Health For a Purpose

(from this website)

51 Uses for Baking Soda

1. Make Toothpaste

A paste made from baking soda and a 3 percent hydrogen peroxide solution can be used as an alternative to commercial non-fluoride toothpastes. (Or here’s a formula for a minty version.) You can also just dip your toothbrush with toothpaste into baking soda for an extra boost.

2. Freshen Your Mouth
Put one teaspoon in half a glass of water, swish, spit and rinse. Odors are neutralized, not just covered up.

3. Soak Oral Appliance
Soak oral appliances, like retainers, mouthpieces, and dentures, in a solution of 2 teaspoons baking soda dissolved in a glass or small bowl of warm water. The baking soda loosens food particles and neutralizes odors to keep appliances fresh. You can also brush appliances clean using baking soda.

4. Use as a Facial Scrub and Body Exfoliant
Give yourself an invigorating facial and body scrub. Make a paste of 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water. Rub in a gentle circular motion to exfoliate the skin. Rinse clean. This is gentle enough for daily use. (For a stronger exfoliant, try one of these great 5 Homemade Sugar Scrubs.)

5. Skip Harsh Deodorant
Pat baking soda onto your underarms to neutralize body odor.

6. Use as an Antacid
Baking soda is a safe and effective antacid to relieve heartburn, sour stomach and/or acid indigestion. Refer to baking soda package for instructions.

7. Treat Insect Bites & Itchy Skin
For insect bites, make a paste out of baking soda and water, and apply as a salve onto affected skin. To ease the itch, shake some baking soda into your hand and rub it into damp skin after bath or shower. For specific tips on bee stings, see Bee Stings: Prevention and Treatment.

8. Make a Hand Cleanser and Softener
Skip harsh soaps and gently scrub away ground-in dirt and neutralize odors on hands with a paste of 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water, or 3 parts baking soda to gentle liquid hand soap. Then rinse clean. You can try this honey and cornmeal scrub for hands too.

9. Help Your Hair
Vinegar is amazing for your hair, but baking soda has its place in the shower too. Sprinkle a small amount of baking soda into your palm along with your favorite shampoo. Shampoo as usual and rinse thoroughly–baking soda helps remove the residue that styling products leave behind so your hair is cleaner and more manageable.

10. Clean Brushes and Combs
For lustrous hair with more shine, keep brushes and combs clean. Remove natural oil build-up and hair product residue by soaking combs and brushes in a solution of 1 teaspoon of baking soda in a small basin of warm water. Rinse and allow to dry.

11. Make a Bath Soak
Add 1/2 cup of baking soda to your bath to neutralize acids on the skin and help wash away oil and perspiration, it also makes your skin feel very soft. Epsom salts are pretty miraculous for the bath too, read about the health benefits of epsom salt baths.

12. Soothe Your Feet
Dissolve 3 tablespoons of baking soda in a tub of warm water and soak feet. Gently scrub. You can also make a spa soak for your feet.

13. Make a Surface Soft Scrub
For safe, effective cleaning of bathroom tubs, tile and sinks–even fiberglass and glossy tiles–sprinkle baking soda lightly on a clean damp sponge and scrub as usual. Rinse thoroughly and wipe dry. For extra cleaning power, make a paste with baking soda, course salt and liquid dish soap—let it sit then scour off.

14. Handwash Dishes and Pots & Pans
Add 2 heaping tablespoons baking soda (along with your regular dish detergent) to the dish water to help cut grease and foods left on dishes, pots and pans. For cooked-on foods, let them soak in the baking soda and detergent with water first, then use dry baking soda on a clean damp sponge or cloth as a scratchless scouring powder. Using a dishwasher? Try these energy saving tips.

15. Freshen Sponges
Soak stale-smelling sponges in a strong baking soda solution to get rid of the mess (4 tablespoons of baking soda dissolved in 1 quart of warm water). For more thorough disinfecting, use the microwave.

16. Clean the Microwave
Baking soda on a clean damp sponge cleans gently inside and outside the microwave and never leaves a harsh chemical smell. Rinse well with water.

17. Polish Silver Flatware
Use a baking soda paste made with 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water. Rub onto the silver with a clean cloth or sponge. Rinse thoroughly and dry for shining sterling and silver-plate serving pieces.

18. Clean Coffee and Tea Pots
Remove coffee and tea stains and eliminate bitter off-tastes by washing mugs and coffee makers in a solution of 1/4 cup baking soda in 1 quart of warm water. For stubborn stains, try soaking overnight in the baking soda solution and detergent or scrubbing with baking soda on a clean damp sponge.

19. Clean the Oven
Sprinkle baking soda onto the bottom of the oven. Spray with water to dampen the baking soda. Let sit overnight. In the morning, scrub, scoop the baking soda and grime out with a sponge, or vacuum, and rinse.

20. Clean Floors
Remove dirt and grime (without unwanted scratch marks) from no wax and tile floors using 1/2 cup baking soda in a bucket of warm water–mop and rinse clean for a sparkling floor. For scuff marks, use baking soda on a clean damp sponge, then rinse. Read Natural Floor Cleaning for more tips on avoiding toxic floor cleaners.

21. Clean Furniture
You can make a homemade lemon furniture polish, or you can clean and remove marks (even crayon) from walls and painted furniture by applying baking soda to a damp sponge and rubbing lightly. Wipe off with a clean, dry cloth.

22. Clean Shower Curtains
Clean and deodorize your vinyl shower curtain by sprinkling baking soda directly on a clean damp sponge or brush. Scrub the shower curtain and rinse clean. Hang it up to dry.

23. Boost Your Liquid Laundry Detergent
Give your laundry a boost by adding ½ cup of baking soda to your laundry to make liquid detergent work harder. A better balance of pH in the wash gets clothes cleaner, fresher, and brighter.

24. Gently Clean Baby Clothes
Baby skin requires the most gentle of cleansers, which are increasingly available, but odor and stain fighters are often harsh. For tough stains add 1/2 cup of baking soda to your liquid laundry detergent, or a 1/2 cup in the rinse cycle for deodorization.

25. Clean Cloth Diapers
Dissolve ½ cup of baking soda in 2 quarts of water and soak diapers thoroughly.

26. Clean and Freshen Sports Gear
Use a baking soda solution (4 tablespoons Baking soda in 1 quart warm water) to clean and deodorize smelly sports equipment. Sprinkle baking soda into golf bags and gym bags to deodorize, clean golf irons (without scratching them!) with a baking soda paste (3 parts Baking sodato 1 part water) and a brush. Rinse thoroughly.

27. Remove Oil and Grease Stains
Use Baking soda to clean up light-duty oil and grease spills on your garage floor or in your driveway. Sprinkle baking soda on the spot and scrub with a wet brush.

28. Clean Batteries
Baking soda can be used to neutralize battery acid corrosion on cars, mowers, etc. because its a mild alkali. Be sure to disconnect the battery terminals before cleaning. Make a paste of 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water, apply with a damp cloth to scrub corrosion from the battery terminal. After cleaning and re-connecting the terminals, wipe them with petroleum jelly to prevent future corrosion. Please be careful when working around a battery–they contain a strong acid.

29. Clean Cars
Use baking soda to clean your car lights, chrome, windows, tires, vinyl seats and floor mats without worrying about unwanted scratch marks. Use a baking soda solution of 1/4 cup baking soda in 1 quart of warm water. Apply with a sponge or soft cloth to remove road grime, tree sap, bugs, and tar. For stubborn stains use baking soda sprinkled on a damp sponge or soft brush.

30. Deodorize Your Refrigerator
Place an open box in the back of the fridge to neutralize odors.

31. Deodorize the Cutting Board
Sprinkle the cutting board with baking soda, scrub, rinse. For how to more thoroughly clean your cutting board, see How To Clean Your Cutting Boards.

32. Deodorize Trashcans
Sprinkle baking soda on the bottom of your trashcan to keep stinky trash smells at bay.

33. Deodorize Recyclables
Sprinkle baking soda on top as you add to the container. Also, clean your recyclable container periodically by sprinkling baking soda on a damp sponge. Wipe clean and rinse. Learn about how to recycle everythin.

34. Deodorize Drains
To deodorize your sink and tub drains, and keep lingering odors from resurfacing, pour 1/2 cup of baking soda down the drain while running warm tap water–it will neutralize both acid and basic odors for a fresh drain. (This a good way to dispose of baking soda that is being retired from your refrigerator.) Do you know what you’re not supposed to put down your drains?

35. Deodorize and Clean Dishwashers
Use Baking soda to deodorize before you run the dishwasher and then as a gentle cleanser in the wash cycle.

36. Deodorize Garbage Disposals
To deodorize your disposal, and keep lingering odors from resurfacing, pour baking soda down the drain while running warm tap water. Baking Soda will neutralize both acid and basic odors for a fresh drain.

37. Deodorize Lunch Boxes
Between uses, place a spill-proof box of baking soda in everyone’s lunch box to absorb lingering odors. Read bout safe lunch boxes here.

38. Remove Odor From Carpets
Liberally sprinkle baking soda on the carpet. Let set overnight, or as long as possible (the longer it sets the better it works). Sweep up the larger amounts of baking soda, and vacuum up the rest. (Note that your vacuum cleaner bag will get full and heavy.)

39. Remove Odor From Vacuum Cleaners
By using the method above for carpets, you will also deodorize your vacuum cleaner.

40. Freshen Closets
Place a box on the shelf to keep the closet smelling fresh, then follow these tips to organize your closet in an eco-friendly way.

41. Deodorizing Cars
Odors settle into car upholstery and carpet, so each time you step in and sit down, they are released into the air all over again. Eliminate these odors by sprinkling baking soda directly on fabric car seats and carpets. Wait 15 minutes (or longer for strong odors) and vacuum up the baking soda.

42. Deodorize the Cat Box
Cover the bottom of the pan with baking soda, then fill as usual with litter. To freshen between changes, sprinkle baking soda on top of the litter after a thorough cleaning. You can also use green tea for this purpose!

43. Deodorize Pet Bedding
Eliminate odors from your pets bedding by sprinkling liberally with baking soda, wait 15 minutes (or longer for stronger odors), then vacuum up.

44. Deodorize Sneakers
Keep odors from spreading in smelly sneakers by shaking baking soda into them when not in use. Shake out before wearing. When they’re no longer wearable, make sure to  donate your old sneakers.

45. Freshen Linens
Add 1/2 cup of baking soda to the rinse cycle for fresher sheets and towels. You can also make homemade lavender linen water with this formula.

46. Deodorize Your Wash
Gym clothes of other odoriferous clothing can be neutralized with a ½ cup of baking soda in the rinse cycle.

47. Freshen Stuffed Animals
Keep favorite cuddly toys fresh with a dry shower of baking soda. Sprinkle baking soda on and let it sit for 15 minutes before brushing off.

48. Camping Cure-all
Baking soda is a must-have for your next camping trip. Its a dish washer, pot scrubber, hand cleanser, deodorant, toothpaste,f ire extinguisher and many other uses.

49. Extinguish Fires
Baking soda can help in the initial handling of minor grease or electrical kitchen fires, because when baking soda is heated, it gives off carbon dioxide, which helps to smother the flames. For small cooking fires (frying pans, broilers, ovens, grills), turn off the gas or electricity if you can safely do so. Stand back and throw handfuls of baking soda at the base of the flame to help put out the fire–and call the Fire Department just to be safe. (And, you should have a fire entinguisher on hand anyway, here’s why.

50. Septic Care
Regular use of baking soda in your drains can help keep your septic system flowing freely.  1 cup of baking soda per week will help maintain a favorable pH in your septic tank.

51. Fruit and Vegetable Scrub
Baking soda is the food safe way to clean dirt and residue off fresh fruit and vegetables. Just sprinkle a little on a clean damp sponge, scrub and rinse. Here’s another way to clean your vegetables as well.

(from this website)

Natural tick repellents are easy to make
Here are a few natural tick repellents you can make at home for yourself and for your pets. You should get a spray bottle (one that holds at least 16 oz) for some of these combinations.

• In a small container or bowl, combine 4 tablespoons vegetable oil or almond oil, 2 tablespoons aloe vera gel, and 30 to 40 drops geranium essential oil. Mix it well and use an eye dropper to apply the mixture to your skin and rub it in. You can also apply two to three drops to your dog’s collar to repel ticks.
• Make the same combination but use lavender essential oil instead of geranium. You can also use half geranium and half lavender essential oils.  (the BEST essential oils are at www. mydoterra.com/healthforapurpose)
• Combine 1 cup water, ½ cup apple cider vinegar, and 6 to 10 drops of geranium or lavender essential oil in a spray bottle. This tick repellent can be sprayed on clothing, your pet’s fur, your skin, and your lawn.
• Neem oil is an effective tick repellent for both humans and dogs, but you must use the mixture within 8 hours of preparing it, because the neem oil will lose its potency. First combine 16 ounces of warm water with 2 ml of mild detergent. Slowly add 5 ml of neem oil and stir vigorously. Use the mixture in a spray bottle. This tick repellent can be applied to the skin and to a dog’s fur.
• Another way to use neem is to bring 2 cups of water to a boil and add ½ cup dried neem leaves to the water. Steep the leaves for one hour, then strain off the liquid into a spray bottle. This neem water can be used on clothing, skin, and pets (rub into their fur). Avoid contact with the eyes or ears on pets and yourself.
• Ticks are not fond of citrus, so you can make a citrus tick repellent. Boil 2 cups of water and add any combination of 2 sliced citrus fruits: lemons, limes, oranges, or grapefruit. Allow the mixture to boil for about a minute, then simmer for one hour. Remove the fruit and put the liquid through a strainer. Pour into a spray bottle and use on your skin, your pet’s fur, and on your lawn.
• Combine 16 ounces of water and 20 to 25 crops of peppermint essential oil in a spray bottle and spritz onto clothing, your dog’s fur, and your lawn.

Most essential oils are toxic to cats and should not be used to repel ticks. The natural tick repellents using vinegar, citrus, and neem leaves should be safe, but talk to your vet before using any type of tick repellent on your cat.

Along with using a tick repellent, other measures you should take during tick season is to regularly inspect yourself and your pets soon after you have been outdoors. If you discover a tick on yourself or your pet, remove it carefully using tweezers.

Ticks can attach themselves to both you and your pets, possibly exposing you and them to Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. Natural tick repellents such as those noted here may help protect you and your family from these pests.

I just watched a great DVD about the toxic effects of mercury, especially amalgam (silver-colored) dental fillings.  Go here  to get details.  You can watch the video online or purchase the DVD.  BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO GET ANY AMALGAMS REMOVED, IT IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT THAT YOU CONTACT ME AND GET IT DONE CORRECTLY SO YOU WON’T BE POISONED BY THE PROCESS!!!

IT COULD BE YOUR THYROID

To register, go  HERE

Are you suffering from:

• Weight gain that does not respond to diet or exercise
• Sleep problems and/or fatigue
• Hot flashes
• Cold hands, feet or cold in general
• Depression
• Thinning of hair (look in your shower drain) and/or the outer 1/3 of your eyebrows
• Brain Fog
• Dry skin and/or thin brittle nails
• Infertility
• Constipation

It Could Be Your Thyroid!

Join us for this life-changing seminar and discover:

• Why 90% of women (and probably men, too) in this country have hypothyroid and don’t even know it!
• Why 50% of depression is undiagnosed hypothyroid!  New studies reveal the truth…
• Why your hot flashes and menopause symptoms could be your thyroid.
• Why weight loss resistance, sleep problems, hair loss, and constipation could be your thyroid.

A workshop with real answers and solutions drug companies don’t want you to know about…

Seating is limited so register early!  All registration fees will be donated to GRACE.

Below are 2 videos from the Health Centers of the Future on Thyroid Dysfunction that will pique your interest into why thyroid conditions are not diagnosed or cared for properly.

This is Part 1: http://youtu.be/g24ADdQIx5M

Part 2 is here: http://youtu.be/FAzzToCEKJ4

To register, go  HERE

Most of the personal care products available commercially (even at the healthfood stores) contain toxins. Toxins cause cellular inflammation which leads to DISEASE:( Did you see our facebook post today from Prevention Magazine today about autism, ADHD, allergies, and asthma being caused by toxins? And the non-toxic hand creams I’ve found are SO expensive!! So . . . . I ordered some shea, mango, and cocoa butters from Mountain Rose Herbs and found a recipe online and made some handcream today. The problem is that the cocoa butter smells like, well, like cocoa! So it makes me want to eat chocolate!!! Nothing wrong with eating chocolate sometimes, especially Beyond Organic chocolate (it has the most amazing, assertive flavor), but I don’t want to eat chocolate every time I use hand cream. So I added some Slim & Sassy doTERRA oil and now it just smells yummy! Nourishing, non-toxic, super-cheap:) Makes me happy:)  I’ll perfect the recipe over time and add it to our recipes page.  Today I used:
a stick of beeswax
4 T mango butter
4 T cocoa butter
2 T sweet almond oil
I melted those together in my double boiler (which did clean up easily), then poured it in little jars.

Try it – it was so simple!

SEASONAL ALLERGIES

It’s allergy season again. Actually, I remember a time when there were only a few months of the year that were NOT allergy season for me! The first season I had NO problems with allergies was when I got my amalgam (mercury) fillings removed the last week of August, 2008. It required 2 dentist appointments 4 days apart, and during that time my typical fall sneezing & itching symptoms started. BUT the DAY I started to detoxify metals, that went away and I didn’t have another symptom that entire fall/winter! I was 47 and had suffered with allergies all my life!! Remember the bucket theory – all the physical, chemical, and emotional STRESS you experience goes into your “bucket.” We all have different size buckets. We start to see symptoms (like allergies) when our bucket overflows. Anything you can do to minimize what goes into your bucket, or increase what comes out, will reduce symptoms. That’s one way detoxifying can reduce allergies. Another way is that toxicity decreases immunity. You probably know that allergies are an improper immune response. So anything you can do to boost your immune system – like seeing a chiropractor routinely or eliminating sugars from your diet or detoxifying – will reduce your allergy symptoms.

After that one miraculous allergy-free season, I did start to get symptoms again, but MUCH less severe than in the past. I certainly don’t want to take drugs to treat the symptoms, because all drugs are toxic. I do have an herbal supplement I take sometimes that is helpful – let me know if you want to order some of that from me. But the BEST thing I’ve EVER used for my allergies is METHYLS. I like the methyls because they are MORE EFFECTIVE at controlling my allergy symptoms than anything I’ve ever used. And because methyls SO MUCH MORE. Your body needs methyl donors to detoxify histamine (chemistry lesson). But most of us are VERY depleted in methyl donors because of physical, chemical (toxins) and emotional STRESS!!! Every cell needs methylation, and when there’s not enough methyl molecules to get all the work done, some of the jobs don’t get done – like detoxifying histamine or toxic estrogen (so some women have more allergy problems during their period). Methylation is also critical for balancing all the feel-good, sleeping, waking, stress managing hormones, too.

I use 2 very specific products in a very specific ratio. One is a tablet of a specific kind of B12. On each tablet, you put one drop of a specific kind of folate. Then put it under your tongue to dissolve. So it’s not like taking a B vitamin supplement, because these are different forms of each vitamin and they are sublingual so they don’t get metabolized by the stomach; they can be used as methyl donors. You can take them as often as you want, because they are natural and if you happen to take more than you need, your body just gets rid of it. It isn’t stored, so it isn’t toxic. As soon as you notice any symptom, take a methyl. Then take another one as soon as you notice another symptom. You might take them every 20 minutes all day one day, and that’s fine! Then you might not need very many the next day. You can take them routinely, preventively, if you want. Especially this time of year. But they work very quickly, so you can take them symptomatically, as soon as you sneeze or your eyes itch or your throat or ears itch or there’s gunk in your throat or you head gets stuffy or your nose is drippy or whatever other allergy symptom you have.

I love these products because they are natural and nourishing, instead of taking drugs which are all toxic. AND because they WORK VERY WELL!!! EMAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO GET SOME METHYLS. If you’re not local, I can mail them to you.

WORKSHOP

Our next workshop will be all about customized eating plans.
Saturday, April 21 10-11 a.m.
Compass Center (the new building across the street from Compass Church)
4201 Pool Rd, Grapevine

WHAT FOODS SHOULD BE ON YOUR PLATE?

Join us for this health workshop and discover:
• The best fats to eat (hint: not canola)
• Why a Harvard study says that saturated fat is advantageous
• The best meats to eat – and where to get them
• Why it’s not necessary to count calories or grams
• Which part of the food label IS important, and which part you can ignore

Are you confused by all the dietary advice in the media? Wonder how to read the food pyramid (do you even need to know how??)? Do you really have to give up coffee? Are there some foods you should never eat? This workshop will teach you the basic principles for healthy eating so you can make educated decisions about what foods you should eat – and which foods you should avoid – for a lifestyle that will optimize your health. Do you need ideas for an exercise plan that is free and fast and effective? Sound too good to be true? Come and find out!

Burst exercising will be our first topic, starting promptly at 10

cool little tips on whey and probiotics:  many athletes/body builders like to drink whey after a workout.  Some like whey isolate because it’s quickly absorbed, BUT, because of the way it’s processed, it acts like an excitotoxin in the body.  Hydrolyzed whey is also an excitotoxin.  Beyond Organic Amasai is the BEST product to use, because it’s a whole food.    Plus, the probiotics in Amasai are protected thru the stomach (better than in any probiotic supplement) so they get all the way to the lower GI, where they are needed.  AND – the dairy products from Beyond Organic have A2 beta casein, which is a completely different kind of protein from the A1 beta casein which is in 99% of the dairy products in America.  People who are usually sensitive to casein CAN usually handle A2.  You can get these products at tammystewart.mybeyondorganic.com.  Amasai boosts production of human growth hormone, which has a quick, significant affect on balancing hormones.

This article from www.mercola.com is a VERY concise summary of how to prevent cancer and other diseases. It addresses most of the things we teach at Health for a Purpose. Diseases in our country are happening more OFTEN at YOUNGER ages. Isn’t it logical that PREVENTING diseases would be the best thing we can be doing? Don’t you think that detecting and treating disease should be our secondary, not our primary focus? I’ve always been a health nut, but then I watched my precious aunt die of brain cancer, then my mother-in-law and step-father got cancer ALL IN THE SAME MONTH, then my step father died 6 miserable months later. Soon after that God gave me an opportunity to start a new business helping people be HEALTHY. That is the focus of the consulting I do and the workshops I teach.

Attend our free health workshops and learn how you can BUILD HEALTH IN YOUR BODY, so you can use all your energy achieving God’s purpose for your life, free from the distraction of diseases!!!

Story at-a-glance

Dr. Christine Horner, a board certified general- and plastic surgeon, shares her extensive knowledge about breast cancer—its causes and its cures, and the pro’s and con’s of various screening methods
There are many all-natural cancer-prevention strategies, and research shows that most of them can cut your risk in half. Consequently, by implementing multiple strategies, you can virtually eliminate your risk of cancer as well as other chronic disease
Your diet is the one of the best ways to either feed or prevent cancer. Processed foods, soft drinks, red meat from CAFO-raised animals, trans fats, all forms of sugar, and any food containing or contaminated with xenoestrogens promote cancer growth. Plant foods, particularly cruciferous vegetables and flax seed, as well as many herbs and spices are cancer-preventive
Healthy fats of particular importance for cancer prevention are omega-3 and omega-9, which effectively slow down tumor growth in estrogen-sensitive cancers such as breast-, prostate- and colon cancers

How to Starve Cancer Out of Your Body – Avoid These Top 4 Cancer-Feeding Foods

By Dr. Mercola

Dr. Christine Horner began her career as a board certified general- and plastic surgeon, performing breast reconstructive surgeries on women who’d had full mastectomies due to breast cancer.

In this interview, she shares her extensive knowledge about breast cancer—its causes and its cures, and the pro’s and con’s of various screening methods.

Her interest in breast cancer began while she was still in college, when her mother developed the disease.

Thirteen years later, when her mother’s cancer returned, Dr. Horner became very active with the American Cancer Society.

For a time, she was a vice-president and the Kentucky state spokesperson for the American Cancer Society on breast cancer issues.

“We were trained to say that we don’t know what causes breast cancer and we have no known cures; the best things that women can do are breast exams and mammograms,” she says.

“… In my practice, I was watching women get younger and younger when I was doing breast reconstruction on them.

Finally, I was doing women in their 20s. I thought something is way wrong with this picture.” I thought why don’t we just look through the medical literature and see if there’s anything that research shows that women can do, that’s within our control that will lower our risks. I had no idea what I was going to find… But when I looked, I instantly found thousands of studies that show exactly why we have a cancer epidemic…”

What’s Causing the Cancer Epidemic?

What Dr. Horner discovered was that there are a number of habits we’ve stopped doing in our modern culture that are highly protective. We’ve dramatically altered our diets—shunning our native, whole-foods cuisine for highly processed fare—and engage in very little physical activity, for example.

“We’re telling women that all they can do is mammogram [screening], and it’s extremely disempowering,” Dr. Horner says. “You feel like you have no control over it. But if you look at epidemiological studies… we know that people that live in Asia have a very low incidence of breast cancer or prostate cancer… [W]e have the studies showing that if an Asian woman moves to the United States and adopts our American diet and lifestyle, within one generation her risk will match that of an American woman’s. It’s like “Hello? What are we doing or not doing that they’re doing or not doing that’s making such a big difference? ”

Dr. Horner was eventually introduced to the system of Ayurvedic medicine, and the more she learned about it, the more she felt there were answers therein that needed to be shared with people on a wider scale.

‘[T]here are so many really simple things people can do that can have a dramatic effect on their health,” she says. “Basically, the more you learn about natural medicine, the more you’ll realize that we’re just telling our patients lies– not on purpose, but from what we have been taught from the pharmaceutical companies and so forth.”

She pitched the idea to television stations in Cincinnati to let her talk about complementary and alternative medicine, and ended up being the first syndicated segment on the news related to complementary and alternative medicine, which ran from 1999 through 2002. At that point, she decided to quit her surgery practice to focus on teaching people how to become and stay healthy naturally, and wrote the book: Waking the Warrior Goddess: Dr. Christine Horner’s Program to Protect Against and Fight Breast Cancer, which contains all-natural approaches for protecting against and treating breast cancer. Dr. Horner’s book won the IPPY award in 2006 for “Best book in health medicine and nutrition.”

“[W]e have the answers to the breast cancer epidemic,” she says. “We truly do– and it’s very simple. If you have a terrible diet and lifestyle and you do just one thing, you cut your risk in half. You do more than one thing and they will multiply up together. They don’t add up together. They multiply up together, so it becomes extremely easy to dramatically lower your risk of breast cancer.”

It’s worth mentioning that the same strategies apply for other types of cancer as well. Prostate and colon cancer tumors, for example, are similar to breast cancer tumors, as certain hormones cause them all to grow. Hence, protective strategies that are effective against breast cancer also work on these other types of cancer. Cancer prevention strategies will also virtually eliminate most other chronic disorders.

The Problem with Conventional Cancer Screenings

While diagnostic screenings have their place, some cancer screens are just about worthless… The wisdom of using the PSA test, for example, which checks for prostate cancer, has recently been questioned. Ditto for mammograms.

“Looking at the diagnostic tests that are currently available, none of them are perfect,” Dr. Horner says. “Everything has its pros and cons… [M]ammography produces radiation, which has been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer. It’s like, “Why are you doing the test to look at a disease when it’s actually causing the disease, too?” … It does pick things up at earlier stages, but the problem is that it’s not very specific. So when it looks and it sees something… that looks suspicious, it is wrong 80 percent of the time. In the United States, there’s roughly a million breast biopsies done per year, and 800,000 of them are unnecessary.”

One of the best cancer screening methods is self-examination. But you need to make sure you’re doing it correctly. For more information about how to do a breast self exam, please see this previous article.

MRI’s, which do not use ionizing radiation, are not a practical tool as they are very expensive, and, like mammograms, MRI scans are not very specific. Ultrasound is another technique used in Western medicine. The traditional ultrasound can see whether a mass is cystic or solid. But while a solid mass is generally considered to be something that might be of concern, this is not 100 percent certain either, as cancer tumors can sometimes have cysts in them.

“Now there’s a relatively new ultrasound that uses a color mode,” Dr. Horner says. “It’s called elastography. But there aren’t very many centers in the United States that use it. I go to the Center of the Hoxsey Clinic, to Dr. Arturo Rodriguez at Tijuana. It has a color scale that measures the elasticity of the cell membranes. Cancer cells are very stiff, whereas normal cells have more fluidity to them. It’ll show up as red if it has a lot of stiffness to it, as a cancer cell, or blue if it has elasticity… It’s a very good tool.”

On Thermography

Another form of cancer screen, which is still considered controversial in conventional medicine, is thermography, which gives you an infrared image of your body. By looking at heat and blood vessel patterns you can determine whether there are areas of concern.

“[B]efore you even get a tumor formation, the very first thing that happens is new blood vessels start to grow into the area where the tumor may form. Those blood vessels grow abnormally. They grow an abnormal amount of patterns and they produce an abnormal amount of heat. That’s what thermography is checking for,” Dr. Horner explains.

As with most new technologies, thermography hit some snags in its earlier stages, and fell out of favor in the early 70s. However, the technology has gotten a lot more sophisticated over the years, and is now computerized; eliminating the need for highly trained technicians to evaluate the results.

“The problem we still have today with thermography is that we don’t have standardization,” Dr. Horner explains. “We don’t have a uniform way that people are tested and trained with uniform equipment, and so forth… But there’s definitely a movement… to do standardization, and to get that technology available for women, because this is a technology that has no health detriments associated with it. It does not use radiation or anything harmful to your body.”

Unfortunately, the advocates of mammography perceive thermography as a threat to their business model. So there’s tremendous pressure against it, including from the federal regulatory agencies.

“It’s unfortunate,” Dr. Horner says, “but our country is run by big business. It’s just is, so anytime we want to shift anything culturally like that, and we’re going against established business, we have trouble because it’s all about money.”

For example, many of the presidents of the American Cancer Society were members of the Radiological Association, which is the industry supporting the mammography component. The entire medical field is littered with massive conflicts of interest.

‘We can see that everywhere. You look in the FDA—there are people from Monsanto that work in the FDA. Unfortunately, people think, “the United States is not very corrupt.” But actually, it’s extremely corrupt,” she says.

Still, there are many good reasons for considering thermography. To ensure you’re getting the highest standard of care, Dr. Horner recommends using a practitioner certified by the International Academy of Clinical Thermography, an independent non-profit organization that provides objective, third-party certifications. Their website lists qualified thermography centers across the US, Canada, and some other countries, such as France, Trinidad, and Zambia.

Most Natural Prevention Strategies Can Reduce Your Cancer Risk by Half…

Through her research, Dr. Horner has gathered a large number of cancer-prevention strategies—about 50 in all! Even more astounding is the rate of effectiveness of many of these strategies.

“[I]f you look at the studies, virtually every single thing that has an influence [causes] almost a 50 percent reduction in cancer risk… and if you combine them, like I said, you’ll get these synergistic results where they’ll multiply up as far as their effect is concerned.

I’d say the most important thing is what you do or do not put in your mouth… because you can have huge influences by the foods you consume– the spices, the herbs, and so forth. And, the things that you avoid, that’s going to give you the biggest results. … Vitamin D cuts your risks in half. Turmeric and anti-inflammatories cut your risk in half. I could go through each thing—and I’m telling you the research shows that there’s about 40 to 50 percent reduction [in risk]—so… to say that one is necessarily better than anything else, that’s a really hard thing to claim.”

The Top Four Cancer-Promoting Foods

Dr. Horner brings up an excellent point, and that is that in order to be effective, you must first STOP doing that which is promoting cancer growth (or poor health in general), and then all the other preventive strategies have the chance to really have an impact. Addressing your diet should be at the top of your list, and rather than adding certain foods, you’ll want to eliminate the most dangerous culprits first.

Naturally, processed foods and soft drinks do not belong in a cancer-preventive diet…

Dr. Horner, believes red meat from animals reared in confined animal feeding operations (CAFO’s) is also a MAJOR contributor to cancer. These animals are given antibiotics, growth hormones and other veterinary drugs that get stored in their tissues. Additionally, cooking the meat over high heat creates heterocyclic amines, which further add to its carcinogenic effect.

While I do recommend eating meat, I agree that there is absolutely NO benefit to eating CAFO beef. The ONLY type of meat I recommend is organically-raised, grass-fed meats. It’s hard for a lot of people to grasp the difference between CAFO and organic meat, but truly, they are like two different species in terms of their nutritional content. One is health harming while the other is beneficial.

So when we’re talking about the detrimental impact of red meat on your health, especially in terms of feeding cancer, please understand that we’re talking specifically about CAFO beef, aka “factory farmed” meat. Next on the list of cancer-promoters is sugar (this includes ALL forms of sugar, including fructose and grains).

“To me, sugar has no redeeming value at all, because they found that the more we consume it, the more we’re fuelling every single chronic disease,” Dr. Horner says. “In fact, there was a study done about a year ago… and the conclusion was that sugar is a universal mechanism for chronic disease. It kicks up inflammation. It kicks up oxygen free radicals. Those are the two main processes we see that underlie any single chronic disorder, including cancers. It fuels the growth of breast cancers, because glucose is cancer’s favorite food. The more you consume, the faster it grows.”

Next is the type of fats that you consume. It’s important to remember that every cell membrane is made out of fat, as is your brain. According to Dr. Horner, bad-fats in the diet are a major contributor to ill health and cancer. On the list of fats to eliminate are:

Animal fats from CAFO-raised animals
Trans fats
Partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated fats
Healthy fats of particular importance for cancer prevention are omega-3 and omega-9. According to Dr. Horner, omega-3 in particular serve to effectively slow down tumor growth in estrogen-sensitive cancers such as breast-, prostate- and colon cancers. Fourth on the list of cancer promoters is ANY item that contains xenoestrogens (chemicals that mimic estrogen). This can become a rather long list once you start including any food contaminated with such estrogen-mimicking chemicals, such as BPA, found in the linings of canned goods and in plastics. The list gets truly unwieldy when you include personal care products that contain such chemicals as well…

“There are case reports of five- and six-year-olds going through secondary sex characteristics because of the shampoo that they were using… There are all sorts of different sources where we’re exposed to these chemicals from our foods and from the products that we use.

What we’re seeing is younger and younger puberty. Around the world, the average age is about 16 years old. In the United States, it’s 10 years old now, and sometimes even younger. The problem is that with each menstrual period there is a surge of estradiol, which is the strongest, most abundant form of estrogen, and the one that’s most associated with breast cancer. If you start your period very young, you’ll have more periods in your lifetime than what a person would have, obviously, if they started at an older age.

In addition to that, when a girl goes through puberty, her breast cells become really sensitive to environmental toxins, radiation, and so forth. They’re considered immature. They haven’t differentiated– as a more scientific term for it– so there’s a longer period of time that they’re exposed to these toxins where they have a greater sensitivity.”

Dr. Horner reviews a number of other important factors that influence your cancer risk, so for more details, please listen to the interview in its entirety, or read through the transcript.

Eating for Cancer Prevention

According to Dr. Horner, the research clearly shows that the one food that is the most important for optimal health is plant foods.

“Plants are packed full of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that are crucial for our health. They also have hundreds of phytochemicals in them. These don’t have any nutritional or caloric value, but they are like natural medicines, and some of them behave exactly like chemotherapy,” she says.

“Every plant has some anti-cancer properties to them. There are some that are standouts. Cruciferous vegetables are something that I really recommend. They’re a family of vegetables that include broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards, and Brussels sprouts…

All of them have several different chemicals in common. They’ve got indole-3-carbinol, Calcium D-glucarate, and sulforaphane. They have big anti-cancer properties to them, and they inhibit the growth of breast, prostate, colon cancer and a variety of other ones. Of all the families of vegetables to consume, [cruciferous vegetables] are the ones to be aware of, so you can make sure you’re including that in your diet frequently.”

Naturally, you’ll want to make sure the vegetables are fresh, and ideally locally grown and organic. Besides cruciferous veggies, another standout plant for cancer-prevention is flax seed. The lignans in flax seed inhibit the growth of cancer in about a dozen different ways, including the exact same mechanism as the anti-cancer drug Tamoxifen and Arimidex, which shut down an enzyme in fat cells called aromatase that converts androgens into estrogens.

“I hear from patients, “Oh! My oncologist told me not to take flaxseeds, because they’re estrogenic,”" Dr. Horner says.”They don’t understand how plant estrogens or “phytoestrogens” work.

There are all sorts of different strengths to estrogens. Let’s say estradiol, which is the strongest, most abundant form– if it hooks on to the estrogen receptor, it may cause a thousand cell divisions. But if a plant estrogen hooks on, it may cause one. When you flood your system with these plant estrogens, I’d say it’s kind of like a game of musical chairs. There are only certain numbers of receptors, and whoever gets their first, gets it. They’re blocking the strong estrogens from getting on, so that’s why it has an inhibitory effect.”

Other Lifestyle Factors that Influence Your Cancer Risk

Other lifestyle factors that have been found to have an impact on chronic disease and cancer include:

Vitamin D—There’s overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that vitamin D deficiency plays a crucial role in cancer development. As mentioned earlier, you can decrease your risk of cancer by MORE THAN HALF simply by optimizing your vitamin D levels with sun exposure. And if you are being treated for cancer it is likely that higher blood levels—probably around 80-90 ng/ml—would be beneficial. The health benefits of optimizing your levels, either by safe sun exposure (ideally), a safe tanning bed, or oral supplementation as a last resort, simply cannot be overstated. In terms of protecting against cancer, vitamin D has been found to offer protection in a number of ways, including:

Regulating genetic expression
Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to replicate, could lead to cancer)
Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells
Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)
Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous
To learn the details on how to use vitamin D therapeutically, please review my previous article, Test Values and Treatment for Vitamin D Deficiency.
Getting proper sleep: both in terms of getting enough sleep, and sleeping between certain hours. According to Ayurvedic medicine, the ideal hours for sleep are between 10 pm and 6 am. Modern research has confirmed the value of this recommendation as certain hormonal fluctuations occur throughout the day and night, and if you engage in the appropriate activities during those times, you’re ‘riding the wave’ so to speak, and are able to get the optimal levels. Working against your biology by staying awake when you should ideally be sleeping or vice versa, interferes with these hormonal fluctuations. According to Dr. Horner:

“If we, for instance, go to bed by 10, we have higher levels of our sleep hormone melatonin; there’s a spike that occurs between midnight and 1am, which you don’t want to miss because the consequences are absolutely spectacular. Melatonin is not only our sleep hormone, but it also is a very powerful antioxidant. It decreases the amount of estrogen our body produces. It also boosts your immune system… And it interacts with the other hormones.

So, if you go to bed after 10… it significantly increases your risk of breast cancer.”
Effectively addressing your stress: The research shows that if you experience a traumatic or highly stressful event, such as a death in the family, your risk of breast cancer is 12 times higher in the ensuing five years.
Exercise—If you are like most people, when you think of reducing your risk of cancer, exercise doesn’t immediately come to mind. However, there is some fairly compelling evidence that exercise can slash your risk of cancer.

One of the primary ways exercise lowers your risk for cancer is by reducing elevated insulin levels, which creates a low sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancer cells. Additionally, exercise improves the circulation of immune cells in your blood. Your immune system is your first line of defense against everything from minor illnesses like a cold right up to devastating, life-threatening diseases like cancer.

The trick about exercise, though, is understanding how to use it as a precise tool. This ensures you are getting enough to achieve the benefit, not too much to cause injury, and the right variety to balance your entire physical structure and maintain strength and flexibility, and aerobic and anaerobic fitness levels. This is why it is helpful to view exercise like a drug that needs to be carefully prescribed to achieve its maximum benefit. For detailed instructions, please see this previous article.

Additionally it is likely that integrating exercise with intermittent fasting will greatly catalyze the potential of exercise to reduce your risk of cancer and stimulate widespread healing and rejuvenation.
More Information

For more information, please see Dr. Horner’s book, Waking the Warrior Goddess: Dr. Christine Horner’s Program to Protect Against and Fight Breast Cancer. You can also learn more about Dr. Horner on her website, www.DrChristineHorner.com.

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