Better alternatives than chemo and radiation

  Yoga and Pilates 

Sure, why not?

It’ll take some discipline and willpower in the beginning, but after a few weeks, you’ll see how your new routine will become the norm.

1) Eating late at night – make yourself a meal bedtime. Put eating to sleep at 6, or 7, or 8 o'clock, whatever is realistic for you. Make your eating bedtime at least two hours before you actually go to bed.

2) Not exercising – Get a friend to join you three days a week for a walk before you start your day. Make a commitment to each other and hold each other accountable. You may want to impose a penalty – $10 every time you miss a workout?

3) Eating too much sugar, bread or fast food - It’s tough to reduce intake. Easier, I have found, to take it out altogether. So if sugar, or coffee, or soda is your nemesis, take that option off the table, entirely. You will be amazed at how powerful, and healthy, you feel once you do.

4) Beating yourself up – this is a big one. Do you look at what you are wearing and pick out everything you don’t like? Do you curse yourself for eating too much? Stop it!

Becoming aware of what you are doing is the first step. When you notice yourself doing it, reverse it by saying something nice – even if you don’t believe it at first. Force yourself to praise yourself - surely you can find something that you appreciate about you.

This will change how you see yourself, how you feel about yourself, and ultimately how you treat yourself. That means the behavior that you have been doing that has given you license to get down on yourself will stop.

Healthy habits – get some.

Debbie Rocker

In Today's World, the Well-Rested Lose Respect

by Margot Adler

 

Cynthia Johnson

Former President Bill Clinton appears to be sleeping at the dedication ceremony for his boyhood home in Hope, Ark., on March 12, 1999. Getty Images

 

 

 

A Good Night's Sleep

Believe it or not, some of us need to be taught how to sleep. Too engaged in work or play, we put off going to bed. Or we wake up in the middle of the night, mind racing, unable to drift off again. Soon enough, we're caught in a vicious cycle where one rotten, sleepless night follows another. So we reach for a pill.
  
Not so fast, says Dr. Helene Emsellem. To live up to our true sleep potential — and all of the health benefits that come from a good night's rest — the sleep-troubled need to change their nighttime habits.
  
Emsellem, a neurologist and medical director of the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders in Chevy Chase, Md., is a nationally known sleep expert and author of the book Snooze... or Lose! Here, she answers your questions on sleep.

 

 

Morning Edition, January 17, 2008 · Almost everyone has heard a story about someone famous who doesn't need much sleep: Martha Stewart, Bill Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Margaret Thatcher, the list goes on and on.

In our fast-paced, global society, many people consider it a big plus to need as little sleep as possible. But almost every sleep researcher will tell you that most people need at least seven hours of sleep for biological and psychological health. So there is a glaring disconnect between what the messages in our culture say about sleep and the messages we receive from scientists.

The Sleepless Badge of Honor

Think of the scene in the film Thank You for Smoking. Nick, a public relations guy for the smoking industry, is talking to a Hollywood mogul, who calls him up late at night to give him an update on a deal.

"Are you still at the office?" Nick asks.

"Do you know what time it is in Tokyo?" replies Jeff, the mogul, "4 p.m. tomorrow. It's the future!"

"When do you sleep?" Nick asks.

"Sunday," says Jeff, in a priceless moment.

The scene in the film encapsulates this myth that successful people don't need sleep and even provides a rationale: that our fast-paced society no longer lets us have such luxuries.

Dr. Eve Van Cauter, a sleep researcher and professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, says that many people today, especially in the United States, take pride in not getting much sleep.

"Sleeping as little as possible is viewed as a badge of honor here," Cauter says.

Short sleepers, people who can do with five hours of sleep a night, do exist. But most sleep researchers say they comprise only 10 percent or less of the population.

Dr. David Dinges, a sleep researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, questions whether they are "as prevalent as is claimed in society" and whether they are really so special.

Dinges also believes that many people who say they are short sleepers are getting more sleep than they are willing to admit. For example, they sleep on the way to the airport in the limo.

Dinges says people often don't count dozing off as sleep if they are not in their pajamas or in bed. He also notes that many people who fall asleep in meetings or consume large amounts of coffee consider that normal these days and not a sign of being sleep-deprived.

Van Cauter notes that every time she takes a morning flight, one-third of the plane is fast asleep within minutes of the plane taking off.

I live and report in New York City, and there is definitely a kind of pride or resignation here about lack of sleep. I started listening to people talking about sleep habits in the coffee shop where I get my morning coffee.

"Sleeping more than five hours feels like a waste of time. You could be reading or on eBay," Evangeline Morphos, a Columbia University professor, told me.

Attorney Carolyn Schrager's high-school-age daughter told her the one thing she wishes she could change about her life is to do away with the need for sleep.

Less Sleep Than Ever

Although it is hard to get real statistics about how much people slept in different periods of history, there are some pretty good indications that even five decades ago, people slept much longer on average.

Van Cauter notes that the National Cancer Society surveyed more than a million Americans in 1960 and found that people said they got an average of eight-and-a-half hours of sleep.

This was, of course, in a time period when television stations went off the air by midnight, and there were few late-night diversions, like online shopping.

Van Cauter says most surveys today put the average sleep time of Americans at six or seven hours.

"The data is limited, but they strongly suggest that over the past four or five decades, sleep duration has decreased by one and a half to two hours," she says.

Sleep Disconnect

And Van Cauter even wonders about all those famous people who supposedly don't need sleep. She notes that Bill Clinton, a notorious short sleeper, had heart surgery in his 50s, with no obvious risk factors.

Dinges says most people will show serious impairments if they are deprived of sleep for even a few days. The problem is most people assume they are fine when they are not.

"People will often say, 'I am good to go,'" he says. "It is that disconnect between your ability to introspect your alertness and impairment and how impaired you are cognitively, which is why we think many people believe they are doing fine when they not doing so fine."

Cliff Sloan, the publisher of Slate magazine, says he needs only five hours of sleep. He gets up early in the morning, and regards the early morning hours as a special time when the world is peaceful.

He notes that his wife is the complete opposite. She gets eight hours of sleep, would love 10, and "is someone who loves sleep and thinks it is absolutely insane that I am not indulging in one of life's greatest pleasures."

Sloan notes that both he and his wife are extremely productive. These are just differences of temperament and physiology, so it's ridiculous to claim that there is a link between success and lack of sleep, he says.

Sloan may be one of those unusual people who don't need so much sleep, although Dinges says, "I always say to these people, come to my lab and find out for real."

And Van Cauter makes a very unusual argument. She says that the amount of sleep you need also depends on what type of work you do. Celebrities, politicians, leaders of various kinds may actually need less sleep than others because the work they do involves constantly shifting their focus and attention. They might talk to a person about one thing, and then go on to another group, and then move to a new location.

"If, on the other hand, you have to get on the road and drive on a flat highway for four hours," sleep might well overwhelm the same person, she says.

Trendy Today, Dangerous Tomorrow?

Van Cauter believes we are in a period now very similar to where we were with smoking 20 years ago. She envisions a time 20 years from now, when knowledge, research and even litigation (perhaps lawsuits against sleep-deprived drivers who cause accidents) will combine to change public perception so that lack of sleep is finally seen as dangerous, not something to be proud of.

But Dinges says changing public perception may not be so easy since there is something built into our brains that makes us want to do more and more in less and less time.

"We are the ones that came up with artificial light and skyscrapers and going to the moon," he says, not the birds or crocodiles.

There is something very attractive to human beings about wanting to do with less sleep, no matter how much sleep restores us, helps our immune system or allows us to be more emotionally stable.

7 Foods That Cure

By Shawn McKee
Glee Contributor
Updated: Sunday, August 19, 2007

Japanese men and women who ate a one-fourth to one-third cup of walnuts a day lowered their "bad" LDL cholesterol levels by up to 10 percent. Walnuts, almonds and pistachios are all high in arginine, an amino acid that increases blood flow to the heart.

Grainy reception
Researchers at the University of Minnesota suggest that eating three daily servings of whole grains can reduce the risk of heart disease by 25 percent to 36 percent, stroke by 37 percent and type 2 diabetes by 21 percent to 27 percent. Whole grains include oats, whole wheat, brown rice, bulgur and bran. Ditch the Wonder Bread -- you’re a grown up now. Go for breads labeled “whole” and skip those “enriched” kiddy breads.

Yo-yo-yogurt
Yogurt is the king of foods containing probiotics, the "friendly" bacteria that helps fight illness and disease. Yogurt seems be the most beneficial of the probiotics. Two recent studies suggest that eating yogurt significantly improved a person's ability to fight off pneumonia. You can eat yogurt every day -- just make sure the brand you buy contains "live" or "active" cultures, as the bacteria won’t be very effective if they're dead before you ingest them.

Fish food
Study upon study indicates that incorporating salmon into your diet reduces blood pressure, lowers cholesterol and helps prevent heart disease. New research from the University of California, San Diego, reports that a higher intake of omega-3s preserves bone density, keeping your bones stronger and protecting against fractures. These omega-3s can also be found in other cold-water fish, such as sardines, tuna and mackerel.

Cabbage curbs cancer?
The American Association for Cancer Research presented a study at the November 2005 meeting that found Polish women who ate cabbage or sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) four or more times per week were 74 percent less likely to develop breast cancer. Additional studies found that cabbage may also protect against lung, stomach and colon cancers. The secret ingredient seems to be sulforaphane, a phytochemical in cabbage that works by stimulating cells to eradicate cancerous substances.

Have feedback for our editors? Give us your food for thought by writing to letters@gleemagazine.com.

Shawn McKee graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a BA in Journalism and has written for The Broward and Miami New Times.

Prevention is better than cure

Nobody can deny that to prevent an illness is far better than to have to cure one. So it's important to live a life that prevents illness from developing, rather than to have to deal with it afterwards. We want to be healthy and stay that way.

How?
There are 3 important points:

 1. Cleanliness

There are two aspects to cleanliness: internal as well as external. We're usually preoccupied with the way we look on the outside, but we don't pay any attention to our inside. We may bathe every day and keep our body relatively clean on the outside, but meanwhile we stuff so much garbage down our throats that our intestines start to resemble a clogged-up sewer pipe. Sorry to tell you such a horror story, but I'm not making anything up here. Germs in the body don't cause disease; they're a sign of it. They're scavengers – they feed on dirt. It's the dirt, toxins and dead matter in the body which cause the disease in the first place, including the vast majority of major diseases in the Western world.

Why should you not look after the inside of your body as much as you do the inside of your house or car? And a house or car is something you can actually replace! There's a saying that if you lose money you've lost nothing; if you lose your health you've lost something; and if you lose your peace of mind you've lost everything. "Health is wealth."

You can't be healthy without inner cleanliness.
On the other hand, if you're clean internally, you won't even catch a cold.

 2. Vitality

Vitality comes from the body's energy resources. We gain energy from the environment: from the sun, our food and water, and the air we breathe. That energy becomes vital energy in the body; the vitality that keeps us alive. The more vitality you have, the stronger you are, the greater your physical well-being, and the more inspired you'll feel.

3. Resistance

Resistance to disease is an automatic result of both cleanliness and vitality. If the blood is pure, the cells that fight disease can function freely, without being caught in a "traffic jam" of toxins and impurities. Resistance is an internal matter, and healing is also from within. Medicine only assists the body's natural internal resistance. Resistance also depends on your lifestyle. A well-controlled lifestyle gives physical health, mental peace and contentment.

But nowadays it's difficult to lead a healthy lifestyle – what with the pollution, the pressure of everyday life, and the lack of nourishing food and drink. Once I left a Big Mac for six months to see what it would look like. What did it look like after all that time? Exactly the same as when I bought it! Only it was hard, like plastic. Can you imagine what they put in those things. Much of the food we eat is sorely lacking in nutrition and vitality, even if it is supposedly fresh. On top of that, our ever-increasing materialistic outlook on life leaves us dull and uninspired.

So what's the answer?

Know yourself; take responsibility for your own health; be your own doctor. I'm not saying you're never going to need specialized medical treatment, but at least you can minimize the chance of needing it. "An apple a day," well you know the saying. What's the use of going to the doctor for something you can cure ten times easier yourself? Or even better, something you could have prevented yourself, with no extra demand on your time or your finances. And these are very simple things that you just need to be mindful of. But the point is that we're usually not mindful of them. Even the basic things like how to eat, how to breathe, even how to think – there's an art and science to every aspect of life that we should be aware of and make good use of.

Acharya Gunamuktananda

Water or Coke

WATER

#1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
 (Likely applies to half the world population.)

#2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak
that it is mistaken for hunger.

#3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as 3%.

#4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs
for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of
Washington study.

#5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

#6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of
water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain
for up to 80% of sufferers.

#7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term
memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on
the computer screen or on a! Printed page.

#8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of
colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast
cancer by 79%., and one is 50% less likely to develop
bladder cancer. Are you drinking the amount of water
you should drink every day?

COKE

#1. In many states the highway patrol carries
two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from
the highway after a car accident.

#2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke
and it will be gone in two days.

#3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the
toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour,
then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes
stains from vitreous china.

#4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers:
Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds
Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

#5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour
a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble
away the corrosion.

#6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Apply a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola
to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

#7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into
the baking pan, wraps the ham in aluminum foil, and bake.
Thirty minutes before ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the
drippings to mix
with the Coke for sumptuous brown gravy.

#8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke
into the load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run
through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen
grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your
windshield.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:
#1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid.
It will dissolve a nail in about four days. Phosphoric
acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major
contributor to the rising increase of osteoporosis.

#2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup! (The concentrate) the
commercial trucks must use a hazardous Material place
cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.

#3. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean
engines of the trucks for about 20 years!

Now the question is, would you like a glass of water?

Or Coke?

“Meditation is an incredible time-out for the body”

Thirty-year- old Michael Bolla, a successful New York real estate executive, sits cross-legged on the floor of his chic Chelsea apartment. As traffic rushes past his windows, he closes his eyes, shuts out the world and eases into tranquility. Bolla has discovered that maintaining a daily 10- to 20-minute meditation practice is time well spent. "By closing my eyes and focusing on my breath, I'm able to get a wonderful perspective on my life," says Bolla. "Meditation can help you overcome just about anything."

He's not alone in his discovery. Countless stressed-out individuals are benefiting from this ancient mental discipline. They 're developing excellent concentration skills, becoming more alert and aware of themselves and better equipped to cope with life's pressures.

Meditation's roots go back over 5,000 years, when Indian yogis used it as a tool for uniting with the soul. They believed that in order to practice a higher level of yoga, the mind must be quiet, and they figured out that the best way to create this mental stillness was to bring the body, mind and senses into balance. To achieve this peaceful, clear-thinking state, you must focus your mind on one thing or activity.

And even though you need to concentrate in order to meditate, meditation is more than concentration - it's ultimately a state of becoming keenly aware of your senses while remaining detached at the same time.

"Once you learn how to do that, interesting things begin to happen on a physical, mental and emotional level," explains Al Bingham, a yoga teacher and co-author of the Yoga Zone Introduction to Yoga: A Beginner's Guide to Health, Fitness and Relaxation. "Focusing your attention will allow you to observe your thought patterns, such as fear, anger and jealousy. Eventually, you take responsibility for your own actions."

New York psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, Jane Kupersmidt, Ph.D., agrees that meditation is very helpful for self-study because it gives individuals a tool to cope with anxiety, stress, impulses, and the toleration of thoughts and feelings. However, she adds, "It's a little less helpful in working out relationships between the self and others because of the differences between each individual's emotional reality."

Although its spiritual benefits can be profound, many people are attracted to meditation because of its health benefits. The famous, groundbreaking book by Dr. Herbert Benson, The Relaxation Response, describes how both sleep and meditation increase alpha wave production in the brain. Alpha waves occur when the mind is calm and brain waves become smoother and slower. One physical result is a decrease in perspiration and rate of breathing. This deep alpha wave relaxation can be achieved within three minutes during meditation, while sleep takes up to four or five hours to achieve the same levels. Not only can this quick route to deep relaxation train your body to better handle stress, there is also evidence it may lower blood pressure and boost the immune system, writes Dr. Benson. Follow the link below to learn how to start your own meditation practice.

 

Slashing too many calories, particularly protein calories, pushes the body to conserve calories rather than burn them. It also forces your body to break down muscle tissue to fuel its vital operations. But that muscle is the key to your metabolism, or the speed at which you burn calories. More muscle means a faster metabolism and less body fat.

Solution: You do need to cut calories to lose weight. (Cut 500 today by eliminating one can of beer, 30 chips, and one Oreo from your diet.) But you need to make sure you're eating at least 1,600 to 1,800 calories each day to keep your metabolism from shutting down. And never cut protein during a diet. If you're a sedentary 200-pounder, you need about 75 grams of protein (about two chicken breasts) a day for muscle preservation. If you're lifting weights, aim for twice that much. Doing aerobics? Pick a number in between.

If you were a rat, you'd chow down for about 15 minutes, feel full, and stop eating. But you aren't. You probably eat so fast that your stomach hardly has time to alert your brain to tell your mouth to quit chewing before your stomach explodes.

Solution: Try this drill during your next meal. On every bite, chew, swallow, put down your fork, and take a sip of water. See how long it takes you to eat. Now, during subsequent meals, take just as long to eat, only without the drill. Another meal-prolonging trick for men with regular dinner partners: Turn off the TV, put down the Daily Racing Form, and actually have a conversation.

Most processed breads and cereals contain little fiber, the calorie-free component of plant foods that fills you up, not out. Plus, foods rich in fiber help control blood glucose and insulin levels.

 
Solution: I never thought I'd say this, but it may be a good idea to cut back on potatoes in any form (especially the fries, fellas). Experts say potatoes raise blood-glucose concentration quickly, as do snack chips, white bread, low-fiber breakfast cereals, and breakfast bars. Whole-grain cereals, nuts, and beans are blame-free, if not calorie-free.

Sleep deprivation decreases the odds of shedding blubber and keeping it off. Researchers found that healthy men who snoozed only 4 or 7 hours a night for 6 nights in a row had higher glucose and insulin levels in their blood. This is a terrible state of metabolism for a man who's trying to lose weight, because surplus insulin boosts body-fat storage.

 
Solution: Hit the sack for 8 hours each and every night. And try to hit it for the same 8 hours. That is, establish a regular bedtime and waking hour. Pick the time you have to wake up on most days, and make sure you're in bed at least 8 hours before. Company is optional.

 5. You Think Fitness Trumps Fatness

Exercise alone won't make you thin. A recent study of military personnel who increased their exercise during a 3-year period found that they gained weight despite their extra efforts. Why? Food, most likely. They simply ate more than they burned off.

Solution: The last thing you want to hear, especially from a female, is that size matters. But trust me on this: Controlling portion size is absolutely essential to weight loss. And the best way to control portion size is to limit how often you eat out. According to the Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter, a single restaurant meal often could feed an entire family. A pasta dish at an Italian restaurant might include eight 1-cup servings. A rib dish might have a pound of meat--more than five servings. A side of fries might include 70 of the little devils, which is seven servings. And a nut-filled cinnamon bun in a mall food court could total 1,100 calories--more than half the calorie intake on a typical weight-loss diet. Which brings us to our next point...

So you took wood shop instead of home ec. I understand--a man needs to master power tools to feel complete. But unless you find a way to make your bird feeder edible, you need to master weight-loss tools, too. A man whose only kitchen skill involves the speed dial to Domino's is condemned to a diet of grease, salt, white bread, and sugar.

 
Solution: Step into the kitchen. (That's the room with the oven, sink, and refrigerator.) Open your freezer. You should see frozen berries and vegetables, which are as good as fresh but last many times longer. Look in your cupboards. You should see some canned vegetables, hearty low-fat soups, dried fruit, and slow-cooking oats. These foods help you lose weight because they're filling but low in calories. Best of all, you don't need much more than a can opener and a microwave to make them edible. (Dishes are optional.) This leaves you more time for your power tools.

Have another one, bud. Another tall, ice-cold...glass of water. When you're trying to lose weight, water is your workout partner. You need it to flush the waste products your body makes when it breaks down fat for energy, or when it processes protein. You need it to transport nutrients to your muscles. You need it to help digest food and keep your metabolism clicking along. And water keeps you from overheating during intense exercise on hot days.

I've seen it many times: Guy drops 10 or 20 pounds and starts thinking he's Joe Weight Loss. Next thing you know, he's back to beer and pizza--and his original weight.

 
Solution: Remember that scene in Patton when George C. Scott refuses to pull his troops back, saying he doesn't like to pay twice for the same real estate? Okay, you're Patton, and every 10 pounds of fat you shed is real estate you own outright. Don't give it back. With each 10 pounds you drop, sit down and reassess your diet and exercise program. If you calculated your food intake and exercise volume when you started, run a new set of numbers, based on your new weight and activity level.

• Yoga relaxes the body and the mind. Even in the midst of stressful environments, Yoga helps control breathing and clears the mind of cluttered thoughts, leaving only deep physical and mental refreshment.



• Yoga can help normalize body weight. For people who are either overweight or underweight, Yoga Exercises can help achieve the desired weight. The principles of balance and moderation in physical activity and diet under Yoga can also lead to a healthier lifestyle.



• Yoga improves your resistance to disease. The postures and movements in Yoga massage the internal organs, enhancing blood circulation and functionality, thus, lessening the risk of illness.



• Yoga increases your energy level and productivity. For as quick as 20 minutes, Yoga can replenish the mind and body with precious energy needed to respond to daily tasks and challenges.



• Yoga leads to genuine inner contentment and self-actualization. Meditation -one of the aspects of Yoga- focuses the mind, taking it away from the distractions of the highly-materialistic world and leading it to genuine happiness.

Here are four ways to finish last.

1. Leave it to Lefty. It's a right-handed world, which means that something as simple as buttoning a shirt can take twice as long when done left-handed. Same thing goes for dining southpaw: Keep your fork in your left hand and your knife in your right, and you're guaranteed to go slowly. And, of course, if you're a natural lefty, go righty.

2. Pick up sticks. You should try this only at home. "Eat an entire dinner with chopsticks, even if it's not an Asian meal," says Stokes. "You'll know when you're full before it's too late." But no, you won't feel hungry again an hour later.

3. Expound, don't expand. Or, to put it another way, don't talk with your mouth full--just talk. The goal is to stretch out the meal with good conversation so that you know you're full long before you start overeating, says Stokes.

4. Drink and dine. When dining out, keep the water boy busy by taking a sip after every bite. Not only will this prevent you from settling into your normal groove of gorging, but the extra liquid will also help you feel fuller, faster.