Are we preprogrammed for disease or good health? Do you believe that your genes control your health or can you override your genetics?

A fascinating field of research called “epigenetics” challenges the conventional beliefs about genetic programming and examines the physical effects of emotion on our bodies and health.

In this video, author and cellular biologist Dr. Bruce H. Lipton, explores the importance of perception in maintaining optimal health.

Researchers studying the preventive effects of vitamin D on cancer have proposed a new model of cancer development that hinges on a loss of cancer cells’ ability to stick together. The model, dubbed DINOMIT, differs from the older model of cancer development, which suggests genetic mutations as the earliest driving forces behind cancer.

“The first event in cancer is loss of communication among cells due to, among other things, low vitamin D and calcium levels,” said epidemiologist Cedric Garland. “This loss may play a key role in cancer by disrupting the communication between cells that is essential to healthy cell turnover, allowing more aggressive cancer cells to take over.”

Garland suggests that such cellular disruption could account for the earliest stages of many cancers. Previous theories linking vitamin D to certain cancers have been tested and confirmed in more than 200 epidemiological studies, and understanding of its physiological basis stems from more than 2,500 laboratory studies.

Each letter in DINOMIT stands for a different phase of cancer development – disjunction, initiation, natural selection, overgrowth of cells, metastasis, involution, and transition.

While there is not yet definitive scientific proof, Garland suggests that much of the evolutionary process in cancer could be arrested at the outset by maintaining adequate vitamin D levels.

According to another study, getting more of the “sunshine vitamin” may also help you stay mentally fit as you age.

Researchers compared the cognitive performance of more than 3,000 men aged 40 to 79, and found those with low vitamin D levels performed less well on a task designed to test mental agility. The findings are some of the strongest evidence yet of such a link, because of the size of the study and because the researchers adjusted for a number of lifestyle factors believed to affect mental ability.

The researchers do not know exactly how vitamin D and mental agility may be connected, but it could be connected to the vitamin’s role in increasing certain hormonal activity, or it could have a protective effect on brain neurons.

Source: Science Daily May 24, 2009 

New research makes a strong case for exercise as a way to help prevent cancer both for men and women. Let’s consider the results of two related studies.

Men - Those with stronger muscles from regular weight training are up to 40 percent less likely to die from cancer, according to new research. These findings suggest that muscular strength is as important as staying slim and eating healthy when it comes to protecting your body against deadly tumors.

A team of experts tracked the lifestyles of over 8,500 men for more than two decades. Each volunteer had regular medical check ups that included tests of their muscular strength. The men who regularly worked out with weights and had the highest muscle strength were between 30 percent and 40 percent less likely to lose their life to a deadly tumor.

Even among volunteers who were overweight, regular weight training seemed to have a protective effect, although the researchers stressed that keeping a healthy weight was still crucial for avoiding premature death.

But they added, “In the light of these results, it is equally important to maintain healthy muscular strength levels.”

Researchers said it’s possible to reduce cancer mortality rates in men by promoting resistance training involving the major muscle groups at least two days a week.

Women – exercise reduces breast cancer . Reports have shown that excess weight and large sizes have been associated to a higher risk of breast cancer.

It remains unclear the amount or intensity of exercise that is needed to produce this effect and at what age the physical activity must occur. The study consisted of a group of 74,171 women aged 50-79 from 40 U.S. clinical centers between 1993-1998 for the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study.

Information collected was based on factors such as medical, family history, physical activity, diet, height, weight and lifetime use of hormone therapy.

In a four-and-a-half year follow-up of the study, breast cancer was newly diagnosed in 1,780 of the women. The study also revealed that women who participated in regular strenuous physical activities at the age of 35 decreased their risk of breast cancer by 14 percent compared with less active women.

This is further evidence that exercise before and after menopause are linked to breast cancer prevention. The effect was realized even with small increments of exercise equivalent to one to two hours per week of brisk walking. The results have shared similarities to those associated with decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease among post menopausal women and those with diabetes.

Sources: Men – The Telegraph, Women – Canadian Medical Journal

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Worries about the hormone-mimicking chemical bisphenol A (BPA) used in Nalgene plastic water containers have led a major Canadian retailer to remove Nalgene, along with other polycarbonate plastic containers, from store shelves in early December.
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There is little dispute that the chemical can disrupt the hormonal system, but scientists disagree on whether the low doses found in food and beverage containers can cause harm. The FDA and the plastics industry have argued that BPA-based products do not pose a health risk. 
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However, an expert panel of researchers recently reported that the potential for BPA to affect human health is a concern, and more research is needed. Many Americans currently have higher levels of BPA than those found to cause harm in lab animals.

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After the first reports of a salmonella outbreak this spring, it took a full 89 days before jalapeño and serrano peppers came under suspicion as the culprit. During that period, more than 1,440 victims were hospitalized.
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Even as bacterial outbreaks have become more high-profile, and the financial fallout from recalls more severe, the government has been handing off many food-safety responsibilities to private industry. Food safety today is a business.
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For most Americans, the FDA is still the public face of food safety. But in reality, oversight of farms and food plants has gradually changed hands. There is now a cottage industry of third-party companies calling themselves “food-safety consultants.”
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This has created some alarming potential gaps. There’s no certification system for these third-party inspectors. Critics worry that retailers hire these companies not just to ensure food quality — but also as a defense mechanism to help protect their public image in case something goes wrong.
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And while tomato and spinach growers are audited heavily because they’ve had so many problems in the past, other crops, such as broccoli and cauliflower, are scrutinized less. Many growers are living in a continuing state of denial about whether they should be doing anything.
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There’s also the concern that these efforts could actually be making food less safe. In some cases, a grower needs to pay for audits from six or seven companies just to satisfy the demands of all of its different buyers. The overlapping attention might help eliminate problems, but it’s also costly. For slaughter facilities squeezed by rising costs, surreptitiously cutting out E. coli tests has been one of their money-saving tactics.
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To get a further sense of the problem, consider that today about 80 percent of the United State’s seafood and slightly less than half of its fresh fruits are imported from overseas. But the FDA inspects only about 1 percent. Meanwhile, it would cost the FDA more than $3.5 billion to inspect every one of the roughly 250,000 domestic and foreign food facilities just once.
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In reality, industry insiders say the FDA is lucky if it gets to the same facility once every three years.
 

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A research team has demonstrated that intellectual work induces a substantial increase in appetite and calorie intake. This discovery could help to explain, in part, the current obesity epidemic.
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The team measured the spontaneous food intake of 14 students after each of three tasks: relaxing in a sitting position, reading and summarizing a text, and completing a series of memory, attention, and vigilance tests on the computer.
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Each session of intellectual work required only three calories more than the rest period. However, despite the low energy cost of mental work, the students spontaneously consumed 203 more calories after summarizing a text and 253 more calories after the computer tests than they did after relaxing.
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Blood samples taken before, during, and after each session revealed that intellectual work caused bigger fluctuations in glucose and insulin levels — two critical components in the body’s regulatory and energy machinery — than rest periods.
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Jean-Philippe Chaput, the lead author of the study, said that mental work “destabilizes” the levels of insulin and glucose, thus stimulating the appetite, apparently in response to a need to restore the body’s energy balance.

Can you really fight wrinkles from the inside out? Yes and there’s a fruit that can help.

It’s papaya. What makes papaya so perfect? Easy. Vitamin C. Papaya has loads of it, and getting lots of vitamin C may mean more youthful skin — fewer wrinkles and less thinning and dryness. A recent study in women over 40 confirmed it.

The Mysteries of C
Vitamin C is a natural friend to skin. The nutrient is essential for making collagen, the protein fibers that give skin its strength and resiliency. And being a powerful antioxidant, C also disarms free radicals that would otherwise chip away and weaken collagen. (Did you know? Vitamin C helps protect skin from this sun scourge, too.)

More Food for Your Face
A little extra vitamin C isn’t all it takes to plump your complexion. Here are a few more food tips that can help keep your face fresh:

• Munch on walnuts. In the vitamin C study, researchers also noted that diets rich in linoleic acid — an essential fatty acid in walnuts — meant moister, plumper skin. (Bonus: Walnuts will make this happy, too.)
• Ease up on fats and refined carbs. Scientists found both were linked to aging skin. Discover the dark side of processed foods with this article.
• Think whole grains. The magnesium and B vitamins you get from them help with the regeneration of skin cells. Find out what foods are mostly whole grains.
• Keep the fruits and veggies coming. To stay smooth and healthy, your skin needs a whole slew of antioxidant-rich produce. Like this root vegetable.

Read this article for a complete chart of healthy food choices for your skin.

Real Benefit: Eating a diverse diet that includes 4 servings of fruit per day can make your RealAge as much as 4 years younger.

References Published  

Dietary nutrient intakes and skin-aging appearance among middle-aged American women Cosgrove, M. C., Franco, O. H., Granger, S. P., Murray, P. G., Mayes, A. E., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2007 Oct;86

Is a person’s weight really a reliable indicator of overall health?

Some medical research is showing that it isn’t. Last week a report in The Archives of Internal Medicine compared weight and cardiovascular risk factors among a representative sample of more than 5,400 adults. Half of the overweight people and one-third of obese people in the study were “metabolically healthy.” That means that many overweight and obese adults may have healthy levels of “good” cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose.

At the same time, about one out of four slim people in the study actually had at least two cardiovascular risk factors typically associated with obesity.

Being overweight or obese is definitely linked with numerous health problems. Nonetheless, researchers found the proportion of overweight and obese people who are metabolically healthy surprising.

Several studies have shown that fitness, as determined by how a person performs on a treadmill, is a far better indicator of health than body mass index. Some research has indicated that people who are fat but can still keep up on treadmill tests have much lower heart risk than people who are slim and unfit.

Is there a right way to check your breasts for early signs of cancer? Many women remain confused as experts now say there is no evidence that rigorous monthly “self-examination” — widely recommended in the United States — reduces breast cancer deaths. Plus, it can lead to unnecessary biopsies.

Two large studies looking at a total of more than 388,000 women found that death rates from breast cancer were the same among women who rigorously self-examined as those who did not, while there were almost twice the number of biopsy operations in the self-examination group.

According to some experts, the best way for a woman to check her breasts is not to follow a strict examination routine, but to get to know what is normal, and feel them regularly for signs of any changes.

In this video, Dr. Mercola interviews Dr. William Grant, Ph.D., internationally recognized research scientist and vitamin D expert, reveals the important role vitamin D plays in your health.

Dr. Grant, whose background is in atmospheric sciences, has applied the ecologic approach to the study of dietary and environmental links to chronic disease. He has worked at the level of senior research scientist at such notable institutions as SRI International, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the NASA Langley Research Center.

More recently, Dr. Grant has uncovered exciting potential for the use of vitamin D in the prevention and treatment of a number of high-incidence cancers found in Western populations. He is the director of the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center (SUNARC), an entity devoted to research, education, and advocacy relating to the prevention of chronic disease through changes in diet and lifestyle.

Dr. Grant has also authored or coauthored over 60 articles in peer-reviewed journals, edited two books of reprints, and contributed half a dozen chapters to other books.

New research shows that to get an optimal vitamin D supplement from the sun at a minimal risk of getting cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM), the best time of sun exposure is noon.

That means that common health recommendations given by authorities in many countries — that sun exposure should be avoided for three to five hours around noon and postponed to the afternoon — could be wrong and may even promote CMM.

This is in part because the action spectrum for CMM is likely to be centered at longer wavelengths than that of vitamin D generation.

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Sources: Advanced Experiments in Medical Biology 2008; 624: 86-88