Jimi's Daily Health Articles

A Powerful Recipe To Ward Off Cold and Flu

Sage Tea Recipe

*Important: never use aluminum utensils or containers for your tea extractions. Glass, porcelain, silver, and Pyrex are best!

Ingredients:


1 Quart Water

12 Fresh Sage Leaves (Dry is ok too, but fresh is more potent!)

2 Tablespoons Local Honey

2 Tablespoons Fresh Lemon Juice

A pinch of Cayenne Pepper

Preparation:

1. In a teapot or saucepan, bring water to a boil.

2. Add the sage leaves and remove the teapot or saucepan from heat.

3. Let steep for 15 minutes.

4. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

5. Pour a cup full, breathe in the beautiful aroma, and enjoy!

Two to three cups of sage tea per day is always part of the healing protocol in my house. Sage is generally viewed as being a very safe herb to experiment with, but as always, do your own research and make sure it feels right for you.

Hopefully this information will help renew your vitality in the coming cold months.

Why so many people are getting colorectal cancer
It seems to strike at random.

There's no telling who's going to get it, and no telling who's going to die from it.

Does it get any scarier than that???

But today I've got a way to take some of the fear out of colorectal cancer -- because new research reveals how it might not be random at all...

It turns out there IS a reason so many people get it.

There IS a reason so many people die from it.

And that means there IS something else, too...

There IS a way to make sure you NEVER get the disease... NEVER suffer... and NEVER die from it!

The BIGGEST factor for colorectal cancer

Odds are you've heard plenty about inflammation, including right here in House Calls and in Health Revelations.

You know it's a factor for heart disease, stroke, arthritis, pain and more.

But it's also a key factor for several kinds of cancer including this one.

That's where the new study comes into the picture -- because it doesn't just identify inflammation as a culprit...

It shows very specifically where it comes from.

And it's something completely within your control: what you eat.

See, some foods not only raise inflammation, but raise it in ways that this form of cancer just loves.

It forms in it. It feeds on it. It thrives in it.

And it can GROW and SPREAD thanks to this inflammation.

So if you want to AVOID colorectal cancer, there are some foods you absolutely need to watch out for... especially if you have a family history of this disease:

• Refined carbohydrates
• Red meat
• Processed meat
• Saturated fats
• Trans fats

I realize that's a long list of "NO." And nobody likes to hear "NO."

I'm one of them.

So let me flip the script -- because there's also a whole lot of "YES" in here, too. See, the study also finds there's a bunch of great foods you CAN eat that can do the opposite.

They help you to AVOID this cancer.

It even reveals that easiest way to do it... and it might sound a little familiar.

Swap red meats for fatty fish such as salmon... replace saturated fats and oils with olive oil... and trade those carb-heavy snacks for nuts, berries and more.

Yes, when it comes down to it, the answer is the Mediterranean diet -- the same one I've shared with you time and again to help protect against obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and more.

Since it can fight cancer, too, maybe it's time to finally try it out for yourself.

Food for Thought

TROUBLESHOOTING THE AUTOIMMUNE PROTOCOL – A GUIDE
https://autoimmunewellness.com/troubleshooting-the-autoimmune-protocol-a-guide/

Jimi said:

I'm sure they do and if you can't afford your prescription astramenicen can help.

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Lol As long as people are taking BP pills, no problem!

Jimi said:

The 5 Most Powerful Natural Energy Drinks
https://drjockers.com/5-powerful-na...1bab4d65f6fe14dfbc39d7283b2cb89d5189540b69330

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Have you ever had coconut water kefir? I like it a lot, but it was $23 for 32oz. :yikes!:

Jimi said:

Very true short video
Toxic food kills WAY more people than mass shootings... it's not even close

https://www.brighteon.com/18336e0d-80a3-4439-b1d2-791d8e41e34d

Please watch this one

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It also concerns me that commercial juice contains sucralose.

1. Quercetin - You might be thinking - "What is quercetin? Never heard of it." Let me share the science behind this amazing nutrient, and why it is on my list of top two must have supplements to support a healthy pain and inflammation response.

Quercetin and it's role in pain - Quercitin has been shown to exert multiple mechanistic effects on the modulation of pain and inflammation. If you have ever taken an NSAID like ibuprofen or aspirin for pain, you should know that these drugs effect an enzyme that inhibits inflammation. Quercetin works to inhibit this same enzyme without the negative side effects of causing gastric and intestinal damage(1,2).

Additionally, Quercetin works by inhibiting a chemical called TNF-alpha.(3) This chemical triggers a chronic inflammation response in the body. Drugs like Remicade, Enbrel, Humira, and even steroids block this same chemical, and are often prescribed to people diagnosed with painful autoimmune disease. Unlike the drugs, quercetin does not suppress the immune system and increase your risk for infections, cancer, bone loss, and diabetes.

Quercetin has also been shown to reduce allergy response by helping to stabilize the immune cells that release histamine(4).

Studies in both animals and humans have shown quercetin to be helpful in reducing chronic pain, exercise induced pain, arthritis, endometriosis, and allergic reactions. Studies have found quercetin to have anti-cancer effects, lower blood pressure, protect the gut lining, help with blood sugar control, and reduce pain in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (5-10).

2. Vitamin C - One of the most important nutrients for healing and repair, vitamin C is essential for a number of functions. Many of these are directly related to regulating inflammation and aiding the healing process of the body. Research shows that 1,000 mg of vitamin C daily dramatically reduces CRP and other inflammation markers in the blood (11).

Vitamin C has long been a natural powerhouse for pain and inflammation. A number of research studies show that using vitamin C can lead to pain reduction over time and helps people lower and even discontinue pain medications, including opiates. Studies have shown it to be effective for both acute and chronic pain(12).

Vitamin C is necessary to form collagen, needed in joint repair, regulates inflammation and immune response, acts as an antioxidant, aids in detoxification and energy production.

Jimi said:

1. Quercetin - You might be thinking - "What is quercetin? Never heard of it." Let me share the science behind this amazing nutrient, and why it is on my list of top two must have supplements to support a healthy pain and inflammation response.

Quercetin and it's role in pain - Quercitin has been shown to exert multiple mechanistic effects on the modulation of pain and inflammation. If you have ever taken an NSAID like ibuprofen or aspirin for pain, you should know that these drugs effect an enzyme that inhibits inflammation. Quercetin works to inhibit this same enzyme without the negative side effects of causing gastric and intestinal damage(1,2).

Additionally, Quercetin works by inhibiting a chemical called TNF-alpha.(3) This chemical triggers a chronic inflammation response in the body. Drugs like Remicade, Enbrel, Humira, and even steroids block this same chemical, and are often prescribed to people diagnosed with painful autoimmune disease. Unlike the drugs, quercetin does not suppress the immune system and increase your risk for infections, cancer, bone loss, and diabetes.

Quercetin has also been shown to reduce allergy response by helping to stabilize the immune cells that release histamine(4).

Studies in both animals and humans have shown quercetin to be helpful in reducing chronic pain, exercise induced pain, arthritis, endometriosis, and allergic reactions. Studies have found quercetin to have anti-cancer effects, lower blood pressure, protect the gut lining, help with blood sugar control, and reduce pain in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (5-10).

2. Vitamin C - One of the most important nutrients for healing and repair, vitamin C is essential for a number of functions. Many of these are directly related to regulating inflammation and aiding the healing process of the body. Research shows that 1,000 mg of vitamin C daily dramatically reduces CRP and other inflammation markers in the blood (11).

Vitamin C has long been a natural powerhouse for pain and inflammation. A number of research studies show that using vitamin C can lead to pain reduction over time and helps people lower and even discontinue pain medications, including opiates. Studies have shown it to be effective for both acute and chronic pain(12).

Vitamin C is necessary to form I am a spammer ban me, needed in joint repair, regulates inflammation and immune response, acts as an antioxidant, aids in detoxification and energy production.

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Thanks, Jimi. You told me about this and I forgot. Wish there was a way to save articles on VU.

Rhianne said:

Have you ever had coconut water kefir? I like it a lot, but it was $23 for 32oz. :yikes!:

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No I haven't but it sounds good, yeow $23 a quart, probably won't be trying it till I win the lottery

Rhianne said:

Thanks, Jimi. You told me about this and I forgot. Wish there was a way to save articles on VU.

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yes and it works great for me, hope you give it a try

Rhianne said:

Have you ever had coconut water kefir? I like it a lot, but it was $23 for 32oz. :yikes!:

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Make it @Rhianne it costs pennies.......

inspects said:

Make it @Rhianne it costs pennies.......

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I don’t have the room in my teeny kitchen for hacking coconuts really, but I thought I might use organic unsweetened coconut water. Just don’t know which brand.
I got the Body Ecology Cocobiotic. They are so expensive, it’s crazy. That makes me not like them that much, it seems greedy.

Your Neglected Sixth Sense
Can Expand Your Memory

Although you’re well aware of your five senses – hearing, vision, touch, taste and smell – you have a sixth sense that you may never have heard of. (And no, movie fans, it’s not “seeing dead people!”)

This sixth sense is not a movie plot gimmick, much less supernatural, but a very real and essential part of your good health. You see, your sixth sense prevents you from tumbling out of bed at night. It keeps you from falling when you walk.

It even enables you to bring a fork to your lips – without missing! -- and enjoy a delicious bite of food. And it helps you keep track of the positions and movements of your arms and legs so you can move safely and easily.

If your sixth sense isn’t functioning well, you’re in trouble. . .

This sixth sense is called proprioception. It’s basically your sense of body awareness, or the sense of where your body is located in its spatial surroundings.

Unfortunately, proprioception, like your other five senses, deteriorates with age. When this happens you’re more liable to fall and get seriously injured. But the latest research reveals falling is not the only peril of losing your youthful proprioception.

It goes to the heart of dementia, too.

In addition to regulating your body’s physical movements, research shows that proprioception also helps regulate memory and brain function. In fact, the research shows that if you can maintain better proprioception then you maintain a better memory as you age.

Keep your brain working better and reduce your risk of falls, bruises and broken bones? That’s a win-win in my book. So how exactly do you improve proprioception? It’s easier than you might think.

Exercise Muscle-to-Brain Communication

By now, if you’ve been following the research on ways to improve your memory and brain function, you’ve read about how exercise can support and boost your intellectual abilities. In particular, some scientists believe that the more you improve your aerobic fitness, the more you help your neurons stay healthy.

And one important way exercise helps memory, some researchers believe, is that it boosts your proprioceptive sense.

It has this effect because your proprioception depends on threads of cells in your muscle tissue. They’re called spindles, and they contain nerves that keep track of your muscle activity and send that information to your brain so your body knows where it is in space. For example, the transmitted information communicates if your muscles are staying still, getting longer or contracting.

Within the larger muscles in your legs, these spindles are sparse – communicating more general data about movements and positioning. In contrast, the parts of your body that need to operate in precise, closely regulated movements and activities, like your tongue, vocal cords, hands and fingers, contain a denser collection of spindles that send more data to the central nervous system and allow more finely tuned muscle control.

Along with the spindles, tendons contain what are called Golgi tendon organs that communicate muscle tension. As a muscle contracts and grows shorter, these organs transmit data to the brain about the force involved in the contractions, which also aids your proprioceptive sense.

Bettering the Brain

The proof for all of this is very interesting. Here’s one example: an animal study at Rutgers University shows that training for better physical control of the body – in this case, the animals trained on rotating rods that developed their coordination and balance – produces more benefits for brain neurons than merely doing aerobic exercise on a running wheel or treadmill.1

It works on humans, too. Analyses performed on people show that honing your balancing skills can enlarge your hippocampus (a critical brain memory center that shrinks with age)2 as well as other important parts of the brain.3

Impressively, a growing body of evidence also shows that you can boost your brain power quickly by working on nothing more than your proprioception sense.

For example, a study in Germany looked at this phenomenon in people between the ages of 19 and 65 who were trained with balance exercises – like standing on a wobbly board – twice a week. The exercise program improved their cognitive abilities significantly in three months.4

And in research at the University of North Florida, after only one session of balance exercises, people’s working memories improved measurably.5 In this study, test subjects did activities like walking along a beam, carrying objects that were awkwardly unbalanced and even climbing trees.

Practical Exercises You Can Do at Home

I’m not suggesting you take up gymnastics or tree climbing, but there are plenty of other balance building exercises you can do to improve your proprioception. One of the easiest is to join a Tai Chi class.

Tai Chi is a traditional Chinese exercise that entails slow movements that resemble slow dance moves. At the same time, a Tai Chi session emphasizes balance and body control. The results of a study at the University of South Florida that involved researchers from China shows that doing Tai Chi three times a week can actually keep your brain bigger and spur better brain function.6

Best of all, Tai Chi can be practiced by just about anyone. I’ve even heard of seated Tai Chi exercises for those who are too ailing to stand.

I think it’s safe to say that most of never think about proprioception. It just seems to be a natural physical ability that takes care of itself. But as these studies make clear, paying a little more attention to this “sixth sense” and making small efforts to improve it can provide you with big brain benefits for years to come.

Healthier Diet Directly
Reduces Depression

For years I’ve been trying to tell my crazy psychiatrist colleagues that most mental illness is a myth. It’s not about broken minds; it’s about the adverse effects of physical causes on mental function.

Every woman (and most men) know that around your period, you change mood. It’s called premenstrual tension (PMT) or premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Imbalance and changes in hormone levels can drive someone crazy. But do psychiatrists measure hormone levels before prescribing meds? No. Or at least 99% don’t (there are some good psychiatrists out there, including my good friend prof. Greg Brown MD, here at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas).

Hormone changes can be so extreme that a woman becomes murderous. The notorious 19th-century case of Lizzie Borden is an example. She took an axe and murdered her mother and father. But she was not hanged because her premenstrual symptoms were very extreme.


In my career, I saw countless “mentally ill” cases who were not. They simply suffered with food allergies. The man who opened my eyes to food allergies and psychiatric problems was a British psychiatrist called Richard Mackarness. He wrote a book called Not All In The Mind, because he was tired of seeing sad and dispirited patients, who doctors couldn’t help, being told their problem was “all in the mind”.

It need not be even as extreme as food allergy; just the difference between eating well and eating junk. Looking at what the people around me eat here in America, I think I’d be so depressed and sluggish, I’d be ready to slash my wrists within a week!

Here’s a fascinating study showing simple and easy reversal of depression by just eating better. In fact even a brief period of healthy eating may provide longer-term improvements in mood.

Young adults with depression whose diet is usually unhealthy showed significantly fewer symptoms of depression after eating a healthy diet for three weeks, according to a study published October 9, 2019 in the Public Library of Science (PLOS) One by Heather Francis from Macquarie University, Australia, and colleagues.

While much research has shown that eating a healthy diet rich in fruit, vegetables, fish, and lean meat is associated with a reduced risk of depression, there have been very few randomized controlled trials directly examining the link between the two, including for young adults, who are establishing health patterns and are also at higher risk for depression.

Francis and colleagues studied 76 university students (17-35 years old) exhibiting moderate-to-high depression symptoms and following a poor diet based on the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating Inclusion criteria.

Participants were eligible if they were aged 17–35, had test scores showing moderate or higher depression symptoms and a higher score on the Dietary Fat and Sugar Screener (DFS), suggesting a poor diet that does not comply with the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (high in processed foods, sugar, and saturated fats).

If receiving antidepressant medication or psychological therapy, participants were required to be on the same treatment for at least 2 weeks before study participation.

The researchers randomized participants into a “diet change” group or a “regular diet” group. The diet change group were briefed on diet and instructed to increase intake of vegetables (5 servings per day), fruits (2–3 per day), wholegrain cereals (3 per day), protein (lean meat, poultry, eggs, tofu, legumes; 3 per day), unsweetened dairy (3 per day), fish (3 per week), nuts and seeds (3 tablespoons per day), olive oil (2 tablespoons per day), spices (turmeric and cinnamon; 1 teaspoon most days). Conversely, they were instructed to decrease refined carbohydrate, sugar, fatty or processed meats and soft-drinks.

Each group member also received two subsequent check-ins via phone call.

To assist in complying with diet recommendations, participants in the diet change group each received a small hamper of food items including olive oil, natural nut butter, nuts and seeds (walnuts, almonds, pepitas, sunflower seeds) and spices (cinnamon, turmeric). They were told to keep their shopping receipts in order to receive a $60 gift card as reimbursement for study foods.

The regular diet group did not get any diet instructions and were simply asked to return after the three weeks were up. Before and after the intervention, the researchers assessed participants’ scores for depression, anxiety and overall mood, and their performance on several learning and reasoning tasks.

At the end of the three weeks, the diet change group had successfully maintained a healthy diet and showed significant improvement in mood, with depression scores shifting into the normal range. The regular diet group’s depression scores remained stable in the moderate-to-high range. The diet change group also showed significantly lower anxiety scores than the regular diet group, though other measures were not significantly different between the groups.

The authors followed up with 33 of the participants after three months. In this small sample, they found that while only 21 percent of these participants fully maintained the healthy diet, those that did maintained their improvements in mood.

This study is limited in that the no change group received no intervention – ideally, this group would have received alternative diet instructions, check-ins and monetary contributions to parallel the diet change group. These findings are also derived from a small, specific population of university students. However, they provide preliminary evidence that relatively small, simple diet adjustments can directly improve depression symptoms, and that these effects can last up to three months.

The authors add: “Modifying diet to reduce processed food intake and increase consumption of fruit, vegetables, fish and olive oil improved depression symptoms in young adults. These findings add to a growing literature showing a modest change to diet is a useful adjunct therapy to reduce symptoms of depression.”

Well, it’s a bigger issue than that. It’s more than an “adjunct” therapy. It is THE treatment of choice! Almost ALL mental health symptoms have correctable physical causes, whether it’s dietary, stealth pathogens, heavy metal poisoning, insulin resistance, hormonal imbalances,

And don’t forget stress is, well… stressful. It doesn’t need medication forgoodness’ sake! It needs de-stressing. Duh!

Inspiration for Your Week
The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.

America’s Unhealthy Love-Affair with Corn
http://www.gmosrevealed.com/americas-unhealthy-love-affair-with-corn/

One thing this article doesn't tell you is that ALL corn has an inborn inherent fungus, yes ALL CORN

Do You Have Low Serotonin Levels?
https://drjockers.com/low-serotonin-levels/

This is the start of low serotonin season, might wanna check this one out

When Yer Sick As a Dog And You ARE a Dog: Herbal Medicine For Pets
https://homemedicinesummit.com/?ide...r=1270249774162907118&ml_subscriber_hash=e8x0

Millions of people suffer from headaches every day — it's something that happens to all of us. The causes are too many to list, but as someone who suffered from chronic migraines in my early adulthood, I've explored a ton of techniques to get rid of them.

Today I want to offer you one time-tested solution that really saved me. It's called acupressure!

You’ve probably heard of the Traditional Chinese Medicinal practice of acupuncture — the ancient procedure of inserting needles along your body meridians to treat pain and correct imbalances. Acupressure is similar to this but is so easy and accessible that you can perform it on a plane, in your office or sitting at home with no tools whatsoever.

How Does It Work?

Traditionally speaking, pressing on specific parts of the body opens up the flow of energy (or Qi), which brings healing to your physical being, mind, and emotions by lowering inflammation.

What's really cool is that researchers have now found a brand new system of the body that could be the key behind this healing practice!

According to new findings from the New York University Langone School of Medicine, we have an "open, fluid-filled highway" that lines the whole body. It's called the interstitium and it could be the reason why acupressure is so effective — our healing pathways are fully connected. No wonder it works so well for headaches!

There are many types of acupressure. The method I use is called 'tapping,' where I tap on different meridian points with my fingertips to stimulate the flow of energy.

Another common way to perform acupressure is to simply apply and hold pressure to your meridian points.

Here are the 3 facial acupressure points that I try whenever I feel a migraine coming on:

Third Eye

Apply a decent amount of pressure (I’d say do what feels comfortable and take it one step further) to the space one centimeter between your brows. Hold this for about 1 minute. This pressure point is amazing for stress-related headaches.

Bridge of Your Nose

Press with that same force on your nose bridge in line with your tear ducts. You can hold this for anywhere in-between 1-3 minutes. This is especially helpful for allergy-related headaches.

Neck and Crown

For this one, make your palms as wide as you can and place the thumb and index finger of each hand at the base of your skull on the back of your head (your hands should mirror each other on both sides). Inch your other fingers as far up the crown of your head as you can, until your pinky is fully stretched. Make a clawing motion, pulling your fingers out and around the sides of your head, and apply that same amount of pressure. This position is great for sensitivity to light and sound.

These pressure points have been used for centuries to clear stagnant energy and soothe pain. The practice is sometimes combined with aromatherapy, so defusing a bit of peppermint or lavender essential oil into the air around you can go a long way.

This is a great example of the unparalleled healing power that lives right in your own hands!

Stay curious,

Food for Thought

Jimi said:

America’s Unhealthy Love-Affair with Corn
http://www.gmosrevealed.com/americas-unhealthy-love-affair-with-corn/

One thing this article doesn't tell you is that ALL corn has an inborn inherent fungus, yes ALL CORN

Click to expand...

I’m glad you told me. I haven’t eaten corn in ages, and now I really won’t. Yuck.

The Truth About Fried Foods and Cancer
If you’re like me, you instinctively love the smell of frying food. The rich fragrance of French fries or fried chicken—oh, it makes me hungry just thinking about it!

Interestingly though, researchers found that it’s not actually the smell of frying food— or any food for that matter— making you hungry, but the sensation of hunger actually increasing your sensitivity to smell. It’s one of your body’s natural survival mechanisms for helping you more easily find food when your body needs it.1

But when it comes to eating fried food, the latest research gives you another urgent reason, beyond clogged arteries, to reconsider. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst looked at the effects of eating falafel (a Middle Eastern deep fried dish) fried in canola oil, an inexpensive oil used widely in the U.S.

Their laboratory tests showed that eating fried falafel resulted in damaging inflammation in the colon. Even more alarming…

Colon tumors DOUBLED in size

That’s right. In these laboratory tests, eating fried falafel spurred tumor growth in the intestines, including the colon. The effect of chemicals from the fried food on colon tumors was dramatic – "The tumors doubled in size from the control group to the study group," says researcher Guodong Zhang.

As an added danger, researchers also linked eating fried falafel to “leaky gut”— when pathogenic bacteria and related toxins leak through gut tissue and enter the bloodstream.2 Leaky gut can contribute to cancer and a host of other health problems from chronic pain to a weakened immune system.

This study didn’t prove that eating fried foods can necessarily trigger the growth of cancer in your digestive tract and colon. Maybe it just tells us more about the dangers of fried canola oil than anything else. Health experts have long-warned against vegetable oils, especially canola oil

Still, the study provides another black mark on fried foods. And I’ve got even more scary evidence for you, so keep reading.

The researchers stress that if you already have inflammation in your colon or already suffer colon cancer, the substances in fried food can make your condition significantly worse.

“In the United States, many people have these diseases, but many of them may still eat fast food and fried food,” says researcher Guodong Zhang. “If somebody has IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) or colon cancer and they eat this kind of food, there is a chance it will make the diseases more aggressive.”

Common restaurant frying technique
“wakes up” cancer cells

While frying foods, in and of itself, produces harmful compounds that trigger cancer-fueling inflammation in the body, a common restaurant practice of re-using oil to fry food can increase the danger considerably.

Researchers call this type of re-used oil “thermally abused.” Tests at the University of Illinois show that eating food fried in oil that’s been used more than once can set off genetic changes that promote the spread of breast cancer.3

In these lab experiments, which used soybean oil – another common type of vegetable oil – the analyses showed that the abused oil quadrupled a breast cancer cell’s ability to metastasize, or spread, from the breast into other organs including the lungs, liver and lymph nodes. The compounds from the fried food also made the spreading cancer cells more aggressive and invasive.

The Illinois researchers explain that when oil is reused, the fats it contains are broken apart into individual fatty acids and they release a carcinogenic toxin called acrolein. Chillingly, acrolein has been linked to heart issues and clogged arteries as well as cancer.

Now, while European countries have tried to regulate how much of these harmful compounds can be present in frying oil, the U.S. has not established any regulations – and even the European standards, according to the research results, are too lax.

"Because there are no regulations in the U.S., it's really difficult for us to evaluate what's out there," says researcher Nicki J. Engeseth. "But the important thing is, the food that's fried in these oils sucks up quite a bit of oil. Even though we're not consuming the oil directly, we're consuming oil that's brought into the food during the frying process."

The scientists believe that these types of compounds in frying oil wake up cancer cells that may be harmlessly inactive and get them revved up to start multiplying and spreading.

How prevalent is re-used oil? Extremely. I’d venture to say that nearly all French fries and onion rings are deep fried in old oil that’s used over and over again.

Prostate implications

Fried food also has serious implications for the risk of prostate cancer. A study at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center shows that if you frequently consume deep-fried foods like fried chicken, French fries and doughnuts you are upping your risk of developing a prostate malignancy. And, as with cancer of the breast, these fried foods are strongly tied to the more aggressive types of prostate cancer.4

Perhaps most concerning of all, you don’t have to eat much of these fried foods to put yourself at increased risk. In this study it was shown that men who consumed one of these foods even as little as once a week increased their chances of cancer between 30 and 37 percent. Yikes!

So what’s behind all of this? The trouble appears to be in the temperature of the oil. The scientists found that heating oil to high temperatures needed for frying brings about the formation of toxic chemicals such as acrylamide – often formed in French fries – as well as other toxins called heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which you’ll find frequently in fried meats.

Not very appetizing, to say the least! What’s more, the researchers found that the longer the food was fried in high temperature oil, the more of these toxic chemicals appeared.

And don’t forget those ugly AGEs

And if all of this isn’t enough to turn you away from fried foods for good, foods fried in high temperature oil also contained advanced glycation end-products – or AGEs. I’ve written about these many times. They’re deadly carcinogens.

The scientists found that when a chicken breast is deep fried for 20 minutes it ends up containing over nine times as many AGEs as a chicken breast that is boiled for an hour.

This is very bad news. You see, when you consume AGEs you end up with even more oxidative stress and inflammation in your body. And you guessed it, both oxidative stress and inflammation make you more prone to cancer.

And I have one last warning – fried meat has also now been connected to kidney cancer.

A study at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston shows that eating fried meat – as well as barbecued meat – increases your risk for renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer in adults.5 In this research, the high temperatures that occur in fried meat produced toxins linked to causing cancer.

Reading up on all of these studies has given me serious pause about ever eating fried food again. Don’t get me wrong – I’m still attracted to the taste and smell of frying. But my concern about the cancer-connected toxins in those foods is enough to kill my appetite.

“It’s Like Armor for Your Breasts”
As the number one cancer afflicting women in the U.S., breast cancer affects more than 300,000 women every year. Many sufferers must endure disfiguring breast surgeries, harsh radiation treatments, or toxic chemotherapies in the name of a cure.

But in alternative medicine, the key to success in curing breast cancer has less to do with attacking the disease from the outside, and more to do with arming the body to fight cancer from the inside.

New research reveals a surprising tool to help your body prevent, and perhaps even stop, breast cancer: Legions of microorganisms -- beneficial bacteria.

Most of us are familiar with the concept of beneficial bacteria living in our gut. We have billions of such microbes lining our digestive tract, living mainly in the intestines and colon. These bacteria impact the health of everything from our metabolism to our mood to our immune systems.

In fact, I’ve written several articles on the connection between poor gut bacteria and inflammation, which is directly linked to a higher risk of cancer of all types. This link is why I’ve always been a strong supporter of improving gut bacteria health through high-quality probiotics or eating yogurt and fermented foods.

But here’s what’s new and really exciting… it turns out entire colonies of microorganisms, or microbiota, aren’t just present in our digestive tracts, they’re also present in the breast tissue of human mammals.

Mind-blowing mammary microbiome discovery

Recent research suggests that the microbiota of women with breast cancer differs from that of healthy women, indicating that certain bacteria may be associated with both breast cancer development and with different responses to therapy.

This recent identification of a mammary gland-specific microbiome has prompted studies on the bacteria populations associated with breast cancer itself. Researchers have since discovered malignant, or cancerous, breast tumors actually have much lower levels of Lactobacillus (just one of the “friendly” types of bacteria that live in our gut). In comparison, benign or non-cancerous lesions have higher levels of Lactobacillus.

What does this mean? For starters, it implicates Lactobacillus as a “negative regulator” of breast cancer. So this means that the less Lactobacillus you have in your breast tissue, the higher your risk of breast cancer.

Or put another way, Lactobacillus is like an all-natural cellular bodyguard that decides which diseased cells get to pass into breast tissue and which don’t -- in effect, stopping breast cancer before it starts.

Or, if you’re already battling breast cancer, having a cellular bodyguard such as this could mean the difference between battling a tumor that’s rapidly growing and one that grows at a snail’s pace.

Bacteria that guard against cancer

These remarkable bacterial discoveries have led to new research on whether diet can alter the breast microbiome. In a study published last year in the journal Cell Reports, researchers at Wake Forest University looked at the mammary glands of primates – our closest relatives in the animal kingdom -- following the consumption of a Western diet (generally high in refined grains, red meat and dairy) versus a Mediterranean diet (generally high in fish, whole grains and vegetables) over the course of 31 months.

The result? You’ve probably already guessed it. The monkeys that were fed a Mediterranean diet had increased levels of mammary gland Lactobacillus compared to those monkeys fed a more typical Western diet.

But that wasn’t all. The monkeys that ate the Mediterranean diet also had higher levels of bile acid metabolites and bacterial-processed bioactive compounds, along with lower reactive oxygen species metabolites.

That’s just a complicated way of saying these microbial populations appear to influence anticancer signaling pathways. So the right balance of microbiota appears to work as a cancer-prevention gateway.

Did you feed your microbiota today?

If you’re wondering why the Mediterranean diet led to higher levels of breast microbiota in those monkeys, the answer is because this eating plan is mostly plant-based, with a high intake of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. And those plant-based foods supply the body with different types of fiber to feed and strengthen different types of micro-bacteria.

The Mediterranean diet also includes weekly intake of fish, poultry, beans, and eggs, with very limited red meat. So while it’s not exclusively plant-based, the frequency with which meat and other animal products are consumed is about 86% less than in the typical Western diet.

At the very least, these findings leave us with excellent proof that diet influences the microbiome populations outside your gut, including in mammary glands.

What to eat while we wait for answers

As to where we go from here, there are already multiple studies underway looking at whether oral interventions such as fish oil or probiotic supplements affect mammary glands and breast tumors.

And the Wake Forest researchers plan to take a closer look at bile acids and bacterial-modified bioactive compounds to see how they affect inflammation, breast cancer tumor growth, and even therapeutic responsiveness.

In the meantime, I’ll stick to the advice I’ve shared for years: Whether you have breast cancer or are just trying to prevent breast cancer, it’s always a good idea to take a high-quality probiotic daily, add fermented foods to your diet such as kimchi and sauerkraut, and cut back on animal-based foods.