You Control Your Health

Time to get serious, people. Forty percent of all cancers are preventable. Listen up: 4.8 million cancer cases do not have to happen. Get it? You are in charge of your health. Health is NOT random. If you are living by that philosophy, you're sunk.

Is there a health care crisis? You bet. The crisis lies in the idea that you are not responsible for your own health, or your health care. Forty percent of all cancer are preventable. This from a report by the Geneva-based International Union Against Cancer (UICC). As UICC president David Hill says, "If there was an announcement that somebody had discovered a cure for 40 percent of the world's cancers, there would quite justifiably be huge jubilation." No kidding.

OK, so what can you do? First, let's look at the top three cancers:

• Breast (women)/Prostate (men)
  
• Lung
  
• Colon and rectum

What can you do today that can help prevent these cancers tomorrow?

The first thing you want to do is observe your diet. Minimize processed foods, or better yet, get rid of them altogether. Whole and natural is best. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Take your vitamins. Drink lots of water (two liters per day, minimum).

Next, minimize or quit smoking. Minimize smoking? Exactly, most people that smoke can't do so moderately, so kick it altogether. Try breathing clean air, too. How about an air purifier? Don't minimize their usefulness. If you own a home in Los Angeles, contact me, I've got a guy that can set you up.

Minimize alcohol, recreational drug, and pharmaceutical drug consumption. These substances are toxins to the body. Stress the liver and kidneys and you'll be increasing your cancer risk (among other illnesses) exponentially. Alcohol can cause many different forms of cancer--2-4% of all cancers to be exact--including esophageal, stomach, liver, breast, colon and others. And don't underestimate the drugs your doctor gives you; they're poisons, too.

Maintain a healthy weight. I'm not one to lay on the guilt trips, so simply put, if you are overweight, just lower it by something. My dad dropped from 225 to 190. He's still about 25 pounds overweight, but that drop he made was significant to his health.

Exercise regularly. C'mon now, if you are not doing this you are missing out on so many health benefits that, well...you've got nobody to blame but...OK, no guilt trips. Just do it.

Get plenty of healthy sun, but don't overdo it. Listen, we all need the vitamin D, and we now know more than ever how much so. But sun worshiping, tanning beds, Jersey Shore...puleeze! Be smart, protect yourself--safe sunning is the only way to go.

There you have it: You are in control of your health. Health is not random. There is a health care crisis, and it's that far too many people neglect some very basic health enhancing behaviors. My book, The Six Keys to Optimal Health, has these and hundreds of other tips to prevent cancer and live a life of health and vitality. You can direct your health: you are responsible for the health you have and maintaining it. Nobody else.

The Future of Tobacco

Hey, have you heard of Ariva and Stonewall tablets--dissolvable tobacco products that are consumed like breath mints? Just right for those moments when you can't sneak a smoke, like during business meetings, transcontinental flights, or Thanksgiving dinner. Why you could even bypass the post-climactic smoke by popping a nic-o-mint during coitus.

Ariva and Stonewall smoke-free tobacco products are manufactured and marketed by Star Scientific, Inc. out of Petersburg, Va., and are made from finely milled tobacco. They are essentially like breath mints with cool flavors like wintergreen, natural, and java. Yum.

The company says the products are marketed to adults solely, but the FDA ain't buying it. Representatives for the Food and Drug Administration say they worry about how much kids will be attracted to this product. With brightly colored packaging and candy-like appearance, these babies are perfect for sucking on...in class. Woohoo!!!

Well the The FDA's Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) is requiring Star Scientific and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., maker of Camel cigarettes to provide their research and marketing information on how people under age 26 perceive and use the products. Exercising new power to regulate tobacco that the FDA was granted in June, the CTP also requested research on misuse of the products, including potential accidental nicotine poisoning. Regulators also want a summary of user demographics, including at what age "tobacco-naive consumers" start using the products.

Ha!!! Those crazy tobacco companies are at it again, and who can blame them? With a cash crop so tied into our country's rich history, why would the industry lay down like whimpering dogs at the hands of the social police when there's plenty of profit to be made. If tobacco was good enough for our Native American ancestors, dammit, it's good enough for your children.

I'm not posting this piece as stand against the tobacco industry, because I think that there will always be harmful substances to tempt us at every turn. I just want to make people aware of what's out there. If you want a higher probability of your children staying smoke-free--not dissolvable tobacco product smoke-free, but truly smoke-free--then don't smoke, period. They might pick up the habit anyway, but you certainly don't have to help them along.

As far as the future of tobacco is concerned, well I just love innovation, so I'm amused at the ingenuity. But as for it's utility? Ha...I'm just waiting for the coffee-enema-beer-bong to make its debut.

Our Greatest Sexual Concerns

More on sexual dysfunction. A recent European study looking at male and female sexual concerns when calling a helpline* disclosed the following:

• Users were more often male (62.2%), aged between 26 and 35 years
• Males most frequently reported sexual difficulties were erectile dysfunction (ED) and premature ejaculation
• The majority of female callers reported vaginismus and orgasmic disorder (OD)
• There was a definite association between desire disorder (DD) and ED in men (41.7%)
• There was a definite association between OD and DD in women (36.8%)

Although erectile dysfunction and orgasmic disorder are old hat for me (I mean what I know about them...now stop!), I had never heard of vaginismus. For others that don't know, vaginismus is the tensing up of vaginal/pelvic musculature preventing penetration. It is comparable to to the response of the eye shutting when an object comes towards it. It is not under the conscious control of the woman affected.

And I was rather amazed in my research that there exists an actual association for asexual people. How 'bout that--I had no idea. The incidence of people exhibiting asexuality, also known as non-sexuality, is reported at 1%. Wow! Like I said, never had a clue. Well, different strokes for different folks, if you'll forgive the pun.

The study on sexual concerns concludes with placing an importance on sexual counseling--talking about the problems. For men, I'll refer back to the last post. For women, the good news is the capacity for orgasm increases with age, especially as women acquire more knowledge about the responses of their bodies. And masturbatory training is available (I do NOT make this stuff up) to help women with orgasmic disorder.

Finally, for asexuals...be who you are. Join the association if you are looking for like minded people as support. Other than that just focus on what you love. That's what life is ultimately about anyway.

*The study included selected records of the calls received during the 3-year period between 2006 and 2008.

Momentary Humiliation Beats Dying

"Hey doc...I can't get it up." There now that wasn't so bad was it? Say it again. Go on, say it. I promise you, your doctor will not laugh. Trust me, it's a hell of a lot better than buying counterfeit Viagra online. Duh!

A recent study published in the International Journal of Clinical Practice reports that fake drug sales via the internet have skyrocketed over the last couple of years. In fact, seizures of fake drugs in Europe have quadrupled between 2005 and 2007; in the U.S. FDA investigations have increased eightfold from 2000 to 2006. The distribution of fake drugs is a booming business: one estimate has the sale of fake drugs hitting $75 billion in 2010.

The problem is not just that consumers are being ripped off, the fakes can actually be harmful to health. Two pregnant women died after they were given injections of a counterfeit iron preparation for anemia, and 25 children died in Bangladesh of kidney failure after taking paracetamol syrup that was contaminated with diethylene glycol, which is also used as antifreeze in cars.

However, the purchasing of fake drugs on the internet persists. Viagra seems to be the big one, but the consumers of such pharmaceuticals know not what they take. According to lead author of the study, Dr. Graham Jackson, a cardiologist at London Bridge Hospital in the UK, "The first danger is people don't know what's in it. Some are just talcum powder or brick dust, while some have a bit of Viagra or Cialis and some chemicals that have nothing to do with it."

According to the study, one-third of men surveyed reported sidestepping a health-care professional when buying erectile dysfunction drugs. Why? What IS the big deal? Do you think your doctor finds this funny, pathetic, or what? C'mon guys, you would rather buy fake stepped-on garbage than risk a moment of humiliation I guarantee will pass the minute your doctor says okay? How much you want to bet he or she doesn't even look up at you and just writes the scrip. There...I given you support. Now get off the damn net and get to your doctor's office pronto. Just one humiliating second and it'll be happy days are here again....

Los Angeles Chiropractor on Leg Pain/Shin Splints

Are you a runner suffering from shin splints? Are shin splints keeping you from hitting the road or the track? Here's your solution:

Check out this video showing how I treat leg pain and shin splints in my Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood chiropractic office.

Shin splints are a painful condition causing pain in the front of the leg, usually in runners or jumpers. If left untreated, chronic shin splints can eventually lead to a stress fracture.

If you are experiencing pain in the front leg or calf, watch this video, and see your local chiropractor today. If you are looking for a Los Angeles, Beverly Hills or West Hollywood chiropractor, this video will show you how to find me.

More Kids Using CAM Therapies

Listen up parents--if I've said it once, I've said it a million times: Kids do as their parents do. This is true of how they care for their health, including what types of treatments they seek out. According to a recent study coming out in the February issue of Pediatrics, almost twelve percent of American children use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

The study conducted at Harvard Medical School looked at data on 9,417 children younger than 18 years of age; it set out to differentiate between users and non-users of non-mainstream therapies. They found that if parents used alternative therapies, the more likely their children used them, too. In the study, they purposely ignored vitamins and minerals, so that they could get a better sense of the use of herbs and homeopathics. Chiropractic and acupuncture were not mentioned in the report, but were likely a part of the study.

For the children using CAM therapies, they did so mostly for chronic conditions such as anxiety, stress, musculoskeletal conditions, skin conditions and sinusitis. Surprisingly, 66% of children with cancer used CAM therapies. Some doctors find this disturbing since they say some alternative therapies can interfere with other treatments.

OK, first off, for some people using non-mainstream forms of treatment or tonics are not "alternative". I can tell you that in my family chiropractic was a way of life. I've been seeing chiropractors since I was seven years old; I adjust my daughters regularly, my wife when she was pregnant, and I adjust my siblings and mother, too. It's a lifestyle for us, not alternative.

We've also been taking vitamins, juicing, eating whole, natural foods (sorry, we're not vegetarian, my vegan friends), exercising and seeing acupuncturists for as long as I can remember...and we are not alone. Truly encouraging is that the numbers of people living healthy lifestyles keep growing every year.

Sure, if you are infatuated with the practice of medicine, you'll shrink in abhorrence. God forbid anyone use something other than what Dr. Oz recommends. Wake up you people--mainstream medicine is jumping on the bandwagon with many CAM therapies because these same practices they've vilified for decades actually work.

The study itself can be taken in two different ways: one, that doctors (especially pediatricians) need to pay more attention to their patients, because their unspoken health habits could interfere with the good doctors recommendations (drugs); or two, doctors need to pay more attention because their patients are embracing CAM therapies, which...ehem...work.*

No doubt, every consumer needs to practice ultimate caution--some herbs and other therapies can be dangerous if used improperly, bought from disreputable sources, or not administered from a knowledgeable (and liable) practitioner. But isn't this what today's health care is all about--due diligence, self-information, professional consultation, scrutiny and personal responsibility? Sure better be--it's your health.

*Most known and long-practiced therapies work for some people, yet no one therapy works for all people, not even medicine.

My Daughter Takes Kids Vitamins

Most everybody knows that I place a high importance of supplementing with vitamins. I think it's pretty impossible for the average person to get the full amount of nutrients they need from food alone. It's possible but unlikely.

So if I think adults need to take vitamins, do you think I feel it's necessary for children, too? You bet I do; so I make sure my children take their daily vitamins as a supplement to their healthy diets. I like Jarrow Kids Multi because they taste good, and Jarrow products have exactly what their label says they do. They've been tested by a third party organization, so I know I'm giving my children the best.

If you want to make sure your children are getting the best nutrition possible, consider supplementing their healthy diets with vitamins. You'll get to see them grow vibrantly into healthy and energetic little beings. That's the greatest gift any parent can ask for.