How to Avoid Cancer

Anne Dunev, PhD

One thing that comes up often as a health concern for my patients is how to avoid cancer. Many have lost family members and they are concerned about the genetic component. It is alarming how many people today have cancer, and yet cancer was relatively rare before 1900. And it was not just that people lived shorter lives then.  Consider the changes in the environment and the food supply just in the last 60 years since World War II.

But, let’s go back to a new discovery in the 1880’s that brought about a dramatic change in a staple food and how that may be affecting us today and contributing to cancer. Emperor Louis Napolean III offered a prize for anyone who could invent a substitute for butter to be used by the lower classes and armed forces. French chemist Mege-Mouries took up the challenge and invented oleomargarine in the laboratory. Since it was white in color, and the addition of yellow coloring was banned in many countries, including the U.S., for almost 100 years, margarine did not intially threaten the dairy industry and the use of real butter in the marketplace. For example, it was not legal to sell colored margarine in Australia until the 1960’s.

 In the mid 1880’s, margarine was taxed at 2 cents a pound in the United States, and in several states with big Dairy interests legislators passed laws demanding the addition of pink coloring to make margarine unpalatable to consumers.

In the 20th century bootleg colored margarine became common and yellow coloring was sold separately so that people could make their own white margarine appear yellow. What happens when you ban a product? Human nature seems to demand that it become desirable.  So, despite added taxes, margarine did sell.

World War I brought strict rationing of dairy products, and margarine consumption increased enormously, both in the U.S. and Europe.

Originally margarine was made from beef fat, until hydrogenation of plant matter was developed. This makes the melting point of plant oils higher, so that you get a solid spread at room temperature and not a pool of oil for your toast. And herein lies the problem with margarine. Hydrogenation is a process that takes place in a chamber so that heat and pressure can be applied to the oil, along with a metal catalyst of nickel or palladium, to force hydrogen into the chains of fatty acids. This creates trans-fats, which have been linked to cardiovascular disease. Newer methods of manufacturing have attempted to limit the risk of hydrogenation, but all spreads and margarines are still laboratory made, not natural foods.

My advice is always to stick to the Nature-made when it comes to food. Real butter is a fat that also contains Vitamins A and D, Vitamins E and K, anti-oxidants, selenium, conjugated linoleic acid for lean muscles, iodine, and other factors essential for human health. Margarine contains no nutrients and has the same calories as butter. All fats have about 100 calories per tablespoon. Altered, laboratory made, adulterated foods are a giant science experiment. We don’t really know the effects of these foods. But we do know that we have far more heart disease and cancer, obesity and Type 2 Diabetes and the numbers keep growing. There appears to be an inverse relationship to the consumption of Nature-made fats and heart disease. The more processed fats consumed the higher the rates of heart disease.

The first written reference to butter dates back to 4500, hammered on a limestone tablet that illustrated how butter was made. Humans have consumed butter as long as they have lived with domesticated animals, pre-dating farming and raising grains. There are many religious references to butter, both Biblical and Hindu.

Taste test? No contest! Look for organic butter, as many synthetic hormones and petro-chemicals are fat-loving. Butter is truly a health food.

Should you worry about saturated fat? There is no proof that saturated fat (fat that is hard at room temperature) winds up in your arteries. Sugar is probably far more dangerous, because triglycerides are made from sugar, not fat. We really don’t know why some people have clogged arteries and others don’t. All the studies are inconclusive. We do know that some people who die from heart attacks have clear arteries on autopsy and other people who do of other causes have completely clogged arteries but had no symptoms of heart disease.

We also know that indigenous people on native local diets of animal protein, fermented or raw dairy, natural fats and carbohydrates from vegetables and fruits had no Diabetes, Heart Disease or Cancer until they began eating the white man’s diet of white flour and white sugar.

The French have one quarter the heart disease of Great Britain. With their low incidence of heart disease but high butter and cheese consumption, the French also enjoy great tasting food!

By the way, ever wonder what shortening is? Often made from soybean or cottonseed oil, shortening is an hydrogenated fat that is used in baking because it is 100% fat. Butter and margarine are only 80% fat. It is called shortening because it “shortens” the gluten strands in bread, making the dough more elastic and yielding a softer loaf.

Nature-made fats are vital for human health and are referred to as “essential fatty acids”. Any nutrient that is vital for health is going to be cancer-protective, since human cells need the genuine, unprocessed fats for cellular metablolism, and they don’t need Frankenstein fats made in the laboratory.

In my next Health tip I will tell you more about certain fats that may help protect you against cancer.

Let's Have a Heart to Heart

Anne Dunev, PhD
I don’t think it is simply ignorance that caused our ancestors to consider a heart could be “broken”. As a practitioner of energy medicine (chi meets the nervous system) I have found that people who are grieving or have experienced a recent physical or emotional trauma often experience a change in their heart “energy”.

Since I don’t diagnose, I am not saying this is “heart disease”. And what is considered “heart disease” in western medicine may never develop. But what I do see is very low energy levels, sadness, depression and/or anxiety, sleeping difficulties, weight gain and difficulty carrying on with the normal routines of an active life.

Sound like a broken heart? If this occurs right after a loss, through death, divorce or a break-up, as often happens, no wonder our forerunners called it a “broken heart”. Did anyone ever die of one? Certainly many of us have seen people simply stop living, and slip into eventual death. The will to live, or not, has a powerful effect on our health.

Like a garden in full bloom, a happy and healthy body is pretty disease resistant. We certainly need water and nutrients, much like plants. And we also need Love.

The romantic kind of love, so celebrated, so sought after, with its ups and downs, terror and exhilaration, carries its own set of issues!

But more lasting love — affinity, help, caring, touch — has a very therapeutic effect and does seem to be vital to human life. Studies show that babies who are left in their cribs and not held and cuddled and interacted with do not grow and develop as they should. I have seen these children as patients in a pediatric hospital where I worked. For some reason the parents of these little ones did not seem to understand that nurturing includes touch. The nurses on this ward were some of the best I have met, and they had the happy job of cuddling babies to help them begin to thrive.

A studyhttp://www.reuniting.info/science/healing_and_marital_conflict from my alma mater, Ohio State University, demonstrated that blisters from burns heal significantly faster among married couples who communicated to each other in a friendly fashion vs. a stress producing fashion. One could call that the healing power of love.

I have noticed that many people are germ-a-phobic and do not like to touch anywhere another human being has touched. There are literally billions of germs around us all the time, and we have hundreds of bacteria in our body. Most are helpful and there are relatively few bugs that are pathogenic. Our present mania for being germ free came about from marketing on television for household cleaning products. Of course, we should practice basic hygiene, such as hand washing before meals and after other personal rituals. But trying to kill all the germs in our environment is not only a fool’s pursuit, but would be harmful. Nature has a way of balancing environmental “niches” and we would not be here at all if germs were so dangerous to us. Good old mild soap and water is sufficient for most of our household and personal cleaning needs. Harsh chemical cleaners are toxic not only to germs — but to us. Our nervous systems may be more sophisticated than the rest of the animal and insect and microbial kingdom. But we share one thing in common. What is toxic to one is often toxic to all. Our livers have to process any chemicals we are exposed to. Rat poison kills rats. It also kills kids. The “marketing” calls it rat poison, but it could just as truthfully be called “people poison”.

If you seem to pick up every flu that passes through the office, your natural health practitioner can help you strengthen your immune system. That is your best defense, and you can “bloom” without fearing contact with others.

We can be a big influence on each other’s health. A warm smile, a greeting, a hug to a dear one, can brighten anyone’s life — and may have more of a therapeutic effect than you realize.

And if you are lucky enough to have someone in your life who makes your heart beat a little faster, may your romance last far into the future. Next time you feel that extra little flutter, take a moment to appreciate what a marvel is the human heart.

The heart pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood through the vessels every day. A lot of that is up-hill.

The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet, and is the strongest muscle out of 650 muscles in the body.

The average heart beats 100,000 times per day. More if you are frightened. The human heart will beat 3,000 million times in its lifetime and pump 48 million gallons of blood.

Here’s to the unbeatable human heart.

This post first appeared in The Huffington Post.

Who Needs the Brothers Grimm When We Have Teen Screen

Anne Dunev, PhD
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there was a town called Edendale that had many little children. The children were very happy. They liked to run and play and giggle and tell stories, much like children have always done.

The parents of Edendale were very busy people. They had jobs to go to, and houses to run, and bills to pay, for the King demanded many taxes and the parents wanted a good life for their happy children.

Then one day a stranger came to town. He was dressed in a white coat, but his heart was black. He said that he was a new kind of doctor from the big University. He said that he was an expert in children’s development and had come to examine all the children of Edendale.

At first the parents of Edendale were skeptical about the stranger in the white coat. Their children were doing fine, they said. Look how happy and active they are. Their cheeks glow, their hair is shiny, they all read and write. They are normal children.

Oh no, said the stranger. I have observed your children. They gaze out the window during lessons. They lose their pencils and they run and skip far too much for their own good. They love their parents and they prefer to sing and dance rather than sit still. They have sick brains and sick minds. Every child must be tested! Immediately!

The stranger threatened the Head Master that he would lose his job if the children were not tested. A new Head Master from the capital could be found. So the Head Master told the parents that the children would not be allowed to attend school unless they had the tests.

The stranger brought in a group of testers who also wore white coats. One by one the children were interviewed. “Do you ever feel that other children don’t like you?” was one question. “Do you feel nervous about getting up and speaking in front of a group?” was another. “Do your parents ever have arguments at home?” “Have you ever felt sad?”

Many of the children answered yes to some of these questions. When their friends moved away or their pets died, they sometimes did feel sad. And sometimes they did get nervous in front of a group. And, even in Edendale, sometimes the parents had arguments. The tester marked with a big red pen and one by one the children who answered yes were taken to a little office. You are mentally ill, the stranger in the white coat said. You must be put in a special hospital. I want to see my mother and father, each child said. All in good time, when you are better, said the stranger in the white coat.

And many of the brightest and most dynamic children were taken away, locked up in a hospital far away from Edendale.

When the children did not come home from school, their parents went to find them. They asked the Head Master where are the children? The Head Master had no answer. The children had been taken by the man in the white coat.

The parents drove to the hospital. “Why have you taken our children?” they asked the stranger in the white coat. “Your children have an illness in their brains,” he told them. You must pay for their drugs and treatment and we will tell you when they are well enough to go home.

“We have never heard of brain illness before,” said the parents. How do you know our children have it? “We are doctors, so we know,” said the stranger in the white coat. He did not tell them that the only diagnosis was the way the children had answered their test questions.

In the days that followed it was very quiet in Edendale. There was no more laughter heard in the schoolyard, or in the neighborhoods. The children did not run and call to each other to come and play games. The children were afraid to make too much noise, or they might be taken away, too.

The stranger in the white coat stood once again outside the school and observed the children wandering listlessly at recess, or sitting, alone, on the benches. And for the first time he smiled, a very tiny smile.

***

A fairytale? Like the ones the Brothers Grimm gathered in Europe in the 1800’s that formed the basis for Western children’s literature? After all, we have rights and we would be protected from doctors who would diagnose psychiatric disorders from a questionnaire. But this is exactly what has happened to many kids and teenagers. The test is called TeenScreen, and it is part of a “mental health initiative” called The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, established by President George Bush in 2002. Its mission — to test all American school children. In one school in New York, 50% of the kids were found by this test to be “at risk.” The treatment? Psychotropic drugs that carry the all too real risks of suicide, suicidal ideation, homicide and homicidal ideation. Ideation means forming thoughts and ideas about it. And some American kids, after being tested, have been taken straight from school, without their parents’ knowledge or consent, to psychiatric facilities for treatment. If you think this could not happen here, please see http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/453/52/
For more information, go to www.ablechild.org and http://www.teenscreentruth.com/.

If you think you are safe because you are past high school, read all about the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. The real goal is to test everyone, from cradle to nursing home. Call it a Brave New World.

Secrets to Avoiding Winter Flu Blues

Anne Dunev, PhD CN
I was amazed at how many people were down with the flu over the last month. We live in Los Angeles, and many of our friends headed for the shores of Florida or the mountains of Colorado. Expecting glowing reports of lazy days on the beach, or blissful hours schussing down the mountains, instead we heard glum descriptions of being bed-ridden with fever, aches and congestion.

It is common knowledge that wintertime is flu season. The Holidays produce extra stress, from close encounters with family and in-laws with the attendant emotional issues, to extra doses of sugar and fat that stretch the boundaries of the waist-line and suppress the immune system further. Add traveling across time zones, which taxes the adrenal glands, dealing with the TSA, and being packed into airplanes with other coughing, sneezing and stressed out folk, and small wonder some succumb to nasty viruses.

I just received some interesting and useful data on avoiding the winter flu blues from one of my favorite health newsletters, produced by the Health Sciences Institute.

Studies indicate it is not the cold of winter that causes an increase in flu, but the lowered humidity. Remember that we have flu viruses around us all the time. They are opportunistic little buggies that only take hold when the internal “environment” of the body allows them to dig in. That helps explain why some people catch everything and others seem to be blessed.

So, using a humidifier in bedrooms in the winter may be your best weapon against the flu. Traveling across country or just around town? You might try a little added moisture touched to the edge of the nostrils. My favorite choice is Egyptian Magic Cream (available at Health Food Stores, my office in Burbank or online.) Egyptian Magic Cream is made of olive oil, bee pollen and propolis, and Royal Jelly and can be used as a skin cream for hydration or skin conditions — very soothing and healing. I much prefer it to petroleum jelly, which is an oil industry by-product.

Here are some other natural remedies to try. Author of Vermont Country Medicine, Dr. D.C. Jarvis, suggests apple cider vinegar (make it organic) and honey at the first sign of a sniffle. Mix a spoonful of the cider vinegar and a bit of honey in a cup of warm water and drink as a healthy toddy that changes the acid/alkaline balance of the body and can stop a virus in its tracks. May promote restful sleep, also.

Put a few drops of hydrogen peroxide in each ear. Lay the head to one side and allow to bubble down in for a few minutes-then switch to the other ear. Some German doctors think that flu and cold viruses may enter the sinuses through the ear canal. The hydrogen peroxide will also soften wax. Don’t forget to be careful about sticking anything in the ear. Just twist a tissue and gently wipe out as needed.

For some people Oscillococcinium by Boiron, the French homeopathic company, is a lifesaver. Homeopathy means “like treating with like” and is made from tiny doses of plant and biological remedies. It can be very effective and I have used it with great success in my practice. You must use Oscillococcinium at the first sign of the flu, but it can knock the virus out before it has a chance to set up housekeeping.

Speaking of setting up house-keeping, viruses seem to linger when the liver/gall bladder is congested. I often treat liver/gall bladder in my practice when a cold or flu hits and patients want a quick recovery. I can usually move a virus through the body in record time, by doing some soft-tissue work on the liver and gall bladder. You can try massaging the area on the right side below and under the ribs. Also, liver/gall bladder supplements may help, such as the herb Milk Thistle and the B Vitamin Choline (best brand is Standard Process® — I love this product.) Avoid sugar and dairy products for the duration. Sugar may suppress the immune system for as long as four hours. The immune system is in action when the white blood cells attack bacteria and viruses and, like living Pac Men, actually surround and ingest the microbes. See the action here.

Flu shot or not? Guess what the side effects of the flu shot are? Achy muscles, congestion, fever and flu-like symptoms. Hmm, seems like that is just what we are trying to avoid. Here is the problem with the flu vaccine. No one can predict what the next flu virus will be- we can’t even make educated guesses, because there is no pattern. Viruses mutate at a rapid rate. That is why they seldom kill us- and only if the body is in greatly weakened state. A virus attacks healthy cells and takes over the cell’s replication process to create more virus cells. But in the process the virus changes into a more benign form, and the body is able to clean up the remains. That is also why it is hard to develop antibiotics against viruses. They change too rapidly for an antibiotic to chase them down and disappear like ghosts in the morning light.

Is there a risk to being vaccinated? Always. Why put more viruses, even weakened ones such as are in flu vaccines, directly into the blood stream? We have far more allergies, and allergy induced asthma, than we have ever had before. There is a constant assault on our immune systems, and that can trigger an inflamed immune system that goes into high alert at the slightest whiff of pollen or spore of mold. Nature developed a way for our bodies to fight infection, but over-use of modern medicine interferes in this natural process to your peril.

Many people say that the vaccines actually seem to make them more susceptible to flu’s. The key to being flu-proof is a strong immune system that knows the difference between a viral microbe and a healthy cell. The internal environment of the body, when healthy, is unwelcoming to disease causing bugs. Just as a well-tended garden repels weeds and pests, human health can be cultivated. It may be hard to find Eden with so many toxins in our environment, but surely a little knowledge about how the body works can be protective armor against the relentless marketing of prescriptions that are more poison than potion.

Effective prevention for colds and flu? As Frank Lloyd Wright said, “Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”

This post first appeared in The Huffington Post.