent in jail.

“Prozac is meant to curb the effects of depression, but Justice Heinrich concluded it set off a steady deterioration in the young murderer’s behavior,” CCHR reports.

“He had become irritable, restless, agitated, aggressive and unclear in his thinking,” the judge said.

“It was while in that state he overreacted in an impulsive, explosive and violent way. Now that his body and mind are free and clear of any effects of Prozac, he is simply not the same youth in behavior or character.”

Should Antidepressants Carry Black Box Warning for Homicidal Tendencies?

In 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided SSRI antidepressants must carry a black box warning that the drug can cause suicidal tendencies. But what about violence and homicidal tendencies? Despite mounting evidence that antidepressants and certain other drugs can induce violent behavior and has led to the tragic death of spouses, family members and friends, the FDA has done nothing to warn or curb the use of such drugs.

According to CCHR:

“It is well documented that psychiatric drugs, particularly antidepressants, can cause a host of violent side effects including mania, psychosis, aggression, violence, and in the case of the antidepressant Effexor, homicidal ideation … [P]eople with no prior history of violence (or suicide) became homicidal and suicidal under the influence of antidepressants. … However, despite all the documented violence-inducing side effects of these drugs, the FDA has never issued black box warnings on antidepressants causing violence or homicide despite the fact that at least 11 recent school shootings were committed by kids documented to be on or in withdrawal from psychiatric drugs.”

The expert testimony in this case was supplied by Dr. Peter Breggin, an outspoken critic of psychiatric drugs. The featured article quotes him as saying:

“These drugs produce a stimulant or activation continuum… That continuum includes aggression, hostility, loss of impulse control … all of which are a prescription for violence.”

Other still feel the link between antidepressants and homicide is thin, but I can’t help but wonder if that’s just because they’re refusing tolook at the evidence and give it the attention it deserves. The CCHR website includes a helpful search feature, allowing you to search for all sorts of reports and research relating to psychiatric drugs and their side effects. It took 13 years before the FDA finally agreed SSRI’s can cause suicidal thoughts and behavior. How many decades-worth of evidence will have to mount up before the apparent link to uncontrolled violence and homicide is addressed?

Your Genes May Predispose You to Homicidal Side Effects of Antidepressants

Interestingly, in related news, a 2011 study published in Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine has found that certain genes may predispose you to homicidal behavior following exposure to antidepressants. Both sudden withdrawal from antidepressants and continuing to take them was found to worsen the problem. According to the study’s authors:

“… The results presented here concerning a sample of persons given antidepressants for psychosocial distress demonstrate the extent to which the psychopharmacology industry has expanded its influence beyond its ability to cure.

… [T]he Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (Star *D) study … found that antidepressants were only marginally (2.7%) more efficacious compared with placebos. The same meta-analyses documented profound publication bias, inflating their apparent efficacy as well as bias in failing to report the negative results … The authors argue for a reappraisal of the current recommended standard of care of depression.” [Emphasis mine]

What they discovered is that many people being treated with antidepressants can’t metabolize them due to common genetic mutations, which can cause severe drug interactions and akathisia (a movement disorder characterized by a feeling of inner restlessness). Some researchers and physicians believe that akathisia is the chief symptom that triggers impulsive violence in certain individuals who take antidepressant drugs. This is thought to be an extreme form of akathisia. Homicidal impulses and murderous behavior due to akathisia is now being called “homicidal akathisia.”

Forensic psychiatrist and lead author of the study, Dr. Yolande Lucire, is now campaigning to introduce ways of minimizing over-prescription of antidepressants by taking genetics into account. Of 129 subjects, more than 120 of them were diagnosed with akathisia/serotonin toxicity caused by psychiatric medications. The authors further explain:

“They were tested for variant alleles in CYP450 genes, which play a major role in Phase 1 metabolism of all antidepressant and many other medications. Eight had committed homicide and many more became extremely violent while on antidepressants. … All those described [in the paper] were able to stop taking antidepressants and return to their previously normal personalities.”

Antidepressants Top List of Most Violence-Inducing Drugs

It’s certainly worth paying heed to drug interactions such as violence and homicidal leanings, both as a patient and as a concerned parent, family member or friend. According to a 2010 study published in the journal PLoS One, half of the top 10 drugs disproportionately linked with violent behavior are antidepressants:

  1. Varenicline (Chantix): The number one violence-inducing drug on the list, this anti-smoking medication is 18 times more likely to be linked with violence when compared to other drugs
  2. Fluoxetine (Prozac): This drug was the first well-known SSRI antidepressant
  3. Paroxetine (Paxil): Another SSRI antidepressant, Paxil is also linked with severe withdrawal symptoms and a risk of birth defects
  4. Amphetamines: (Various): Used to treat ADHD
  5. Mefoquine (Lariam): A treatment for malaria which is often linked with reports of strange behavior
  6. Atomoxetine (Strattera): An ADHD drug that affects the neurotransmitter noradrenaline
  7. Triazolam (Halcion): This potentially addictive drug is used to treat insomnia
  8. Fluvoxamine (Luvox): Another SSRI antidepressant
  9. Venlafaxine (Effexor): An antidepressant also used to treat anxiety disorders
  10. Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq): An antidepressant which affects both serotonin and noradrenaline

Is Usage of these Drugs Ever Appropriate?

Depression, or more accurately, un-repaired emotional short-circuiting, can absolutely devastate your health and life. However, using antidepressants as the primary (or only) treatment option is simply not advisable, especially if the one suffering from depression is a child or teenager. Whereas severe depression can indeed progress to suicide if left untreated, antidepressant drugs have been shown to CAUSE both suicidal and homicidal thoughts and behaviors. As mentioned in the featured report, at least 11 tragic school shootings were done by children who were either on antidepressants, or going through withdrawal…

I believe this is an enormous price to pay for what amounts to highly questionable benefits.

Studies have found that up to 75 percent of the benefits of antidepressants could be duplicated by a placebo. So not only do these drugs not work as advertised, but the evidence is quite clear that most of these drugs do in fact increase your risk of suicide and violence. Since depression can be a terminal illness, why take a drug that will actually increase your risk of killing yourself—or someone else?

Please understand that I am not seeking to diminish the impact of mental illness. It is massively pervasive and responsible for tens of thousands of deaths every year and needless suffering in millions of others.

My clinical experience leads me to believe that the only appropriate use of these dangerous medications is as a last ditch effort when the patient is at a serious risk to themselves or others. (And, of course, they must be closely monitored for lethal side effects such as suicidal and/or homicidal thoughts and tendencies!) The drugs should be continued until the condition is under control and they are out of harm’s way, and then carefully weaned. This is a very similar strategy to going to the ER and seeing an orthopedic surgeon for a cast when you’ve fractured a major bone.

You don’t use that cast the rest of your life. You use it until your bone is healed.

The REAL tragedy is that most of the drug companies do NOT view antidepressants this way. There are enormous marketing efforts to classify normal behavior as aberrant or diseased, which then requires lifelong therapy with their drug solution.

How to Address the Root Cause of the Problem

I strongly believe that energy psychology is one of the most powerful tools for resolving emotional issues—specifically a technique called EFT—and I’ll be talking more about that in a moment.

But diet and general lifestyle are clearly parts of the “root” that must be healed if you want to resolve mental health issues. For example, mounting evidence tells us that having a healthy gut is profoundly important for both physical and mental health, and the latter can be severely impacted by an imbalance of intestinal bacteria. I strongly recommend addressing the following lifestyle factors if you’re suffering from depression or any other mental health problem.

    • Dramatically decrease your consumption of sugar (particularly fructose), grains, and processed foods. (In addition to being high in sugar and grains, processed foods also contain a variety of additives that can affect your brain function and mental state, especially MSG, and artificial sweeteners such as aspartame.) There’s a great book on this subject, The Sugar Blues, written by William Dufty more than 30 years ago, that delves into the topic of sugar and mental health in great detail.
    • Increase consumption of probiotic foods, such as fermented vegetables and kefir, to promote healthy gut flora
    • Get adequate vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 deficiency can contribute to depression and affects one in four people.
    • Optimize your vitamin D levels, ideally through regular sun exposure. Vitamin D is very important for your mood. In one study, people with the lowest levels of vitamin D were found to be 11 times more prone to be depressed than those who had normal levels.

The best way to get vitamin D is through safe exposure to SUNSHINE. Remember, SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is a type of depression that we know is related to sunshine deficiency, so it would make sense that the perfect way to optimize your vitamin D is through sun exposure, or a safe tanning bed if you don’t have regular access to the sun.

    • Get plenty of animal-based omega-3 fats. Many people don’t realize that their brain is 60 percent fat, but not just any fat. It is DHA, an animal based omega-3 fat which, along with EPA, is crucial for good brain function and mental health7. Unfortunately, most people don’t get enough from diet alone. Make sure you take a high-quality omega-3 fat, such as krill oil.

Dr. Stoll, a Harvard psychiatrist, was one of the early leaders in compiling the evidence supporting the use of animal based omega-3 fats for the treatment of depression. He wrote an excellent book that details his experience in this area called The Omega-3 Connection.

  • Evaluate your salt intake. Sodium deficiency actually creates symptoms that are very much like those of depression. Make sure you do NOT use processed salt (regular table salt), however. You’ll want to use an all natural, unprocessed salt like Himalayan salt, which contains more than 80 different micronutrients.
  • Get adequate daily exercise, which is one of the best-kept secrets to preventing and overcoming depression.
  • Get adequate amounts of sleep. You can have the best diet and exercise program possible but if you aren’t sleeping well you can easily become depressed. Sleep and depression are so intimately linked that a sleep disorder is actually part of the definition of the symptom complex that gives the label depression.

New Research Shines Light on the Benefits of EFT

Additionally, it’s imperative to address any underlying emotional issues. I have been a fan of energy psychology for many years, having witnessed its effectiveness in my medical practice and in my own personal life. EFT, as opposed to drugs and supplements, hits at the root of the problem—even if you don’t know exactly what that is. This is the beauty of energy medicine in general—and anyone can learn to apply EFT to themselves, even a young child.

In the following videos, Julie Schiffman, a licensed EFT practitioner at my Center for Natural Health in Chicago, guides you through how to tap for headaches and other pain. As you will see, by simply altering your statements you can use this tapping technique to address virtually any ailment you may be experiencing at any point in time.


Unfortunately, studies have been few and far in-between as science has been trying to “catch up” with clinical experience. But all of that is changing now!

Before I go any further, I want to stress the importance of getting professional help if you suffer from depression, and that includes seeing a qualified EFT therapist. Although you can learn how to do EFT in a few minutes it can take years to apply it effectively. The best therapists are typically those with conventional psychological training who have studied this in addition to conventional methods. There are times where hospital admission may be necessary to prevent a suicide attempt and untrained therapists will not be able to discern this danger.

If the first therapist can’t help you, I recommend seeking out another. Getting a second opinion is pretty standard when it comes to medicine, and this is no different. The connection between you and your doctor or therapist can have a great influence on the success of your treatment or therapy.

As for the success rate of EFT, several studies have recently been published, demonstrating just how safe and effective EFT really is. For example, the following three studies show remarkable progress in a very short amount of time for people with a history of trauma:

    1. A 2009 study of 16 institutionalized adolescent boys with histories of physical or psychological abuse showed substantially decreased intensity of traumatic memories after just ONE session of EFT.
    2. An EFT study involving 30 moderately to severely depressed college students was conducted. The depressed students were given four 90-minute EFT sessions. Students who received EFT showed significantly less depression than the control group when evaluated three weeks later.
    3. A study of 100 veterans with severe PTSD (Iraq Vets Stress Project) showed an astounding reduction of symptoms after just six one-hour EFT sessions. After completing six sessions, 90 percent of the veterans had such a reduction in symptoms that they no longer met the clinical criteria for PTSD. Sixty percent no longer met PTSD criteria after only three EFT sessions. At the three-month follow-up, the gains remained stable, suggesting lasting and potentially permanent resolution of the problem.

[The Iraq Stress Project is still recruiting veteran volunteers. If you are a veteran and interested in participating, you can get more information here.]

Operation Emotional Freedom

In a new documentary film entitled Operation: Emotional Freedom, directed by Eric Huurre, a number of Veterans and their families went through intensive therapy using EFT. The results were truly astounding. EFT developer Gary Craig, along with other EFT practitioners worked very closely with Veterans who recently returned home from war. They were all suffering from PTSD, depression, anxiety and a few were suicidal.

At the end of treatment, each one of them describes a new feeling of peace and hope that there is help and they were able to overcome emotional traumas experienced in combat.

This film is a close look at the current state of health care for combat veterans diagnosed with PTSD. The film is about examining the myths and misconceptions surrounding the medical/chemical approach to treating emotional conditions and why drugs are not “the answer” that pharmaceuticals promise. Instead, the story follows this group of volunteer Vets and their families on a journey from the hell of their post-war experiences through a newer vision of health and recovery for PTSD and trauma.

Visit the official website www.operation-emotionalfreedom.com to learn more about efforts to assist veterans and their families through energy psychology.

Clearly, energy psychology beats pharmaceuticals HANDS DOWN as a safer, more effective, longer-lasting treatment for stress and emotional problems. And there have been EFT successes with a wide range of other issues—both emotional and physical. EFT is easy to learn, no matter what your age—children included—so I encourage you to add it to your stress-busting tool kit.

In closing, please remember that your emotional health is intimately connected with your physical health, which is largely controlled by diet and lifestyle choices and your reactions to stress. These daily habits have enormous impact, whether you want to overcome depression or just continue enjoying great health. So please, actively investigate and consider the natural treatments I’ve suggested above, ideally with the support and guidance of a knowledgeable natural medicine friendly healthcare practitioner.

Important Concluding Thoughts…

I want to make something abundantly clear before I leave you. I know firsthand that depression is devastating. It takes a toll on the healthiest of families and can destroy lifelong friendships. Few things are harder in life than watching someone you love lose their sense of joy, hope, and purpose in life, and wonder if they will ever find it again. And to not have anything within your power that can change things for them. You wonder if you will ever have your loved one “back” again.

It’s impossible to impart the will to live to somebody who no longer possesses it. No amount of logic, reasoning, or reminders about all they have to live for will put a smile back on the face of a loved one masked by the black cloud of depression.

Oftentimes you cannot change your circumstances. You can, however, change your response to them. I encourage you to be balanced in your life. Don’t ignore your body’s warning signs that something needs to change. Sometimes people are so busy taking care of everybody else that they lose sight of themselves.

There are times when a prescription drug may help restore balance to your body. But it’s unclear whether it is the drug providing benefits, or the unbelievable power of your mind that is convinced it is going to work.

If you have been personally affected by depression, my heart goes out to you.

A broken body can be easier to fix than a broken mind. Depression is real. It is my hope that you don’t feel judged here, but that you are encouraged and inspired by those who have been there.

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The Vitamin that has Been Shown to Dramatically Improve Fertility

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

Did you know that in northern countries, which have dark, cold winters, couples are less likely to conceive during the winter, whereas conception rates peak in the summer?

There are a number of reasons why this association exists, but new research highlights vitamin D as one of the most important variable.

Vitamin D, a steroid hormone that influences virtually every cell in your body and has been positively linked to health conditions ranging from cancer to heart disease, may significantly boost fertility in both men and women.

If You’re Struggling With Infertility, Get Your Vitamin D Levels Checked

Vitamin D is so crucial to health that I urge everyone to make sure their levels are optimized, but if you’ve been dealing with infertility, this is especially important.

A new report has shown that exposure to sunlight boosts fertility in both men and women by increasing their levels of vitamin D, a benefit that appears to work on multiple levels.

As the researchers reported in the European Journal of Endocrinology:

  • Among women, vitamin D appears to impact in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcomes, endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the most common female endocrine disorder, as well as boost levels of progesterone and estrogen, which regulate menstrual cycles and improve the likelihood of successful conception
  • In men, vitamin D is essential for the healthy development of the nucleus of the sperm cell, and helps maintain semen quality and sperm count. Vitamin D also increases levels of testosterone, which may boost libido

The researchers state:

“Given the high prevalence of infertility as well as vitamin D insufficiency in otherwise healthy young women and men and the possible role of vitamin D in human reproduction, research might lead to new therapeutic approaches such as vitamin D supplementation in the treatment of female and male reproductive disorders.”

Low Vitamin D Levels Previously Linked to Infertility

This is not the first time the “sunshine vitamin” has been linked to infertility. In 2008, Australian fertility specialist Dr. Anne Clark found almost one-third of the 800 infertile men included in her study had lower than normal levels of vitamin D, (bear in mind here that “normal” does not equal “optimal” — so by optimal standards, the rate of vitamin D deficiency was likely far higher than one-third) stating that:

“Vitamin D and folate deficiency are known to be associated with infertility in women, but the outcomes of the screening among men in our study group came as a complete surprise. Men in the study group who agreed to make lifestyle changes and take dietary supplements had surprisingly good fertility outcomes.”

In fact, of the 100 men who agreed to make and maintain certain lifestyle changes (quitting smoking, minimizing intake of caffeine and alcohol, weight reduction, along with a course of vitamins and antioxidants) for three months prior to fertility treatment, 11 of them went on to achieve pregnancy naturally, without IVF treatment.

Previous studies, such as one published in The Journal of Nutrition, also found that although vitamin-D-deficient female rats were capable of reproduction, it reduced fertility by an astounding 75 percent, diminished litter sizes by 30 percent, and impaired neonatal growth.

Interestingly, another study published in November 2009 confirmed that human sperm does in fact have a vitamin D receptor. Analysis indicated that vitamin D is produced locally in the sperm, which suggests that vitamin D may be involved in the signaling between cells in the reproductive system. According to the authors, the study revealed “an unexpected significance of this hormone [vitamin D] in the acquisition of fertilizing ability,” and the results imply that vitamin D is involved in a variety of sperm signaling pathways.

What Else Might be Impacting Your Fertility?

An estimated 1 in 6 American couples struggle with getting pregnant each year, and there’s compelling evidence that lifestyle, diet and environmental exposures are largely to blame. Not only are you exposed to hundreds (if not thousands) of toxins each and every day, but some of the most commonly prescribed drugs, poor diet, and common vitamin deficiencies have also been linked to reduced fertility, just to name a few.

As Iva Keene, author of the Natural Fertility Prescription, stated:

“Conventional IVF and other assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments don’t address root causes of infertility. These root causes include: nutritional deficiencies, toxin exposure, stress, food intolerances, allergies and immune deficiencies. These subtle but critical factors interact synergistically to impact the quality of your eggs and sperm, affecting your ability to conceive and the health of your embryo.

… during the generation and maturation of gamete cells — sperm and ovum — that form an embryo [a period of 120 days], everything that you and your partner ingest, inhale or are exposed to will influence the health of your eggs and sperm for better or worse, and the ultimate quality of the genetic building blocks you pass onto your child. This is why it’s crucial to follow a good preconception plan for a minimum of 4 months before conception. A baby is a 50-50 product of his or her parents — therefore optimizing the quality of eggs and sperm is of paramount importance.”

You can find 10 tips that may help resolve infertility naturally in her past article, but here are a few initial strategies to consider:

  • Genetically modified food (GM), especially corn and soy, contain significant concentrations of the herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup), which has been linked to infertility in a number of studies.
  • Avoid chemicals as much as possible. Bisphenol-A (BPA), phthalates, fluoride (in drinking water), MSG, and many, many others have shown negative impacts on your reproductive health.
  • Consume a healthy diet, rich in healthy fats and antioxidants, and low in sugar and grains. Insulin resistance is an underlying factor responsible for most chronic disease, and it should come as no surprise that it plays a role in fertility as well. The treatment strategy is to reduce or eliminate grains along with sugars, especially fructose.
  • Identify potential gluten intolerance. Celiac disease (gluten intolerance) has been linked to fertility problems in both sexes. In men, it’s associated with abnormal sperm, such as lower sperm numbers, altered shape, and reduced function. Men with untreated celiac disease may also have lower testosterone levels.
  • Be aware of electromagnetic fields, as research suggests cell phones may impact sperm quality as well. One study found men who talked on a cell phone for more than four hours a day had the lowest average sperm counts (50 million per milliliter) and the least healthy sperm.

Are You Ready to Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels?

This is an imperative step for anyone planning a pregnancy, not only for increasing the rate of conception but also for the benefits it offers during pregnancy. Vitamin D deficiency is currently at epidemic proportions in the United States and many other regions around the world, largely because people do not spend enough time in the sun to facilitate this important process of vitamin D production.

So the first step to ensuring you are receiving all the benefits of vitamin D is to find out what your levels are using a 25(OH)D test, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D.

There are two vitamin D tests — 1,25(OH)D and 25(OH)D — but 25(OH)D is the better marker of overall D status. It is this marker that is most strongly associated with overall health, and it is the one you should ask your physician for.. The point of vitamin D testing is, of course, to be sure you are maintaining a therapeutic level of vitamin D in your blood. A few years back, the recommended level was between 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml), but more recently the optimal vitamin D level has been raised to 50-70 ng/ml.

To get your levels into the healthy range, sun exposure is the BEST way to optimize your vitamin D levels; exposing a large amount of your skin until it turns the lightest shade of pink, as near to solar noon as possible, is typically necessary to achieve adequate vitamin D production. If sun exposure is not an option, a safe tanning bed (with electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, to avoid unnecessary exposure to EMF fields) can be used.

As a last resort, a vitamin D3 supplement can be taken orally, but research suggests the average adult needs to take 8,000 IU’s of vitamin D per day in order to elevate their levels above 40 ng/ml, which is the absolute minimum for disease prevention.

Infertility can be a challenging condition with multiple contributing factors, but you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by optimizing your vitamin D levels. It is free if you do it via sun exposure, and inexpensive if you use a safe tanning bed or vitamin D3 supplement. It’s a simple step that can have a profound impact on your health, even if trying to conceive naturally is not your primary goal.

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Research From 100 Countries Proves This Strongly Protects Against Cancer

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

In 2011, it was estimated that nearly 1.6 million people would be diagnosed with cancer, and more than 570,000 would die of the disease.

With an epidemic such as this, virtually every safe preventive strategy available deserves attention.

But when a simple, and virtually free, strategy emerges that shows promise in reducing rates of not one, not two, but potentially dozens of different types of cancer, it needs to be shouted from the rooftops.

So open your ears — such a strategy does exist: Sun Exposure and Vitamin D!

Sunlight Protects Against Cancer by Stimulating the Production of Vitamin D

New research just in confirms that if you want to slash your risk of cancer, it’s essential that you spend adequate time in the sun or a safe tanning bed, or at the very least supplement with proper amounts of vitamin D3.

Specifically, researchers found that, consistently, the higher the solar UVB, the lower the incidence of 15 different types of cancer, including:

The review, based largely on three studies from the United States, one each from Australia, China, France, Japan, and Spain, and eight multi-country studies of cancer incidence rates that collectively examined more than 100 countries, concluded:

“The evidence for the UVB-vitamin D-cancer hypothesis is very strong in general and for many types of cancer in particular.”

Further, they noted that weaker evidence exists that solar UVB also leads to lower rates of cancer of the following types:

More Than 200 Studies Show Vitamin D Plays a Role in Cancer

Theories linking vitamin D to certain cancers have been tested and confirmed in more than 200 epidemiological studies, and understanding of its physiological basis stems from more than 2,500 laboratory studies, according to epidemiologist Cedric Garland, DrPH, professor of family and preventive medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. Here are just a few highlights into some of the most noteworthy findings:

  • Some 600,000 cases of breast and colorectal cancers could be prevented each year if vitamin D levels among populations worldwide were increased, according to previous research by Dr. Garland and colleagues. And that’s just counting the death toll for two types of cancer.
  • Optimizing your vitamin D levels could help you to prevent at least 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, ovarian, prostate, and skin cancers.
  • A large-scale, randomized, placebo-controlled study on vitamin D and cancer showed that vitamin D can cut overall cancer risk by as much as 60 percent. This was such groundbreaking news that the Canadian Cancer Society has actually begun endorsing the vitamin as a cancer-prevention therapy.
  • Light-skinned women who had high amounts of long-term sun exposure had half the risk of developing advanced breast cancer (cancer that spreads beyond your breast) as women with lower amounts of regular sun exposure, according to a study in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
  • A study by Dr. William Grant, Ph.D., internationally recognized research scientist and vitamin D expert, found that about 30 percent of cancer deaths – which amounts to 2 million worldwide and 200,000 in the United States — could be prevented each year with higher levels of vitamin D.

On a personal level, you can decrease your risk of cancer by MORE THAN HALF simply by optimizing your vitamin D levels with sun exposure. And if you are being treated for cancer it is likely that higher blood levels—probably around 70-100 ng/ml—would be beneficial. Vitamin D’s protective effect against cancer appears to work in multiple ways, including:

  • Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to replicate, could lead to cancer)
  • Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells
  • Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)
  • Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous

What are You Waiting For? Why Not Start Optimizing Your Levels Now?

Many Americans simply are not getting enough vitamin D to even maintain healthy bones, much less getting enough to fight off diseases like cancer. There are two primary reasons for this, one being that many people are still worried that going out in the sun will lead to skin cancer. It’s important to understand, however, that the risk of skin cancer from the sun comes only from excessive exposure.

When used properly, sunlight exposure will help you prevent cancer.

To optimize your levels, you need to expose large portions of your skin to the appropriate amounts of sunlight. And, contrary to popular belief, the best time to be in the sun for vitamin D production is actually as near to solar noon as possible. During this time you need the shortest exposure time to produce vitamin D because UVB rays are most intense at this time. Plus, when the sun goes down toward the horizon, the UVB is filtered out much more than the dangerous UVA.

Just be cautious about the length of your exposure. You only need enough exposure to have your skin turn the lightest shade of pink. Once you reach this point your body will not make any additional vitamin D due to its self-regulating mechanism. Any additional exposure will only cause harm and damage to your skin.

Vitamin D from sun exposure or a safe tanning bed is the BEST way to optimize your vitamin D levels. Safe tanning beds have electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, which helps you avoid unnecessary exposure to health-harming EMF fields. They also have less of the dangerous UVA than sunlight, while unsafe ones have more UVA than sunlight. The second primary reason so many are vitamin-D-deficient, aside from lack of sun exposure, has to do with misinformation about supplementation.

If You Use a Vitamin D Supplement, You Need to Know This …

First, let me repeat that sun exposure or the use of a safe tanning bed are the best options to optimize your vitamin D levels. You cannot overdose when getting your vitamin D from sun exposure, as your body has the ability to self-regulate and only make what it needs. If these options are not available, a supplement can be used, but keep the following in mind:

  • According to the most recent findings by Carole Baggerly, founder of GrassrootsHealth, her research of nearly 10,000 people shows the ideal adult dose appears to be 8,000 IU’s a day to get most into the healthy range.
  • When you do supplement with vitamin D, you’ll only want to supplement with natural vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). Do NOT use the synthetic and highly inferior vitamin D2, which is the one most doctors will give you in a prescription most of the time unless you ask specifically for D3.
  • Get your vitamin D blood levels checked! The only way to determine the correct dose is to get your blood tested since there are so many variables that influence your vitamin D status. I recommend using Lab Corp in the U.S.
  • The correct test your doctor needs to order is 25(OH)D, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D, which is the better marker of overall D status. This is the marker that is most strongly associated with overall health.
  • As an aside, there is evidence that the safety of vitamin D is dependent on vitamin K, and that vitamin D toxicity (although very rare with the D3 form) is actually aggravated by vitamin K2 deficiency. So if you take oral vitamin D, ideally you should take vitamin K2 as well or use organic fermented foods that are high in vitamin K2, as you need about 150 mcg per day.
  • The “normal” 25-hydroxyvitamin D lab range is between 20-56 ng/ml. But, this conventional range is really a sign of deficiency, and is too broad to be ideal. In fact, your vitamin D level should not be below 32 ng/ml, and any levels below 20 ng/ml are considered serious deficiency states, increasing your risk of cancer and autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, just to name a few.The OPTIMAL value that you’re looking for is explained in the chart below. Remember that if you were in the sun nearly every day with large amounts of your skin exposed and not taking any oral vitamin D, your level would be around 100 ng/ml.

This range applies for everyone: children, adolescents, adults and seniors. Remember, unless you get a deep dark tan, which is a pretty good gauge that your vitamin D levels are where they need to be, it is wise to get your blood levels checked; that is the only way to know for certain you have reached therapeutic levels.

Given that optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the simplest and most profound steps you can take to improve and maintain your health, including helping you to prevent cancer, this is information that could, quite literally, save your life.

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Far Safer than Vaccines in Limiting Chickenpox Spread

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com 

If your child comes down with a case of the chickenpox, which is, by the way, a mild disease without complications for the vast majority of healthy children, a healthy dose of natural sunlight may be just what the doctor ordered.

In tropical countries, chickenpox is actually far less common, and less easily spread, than in countries with cold seasons — and increased exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, i.e. sunshine, appears to be the reason.

Sun Exposure May Help Stop the Spread of Chickenpox

After examining data from 25 studies on the varicella-zoster virus, which causes chickenpox, University of London researchers found a clear link between UV levels and the prevalence of chickenpox, with chickenpox rates far less common in the tropics where exposure to sunlight is common year-round.

In temperate regions, chickenpox also tends to flare up more often in the cold-weather months, when sunlight is scarce.

Writing in the Virology Journal, researchers noted:

“Chickenpox is seasonal in temperate zones, with the highest incidence seen in winter and spring.  One explanation for this seasonality could be the significantly higher levels in ultra-violet radiation (UVR) of approximately 10-25-fold seen in summer in temperate zones, which could inactivate virus either in vesicular lesions or after their rupture.”

The effect is likely two-fold, as not only is sunlight able to destroy many viruses directly, but it also enables your body to produce vitamin D, which gives you further anti-viral and immune-boosting benefits.

Many are not aware that prior to the advent of antibiotics about 70 years ago one of the only effective treatments for tuberculosis was sunlight.  In fact there were many TB solariums that were created specifically to use sunlight to treat TB. The sun exposure produced improvement in those with TB similar to the mechanisms discussed in this article for chickenpox.

UV Light Shown to Reduce Spread of Chickenpox in Schools Over 60 Years Ago

You may have heard the advice that hanging your laundry outside to dry in the sun is one of the best ways to get your clothes truly clean and fresh, and this is true because sunlight is a natural disinfectant. Along those lines, direct sunlight exposure on your skin may also provide “disinfectant” benefits such as deactivating viruses, including chickenpox, by breaking down their cell walls.

In fact, a study published in 1949 revealed that ultraviolet radiation successfully reduced the transmission of the chickenpox virus in U.S. schools, helping to limit its spread! And some air purification and water treatment systems currently use ultraviolet light to eliminate airborne or waterborne pathogens.

Sun Exposure Increases Your Vitamin D — Another Virus Fighter

The other reason why people in the tropics may be less likely to catch and spread the chickenpox is because their year-round sun exposure allows them to maintain healthier levels of vitamin D. In cold-weather climates, on the other hand, vitamin D deficiency is an epidemic.

If you’re vitamin-D-deficient, and many are, your immune system will not activate to do its job. Contrary to common belief, vitamin D does much more than just support healthy bones; vitamin D  functions in many different tissues and affects a large number of different diseases and health conditions. So far, scientists have found about 3,000 genes that are regulated by vitamin D – that’s more than 1 in every 10 genes in your entire genome!

Just one example of an important function that vitamin D up-regulates is your ability to fight infections, including the flu. At least five studies show an inverse association between lower respiratory tract infections and vitamin D levels. That is, the higher your vitamin D level, the lower your risk of contracting colds, flu, and other respiratory tract infections. It makes sense, therefore, that this would extend to other viral infections like chickenpox as well.

As I’ve stated before, your body was designed to benefit from sunlight exposure. Given adequate levels, your skin is able to produce a wide range of infection fighting substances, including defensins, cathelicidin, and the lesser known  cholesterol sulfate.  As Dr. Stephanie Seneff, a senior scientist at MIT, explained:

“I think of the skin as a battery – or solar panel you might say – taking in the sun’s energy and saving it in the form of the sulfate molecule storing the energy in the sun … I have a lot of thoughts about what sulfate does. One thing I’m quite sure of is that cholesterol sulfate is highly protective against bacterial and virus invasions. That’s why sun exposure protects you from infection. It strengthens your immune system. That cholesterol sulfate is incredibly important to immunity.”

The important factor when it comes to vitamin D is your serum level, which should ideally be between 50-70 ng/ml year-round. For more tips on how to optimize your vitamin D levels — ideally through sun exposure or the use of a safe tanning bed  — see this past articleHow to Get Your Vitamin D Levels to a Healthy Range. However, keep in mind that for children, becoming infected with the chickenpox virus is not necessarily something that should be avoided, especially by way of vaccination, as natural exposure provides subsequent, and safe, long-lasting immunity.

Sunlight Might Not Be Best Once You Have Active Pox Lesions

Although it is wonderful to have confirmation of the power of vitamin D in the treatment of infectious diseases that have typically been fought with vaccines, there is one caution about using sunlight as therapy for someone with active lesions.

Actually this is true for any open wound on the skin regardless if it is caused by a viral infection or a traumatic wound. Sunlight will tend to cause the wound to scar, so it is probably best to actually avoid sunlight if you have pox lesions.  However, anyone exposed to the virus without lesions could still use sunshine as a therapy. So if you or your child has active pox lesions it would likely be better to take oral vitamin D at the rate of 8,000 units a day for a typical adult and proportionately lower based on weight for a child.

Is Natural Exposure to Chickenpox Preferable to Vaccination?

As is true with many new and potentially unnecessary medical interventions used on a widespread basis, there are often unintended, adverse consequences. The chickenpox (varicella) vaccine is a perfect example.

Chickenpox is highly contagious but typically produces a mild disease characterized by small round lesions on your skin that cause intense itching. Chickenpox lasts for two to three weeks, and recovery leaves a child with long-lasting immunity. Further, some healthy children may have only minimal symptoms (such as a low fever and headache) without manifestation of blisters, indistinguishable from a mild case of the flu.

So, even in the vast majority of children who do NOT get the chickenpox vaccine and who have negative or unknown chickenpox histories, they wind up immune to chickenpox anyway. In fact, researchers have concluded that most 10-year-old children with negative or unknown histories of chickenpox are already immune!

Up to 20 percent of adults who get chickenpox develop severe complications such as pneumonia, secondary bacterial infections, and brain inflammation (which is reported in less than one percent of children who get chickenpox). Most children and adults who develop these serious complications have compromised immune systems or other health problems. Still, it is because chickenpox can be serious in adults that it is often regarded as preferable to get it as a child, as opposed to later in adulthood. Using a vaccination to prevent chickenpox in childhood is proving to be problematic, however, for several reasons:

  1. Chickenpox vaccine provides only temporary immunity, not the longer lasting immunity you get when you recover naturally from chickenpox.
  2. The vaccine is not 100 percent effective. When the chickenpox vaccine was licensed for public use in 1995, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimated it was 70 to 90 percent effective in preventing disease. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) later reported, “The effectiveness of the vaccine is 44 percent against disease of any severity and 86 percent against moderate or severe disease.”But the vaccine may be LESS effective than that—around 40 percent—according to an investigation of a chickenpox outbreak among 23 children at a New Hampshire daycare center. The outbreak began with a child who had already been vaccinated.
  3. The chickenpox vaccine can cause serious injury and death. Four percent of reported adverse events (about 1 in 33,000 doses) after chickenpox vaccination involve serious health problems such as shock, encephalitis (brain inflammation), and thrombocytopenia (a blood disorder). At least 14 deaths have been reported. In fact, there are at least two dozen documented adverse effects of chickenpox vaccination in the medical literature.

Another Unintended Consequence of Chickenpox Vaccination

After contracting and recovering from chickenpox (usually as a child), your natural immunity gets asymptomatically “boosted” by coming into contact with infected children, who are recovering from chickenpox. This natural “boosting” of natural immunity to the chickenpox virus helps protect you from getting shingles — a painful and potentially serious disease — later in life.

In other words, shingles can be prevented by ordinary contact, such as receiving a hug from a grandchild who is getting or recovering from the chickenpox. But with the advent of the chickenpox vaccine, there is less chickenpox around to provide that natural immune boost for children AND adults. So, as chickenpox rates have declined, shingles rates have begun to rise, and there is mounting evidence that an epidemic of shingles is developing in America from the mass, mandatory use of the chickenpox vaccine by all children.

For more information on varicella and chickenpox vaccine, see the National Vaccine Information Center’s new Chickenpox page.

If Your Child Comes Down With Chickenpox …

First, don’t panic. Remember this is a common illness that is typically mild if your child is otherwise healthy, and it should resolve in two to three weeks without complications or medical treatment. During this time, a cool or lukewarm bath with baking soda added may help to relieve symptoms, such as itching. Be sure your child does not scratch any sores, as this can lead to scarring or infection (putting gloves or socks on your child’s hands may help with this).

Also, be sure you do NOT give aspirin to your child, as this is associated with the development of Reye’s syndrome, which can cause brain damage and death. Also avoid ibuprofen, which is linked to more severe secondary infections in children with chickenpox.

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The Best “Drug” for Slashing Your Risk of Cancer?

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

Research in the UK suggests that the number of new cancer cases could rise 45 percent by 2030.

Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, says that the National Health Service must act immediately to avoid being “overwhelmed”.

The research looked at 23 different types of cancer, and found an expected cancer increase of 55 percent for men and 35 percent for women.

BBC News reports:

“The rate of breast cancer is projected to fall by 7 percent.

The authors attribute this to a recent reduction in the use of hormone replacement therapy, which is a risk factor for the disease.  

However the rates of malignant melanoma and kidney cancer are forecast to rise sharply in men and women.”

The primary reason for the rise in cancer cases is attributed to population growth in the UK and an increased ageing population.

Interestingly, while paying lip service to the necessity to create stronger initiatives for smoking, drinking, and obesity reduction.

England’s Department of Health is planning to invest more than £750 million over the next four years to promote earlier cancer diagnosis and “better access to the latest treatments.”

So in essence, they’re going to throw millions of pounds into an already broken system—the Cut, Poison, Burn paradigm—that does nothing to actually prevent cancer…

No wonder cancer rates are projected to rise by 45 percent in the UK over the next 20 years!

New Study—Cost of Cancer Rapidly Becoming Unsustainable

Cancer now surpasses heart disease as the number one killer of Americans between the ages of 45 to 74. The odds are quite high that you or someone you know has cancer, is dying or has already died from it.

While life cannot be measured in dollars and cents, the financial burden of cancer is truly staggering. Currently, 12 million people worldwide are diagnosed with cancer each year, costing $286 billion annually in medical costs and lost productivity. By 2030, that number could increase to 22 million people each year, with a similar rise in costs.

According to a new report from a panel of 37 experts, the cost of cancer is rapidly becoming unsustainable in many developed countries.  The report was published in the journal Lancet Oncology in September, and was covered in Time Magazine that same month.

According to the authors of the report:

“The burden of cancer is growing rapidly… This is not simply due to an increase in absolute numbers or need for optimized treatments, rather it relates to the unsustainable rate of increase in expenditure on cancer within health-care systems.

What are the drivers and solutions to the so-called cancer-cost curve in developed countries?   How are we going to afford to deliver high-quality and equitable care? In this Commission and the linked Comments, expert opinion from health-care professionals, policy makers, and cancer survivors has been gathered to address the barriers and solutions to delivering affordable cancer-care in high-income countries.”

The report wisely questions the value of expensive new therapies that prolong patients’ lives by mere months. Some cancer drugs, such as Avastin, for example, can cost upwards of $100,000 per year. At that price, even with insurance coverage, your co-payments can easily run as high as $20,000 a year. This despite the fact that studies show the drug prolongs life by just a few months at best, and more recent studies have suggested the drug might be less effective against cancer than the FDA believed when it was approved. It also has potentially lethal side effects that might speed up your ultimate demise.

When the Treatment is Worse than the Disease…

Perhaps more importantly, most conventional cancer treatments tend to add insult to injury by doing more harm than good — a fact that has been largely swept under the rug by the medical industry.

Meanwhile, the real culprits—the underlying causes—are completely ignored, and that is, I believe, the root of the problem. The cancer industry has become a massive for-profit business that is doing everything in its power to maintain the status quo. It is, quite simply, not interested in truly reducing cancer rates; it’s interested in treating cancer. From that perspective, the more cancer cases the better…

This sordid reality has been well-documented in films such as Cut, Poison, Burn, and Burzynski: The Movie.

Getting to the Root of the Problem

Ignoring the fact that cancer is for the most part a disease triggered  primarily by exposure to industrial toxins, the now well-trod path of the Cut-Poison-Burn model is taking us ever further AWAY from the solution. The pharmaceutical researchers would like you to believe they’re doing everything they can to come up with a solution. Yet most of the cancer research is directed towards expensive drugs that target late stages of the disease and greatly enrich the drug companies but simply do not prevent cancer.

Clearly they’re not digging close enough to the root of the problem, because if they did, they’d touch on some of the lifestyle issues I’ll review below.

If ever there was an area in which an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure it is cancer. I firmly believe that if you’re able to work your way up to the advanced health plan, that you will virtually eliminate the risk of most cancers.

From my perspective, you ignore lifestyle factors at your own peril, as environmental- and lifestyle factors are increasingly being pinpointed as the primary culprits fueling our cancer epidemic. An exhaustive list of contributing factors would be exceedingly long, but some of the more obvious ones are listed below. For more information about each, follow the hyperlinks provided, and for specifics on consumer products implicated as contributors to cancer, take a look at the Cancer Prevention Coalition’s “Dirty Dozen” list.

In the last 30 years the global cancer burden has doubled, and as predicted in the featured study, we’re looking at further dramatic increases—unless people begin to take cancer prevention seriously. I believe we can turn this trend around, but to do so the medical community must stop overlooking the methods that can actually have a very real and significant impact.

Three cancer advancements in particular merit special mention, and I will summarize them below. These advancements have not yet been accepted by conventional medicine, and they must be.

Vitamin D Plays a Crucial Role in Cancer Development

There’s overwhelming evidence indicating that vitamin D deficiency plays a crucial role in cancer development. Research has identified a number of vitamin D’s protective mechanisms against cancer, including:

  • Regulating genetic expression
  • Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to replicate, could lead to cancer)
  • Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells
  • Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)
  • Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous

Researchers within this field have estimated that about 30 percent of cancer deaths could be prevented annually simply by optimizing the vitamin D levels in the general population. On a personal level, you can decrease your risk of cancer by MORE THAN HALF simply by optimizing your vitamin D levels with sun exposure. And if you are being treated for cancer it is likely that higher blood levels—probably around 70-100 ng/ml—would be beneficial.

If the notion that sun exposure actually prevents cancer is still new to you, I highly recommend you watch my one-hour vitamin D lectureto clear up any confusion. It’s important to understand that the risk of skin cancer from the sun comes only from excessive exposure. Meanwhile, countless people around the world have an increased risk of cancer because their vitamin D levels are too low due to utter lack of sun exposure.

Why We Need to Re-Embrace Sun Exposure

I strongly recommend optimizing your vitamin D levels with appropriate amounts of sun exposure because when your skin is exposed to the sun, in addition to creating vitamin D3 it also synthesizes high amounts of vitamin D sulfate and cholesterol sulfate—both of which are very important for heart- and cardiovascular health. In fact, research by Dr. Stephanie Seneff suggests that heart disease may be a symptom of cholesterol sulfate deficiency, and healthy cholesterol and sulfur levels are both highly dependent on your vitamin D levels…

Vitamin D sulfate is a water soluble form of sulfur that can travel freely in your blood stream, making it readily available, while oral vitamin D3 is unsulfated, and therefore needs LDL (the so-called “bad” cholesterol) as a vehicle of transport. Dr. Seneff’s suspicion is that the simple oral non-sulfated form of vitamin D may not provide as much of the same heart-healthy benefits as the vitamin D created in your skin from sun exposure, because it cannot be converted to vitamin D sulfate, and therefore will not improve your sulfur status.

Furthermore, sulfur deficiency also promotes obesity and related health problems like diabetes, so all in all, the importance of getting regular sun exposure simply cannot be overstated.

If you can’t get enough sun exposure during certain parts of the year, I advise using a safe tanning bed to allow your body to produce vitamin D naturally. Safe tanning beds have electronic ballasts and produce less UVA than sunshine.

A third option is taking a high-quality vitamin D supplement. According to the most recent findings by Carole Baggerly, founder ofGrassrootsHealth, her research of nearly 10,000 people shows the ideal adult dose appears to be 8,000 IU’s a day to get most into the healthy range. Just remember to get your vitamin D levels tested regularly if you take an oral supplement.

World’s First Breast Cancer Prevention Study Underway!

While virtually all cancer organizations ignore cancer prevention, focusing primarily on early detection instead, Grassroots Health is now in the process of initiating the world’s first breast cancer prevention project and study, to investigate and evaluate vitamin D as a preventive strategy for breast cancer.

If you would like to sign up as a participant in this groundbreaking study, or make a donation to support this project, you can do so here. This project is only for women who are:

  1. 60 years of age and older
  2. have no current cancer
  3. are not currently being treated for cancer

Your Insulin Levels have a Direct Bearing on Your Cancer Risk

The second cancer prevention strategy that everyone needs to be aware of is the importance of normalizing your insulin levels. Aside from optimizing your vitamin D levels, normalizing your insulin levels is one of the most powerful physical actions you can take to lower your risk of cancer. Unfortunately, very few oncologists appreciate or apply this knowledge today. The Cancer Centers of America is one of the few exceptions, where strict dietary measures are included in their cancer treatment program.

High levels of insulin can cause major damage to your body. The most recognized of these is diabetes, but cancer is another common side effect. The good news is that controlling your insulin levels is relatively straightforward:

  1. First and foremost, limit your intake of processed foods, grains and sugars/fructose as much as possible, and
  2. Exercise regularly especially Peak Fitness exercises

Exercise is Slowly Becoming More Recognized for its Cancer Prevention Potential

While exercise might not be at the top of most people’s lists of cancer prevention or treatment strategies, there is actually compelling evidence suggesting that exercise can indeed slash your cancer risk and improve recovery.

For example, physically active adults experience about half the incidence of colon cancer as their sedentary counterparts, and women who exercise regularly can reduce their breast cancer risk by 20 to 30 percent compared to those who are inactive. Furthermore, Harvard Medical School researchers found that breast cancer patients who exercise moderately — 3-5 hours a week — reduce theirodds of dying by about half as compared to sedentary women. In fact, any amount of weekly exercise increased a patient’s odds of surviving breast cancer.

One of the primary ways exercise lowers your cancer risk is by reducing elevated insulin levels, which creates a low sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancer cells. Additionally, exercise improves the circulation of immune cells in your blood, which is your first line of defense against all disease, including cancer.

The trick though is understanding how to use exercise as a precise tool. It can be helpful to view exercise like a drug that needs to be carefully prescribed to achieve its maximum benefit.

You’ll want to include a large variety of techniques in your exercise routine, such as:

  • High-intensity, burst-type exercise, such as Peak 8. (Peak 8 are exercises performed three times a week, in which you raise your heart rate up to your anaerobic threshold for 20 to 30 seconds, and then you recover for 90 seconds)
  • Strength training
  • Aerobics
  • Core-building activities
  • Stretching

Other Cancer-Prevention Strategies

Please understand that you can do a lot, right now, to significantly decrease your cancer risk. Even the conservative American Cancer Society states that one-third of cancer deaths are linked to poor diet, physical inactivity, and carrying excess weight. So making the following healthy lifestyle changes can go a very long way toward ending the failure-streak and becoming one less statistic in this war against cancer:

  1. Focus on fresh, whole organic foods, forgoing as many processed foods as possible. Aim to consume at least one-third of your food raw. Only 25 percent of people eat enough vegetables, so by all means eat as many vegetables as you are comfortable with.Cruciferous vegetables in particular have been identified as having potent anti-cancer properties.
  2. When eating meat, make sure it’s grass-fed. Avoid CAFO beef and ALL processed meats, which have been clearly linked to increased cancer risk.
  3. Get appropriate amounts of animal-based omega-3 fats.
  4. Have a tool to permanently erase the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. My particular favorite tool for this purpose, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique.
  5. Maintain an ideal body weight. For my top 10 guidelines for normalizing your weight, please see this previous article.
  6. Get enough high-quality sleep.
  7. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, conventional personal care products,synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.
  8. Reduce your use of cell phones and other wireless technologies, and implement as many safety strategies as possible if/when you cannot avoid their use.
  9. Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them.

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Stunning New Way to Flush Away Skin Cancer

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States.

In fact, the incidence of skin cancer cases each year is higher than all other cancer combined, and has risenmore than 300 percent since 1992.

There are now more than 3.5 million nonmelanoma skin cancer cases diagnosed every year in the United States, bringing numbers well into epidemic proportions.

Clearly Americans’ well-intentioned efforts to cover up with sunscreen are not doing the trick, and I’ll explain some of the reasons for this below, but first I want to share with you a ground-breaking, completely natural substance that research shows can cure non melanoma skin cancers.

It’s called Solasodine rhamnosyl glycosides (BEC), which is a fancy name for extracts from plants of the Solanaceae family, such as eggplant, tomato, potato, Bell peppers, and tobacco.

Eggplant and Similar Plant Extracts Used for Treating Cancer Since 1825

There are reports that extracts of plants from the Solanaceae family of vegetables are effective for treating cancer dating back nearly 200 years to 1825, according to natural health pioneer Dr. Jonathan Wright. However, it wasn’t until much later, after the 1950s, that they were formally studied.

The leading researcher in this area today is Dr. Bill E. Cham, who reported as early as 1991 in Cancer Letters that:

“A cream formulation containing high concentrations (10%) of a standard mixture of solasodine glycosides (BEC) has been shown to be effective in the treatment of malignant and benign human skin tumors.

We now report that a preparation … which contains very low concentrations of BEC (0.005%) is effective in the treatment of keratoses, basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) and squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) of the skin of humans. In an open study, clinical and histological observations indicated that all lesions (56 keratoses, 39 BCCs and 29 SCCs) treated with [the preparation] had regressed.”

A subsequent study by separate researchers also noted that a 0.005% mixture of solasodine glycosides called BEC5 is a “safe therapy for basal cell carcinoma, with a cure rate of 66% at 8 weeks and 78% at 1 year follow-up.”

The findings are exciting, to say the least, because while basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas — the two most common types of skin cancer — are highly curable even by conventional medical standards, there are serious disadvantages with the common treatments. As Dr. Cham reported, the treatment and management of nonmelanoma skin cancers cost more than $1.4 billion per year in the United States, a number that is increasing exponentially each year and quickly becoming unsustainable.

Further, the common treatments, surgery and radiation therapy, pose the following problems:

  • Surgery may not remove all cancerous cells
  • Painful with slow healing
  • Scarring often occurs, which can be cosmetically unappealing, especially if the cancer is on your face
  • Serious health risks of radiation therapy
  • High recurrence rates have been reported following conventional treatment

That affordable eggplant extract appears to rapidly cure cancerous lesions with absolutely no scarring and only minor itching and burning as side effects is impressive.

Two Skin Cancer Case Studies Show Amazing Results With Eggplant-Extract Cream

Dr. Cham’s latest study was published in the International Journal of Clinical Medicine this year. The paper includes two impressive case reports of 60-something men who were suffering from large basal cell carcinoma (BCC) or squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), which had plagued them for years.  The results upon treatment with a cream formulation of BEC (eggplant extract) twice a day are astounding, and you can view the pictures here:

  • In the first case, treatment with the eggplant-extract cream resulted in rapid break down of the tumor. After two weeks, the lesion was reduced to about half its original size, and after 14 weeks the cancer was clinically eliminated with no scar tissue formation. Even the hairs had regrown where the tumor was originally.
  • In the second case, after six weeks of treatment with eggplant-extract cream the large skin cancer lesion appeared “cleaner” and some of the cancerous tissue had been replaced with normal tissue. In another three weeks, the lesion was much smaller and more normal tissue was apparent. After a total of 14 weeks, the lesion was completely eliminated with no scar tissue present.

BEC5 Eggplant Extract Kills Only Cancerous Cells, Leaving Healthy Cells Alone

Interestingly, the BEC, and the specific formulation BEC5, which has been used successfully on more than 80,000 patients according to Dr. Cham, appears to impact only cancerous cells leaving normal cells alone. Dr. Cham explains:

The mode of action of SRGs [glycoalkaloids solasodine rhamnosy glycosides (BEC)] is unlike any current antineoplastic [anti-tumor] agent. Specific receptors for the SRGs present only on cancer cells but not normal cells are the first step of events that lead to apoptosis in cancer cells only, and this may explain why during treatment the cancer cells were being eliminated and normal cells were replacing the killed cancer cells with no scar tissue being formed.

The two cases presented here are large and anatomically difficult to treat lesions. There is little doubt that the cosmetic end result of this type of treatment is at least, or more likely, superior to other available treatments. At the completion of treatment, it could not be distinguished where the tumors once were!”

Unfortunately, simply eating eggplant, tomatoes, peppers or similar veggies, while beneficial for many reasons, will not induce this same effect because the active components are not able to effectively penetrate your cells. This requires the addition of glycosides, molecules with various simple sugars attached to them that can latch on to receptors found on skin cancer cells.

Dr. Wright explains:

“BEC5 is a name for a mixture of 1/3 solasonine and 1/3 solamargine in the “triglycoside” form, and 1/3 “diglycosides and monoglycosides” of these two basic molecules. Solasonine and solamargine themselves are actually very similar (but not identical to) human cholesterol and steroid molecules.

By themselves, solasonine and solamargine don’t have anticancer activity because they can’t penetrate into cells, cancerous or normal. That’s why just eating the foods that contain these compounds won’t eliminate your skin cancer or even reduce your risk of getting it. In order for them to be effective, they need to be able to get into the cells. That’s where the glycosides come in. Glycoside is a term used to describe molecules with various simple sugars attached to them.

One of these simple sugars, called rhamnose, selectively latches on to receptors present only in skin cancer cell membranes and in actinic keratosis. When you combine the solasonine and solamargine with rhamnose, they can get into the cells where they cause cancer cell death by destroying cell components called lysosomes. Normal cells escape any harm, since the BEC5 can’t get into them.”

Lack of Sunlight Increases Your Risk of Melanoma Skin Cancer

What’s even better than an inexpensive, safe and natural cure for skin cancer is, of course, preventing it in the first place. And to do that you’ve got to get your mind around this fact: In fact, doing this will actually increase your risk of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, because it will decimate your vitamin D levels.

Avoiding the sun and slathering on sunscreen is NOT the best way to prevent skin cancer!

Your organs convert the vitamin D in your bloodstream into calcitriol, which is the hormonal or activated version of vitamin D. Your organs then use it to repair damage, including damage from cancer cells and tumors. Exposure to sunlight is the optimal way to maintain therapeutic blood levels of vitamin D, so if you’ve been shunning the sun, or applying sunscreen, which blocks your body’s ability to produce vitamin D, you’re likely deficient and missing out on these anti-cancer benefits.

Vitamin D’s protective effect against cancer works in multiple ways, including:

  • Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to replicate, could lead to cancer)
  • Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells
  • Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)
  • Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous

A study by Dr. William Grant, Ph.D., internationally recognized research scientist and vitamin D expert, found that about 30 percent of cancer deaths — which amounts to 2 million worldwide and 200,000 in the United States – could be prevented each year with higher levels of vitamin D!

Several studies have also confirmed that appropriate sun exposure actually helps prevent skin cancer. In fact, melanoma occurrence has been found to decrease with greater sun exposure, and can be increased by sunscreens. One such study revealed that melanoma patients who had higher levels of sun exposure were less likely to die than other melanoma patients, and patients who already had melanoma and got a lot of sun exposure were prone to a less aggressive tumor type.

Another Italian study, published in the European Journal of Cancer, also confirmed and supported earlier studies showing improved survival rates in melanoma patients who were exposed to sunlight more frequently in the time before their melanoma was diagnosed.

Melanoma is actually more common in indoor workers than in outdoor workers, and is more common on regions of your body that are not exposed to the sun at all. UVB radiation has been found to delay the appearance of melanoma if you are genetically predisposed or prone to skin cancer.

Why Most Sunscreens Will Not Protect You Against Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer

Aside from their impact on your vitamin D levels, most sunscreens are worse than useless because they provide inadequate UVA protection. There are two primary types of UV rays from sunlight that you need to be concerned with, the vitamin-D-producing UVB rays and the skin-damaging UVA light.

Both UVA and UVB can cause tanning and burning, although UVB does so far more rapidly. UVA, however, penetrates your skin more deeply than UVB, and may be a much more important factor in photoaging, wrinkles and non-melanoma skin cancers.

However, if you think your sunscreen is protecting you from UVA, you’re likely being deceived, as a 2011 Environmental Working Group analysis found that more than 60 percent of sunscreen products reviewed provide inadequate UVA protection, and are actually so ineffective that they would not be approved in the European market.

Since UVA’s are inherently more damaging AND persistently high during all daylight hours, wearing a sunscreen that doesn’t protect you from UVA is going to give you virtually no benefit and be detrimental to your overall health. So it’s important to understand that if you’re using sunscreen, you need to be certain you are actually getting UVA protection.

Europe is taking a far more stringent stance to ensure that consumers are protected against the damaging UVA light when they use sunscreens, but in the United States sunscreen standards fall short.

As EWG reported:

” … Europe’s proposed standards for UVA protection are far more stringent than FDA’s. The agency has spent years finalizing a rule that would merely require disclosure of UVA protection levels, while Europe has proposed that sunscreens provide UVA protection at a level at least one-third as strong as the sunburn protection level (SPF).

This means the minimum UVA protection in Europe would be roughly equivalent to FDA’s proposed three-star protection level. Requiring balanced protection across the UVB and UVA spectrum has the secondary effect of limiting sky-high SPF values, ensuring that sunburn protection isn’t out of step with protection from other health problems, such as free radical damage and skin cancer.

Very few sunscreens on the U.S. market would meet the baseline UVA protection standards proposed in Europe.”

Using the Sun for Skin Cancer Prevention

The key to effectively using the sun for skin cancer protection is to find a healthy balance between getting enough natural sunlight to maximize your vitamin D production and maintain your optimal health, while at the same time protecting yourself from damage that occurs from overexposure to the sun.

A good rule of thumb to follow is once your skin turns the lightest shade of pink (if you’re Caucasian), it’s time to get out of the sun. Past this point of exposure your body will not produce any more vitamin D and you’ll begin to have sun damage — and sunburn anywhere on your body is not good for your health.

You should seek to use natural sunlight as your primary source of vitamin D, but during the winter a safe tanning bed (one that uses electronic, not magnetic, ballasts and has lower levels of UVA than even the sun does, as most non-safe beds have higher UVA levels than the sun) is the next best alternative.

If neither of these options are available to you then you can use an oral vitamin D3 supplement, but keep in mind you may miss out on all of the benefits, and researchers have found that daily intakes of vitamin D by adults in the range of 8,000 IU are needed so your blood levels are in the therapeutic range. You can find out more about how to use vitamin D therapeutically to protect your health here.

Your Diet Can Also Protect You from Skin Cancer

Consuming a healthy diet full of natural antioxidants is a useful strategy to ensure your body is primed to have the best defense against overexposure to the sun’s harmful UVA rays at all times.

Fresh, raw, unprocessed foods deliver the nutrients that your body needs to maintain a healthy balance of omega-6 and omega-3 oils in your skin, which is your first line of defense against sunburn. Fresh, raw vegetables also provide your body with an abundance of powerful antioxidants that will help you fight the free radicals caused by sun damage that can lead to burns and cancer. As Wright also recommends, some of the most important foods and nutrients to focus on for skin-cancer prevention include:

The recently appreciated highly beneficial carotenoid called astaxanthin has also piqued the interest of researchers due to its ability to reduce signs of aging by helping protect your skin from sun damage. Astaxanthin is extracted from marine algae in response to exposure to UV light. This is the way the algae protects itself from UVB damage, so it makes perfect sense that this deeply pigmented substance would have the capacity to “shield” you when it is taken in appropriate quantities for a sufficient time (usually several weeks) to saturate your body’s tissues.

Cyanotech Corporation funded a study through an independent consumer research laboratory to measure the skin’s resistance to both UVA and UVB light before and after astaxanthin supplementation. The result was that in only three weeks of taking 4 mg per day subjects showed a significant increase in the amount of time necessary for UV radiation to redden their skin. You can find more information on how to use astaxanthin to help protect your skin from sun damage here.

Your body is made to be in the sun, and, when done properly, sun exposure will be one of the best ways you can help reduce your risk of skin, and many other forms of, cancer. In the event you do develop non-melanoma skin cancer, talk to your holistic health care practitioner about all the treatment options available, including the potentially least expensive and least invasive ones, like eggplant extract.

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The Gentle Effectiveness Of Cure By Sunlight Is Ignored Due To Dominance Of The Pharma Industry

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By Andreas Moritz

Sunlight is possibly the most powerful natural broad spectrum drug.

The medical doctor and author, Dr. Auguste Rollier, was the most famous heliotherapist of his day. At his peak, he operated 36 clinics with over 1,000 beds in Leysin, Switzerland. His clinics were situated 5,000 feet above sea level.

The intensity of ultraviolet light increases by 4 percent for every 1000 feet of elevation above sea level. So at 5000 feet, the sun’s UV intensity is increased by a whole 20 percent. The strategically placed clinics allowed his patients to catch a lot more UV light. Dr. Rollier used this UV light to treat diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), rickets, smallpox, lupus vulgaris (skin tuberculosis), and wounds.

He followed in the footsteps of the Danish physician Dr. Niels Finsen, who won the Nobel Prize in 1903 for his treatment of TB using ultraviolet light. In a span of 20 years, more than 2,000 cases of surgical (bone and joint) tuberculosis were treated, and more than 80% were discharged as cured at Dr. Rollier’s clinics.

Rollier found that sunbathing early in the morning, in conjunction with a nutritious diet, produced the best effects. The patients (many of them children) were gradually exposed to the sun’s rays until the whole body could be bared. In winter the whole day could be spent in the sunshine and dry, cold air. In summer however, exposure was limited to the morning hours only.

More than 100,000 lives were lost each year from tuberculosis, the ‘White Plague’, as it was then called. The miraculous complete cures of tuberculosis and many other diseases made headlines at that time.

What surprised the medical community most was the fact that the sun’s healing rays remained ineffective if the patients wore sunglasses. [Sunglasses block out important rays of the light spectrum which the body requires for essential biological functions. Note: your eyes receive these rays even if you are in the shade] By the year 1933, there were over 165 different diseases for which sunlight proved to be a beneficial treatment.

However, with the death of Rollier in 1954 and the growing dominance of the pharmaceutical industry, heliotherapy sadly fell into disuse. The gentle effectiveness of cure by sunlight was ignored and soon forgotten.

By the 1960s, manmade ‘miracle drugs’ had replaced the medical fraternity’s fascination with the sun’s healing powers. By the 1980s the public was increasingly bombarded with warnings about sun-bathing and the risks of skin cancer from exposure to sun. People were alarmed and even terrorized by the strong lobby of the sunscreen industry that put financial gains far above social health and wellbeing.

Today, the sun is considered the main culprit precipitating skin cancer, certain cataracts leading to blindness, and aging of the skin. Only those who take the ‘risk’ of exposing themselves to sunlight find that the sun actually makes them feel better, provided they do not use sunscreens or burn their skin by way of overexposure.

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This is an excerpt from my book HEAL YOURSELF WITH SUNLIGHT

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The Sun Is Important For Our Eye Health

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By Andreas Moritz

The human body was designed to absorb UV light for very good reasons; otherwise we would have been born with a natural absolute sunscreen for UV light on our skin and in our eyes. One of the most important reasons is that UV radiation is necessary for normal cell division. A lack of UV light disturbs normal cell growth, which can lead to cancer.

The use of sunglasses, including regular UV reflecting spectacles and contact lenses are co-responsible for certain degenerative eye diseases, such as macular degeneration. Most people who use sunglasses report continuously weakening eyesight. The solution is to this problem is simple: stop wearing them or begin to phase out your sunglasses. You will soon discover that your eyes are gradually getting used to sunlight again.

There are other ways to improve eyesight and reduce sensitivity to sunlight. These primarily include eye-exercises, good nutrition (consisting of mostly alkaline-forming foods), avoiding eyestrain and watching too many hours of television.

Our typical indoor lifestyle, coupled with excessive over-stimulation through highly acid-forming foods and beverages, the cholesterol-increasing and dehydrating effects of television, and various other stress factors are sufficient cause for damage to body cells, including those that make up the eyes.

The sun is important for our eye-health. Sunshine enables us to manufacture the Vitamin D that we need. Eyes that have been deprived of sunshine are pale and lifeless. Extreme sensitivity to sunshine is called photophobia. People who are sensitive to light and glare usually solve their problem by wearing sunglasses. But is that a solution or a stop-gap measure? Sunglasses prevent our eyes from getting adequate sunlight and causes even greater light sensitivity. The more we wear them, the more we are sensitive to light. Hence a vicious cycle develops!

By sunning our eyes, we can reduce our sensitivity to light and sharpen our eyesight. Many people have reported that their vision improved after sunning – a simple eye exercise. Sunning must be ideally done in the morning or evening and never during the hot afternoon sun. Do a moderate amount for each session. There is no need to sun your eyes until you are sun burnt. The procedure is simple. Close your eyes and face the sun directly. Slowly move your head to the left and then to the right to let the sunshine reach every part of your retina.

By regularly shutting out much-needed UV light (even children and some pets are given sunglasses to wear nowadays), the eyes are unable to properly repair themselves and replace worn out eye cells.

The increased incidence of blindness and eye diseases in the industrialized world may result, to a large extent, from the misinformation that the sun is dangerous. Please be aware that in sunny parts of the world, almost everyone wears sunglasses nowadays. This may very well account for the increase of cataracts in these places. There may also be other factors involved, such as malnutrition (diarrhea can lead to severe demineralization), smoking, pollution, and poor diet. It is known that disease is not caused by a single reason alone. It is the cumulative effect of morbid environmental agents and also our habits and practices – dietary, behavioral, etc. To keep your eyes healthy, be sure to allow enough direct or indirect sunlight to enter your eyes, ideally no less than one hour every day.

If you wear sunglasses, expose your eyes to natural light for as long as it is comfortable. Try to restrict your use to only when the glare is reflected off snow or the road. Gradually you will wean yourself from sunglasses and will no longer require them. To avoid dehydration of the skin, drink fresh water before and after exposure to the sun.

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This is an excerpt from my book HEAL YOURSELF WITH SUNLIGHT

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The Sun Is Not The Culprit For Causing Skin Cancers

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By Andreas Moritz

Overall, since the beginning of the new millennium, each year one million Americans are being diagnosed with some form of skin cancer. There are millions of sufferers now, all of whom have been made to believe that the depleting ozone has rendered sunlight dangerous. This has lead people to believe that the sun is the main culprit for their skin diseases. It is a sad and unfortunate and even harmful misconception.

Since UV radiation is actually decreasing every year and skin cancers were extremely rare 100 years ago when UV intensity was much higher and people spent much more time outdoors, what other factor could be held responsible for causing skin cancer?

If it is not the sun and not the earth that have turned hostile to life, the only other precipitating factor must lie in a changed behavior of man himself. What could this change in man be? We do know that is not a physiological or anatomical change. So, it has to be a change in our behavior, our actions.

Our skin is susceptible to damage from sunlight. But skin damage occurs only from overexposure to sunlight. There is a limit to which our skin can tolerate strong sunlight. Beyond that limit, our body signals out for respite. The obvious signs of sunburn appear. If we follow these signals and seek shelter, we eliminate chances of skin damage in a natural instinctive way. It is only by ignoring or suppressing these signals that we subject our skin to harm from overexposure.

Some of us consciously ignore the evident signs of sunburn on account of certain obligations. An appropriate example would be that of a farmer working in his fields or an athlete spending long hours on the tracks.

Yet others choose to suppress the innate indications of injury to the skin from overexposure to the sun by the use of certain suppressive applications. An apt example is that of a holiday-maker on the beach, sunbathing after applying an arbitrary amount of a sunscreen. This man, in all probability, may be unaware that the sunscreen is suppressive by nature.

Let us take the two examples of the ignorant farmer and the holiday-maker who is suppressing the body’s normal response to overexposure. Both the farmer and the holiday-maker may be overexposed to sunlight to the same extent. Yet the holiday-maker who is suppressing his natural reaction, is at a greater risk of disease. This is because he is upsetting his physiology and not allowing his body to function the way it normally should. He is creating an unnatural condition for himself by applying sunscreen which his own body has not created and cannot recognize.

We are born with a natural sunscreen in the form of the pigment melanin. Any additional interference by the use of artificial sun-blocks totally unsettles the body’s natural mechanism of coping with the overexposure to sunlight. The suppression gives wrong signals to the body which then fails to understand and reacts abnormally.

Our ancestors never applied sunscreen. What I am trying to reiterate is that, it is neither the sun nor the earth that is responsible for promoting the occurrence of skin cancer. It is man’s changing lifestyle, his desire to find artificial substitutes that actually deprive him from leading a normal, natural, healthy life.

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This is an excerpt from my book HEAL YOURSELF WITH SUNLIGHT

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The Ancient Practice of Sun Gazing

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By Andreas Moritz

Sun energy is the source that powers the brain. It enters the body through the elements of air, water, fire, and earth. Sunlight enters and leaves the human body most easily and directly through the human eye, provided it isn’t filtered out by colored lenses. The eyes are the grand portals through which sunlight enters the body.

Sun gazing is an ancient practice that can induce healing of body and mind.

The eyes are very complex organs, consisting of 5 billion parts intricately designed and functioning in unity. The primary function of the eye is light-dark perception. Even the most basic, simplest ‘eyes’, such as those belonging to unicellular organisms have no other function but to detect whether the surroundings are light or dark in order to maintain the circadian rhythms.

Acting as a photo lens, the human eye is able to break down the entire spectrum of sunlight into the different color rays – a sort of ocular prism. In a camera, the various rays of light react with the chemicals of the film and encode the pictures you take accordingly. Likewise, upon entering the pineal gland in the brain, the different light rays are chemically encoded in the brain and passed on to the organs and systems in the body.

The vital organs of the body are dependent on specific colors of the light spectrum. For kidney cells to function properly, for example, they require red light. Heart cells need yellow light, and liver cells require green light. Light deficiencies in any of the organs and systems of the body can lead to disease. Regular sun gazing can help restore balance and efficiency to all cells in the body.

The pineal gland is one of the most researched glands of the body. Scientists have established that bright light stimulates the production of serotonin and melatonin in the pineal, but there are other neurochemicals produced by the pineal that have more profound and complex effects apart from regulation of moods, sleep, reproductive function and body temperature.

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, including Dr. George C. Brenarr, a leading authority on the pineal gland, observed the sun yogi HRM (Hira Ratan Manek) for 130 days in 2002. They found that his pineal exhibited growth and reactivation. The average size of the pineal is 6×6 mm, but in HRM’s case it was 8×11 mm.

Scientists refer to the pineal gland as the ‘atrophied third eye’. Indeed, it, along with the pituitary, is the third eye chakra or energy center, better referred to as dormant rather than atrophied. According to Max Heindel’s Rosicrucian writings, in the distant past, man was in touch with the inner worlds through an activated pineal and pituitary gland. Considered the most powerful and highest source of ethereal energy available to humans, the third eye has always been important in initiating psychic powers (clairvoyance and seeing auras etc).

To activate the ‘third eye’ and perceive higher dimensions, the pineal and the pituitary must vibrate in unison, which is achieved through meditation or sun gazing. When a correct relationship is established between the personality operating through the pituitary, and the soul operating through the pineal, a magnetic field is created. The pineal can generate its own magnetic field because it contains magnetite. This field can interact with the earth’s magnetic field. The solar wind at dawn, charging the earth’s magnetic field, stimulates the pineal gland. This is why many spiritual teachings claim that the period between 4 and 6 am is the best time to meditate and why sunrise is the best time to sun gaze. At these times, the pineal stimulates the pituitary to secrete Human Growth Hormone. That is why sun gazers often experience rapid nail and hair growth, restoration of hair color, and general rejuvenation. Cleopatra used to place a magnet on her forehead to stimulate the pituitary to restore her youth and good looks. She did not know she already had a magnet in her head.

The technique of sun gazing demands no more than time and attention, and is very simple. One should gaze at the sun only in the morning or evening hours, about one hour or less after sunrise or before sunset. Look at the rising or setting sun once a day. On the first day, look at the sun in a relaxed manner for a maximum of 10 seconds. On the second day, look at it for 20 seconds, adding about ten seconds every succeeding day. After ten continuous days of sun gazing you will be looking at the sun for about 100 seconds. The eyes can blink or flicker and don’t need to be steady. To receive the main benefits of sun gazing, you need to increase the duration in the above manner until you reach three months. This brings you up to the length of 15 minutes of gazing at a time.

At this stage, the sun energy of the sun’s rays passing through the human eye will be charging the hypothalamus tract – the pathway behind the retina leading to the human brain. As the brain increasingly receives extra power through this pathway, you will find a drastic reduction of mental tension and worries. With access to this additional source of energy, you are likely to develop a more positive mindset and increased self-confidence. If you suffer from anxieties and depression, you will find that these go away. Sadness and depression are known to increase with reduced or lack of exposure to sunlight. With fewer worries and fears, your brain may use the saved and additionally supplied energy for healing and improvement of mental and physical wellbeing.

One of the most frequently reported benefits of regular sun gazing is improvement of eyesight.

Life giving, golden rayed, the eternal watchful eye, called ‘the beginning’ and ‘the ultimate truth’ by wisdom, the Sun is also the earliest acknowledged doctor of mankind. We have turned to him for healing since ages – since our very beginnings.

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This is an excerpt from my book HEAL YOURSELF WITH SUNLIGHT

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You may share or republish this article provided you clearly mention the name of Andreas Moritz and paste a hyper link back to the web page

Guidelines For Increasing Sun Exposure

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By Andreas Moritz

If you wish to benefit from the sun but cannot afford much time to be outdoors, there are several ways to increase your exposure to sunlight:

  • Windows should consist of glass that permits UV light to enter
  • Have as many such windows as possible
  • Keep your curtains pushed back so that you have maximum exposure
  • Depending on weather and the season, keep your windows open
  • Install as many full spectrum lights as possible (the best alternative to natural sunlight)

Those living in a moderate climate can sunbathe regularly. It is best to avoid the sun between 10.00 a.m. and 3.00 p.m. during summer, whereas during winter, spring, and fall, this time is okay, too. During winter you can sunbathe if you lie in a totally wind-protected place. You can build your own sunbathing area against a wall facing the sun. The sidewalls should be made of material that can serve as a good windbreak. The wall pointing toward the sun should be at an angle slanted toward the sun so that the low winter rays can shine into the sunbathing area. Lying on a blanket, you will be warmer than if you were indoors. Another, perhaps, more practical way is to open a window on a sunny day when there is no breeze. I have done this many times in my life, even in countries where winters can be very cold.

If for any reason you are going to be exposed to the sun for unduly long periods, you may apply Aloe Vera gel, coconut oil, or olive oil.

For maximum benefits, though, and to wash off any natural oiliness, it is best to take a shower before sunbathing. Start your sunlight treatment by exposing your entire body (if possible) for a few minutes, and then increase the time each day by a few more minutes until you reach 20-30 minutes. Alternatively, walking in the sun for 40-60 minutes several times per week minutes has similar benefits. This will give you enough sunlight to keep your body and mind healthy, provided you incorporate the basic measures of a balanced diet, lifestyle, and daily routine. Your body can store up a certain amount of vitamin D, which may last you through 4-6 weeks of wintry weather, but it is always good to recharge your ‘vitamin D battery’ whenever possible by exposing yourself to direct sunlight.

Note: Avoid sunlamps, tanning beds, and tanning booths. According to a study published in the International Journal of Cancer (Vol 120, No 5, March 1, 2007; 1116-1122), exposure to tanning beds before age 35 increases melanoma risk by 75 percent. Many young people now use tanning beds, which may be responsible for the recent sharp increase of melanomas in their age group. There is also a link between tanning bed use and squamous cell carcinoma, a less-deadly type of skin cancer. Conventional tanning equipment uses magnetic ballasts that emit powerful electromagnetic fields (EMFs) responsible for cancer growth. Their high concentration of UV-A may also play a role. Electronic ballasts are safer than magnetic ballasts, but very few parlors use these.

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This is an excerpt from my book TIMELESS SECRETS OF HEALTH & REJUVENATION

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Spend Some Time In The Sun Today And Benefit From The Miraculous Healing Powers Of Ultraviolet Light

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By Andreas Moritz 

The time when getting outside on the first sunny spring day is long gone. Only the very courageous or ‘careless’ who defy the grim warnings from medical mandarins and cancer specialists – wholeheartedly endorsed by the sunscreen industry – dare to venture forth into the ‘dangerous’ sun.

Fortunately, this view is beginning to crumble in the blatant absence of scientific proof that sunlight causes disease. What is being discovered instead is that lack of sun exposure is one of the greatest risk factors for disease.

A Long-Standing Treatment

Before antibiotic drugs were discovered, the healing power of sunlight was favored by the medical community, at least in Europe. Sunlight therapy, called heliotherapy, was indeed considered to be the most successful treatment for infectious diseases from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. Studies revealed that exposing patients to controlled amounts of sunlight dramatically lowered elevated blood pressure (up to 40 mm Hg drop), decreased cholesterol in the bloodstream, lowered abnormally high blood sugar in diabetics, and increased the number of white blood cells, which people need to help resist disease. Patients suffering from gout, rheumatoid arthritis, colitis, arteriosclerosis, anemia, cystitis, eczema, acne, psoriasis, herpes, lupus, sciatica, kidney problems, asthma, and even burns, have all received great benefits from the healing rays of the sun.

Change Your Perceptions

Today, the sun is considered the main culprit for causing skin cancer, certain cataracts leading to blindness, and aging of the skin. Only those who take the ‘risk’ of exposing themselves to sunlight find that the sun makes them feel better, provided they don’t use sunscreens or burn their skin. The UV-rays in sunlight actually stimulate the thyroid gland to increase hormone production, which, in turn, increases the body’s basal metabolic rate. This assists both weight loss and improved muscle development. Therefore, if you want to lose weight or increase your muscle tone, expose your body to the sun on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, it is the ultraviolet (UV) portion of sunlight that is the most easily blocked by windows, houses, spectacles, sunglasses, sun lotions and clothing. UV light is known to activate an important skin hormone called solitrol. Solitrol influences our immune system and many of our body’s regulatory centers and, in conjunction with the pineal hormone melatonin, causes changes in mood and daily biological rhythms. The hemoglobin in our red blood cells requires UV light to bind to the oxygen needed for all cellular functions. Lack of sunlight can, therefore, be held co-responsible for almost any kind of illness, including skin cancer and other forms of cancer.

I encourage you to expose yourself to sunlight – in moderation. Ultraviolet rays have many benefits; if simply spending some time in nature can improve our moods, boost our immune systems, assist our bodies’ regulatory centers and biological rhythms, and improve our overall health, why should we fear the sun?

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This is an excerpt from my book HEAL YOURSELF WITH SUNLIGHT

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You may share or republish this article provided you clearly mention the name of Andreas Moritz and paste a hyperlink back to the web page

Sunglasses and Sunscreens — A Major Cause of Cancer

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By Andreas Moritz 

Sunglasses and Sunscreens—A Major Cause of Cancer

Unfortunately, the ultraviolet portion of sunlight is the most easily eliminated by windows, houses, spectacles, sunglasses, sun lotions, and clothing. And why is that at a bad thing? Because ultraviolet light constitutes one of the most powerful natural medicines the world has ever seen. By the year 1933, researchers found there were over 165 different diseases for which sunlight proved to be a beneficial treatment, including tuberculosis, hypertension, diabetes, and almost every type of cancer. To this day, no other treatment has shown such a wide range of benefits as sunlight.

The miraculous complete cures of tuberculosis and many other diseases facilitated by doctors in the early twentieth century made headlines at the time. Remarkably, though, the sun’s healing rays remained ineffective if the patients wore sunglasses. Sunglasses block out important rays of the light spectrum which the body requires for essential biological functions. Today, for whatever sinister reasons, the population is being bombarded with warnings about sunbathing and the risks of skin cancer.

The sun is now considered the main culprit for causing skin cancer, certain cataracts leading to blindness, and aging of the skin. Only those who take the “risk” of exposing themselves to sunlight find that the sun actually makes them feel better, provided they don’t use sunglasses, sunscreens or burn their skin. The UV-rays in sunlight actually stimulate the thyroid gland to increase hormone production, which in turn increases the body’s basal metabolic rate. This assists both in weight loss and improved muscle development. Farm animals fatten much faster when kept indoors, and so do people who stay out of the sun. Therefore, if you want to lose weight or increase your muscle tone,expose your body to the sun on a regular basis. Remember, being overweight or obese is major risk factor for developing cancer.

Any person who misses out on sunlight becomes weak and suffers mental and physical problems as a result. His vital energy diminishes in due time, which is reflected in his quality of life. The populations in Northern European countries like Norway and Finland, which experience months of darkness every year, have a higher incidence of irritability, fatigue, illness, insomnia, depression, alcoholism, and suicide than those living in the sunny parts of the world. Their skin cancer rates are higher, too. For example, the incidence of melanoma (skin cancer) on the Orkney and Shetland Isles, north of Scotland, is 10 times that of Mediterranean islands.

UV light is known to activate an important skin hormone called solitrol. Solitrol influences our immune system and many of our body’s regulatory centers, and, in conjunction with the pineal hormone melatonin, causes changes in mood and daily biological rhythms. The hemoglobin in our red blood cells requires ultraviolet (UV) light to bind to the oxygen needed for all cellular functions. Lack of sunlight can, therefore, be held co-responsible for almost any kind of illness, including skin cancer and other forms of cancer. Using sun protection protects only the multi-billion dollar sunscreen and cancer industry but not your skin or your life. Consider these remarkable scientifically proven facts:

Ultraviolet light

  • improves electrocardiogram readings
  • lowers blood pressure and resting heart rate
  • improves cardiac output when needed (not contradictory to lower resting heart rate)
  • reduces cholesterol, if required
  • increases glycogen stores in the liver
  • balances blood sugar
  • enhances energy, endurance, and muscular strength
  • improves the body’s resistance to infections due to an increase of lymphocytes and phagocytic index (the average number of bacteria ingested per leukocyte of the patient’s blood)
  • enhances the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood
  • increases sex hormones
  • improves resistance of the skin to infections
  • raises one’s tolerance to stress and reduces depressionOn the other hand, there is not a single scientific study which can prove that sunlight itself is responsible for causing skin cancers or other illnesses. There are always other factors present, such as acidosis of the tissues (due to eating an overly acidifying diet consisting of animal proteins, trans fatty acids, and manufactured foods and beverages), most pharmaceutical drugs, an accumulation of heavy metals and harmful chemicals in the tissues, toxic blood, a severely congested liver, an unbalanced lifestyle, and foremost of all, sunglasses and sunscreens.The human body was designed to absorb UV light for very good reasons; otherwise we would have been born with a natural sunscreen for UV light on our skin and in our eyes. One of the most important reasons is that UV radiation is necessary for normal cell division. A lack of sunlight disrupts normal cell growth, which can lead to cancer. The wearing of sunglasses, including regular UV-reflecting spectacles and contact lenses, is largely responsible for certain degenerative eye diseases, such as macular degeneration. Most people who use sunglasses on a regular basis report continuously weakening eyesight.

Depriving your eyes of adequate exposure to ultraviolet light can have serious consequences for your skin and even risk you life. Normally, as soon as the optic nerves of your eyes sense sunlight, your pituitary gland produces hormones that act as boosters for your melanocytes. Melanocytes produce melanin, the pigment that gives skin its natural color and protection against sunburn. When skin is exposed to the sun, melanocytes produce more pigment, causing the skin to tan, or darken, and your melanocytes start producing melanin on overdrive. However, when you wear sunglasses, this process becomes disrupted. Instead of kick-starting the melanocyte production to protect your skin against sunburn, your pituitary glands thinks it is getting dark outside and, thus, it greatly reduces production of melanocyte-stimulating hormones. Subsequently, your skin produces less melanin, which causes it to less protected and thus become damaged.

The dramatically increased incidence of skin damage seemingly caused by the sun (but really by wearing sunglasses) is exploited by the sunscreen and cancer industry. The main reason the dermatology industry promotes sunscreen products is because it is heavily funded by sunscreen manufacturers. The pharmaceutical and medical industries never intended to cure diseases. Right from the beginning, it was their intention to make a lot of money by producing drugs and chemicals that would making up new diseases for which they would develop specific drugs and procedures to relieve symptoms but never really eliminate them. In the above example of sunlight, by advertising the dangers of sunlight and promoting the use of sunglasses and sunscreens, the pharma/medical industry made certain the number of skin cancers and numerous other health problems would increase. They then recommended the appropriate treatments to combat these diseases, which in turn will lead to further escalations of these same diseases. These principals of psychological deception are well known to the industry and are applied to almost every so-called disease. The result is that nearly every person in the United States already has or will develop one or several serious illnesses at some stage in their lives. Something as “harmless” as sunglasses or sunscreens has created a health disaster of unimaginable proportions.

As the health author web site NaturalNews reported recently, a CDC study shows that 97 percent of Americans are contaminated with an extremely toxic sunscreen chemical called oxybenzone. This chemical is found in nearly 600 sunscreen products, including children’s formulas. Most sun-blocking creams and lotions also contain avobenzone for broad-spectrum protection against short- and long-wave UVA rays which are falsely considered to be the main culprits responsible for long-term skin damage. (For details on how blocking out of some or all UV-rays leads to damage of deeper skin tissue, see “Heal Yourself with Sunlight” or Chapter 8 of “Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation.”) Most sunscreens also contain a cocktail of a dozen or more cancer- promoting fragrance chemicals and numerous petrochemical-derived synthetic substances. Many of these carcinogenic chemicals are readily absorbed through the skin, much to the annoyance of the consumer who has to keep reapplying the “protective”sunscreens. [Sunscreens come in the form pf lotion, cream, oil, ointment, stick, gel/jelly, spray, liquid, and pad.]

The producers of these products claim that most of the harmful chemicals becomes degraded in the presence of sunlight and must therefore be safe for the consumer, a claim that is outright false since almost every person in America is contaminated by sunscreen chemicals (according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Avobenzone [butyl-methyoxydibenzoylmethane and oxybenzone particualry penetrate the skin very quickly. Other chemicals found in sunscreens include dixoybenzone, PABA and PABA esters (ethyl dihydroxy propyl PAB, glyceryl PABA, p-aminobenzoic acid, padimate-O or octyl dimethyl PABA, Cinnamates (cinoxate, ethylhexyl p- methoxycinnamate, octocrylene, octyl methoxycinnamate), Salicylates (ethylhexyl salicylate, homosalate, octyl salicylate), Digalloyl trioleate and Menthyl anthranilate.

There is an almost complete lack of any adequate safety testing of these chemicals. Cosmetics contain them, too, and the body absorbs them like a sponge.

Many heavily-used chemical sunscreens have a strong free radical generating effect, which is the main reason behind skin cancer. Chemists use such chemicals to start free radical reactions during chemical synthesis. These chemicals are so dangerous that those who handle them in a laboratory must keep them away from their skin. When combined with other chemicals and exposed to ultraviolet light, they then generate the copious amounts of free radicals required to bring about the desired chemical reactions. On your skin, however, such chemical reactions, are everything but desirable.

Oxybenzone, for example, which is found in 97% of Americans, is activated by ultraviolet light that breaks its double bond to produce two free radical sites. These free radicals then oxidize and damage fats, proteins, and DNA of the cells—the types of damage that occur in skin aging and the development of skin cancers.

One major study looked at how sunscreens could increase melanoma risk. Its team of researchers, Garland, Cedric F., et al, found that worldwide, the greatest rise in melanoma has occurred in countries where chemical sunscreens has been heavily promoted by the medical establishment and pharma/chemical industry. Queensland now has more incidences of melanoma per capita than any other place on Earth. The study was published by American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 82, No. 4, April 1992, pp. 614-15.

The question why the incidence of skin cancer has increased so dramatically since the massive promotion of sunscreens should have raised a red flag among consumers, but, instead, it made them lather their skin with even more of these deadly chemicals. The mass media (financed largely by drug giants) made certain, the population would not hear about such important studies as the following ones:

Dr. Gordon Ainsleigh in California found that the 17% increase in breast cancer observed between 1981 and 1992 may be the result of the pervasive use of sunscreens over the past decade (Ainsleigh, H. Gordon. Beneficial effects of sun exposure on cancer mortality. Preventive Medicine, Vol. 22, February 1993, pp. 132-40).

According to several studies, men who regularly use sunscreens have a higher rate of melanoma, and woman using sunscreens have a higher rate of basal cell carcinoma. (Garland, Cedric F. et al. Effect of sunscreens on UV radiation-induced enhancement of melanoma growth. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 86, No. 10, May 18, 1994, pp. 798-801 :Larsen, H.R. prevent skin cancer because they prevent sunburn, implying that skin cancers are caused by sunburn. But this is more a correlation than a cause-effect relationship. More recent studies done in England and Australia actually found much higher skin cancer rates among people who live mostly indoors compared with those who spend most of their time outdoors.

As Drs. Cedric and Frank Garland of the University of California have pointed out, there is no scientific proof that sunscreens protect against melanoma or basal cell carcinoma in humans (Garland, C.F., et al. “Could sunscreens increase melanoma risk?” American Journal of Public Health, 1992; 82(4): 614-615.) According to the Garlands, the increased use of chemical sunscreens is the primary cause of the skin cancer epidemic. A study by Drs. Mike Brown (Kate Law of the Cancer Research Campaign) Philippe Autier (European Institute of Oncology in Milan) reported that children using sunscreen returned from holiday with more skin moles—a possible sign of increased cancer risk. Whether or not sunscreens increase the risk of developing skin cancer, at least there is overwhelming evidence that sunscreens don’t prevent skin cancer.

In February 1998, epidemiologist Marianne Berwick of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York presented a careful analysis of data on sunscreen use and skin cancer at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Sunscreens may not protect against skin cancer, including melanoma, she concluded. “We don’t really know whether sunscreens prevent skin cancer,” said Dr. Berwick. “After examining the available epidemiological data and conducting our own large case-control population-based study, we have found no relationship between sunscreen use at any age and the development of melanoma skin cancer,” said Dr. Berwick. Although sunscreens do prevent sunburn, Dr. Berwick concluded that sunburn itself is not the direct cause of cancer. She argued that if people develop melanoma, it may be because they are genetically susceptible and likely to develop skin cancer regardless of the amount of sunlight exposure or protection from sunscreen.1 Dr. Berwick objected to the universal blanket advice about using sunscreens during all time spent outdoors.

Dr. Berwick’s previously conducted research (1996) found no relationship between a history of sunburn and the development of melanoma.

The American Academy of Dermatology (ADA), which is largely funded through advertising sunscreen and skin care products, of course strongly condemned Dr. Berwick’s research and called her a “number crunching scientist.” I guess that’s what scientists do, crunch numbers.

Now back to what sunscreens can actually do to you. They may not only be responsible for melanomas, but for many other types of cancer and dysfunctions as well. What’s most disturbing is that many commonly used sunscreen chemicals have strong estrogenic actions which may seriously affect sexual development in children and sexual function in adults, and further increase cancer risks. Exposing your body to chemicals that can alter hormonal balance puts your health at great risk, to put it mildly.

Of course, the sunscreen industry neglects to inform you that there is not much difference between drinking your sunscreen lotion and lathering it on your skin, except ingesting it would actually cause you much less harm because your digestive system would filter out most of the poison. The skin has no other option than to dump this cocktail of carcinogens right into the circulatory system, and from there, into the liver, kidneys, heart and brain. I will leave it to your imagination what such a chemical assault means for these vital organs.

The Vitamin-D Factor

Sunglasses and sunscreen agents are among the most health-endangering products that exist because they block absorption of ultraviolet rays which your body needs to produce vitamin D. Besides hindering the essential exposure of your eyes and skin to the rays of the sun, the use of sunscreens and sunglasses is largely responsible for the chronic vitamin D deficiency that plagues 80% of the American population. Vitamin D– deficiency is associated with depression, prostate cancer, breast cancer, osteoporosis and almost every other degenerative disorder. “The elderly, who spend little time in the sun and use sunscreen agents frequently, may be at risk for vitamin D deficiency,” according to a statement made by the Mayo Clinic. Vitamin D deficiency is strongly associated with bone disease and fracture. Makes you wonder why so many elderly people suffer from bone disorders.

New research findings (published in the Archives of Internal Medicine June 9, 2008; 168(11):1174-1180) join a growing body of evidence indicating that an adequate level of vitamin D, which you can obtain by spending an average of 20 minutes in the sun each day (dark-skinned people may need an hour or more), is crucial to maintaining good health. Men who are deficient in vitamin D were found to have more than double the normal risk of suffering a heart attack or dying even after all other possible risk factors such as hypertension, obesity and high levels of blood fat were excluded. In addition, low levels of vitamin D showed an increased of developing diabetes and dying from breast cancer.

And yet another new study published by the Archives of Internal Medicine June 23, 2008;168(12):1340-1349, shows that sunshine can cut your risk in half. This is what USA Today reported on June 23, 2008:

Having low vitamin D levels has been linked with deaths from heart disease and other causes, adding to growing evidence about the “sunshine” vitamin’s role in good health.

People with the lowest blood levels of vitamin D were about two times more likely to die from any cause during an eight-year period than those with the highest levels. The link with heart-related deaths was particularly strong in those with low vitamin D levels.

The study involved over 3,000 men and women in southwest Germany. Participants were aged 62 on average, and their vitamin D levels were checked in weekly blood tests.

It’s estimated that at least 50 percent of older adults worldwide have low vitamin D levels, and a significant number of younger people may also be affected. Low vitamin D levels may result from spending less time outdoors, air pollution and a decline in your skin’s ability to produce vitamin D from the sun as you age, the researchers said.

You can’t be Happy and Healthy without It— The Serotonin Connection

Medical researchers are growing increasingly excited about a wonder drug that may significantly reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and many other diseases—sunshine. Amazingly, one of nature’s best medicines is right outside your doorstep, but many people choose to ignore it. We all know that plants and animals deprived of adequate sunlight become sick. Is it so surprising to find that humans could actually suffer the same fate? After all, the human body was genetically designed to be outdoors most of the time. By contrast, most people in the modernized world spend most of their time indoors.

Spending most of the time inside buildings—cut off from the UV light and other healing rays of the sun—creates an enormous challenge for the body, mind and emotions. Ultimately, all hormones in the body are regulated by the circadian rhythm (day and night cycle). The powerful neurotransmitter and intestinal hormone serotonin closely follows the “movement” of the sun in respect to the earth. Peak secretion occurs during noon time when the sun’s intensity is the strongest.

In the central nervous system, serotonin plays an important role as a neurotransmitter (hormone) in the modulation of anger, depression, aggression, body temperature, mood, sleep, sexuality, appetite, and metabolism. In the gastrointestinal tract, which contains about 90% of the body’s total serotonin, it is responsible for balanced digestive functions. In the blood, the major storage site is platelets, which collect serotonin for use in mediating post-injury vasoconstriction. Recent research suggests that serotonin plays an important role in liver regeneration and acts as a mitogen (induces cell division) throughout the body (Wikipedia). Failed induction of cell division is a leading cause of cancer.

In addition, recent Italian research conducted at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Monterotondo found that defective signaling of serotonin in the brain may be at the root cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). This makes a lot of sense. Newly born babies who are being kept in dark rooms and rarely get out into the sun are deprived of vitamin D (purposefully not supplied by mother’s milk) and produce little or no serotonin. Worldwide, many more babies die of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in one year than who die of cancer, heart disease, pneumonia, child abuse, Cystic Fibrosis and Muscular Dystrophy combined. The Italian research shows that the tested mice suffered drops in heart rate and other symptoms of SIDS, and many of the animals died at an early age. Low levels of serotonin in the animals’ brainstems, which control heartbeat and breathing, may have caused sudden death, researchers said in the July 4, 2008 issue of Science. Since serotonin in humans controls about the same functions as in mice, researchers believe that the same phenomenon occurs in human infants.

The implications of all the existing research conducted on serotonin are wide-reaching. Any prolonged imbalance of serotonin levels in the body affects the most basic functions in the body. Although, fruits and vegetables contain serotonin, to digest these foods you require a healthy digestive system. The digestive system follows its own schedule, controlled by the serotonin cycle.(See more details in “The Wonders of Our Biological Rhythms,” Chapter 5 of Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation.)

The serotonin cycle, in turn, follows the circadian rhythm. This makes sunlight to be the most powerful and natural sustainer of life and health. Sunlight is pure medicine, and it’s free.

More points to consider:

Plan to avoid unnecessary or prolonged exposure to sunlight, especially during the midday period, but avoid protective clothing, sunglasses, and sunscreen. Many drugs, such as LIPITOR/Atorvastatin, belladonna, furosemide, quinine, tetracycline, and doxycycline may make your eyes and skin sensitive to sunlight. Medication, stimulants such as caffeine, nicotine, and adrenaline, and illegal drugs can dilate the pupil, thereby allowing an excessive amount of light to enter the eye. This side effect may lead to the inappropriate use of sunglasses.

Highly acid-forming foods, including meat, eggs, cheese, fried foods, and sugar, may also make your eyes and skin prone to sun damage. Accordingly, you may find you can never leave the house without sunglasses. It is a pretty serious condition when the sun becomes so dangerous that you have to hide from it. The net result is, that not getting enough sunlight lowers your vitamin D and serotonin levels and thereby increases your risk of cancer and many other illnesses.

Also be aware that most cosmetics now contain UV-blocking chemicals. These include face creams, makeup products, moisturizers, lotions and anti-wrinkle creams.

If you feel you absolutely need a sunscreen product because you are unable to avoid the direct midday sun, make sure it has mostly natural ingredients in them, such as Aubrey Organics Active Full Spectrum Sunblock SPF 25. Still, it contains PAPA Ester.

Other ingredients include: Titanium Dioxide, Coconut Fatty Acid Cream Base, Jojoba Butter, Organic Jojoba Oil, Organic Sunflower Oil, Organic Shea Butter, Organic Aloe Vera, White Camellia Oil, Lecithin, Canadian Willow herb Extract, Aubrey’s Preservative (Citrus Seed Extract, Vitamins A, C and E), Silica, Jasmine Oil.

Coconut oil, shea butter or aloe vera, may be sufficient for protection (see also African Black Soap, an African Shea Butter under New Health Products..

If you believe you have already been contaminated with harmful chemicals and heavy metals (from tooth fillings, water and food sources, such as fish), you may benefit greatly from purifying your blood and tissues with MMS, Natural Cellular Defense (www.mywaiora.com/500062) and Marine Phytoplankton (www.ener-chi.com).

My warmest regards, Andreas

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The Surprising Cause of Melanoma (And No, it’s Not Too Much Sun)

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

Rates of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, have been rising for at least the last three decades, and this increase has been largely blamed on exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun.

However, research published in the British Journal of Dermatology shows that the sun is likely nothing more than a scapegoat in the development of melanoma, and the sharp increase may actually be “an artifact caused by diagnostic drift.”

Melanoma Increases Due to Benign Disease, Not Sunlight

Diagnostic drift, according to the study, refers to a hefty increase in disease that is being fueled by non-cancerous lesions.

In fact, during the study period from 1991 to 2004, there were nearly 4,000 cases of melanoma included in the report, with an annual increase of 9.39 to 13.91 cases per 100,000 per year.

The researchers revealed that, rather than being fueled by increasing exposure to sunlight as is commonly suggested, the increased incidence was almost entirely due to minimal, stage 1 disease.

They noted:

“There was no change in the combined incidence of the other stages of the disease, and the overall mortality only increased from 2.16 to 2.54 cases per 100,000 per year … We therefore conclude that the large increase in reported incidence is likely to be due to diagnostic drift, which classifies benign lesions as stage 1 melanoma.”

In other words, people are being diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer even when they have only a minimal, non-cancerous lesion, and these diagnoses appear to be skewing disease rates significantly. Further, adding even more credence to the growing body of evidence showing sun exposure is not the primary cause of melanoma, the researchers noted that the distribution of the lesions reported did not correspond to the sites of lesions caused by sun exposure.

They concluded:

“These findings should lead to a reconsideration of the treatment of ‘early’ lesions, a search for better diagnostic methods to distinguish them from truly malignant melanomas, re-evaluation of the role of ultraviolet radiation and recommendations for protection from it, as well as the need for a new direction in the search for the cause of melanoma.”

Is Lack of Sunlight a More Likely Culprit?

Despite all the bad press linking sun exposure to skin cancer, there’s almost no evidence at all to support it. There is, however, plenty of evidence to the contrary. Over the years, several studies have confirmed that appropriate sun exposure actually helps prevent skin cancer. In fact, melanoma occurrence has been found to decrease with greater sun exposure, and can be increased by sunscreens.

One of the most important facts you should know is that an epidemic of the disease has in fact broken out among indoor workers. These workers get three to nine times LESS solar UV exposure than outdoor workers get, yet only indoor workers have increasing rates of melanoma — and the rates have been increasing since before 1940.

There are two major factors that help explain this, and the first has to do with the type of UV exposure.

There are two primary types of UV rays from sunlight, the vitamin-D-producing UVB rays and the skin-damaging UVA light. Both UVA and UVB can cause tanning and burning, although UVB does so far more rapidly. UVA, however, penetrates your skin more deeply than UVB, and may be a much more important factor in photoaging, wrinkles and skin cancers.

A study in Medical Hypotheses suggested that indoor workers may have increased rates of melanoma because they’re exposed to sunlight through windows, and only UVA light, unlike UVB, can pass through window glass. At the same time, these indoor workers are missing out on exposure to the beneficial UVB rays, and have lower levels of vitamin D.

Researchers wrote:

“We hypothesize that one factor involves indoor exposures to UVA (321–400nm) passing through windows, which can cause mutations and can break down vitamin D3 formed after outdoor UVB (290–320nm) exposure, and the other factor involves low levels of cutaneous vitamin D3.

After vitamin D3 forms, melanoma cells can convert it to the hormone, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, or calcitriol, which causes growth inhibition and apoptotic cell death in vitro and in vivo. 

… We agree that intense, intermittent outdoor UV overexposures and sunburns initiate CMM [cutaneous malignant melanoma]; we now propose that increased UVA exposures and inadequately maintained cutaneous levels of vitamin D3 promotes CMM.”

To put it simply, UVB appears to be protective against melanoma — or rather, the vitamin D your body produces in response to UVB radiation is protective.

As written in The Lancet:

“Paradoxically, outdoor workers have a decreased risk of melanoma compared with indoor workers, suggesting that chronic sunlight exposure can have a protective effect.”

Vitamin D Helps Protect You Against Cancer

Vitamin D is a steroid hormone that influences virtually every cell in your body, and is easily one of nature’s most potent cancer fighters. So I want to stress again that if you are shunning all sun exposure, you are missing out on this natural cancer protection.

Your organs can convert the vitamin D in your bloodstream into calcitriol, which is the hormonal or activated version of vitamin D. Your organs then use it to repair damage, including damage from cancer cells and tumors. Vitamin D’s protective effect against cancer works in multiple ways, including:

  • Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to replicate, could lead to cancer)
  • Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells
  • Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)
  • Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous

This applies not only to skin cancer but other types of cancer as well. Theories linking vitamin D to certain cancers have been tested and confirmed in more than 200 epidemiological studies, and understanding of its physiological basis stems from more than 2,500 laboratory studies, according to epidemiologist Cedric Garland, DrPH, professor of family and preventive medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine.

Here are just a few highlights into some of the most noteworthy findings:

  • Some 600,000 cases of breast and colorectal cancers could be prevented each year if vitamin D levels among populations worldwide were increased, according to previous research by Dr. Garland and colleagues.
  • Optimizing your vitamin D levels could help you to prevent at least 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, ovarian, prostate, and skin cancers.
  • A large-scale, randomized, placebo-controlled study on vitamin D and cancer showed that vitamin D can cut overall cancer risk by as much as 60 percent. This was such groundbreaking news that the Canadian Cancer Society has actually begun endorsing the vitamin as a cancer-prevention therapy.
  • Light-skinned women who had high amounts of long-term sun exposure had half the risk of developing advanced breast cancer (cancer that spreads beyond your breast) as women with lower amounts of regular sun exposure, according to a study in theAmerican Journal of Epidemiology.
  • A study by Dr. William Grant, Ph.D., internationally recognized research scientist and vitamin D expert, found that about 30 percent of cancer deaths – which amounts to 2 million worldwide and 200,000 in the United States — could be prevented each year with higher levels of vitamin D.

When Using the Sun to Fight Cancer, the Dose is What Matters

When I recommend using the sun therapeutically, this means getting the proper dosage to optimize your vitamin D levels. This typically means exposing enough of your unclothed skin surface to get a slight pink color on your skin. Your exact time will vary radically depending on many variables, such as you skin color, time of day, season, clouds, altitude and age.  The key principle is to never get burned, while still spending as much time as you can in the sun during the peak hours, as it is virtually impossible to overdose as long as you don’t get burned.

A common myth is that occasional exposure of your face and hands to sunlight is “sufficient” for vitamin D nutrition. For most of us, this is an absolutely inadequate exposure to move vitamin D levels to the healthy range. Further, if you use sunscreen, you will block your body’s ability to produce vitamin D!

And, contrary to popular belief, the best time to be in the sun for vitamin D production is actually as near to solar noon as possible which is 1 PM in the summer for most (due to Daylight Saving Time).. The more damaging UVA rays are quite constant during ALL hours of daylight, throughout the entire year — unlike UVB, which are low in morning and evening and high at midday.

When using the sun to maximize your vitamin D production and minimize your risk of malignant melanoma, the middle of the day (roughly between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.) is the best and safest time. During this time you need the shortest exposure time to produce vitamin D because UVB rays are most intense at this time. Plus, when the sun goes down toward the horizon, the UVB is filtered out much more than the dangerous UVA.

Once you reach this point your body will  peak at about 10,000-40,000 units of vitamin D. Any additional exposure will only cause harm and damage to your skin. Most people with fair skin will max out their vitamin D production in just 10-20 minutes, or, again, when your skin starts turning the lightest shade of pink. Some will need less, others more. The darker your skin, the longer exposure you will need to optimize your vitamin D production.

Why Not Just Take Vitamin D from a Supplement?

You can get vitamin D3 in supplement form, and if sunlight or a safe tanning bed is not an option, this is a better choice than getting no vitamin D at all. If you do use a supplement, it now appears as though most adults need about 8,000 IU’s of vitamin D a day in order to get their serum levels above 40 ng/ml.

However, sunlight is really the superior source for vitamin D, as when you expose your skin to sunshine, your skin synthesizes vitamin D3 sulfate. This form of vitamin D is water soluble, unlike oral vitamin D3 supplements, which is unsulfated. The water-soluble form can travel freely in your bloodstream, whereas the unsulfated form needs LDL (the so-called “bad” cholesterol) as a vehicle of transport.

The oral non-sulfated form of vitamin D may not provide all of the same benefits as the vitamin D created in your skin from sun exposure, because it cannot be converted to vitamin D sulfate.

I believe this is a very compelling reason to really make a concerted effort to get your vitamin D requirements from exposure to sunshine, or by using a safe tanning bed (one with electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, to avoid unnecessary exposure to EMF fields). Safe tanning beds also have less of the dangerous UVA than sunlight, while unsafe ones have more UVA than sunlight. If neither of these are feasible options, then you should take an oral vitamin D3 supplement.

What Should Your Vitamin D Levels be for Cancer Protection?

In 2007 the recommended level was between 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml). Since then, the optimal vitamin D level has been raised to 50-70 ng/ml, and when treating cancer or heart disease, as high as 70-100 ng/ml.

I recommend you have your levels tested and regularly monitored to make sure they are in the therapeutic range. Your physician can do this for you, or another alternative is to join the D*Action study. D*Action is a worldwide public health campaign aiming to solve the vitamin D deficiency epidemic through focus on testing, education, and grassroots word of mouth.

When you join D*action, you agree to test your vitamin D levels twice a year during a five-year program, and share your health status to demonstrate the public health impact of this nutrient. There is a $60 fee each 6 months ($120/year) for your sponsorship of the project, which includes a complete new test kit to be used at home, and electronic reports on your ongoing progress.

You will get a follow up email every six months reminding you “it’s time for your next test and health survey.” To join now, please follow this link to the sign up form.

Natural Treatment for Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer

Melanoma skin cancer is the deadliest form, but far more common are non-melanoma skin cancers, which impact millions of Americans every year.

If you or someone you love is affected, a cream containing eggplant extract, known as BEC and BEC5, appears to cure and eliminate most non-melanoma skin cancers in several weeks time. Unlike conventional skin-cancer treatment, which is often surgery, the eggplant-extract cream leaves no scarring and no visible sign a tumor or lesion was ever present. The eggplant extract appears to be exceptionally safe and only kills cancerous cells, leaving healthy cells untouched, and causes only minor side effects, such as itching and burning.

The leading researcher in this area today is Dr. Bill E. Cham, who reported as early as 1991 in Cancer Letters that:

“A cream formulation containing high concentrations (10%) of a standard mixture of solasodine glycosides (BEC) has been shown to be effective in the treatment of malignant and benign human skin tumors.

We now report that a preparation … which contains very low concentrations of BEC (0.005%) is effective in the treatment of keratoses, basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) and squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) of the skin of humans. In an open study, clinical and histological observations indicated that all lesions (56 keratoses, 39 BCCs and 29 SCCs) treated with [the preparation] had regressed.”

Dr. Cham’s latest study was published in the International Journal of Clinical Medicine this year. The paper includes two impressive case reports of 60-something men who were suffering from large basal cell carcinoma (BCC) or squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), which had plagued them for years.  The results upon treatment with a cream formulation of BEC (eggplant extract) twice a day are astounding, and you can view the pictures here.

Unfortunately, simply eating eggplant, tomatoes, peppers or similar veggies, while beneficial for many reasons, will not induce this same effect because the active components are not able to effectively penetrate your cells. This requires the addition of glycosides, molecules with various simple sugars attached to them that can latch on to receptors found on skin cancer cells.

Simple Skin Cancer Prevention Strategies

What’s even better than an inexpensive, safe and natural cure for skin cancer is, of course, preventing it in the first place. Your body is made to be in the sun, and, when done properly, sun exposure will be one of the best ways you can help reduce your risk of skin, and many other forms of, cancer. Along with optimizing your vitamin D levels, the carotenoid astaxanthin has also piqued the interest of researchers due to its ability to reduce signs of aging by helping protect your skin from sun damage. I personally take 8 mg every day to help limit any potential damage from sun exposure as most of the year I am able to spend one to two hours a day in the sun.

Consuming a healthy diet full of natural antioxidants is another useful strategy to avoid sun damage to your skin, as fresh, raw, unprocessed foods deliver the nutrients that your body needs to maintain a healthy balance of omega-6 and omega-3 oils in your skin, which is your first line of defense against sunburn.

Fresh, raw vegetables also provide your body with an abundance of powerful antioxidants that will help you fight the free radicals caused by sun damage that can lead to burns and cancer.

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Study Confirms Benefits of Tanning, Sun Exposure for the Production of Vitamin D

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By: Ethan A. Huff
Source: NaturalNews.com

Exposing your unprotected skin to natural sunlight and even using a tanning bed are not necessarily the highly dangerous, cancer promoting activities that many in the government and media would have you believe they are.

A new study out of Oslo University Hospital (OUH) in Norway confirms what we here at NaturalNews have been saying for a long time — regular exposure to moderate levels of sunlight promotes good health through the healthy production of vitamin D in the body.

Johan Moan, a scientist and researcher from the Department of Radiation Biology at OUH’s Institute for Cancer Research found that the benefits derived from exposure to vitamin D-producing UV rays far outweigh the miniscule risk of developing cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM). In fact, it is primarily overexposure in the form of sunburns that is responsible for UV-related cancer risk.

“Sun exposure is commonly supposed to be the main cause of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) in most populations. However, the matter is disputed,” said Moan and his research team in conjunction with their findings.

“It can be estimated that increased sun exposure to the Norwegian population might at worst result in 200-300 more CMM deaths per year, but it would elevate the vitamin D status by about 25 nmol/l (nanomoles per liter) and might result in 4,000 fewer internal cancers and about 3,000 fewer cancer deaths overall.”

But the risk of getting skin cancer from exposing skin to natural sunlight or a tanning bed, might even be less than that. Ivan Oransky, editor of Reuters Health and treasurer of the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ), wrote last year in a blog that the actual risk of getting skin cancer from using a tanning bed is about 0.2 percent, and this risk likely only includes those that overexpose themselves

Russian health authorities also recognize the benefits of tanning beds, as they last year installed tanning beds in Russian prisons to help improve inmate health

Vitamin D deficiency is linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, endocrine dysfunction, infections, autoimmune disorders, kidney problems, neurological disease, respiratory illness, skin problems, and cancer, among other things.

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Vitamin D Triggers Natural Immune Response Against Tuberculosis, Study Finds

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By: Jonathan Benson
Source: NaturalNews.com

There is no need to get vaccinated against tuberculosis if you maintain high enough levels of vitamin D, suggests a new study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Researchers found that, in the presence of even minimally adequate levels of vitamin D, the body’s own immune system will naturally trigger an immune response against the disease and many others without the need for drug or chemical interventions.

Mario Fabri, who currently works in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Cologne in Germany, examined the effects of vitamin D on immunity during his time at the University of California, Los Angeles. He discovered that the vitamin D hormone is crucial for T-cells, which are the first responders to immune invaders, to produce a protein called interferon. And interferon has been shown to directly attack tuberculosis bacteria and prevent it from taking hold.

“Over the centuries, vitamin D has intrinsically been used to treat tuberculosis,” said Fabri, referencing the age-old practice of putting tuberculosis patients in areas of high sun exposure as part of their treatment. “Our findings suggest that increasing vitamin D levels through supplementation may improve the immune response to infections such as tuberculosis.”

Fabri’s previous studies also found that vitamin D is necessary for the immune system to produce cathelicidin, an antimicrobial peptide that, like interferons, provides humans and other mammals with protection against bacterial infections. In other words, vitamin D equips the body with the tools it needs to prevent infection without the need for drug-based antibiotics.

“At a time when drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis are emerging, understanding how to enhance natural innate and acquired immunity through vitamin D may be very helpful,” added Barry Bloom, co-author of the study and former dean of faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health.

What is even better is that interferons fight more than just tuberculosis. These powerful pathways of cell communication are known to exhibit an immune response to all sorts of viruses, bacteria, parasites, and even tumor cells, which means they can help prevent a host of other diseases besides just tuberculosis.

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Healing Lyme Disease

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Healing Lyme Disease

Hi, this is a question from Mary and she is concerned about Lyme disease and she is wondering how I explain Lyme disease.

This is a very complex question even though it sounds very simple because it involves many, many factors that influence the body’s immune system. Lyme disease in my opinion is not necessarily due to the tick bite, that the parasite that is transferred by ticks into the human body, but it is rather a response by the body to a host of different influences that are of a toxic nature. An immune system that is already burdened by toxins and environmental factors as well as thoughts, feeling, emotions that inhibit the immune system. There could be things like lack of vitamin D which is again associated with Lyme disease, not being exposed on a regular basis to sunshine, ultra violet light, that diminished the vitamin D content in the body. Many people blame the tick for causing the Lyme disease and most doctors would, but you can have the symptom of Lyme disease in people who were never exposed to tick bites. So there is a lot of misconception in this field. And destroying the bacterium with antibiotics is in most cases not sufficient, it may lead to flare up very shortly after, because the underlying weakness of the immune system is still prevailing.

I have a different approach to that.  I would suggest cleaning out the liver so that the immune system can pick up again. The liver and gall bladder cleanse is very important in restoring the digestive functions and to allow the body to eliminate and break down any pathogenic invaders that may be causing the direct sickness or the feeling ill and weak because of so called Lyme disease. So, I would prefer to deal with the underlying causes rather than simply the effect of that particular infection and once again looking at the body in a holistic way that, infection is a reaction to something that the body is incapable of clearing up silently without much fuss, It has to use inflammation in order to deal with it because the body is incapable of removing any invading organism in the natural way.

So, the best approach in my opinion is getting vitamin D back up, regular sun exposure, drinking a good water, I would suggest adya clarity, using that water to remove any contaminants in that water which happens when you add a  couple of drops of adya clarity to your drinking water, like eight ounces of drinking water, you will see sediments at the bottom of a glass, even filtered water has these kinds of sediments that includes heavy metals and other contaminants which are important to remove and it also minimalizes the waters so, it enhances the immune system while allowing the body to get rid of existing toxins, chemicals and heavy metals which always seem to play a major role in Lyme disease. You can find adya clarity on the internet. It spells A-D-Y-A and then clarity, as in clarity of mind. It has many, many benefits, but combined with liver cleansing, this would be the best strategy. I would suggest also changing the diet to a vegetarian diet. Avoiding any kind of meat, chicken, fish, anything that can recontaminate the body and burden the immune system. Sugar as well, sugar should be avoided, because, with Lyme disease there is also a large flare up of Candida growth involved which you do not want to feed by adding more sugar to your diet.

Hope this might be helpful to you, and once again if you need more information “TIMELESS SECRETS OF HEALTH AND REJUVENATION” is a book that contains everything that you need to know in order to restore your health from ground up rather than targeting symptoms such as Lyme disease which is merely a symptom of an underlying issue that has not emerged, that has not shown up before, but a trigger like a tick bite might just bring them to surface and allow the body to deal with it more effectively. But it is always important to support the body through it rather than stop the body at its trying.

Thank you

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Wearing Sunglasses is Not a Good Idea

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Wearing sunglasses is not a good idea

Wearing sunglasses is not a good idea if you want to make sure your body is optimally supplied with vitamin D and the vital UV radiation which we do need in order to sustain our health.

Many people wear sunshades, sunglasses, but they do not realize that this inhibits the production of a very important hormone in the brain that is in control or in charge of regulating the melanin production in the skin. And the melanin in the skin is responsible to protect the skin against sun damage.

Now when  you are wearing sunglasses, you are suppressing, you are basically telling the brain, telling the body that  it is getting darker outside and that it no longer needs to produce melanin, and the lack of melanin during daylight and when you are exposed to the sun while wearing these sunshades, will cause the UV-A portion of the UV light to enter the skin much more deeply than it otherwise would be able to, because with the lack of melanin, UV-A can penetrate very deeply and this can cause a higher concentration of UV-A  in the deeper parts of the skin and cause cell mutation which then can lead to the appearance of damage in those parts of the skin and in areas where there is an accumulation of toxins and acids, trans fatty acids for example,  that is an area where you can develop skin cancer.

However we cannot blame the sun for that, but our behavior, our lifestyle, the eating habits and of course the use of sunglasses. So I advise anyone who is used to wearing sunglasses, to infrequently use them, only use them when it is absolutely necessary, and after a while you would realize that you do not actually need them anymore. We were not born with sunshades on our eyes. Our eyes are perfectly capable of dealing with sun exposure.

I used to wear sunglasses because I could not even look outside, outside a window without tearing up and later on I lived in very, very sunny places like Cyprus or in Africa or in India where sun exposure was very intense, and I no longer needed to wear sunshades, sunglasses ever. and it would never ever bother my eyes again. I also cleaned out my liver and found that it helped a great deal making my eyes much less sensitive.

So, I hope that this simple message on vitamin D and sunshine and the necessity of having regular exposure to sunshine for a white Caucasian person, at least twenty minutes a day, will give you… restore your vitamin D levels,  if you are dark-skinned or black or brown, you would basically need a lot more sun exposure in order to produce the same amount of vitamin D because the melanin concentration in the darker skin people is much higher and therefore the UV-B penetration is lower, that means you produce a lot less vitamin D. This leads to… increases the risk of course among darker- skinned people for diabetes, heart disease and cancers because of the low vitamin D levels. We know now that vitamin D plays a leading role in protecting it against such illness.

So, hope you have benefited from this brief review about vitamin D, if you want to know more about it, I have written a book called “HEAL YOURSELF WITH SUNLIGHT” which covers the healing properties of sunlight to a great extent. And I hope if you are more interested in the subject, you dig into that, it is a beautiful two hundred page book that offers you incredible insights into why the sun has such great healing properties and we need to make use of these incredible healing properties in order to stay healthy, just like a plant in nature requires sun light, we need sun light just as much, we cannot really live without it, without becoming ill.

Thank you and have a beautiful sun-filled day.

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Vitamin D and Sunlight Exposure are Important for Good Health

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Vitamin D and sunlight exposure are important for good health

Vitamin D is a very powerful steroid hormone that our body produces in response to sun exposure. So the sunlight that is touching our skin, that is entering our skin, in the form of UV radiation, that means UV-B and UV-A primarily… the UV-B rays stimulate the production of vitamin D and the UV-A rays make sure that we do not produce too much of it and so UV-A’s primarily in charge of removing any excess vitamin D in the body.

Vitamin D is, if it is ingested, can be very toxic, in fact if you ingest too much of it, it can cause damage to the liver and it can actually kill you. So it is important to make a differentiation between supplemental vitamin D and the vitamin D that is produced in response to sunlight and, I always prefer the second option because, you are assured by the sun exposure that you will never ever overdose on vitamin D.

And the importance here is that vitamin D is produced to a point that it can keep your immune system in check , it keeps it balanced, that means it is not aggressive, it is not over reactive and it is not under reactive. That means you will always be in a place where the body is capable of purifying itself, cleansing itself, without the requirement for external stimulation such as viral material that could also lead to an internal purification. If vitamin D levels are in fact low, which typically happens during the winter months when people do not get enough sun exposure, also who have not received enough vitamin D, or have not recharged vitamin D batteries, so to say, during the summer months, they are particularly prone to develop things like the flu or colds or other viral or bacterial infections.

Vitamin D controls about twenty thousand genes in the body and especially those that are responsible for keeping our body free of infection and free of any harm or contamination. So vitamin D is such a powerful hormone that unfortunately, it is not given the credence and the importance, the value, that it has in our physiology, in our body, in our functions, in the functions of all the different organs and systems that are supposed to keep us balanced and healthy.

Now when vitamin D levels drop, you can gradually, as this happens from year to year, increase the risk of developing cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and many other ailments such as multiple sclerosis which are very, very high comparatively, relatively, to in northern states or colder countries compared with the States or countries nearer to the Equator. So that is where people would have more sun exposure and the incidence of multiple sclerosis and cancer and heart disease and all these other chronic illnesses are much lower in those countries that have a higher sun exposure or where people are more outdoors, living more outdoors than they live indoors.

So, we have a direct connection between vitamin D levels and many of the ailments that people suffer from and it is particularly important for people living in the northern states to find ways to replenish their vitamin D. Now if sun exposure is not sufficient during the winter months then I suggest either to travel to a warmer country if you can, at least to break up the winter, go to Florida or Costa Rica or some other places that have plenty of sunshine during our winter months, or if that is not possible for you, to acquire then a vitamin D lamp or UV lamp, that would help you to keep your vitamin D levels at the level that is required for the body to have a strong healthy immune system and to prevent any infectious illnesses to occur.

Having said that, not even in places where the sun shines in the northern hemisphere, you will not necessarily get enough vitamin D from that during the winter months. You can verify whether you are getting enough or not by standing in the sunlight and if the shadow of your body is longer than the body height, so, in other words if you look down and the shadow has a greater length than your body height then you are not getting vitamin D. If you are, during the midday period, seeing that you shadow is longer than your body’s height then you do not make vitamin D. in that case it would be best to use vitamin D lamp or UV lamp. Dr. Mercola has some standing lamps which are pretty much effective in restoring vitamin D levels. There are smaller lights that you just look at, make sure that you expose at least the upper part of the body or large part of the body to theses UV rays so that you do produce enough vitamin D.

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Sunscreens Do Not Protect Against Skin Cancer

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Sunscreens do not protect against skin cancer

Hi, this is with regard to your question whether sunscreens are still useful or beneficial in some respect… and I tend to negate that. Sunscreens have notoriously been shown to create problems and not just to the skin but to the rest of the body. Mind you that most of the sunscreens that exist are synthetically produced chemicals that have carcinogenic effects so it is not just that you put this stuff on your skin, but it goes actually into your blood and once it is carried to the liver, a lot of strong reactions can occur that can lead to bile duct congestion and then poor blood circulation to the skin itself which can weaken it and make it, in fact, prone to injury against, from, ultraviolet radiation particularly UV-A rays.

Now sunscreens do not always work the way they are designed to work, many times you have areas in the skin that are not completely covered and even if the sunscreens block out the UV-A and the UV-B, there will still be areas where UV-A penetration is coming though, goes very, very deeply. One you block UV-B with sunscreens, UV-A goes so much deeper than it is normally possible and that can create damage to skin cells. There has been no proof however that UV-A can destroy or can damage the genes directly, in fact, the opposite is true it has been proven that sunlight and UV radiation cannot cause genetic mutation leading to skin cancers.

So there is a lot of misconception in this field and I want to clarify as well, that in places where sunscreens are used on a mandatory basis, like a town for example in Australia, where every single person is putting sunscreens on their skin and they have the highest skin cancer rates in the world!!! And places where sunscreens are not used at all, you go, for example, to places in Italy where Italians, they just do not even know about sunscreens, they do not put it on their skin and they have virtually no skin cancers in those areas. Also near the Equator in Caribbean countries, people living there rarely ever have skin cancers.

Besides, skin cancers occur to the most extent in areas of the skin that are never even exposed to the sun, so that cannot be explained that way, by saying we were using sunscreens. Most people do not put it under the arms or in the buttocks area or in places where they are covered up by swimsuits anyway. So the idea that the sun causes skin cancer is so unscientific, it has nothing to do with the reality of the matter and again, there is no scientific proof as yet to show after so many years trying to that, the sun causes skin cancer.

On the other had there is research to show that indirectly, sunglasses, having sunshades on the eyes, can contribute to skin cancer and how does that happen? Well there is a powerful hormone in the brain that responds to light, and so when you put sunshades or sunglasses and you are out in the nature and the sun does shine, your body does not recognize that it is light outside and it will stop the production of melanin which is the natural sunscreen of the body, and if the melanin is not produced sufficiently, then the UV-A rays and UV-B, which are responsible for, the latter… responsible for  sunburn, if you get over exposed, then you can develop damage to the skin. So again, one has to look at what is natural and what is not.

Sunglasses are not natural, if we had a need for them we would have been born with sunshades in our eyes, in the lenses of our eyes, but we are not supposed to do that, we are supposed to trigger the production of melanin as soon as we are exposed to the sun and that protects our skin against any potential harm from the sun.

There are some body types that are prevalent in countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway – very, very light skin color, reddish skin tones, they are called Pitta types, the most prone to the heat and any form of heat that includes heat from the sun, the Pitta types, and I have discussed that in great detail in my book in “HEAL YOURSELF WITH SUNLIGHT” and also in “TIMELESS SECRETS OF HEALTH AND REJUVENATION” which discuses the different body types and the Pitta body type is the only one that has to be more careful about going into the sun for various reasons and one of which is to not over heat, very important for the pitta type, he needs to be more in cold places. They still benefit from being out in nature and exposing the skin indirectly to the sun, there is still ultra violet radiation even in the shade but for them it is very important to do that as well. Having said that, because otherwise they do not develop vitamin D production which is by the steroid hormone that regulates numerous functions in the body, controls thousands of genes and it is also responsible for making sure that skin cancer does not occur.

The imbalance that many people  experience when they do get exposed to the sun and get skin damage or reddening or burning, it is more likely because of an acid-forming diet and lifestyle, eating fats, for example, that are derived from fried foods, refined foods, hydrogenated vegetable oils particularly damaging to the skin, and once ultra violet radiation combines with these trans fatty acids that are in the skin membranes, then there can be a very strong reaction… basically a reaction to get rid of some of these fatty acids which, as they make their way out through the skin, can cause damage or healing reactions which are known to be skin problems.

So the skin problem or the eruption or even the skin cancer is not really a disease it is corrective mechanism and it is important to differentiate between a disease and a healing response. So when the body is trying to get rid of the carcinogenic chemicals contained in the sunscreens, then that is a natural normal reaction, the skin tries to shed these poisons , chemicals, that cause inflammation of skin cells.

So, having said that, there is just something that came in the news this morning that professors of dermatology now even recommend that people put the sunscreen on before they go to bed in the evening or even a month before they plan to go out in the sun. Which is horrific because putting these deadly chemicals, if they were ingested through the food a person will become poisoned, but it is irresponsible to make people and young children to absorb poisons even faster through the skin.

The skin can absorb so many chemicals that normally could not cause as much damage as if you ingested them with your food. So it is very, very risky advice to tell people they need to use sunscreen. There are some oils that have protective effects… like coconut oil… which is much preferable than any of the UV blocking chemicals found in sunscreens.

Thank you.

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Heal Yourself with Sunlight

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Heal yourself with Sunlight

Sunlight is something that has been dear to my heart. I grew up in the time when sunshine or sun exposure was considered one of the most important things in your life. In Germany where I grew up there was a tradition many medical doctors used to treat tuberculosis with sunshine, and they had a high success rate, and they also used sun exposure, ultra violet exposure, to treat many infectious diseases before antibiotics were popular and once antibiotics came on the market, sunlight as a healing tool, as a healing power, was basically eliminated and then it was replaced with fear of sun exposure. So soon the idea came about that sunshine is dangerous and you have to avoid it because it can cause skin cancers.

Obviously there is a vested interest of those who were propagating that, particularly the ones that produced sunscreens and sunglasses. We now know that sunscreens are the major contributor to skin cancers, and not sunshine. We now also know that lack of sun exposure leads to serious, serious issues… problems in the body… because of the diminished production of Vitamin D which is now known to be the major preventer of cancers, heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis, bone problems and many, many other illness.

So, when we are being told that we should avoid the sun , we are basically making us potentially very, very ill. And we found now, through a lot of scientific research, that regular sun exposure helps the body to become very, develop a very strong immune system that can fend the body, fend off any kind of infection or even the flu in the winter. Flu is not cause by viruses most people think it is but by low vitamin D levels. That is why the flu does not occur in the summertime as most people have a high level of vitamin D.

So the book is again very, very useful, it shows you what happens when have regular sun exposure, it works for every ailment there is, it is one of the best forms of medicine there is and it is free. It is just there is a lot of scientific research now available to show that sunshine can be used as a formidable form of medicine that is far more effective than most drugs that are on the market.

“HEAL YOURSELF WITH SUNLIGHT“

There are different people with different skin tones so, a person who has dark skin requires three times more sun exposure to produce the same amount of vitamin D that a white skinned person requires. So, yes, there is very practical information in the book that guides a person how much sunshine is useful, also when the sun is not effective in producing vitamin D, like during the winter time, and what else one can do in order to get the vitamin D levels up and running, so to say.

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