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Is the U.S. Government adding SATURATED FAT to your pizza?!

10 Nov

PizzaImage 300x150 Is the U.S. Government adding SATURATED FAT to your pizza?!Did you hear this news? No, it’s not quite as hyperbolic as the title of my post. But it’s just about as unbelievable!

It was in the November 6 issue of the NY Times…

It makes me clearer than ever that we have to be incredibly proactive when it comes to controlling our own well-being.

I mean, don’t you think it’s kind of hard to fathom that while the FDA can busy itself with threats of trying to limit/control/regulate vitamins, herbs and other natural substances that have the power to help us live better and live stronger…and in fact, can even support the healthy expression of our DNA…another government agency can actually be spending money to insure that we’re consuming larger quantities of foods that we already consume too much of!

Oy!

Read on- it gets even better…

Domino’s Pizza’s domestic sales were falling last year. Then an organization called Dairy Management offered to help. They developed pizzas for Dominos which contained 40 percent more cheese, and then devised and payed for a $12 million marketing campaign!

But Dairy Management is not a private business — it is a creation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA helps helm a government anti-obesity program that discourages some of the very foods that Dairy Management is vigorously promoting.

The New York Times reports:

“… [I]n a series of confidential agreements approved by agriculture secretaries in both the Bush and Obama administrations, Dairy Management has worked with restaurants to expand their menus with cheese-laden products.”

“Dr. Walter C. Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health and a former member of the federal government’s nutrition advisory committee, said: “The U.S.D.A. should not be involved in these programs that are promoting foods that we are consuming too much of already. A small amount of good-flavored cheese can be compatible with a healthy diet, but consumption in the U.S. is enormous and way beyond what is optimally healthy.”

Folks, this is likely the major reason behind all the raids on the raw milk farms recently — they are viewed as a threat to the commercial dairy industry.

Source: New York Times, November 6, 2010


Which vitamin deficiency is related to 9 Types of Cancer?

27 Oct

It’s been in the news a lot lately…

And as you will read, it’s actually not a vitamin. But it’s called one.

Here’s a quote from the article I came across in The Philadelphia Inquirer:

3d model DNA1 150x150 Which vitamin deficiency is related to 9 Types of Cancer?

DNA and vitamins

“Over the last few decades, scientists have discovered that Vitamin D – technically not a nutrient at all but a hormone – regulates about 2,000 genes in different ways.

It plays a role in cell growth and death, and so has been linked to numerous cancers. It affects blood vessels, connecting it to high blood pressure and heart attacks. Its involvement with inflammation and the immune system brings an association with allergies and asthma, infections such as influenza and tuberculosis, and autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes.

In his recent book, The Vitamin D Solution, physician and researcher Michael F. Holick cites studies finding that the incidence of many of these conditions – hypertension, MS, nine kinds of cancer – is greater the farther you live from the equator.

If you’d like to check out the rest of this insightful article, check it out here.

But before you run out to buy your own stock of Vitamin D, consider this:

Too much of a good thing IS a real thing!

Too much vitamin D can make the intestines absorb too much calcium. This may cause high levels of calcium in the blood. High blood calcium can lead to calcium deposits in soft tissues such as the heart and lungs. This can reduce their ability to function.

Kidney stones, vomiting, and muscle weakness may also occur if you have too much vitamin D.

So, the plot thickens.

Do you know how much is enough for YOU? Enough for you PLUS the way your body processes it? As a hormone, it can wreak havoc in the wrong amounts, and thus it’s important to understand what YOUR body needs.

This is why- as a licensed healthcare practitioner- I’m such a proponent of finding out how our DNA can give us the clues we need to custom-tailor our supplementation to best serve our bodies. And it’s not just about Vitamin D. It’s about anti-oxidants, it’s about the correct amounts of the B vitamins, and it’s about getting your vitamins from healthy sources- organic, whole food resources!

So before you run out and buy the biggest multi-vitamin you can find, spend a little time understanding that your body is different- as in UNIQUE- and you need to customize your supplementation with the best that cutting-edge nutrition has to offer!

(If you’d like to check out how you can have a supplement tailored for your own DNA, check out the company at the forefront of personalizing wellness, Genewize Life Sciences.)

And fill in the form at the right to access our free, 26 page report that explains exactly what you want to know about genomics and DNA Customized Nutrition.

Sometimes silence IS the best medicine- even for your DNA!

16 Oct

3d model DNA 150x150 Sometimes silence IS the best medicine even for your DNA!

Meditating for healthy DNA expression

I just came across a terrific article at abc.com’s health department that indicates that meditation may actually help us at the genetic level.

Here’s the first line of the article:

“It turns out peaceful thoughts really can influence our bodies, right down to the instructions we receive from our DNA, according to a new study.”

It’s kinda like more evidence of what those of us promoting ‘alternative’ medicine (I use the apostrophes because ‘alternative’ medicine has been around for THOUSANDS of years…so who’s medicine is REALLY the alternative?!) have been saying for years.

You see, often the problem in our culture (I’m living and treating in private practice in the US) is that we want someone ELSE to handle our issues…someone ELSE to deal with the fallout of our bad habits, our bad diet. We’d much prefer a pill, a process, even surgery, to eliminate the symptoms than the time and effort that a meditative practice that has been PROVEN to reduce our bodies’ pain and inflammation response.

It’s often not until we’re confronted with a dire situation, until our health is precarious, that we actually find the time and inspiration to change our approach. But perhaps this article will give you pause…

Here’s the thing: Mind-body practices that produce a relaxation response have been used by other cultures for thousands of years to prevent and treat disease. As an acupuncturist, I’m oftening counseling my clients to PLEASE consider a yoga, qi gong or tai chi practice as part of a lifestyle that will counter some of the effects of the unrelenting stress that comes with living in New York City. The authors spoke to this as well in their background to the study.

The researchers for this study wanted to test the idea that the relaxation response also produces changes in gene expression.

You see, the relaxation response is REAL. It reduces oxygen intake (higher oxygen intake results in higher oxidative stress- or the equivalent of ‘rust’ in the body); it increases the exhalation of nitric oxide, and lower psychological distress. It’s the antidote to the “flight or fight” response that has already been shown by a number of studies to have a distinct pattern of physiological and- as these researchers set out to show- gene expression changes.

Dr. Dean Ornish, professor of medicine and founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute at the University of California at San Francisco, recently found that there’s a relationship between meditation and genes in prostate cancer.

“This is an important pilot study showing that meditation alone may favorably alter gene expression in whole blood,” Ornish said. “These findings provide additional evidence to our recent study in PNAS [the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences] showing that meditation — when combined with better nutrition and moderate exercise — also favorably altered gene expression in prostate tissue.”

So, what exactly is ‘gene expression’? It’s technical…but for the curious, it’s the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product. A process by which DNA is transcribed to RNA, and then into something else- this most often results in a protein. It’s important to know that the timing, location, and amount of gene expression can have a profound effect on the functions (actions) of the gene in a cell or in a multicellular organism.

It’s a far-reaching topic, and one that doesn’t yet have definitive answers…but certainly a conversation that bears paying attention to!

Check out the full article here. And I’d love to hear your comments after you’ve had a chance to look it over!

I myself lean towards the idea that by looking at our DNA- something that’s as simple as a cheek-swab home test-  we may find tendencies…vulnerabilities…that can provide an indication as to where our bodies might develop issues. And the field of nutrigenomics can offer ways of dealing with these tendencies using specific and measured (i.e., customized) nutritional support, proven to assist in the healthiest expression of your genes. You can find out more about that here.

Nevertheless, I believe that the practice of meditation- and even that word might need clarification, since there’s a broad scope of defining exactly what we mean by ‘meditation’-  as well as meditative practices like yoga, or tai chi, can indeed help our body in it’s adaptation to stress.

In other words, maybe silence really IS golden. And not just for the kids.