Dr. Mercola

Research Suggests Beets May Be a Powerful Ally in the Fight Against Alzheimer’s Disease, Decreasing Damaging Oxidation of Neurons by as Much as 90 Percent

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By Dr. Mercola

Beets have been shown to fight inflammation, lower blood pressure1,2 and aid detoxification. Studies also suggest they can help lower your risk for heart failure and stroke, and provide powerful benefits for your brain, largely due to their high nitrate content. Your body transforms nitrates into nitric oxide,3which enhances oxygenation and has beneficial impacts on your circulatory and immune systems.

Beets have been shown to fight inflammation, lower blood pressure1,2 and aid detoxification. Studies also suggest they can help lower your risk for heart failure and stroke, and provide powerful benefits for your brain, largely due to their high nitrate content. Your body transforms nitrates into nitric oxide,3which enhances oxygenation and has beneficial impacts on your circulatory and immune systems.

Nitric oxide4 is a soluble gas continually produced from the amino acid L-arginine inside your cells, where it supports endothelial function and protects your mitochondria. Nitric oxide also serves as a signaling or messenger molecule in every cell of your body. Many competitive athletes actually use beet juice for its nitric oxide-boosting benefits. Research shows raw beets may increase stamina during exercise by as much as 16 percent,5 courtesy of its nitric oxide boost.

Beets May Protect Against Development of Alzheimer’s Disease

Now, research presented at the 2018 American Chemical Society’s meeting6 in New Orleans claims beets may also be a powerful ally in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease,7,8 the most severe and lethal form of dementia. As reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:9

“First they examined the possible cause of the condition. Although it’s unknown, doctors have previously pinpointed beta-amyloid, a sticky protein that can disrupt communication between the brain cells and neurons. When it clings to metals, such as copper or iron, the beta-amyloid peptides misfold and clump together, causing inflammation and oxidation. 

Therefore, the scientists targeted foods known to improve oxygen flow and cognitive functions, including beets. The purple veggie has a compound called betanin that binds to metals, which could prevent the misfold of the peptides. To test their hypothesis, the scientists measured oxidation levels of the beta-amyloid when it was mixed with a betanin mixture, and they found that oxidation decreased by up to 90 percent exposed to the beet compound.

Preventing Oxidation Stunts Beta-Amyloid Clustering

When clusters of beta-amyloid form, it triggers brain inflammation and oxidation of neurons, and researchers believe this oxidation is what causes irreparable damage to the brain cells. Oxidation is particularly severe when the beta-amyloid is bound to copper. In this experiment, oxidation was largely prevented when betanin from beets were added to the mix.

As noted by co-author Darrell Cole Cerrato,10 “We can’t say that betanin stops the misfolding [of amyloid beta] completely, but we can say that it reduces oxidation. Less oxidation could prevent misfolding to a certain degree, perhaps even to the point that it slows the aggregation of beta-amyloid peptides …”

While the researchers hope their finding will lead to the development of better Alzheimer’s drugs, there’s really no reason to wait for such developments, seeing how Alzheimer’s is primarily a disease predicated on diet and lifestyle. Indeed, in his presentation of the findings (see featured video), Cerrato notes that this is yet another piece of information people can use to improve their eating habits and lower their risk of disease:

“In an age where people are trying to look more at what they’re consuming and what they’re eating … this is another source of data people can use … [W]e’re trying to get you to do the same thing your mother was trying to get you to do when you were a kid, which is eat your vegetables … I think this will be a good step forward in looking at how we can preventatively treat Alzheimer’s.” 

Beets Improve Neuroplasticity

Previous research11 has shown raw beet juice helps improve neuroplasticity, primarily by increasing blood flow and tissue oxygenation. Nitric oxide, in its capacity as a signaling molecule, also allows your brain cells to communicate with each other better. Importantly, the beets boosted oxygenation of the somatomotor cortex, a brain area that is often affected in the early stages of dementia.

Here, the beet juice was used in combination with exercise, which also improves blood flow and oxygenation on its own. The participants — middle-aged individuals diagnosed with high blood pressure — were given either beet juice or a placebo to drink three times a week, an hour before exercise, for six weeks.12,13,14 Exercise consisted of a 50-minute walk on a treadmill.

The results showed adding beet juice to your exercise regimen can be a simple yet powerful way to augment the benefits of exercise to your brain. Fermented beet juice powder might even be better as it still has the beneficial nutrients, and the carbs have been predigested by fermentation process. As noted by study co-author W. Jack Rejeski, a health and exercise science professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina:15,16

“Nitric oxide … goes to the areas of the body which are hypoxic, or needing oxygen, and the brain is a heavy feeder of oxygen in your body … [W]hat we showed in this brief training study … was that, as compared to exercise alone, adding a beet root juice supplement to exercise resulted in brain connectivity that closely resembles what you see in younger adults.”

Two caveats are worthy of mention. First, avoid using harsh mouthwashes, as this will reduce the conversion of nitric oxide by killing off necessary microbes. Also avoid fluoridated water, as fluoride converts nitric oxide into harmful nitric acid.17 Fluoride also has other brain-harming influences, and has been shown to impair neurological functioning all on its own. It is, after all, classified as a neurotoxin.

Turmeric — Another Food Shown to Lower Alzheimer’s Risk

Another food that can bolster your neurological health is curcumin, an active ingredient found in the spice turmeric. Recent research shows turmeric supplementation helped improve memory and focus in seniors already suffering mild memory lapses, and reduced amyloid and tau deposits associated with Alzheimer’s.18

The double-blind, placebo-controlled study, published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry,19 included 40 adults between the ages of 50 and 90. None had a diagnosis of dementia at the time of their enrollment. Participants randomly received either 90 milligrams of curcumin twice a day for 18 months, or a placebo.

A standardized cognitive assessment was administered at the start of the study and at six-month intervals thereafter, and the level of curcumin in their blood was measured at the beginning and end of the study. Thirty of the participants also underwent positron emission tomography (PET) scans to assess their level of amyloid and tau deposits before and after treatment.

Those who received curcumin saw significant improvements in memory and concentration, while the control group experienced no improvement. Overall, the curcumin group improved their memory by 28 percent over the year-and-a-half-long treatment period. PET scans also confirmed the treatment group had significantly less amyloid and tau buildup in areas of the brain that control memory, compared to controls.

Curcumin has also been shown to increase levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF),20 and reduced levels of BDNF have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Yet another way curcumin may benefit your brain and lower your risk of dementia is by affecting pathways that help reverse insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia and other symptoms associated with metabolic syndrome and obesity.21

High-Sugar Diet Significantly Raises Your Risk of Dementia

Perhaps the most important dietary factor that impacts your Alzheimer’s risk is the amount of net carbs (total carbs minus fiber) you consume on a regular basis. A high-sugar diet triggers insulin resistance — currently thought to affect as many as 8 in 10 Americans22,23 — and there’s a very strong link between insulin resistance and Alzheimer’s.24

For example, a longitudinal study25 published in the journal Diabetologia in January 2018, which followed nearly 5,190 individuals for over a decade, found that the higher an individual’s blood sugar, the faster their rate of cognitive decline. Even mild elevation of blood sugar and mild insulin resistance are associated with an elevated risk for dementia.26,27 Diabetes and heart disease28 are also known to elevate your risk, and both are rooted in insulin resistance.

One of the most striking studies29 on carbohydrates and brain health revealed high-carb diets increase your risk of dementia by 89 percent, while high-fat diets lower it by 44 percent. According to the authors, “A dietary pattern with relatively high caloric intake from carbohydrates and low caloric intake from fat and proteins may increase the risk of mild cognitive impairment or dementia in elderly persons.”

Sugar Atrophies Your Hippocampus, Impairing Memory

Research30 published in 2013 showed that sugar and other carbohydrates can disrupt your brain function even if you’re not diabetic or have any signs of dementia. Here, short- and long-term glucose markers were evaluated in healthy, nondiabetic, nondemented seniors. Memory tests and brain imaging were also used to assess brain function and the actual structure of their hippocampus.

The findings revealed that the higher the two blood glucose measures, the smaller the hippocampus, the more compromised its structure, and the worse the individual’s memory was. According to the authors, the structural changes in the hippocampus alone can partially account for the statistical link we see between glucose and memory, as your hippocampus is involved with the formation, organization and storage of memories.

The results suggest glucose directly contributes to atrophy of the hippocampus, which means that even if you’re not insulin-resistant or diabetic, excess sugar may still be negatively affecting your memory. The authors suggest that “strategies aimed at lowering glucose levels even in the normal range may beneficially influence cognition in the older population.”

A similar study31 published in 2014 found that Type 2 diabetics lose more gray matter with age than expected, and this brain atrophy also helps explain why diabetics have a higher risk for dementia, and have earlier onset of dementia than nondiabetics.

As noted by Dr. Sam Gandy, director of the Center for Cognitive Health at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, these findings “suggest that chronic high levels of insulin and sugar may be directly toxic to brain cells” adding that “This would definitely be a potential cause of dementia.”32

Early Detection Could Save Trillions

Alzheimer’s is proving to be stubbornly resistant to conventional remedies. According to Bloomberg,33 more than 190 human drug trials have ended in failure, and despite a burgeoning epidemic, the best drugs on the market only ameliorate symptoms while adding other risks. This is why dietary prevention is so crucial. We simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of real food any longer. At present, the best conventional medicine can hope for is improved diagnosis.

According to a recent report by the Alzheimer’s Association,34 the U.S. currently spends $277 billion on dementia care each year,35,36 and that doesn’t include care by unpaid caregivers. About 70 percent of these costs are paid by the families through out-of-pocket expenses.

On average, the out-of-pocket expenses for caregivers of someone with dementia is $10,697 per year, and 40 percent of caregivers have an annual household income below $50,000. By 2050, we may be looking at a health care bill of $1.1 trillion per year to take care of our demented seniors. As reported by Bloomberg:

“… [S]ignificant cost savings can be achieved, according to the new report, by the simple act of early diagnosis. Currently, individuals are typically diagnosed in the dementia stage, rather than when they have developed only mild cognitive impairment. Identifying the disease early can allow it to be better managed, in part with existing drugs that treat its symptoms. 

In doing so, the study postulates, America could save $7.9 trillion over the lifetimes of everyone alive right now … [M]anaged dementia is less expensive to treat because it reduces the chances of missing medication or incurring avoidable costs … It’s more costly to be diagnosed in the later stages because that’s likely to occur only after an expensive trip to the hospital.”

Early Detection Still Not as Good as Prevention

Considering 5.7 million Americans currently have Alzheimer’s and prevalence is projected to rise nearly 29 percent in the next seven years alone, it would behoove everyone to take prevention seriously, and begin taking proactive steps sooner rather than later. For while the financial costs may be steep, no price can be placed on the emotional and psychological costs associated with this tragic disease.

Early detection would surely be helpful, and strides are being made in the development of a blood test to detect Alzheimer’s.37 (In a recent trial,38 the test was 90 percent accurate in detecting the disease in a pool of 370 participants.)

One of the most comprehensive assessments of Alzheimer’s risk is Dr. Dale Bredesen’s ReCODE protocol, which evaluates 150 factors known to contribute to the disease. This protocol also identifies your disease subtype or combination of subtypes so that an effective treatment protocol can be devised.

You can learn more about this in “ReCODE: The Reversal of Cognitive Decline.” The full protocol is described in Bredesen’s book, “The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline.”39 However, if you’re diagnosed with early warning signs, that still means you’re on your way toward oblivion, and it didn’t need to get to that point in the first place.

As with cancer, early detection should not be confused with prevention, as diagnosing does not prevent you from having to figure out how to reverse the damage.

Your Diet Is a Key Consideration

Based on what we currently know, it seems foolish in the extreme to ignore dietary factors. As mentioned earlier, a key consideration is to reduce your net carb consumption and increase healthy fats. I believe the cyclical ketogenic diet I describe in my book “Fat for Fuel” can go a long way toward avoiding neurological degeneration by optimizing your mitochondrial function and biological regeneration.

Aside from eating real foods, paying careful attention to minimize net carbs, adding certain brain-boosting foods and supplements such as beets and curcumin can be helpful. Just don’t think you can continue eating junk food and just taking some beet juice and curcumin supplements.

With regard to beets, I recommend buying organic beets, or grow your own from heirloom beet seeds. While table beets are not genetically engineered (GE), they’re frequently grown in close proximity to sugar beets, most of which are GE, so there’s the potential for contamination via cross-pollination. While beets have the highest sugar content of all vegetables, most people can safely eat beet roots a few times a week. Beet root juice, however, should be consumed in moderation.

One way to circumvent the sugar issue is to ferment your beets. Not only does the fermentation process eliminate a majority of the sugars, it also makes the nutrients more bioavailable. Aside from pickled beets,40 other fermented beet products include beet-infused sauerkraut41 and kvass.42 

There are also convenient fermented beet powders which I take and put in my breakfast smoothie nearly every day. By supplying beneficial bacteria, beet kvass can also have a very beneficial impact on diabetes and many other health problems, particularly those rooted in gut dysfunction.43

Because of its detoxifying properties, avoid drinking too much when first starting out. As a general recommendation, start out with 1 ounce per day, gradually increasing the amount to an 8-ounce glass per day. If you’re highly toxic, you may need to start out with as little as a tablespoon. For instructions and a simple recipe for beet kvass, see my previous article, “The Benefits of Fermented Beets.”

Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies You Need to Know About

According to Dr. David Perlmutter, a neurologist and author of “Grain Brain” and “Brain Maker,” anything that promotes insulin resistance will ultimately also raise your risk of Alzheimer’s. To this I would add that any strategy that enhances your mitochondrial function will lower your risk. In 2014, Bredesen published a paper that demonstrates the power of lifestyle choices for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s.

By leveraging 36 healthy lifestyle parameters, he was able to reverse Alzheimer’s in 9 out of 10 patients. This included the use of exercise, ketogenic diet, optimizing vitamin D and other hormones, increasing sleep, meditation, detoxification and eliminating gluten, and processed food. You can download Bredesen’s full-text case paper online, which details the full program.44 Following are some of the lifestyle strategies I believe to be the most helpful and important:

Eat real food, ideally organic Avoid processed foods of all kinds, as they contain a number of ingredients harmful to your brain, including refined sugar, processed fructose, grains (particularly gluten), vegetable oils, genetically engineered ingredients and pesticides. Ideally, keep your added sugar to a minimum and your total fructose below 25 grams per day, or as low as 15 grams per day if you already have insulin/leptin resistance or any related disorders. Opting for organic produce will help you avoid synthetic pesticides and herbicides. Most will also benefit from a gluten-free diet, as gluten makes your gut more permeable, which allows proteins to get into your bloodstream where they sensitize your immune system and promote inflammation and autoimmunity, both of which play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s.
Replace refined carbs with healthy fats Diet is paramount, and the beauty of following my optimized nutrition plan is that it helps prevent and treat virtually all chronic degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s. It’s important to realize that your brain actually does not need carbs and sugars; healthy fats such as saturated animal fats and animal-based omega-3 are far more critical for optimal brain function. A cyclical ketogenic diet has the double advantage of both improving your insulin sensitivity and lowering your Alzheimer’s risk. As noted by Perlmutter, lifestyle strategies such as a ketogenic diet can even offset the risk associated with genetic predisposition. When your body burns fat as its primary fuel, ketones are created, which not only burn very efficiently and are a superior fuel for your brain, but also generate fewer reactive oxygen species and less free radical damage. A ketone called beta hydroxybutyrate is also a major epigenetic player, stimulating beneficial changes in DNA expression, thereby reducing inflammation and increasing detoxification and antioxidant production. I explain the ins and outs of implementing this kind of diet, and its many health benefits, in my book, “Fat for Fuel.” In it, I also explain why cycling through stages of feast and famine, opposed to continuously remaining in nutritional ketosis, is so important. Pay close attention to the kinds of fats you eat — avoid all trans fats or hydrogenated fats that have been modified in such a way to extend their longevity on the grocery store shelf. This includes margarine, vegetable oils and various butter-like spreads. Healthy fats to add to your diet include avocados, butter, organic pastured egg yolks, coconuts and coconut oil, grass fed meats, and raw nuts such as pecans and macadamia. MCT oil is also a great source of ketone bodies.
Keep your fasting insulin levels below 3 Lowering your insulin will also help lower leptin levels, which is another factor for Alzheimer’s. If your insulin is high, you’re likely consuming too much sugar and need to cut back.
Optimize your omega-3 levelAlso make sure you’re getting enough animal-based omega-3 fats. High intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA help by preventing cell damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease, thereby slowing down its progression and lowering your risk of developing the disorder. Ideally, get an omega-3 index test done once a year to make sure you’re in a healthy range. Your omega-3 index should be above 8 percent and your omega 6-to-3 ratio between 0.5 and 3.0.
Optimize your gut floraTo do this, avoid processed foods, antibiotics and antibacterial products, fluoridated and chlorinated water, and be sure to eat traditionally fermented and cultured foods, along with a high-quality probiotic if needed. Dr. Steven Gundry does an excellent job of expanding on this in his book “The Plant Paradox.”
Intermittently fastIntermittent fasting is a powerful tool to jumpstart your body into remembering how to burn fat and repair the insulin/leptin resistance that is a primary contributing factor for Alzheimer’s. Once you have worked your way up to where you’ve been doing 20-hour daily intermittent fasting for a month, are metabolically flexible and can burn fat as your primary fuel, you can progress to the far more powerful five-day water fasts.
Move regularly and consistently throughout the day It’s been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized,45 thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s. Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1 alpha. Research has shown that people with Alzheimer’s have less PGC-1 alpha in their brains and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer’s.
Optimize your magnesium levels Preliminary research strongly suggests a decrease in Alzheimer symptoms with increased levels of magnesium in the brain. Keep in mind that the only magnesium supplement that appears to be able to cross the blood-brain barrier is magnesium threonate.
Optimize your vitamin D, ideally through sensible sun exposure Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation associated with Alzheimer’s and, indeed, research shows people living in northern latitudes have higher rates of death from dementia and Alzheimer’s than those living in sunnier areas, suggesting vitamin D and/or sun exposure are important factors.46If you are unable to get sufficient amounts of sun exposure, take daily supplemental vitamin D3 to reach and maintain a blood level of 60 to 80 ng/ml. That said, it’s important to recognize that sun exposure is important for reasons unrelated to vitamin D. Your brain responds to the near-infrared light in sunlight in a process called photobiomodulation. Research shows near-infrared stimulation of the brain boosts cognition and reduces symptoms of Alzheimer’s, including more advanced stages of the disease.Delivering near-infrared light to the compromised mitochondria synthesizes gene transcription factors that trigger cellular repair, and your brain is one of the most mitochondrial-dense organs in your body.
Avoid and eliminate mercury from your body Dental amalgam fillings are one of the major sources of heavy metal toxicity, however you should be healthy prior to having them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the diet described in my optimized nutrition plan, you can follow the mercury detox protocol and then find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed.
Avoid and eliminate aluminum from your body Common sources of aluminum include antiperspirants, nonstick cookware and vaccine adjuvants. For tips on how to detox aluminum, please see my article, “First Case Study to Show Direct Link between Alzheimer’s and Aluminum Toxicity.” There is some suggestion that certain mineral waters high in silicic acid may help your body eliminate aluminum.
Avoid flu vaccinations Most flu vaccines contain both mercury and aluminum.
Avoid statins and anticholinergic drugs Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of dementia. These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence and certain narcotic pain relievers. Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of coenzyme Q10, vitamin K2 and neurotransmitter precursors, and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as low-density lipoprotein.
Limit your exposure to dangerous EMFs (cellphones, Wi-Fi routers and modems) Radiation from cellphones and other wireless technologies trigger excessive production of peroxynitrites,47 a highly damaging reactive nitrogen species. Increased peroxynitrites from cellphone exposure will damage your mitochondria,48,49 and your brain is the most mitochondrial-dense organ in your body. Increased peroxynitrite generation has also been associated with increased levels of systemic inflammation by triggering cytokine storms and autonomic hormonal dysfunction.
Optimize your sleep Sleep is necessary for maintaining metabolic homeostasis in your brain. Without sufficient sleep, neuron degeneration sets in, and catching up on sleep during weekends will not prevent this damage.50,51,52 Sleep deprivation causes disruption of certain synaptic connections that can impair your brain’s ability for learning, memory formation and other cognitive functions. Poor sleep also accelerates the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.53Most adults need seven to nine hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. Deep sleep is the most important, as this is when your brain’s glymphatic system performs its cleanout functions, eliminating toxic waste from your brain, including amyloid beta.
Challenge your mind daily Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

The Real Dangers of Electronic Devices and EMFs

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Story at-a-glance

  • Exposure to microwave radiation from cellphones, routers, cordless phones, smart meters, baby monitors and other wireless devices causes massive mitochondrial dysfunction due to free radical damage
  • Excessive free radicals triggered by low-frequency microwave exposure from wireless technologies have been linked to cardiac arrhythmias, anxiety, depression, autism, Alzheimer’s, infertility and more
  • In addition to remediating obvious EMF exposures, strategies that may help reduce the harmful effects of EMFs include optimizing your magnesium level, eating Nrf2-boosting foods and pulsing molecular hydrogen

By Dr. Mercola

I was recently interviewed by Dave Asprey when I visited his Bulletproof lab on Vancouver Island.1 In it, I review the real dangers of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) emitted by electronic devices. I will also do a more comprehensive lecture on this topic at Asprey’s Bulletproof Conference October 13 through 15 at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California.

Avoiding excessive EMF exposure is an important component of optimizing mitochondrial health. In fact, this is going to be the topic of my next book. Like my latest best-seller, “Fat for Fuel,” which details my metabolic mitochondrial therapy program, I want the book on EMFs to be peer-reviewed by the leading scientists and researchers in the world who understand the truth and are free of industry corruption.

The key is to translate the science into clear and understandable language, and offer practical recommendations on how to remediate the problem. After all, we are swimming in an invisible ocean of EMFs just about everywhere you go these days. It’s near-impossible to avoid microwave exposure completely, but there are ways to reduced it, for sure.

Your Cellphone Is a Major Source of EMF Exposure

As noted by Asprey, his studio is hard-wired, and that’s one simple way to reduce exposure from Wi-Fi. You can also shut your Wi-Fi down whenever you’re not using it, and certainly at night when you’re sleeping. When using your cellphone, use the speaker phone and hold the phone 3 feet away from you, using a selfie stick. I’ve measured the radiation and you decrease your exposure by about 90 percent this way.

When not in use, make sure your cellphone is in airplane mode and/or keep it in a Faraday bag. These are just a few quick examples of how you can protect your health while still living in modern society. I have carefully measured the radiation coming from my phone and even when it is on and not calling someone the radiation doesn’t come down to safe ranges until I am 25 feet away, which is why I keep my phone in airplane mode most of the time and only use it for emergencies or when I am traveling.

It took me awhile to figure this out. I got rid of all the wireless devices and Wi-Fi in my house, yet the EMFs were still high. Then I finally realized that it was my phone (while on) that caused it. My levels dropped below 0.01 volts/meter once I put it in airplane mode. This is a key point. For nearly everyone reading this, the majority of the radiation you’re exposed to is not coming from the outside into your home; it’s coming from the items in your home.

Nonthermal Damage

Most of the radiation we’re exposed to today is microwave radiation, which does include radiation from your microwave oven. If you still have one, I recommend replacing it with a steam convection oven, which will heat your food just as quickly but far more safely. When you turn that microwave oven on, it will expose you to very dangerous microwave radiation at levels that are far in excess of your cellphone. We’re not talking about thermal (heat) damage here. We’re talking about nonthermal damage.

I recently interviewed Martin Pall, Ph.D., who has identified and published several papers describing the molecular mechanisms of how EMFs from cellphones and wireless technologies damage plants, animals and humans.2,3,4,5 Many studies have shown that when you’re exposed to EMFs, intracellular calcium increases. Pall also discovered a number of studies showing that you can block or greatly reduce the effects of EMFs using calcium channel blockers — medication commonly prescribed to patients with heart disease.

This turns out to be a crucial point, because it’s the excess calcium in the cell and the increased calcium signaling that are responsible for a vast majority of the biological effects of EMFs.

Pall has discovered no less than 26 papers showing that EMFs work by activating voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs), which are located in the outer membrane of your cells. Once activated, they allow a tremendous influx of calcium into the cell — about 1 million calcium ions per second per VGCC.

Importantly, the cellular membrane is 7 million times more sensitive to EMFs than the charged particles inside and outside of the cells, which are what safety standards are based on. In other words, the safety standards are off by a factor of 7 million!

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A Chain Reaction of Harm

When there’s excess calcium in the cell, it increases levels of both nitric oxide (NO) and superoxide. While NO has many beneficial health effects, massively excessive NO reacts with superoxide, forming peroxynitrite, which is an extremely potent oxidant stressor.

Peroxynitrites, in turn, break down to form reactive free radicals, both reactive nitrogen species and reactive oxygen species (ROS), including hydroxyl radicals, carbonate radicals and NO2 radicals — all three of which do damage. Peroxynitrites also do damage all on their own.

So, EMFs are not “cooking” your cells. It’s not a thermal influence. Rather, the radiation activates the VGCCs in the outer cell membrane, which triggers a chain reaction of devastating events that, ultimately, decimates your mitochondrial function and causes severe cellular damage and DNA breaks. It also decimates your cell membranes and cellular proteins. In a nutshell, it dramatically accelerates the aging process.

Common EMF-Related Health Problems

As noted by Asprey, he used to keep his cellphone in a pants pocket on his right leg. He now has 10 percent less bone density in his right femur, which he believes is related to carrying his cellphone there. Needless to say, he no longer carries his phone on his body. Now, since the biological damage is triggered by activation of your VGCCs, it stands to reason that tissues with the highest densities of VGCCs will be more prone to harm.

So, which tissues have the highest concentration of VGCC’s? Your brain, the pacemaker of your heart, your nervous system, retina and male testes. Indeed, studies dating back to the 1950s and ’60s show the nervous system is the organ that is most sensitive to EMFs. Some of these studies show massive changes in the structure of neurons, including cell death and synaptic dysfunction.

When the VGCCs are activated in the brain they release neurotransmitters and neuroendocrine hormones, and elevated VGCC activity in certain parts of the brain has been shown to produce a variety of neuropsychiatric effects. Among the most common consequences of chronic EMF exposure to the brain are: 6

Common heart problems linked to EMF exposure include:

  • Cardiac arrhythmias (associated with sudden cardiac death)
  • Atrial fibrillation / atrial flutter
  • Premature atrial contractions (PACs) and premature ventricular contractions (PVCs), also known as heart palpitations
  • Tachycardia (fast heartbeat) and brachycardia (slow heartbeat)

Many who suffer these conditions are on dangerous drugs. If you have any kind of heart or brain-related condition, you really need to take EMF exposure seriously, and take steps to remediate it. There’s simply no question about it — EMF exposure can trigger these and many other conditions. The drug is not treating the cause of the problem, and if you truly want to get well, you need to address the causes. EMFs may not be the sole contributor, but it’s a significant one that should not be overlooked.

Reproductive Effects and Cancer

EMF exposure may also increase a man’s risk for infertility if he wears his cellphones near his groin and/or uses a laptop on his lap, and a woman’s risk for breast cancer is higher if she tucks her cellphone in her bra. Studies have linked low-level electromagnetic radiation (EMR) exposure from cellphones to an 8 percent reduction in sperm motility and a 9 percent reduction in sperm viability.7,8

Wi-Fi equipped laptop computers have also been linked to decreased sperm motility and an increase in sperm DNA fragmentation after just four hours of use.9 In regard to breast cancer, the most common location for breast cancer is the upper, outer quadrant. When the cancer is located in the upper, inner quadrant, it’s more likely to be related to cellphone radiation (if you’ve been carrying your phone in your bra).

How to Lower Your Exposure

The first step to lower your exposure would be to identify the most significant sources. Your cellphone is a major source of exposure, as are cordless phones, Wi-Fi routers, Bluetooth headsets and other Bluetooth-equipped items, wireless mice, keyboards, smart thermostats, baby monitors, smart meters and the microwave in your kitchen. Ideally, address each source and determine how you can best limit their use. For example, remedial interventions could include:

Swapping a wireless baby monitor for a hardwired one
Carrying your cellphone in a bag instead of on your body, and keeping it in airplane mode and/or in a Faraday (shielded) bag or case when not on a call
Turning off your Wi-Fi at night. Even better, don’t use Wi-Fi and switch to wired Ethernet
Using your laptop on a table rather than your lap
Using your cellphone with a headset or on speaker phone, and keeping the phone as far away from your body as possible using a selfie stick. Ideally, use landlines whenever possible
Hardwiring as many devices as possible to avoid Wi-Fi fields. This includes mice, keyboards and printers. Avoid Ethernet over power (EOP), however, as this strategy increases the variability in your power lines, causing dirty electricity. You can partially remediate this with capacitors or filters, but it’s not an ideal solution. EOP is better than Wi-Fi, but not as good as running an Ethernet cable
Installing a Faraday cage (copper- and/or silver-threaded fabric) around your bed. If you live in a high-rise and have neighbors beneath you, place the Faraday fabric on the floor beneath your bed as well. This may significantly improve your sleep quality, as EMFs are known to disrupt sleep
If you have a smart meter, take steps to have it removed and replaced with an old analog meter. If your area is planning on installing them, be proactive in preventing its installation. For more information about this and guidance on how to go about preventing smart meter installation or getting it reversed, see “InPower: A Mass Action of Liability“

To identify EMF sources you might not have considered, it would be a worthwhile investment to buy a microwave meter. The Cornet ED88T10 is likely the best low cost meter out there, but their manual is terrible so you need to watch this video by Lloyd Burrell to learn how to use it.

When I travel, I’ll check the room in which I’m staying to determine the best side of the bed to sleep on. I’ve found there can be a tenfold difference between one side of the bed and the other. The Trifield meter is quite popular, but it’s important to realize that Trifield meters are only good for screening for magnetic fields. Although they measure microwave radiation, they can be very inaccurate and should not be used for that purpose.

Nutritional Intervention

Nutritional intervention can also help reduce the harmful effects of EMFs. It’s not a permanent solution you can use in lieu of remediation, but it can be helpful while you’re implementing more permanent solutions. The first is magnesium, as magnesium is a natural calcium channel blocker. Many are deficient in magnesium to start with, and I believe many may benefit from as much as 1 to 2 grams of magnesium per day.

Increasing Nrf2 is also helpful. NRf2 is a biological hormetic that upregulates superoxide dismutase, catalase and all the other beneficial intercellular antioxidants. It also:

  • Lowers inflammation
  • Improves mitochondrial function
  • Stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis
  • Helps detoxify the body from xenobiotics, carbon-containing toxicants and toxic metals
  • Activates the transcription of over 500 genes in the human genome, most of which have cytoprotective functions. This includes the three genes that encode enzymes required for synthesis of reduced glutathione, which is one of the most important antioxidants produced in your body

You can activate Nrf2 by:

  • Consuming Nrf2-boosting food compounds such as sulforaphane from cruciferous vegetables, foods high in phenolic antioxidants, the long-chained omega-3 fats DHA and EPA, carotenoids (especially lycopene), sulfur compounds from allum vegetables, isothiocyanates from the cabbage group and terpenoid-rich foods
  • High-intensity exercises that activate the NO signaling pathway, such as the NO dump exercise
  • Calorie restriction (such as intermittent fasting)

The Benefits of Molecular Hydrogen

Another helpful supplement is molecular hydrogen. Tyler LeBaron’s website, molecularhydrogenfoundation.org,11 lists several hundred studies relating to hydrogen. You can also find a number of his lectures on YouTube. In summary, molecular hydrogen consists of two atoms of hydrogen, the smallest molecule in the universe, which:

  • Is a neutral molecule that can defuse across any cell membrane, instantly
  • Has no polarity
  • Is a potent, selective antioxidant

Free radicals are actually important; they do serve health functions. The problem is excess free radicals, or the wrong ones. Molecular hydrogen has been shown to target free radicals produced in response to radiation, such as peroxynitrites. Studies have shown molecular hydrogen can mitigate about 80 percent of this damage. The take home message is it can be quite valuable when flying, for example, to counteract the damage caused by gamma rays encountered at 35,000 feet.

Your body actually makes hydrogen gas, about 10 liters a day, which benefits your body. However, when you have a steady state of exposure, you don’t get the other benefits, so you want to pulse it. That’s where you get the benefit. I’ve taken molecular hydrogen tablets on my last few flights, and it worked great. There are a number of different ways to get it, but the most practical way is to take molecular hydrogen tablets.

Once you’re at about 5,000 to 10,000 feet, put the tablet in a small bottle of lukewarm water. Put the cap back on and leave it on while the tablet dissolves to prevent the gas from escaping. Once dissolved, drink it as quickly as possible. The hydrogen gas will continue working for about two hours, so if you’re on a longer flight, you may want to do a second dose halfway through.

New Study Reveals Harmful Effects of Dim Light Exposure During Sleep

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Story at-a-glance

  • Exposure to very dim light during sleep — even if it does not noticeably impair your sleep — may affect your brain function and cognition during the day
  • Sleeping under 10 lux light conditions decreased activation in a brain region involved in response inhibition, attentional control and the detection of relevant cues when performing a task the following day
  • Animal research found that nighttime exposure to 5 lux for three weeks in a row produced depression-like symptoms and impaired cognition

By Dr. Mercola

Inside the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of your brain, which is part of your hypothalamus, resides your master biological clock. Based on signals of light and darkness, your SCN tells your pineal gland when it’s time to secrete melatonin, and when to turn it off.

Your melatonin level inversely rises and falls with light and darkness, and both your physical and mental health is intricately tied to this rhythm of light and dark.

When it’s dark, your melatonin levels increase, which is why you may feel tired when the sun starts to set. Conversely, when you’re exposed to bright artificial lighting at night, including blue light emitted from TVs and electronic screens, you may have trouble falling asleep due to suppressed melatonin levels.

Many sleep problems can be resolved by making sure you avoid blue light exposure after sunset and sleep in total darkness.

Interestingly, being exposed to very dim light during sleep — even if it does not noticeably seem to impair your sleep — may also affect your brain function and cognition during the day.

Minute Amounts of Light During Sleep Can Affect Cognition

I’ve been a long-time advocate of sleeping in TOTAL darkness, and an interesting study1 published in Scientific Reports highlights the importance of this recommendation — not just for solid sleep, but also for cognitive health.

In this study, 20 healthy men slept in a laboratory shrouded in complete darkness for two nights in a row. On the third night, they were exposed to a dim light of either 5 or 10 lux while sleeping.

To get an idea of how dim a light intensity of 5 or 10 lux is, 1 lux is equal to the brightness of a surface illuminated by one candle, placed 1 meter (3.28 feet) away from the surface. Twilight is just below 11 lux, whereas an object illuminated by the light of the full moon is about one-tenth of a lux.2

After the second and third nights, the participants performed working memory tests (so-called n-back tests) while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The goal was to evaluate the effects of dim light exposure during sleep on functional brain activation during a working memory task the next day.

When sleeping under 10 lux light conditions, there was decreased activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus, an area of your brain involved in response inhibition, attentional control and the detection of relevant cues when performing a task.3

Exposure to 5-lux light had no statistically significant effect on the participants’ brain activity. In other words, past a certain point of very dim light, nighttime light exposure can have a direct influence on your brain function, specifically your cognition and working memory.

Nighttime Light — A Hazardous ‘Pollutant’

According to the authors of this study:

“Nighttime light is now considered to be one of the fastest growing pollutants, and the invasion of artificial light into previously unlit areas is threatening the soundness of human health and sleep.

Nighttime artificial lighting in cities is divided into three types: sky glow, trespass and glow. Light trespass refers to unwanted direct lighting of an area, and it occurs when unwanted light spills over into another property or dwelling and causes sleep interference, negative influence on one’s well-being …

Several studies have also shown that light pollution and shift work are tentative risk factors for cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, gastrointestinal disease and metabolic syndrome …”

Fortunately, the detrimental effects of nighttime light pollution are starting to gain recognition, and some countries have even adopted regulations to reduce nighttime light in residential areas.

Guidelines issued by the Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage (CIE), Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) and Institution of Lighting Engineers (ILE), have an upper brightness limit for light trespass of 2, 3 and 5 lux in in residential areas respectively.

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Chronic Exposure to Light During Sleep May Cause Pronounced Effects on Cognition

The study in question was done to investigate whether these limits are sufficient to reduce sleep and cognitive problems associated with nighttime light pollution.

While limits of 5 lux or less appear sufficient, they discovered that exposure to 10 lux may produce adverse brain effects even if there are no subjective, outward symptoms of impairment. As noted by the authors:

“This study is meaningful because it is the first to scientifically identify the effect of the dim light at night on human brain function and cognition. It is noteworthy that the brain activation was altered after only a single night of light exposure.

This suggests that the chronic exposure to the light at night for many nights might have caused more pronounced effects on the brain and cognition … The interesting finding in the 10 lux group … was the discrepancy between the n-back task and fMRI results.

The decrease of the brain activation in fMRI in the frontal lobe without significant finding in the n-back task of 10 lux group suggests that the absence of evidence of subjective or objective cognitive dysfunction does not necessarily mean that the brain is functioning normally.

This indicates that certain exposure to dim light might influence brain function for cognition even if there is no significant impairment in subjective symptoms (or even in an objective neurocognitive function test).” 

Lack of Symptoms Does Not Mean You’re Unaffected

In other words, what they discovered is that while you might not notice a problem, your brain is still not working normally or optimally. The reason for this is not entirely clear. One possibility is that the decrease in brain activity is related to a reduction in deep sleep, most likely brought on by disrupted melatonin secretion.

Another possibility is that light exposure at night somehow directly induces cognitive dysfunction (opposed to indirectly, via sleep disturbance). One mouse study found that aberrant light exposure caused learning impairments and mood disturbances by directly affecting melanopsin-expressing neurons.

These melanopsin-expressing neurons, also known as photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, found in the retina of the eye, are not involved in vision. Instead, they play a role in circadian rhythm synchronization and the suppression or release of melatonin.

These retinal cells are also linked to the hypothalamus and the limbic regions, including the amygdala. Other researchers have suggested dim light at night could have a direct influence on brain function via some process related to these photosensitive retinal ganglion cells.

Even 5 Lux Could Potentially Contribute to Depressed Mood

In one study, hamsters exposed to 5 lux at night for four weeks altered their neuronal structure, which in turn caused the hamsters to exhibit symptoms of depression. Another animal study also found that nighttime exposure to 5 lux — this time for three weeks in a row — produced both depression-like symptoms and impaired cognition.

Neurons in the hippocampus also shrunk in length, an effect primarily attributed to a decrease in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

BDNF is a remarkable rejuvenator in several respects. Not only does it preserve existing brain cells, it also activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, effectively making your brain grow larger.

The study in question basically showed that nighttime light exposure of just 5 lux effectively inhibited this important brain rejuvenator, causing neuronal shrinkage in the hippocampus, a brain region involved in both long-term memory storage and the regulation of emotions.

In light of such evidence (no pun intended), it would certainly be prudent to evaluate your nighttime light exposure if you “feel blue” or struggle with any kind of depression. Even a seemingly insignificant amount of light could be interfering with your melatonin and/or BDNF production, causing a mood imbalance.

Even the display on your alarm clock could be causing you trouble without you realizing it. I used to recommend covering up digital alarm clocks but know from personal experience how inconvenient that can be, especially if you have blackout drapes and sleep in pitch blackness like I do. I finally discovered a perfect solution — an alarm clock for blind people. It has a very large button that is easy to find, and when you tap it, it audibly tells you the time.

Light-Sensing Pigment in Your Eyes Help Direct Waking/Sleeping Cycles

The wavelength of light also matters to your health, not just the brightness itself. The wavelength gives light its color. Red and orange light have longer wavelengths while green and blue are shorter. The influence of varying wavelengths of light on brain function was demonstrated in a 2014 Belgian study,4 which showed that orange light serves as a powerful “wake-up call” for your entire body.

Again, the influence of light wavelengths has to do with the photosensitive retinal ganglion cells in your eye, which produce a light-sensing pigment called melanopsin. This pigment plays an important role in directing your waking and sleeping cycles. As reported by New Scientist:5

“To find out how melanopsin wakes up the brain, Gilles Vandewalle at the University of Liege, Belgium, and his team gave 16 people a 10-minute blast of blue or orange light while they performed a memory test in an fMRI scanner. They were then blindfolded for 70 minutes, before being retested under a green light.

People initially exposed to orange light had greater brain activity in several regions related to alertness and cognition when they were retested, compared with those pre-exposed to blue light. Vandewalle thinks that melanopsin is acting as a kind of switch, sending different signals to the brain depending on its state.

Orange light, which has the longer wavelength, is known to make the pigment more light-sensitive, but blue light has the opposite effect. Green light lies somewhere in the middle. The findings suggest that pre-exposure to orange light pushes the balance towards the more light-sensitive form of melanopsin, enhancing the response in the brain.”

This kind of information becomes particularly important if you work the night shift. By carefully selecting the type of artificial light you expose yourself to at different times, you can ameliorate at least some of the adverse effects associated with shift work. For more details, please see my previous article, “How to Counteract the Ill Effects of Working the Night Shift.”

How to Make Digital Screens Healthier

In addition to reducing the light in your sleeping environment it is also helpful to eliminate blue light from artificial sources like watching TV at night. You can do this be picking up a $9 pair of UVEX blue blockers on Amazon.  It is far more convenient, though, to use blue light blocking software on your computer monitor after sunset.

Many use f.lux to do this, but I have a great surprise for you as I have found a FAR better alternative that was created by Daniel Georgiev, a 22-year-old Bulgarian programmer that Ben Greenfield introduced to me.

He is one of the rare people that already knew most of the information in this article. He was using f.lux but was very frustrated with the controls. He attempted to contact the f.lux programmers but they never got back to him. So, he created a massively superior alternative called Iris. It is free, but you’ll want to pay the $2 and reward Daniel with the donation. You can purchase the $2 Iris software here.

Iris is better because it has three levels of blue blocking below f.lux: dim incandescent, candle and ember. I have been using ember after sunset and measured the spectrum and it blocked nearly all light below 550 nanometers (nm), which is spectacular, as you can see in the image below when I measured it on my monitor in the ember setting.

When I measured the f.lux at its lowest setting of incandescent it showed loads of blue light coming through, all the way down to as you can clearly see in the images below.

So, if you are serious about protecting your vision you will abandon f.lux software and switch to Iris. I have been using it for about three months now, and even though I have very good vision at the age of 62 and don’t require reading glasses, my visual acuity seems to have dramatically increased. I believe this is because I am not exposing my retina to the damaging effects of blue light after sunset.

Iris Software:

F.lux Software:

Nighttime LED Light Pollution May Be Particularly Harmful

Download Interview Transcript

As detailed in my interview with Dr. Alexander Wunsch, a world class expert on photobiology, lighting is an important health consideration. Natural sunlight simply cannot be beat, but unless you spend a majority of your time outside, you’ll need to give some serious consideration to the kind of artificial lighting you use at home and at work.

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have now become a standard indoor light source, thanks to their energy efficiency. However, the price society will have to pay in terms of health could end up being enormous. If you missed this interview, I strongly recommend taking the time to listen to it, and read through the accompanying article, “How LED Lighting May Compromise Your Health.” It’s a really crucial issue.

In summary, light-emitting diode (LED) lighting may promote age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness, and exacerbate health problems rooted in mitochondrial dysfunction, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. For this reason, LEDs are best avoided.

One rare exception is if you work the night shift. In this case, to help establish a new circadian rhythm you’ll want a small amount (just 15 to 30 minutes’ worth) of blue light exposure first thing upon waking (which if you work nights will typically be in the evening, when it’s dark out), along with incandescent light for the longer wavelengths, which include near-infrared. I describe all of this in more detail in the shift work article hyperlinked above. For all others, LED lighting is simply not a good idea.

Environmental Near-Infrared Light Exposure Is Important for Health

As explained by Wunsch, the vast majority of the energy your body needs to maintain systemic equilibrium actually comes from environmental infrared light exposure. The near-infrared range of light found not only in natural sunlight but also in incandescent light bulbs and halogens benefit your health in a number of important ways, including priming the cells in your retina for repair and regeneration.

LEDs emit primarily blue light, which reduces melatonin production in both your pineal gland and in your retina. In your retina, melatonin helps with regeneration, which is why LEDs are so harmful to your vision. Blue light also creates reactive oxygen species (ROS) that, when generated in excess, cause damage. So, when using LEDs, you end up with increased damage and decreased repair and regeneration throughout your body, not just in your eyes.

LED light exposure that is not balanced with full sunlight loaded with the red parts of the spectrum is always damaging to your biology, but even more so at night. Hence lighting your living room, kitchen and dining room — any room where you spend most of your evening — is best done using good old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs, halogens and candles.

Save the energy-saving LEDs for your garage, closets and hallways where exposure is minimal. More detailed information on how to identify the healthiest light bulbs can be found in “How LED Lighting May Compromise Your Health.”

To Optimize Your Sleep and Protect Your Brain Health, Sleep in Total Darkness

When your circadian rhythm is disrupted, your body produces less melatonin, which means it has less ability to fight cancer, and less protection against free radicals that may accelerate aging and disease. So if you’re having even slight trouble sleeping, I suggest you review my 33 Secrets to a Good Night’s Sleep for more guidance on how to improve your sleep-wake cycle.

Even if you think you’re sleeping OK, but know you have light pollution entering your room at night, consider taking steps to block it, since being asymptomatic does not mean your brain is unaffected and functioning normally. Also consider cleaning up the lighting sources in your home and office to avoid unnecessary harm.

As mentioned, AMD is a very real and serious side effect of being chronically exposed to LED lighting, especially if you’re also getting very little natural sunlight exposure.

Top Benefits of Vitamin B6

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Story at-a-glance

  • Even though advertisers may lead you to believe you need massive doses of B6 for energy, you can obtain sufficient amounts of this essential vitamin from whole food sources like grass fed beef liver, pastured chicken and wild salmon
  • Because your body cannot synthesize B6, you need to get it from your diet; the recommended intake for adults is 1.3 mg of B6 daily
  • Vegetarians may need to take a supplement or eat vitamin-fortified foods to obtain sufficient amounts of B6
  • B6 plays a vital role in supporting your blood, brain, immune system and metabolism, among other areas
  • Signs of B6 deficiency include anemia, confusion, depression, mouth and tongue inflammation and a weakened immune system

By Dr. Mercola

Marketers of energy drinks like Red Bull have sold the public on the notion that B vitamins, particularly B12, as well as the vitamin that headlines this article — B6 ­— are superb energy boosters. Advertising claims aside, does your body really need all those extra B vitamins?

After all, a single 8.4-ounce can of Red Bull contains 5.6 milligrams of B6,1 which is more than four times the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for most people. It’s more likely the massive amounts of caffeine and sugar — not the B vitamins — in these drinks provide the temporary energy surge you may experience after consuming these beverages.

The truth is you can get sufficient B6 simply by eating a healthy diet. Whole-food sources of B6 include grass fed beef liver, chickpeas, pastured chicken, sunflower seeds, pastured turkey and wild caught salmon. Let’s take a closer look at the health benefits of this essential vitamin.

What Is Vitamin B6?

Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) is a water-soluble vitamin first isolated in the 1930s.2 Because your body cannot synthesize it, you must obtain B6 from your diet. B6 is naturally present in many foods, added to others (like fortified breakfast cereal) and also available as a dietary supplement. B6 is a generic term for six compounds (vitamers) with vitamin B6 activity, namely:3,4

  • Pyridoxine, an alcohol
  • Pyridoxal, an aldehyde
  • Pyridoxamine, which contains an amino group
  • Their phosphorylated forms

About B6, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) writes:5,6,7

“Pyridoxal 5′ phosphate (PLP) and pyridoxamine 5′ phosphate (PMP) are the active coenzyme forms of vitamin B6. Vitamin B6 in coenzyme forms performs a wide variety of functions in the body and is extremely versatile, with involvement in more than 100 enzyme reactions, mostly concerned with protein metabolism.

Both PLP and PMP are involved in amino acid metabolism, and PLP is also involved in the metabolism of one-carbon units, carbohydrates and lipids. Vitamin B6 also plays a role in cognitive development through the biosynthesis of neurotransmitters and in maintaining normal levels of homocysteine, an amino acid in the blood.

Vitamin B6 is involved in gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis, immune function (for example, it promotes lymphocyte and interleukin-2 production) and hemoglobin formation.”

Best Dietary Sources of B6

While the recommended intake of B6 varies for children, the NIH8 suggests nearly everyone aged 14 years and older will benefit from the RDA of 1.3 milligrams (mg) per day. They advise women who are pregnant to get 1.9 mg and those who are breastfeeding 2 mg daily.

Take note that your need for B6 increases with age. As such, the RDAs for men and women increase to 1.7 mg and 1.5 mg, respectively, at age 51 and older.

Below is a list presented by the NIH9 of some of the best dietary sources of vitamin B6. As always, I recommend you obtain as many nutrients as possible from whole, organic foods and grass fed meat. By the way, wild Alaskan salmon is much, much better for you than farmed varieties. You should take a B6 supplement only if it is medically advised.

Food Mg per Serving % Daily Value

Chickpeas, canned, 1 cup

 1.1 55

Beef liver, pan fried, 3 ounces

 0.9 45

Salmon, sockeye, cooked, 3 ounces

 0.6 30

Chicken breast, roasted, 3 ounces

 0.5 25

Potatoes, boiled, 1 cup

 0.4 20

Turkey meat, roasted 3 ounces

 0.4 20

Banana, 1 medium

 0.4 20

As you may know, B6 and other vitamins are often added to fortified breakfast cereals. Given the high amounts of sugar and other additives, as well as the unhealthy grains and pesticides involved, I advise you to stay away from conventional breakfast cereals. Other B6-containing foods recommended by the NIH that I advise you to avoid include:

  • Tofu, which very likely contains genetically engineered soy
  • Tuna — Although the wild caught variety is generally considered healthy, tuna is one of the highest mercury-containing foods on the planet; farmed tuna is even more toxic
  • Ready-to-eat foods like spaghetti sauce and waffles are processed foods that often contain added sugar and other harmful ingredients from which your body will receive very little nutrition

That said, if you follow a strict vegetarian diet, you may find it difficult to obtain sufficient amounts of B6 from a whole-food diet unless you consume nutritional yeast regularly.10

Nutritional yeast is an excellent source of B vitamins, especially B6. One serving (2 tablespoons) contains nearly 10 mg of vitamin B6. Not to be confused with Brewer’s yeast or other active yeasts, nutritional yeast is made from an organism grown on molasses, which is then harvested and dried to deactivate the yeast. It has a pleasant cheesy flavor and can be added to a number of different dishes.

Do B Vitamins Really Boost Your Energy?

While you may believe B vitamins, including B6, give you energy, the fact is most of the marketing hype around B vitamins is based on partial truths. While it is true B vitamins like biotin (B7), cobalamin (B12), folate (B9) and niacin (B3), as well as B6 and others, are involved in some capacity with your body’s energy production, there is more to the story.

Despite being marketed as such, B vitamins do not actually provide your body with energy directly. As explained by registered dietitian Denise Webb, Ph.D., writing for Berkeley Wellness:11

“Only food provides ‘energy’ in the form of calories, from carbs, fat and protein … B vitamins help convert dietary energy into ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the form of energy your body uses, in a series of complex chemical reactions carried out by the mitochondria in [your] cells.

Your body only needs a certain amount of B vitamins to function normally. And if you’re getting adequate amounts in your diet, as most people do, additional B vitamins won’t provide a surge in energy.

In fact, unless you’re severely deficient (because of illness, extreme dieting or alcohol abuse, for instance), your energy levels won’t be affected at all. That is, taking B vitamins only benefits people who are very deficient in one or more of the vitamins to begin with.”

If, as Webb mentions, you are actually deficient in B6, you will naturally feel better when taking a B6 supplement.

If, however, your body is getting enough B6 through your diet, as noted, consuming more B6 will have little to no effect on your energy levels or health. Because excess amounts of B vitamins are eliminated from your body through your urine, it makes no sense to overconsume them.

Might You Be at Risk of a B6 Deficiency?

Although supplementation with B6 is not recommended for everyone, you may be one of those who need it. According to the Mayo Clinic, if you have kidney disease or a malabsorption syndrome that prevents your small intestine from absorbing nutrients from foods, you may be B6 deficient.12

Research shows that persons with active Crohn’s disease, as well as those with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), may be deficient in vitamin B6, and that impaired B6 status may actually be a result of the inflammation caused by RA.13,14

Furthermore, alcoholics are thought to be most at risk of B6 deficiency because of low dietary intakes and impaired metabolism of the vitamin.15 Epilepsy medications and certain genetic diseases also may contribute to B6 deficiency.16 When your body has too little B6, you may be at a higher risk of:17,18

  • Anemia
  • Confusion
  • Depression
  • Tongue inflammation, mouth sores or cracked skin at the corners of your mouth
  • Weakened immune system

While a high intake of B6 through food has not been shown to be harmful, too much B6 taken in supplement form can produce the following unpleasant side effects. (The same goes for too much B6 through energy drinks, which also have been known to damage your health.)

The Effects of Too Much B6

Given your body’s ability to flush excess B vitamins out through your urine, you would have to be taking very high amounts of B6 at frequent intervals to produce toxicity. That said, too much B6 supplementation can cause:19

Ataxia (lack of muscle control or coordination of voluntary movements) Photosensitivity (sensitivity to sunlight)
Gastrointestinal upset, including heartburn and nausea Reduced sensitivity to extreme temperatures or pain
Numbness Skin lesions that are both painful and unsightly

A 2017 study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, involving more than 6,800 men and women taking part in two randomized Norwegian trials from 1998 to 2004, indicated a higher intake of B6 (40 mg per day) was shown to increase the risk of hip fractures by 42 percent.20

B6 may have an effect on your dreams, according to 2018 Australian research published in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills.21 One hundred participants, mean age 27.5 years, were given a large dose (240 mg) of B6 before bed for five consecutive days. The study authors stated:22

“We found vitamin B6 significantly increased the amount of dream content participants recalled, but did not significantly affect dream vividness, bizarreness or color, nor did it significantly affect other sleep-related variables.

Further research is needed to investigate whether the effects of vitamin B6 vary according to how much vitamin B6 is being obtained from the diet. If vitamin B6 is only effective for people with low dietary intake, its effects on dreaming may diminish with prolonged supplementation.”

Finally, it’s important to keep in mind a B6 supplement may interfere with certain prescription medications. For that reason, be sure to check with your doctor before supplementing with B6. The effectiveness of certain anticonvulsant and chemotherapy drugs, as well as medications used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, can be diminished by B6.23

Top Health Benefits of Vitamin B6

If you are wondering why your body needs this vitamin, consider the following health benefits associated with B6:

Balances your blood sugar — A 2015 study published in the Journal of Diabetes Research24 found vitamin B6 helped regulate blood glucose levels and insulin release in lab mice.

The study authors said, “Vitamin B6 prevents endothelial dysfunction, insulin resistance and hepatic lipid accumulation … Supplementation of [vitamin] B6 should be considered to prevent metabolic syndrome.”25
Benefits your skin and hair — Based on at least one study performed on lab rats, vitamin B6 has been shown to alleviate dermatitis, thereby promoting healthier, clearer skin.26 In addition, in a Polish study the injection of B6 intramuscularly was shown to be an effective means of reducing hair loss in women affected by alopecia.27
Betters your metabolism — As cited by researchers in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vitamin B6 is directly involved in amino acid metabolism, and helps break down amino acids for energy in the muscle and conversion of lactic acid to glucose in the liver.28

Other very recent research (2018) published in the journal Cells also stresses the importance of B6 to other bodily functions, including the biosynthesis of other vitamins, as well as playing a role in fighting infectious pathogens.29
Bolsters your immune system — B6 is involved with the production of lymphocytes (white blood cells), which help your body fight infection. A study involving lab mice showed a lack of B6 “retards growth, inhibits lymphocyte proliferation and interferes with its differentiation,” suggesting B6 deficiency can influence immunity.30

A 2006 Taiwanese study demonstrated that B6 supplementation has a beneficial effect on immune responses in critically ill patients.31
Boosts your brain power — Studies of pregnant and lactating women and their offspring indicate that a mother’s deficiency in vitamin B6 can alter the function of the neurotransmitters thought to play important roles in their child’s learning and memory.32

A small study involving 8- to 15-year-old children with mood and behavioral problems demonstrated a vitamin-mineral supplement containing 7 mg of B6 was effective to “exert a stabilizing effect on mood, temper and anxiety in a manner that is relatively independent of diagnostic category.”33
Protects against oxidative stress — Vitamin B6 has also been found as an antioxidant to be helpful in addressing diabetes complications, cognitive aging and the prevention of coronary heart disease.34 A 2012 study indicates a B6 deficiency that coexists with low folate or anemia was associated with depressive mood in elderly patients.35

The study authors said, “Elderly people with coexisting marginal deficiencies of nutrients involved in the S-adenosylmethionine and hemoglobin production were more likely to experience depressed mood and emotion that affect daily activity.”36

Experts from the Mayo Clinic37 additionally suggest B6 may be useful to control high levels of homocysteine in your blood. Elevated homocysteine levels may increase your risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.

Additionally, B6 supplementation has been shown to reduce the severity of morning sickness during pregnancy,38 as well as soothe symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and PMS-related depression.39

Clearly, vitamin B6 is a necessary nutrient that, once again, I advise you obtain from whole-food sources. While B6 has been shown to be useful in addressing a variety of health concerns, I suggest you to talk to your doctor before attempting to address any medical conditions with B6 supplementation.

What the Science Says About Intermittent Fasting

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Story at-a-glance

  • It’s long been known that calorie restriction can increase the lifespan of certain animals. More recent research suggests that intermittent fasting can provide the same health benefits as constant calorie restriction, which may be helpful for those who cannot successfully reduce their everyday calorie intake
  • “Undernutrition without malnutrition” is the only experimental approach that consistently improves survival in animals with cancer, and extends overall lifespan by about 30 percent
  • Both intermittent fasting and continuous calorie restriction have been shown to produce weight loss and improve metabolic disease risk markers. However, intermittent fasting tends to be slightly more effective for reducing insulin resistance
  • Besides turning you into an efficient fat burner, intermittent fasting can also boost your level of human growth hormone (aka the “fitness hormone”) production by as much as 1,200 percent for women and 2,000 percent for men
  • Intermittent fasting can improve brain function by boosting production of the protein BDNF, which activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons and triggers other chemicals that promote neural health. This protein also protects your brain cells from changes associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and helps protect your neuro-muscular system from degradation

By Dr. Mercola

Is it a good idea to “starve” yourself just a little bit each day, or a couple of days a week? Mounting evidence indicates that yes, intermittent fasting (IF) could have a very beneficial impact on your health and longevity. I believe it’s one of the most powerful interventions out there if you’re struggling with your weight and related health issues. One of the primary reasons for this is because it helps shift your body from burning sugar/carbs to burning fat as its primary fuel.

As discussed in the featured article,1 intermittent fasting is not about binge eating followed by starvation, or any other extreme form of dieting. Rather what we’re talking about here involves timing your meals to allow for regular periods of fasting. I prefer daily intermittent fasting, but you could also fast a couple of days a week if you prefer, or every other day. There are many different variations.

To be effective, in the case of daily intermittent fasting, the length of your fast must be at least 16 hours. This means eating only between the hours of 11am until 7pm, as an example. Essentially, this equates to simply skipping breakfast, and making lunch your first meal of the day instead. You can restrict it even further — down to six, four, or even two hours if you want, but you can still reap many of these rewards by limiting your eating to an eight-hour window each day.

This is because it takes about six to eight hours for your body to metabolize your glycogen stores; after that you start to shift to burning fat. However, if you are replenishing your glycogen by eating every eight hours (or sooner), you make it far more difficult for your body to use your fat stores as fuel.

Intermittent Fasting — More a Lifestyle Than a Diet

I have been experimenting with different types of scheduled eating for the past two years and currently restrict my eating to a 6- to 7-hour window each day. While you’re not required to restrict the amount of food you eat when on this type of daily scheduled eating plan, I would caution against versions of intermittent fasting that gives you free reign to eat all the junk food you want when not fasting, as this seems awfully counterproductive.

Also, according to research published in 2010,2 intermittent fasting with compensatory overeating did not improve survival rates nor delay prostate tumor growth in mice. Essentially, by gorging on non-fasting days, the health benefits of fasting can easily be lost. If so, then what’s the point?

I view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle, not a diet, and that includes making healthy food choices whenever you do eat. Also, proper nutrition becomes even more important when fasting, so you really want to address your food choices before you try fasting.

This includes minimizing carbs and replacing them with healthful fats, like coconut oil, olive oil, olives, butter, eggs, avocados, and nuts. It typically takes several weeks to shift to fat burning mode, but once you do, your cravings for unhealthy foods and carbs will automatically disappear. This is because you’re now actually able to burn your stored fat and don’t have to rely on new fast-burning carbs for fuel. Unfortunately, despite mounting evidence, many health practitioners are still reluctant to prescribe fasting to their patients. According to Brad Pilon, author of Eat Stop Eat:3

“Health care practitioners across the board are so afraid to recommend eating less because of the stigma involved in that recommendation, but we are more than happy to recommend that someone start going to the gym. If all I said was you need to get to the gym and start eating healthier, no one would have a problem with it. When the message is not only should you eat less, you could probably go without eating for 24 hours once or twice a week, suddenly it’s heresy.”

The Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Aside from removing your cravings for sugar and snack foods and turning you into an efficient fat-burning machine, thereby making it far easier to maintain a healthy body weight, modern science has confirmed there are many other good reasons to fast intermittently. For example, research presented at the 2011 annual scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans4 showed that fasting triggered a 1,300 percent rise of human growth hormone (HGH) in women, and an astounding 2,000 percent in men.

HGH, human growth hormone, commonly referred to as “the fitness hormone,” plays an important role in maintaining health, fitness and longevity, including promotion of muscle growth, and boosting fat loss by revving up your metabolism. The fact that it helps build muscle while simultaneously promoting fat loss explains why HGH helps you lose weight without sacrificing muscle mass, and why even athletes can benefit from the practice (as long as they don’t overtrain and are careful about their nutrition). The only other thing that can compete in terms of dramatically boosting HGH levels is high-intensity interval training. Other health benefits of intermittent fasting include:

  • Normalizing your insulin and leptin sensitivity, which is key for optimal health
  • Improving biomarkers of disease
  • Normalizing ghrelin levels, also known as “the hunger hormone”
  • Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage
  • Lowering triglyceride levels
  • Preserving memory functioning and learning

Intermittent Fasting Is as Good or Better Than Continuous Calorie Restriction

According to Dr. Stephen Freedland, associate professor of urology and pathology at the Duke University Medical Center, “undernutrition without malnutrition” is the only experimental approach that consistently improves survival in animals with cancer, as well as extends lifespan overall by as much as 30 percent.5 Interestingly enough, intermittent fasting appears to provide nearly identical health benefits without being as difficult to implement and maintain. It’s easier for most people to simply restrict their eating to a narrow window of time each day, opposed to dramatically decreasing their overall daily calorie intake.

Mark Mattson, senior investigator for the National Institute on Aging, which is part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), has researched the health benefits of intermittent fasting, as well as the benefits of calorie restriction. According to Mattson,6 there are several theories to explain why fasting works:

“The one that we’ve studied a lot, and designed experiments to test, is the hypothesis that during the fasting period, cells are under a mild stress, and they respond to the stress adaptively by enhancing their ability to cope with stress and, maybe, to resist disease… There is considerable similarity between how cells respond to the stress of exercise and how cells respond to intermittent fasting.”

In one of his studies,7 overweight adults with moderate asthma lost eight percent of their body weight by cutting their calorie intake by 80 percent on alternate days for eight weeks. Markers of oxidative stress and inflammation also decreased, and asthma-related symptoms improved, along with several quality-of-life indicators.

More recently, Mattson and colleagues compared the effectiveness of intermittent fasting against continuous calorie restriction for weight loss, insulin sensitivity and other metabolic disease risk markers. The study, published in the International Journal of Obesity in 2011,8 found that intermittent fasting was as effective as continuous calorie restriction for improving all of these issues, and slightly better for reducing insulin resistance. According to the authors:

“Both groups experienced comparable reductions in leptin, free androgen index, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, total and LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure and increases in sex hormone binding globulin, IGF binding proteins 1 and 2. Reductions in fasting insulin and insulin resistance were modest in both groups, but greater with IER [intermittent fasting] than with CER [continuous energy restriction].”

How Intermittent Fasting Benefits Your Brain

Your brain can also benefit from intermittent fasting. As reported in the featured article:

“Mattson has also researched the protective benefits of fasting to neurons. If you don’t eat for 10–16 hours, your body will go to its fat stores for energy, and fatty acids called ketones will be released into the bloodstream. This has been shown to protect memory and learning functionality, says Mattson, as well as slow disease processes in the brain.”

Besides releasing ketones as a byproduct of burning fat, intermittent fasting also affects brain function by boosting production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Mattson’s research suggests that fasting every other day (restricting your meal on fasting days to about 600 calories), tends to boost BDNF by anywhere from 50 to 400 percent,9 depending on the brain region. BDNF activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, and triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health. This protein also protects your brain cells from changes associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

BDNF also expresses itself in the neuro-muscular system where it protects neuro-motors from degradation. (The neuromotor is the most critical element in your muscle. Without the neuromotor, your muscle is like an engine without ignition. Neuro-motor degradation is part of the process that explains age-related muscle atrophy.) So BDNF is actively involved in both your muscles and your brain, and this cross-connection, if you will, appears to be a major part of the explanation for why a physical workout can have such a beneficial impact on your brain tissue — and why the combination of intermittent fasting with high intensity exercise appears to be a particularly potent combination.

Give Intermittent Fasting a Try

If you’re ready to give intermittent fasting a try, consider skipping breakfast, make sure you stop eating and drinking anything but water three hours before you go to sleep, and restrict your eating to an 8-hour (or less) time frame every day. In the 6-8 hours that you do eat, have healthy protein, minimize your carbs like pasta, bread, and potatoes and exchange them for healthful fats like butter, eggs, avocado, coconut oil, olive oil and nuts — essentially the very fats the media and “experts” tell you to avoid.

This will help shift you from carb burning to fat burning mode. Once your body has made this shift, it is nothing short of magical as your cravings for sweets, and food in general, rapidly normalizes and your desire for sweets and junk food radically decreases if not disappears entirely.

Remember it takes a few weeks, and you have to do it gradually, but once you succeed and switch to fat burning mode, you’ll be easily able to fast for 18 hours and not feel hungry. The “hunger” most people feel is actually cravings for sugar, and these will disappear, as if by magic, once you successfully shift over to burning fat instead.

Another phenomenal side effect/benefit that occurs is that you will radically improve the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Supporting healthy gut bacteria, which actually outnumber your cells 10 to one, is one of the most important things you can do to improve your immune system so you won’t get sick, or get coughs, colds and flus. You will sleep better, have more energy, have increased mental clarity and concentrate better. Essentially every aspect of your health will improve as your gut flora becomes balanced.

Based on my own phenomenal experience with intermittent fasting, I believe it’s one of the most powerful ways to shift your body into fat burning mode and improve a wide variety of biomarkers for disease. The effects can be further magnified by exercising while in a fasted state. For more information on that, please see my previous article High-Intensity Interval Training and Intermittent Fasting – A Winning Combo.

Clearly, it’s another powerful tool in your box to help you and your family take control of your health, and an excellent way to take your fitness to the next level.

9 Foods You Should Never Attempt to Eat

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By Dr. Mercola

Many foods have been heavily promoted as being healthy when they are nothing more than pernicious junk foods. In the featured article, Clean Plates1 founder Jared Koch shared his list of nine staple foods that are far less “good for you” than you’ve been led to believe.

Here, I expand on the selections that are mentioned in the featured article.

1. Canned Tomatoes

Many leading brands of canned foods contain BPA — a toxic chemical linked to reproductive abnormalities, neurological effects, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, heart disease and other serious health problems. According to Consumer Reports‘ testing, just a couple of servings of canned food can exceed the safety limits for daily BPA exposure for children.

High acidity — a prominent characteristic of tomatoes – causes BPA to leach into your food. To avoid this hazardous chemical, avoid canned foods entirely and stick to fresh fruits and vegetables, or switch over to brands that use glass containers instead—especially for acidic foods like tomatoes.

2. Processed Meats

As Koch warns, processed deli meats like salami, ham, and roast beef are typically made with meats from animals raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

This means they’re given growth hormones, antibiotics and other veterinary drugs, and raised in deplorable conditions that promote disease, these meats are also filled with sodium nitrite (a commonly used preservative and antimicrobial agent that also adds color and flavor) and other chemical flavorings and dyes.

Nitrites can be converted into nitrosamines in your body, which are potent cancer-causing chemicals. Research has linked nitrites to higher rates of colorectal, stomach and pancreatic cancer. But that’s not all. Most processed deli meats also contain other cancer-promoting chemicals that are created during cooking. These include:

  • Heterocyclic Amines (HCAs) which are hazardous compounds created in meats and other foods that have been cooked at high temperatures. According to research, processed meats are clearly associated with an increased risk of stomach, colon and breast cancers.
  • Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs): Many processed meats are smoked as part of the curing process, which causes PAHs to form. PAHs can also form when grilling. When fat drips onto the heat source, causing excess smoke, and the smoke surrounds your food, it can transfer cancer-causing PAHs to the meat.
  • Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs): When food is cooked at high temperatures—including when it is pasteurized or sterilized—it increases the formation of AGEs in your food. AGEs build up in your body over time leading to oxidative stress, inflammation and an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and kidney disease.

The truth is, processed meats are not a healthful choice for anyone and should be avoided entirely, according to a 2011 review of more than 7,000 clinical studies examining the connection between diet and cancer. The report was commissioned by The World Cancer Research Fund2 (WCRF) using money raised from the general public. Therefore the findings were not influenced by any vested interests, which makes it all the more reliable.

It’s the biggest review of the evidence ever undertaken, and it confirms previous findings: Processed meats increase your risk of cancer, especially bowel cancer, and NO amount of processed meat is “safe.” You’re far better off ditching the deli meats and opting instead for fresh organically-raised grass-fed meats, or wild caught salmon.

3. Margarine

The unfortunate result of the low-fat diet craze has been the shunning of healthful fats such as butter, and public health has declined as a result of this folly. There are a myriad of unhealthy components to margarine and other butter impostors, including:

  • Trans fats: These unnatural fats in margarine, shortenings and spreads are formed during the process of hydrogenation, which turns liquid vegetable oils into a solid fat. Trans fats contribute to heart disease, cancer, bone problems, hormonal imbalance and skin disease; infertility, difficulties in pregnancy and problems with lactation; and low birth weight, growth problems and learning disabilities in children. A US government panel of scientists determined that man-made trans fats are unsafe at any level.
  • Free radicals: Free radicals and other toxic breakdown products are the result of high temperature industrial processing of vegetable oils. They contribute to numerous health problems, including cancer and heart disease.
  • Emulsifiers and preservatives: Numerous additives of questionable safety are added to margarines and spreads. Most vegetable shortening is stabilized with preservatives like BHT.
  • Hexane and other solvents: Used in the extraction process, these industrial chemicals can have toxic effects.

Good-old-fashioned butter, when made from grass-fed cows, is rich in a substance called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). Much of the reason why butter is vilified is because it contains saturated fat. If you’re still in the mindset that saturated fat is harmful for your health, then please read the Healthy Fats section of my Optimized Nutrition Plan to learn why saturated fat is actually good for you.

4. Vegetable Oils

Of all the destructive foods available to us, those made with heated vegetable oils are some of the worst. Make no mistake about it–vegetable oils are not the health food that you were lead to believe they were. This is largely due to the fact that they are highly processed, and when consumed in massive amounts, as they are by most Americans, they seriously distort the important omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. Ideally, this ratio is 1:1.

Anytime you cook a food, you run the risk of creating heat-induced damage. The oils you choose to cook with must be stable enough to resist chemical changes when heated to high temperatures, or you run the risk of damaging your health. One of the ways vegetable oils can inflict damage is by converting your good cholesterol into bad cholesterol—by oxidizing it. When you cook with polyunsaturated vegetable oils (such as canola, corn, and soy oils), oxidized cholesterol is introduced into your system.

As the oil is heated and mixed with oxygen, it goes rancid. Rancid oil is oxidized oil and should NOT be consumed—it leads directly to vascular disease. Trans-fats are introduced when these oils are hydrogenated, which increases your risk of chronic diseases like breast cancer and heart disease.

So what’s the best oil to cook with?

Of all the available oils, coconut oil is the oil of choice for cooking because it is nearly a completely saturated fat, which means it is much less susceptible to heat damage. And coconut oil is one of the most unique and beneficial fats for your body. For more in-depth information about the many benefits of coconut oil, please see this special report. Olive oil, while certainly a healthful oil, is easily damaged by heat and is best reserved for drizzling cold over salad.

5. Microwave Popcorn

Perfluoroalkyls, which include perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), are chemicals used to keep grease from leaking through fast food wrappers, are being ingested by people through their food and showing up as contaminants in blood. Microwave popcorn bags are lined with PFOA, and when they are heated the compound leaches onto the popcorn.

These chemicals are part of an expanding group of chemicals commonly referred to as “gender-bending” chemicals, because they can disrupt your endocrine system and affect your sex hormones. The EPA has ruled PFCs as “likely carcinogens,” and has stated that PFOA “poses developmental and reproductive risks to humans.” Researchers have also linked various PFCs to a range of other health dangers, such as:

  • Infertility — A study published in the journal Human Reproduction3 found that both PFOA and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate), dramatically increased the odds of infertility. PFOA was linked to a 60 to 154 percent increase in the chance of infertility.
  • Thyroid disease — A 2010 study4 found that PFOA can damage your thyroid function. Individuals with the highest PFOA concentrations were more than twice as likely to report current thyroid disease, compared to those with the lowest PFOA concentrations. Your thyroid contains thyroglobulin protein, which binds to iodine to form hormones, which in turn influence essentially every organ, tissue and cell in your body. Thyroid hormones are also required for growth and development in children. Thyroid disease, if left untreated, can lead to heart disease, infertility, muscle weakness, and osteoporosis.
  • Cancer — PFOA has been associated with tumors in at least four different organs in animal tests (liver, pancreas, testicles and mammary glands in rats), and has been associated with increases in prostate cancer in PFOA plant workers.
  • Immune system problems — Several studies by scientists in Sweden indicate that PFCs have an adverse effect on your immune system. As described in a report on PFCs by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), PFOA was found to decrease all immune cell subpopulations studied, in the thymus and spleen, and caused immunosupression.
  • Increased LDL cholesterol levels – A 2010 study in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine5 found that children and teens with higher PFOA levels had higher levels of total cholesterol and LDL or “bad” cholesterol, while PFOS was associated with increased total cholesterol, including both LDL cholesterol and HDL or “good” cholesterol.

I strongly recommend avoiding any product you know containing these toxic compounds, particularly non-stick cookware, but also foods sold in grease-proof food packaging, such as fast food and microwave popcorn. Clearly, if you’re eating fast food or junk food, PFCs from the wrapper may be the least of your problems, but I think it’s still important to realize that not only are you not getting proper nutrition from the food itself, the wrappers may also add to your toxic burden.

6. Non-Organic Potatoes and Other Fresh Produce Known for High Pesticide Contamination

Your best bet is to buy only organic fruits and vegetables, as synthetic agricultural chemicals are not permissible under the USDA organic rules. That said, not all conventionally grown fruits and vegetables are subjected to the same amount of pesticide load. While Koch focuses on potatoes, as they tend to take up a lot of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals present in the soil, I would recommend reviewing the “Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce”6 by the Environmental Working Group.

Of the 48 different fruit and vegetable categories tested by the EWG for the 2013 guide, the following 15 fruits and vegetables had the highest pesticide load, making them the most important to buy or grow organically:

Apples Celery Cherry tomatoes
Cucumbers Grapes Hot peppers
Nectarines (imported) Peaches Potatoes
Spinach Strawberries Sweet bell peppers
Kale Collard greens Summer squash

In contrast, the following foods were found to have the lowest residual pesticide load, making them the safest bet among conventionally grown vegetables. Note that a small amount of sweet corn and most Hawaiian papaya, although low in pesticides, are genetically engineered (GE). If you’re unsure of whether the sweet corn or papaya is GE, I’d recommend opting for organic varieties:

Asparagus Avocado Cabbage
Cantaloupe Sweet corn (non-GMO) Eggplant
Grapefruit Kiwifruit Mango
Mushrooms Onions Papayas (non-GMO. Most Hawaiian papaya is GMO)
Pineapple Sweet peas (frozen) Sweet potatoes

7. Table Salt

Salt is essential for life—you cannot live without it. However, regular ‘table salt’ and the salt found in processed foods are NOT identical to the salt your body really needs. In fact, table salt has practically nothing in common with natural salt. One is health damaging, and the other is healing.

  • Processed salt is 98 percent sodium chloride, and the remaining two percent comprises man-made chemicals, such as moisture absorbents, and a little added iodine. These are dangerous chemicals like ferrocyanide and aluminosilicate. Some European countries, where water fluoridation is not practiced, also add fluoride to table salt
  • Natural salt is about 84 percent sodium chloride. The remaining 16 percent of natural salt consists of other naturally occurring minerals, including trace minerals like silicon, phosphorous and vanadium

Given that salt is absolutely essential to good health, I recommend switching to a pure, unrefined salt. My favorite is an ancient, all-natural sea salt from the Himalayas. Himalayan salt is completely pure, having spent many thousands of years maturing under extreme tectonic pressure, far away from impurities, so it isn’t polluted with the heavy metals and industrial toxins of today. And it’s hand-mined, hand-washed, and minimally processed. Himalayan salt is only 85 percent sodium chloride, the remaining 15 percent contains 84 trace minerals from our prehistoric seas. Unrefined natural salt is important to many biological processes, including:

  • Being a major component of your blood plasma, lymphatic fluid, extracellular fluid, and even amniotic fluid
  • Carrying nutrients into and out of your cells
  • Maintain and regulate blood pressure
  • Increasing the glial cells in your brain, which are responsible for creative thinking and long-term planning
  • Helping your brain communicate with your muscles, so that you can move on demand via sodium-potassium ion exchange

While natural unprocessed salt has many health benefits, that does not mean you should use it with impunity. Another important factor is the potassium to sodium ratio of your diet. Imbalance in this ratio can not only lead to hypertension (high blood pressure) and other health problems, including heart disease, memory decline, erectile dysfunction and more. The easiest way to avoid this imbalance is by avoiding processed foods, which are notoriously low in potassium while high in sodium. Instead, eat a diet of whole, ideally organically-grown foods to ensure optimal nutrient content. This type of diet will naturally provide much larger amounts of potassium in relation to sodium.

8. Soy Protein Isolate and Other Unfermented Soy Products

Sadly, most of what you have been led to believe by the media about soy is simply untrue. One of the worst problems with soy comes from the fact that 90 to 95 percent of soybeans grown in the US are genetically engineered (GE), and these are used to create soy protein isolate. Genetically engineered soybeans are designed to be “Roundup ready,” which means they’re engineered to withstand otherwise lethal doses of herbicide.

The active ingredient in Roundup herbicide is called glyphosate, which is responsible for the disruption of the delicate hormonal balance of the female reproductive cycle. What’s more, glyphosate is toxic to the placenta, which is responsible for delivering vital nutrients from mother to child, and eliminating waste products. Once the placenta has been damaged or destroyed, the result can be miscarriage. In those children born to mothers who have been exposed to even a small amount of glyphosate, serious birth defects can result.

Glyphosate’s mechanism of harm was only recently identified, and demonstrates how this chemical disrupts cellular function and induce many of our modern diseases, including autism. Soy protein isolate can be found in protein bars, meal replacement shakes, bottled fruit drinks, soups and sauces, meat analogs, baked goods, breakfast cereals and some dietary supplements.

Even if you are not a vegetarian and do not use soymilk or tofu, it is important to be a serious label reader. There are so many different names for soy additives, you could be bringing home a genetically modified soy-based product without even realizing it. Soy expert Dr. Kaayla Daniel offers a free Special Report7, “Where the Soys Are,” on her Web site. It lists the many “aliases” that soy might be hiding under in ingredient lists — words like “bouillon,” “natural flavor” and “textured plant protein.”

Besides soy protein isolate, ALL unfermented soy products are best avoided if you value your health. Thousands of studies have linked unfermented soy to malnutrition, digestive distress, immune-system breakdown, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders and infertility—even cancer and heart disease.

The only soy with health benefits is organic soy that has been properly fermented, and these are the only soy products I ever recommend consuming. After a long fermentation process, the phytate and “anti-nutrient” levels of soybeans are reduced, and their beneficial properties become available to your digestive system. To learn more, please see this previous article detailing the dangers of unfermented soy.

9. Artificial Sweeteners

Contrary to popular belief, studies have found that artificial sweeteners such as aspartame can stimulate your appetite, increase carbohydrate cravings, and stimulate fat storage and weight gain. In one of the most recent of such studies8, saccharin and aspartame were found to cause greater weight gain than sugar.

Aspartame is perhaps one of the most problematic. It is primarily made up of aspartic acid and phenylalanine. The phenylalanine has been synthetically modified to carry a methyl group, which provides the majority of the sweetness. That phenylalanine methyl bond, called a methyl ester, is very weak, which allows the methyl group on the phenylalanine to easily break off and form methanol.

You may have heard the claim that aspartame is harmless because methanol is also found in fruits and vegetables. However, in fruits and vegetables, the methanol is firmly bonded to pectin, allowing it to be safely passed through your digestive tract. Not so with the methanol created by aspartame; there it’s not bonded to anything that can help eliminate it from your body.

Methanol acts as a Trojan horse; it’s carried into susceptible tissues in your body, like your brain and bone marrow, where the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) enzyme converts it into formaldehyde, which wreaks havoc with sensitive proteins and DNA. All animals EXCEPT HUMANS have a protective mechanism that allows methanol to be broken down into harmless formic acid. This is why toxicology testing on animals is a flawed model. It doesn’t fully apply to people.

Guidelines for Healthy Food

Whatever food you’re looking to eat, whether organic or locally grown, from either your local supermarket or a farmer’s market, the following are signs of a high-quality, healthy food. Most often, the best place to find these foods is from a sustainable agricultural group in your area. You can also review my free nutrition plan to get started on a healthy eating program today:

  • It’s grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers (organic foods fit this description, but so do some non-organic foods)
  • It’s not genetically engineered
  • It contains no added growth hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs
  • It does not contain artificial anything, nor any preservatives
  • It is fresh (if you have to choose between wilted organic produce or fresh conventional produce, the latter may still be the better option as freshness is important for optimal nutrient content)
  • It was not grown in a factory farm
  • It is grown with the laws of nature in mind (meaning animals are fed their native diets, not a mix of grains and animal byproducts, and have free-range access to the outdoors)
  • It is grown in a sustainable way (using minimal amounts of water, protecting the soil from burnout, and turning animal wastes into natural fertilizers instead of environmental pollutants)

90% of breast cancer could likely be prevented if everyone did some of these 12 things

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By Dr. Mercola

Breast cancer is probably one of the most feared diagnoses a woman can get. The mere mention of it conjures up images of death, despair, or at best, disfigurement.

According to breastcancer.org,1 one in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime, and nearly 40,000 women lose their lives to the disease each year.

With such odds stacked against you, what, if anything, can you do to prevent becoming a statistic? In truth, there are many measures you can take—each of which will help decrease your risk.

It’s important to realize that less than 10 percent of all breast cancer cases are thought to be related to genetic risk factors.2 The remainder—90 percent—appear to be triggered by environmental factors.

I strongly believe that cancer is preventable through appropriate lifestyle changes, such as cleaning up your diet, optimizing your vitamin D levels, exercising, and avoiding toxins from every source you can.

This means taking careful inventory of the household and personal care products you use, and the furnishings and other potentially toxic items you get into contact with on a daily basis. Toxic overexposure undoubtedly play a major role in cancer development, and recent studies are finally starting to shed light on the worst offenders.

Scientists Identify ‘Highest Priority’ Toxins for Breast Cancer Prevention

According to recent research published in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) journal, Environmental Health Perspectives,3 you can reduce your risk of breast cancer by avoiding certain chemicals found in common, everyday products. As reported by Rodale:4

“Because the study found that animal tests are able to predict likely human breast carcinogens, the new report could serve as a major step forward in breast cancer prevention, expanding the list of possible breast cancer triggers. That’s especially important because only about 10 percent of breast cancers are genetic in nature—scientists believe environment plays a huge role…

‘Every woman in America has been exposed to chemicals that may increase her risk of getting breast cancer. Unfortunately, the link between toxic chemicals and breast cancer has largely been ignored,’ says Julia Brody, PhD, study author and executive director at Silent Spring Institute. ‘Reducing chemical exposures could save many, many women’s lives.’”

In a previous study, the researchers had identified 216 chemicals that increase mammary gland tumors in rodents. In this paper, they narrowed the focus to 102 chemicals that large numbers of women are exposed to on a regular basis, through food, medications, air pollution, or consumer products.

They then prioritized the chemicals, and grouped them based on exposure, carcinogenic potential, and chemical structure. This sorting resulted in 17 chemical groups of related chemicals, which were flagged as “high priority” due to their ability to consistently produce mammary tumors in animal tests.

Top Offenders

Their list of cancer-causing chemical groups to avoid, and their most common sources of exposure, includes the following. Another 27 different carcinogens that do not fit into the chemical categories listed below are also considered high priority. These chemicals include certain ones found in pesticides, consumer products, and food.

Two examples of the latter are methyl eugenol, which is used in processed food as a natural and artificial flavoring, and nitrosamines in smoked meats. The researchers also list obesity and medical radiation as preventable risk factors, the latter of which would include unnecessary mammograms.

High Priority Chemicals to Avoid for Breast Cancer Prevention

Flame retardants: Flame retardant products, polyester resins, plastic polymers, and rigid polyurethane foams Acrylamide: Diet (especially starchy foods, such as French fries, cooked at high temperatures), tobacco smoke, and polyacrylamide gels in consumer products, such as diapers
Aromatic amines: Polyurethane, pesticides, Azo dyes, and many other products Benzene: Gasoline (riding in a car, pumping gasoline, and storing gasoline in a basement or attached garage), tobacco smoke, adhesive removers, paints, sealants, finishers, and engine fuel and oils
Halogenated organic solvents: Dry cleaning, hair spray propellant, soil fumigants, food processing, gasoline additives, and paint and spot removers Ethylene (EtO) and propylene oxide (PO): EtO is a gas used to sterilize medical equipment, food and spices, clothing, and musical instruments. Also found in tobacco smoke and auto exhaust. PO is a sterilant and fumigant. Also found in automotive and paint products
1,3-Butadiene: Cigarette smoke, automobile exhaust, gasoline fumes, and emissions from industrial facilities Heterocyclic amines: Meat cooked at high temperatures, and tobacco smoke
Endogenous and pharmaceutical hormones and other endocrine disrupting chemicals:Estrogens, progesterone, and DES, along with other hormones Non-hormonal pharmaceuticals that have hormonal activity: These include four chemotherapeutic agents, two veterinary drugs possibly present in food, the diuretic furosemide, the anti-fungal griseofulvin, and several anti-infective agents
MX: One of hundreds of genotoxic by-products of drinking water disinfection Perfluorooctanoic acid PFOA: Non-stick and stain-resistant coatings on rugs, furniture, clothes and cookware; fire-fighting applications, cosmetics, lubricants, paints, and adhesives
Nitro-PAHs: Air pollution, primarily from diesel exhaust PAHs: Tobacco smoke, air pollution, and charred foods
Ochratoxin A (a naturally occurring mycotoxin): Contaminated grain, nuts, and pork products Styrene: Food that has been in contact with polystyrene; consumer products and building materials, including polystyrene, carpets, adhesives, hobby and craft supplies, and home maintenance products

Flame Retardants Do FAR More Harm Than Good…

While it’s difficult to single out any particular chemical grouping as being “the worst,” fire retardants may fit the bill by the fact that they are used in so many furnishings, including your mattress, where you spend a significant portion of your life. Last year, I wrote about the deceptive campaigns that led to the proliferation of fire retardant chemicals. As reported in an investigative series “Playing With Fire” by the Chicago Tribune:5

“The average American baby is born with 10 fingers, 10 toes and the highest recorded levels of flame retardants among infants in the world. The toxic chemicals are present in nearly every home, packed into couches, chairs and many other products. Two powerful industries — Big Tobacco and chemical manufacturers — waged deceptive campaigns that led to the proliferation of these chemicals, which don’t even work as promised.”

An estimated 90 percent of Americans have flame-retardant chemicals in their bodies, and many studies have linked them to human health risks, including infertility, birth defects, lower IQ scores, behavioral problems in children, as well as liver, kidney, testicular, and breast cancers.

Flame-retardant chemicals belong to the same class of chemicals as DDT and PCBs (organohalogens), and like the former, they, too, build up in the environment. These chemicals also react with other toxins as they burn to produce cancer-causing dioxins and furans. The chemical industry claims that fire-retardant furniture increases escape time in a fire by 15-fold.

In reality, this claim came from a study using powerful, NASA-style flame retardants, which provided an extra 15 seconds of escape time. But this is not the same type of chemical used in most furniture, and government and independent studies show that the most widely used flame-retardant chemicals provide no benefit for people while increasing the amounts of toxic chemicals in smoke.

A flame-retardant chemical known as chlorinated tris (TDCPP) was removed from children’s pajamas in the 1970s amid concerns that it may cause cancer, but now it’s a ubiquitous addition to couch cushions across the United States. As for your mattress, I recommend getting one that’s either made of 100% wool or Kevlar, both of which are natural flame retardant without added chemicals.

Antiperspirants and Cosmetics—Other Major Culprits

Parabens are chemicals that serve as preservatives in antiperspirants and many cosmetics, as well as sun lotions. Previous studies have shown that all parabens have estrogenic activity in human breast cancer cells. Research published in 20126 found one or more paraben esters in 99 percent of the 160 tissue samples collected from 40 mastectomies. The consistent presence of parabens in cancerous human breast tissue suggests antiperspirants and other cosmetics may also increase your risk of breast cancer.

While antiperspirants are a common source of parabens, the authors note that the source of the parabens cannot be established and that seven of the 40 patients reportedly never used deodorants or antiperspirants in their lifetime. What this tells us is that parabens, regardless of the source, can bioaccumulate in breast tissue. And the sources are many. Parabens can be found in a wide variety of personal care products, cosmetics, as well as drugs. That said, it appears the dermal route is the most significant form of exposure. Another component of antiperspirants, aluminum chloride, has been found to act similarly to the way oncogenes work to provide molecular transformations in cancer cells.

Other Breast Cancer Prevention Strategies

In the largest review of research into lifestyle and breast cancer, the American Institute of Cancer Research estimated that about 40 percent of US breast cancer cases could be prevented if people made wiser lifestyle choices. I believe these are low-ball estimates. More than likely, 75 percent to 90 percent of breast cancers could be avoided by strictly applying the lifestyle modifications recommended below.

Key Dietary Guidelines
Avoid sugar, especially fructose. Reduce or eliminate processed foods, sugar/fructose, and grain-based foods from your diet. All forms of sugar are detrimental to health in general and promote cancer. Fructose, however, is clearly one of the most harmful. As a general guideline, limit your total fructose intake to less than 25 grams daily. If you have cancer or are insulin resistant, you would be wise to restrict it to 15 grams or less.
Limit protein and increase healthy fat: Consider reducing your protein levels to one gram per kilogram of lean body weight. It would be unusual for most adults to need more than 100 grams of protein and most likely close to half of that amount. Replace the eliminated protein and carbs with high-quality fats, such as organic eggs from pastured hens, high-quality meats, avocados, and coconut oil. There’s compelling evidence that a ketogenic diet helps prevent and treat many forms of cancer.
Get plenty of natural vitamin A. There is evidence that vitamin A plays a role in helping prevent breast cancer.7 It’s best to obtain it from vitamin A-rich foods, rather than a supplement. Your best sources are organic egg yolks, raw butter, raw whole milk, and beef or chicken liver. However, beware of supplementing as there’s some evidence that excessive vitamin A can negate the benefits of vitamin D. Since appropriate vitamin D levels are crucial for your health in general, not to mention cancer prevention, this means that it’s essential to have the proper ratio of vitamin D to vitamin A in your body.Ideally, you’ll want to provide all the vitamin A and vitamin D substrate your body needs in such a way that your body can regulate both systems naturally. This is best done by eating colorful vegetables (for vitamin A) and by exposing your skin to safe amounts of sunshine every day (for vitamin D).
Get sufficient amounts of iodine. Iodine is an essential trace element required for the synthesis of hormones, and the lack of it can also cause or contribute to the development of a number of health problems, including breast cancer. This is because your breasts absorb and use a lot of iodine, which they need for proper cellular function. Iodine deficiency or insufficiency in any of tissue will lead to dysfunction of that tissue, and tumors are one possibility.However, there’s significant controversy over the appropriate dosage, so you need to use caution here. There’s evidence indicating that taking mega-doses, in the tens of milligram range may be counterproductive. One recent study suggests it might not be wise to get more than about 800 mcg of iodine per day, and supplementing with as much as 12-13 mg (12,000-13,000 mcgs) could potentially have some adverse health effects.8
Nourish your gut: Optimizing your gut flora will reduce inflammation and strengthen your immune response. Researchers have found a microbe-dependent mechanism through which some cancers mount an inflammatory response that fuels their development and growth. They suggest that inhibiting inflammatory cytokines might slow cancer progression and improve the response to chemotherapy. Adding naturally fermented food to your daily diet is an easy way to prevent cancer or speed recovery. You can always add a high-quality probiotic supplement as well, but naturally fermented foods are the best.
Avoid GMOs: Avoid genetically engineered foods as they are typically treated with herbicides such as Roundup (glyphosate), which are likely to be carcinogenic. A French research team that has extensively studied Roundup concluded it’s toxic to human cells, and likely carcinogenic to humans. Choose fresh, organic, preferably locally growth foods.
Avoid charring your meats. Charcoal or flame broiled meat is linked with increased breast cancer risk. Acrylamide—a carcinogen created when starchy foods are baked, roasted, or fried—has been found to increase breast cancer risk as well.
Avoid unfermented soy products. Unfermented soy is high in plant estrogens, or phytoestrogens, also known as isoflavones. In some studies, soy appears to work in concert with human estrogen to increase breast cell proliferation, which increases the chances for mutations and cancerous cells.
Drink a quart of organic green vegetable juice daily. Please review my juicing instructions for more detailed information.
Add cancer-fighting whole foods, herbs, and spices to your diet, such as broccoli. To learn more about how anti-angiogenetic foods fight cancer, please see our previous article: “Dramatically Effective New Natural Way to Starve Cancer and Obesity.”
Curcumin. This is the active ingredient in turmeric and in high concentrations can be very useful in the treatment of breast cancer. It shows immense therapeutic potential in preventing breast cancer metastasis.9 To learn more about its use for the prevention of cancer, please see my interview with Dr. William LaValley.
Avoid drinking alcohol, or at least limit your alcoholic drinks to one per day.

 

Other Lifestyle Strategies for the Prevention of Breast Cancer
Optimize your vitamin D. Vitamin D influences virtually every cell in your body and is one of nature’s most potent cancer fighters. There are well over 800 references in the medical literature showing vitamin Ds effectiveness against cancer. Vitamin D is actually able to enter cancer cells and trigger apoptosis (cell death). Research has shown vitamin D kills cancer cells as effectively as the toxic breast cancer drug Tamoxifen, without any of the detrimental side effects and at a tiny fraction of the cost. Vitamin D works synergistically with every cancer treatment I’m aware of, with no adverse effects.According to Carole Baggerly, founder of GrassrootsHealth, as much as 90 percent of ordinary breast cancer may in fact be related to vitamin D deficiency. Most recently, a meta-analysis of five studies published in the March 2014 issue of Anticancer Research10 found that patients diagnosed with breast cancer who had high vitamin D levels were twice as likely to survive compared to women with low levels.11, 12, 13 The high serum group had an average vitamin D level of 30 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml). Women in the low serum group averaged 17 ng/ml, which is the average vitamin D level found in American breast cancer patients.14

The researchers urge physicians to make vitamin D monitoring and optimization part of standard breast cancer care. According to the featured findings, you need at least 30 ng/ml of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) to prevent cancer from spreading. That said, other research suggests you’d be better off with levels as high as 80 ng/ml. One 2011 study15, 16 found that a vitamin D level of 50 ng/ml is associated with a 50 percent lower risk of breast cancer.
Maintain a healthy body weight. This will come naturally when you begin eating right for your nutritional type and exercising. It’s important to lose excess body fat because fat produces estrogen, which can fuel breast cancer.
Improve your insulin/leptin receptor sensitivity. The best way to do this is by avoiding sugar and grains and making sure you are exercising regularly, ideally by incorporating the principles of Peak Fitness.
Avoid xenoestrogens. Xenoestrogens are synthetic chemicals that mimic natural estrogens. They have been linked to a wide range of human health effects, including reduced sperm counts in men and increased risk of breast cancer in women. There are a large number of xenoestrogens, such as bovine growth hormones in commercial dairy, plastics like bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates and parabens in personal care products, and chemicals used in non-stick materials, just to name a few.
Breastfeed exclusively for up to six months. Research shows this will reduce your breast cancer risk.17
Avoid wearing underwire bras. There is a good deal of data that metal underwire bras increase your breast cancer risk.
Avoid electromagnetic fields as much as possible. Limit your exposure and protect yourself from radiation produced by cell phones, towers, base stations, and Wi-Fi stations, as well as minimizing your exposure from radiation-based medical scans, including dental x-rays, CT scans, and mammograms. Items such as electric blankets can be particularly troublesome and increase your cancer risk.
Get enough sleep: Make sure you are getting enough restorative sleep. Poor sleep can interfere with your melatonin production, which is associated with an increased risk of insulin resistance and weight gain, both of which contribute to cancer’s virility.
Employ effective stress management tools: Stress from all causes is a major contributor to disease. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is driven by emotional factors. It is likely that stress and unresolved emotional issues may be more important than the physical ones, so make sure this is addressed. My favorite tool for resolving emotional challenges is Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

Taking Control of Your Lifestyle Can Significantly Reduce Your Odds of Cancer

Preventing breast cancer is far more important and powerful than simply trying to detect it, and avoiding chemical hazards such as those reviewed above are a big part of any cancer prevention strategy. The question is, how do you avoid them when there are so many? My answer is to clean up your life to where your food, water, clothes, furnishings, and other products you come into regular contact with are as close to natural and unprocessed as possible.

This means seeking out organically-produced items—be it a piece of food, clothing, bed linens, laundry detergent, or shampoo. All of it counts, as it’s the accumulated exposure from all these varied sources that end up wreaking havoc. In the case of household cleansers and personal care items, you can inexpensively replace most or all of them with just a few simple, non-toxic ingredients. Coconut oil, for example, has countless uses around the house. Ditto for baking soda and vinegar. Many of the recommendations listed above will also automatically reduce your exposure to cancer-causing toxins.

Fiber Reduces Inflammation and Preserves Brain Function

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Story at-a-glance

  • Fiber consumption on a regular basis is known to help you maintain your weight, improve your blood sugar profile, support your immune system and control gut problems, but now it’s shown to control brain inflammation
  • Eating plenty of the foods that supply you with dietary fiber is often at the heart of maintaining the best working order of many of your body’s most important bodily functions, including those of your gut and brain
  • Dietary fiber promotes beneficial bacteria in your gut, which, when digested, produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), along with the byproduct butyrate, which reduces inflammation in the brain’s microglia
  • Microglia are a major type of immune cell in your brain that can become chronically inflamed and, as a result, cause memory and cognitive function problems as you age
  • A high-fiber diet can help lower your risk of premature death from any cause, a serendipitous perk linked to a reduced risk of chronic disease

By Dr. Mercola

Dietary fiber has been noted as a remarkable nutrient because of the many functions it can perform in your body. Getting the ideal amounts of dietary fiber can help you maintain your weight, improve your blood sugar profile, support your immune system, control gut problems that can cause both hemorrhoids and chronic constipation and even positively impact your brain health.

But new research in the journal Frontiers in Immunology reveals another benefit: Consuming optimal amounts of fiber on a regular basis (pun intended) diminishes inflammation, which is at the heart of numerous bodily dysfunctions.

Researchers from the University of Illinois (U of I) showed dietary fiber may help delay what many people, both medical experts and the general public, believe to be inevitable: the decline not only of motor function but of cognitive health. NEWS.am reports:

“As mammals age, immune cells in the brain, known as microglia, become chronically inflamed. In this state, they produce chemicals known to impair cognitive and motor function. That’s one explanation for why memory fades and other brain functions decline during old age … But, according to a new study from the University of Illinois, there may be a remedy to delay the inevitable: dietary fiber.”1

Not only does dietary fiber promote beneficial bacteria in your gut but, when digested, the bacteria produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). One of these byproducts is butyrate, which Rodney Johnson, head of the department of animal sciences at U of I, explains reduces inflammation in the microglia.

The drug form, known as sodium butyrate, improved memory in mice in other studies, but until the featured study2 it wasn’t clear how.

MedicalNewsToday3 explains that microglia are a major type of immune cell in your brain that, as you age, can become hyperactive and chronically inflamed. This is likely one culpable factor in the decline of memory and cognitive function in older people. Significantly, microglia are said to account for about 15 percent of all the cells in your brain.

In old mice (aged 22 to 25 months versus young mice at 3 to 6 months), butyrate inhibits harmful chemicals from being produced by inflamed microglia. One chemical in particular — interleukin-1β — had been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Forbes called the discovery a “chemical cascade” for lowered brain inflammation.4

Researchers conducted the study to determine whether they could produce the same inhibitory effect by giving the mice fiber. In this way, they could make the most of the natural “gut” conversion of fiber into butyrate without people having to eat it, as sodium butyrate, Johnson says, has a “noxious odor.”

‘Diet Has a Major Influence On the Function of Gut Microbes’

While your diet has a major influence on both the composition and function of the microbes in your gut, scientists point out that when you eat a lot of fiber, it benefits the good bacteria, while diets containing high amounts of unhealthy fat and protein can take the composition and function of those bacteria in the wrong direction; it has a negative influence, says Jeff Woods, a professor in the department of kinesiology and community health at U of I and coauthor of the study.

While the scientists supposed that butyrate from fiber would affect brain health in the same way as the drug form (sodium butyrate), it hadn’t been clinically proven. Their hypothesis was tested by feeding both low- and high-fiber foods to young and old mice, then measuring the amount of butyrate and other SCFAs in their blood, also keeping track of inflammatory chemicals in their intestines. Johnson notes:

“The high-fiber diet elevated butyrate and other SCFAs in the blood both for young and old mice. But only the old mice showed intestinal inflammation on the low-fiber diet. It’s interesting that young adults didn’t have that inflammatory response on the same diet. It clearly highlights the vulnerability of being old.”5

Interestingly, the intestinal inflammation in the mice eating the high-fiber diet was dramatically reduced, and in fact was demonstrably on par with those of the younger mice, prompting Johnson to conclude, “Dietary fiber can really manipulate the inflammatory environment in the gut.”6

Even more significantly, evidence that dietary fiber also impacts brain inflammation was found when the researchers scrutinized about 50 unique genes in microglia and confirmed that the high-fiber diet reduced levels of brain inflammation in the older mice. Further, eating high amounts of fiber reduced the intestinal inflammation of aging mice so much that it looked no different from that of young mice.

Although the researchers didn’t look at how different amounts of fiber affect “cognition and behavior or the precise mechanisms in the gut-brain axis,” Johnson says, the answer to that will be sought through a nearly $2 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Johnson says he’s confident that the positive effects found in the brain profiles of mice will easily translate to humans and lists the negatives of humans not getting enough fiber in their everyday diets:

“What you eat matters. We know that older adults consume 40 percent less dietary fiber than is recommended. Not getting enough fiber could have negative consequences for things you don’t even think about, such as connections to brain health and inflammation in general.”7

How Dietary Fiber Consumption Impacts Your Gut

As referenced earlier, one of the easiest and most effective ways to optimize your gut microbiome — not to mention least expensive — is to eat foods that provide plenty of fiber, and include traditionally fermented foods, as well. But one important differentiation is the difference between the three types of fiber:

  • Soluble fiber can be easily dissolved in water and attains a gel-like consistency in your large intestine to essentially slow your digestion process and, in the process, slows the rate at which nutrients are utilized and makes you feel fuller longer.
  • Insoluble fiber, which stays intact as it moves throughout your colon rather than dissolving, absorbs fluid and byproducts to help “clean out” your colon by being disposed of as waste.
  • Digestive-resistant starch is a naturally occurring resistant starch that doesn’t break down as it moves through your digestive tract, so it adds bulk to waste, which moves it through faster, and also serves as a prebiotic.

One way fiber benefits you overall is through its ability to help prevent leaky gut, which Food Integrity Now8 asserts has impacted around 80 percent of the U.S. population. It causes numerous and sometimes seemingly unrelated problems, from brain fog to joint pain; hives to anxiety; irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) to depression.

Leaky gut means things that shouldn’t are allowed to enter your bloodstream (like toxins) while blocking entrance of things that should (like nutrients).

Good and Bad Aspects of Fiber Sources

A high-fiber diet can help lower your risk of premature death from any cause, a serendipitous perk linked to a reduced risk of chronic disease.

Organic whole husk psyllium, chia seeds, sunflower sprouts, mushrooms and fermented veggies are excellent sources of high-quality fiber, but some of the most beneficial day-to-day sources are crucifers like broccoli and cauliflower, root vegetables and tubers such as sweet potatoes (including the peel), jicama and onions.

Pears, stewed prunes, dried figs or dates, raspberries, pumpkin, almonds, apples with the skin intact, bananas and oranges also contain fiber. However, figs, dates, prunes and bananas are examples of foods that should be eaten in moderation due to their high sugar content.

Another way to get the fiber you need is to take organic psyllium husk (the nonorganic option is usually heavily treated with pesticides) in capsule or powder form. That said, it’s important to understand that while a number of different foods supply dietary fiber, not all of them are constructive, especially due to the way many of them are processed in this modern age.

One clue to this truth is that fiber must be unprocessed. Kidney beans, black beans, lima beans, lentils and other legumes also contain lots of dietary fiber, but besides being loaded with carbs, they also contain lectins. Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins that attach to specific biological structures that allow them to do harm, as part of a plant’s self-defense mechanism.

They can also cause trouble in humans. Lectins can cause gut problems because they act as damaging “antinutrients” that change the balance of bacteria in your intestines.

In addition, grains are often tapped as a good source of fiber, but grains promote both insulin resistance (which has been identified as a main driver of chronic disease) and leptin resistance (not to be confused with lectins). Leptin is a hormone that helps your body recognize when you’re full. When this ability goes by the wayside, it’s no surprise that it’s associated with obesity and related problems.

Perhaps worse is the problem of glyphosate contamination, a carcinogen and active ingredient in Roundup herbicide that’s been linked to a staggering number of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) cases.9 NHL is described by Cancer Treatment Centers of America as “cancer that develops in the lymphatic system from cells called lymphocytes, which are a type of white blood cell that helps the body fight infections.”10

How Dietary Fiber Consumption Impacts Your Brain

Quite often, eating plenty of the foods that supply you with fiber is at the heart of maintaining the best working order of many of your body’s most important bodily functions. In fact, one study11 showed you can figure a 10 percent reduced risk for all-cause mortality for every 10 grams of fiber you add to your overall fiber intake.

Your brain health is included in the list of those bodily functions. There have been other studies showing what fiber consumption can do for better brain function.

One study12 in 2015 concluded that the quality of what children eat — specifically their dietary fiber intake — is the hinge that cognitive control and performance hinges on, especially because “[t]he human brain continues to undergo extensive changes in structure and functional connectivity throughout childhood and adolescence.”13

Another study from 2007 indicated that older women who ate at least a half-cup of blueberries or at least one cup of strawberries per week had slower rates of cognitive decline — in some cases by as much as 2.5 years.14 Besides the fiber, researchers believe such benefits as antioxidants and anthocyanidins, which can cross the blood-brain barrier, contribute to the results.

One interesting research project involved the hypothesis that a product of fiber fermentation may be its ability to directly affect the hypothalamus, an area of the brain involved in regulating appetite. In relation to how fiber helps fight obesity, scientists looked at the SCFA acetate, which is plentiful and also circulates throughout your bloodstream. Nature notes:

“The fiber was fermented as usual into acetate, which turned up not only in the gut, but also in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain known to be involved in regulating appetite. There, the researchers found, it was metabolized through the glutamine-glutamate cycle, which is involved in controlling the release of neurotransmitters associated with appetite control.”15

One of the most interesting aspects of all these studies is that your brain is connected to your gut, as well as your immune system. In fact, the interconnectedness between all your most vital function depends on what you eat, and fiber is one of the most crucial nutrients for so many reasons.

How much fiber should you be ingesting each day? I advise an ideal fiber intake of 25 to 50 grams per 1,000 calories consumed daily, with a focus on consuming plenty of fiber-rich foods. However, don’t forget to add water to help it do what it’s designed to do: boost your overall health and well-being.

Why BMI is a Big Fat Scam

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Story at-a-glance

  • Body mass index (BMI), a formula that divides your weight by the square of your height, is one of the most commonly used measures of overweight, obesity, and overall health
  • Initially, BMI was primarily a tool used by insurance companies to set premiums (people with BMIs in the “obese” category may pay 22 percent more for their insurance compared to those in the “normal” category
  • BMI is a flawed measurement tool, in part because it uses weight as a measure of risk, when it is actually a high percentage of body fat that increases your disease risk
  • BMI also tells you nothing about where fat is located in your body, and the location of the fat, particularly if it’s around your stomach (visceral fat), is more important than the absolute amount of fat when it comes to measuring certain health risks
  • Your waist-to-hip ratio is a more reliable indicator of your future disease risk because a higher ratio suggests you have more visceral fat.

 

BY DR. MERCOLA

In 1832, a Belgian mathematician named Adolphe Quetelet developed what is today known as the body mass index (BMI).1The formula divides a person’s weight by the square of his height, and is one of the most commonly used measures of excess weight, obesity, and overall health.

Initially, BMI was primarily a tool used by insurance companies to set premiums (people with BMIs in the “obese” category may pay 22 percent more for their insurance compared to those in the “normal” category2).

Today, however, BMI is an accepted tool used in medical research and in clinical practice. When you have your height and weight recorded at your doctor’s office, it will give him or her an automatic calculation of your BMI, classifying you as underweight if your BMI is below 18.5, normal if it’s 18.5-24.9, overweight if it’s 25-29.9, and obese if it’s 30 or over.

Your doctor may use this number to advise you on your weight, as well as your risk of related conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately, BMI is an incredibly flawed tool, and a high BMI doesn’t automatically mean you’re unhealthy, the way many physicians and health insurance companies imply that it does.

The Obesity Paradox: Sometimes Higher BMI Is Healthier

Research involving data from nearly 3 million adults suggests that a having an overweight BMI may be linked to a longer life than one that puts you within a “normal” weight range.

The research, which analyzed 97 studies in all, found that people with BMIs under 30 but above normal (the overweight range) had a 6 percent lower risk of dying from all causes than those who were normal weight, while those whose BMIs fell into the obese range were 18 percent more likely to die of any cause.3

Separate research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, also found that a high BMI was associated with a lower risk of death, a phenomenon known as the “obesity paradox.”4

Indeed, it is quite possible to be overweight and healthy, just as it’s possible to be normal weight and unhealthy. And in some cases, it may, in fact, be healthier to carry a few extra pounds. In a Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)editorial, Steven Heymsfield, M.D. and William Cefalu, M.D. explained:5

“The presence of a wasting disease, heart disease, diabetes, renal dialysis, or older age are all associated with an inverse relationship between BMI and mortality rate, an observation termed the obesity paradox or reverse epidemiology. 

The optimal BMI linked with lowest mortality in patients with chronic disease may be within the overweight and obesity range. 

Even in the absence of chronic disease, small excess amounts of adipose tissue may provide needed energy reserves during acute catabolic illnesses, have beneficial mechanical effects with some types of traumatic injuries, and convey other salutary effects that need to be investigated in light of the studies…” 

However, for the vast majority of those who carry around extra pounds, health problems will often result. So why would these studies suggest otherwise? They are likely examples of why BMI is such a flawed tool for measuring your health.

Makers of Weight Loss Drugs Altered BMI Categories, Making 29 Million Americans ‘Overweight’

BMI is used as the measure of national obesity rates, which currently stand at close to 35 percent for adults and 18 percent for kids. However, the cut-off for classifying a person as normal or overweight seems to be quite arbitrary – and at one point was significantly modified by a task force funded, primarily, by companies making weight loss drugs. Mother Jones reported:6

“In 1998, the National Institutes of Health lowered the overweight threshold from 27.8 to 25—branding roughly 29 million Americans as fat overnight—to match international guidelines. 

But critics noted that those guidelines were drafted in part by the International Obesity Task Force, whose two principal funders were companies making weight loss drugs. 

In his recent book ‘Fat Politics: The Real Story Behind America’s Obesity Epidemic,’ political scientist Eric Oliver reports that the chairman of the NIH committee that made the decision, Columbia University professor of medicine Xavier Pi-Sunyer, was consulting for several diet drug manufacturers and Weight Watchers International.”

BMI Uses Weight, Not Body Fat, to Measure Risk

Branding yourself as unhealthy or overweight simply based on your BMI is not recommended (unfortunately, your insurance company probably won’t see it this way). On the other hand, assuming you’re healthy just because your BMI is normal isn’t advised either.

Research suggests BMI may underestimate obesity rates and misclassify up to one-quarter of men and nearly half of women.7 According to researcher Dr. Eric Braverman, president of the nonprofit Path Foundation in New York City:8

“Based on BMI, about one-third of Americans are considered obese, but when other methods of measuring obesity are used, that number may be closer to 60%.”

One of the primary reasons why BMI is such a flawed measurement tool is that it uses weight as a measure of risk, when it is actually a high percentage of body fat that increases your disease risk. Your weight varies according to the density of your bone structure, for instance, so a big-boned person may weigh more, but that certainly doesn’t mean they have more body fat or make them more prone to heart disease, for example.

Athletes and completely out-of-shape people can also have similar BMI scores, or a very muscular person could be classified as “obese” using BMI, when in reality it is mostly lean muscle accounting for their higher-than-average weight. BMI also tells you nothing about where fat is located in your body, and it appears that the location of the fat, particularly if it’s around your stomach, is more important than the absolute amount of fat when it comes to measuring certain health risks, especially heart disease.

Waist-to-Hip Measurement Is Superior to BMI, But Only 10 Percent of Physicians Use It

Your waist-to-hip ratio is a more reliable indicator of your future disease risk because a higher ratio suggests you have more visceral fat. Excess visceral fat—the fat that accumulates around your internal organs — is far more hazardous to your health than subcutaneous fat (the more noticeable fat found just under your skin) – a measure that BMI tells you nothing about. The danger of visceral fat is related to the release of proteins and hormones that can cause inflammation, which in turn can damage arteries and enter your liver, and affect how your body breaks down sugars and fats.

Unfortunately, according to Donna Ryan, a physician who has trained thousands of primary-care doctors in obesity screening, only about 10 percent use waist circumference as a health indicator. She told Mother Jones:9 “Doctors are so pressed for time… And it’s intrusive. You have to put your arms around the patient.” To determine your waist-to-hip ratio, get a tape measure and record your waist and hip circumference. Then divide your waist circumference by your hip circumference. For a more thorough demonstration, please review the video above.

Waist to Hip Ratio Men Women
Ideal 0.8 0.7
Low Risk <0.95 <0.8
Moderate Risk 0.96-0.99 0.81 – 0.84
High Risk >1.0 >0.85

How Much You Exercise Also Predicts Your Disease Risk

Your fitness level is also a far better predictor of mortality than your BMI. One study found that people who rarely exercised had a 70 percent higher risk of premature death than those who exercised regularly, independent of their BMI.10 If you want a simple test to gauge your fitness level, try the abdominal plank test (for a demonstration of how to do a plank, see the video below. If you can hold an abdominal plank position for at least two minutes, you’re off to a good start. If you cannot, you’re likely lacking in core strength, which is important for overall movement stability and strength.

A strong core will also help prevent back pain. Being unable to hold a plank for two minutes may also indicate that you’re carrying too much weight and would benefit from shedding a few pounds. Unfortunately, over 50 percent of American men, and 60 percent of American women, never engage in any vigorous physical activity lasting more than 10 minutes per week.11 This despite a growing body of research clearly showing that “exercise deficiency” threatens your overall health and mental well-being, and shortens your lifespan.

In fact, according to research published in the American Journal of Physiology, the best way to stay young is to simply start exercising, as it triggers mitochondrial biogenesis, a decline of which is common in aging.12 Researchers have also suggested that exercise is “the best preventive drug” for many common ailments, from psychiatric disorders to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.13 According to Jordan Metzl, a sports-medicine physician at New York City’s Hospital for Special Surgery and author of The Exercise Cure: “Exercise is the best preventive drug we have, and everybody needs to take that medicine.”

So rather than stressing over an arbitrary number like your BMI, you’d be better served by coming up with a comprehensive fitness plan. I recommend incorporating high-intensity interval training (HIIT), strength training (including super slow), core exercises, stretching, and non-exercise activity into your routine. The key is to simply get moving, and work at a high enough intensity with enough variance to keep your muscles adequately challenged.

Every person is different, so there’s not just one “correct” way to exercise. Equally, if not more, important is incorporating regular intermittent movement into your day, as this will help to counteract some of the effects excess sitting has on your body. If you exercise correctly and keep moving throughout your day, and combine it with a healthy eating program, you will optimize your body-fat percentage naturally, and with it gain a predisposition for optimal health.

Diabetes Remission Possible with Diet, Exercise

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STORY AT-A-GLANCE

  • In a four-year-long study, overweight and obese diabetics placed on a calorie-restrictive diet along with nearly three hours of exercise per week fared much better than controls
  • After one year, 11.5 percent of the program participants no longer needed medication to keep their blood sugar levels below the diabetes threshold. Only two percent of the non-intervention group experienced any significant improvement in their condition
  • Obesity has now become a greater global health crisis than hunger. It is also the leading cause of disabilities around the world
  • According to a national study there’s been a modest decline in obesity rates among 2- to 4-year-olds from poor families. While the cause for the drop is unclear, some of the potential contributors include a massive increase in breastfeeding over the past three decades, and reduced advertising of junk food to young children.

By Dr. Mercola

It has taken decades, but medical professionals are finally starting to give diet and exercisefor the prevention and reversal of type 2 diabetes some well-deserved attention.

“… the new study can give people with the disease hope that through lifestyle changes, they could end up getting off medication and likely lowering their risk of diabetes-related complications,” Reuters Health reports.1

The research,2 also featured by MedPage Today,3 demonstrates that diet and physical activity are the answer diabetics have been searching for, which is exactly what I’ve been teaching since I started this web site, 16 years ago.

It’s worth noting that I do not at all agree with some of the dietary recommendations given to the participants in this study. For example, I believe including healthy saturated fats and avoiding processed liquid meal replacements would be a wise move.

I also believe following the dietary recommendations laid out in my free Nutrition Plan can provide far better results than those achieved in this study.

The researchers randomly assigned diabetic participants, who were also overweight or obese, to an intensive program of diet and exercise, in which they were urged to cut calories down to 1,200-1,800 calories per day and engage in nearly three hours of physical exercise per week.

After one year, 11.5 percent of the program participants no longer needed medication to keep their blood sugar levels below the diabetes threshold. Only two percent of the non-intervention group experienced any significant improvement in their condition.

Those who’d had been diagnosed with diabetes more recently saw greater blood sugar improvements on the program. Ditto for those who lost the most amount of weight and/or made the greatest progress in raising their fitness level. The lifestyle intervention group also managed to sustain their remission better over the following three years.

The Only Way to Avoid and/or Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

Amazingly, one in four Americans has some form of diabetes or pre-diabetes. If this is not a clear sign that conventional health recommendations are flawed, I don’t know what is. I too have personal experience with this disease. I developed it myself for a short while, when I tried to implement an Eat Right for Your Type program in the late 90s.

Additionally, most of my paternal relatives (my dad included), have, or have died from, diabetes. My personal experience with diabetes and subsequent review of the literature made it very clear to me that virtually every case of type 2 diabetes is reversible…

And the cure for type 2 diabetes has nothing to do with giving insulin or taking drugs to control your blood sugar. In fact, giving insulin to someone with type 2 diabetes is one of the worst things that can be done.

The truth of the matter is that type 2 diabetes is a fully preventable condition that arises from faulty leptin signaling and insulin resistance, both of which are directly diet- and exercise-related. It is NOT a disease of blood sugar.

Once you understand that, the remedy becomes clear: To reverse the disease, you need to recover your body’s insulin and leptin sensitivities. The ONLY way to accomplish this is through proper diet and exercise, as detailed in my free Nutrition Plan. Bariatric surgery, which is being increasingly recommended as a diabetes treatment, will NOT do the trick, and there is NO drug that can correct leptin signaling and insulin resistance… Adhering to the following guidelines can help you do at least three things that are essential for successfully treating diabetes: recover your insulin/leptin sensitivity; normalize your weight; and normalize your blood pressure:

  • Severely limit or eliminate sugar and grains in your diet, especially fructose which is far more detrimental than any other type of sugar. Following my Nutrition Plan will help you do this without too much fuss.
  • Exercise regularly. Exercise is an absolutely essential factor, and without it, you’re unlikely to get this devastating disease under control. It is one of the fastest and most powerful ways to lower your insulin and leptin resistance. If you’re unsure of how to get started, I recommend reviewing my Peak Fitness program for tips and guidelines.
  • Avoid trans fats.
  • Get plenty of omega-3 fats from a high quality, animal-based source, such as krill oil.
  • Optimize your vitamin D levels. Recent studies have revealed that getting enough vitamin D can have a powerful effect on normalizing your blood pressure and that low vitamin D levels may increase your risk of heart disease.
  • Optimize your gut flora. Your gut is a living ecosystem, full of both good bacteria and bad. Multiple studies have shown that obese people have different intestinal bacteriathan lean people. The more good bacteria you have, the stronger your immune system will be and the better your body will function overall. Fortunately, optimizing your gut flora is relatively easy. You can reseed your body with good bacteria by eating fermented foods (such as fermented vegetables, natto, raw organic cheese, or raw milkkefir) or by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement.
  • Address any underlying emotional issues and/or stress. Non-invasive tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique can be helpful and effective.
  • Get enough high-quality sleep every night.
  • Monitor your fasting insulin level. This is every bit as important as your fasting blood sugar. You’ll want your fasting insulin level to be between 2 and 4. The higher your level, the worse your insulin sensitivity is.

Diet and Healthy Aging

In related news, an article in the New England Journal of Medicine4 reviewed the conflicting research on calorie restriction and mortality.

“Two long-term studies of the effect of calorie restriction in rhesus monkeys conflict: one concludes that restriction does not affect mortality, and the other concludes that it does. Differences in dietary composition and extent of restriction may explain the discrepant results,” Linda Partridge, PhD, writes.

Yes, as always, the devil is in the details, and this is particularly true when it comes to diet. A calorie is not “just a calorie,” for example. There’s every reason to believe that the key to improved health and longevity lies not in calorie restriction per se, but in restricting certain kinds of calories—calories from sugars, to be specific. And possibly also those from poor quality proteins.

Dr. Ron Rosedale has been passionate about diabetes and aging for over 30 years and he is constantly reviewing the literature in this area. He is one of my primary mentors on this topic. He is convinced, as most other experts are, that calorie restriction does indeed provide life extension. But it is likely not because there are decreased total calories. He believes the key is to limit the carbs and excessive protein. The fat calories are “essentially free’ and do not impair insulin or leptin signaling, or the mTOR pathways, which can contribute to decreased longevity.

Dr. Partridge points out two primary differences between the two studies that may account for the conflicting results:

    1. The control groups in the two studies were not fed in the identical manner. In the first study, which did find calorie restriction reduced chronic disease and mortality, the control group had no restrictions on their food intake. Rather they were allowed to eat as much as they wanted. In the second study, which did not find a correlation between calorie restriction and reduced mortality, the control group received a fixed amount of food, which was lower than the ad libitum intake. This was done in order to prevent obesity.

“Work with laboratory animals has shown that the benefits of caloric restriction are quantitative, with stronger reductions in food intake producing a greater extension in life span, provided that malnutrition is avoided,” Partridge writes. “The controls in the most recent study received a diet that was somewhat calorie restricted, and indeed they were lighter in weight than controls in the earlier study. Thus, they may have had some benefits of caloric restriction, limiting the power to detect any additional benefits from the substantively restricted diet comprising the intervention.”

    1. The nutritional composition of the diets also differed between the two studies. Proportions of carbohydrate, fat, and protein were similar, but in the first study (which did find a correlation between calorie restriction and mortality), sucrose made up nearly 30 percent of the animals’ diet. In the second, which did not find such a correlation, the diet contained only four percent sucrose.

This should come as no surprise to any of you who have read any of my articles about the health hazards of sugar. The sugar molecule is one of the most ravaging, and eating a high-sugar diet is the most efficient way to accelerate the aging processes in your body. So clearly, a diet low in sugar will significantly help reduce mortality. When both the study group and the controls are fed a fixed low-sugar diet, their outcomes can be expected to be fairly comparable…

Dr. Partridge also mentions that studies have shown the composition of the protein in your diet can have a substantial effect on your health. According to Partridge:

“Studies of animal models, including rodents, have shown that reduced intake of particular nutrients, especially specific amino acids, rather than reduced calorie intake underlies the health improvements brought about by reduced food intake. This observation underscores the importance of dietary restriction over caloric restriction: the effects on health of reducing overall food intake will often depend on the composition of the diet that is fed to the controls.”

I believe this is an important point to remember, as most people simply eat far too much protein of poor quality; thinking it’s all the same. This simply isn’t true, as the nutritional content of meats and other animal products, such as eggs, are dependent upon how the animal was raised and fed. There are major nutritional differences between protein sources raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFO’s) and those raised according to organic standards, such as grass-fed beef and pastured chickens and their eggs.

Obesity Bigger Health Crisis than Hunger

Understanding what makes for a healthy diet and lifestyle has never been more important. Shockingly, obesity has now become a greater global health crisis than hunger! Obesity is also the leading cause of disabilities around the world, according to the latest Global Burden of Disease study, published in The Lancet.5 As reported by CNN Health:6

“The report revealed that every country, with the exception of those in sub-Saharan Africa, faces alarming obesity rates — an increase of 82 percent globally in the past two decades. Middle Eastern countries are more obese than ever, seeing a 100% increase since 1990. ‘The so-called ‘Western lifestyle’ is being adapted all around the world, and the impacts are all the same,’ [co-author Ali]Mokdad said.

… for the first time, noncommunicable diseases like diabetes, stroke and heart disease top the list of leading causes of years spent sick or injured. ‘All these problems are tied to obesity,’ Mokdad said. ‘We’re even seeing a large percentage of people suffering back pain now. If we could lower the obesity rates, we’d see the numbers of noncommunicable diseases and pain decrease as well.’

People are living longer than projected in 1990 — on average, 10.7 more years for men, and 12.6 more years for women. But for many of them, the quality of life during those years is not good. On average, people are plagued by illness or pain during the last 14 years of life…”

Yes, modern medicine may be able to keep sick people alive longer, but it fails miserably when it comes to providing a high quality of life. Lifestyle-related chronic diseases are also threatening to bankrupt nations across the globe. Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization has referred to noncommunicable diseases “a slow-motion disaster” that may eventually become financially unsustainable. According to a 2011 report7by the World Economic Forum and Harvard School of Public Health, noncommunicable diseases is expected to cost more than $30 trillion over the next two decades alone!

Clearly, something needs to change. Part of the problem is that so many of the recommendations issued by conventional medicine are seriously flawed, having been thoroughly corrupted by conflicts of interest. The notion that you cannot trust your doctor’s advice on diet and exercise is disconcerting for most people, but the fact is that many doctors are clueless when it comes to nutrition and fitness. There’s no shortage of physicians that will OK aspartame for weight control and diabetics, or tell you to avoid saturated fats and stick to a low-fat diet, for example. The list goes on. The failure of such recommendations to produce good health can clearly be seen among the general population that believes such myths.

I’ve spent the better part of the last two decades researching and trying to pin down the necessary ingredients of a healthy diet and lifestyle. The end result can be found in my comprehensive Nutrition Plan, which is available free of charge.

There’s still cause for hope however. According to a national study8 featured in The New York Times,9 there’s been a modest decline in obesity rates among 2- to 4-year-olds from poor families, which is a good sign, however small it might be. As reported by the NYT:

“The study was based on data from 30 states and the District of Columbia and covered the years from 1998 to 2010. The share of children who were obese declined to 14.9 percent in 2010, down from 15.2 percent in 2003, after rising between 1998 and 2003. Extreme obesity also declined, dropping to 2.07 percent in 2010 from 2.22 percent in 2003… It is unclear what drove the decline, but Dr. Blanck offered hypotheses.

Breastfeeding, which often leads to healthier weight gain for young children, has increased since 2000. The percentage of 6-month-olds still being breast-fed increased to 47.7 percent among children born in 2009, up from 34.2 percent among children born in 2000. Breastfeeding of infants from low-income families has risen over the years. In 1980, only 28 percent of infants from those families had ever been breast-fed, compared with 66 percent in 2011. … the amount of money spent on food marketing to children declined by nearly 20 percent from 2006 to 2009, with the biggest drop in television advertising.”

How to Stop Wasting Food

Fresh whole food is an essential part of a healthy diet, but buying and storing fresh foods does require a bit more planning and know-how, compared to stocking up on processed foods with extended expiration dates. A recent article in CNN Health10 explored the many ways you can reduce your food waste, which can cost the average American household anywhere from $500 to $2,000 a year. Below are two of my favorite tips. For the rest, which includes what to do with bread, fresh fruits (and especially bananas), please see the original article.11

Seasonal vegetables

Use it now: As with fruit, the flavors of most vegetables marry well. Cut whatever you have into bite-size pieces, sauté a diced onion in a soup pot, and add the veggies (starting with the firmest, since they take longest to cook). Cover with vegetable broth and simmer until tender. Purée or eat chunky.

Save it for later: Make your own frozen veggies. Prepare them as you’d cook them, except stop when they’re halfway done. You can steam or boil green beans, corn, broccoli, and chard, then quickly rinse in cold water to stop the cooking, and drain and pack in freezer-safe bags. Or pickle your veggies.

Herbs

Use it now: Fresh herbs are flavor powerhouses, so it can be tricky to improvise without a recipe. A few combos that work deliciously: Try thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf with chicken; add rosemary, parsley, and sage to pork. Toss mint, dill, and cilantro in your salads or green veggie dishes.

Save it for later: To preserve tender herbs (dill, cilantro, parsley), make a sauce or paste (think pesto) with olive or vegetable oil. Purée the cleaned leaves in a food processor with the oil and a little salt. Cilantro oil, for example, can later be mixed with coconut milk, chilies, lime, and soy sauce to make a Thai sauce for fish or chicken. Herb pastes keep up to one week in the refrigerator (drizzle oil over the top to prevent browning) and up to six months in the freezer.

Hardy herbs, like rosemary and sage, meanwhile, are easy to dry. Clean a bunch, grasp the stems, tie with string, then suspend, leaves down, in a dry room. When herbs crumble, transfer to a jar and store in a cool, dry place. Or submerge herbs in a bottle of white-wine vinegar. The flavor will spruce up your salads for months.

To this I would add the following recommendations:

FoodSaver Vacuuming System: One of my all-time favorite tricks, which works for most produce, is to create a “vacuum pack” to help protect it from oxygen and airborne microbes that will accelerate its decay. Leave the produce in the bag it came in from the grocery store, place it against your chest and use your arm to squeeze the excess air out of the bag. Once the air is removed you can seal it with a twist tie and thus minimize exposure to oxygen.

This simple technique can easily double or triple the normal shelf life of your vegetables by keeping air away from them. I typically store my food in quart or pint glass Ball jars. The FoodSaver brand also has a wide-mouth jar sealer attachment, which is ideal for sealing your leftovers, fermented veggies, sauces and other liquids stored in a wide-mouth jar, and can keep your food fresh up to five times longer. I regularly use it for extending the life of my vegetable juice and making my juicing more efficient so I don’t have to juice every day.

Ferment your own vegetables using all the left-overs, before they go bad. Fermenting your own veggies is a really inexpensive way to make sure you’re getting beneficial bacteria (probiotics) in your diet, and it’s much easier than you might think!

To learn more, please refer to this previous article, How to Easily and Inexpensively Ferment Your Own Vegetables, which includes an informative interview with Caroline Barringer, a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP), and an expert in the preparation of the foods prescribed in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) Nutritional Program.