Saturday, September 21, 2013
Sunday, August 18, 2013
The Ever Unfolding Miracle of Life
http://www.hkacup.com
My sister and I were walking on Siesta Beach at twilight and came across such an amazing scene. Perhaps 50 baby turtles were crawling out of their nest in the sand - which equally amazingly was heart shaped - and were wending their way to the sea. The miracle of birth and of God's plan for the ongoing creation of life unfolded before us.
My sister and I were walking on Siesta Beach at twilight and came across such an amazing scene. Perhaps 50 baby turtles were crawling out of their nest in the sand - which equally amazingly was heart shaped - and were wending their way to the sea. The miracle of birth and of God's plan for the ongoing creation of life unfolded before us.
Another miracle was that someone was there to record the event with his cell phone and upload it to YouTube.
Here's the link to the video. You can hear my voice cautioning the photographer not to step on a turtle that was entangled in his shoelaces. Enjoy, and please share this with our children.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Probiotics Essential for Cancer Patients
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Thursday, August 01, 2013
The study itself is very difficult for laypeople to parse, however, so I'm going to translate into everyday language while also offering additional interpretations of the research that the original study author is likely unable to state due to the nutritional censorship of medical journals and universities, both of which have an anti-nutrition bias. The upshot is this: A clinical study gave mice lethal injections of chemotherapy that would, pound for pound, kill most adult human beings, too. The study authors openly admit: "All tumors from different tissues and organs can be killed by high doses of chemotherapy and radiation, but the current challenge for treating the later-staged metastasized cancer is that you actually kill the [patient] before you kill the tumor." (See sources below.) Chemotherapy is deadly. It is the No. 1 cause of death for cancer patients in America, and the No. 1 side effect of chemo is more cancer. But certain mice in the study managed to survive the lethal doses of chemo. How did they do that? They were injected with a molecule that your own body produces naturally. It's production is engineered right into your genes, and given the right gene expression in an environment of good nutrition (meaning the cellular environment), you can generate this substance all by yourself, 24 hours a day. The substance is called "Rspo1" or "R-spondon1." It activates stem cell production within your own intestinal walls, and these stem cells are like super tissue regeneration machines that rebuild damaged tissues faster than the chemotherapy can destroy them, thereby allowing the patient to survive an otherwise deadly does of chemo poison. As the study showed, 50 - 75 percent of the mice who were given R-spondon1 survived the fatal chemotherapy dose! The cancer industry needs to find a way to stop killing all their customersThe problem with the cancer industry today is that all the conventional cancer treatments keep killing the patients. This is bad for business. So the purpose of research like the R-spondon1 research mentioned here -- which was funded by a government grant -- is to find ways to keep giving patients deadly doses of high-profit chemotherapy without actually killing them. You slap a patient with a dose of R-spondon1 (sold at $50,000 a dose as a patented "drug," of course), dose 'em up with a fatal injection of chemotherapy, and then thanks to the R-spondon1 you get a repeat cancer customers instead of a corpse.That's called "good business practices" in the cancer industry, which is so far best known for turning patients into body bags rather than actually curing cancer. (Yes, there is a reason why most oncologists would never undergo chemotherapy themselves. They know it doesn't work on 98% of all cancers.) Probiotics are likely the key to generating your own R-spondon1Before I discuss why these findings are so important for followers of natural health and nutrition, let me first offer a disclaimer. The research mentioned here was conducted on mice, not humans, so it isn't full proof that the same mechanism works in humans. Nevertheless, the reason mice are used for such research is because they are nearly identical to humans in terms of biology, gene expression, endocrine system function and more.Furthermore, even though this study used an injection of R-spondon1 as the "activator" of gene expression in endothelial cells of the intestinal lining, in truth your cells already possess the blueprint to produce R-spondon1 on their own. In fact, human intestines are coated with a layer of epithelial cells that are regenerated every 4-5 days in a healthy person. This is only possible through the activation and continued operation of intestinal stem cells, a normal function for a healthy human. And what determines the health of those stem cells more than anything else? Their local environment which is predominantly determined by gut bacteria. If your gut bacteria are in balance, the gene expression of your epithelial cells is normal and healthy. If your gut bacteria are out of whack, so to speak, the gene expression of your epithelial cells will be suppressed, thereby slowing or halting the regenerative potential of your intestinal cells. This is why people who have imbalanced intestinal flora also suffer from inflammatory intestinal conditions such as Crohn's, IBS and so on. Thus, probiotics are a key determining factor in the ability of your intestines to maintain the appropriate gene expression for the very kind of rapid cellular regeneration that can help your body survive a fatal dose of chemotherapy. Meat and dairy cause devastating gut flora imbalances that may increase susceptibility to chemotherapy drugsThis may also explain why people who eat large quantities of processed meat, cheese and dead, pasteurized dairy products -- especially when combined with starchy carbohydrates and processed sugars -- are far more likely to die from chemotherapy than people who eat more plant-based diets. (There isn't yet a source to substantiate this claim, but it's something I've noted from considerable personal observation. You may have noticed it too among your own family members who have undergone chemotherapy treatments. Those with the worst diets seem to have far higher fatality rates.)Those who consume processed meat and dead dairy have their intestines filled with fiber-less, difficult-to-digest proteins that are putrefied and sit in the intestines for 2 - 5 days, typically. Dietary sugars and carbohydrates then feed the bacteria fermentation process, resulting in the rapid growth and replication of sugar-feeding bacteria that displace the kind of healthy flora which best protect intestinal wall cells. This imbalance, I suggest, increases susceptibility to chemotherapy toxicity while simultaneously impairing the ability of the patient to absorb key nutrients that protect healthy cells from the toxicity of chemo drugs. This may explain why patients who heavily consume meat, cheese and dairy diets tend to die so easily when exposed to chemotherapy. But there's something even more alarming about all this that everyone needs to know... Antibiotics may also set you up to be killed by chemoAlthough the research did not directly address this question, its findings seem to indicate that the kind of gut bacteria "wipeout" caused by antibiotics could prove fatal to a chemotherapy patient.This is especially worrisome because many cancer patients are simultaneously prescribed antibiotics as they undergo chemotherapy. This could be a death sentence in disguise. While neither the antibiotics nor the chemo directly kill the patient, the combination of sterilized gut bacteria and highly-toxic chemotherapy drugs could multiply the toxicity and prove fatal. The death certificate, however, will say the patient died from "cancer," not from the chemotherapy which is usually the actual cause of death. And yet, every single day in America, patients who are taking antibiotics are subjected to multiple courses of chemotherapy. This may quite literally be a death sentence for those patients. There's also a self-fulfilling death spiral at work in all this: following the first round of chemotherapy, many patients suffer from weakened immune system that result in symptomatic infections. Physicians respond to this by prescribing antibiotics, resulting in the patient undergoing subsequent rounds of chemotherapy with "wiped out" gut flora. So the chemo causes the problem in the first place, and then the response to the problem by western doctors makes the next round of chemo fatal. This is a self-fulfilling death spiral of failed medicine. Oncologists seem to have no awareness whatsoever of the importance of gut bacteria in allowing patients to protect their own healthy cells from the devastating effects of chemotherapy drugs. Many oncologists, in fact, actively discourage their patients from taking any sort of supplements during chemotherapy out of an irrational, anti-scientific fear that such supplements may "interfere" with the chemo and make the treatment fail. This is one of the many ways in which oncologists get cancer patients killed. Takeaway points from this article:• New research shows that a substance generated by intestinal stem cells allows subjects to survive an otherwise fatal dose of toxic chemotherapy.• Healthy gene expression of intestinal cells allows them to naturally produce protective molecules that support and boost cell regeneration. • Probiotics may protect and support the intestinal stem cells that help cancer patients survive toxic chemotherapy. (More studies needed to explore this and document the impact.) • Antibiotics may be a death sentence when followed by chemotherapy. • Oncologists need to consider the risks and benefits of postponing chemotherapy in patients who are simultaneously taking antibiotics. The combination may be deadly. Conversely, they need to consider the benefits of encouraging chemotherapy patients to take probiotic supplements before beginning chemotherapy treatment. Sources for this article include: http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/21613-digest-this-cure-for-cancer-ma... http://science.naturalnews.com/2007/2940322_R_spondin1_a_novel_intest... http://science.naturalnews.com/2009/2043215_Stem_cells_self_renewal_a... |
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041449_chemotherapy_probiotics_antibiotics.html#ixzz2auqvXx00
Endurance Exercise Leads to Arrhythmia
Endurance Exercise and Arrhythmia: It's Time to Believe
The idea that long-term endurance exercise increases the risk for arrhythmia should no longer be considered counterintuitive. The list of published studies confirming this association is long, and this week, it got a little longer.
In a study published in the European Heart Journal,[1] researchers from Sweden report a cohort study of more than 52,000 cross-country skiers followed for decades. These were no ordinary weekend athletes; the analyzed group included finishers of the Vasaloppet,[2] a grueling 90-km (55-mile) cross-country ski race. Reliable sources tell me that cross-country skiing over that distance is the Nordic equivalent of an Ironman or double marathon. Yikes.
The null hypothesis of the study held that both the number of races completed (exercise dosage) and finishing time (exercise intensity) would be associated with arrhythmia. (I would have bet my new mountain bike on that one.)
The most common diagnosis was atrial fibrillation (n = 681), followed by bradyarrhythmia (n = 119), including 34 athletes with complete atrioventricular (AV) block. Typical supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) occurred in 105 athletes, and premature ventricular contractions (PVCs)/ventricular tachycardia (VT) in 90. Only patients with symptoms were counted.
Athletes who completed the highest number of races had the highest risk for arrhythmia. Arrhythmia risk increased on a continuum by races completed, up to 30% higher for 5-time finishers. Exercise intensity mattered too: Those who had the fastest finishing times had the higher risk for arrhythmia.
The second finding was the strong correlation with dosage of exercise. The more races completed, the higher the risk for arrhythmia. The increase in risk was linear, with a 10% increase per race completed. And do not be fooled by the seemingly low overall incidence of arrhythmia (1.97%). That's more than double the rate one would expect in an age-matched group.
The third, and perhaps most striking, finding was the association with finishing time. The fastest finishers had the highest risk for arrhythmia. The "strollers," or those who finished in more than double the fastest finishing time, had the lowest risk for arrhythmia.
There should be no surprise when an endurance athlete shows up with atrial fibrillation (AF) or some other arrhythmia. We are not surprised when masters-aged athletes suffer from other inflammation-induced maladies, such as overuse injuries, heart attacks, infections, and even divorce; why are we surprised they get AF?
But context is important. Previous studies have shown Vasaloppet finishers enjoy lower overall mortality. They smoke less, carry less body fat, and report better eating habits. This bolsters the idea that the lifestyle of endurance racing confers good overall health to most participants. Exercise is good. That observation remains unchanged and unchallenged. In the United States, we would do better with an epidemic of over- rather than underexercise.
It's also important to emphasize that association is not causation. We don't know whether excessive exercise alone caused the arrhythmia episodes. There are too many possible confounding variables to make a causation link.
And...just because intense and long-term endurance exercise increases the risk for arrhythmia does not mean athletes should avoid a sport they love. These studies don't tell us to recommend against endurance exercise. They simply inform both doctor and athlete of possible consequences. There are always trade-offs.
As physicians and teachers, knowledge of the association between chronic inflammation and disease might help us give better advice to our athletic patients. My guess -- and it is just a guess, I am no coach -- is that the same things that help an athlete avoid AF might also make them faster. Do you think getting adequate rest and recovery improves VO2max? Do you think being content with something less extreme than an Ironman or cross-country ski marathon might be antiarrhythmic? What's wrong with a fast 10K?
On a personal note, I admit to being drawn to these findings. It's normal to like science that validates one's beliefs; in this case, the dose/response relationship of exercise with arrhythmia only strengthens my theory that excess inflammation is the connector.
The null hypothesis of the study held that both the number of races completed (exercise dosage) and finishing time (exercise intensity) would be associated with arrhythmia. (I would have bet my new mountain bike on that one.)
The Results
The average age of athletes at study entry was 38 years, while the average age at first arrhythmia was 57 years. Of the 52,000 athletes studied, there were 919 inpatient visits for any arrhythmia during a mean follow-up of 9.7 years.The most common diagnosis was atrial fibrillation (n = 681), followed by bradyarrhythmia (n = 119), including 34 athletes with complete atrioventricular (AV) block. Typical supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) occurred in 105 athletes, and premature ventricular contractions (PVCs)/ventricular tachycardia (VT) in 90. Only patients with symptoms were counted.
Athletes who completed the highest number of races had the highest risk for arrhythmia. Arrhythmia risk increased on a continuum by races completed, up to 30% higher for 5-time finishers. Exercise intensity mattered too: Those who had the fastest finishing times had the higher risk for arrhythmia.
Three Features of This Report Stand Out
The study group included mostly high-level endurance athletes. The aerobic capacity required to finish such an event selects a narrow group. For instance, nearly 80% of Vasaloppet finishers participate in intense training all year round. These are not moderate exercisers dabbling in weekend 5Ks or spin classes.The second finding was the strong correlation with dosage of exercise. The more races completed, the higher the risk for arrhythmia. The increase in risk was linear, with a 10% increase per race completed. And do not be fooled by the seemingly low overall incidence of arrhythmia (1.97%). That's more than double the rate one would expect in an age-matched group.
The third, and perhaps most striking, finding was the association with finishing time. The fastest finishers had the highest risk for arrhythmia. The "strollers," or those who finished in more than double the fastest finishing time, had the lowest risk for arrhythmia.
Summary and Parting Shots
It's pretty simple: Extreme endurance exercise, done over the long term and with great intensity, increases the risk for arrhythmia. There's no refuting this strong association. These observations are both plausible and consistent with prior studies.There should be no surprise when an endurance athlete shows up with atrial fibrillation (AF) or some other arrhythmia. We are not surprised when masters-aged athletes suffer from other inflammation-induced maladies, such as overuse injuries, heart attacks, infections, and even divorce; why are we surprised they get AF?
But context is important. Previous studies have shown Vasaloppet finishers enjoy lower overall mortality. They smoke less, carry less body fat, and report better eating habits. This bolsters the idea that the lifestyle of endurance racing confers good overall health to most participants. Exercise is good. That observation remains unchanged and unchallenged. In the United States, we would do better with an epidemic of over- rather than underexercise.
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And...just because intense and long-term endurance exercise increases the risk for arrhythmia does not mean athletes should avoid a sport they love. These studies don't tell us to recommend against endurance exercise. They simply inform both doctor and athlete of possible consequences. There are always trade-offs.
As physicians and teachers, knowledge of the association between chronic inflammation and disease might help us give better advice to our athletic patients. My guess -- and it is just a guess, I am no coach -- is that the same things that help an athlete avoid AF might also make them faster. Do you think getting adequate rest and recovery improves VO2max? Do you think being content with something less extreme than an Ironman or cross-country ski marathon might be antiarrhythmic? What's wrong with a fast 10K?
On a personal note, I admit to being drawn to these findings. It's normal to like science that validates one's beliefs; in this case, the dose/response relationship of exercise with arrhythmia only strengthens my theory that excess inflammation is the connector.
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Medscape Cardiology © 2013 WebMD, LLC
Cite this article: Endurance Exercise and Arrhythmia: It's Time to Believe. Medscape. Jun 24, 2013.
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Incluso los caballos de carrera tienen descansos,y el entrenamiento para una competencia en mas suave y ocasional .
Cuando compiten con mucha frecuencia se deterioran y rinden menos. El hombre no es un caballo.
Ademas los excesos son dañinos en todo. Error muy frecuente en medicina donde parece gustar mucho aquello
de que si una cantidad es buena ,mas es mejor. Error injusficado pues son excepcionalmente raras las enfermedades
con una solo o unica etiologia(por ejemplo,las infecciones) y se nos olvida el huesped (con su sistema inmunologico,
estado de animo, deficiencias nutritivas, etc).
background of exessive loadings