Salvation Army vs. Saint Vincent De Pauls

When I was growing up we used to shop at Salvation Army all the time. Occasionally we used to stop by the Saint Vincent De Pauls. These are both local thrift stores. Salvation Army had a large store full of stuff. Usually things that fell out of fasion years ago but when you don't have much money you get what you can, where you can. It was always dusty and dirty and kind of moldy smelling but the people at the front counter were always friendly if seemingly rather tired and always busy. The place was always stuffed to the walls and people always told me it was a good idea to shop there because the proceeds go to help those less fortunate. We always donated our little worn clothing that no longer fit to them.

We didn't do to much shopping at Saint Vincents. Their store was smaller and occasionally you would find a good deal but mostly it wasn't that great. I don't remember donating to them.

About 10 years ago I did some volunteer work and it has changed the choices I make. I spent a couple days at the Salvation Army. It was boring and eye opening. They had stuff in back stock waiting to go out on the floor, not much of it. But they were getting trash bags full of new and nice clothing every day. What did they have me do with it? Throw it in the big dumpster. Not even look at it, just throw it away. I was told "we have enough stuff right now so just throw away whatever we get in" That's what I did for a couple days. Just throw away item after item of usable clothing, shoes, bedding, everything. I was mortified. I was also bored because unless someone was dropping something off, that just got thrown away, I had nothing to do. They didn't give me anything to do but sit in the back room and occasionally throw things away.

After a few days of that I went to help out at Saint Vincent De Pauls. What a difference. Did you know that lost and found from the airport that never gets picked up, gets dropped off there? So do a number of other local organizations. Drop off stuff there I mean. Yet there store is not very big. So what happens to all that stuff? The nice lady showing me around showed me this room. It was filled with boxes. Floor to ceiling, wall to wall. Each box was neatly packed and labeled. Then a couple times a year a container from one of the shipping places stops by and fills it up. They ship it off to rural villages, 3rd world countries and people in need around the globe. The only things thrown away were unsalvagable things. Things with huge rips and stains.

I ended up volunteering there for a while past the hours I needed. They were always busy and always in need of help sorting, cleaning and boxing things. I don't know how other places run their businesses. But last night I was reading an article in SELF magazine that talked about different cancer charities and research institutes and where the money actually goes. It's always good to know what happens to the stuff and/or money that you donate. Do your research before donating. It doesn't help your cause if you're donating to a place that uses the money for personal gains like salaries and bonuses.

Its like how I found out that the local PetCo solicits monetary donations for our local shelter The Gastineau Humane Society. Yet less then 15% of what they collect actually goes to the shelter. Yet our local shelter which depends on donations in order to provide things like food and medical needs for the homeless animals of Juneau shows an 50-80% drop in donations since PetCo opened. But thats a topic for a different blog.

Dealing with pain

I don't deal with pain and loss very well and this weekend I had to put my horse down. I knew this was coming for a couple months but I've been fighting the decision and on one level I know it was the right choice but on another I feel like I should have done more. I can't think about it or I fall apart. So I've been finding ways to distract myself from it. Like through exercise.

This weekend I went to the gym and worked out and I practiced bellydancing at home...a lot. I have managed to hurt my ankle and my back enough that I had to take some prescription pain meds to sleep last night. And I still didn't sleep well. Waking up constantly, having odd dreams. Its been like this for a week, that lack of sleep. Big surprise right?

To deal with the pain and loss, or not deal with it really. I keep myself busy. I exercise, practice bellydancing, clean, exercise, clean, bellydance, clean. If I do sit down for a moment the TV has to be going and I have to be reading a book and a magazine and watching the game my husband is playing on his lap top and brushing the shedding hair from one of my huskies and cleaning and studying and brain storming for project ideas. How long can I keep up this pace on little sleep? If I stop for a second, if I let me mind wonder for even a moment. I break down, fall apart.

Comment

I opened my email today and WOW there was a comment on my blog. A comment! Now this might not seem like much to you but it's a huge deal to me. Want to know why? It means someone was reading my blog! ~insert happy dance here~ Thats pretty awesome. It's the first comment on my blog. The first one. I've had this thing for a year now. Ok so it's not like I've written much and lots of it has been ranting about one thing or another but wow, thats so cool AND the comment had a link to a really helpful website. I know cause I checked it out. It's cool. Women should bookmark that place. :)

Women's Health Forum 2012

Every year the local Cancer Connection group sponcers a women's health forum. Its incredibly awesome. Full of great information, a great speaker and tons of tables from local businesses and groups dealing with women related health issues. Every year there is a different topic. This years was Boosting your Immune system for cancer prevention. I had the best time, learn lots of great things and ended up with 7 pages of typed notes. (There is also a men's health forum every spring but I've never been to that). I'm amazed at hw many people don't know about it. Hundreds of people go every year. This year there was a doctor's office doing these body scan thingys and letting you know about the toxin levels, water levels and stuff like that in your system. It took 10 seconds and I got this awesome print out on where I'm at and a quick one on one session with one of the doctors about where I'm at health wise, where I want to be and how to get there. Amazing. So I've been sharing this information with people today at work. I have already ended up handing out multiple copies of my notes to people who are intested in this. I mean really, who wouldn't benefit from boosting your immune system?

 I'm including my notes for those who might be interested. I'm sure there are typos and there are parts I missed because I was note taking and you'll notice some personal references for me to look up and the face that some things are called "stuff" or "bad stuff" or "bad cells" because I didn't catch the technical term for them. I hope the notes help you. I know I'll be looking through them and refering to them myself over the next couple days/weeks/months even years maybe :)

Women’s Health Forum October 20, 2012

Notes

Pujaricenter.com

Immune system important for cancer prevention. Not just germ fighting but tumor to.

Components of immune system

·         White cells

·         Organs

·         Lymphatic system

§  Thymus                               

§  Tonsils

§  Lymph nodes/channels

§  Spleen

§  Bone Marrow

§  Intestine (peyer’s patches)

Tips to boost immune

Tip #1 Eat less refined sugar

·         Colon cancer and sugar

·         Pancreatic cancer

·         Overweight/sedentary increased

Sugar affects your immune system and y our tumor growth.

When you have a lot of sugar it affects how your body uses and is able to use vitamin C. Sugar drops the ability of your white blood cells for up to 5 hours. One can of soda really makes a huge difference.

What is sugar? Anything with a high glicemic ie. White flour, pretzels, crackers, evaporated juice, not just the things you might normally think.

Tip #2 Lose Weight

Tip #3 Exercise Moderately – 30min/day

                Moderate, consistent exercise

·         Boosts your immune system

·         Immune cells circulate quickly

Tip #4 Avoid Extreme Exercise – more than 90 minutes like in marathons

Tip #5 Sleep

·         Boosts your immune system

How much sleep is needed?

                In the 1960s people were getting avg of 9 hours. The current avg is 6.5. Studies show that 8 hours is needed.

If you miss some one night, it takes  you 3 nights to recover.

Chronic sleep deprivation – what happens

·         Weight gain

·         Glucose problems

·         Tumors grow 2x faster

·         Memory loss

·         Trouble with focus/concentration

How to improve sleep? = Sleep Hygiene

·         Consistent bedtime/wake time – life rhythms are set by this

·         Dark bedroom

·         No TV or reading in bed

·         If can’t sleep after 20min get out of bed and do something quiet and boring

·         No caffeine/alcohol before bed – disrupts the sleep/wake cycle.

Antibodies are good things your immune system secrets to help the body identify and destroy the bad stuff.

Lack of sleep greatly reduces your antibodies.

Lack of sleep has also been tied to diabetes development.

Tip #6 Take a probiotic (theres a 2hr lecture on it on her website that you can watch)

·         A helpful bacteria

·         Boosts Iga (antibody)

·         Increase immune cells ability to eat foreign things

·         Decreases inflammation in intestines

·         Drops allergic reactions

·         Good for cancer prevention

·         Helps shorten frequency and severity of colds

Study showed that women who took probiotics the last months of pregnancy and child got it the first months after born showed a significant reduction in allergies and allergy related symptoms like eczema and diarrhea.

Check consumerlab.com

Tip #7 Elderberry – sacred bush in Europe

·         Boosts immune system from anthocyanidins

·         Phenomenal antioxidant

·         Used for flue epidemic in Panama (Note: mom should look up elderberry and flu/fibromyalgia)

Go for black berry colored one, go for the syrup, the second you feel like you’re getting something you should take it immediately and frequently.

If harvesting – don’t get the red berry, red berry stems and leaves, they are toxic.

Tip #8 Laugh

·         Gives you higher levels of the natural killer cells that fight bad cells and cancer causing stuff

·         Improves circulation

·         Decreases stress

·         Drops calories

Tip #9 Guided Imagery

·         Relaxed visualization

·         Uses imagination to help yourself

·         Increases white blood cell counts

·         Improves immune by

§  Decreasing stress

§  Decreasing anxiety

§  Decreasing pain

§  Decreasing negative side effects from chemotherapy

Studies have shown that people who imagined good things like a specific kind of cell count going up and every time they did it that specific cell count went up. They did this with different cells and every time whichever cell they focused on seeing increase, increased.

Tip #10 Gratitude

·         Cultivates optimism

·         Helps you maintain higher numbers of white blood cells when under stress then pessimistic people

·         Less heart attacks

·         More likely to do positive self care ie. exercise and eat well

·         Less stress and better able to cope with stress

Write a regular gratitude list, you start doing better things for yourself and your life

Tip #11 Self Awareness and Emotions

Any crisis in our lives can be used to become more of the person you want to be.

·         Hidden emotions – repressed anger/sadness

·         People who journaled about their worries for 8 days saw a drop in the bad things in their bodies/cells

Note: She wrote a book about this, look into it

Tip #12 Expressive writing

·         Improves immune system

·         Improves lung/liver function

·         Improves blood pressure

·         Improves pain/physical function

·         Improves sports performance

She has a 30 day workbook available on her website in e-book format and regular www.pujaricenter.com

Questions & Answers

Diet Soda?

Sacrin - associated with cancer

Asportene - associated with cancer

Sucralos – shown to atrophy/shrink the spleen (main place that houses your immune system)

                Even though doesn’t have sugar in it, it is still bad. For general health it is better to choose sugar over artificial sweeteners.

If you’re going to have something like a cookie, enjoy it.

Agaver is a fructose syrup. There will be future studies that show the bad side effects of using it.

Sugar in moderation and enjoy, Maybe use honey but still in moderation.

Stevia – only good way to use it is to grow it, and then grind it up and use it in food. The problem is that now days it has been extracted so much that it resembles the granulars of sugar, its close to a drug now so it has more potential of side effects do to how much it has been extracted down to a base. Like everything else it should be used wisely and in moderation.

Antioxidant Supplement – what is the best apart from veggies?

First and foremost, get your fruits and veggies, 10 servings a day, 5 colors a day. Forget everything else until you do that. Then add herbs like green tea, elderberry, dandelion, kale (it’s just really good for you), turmeric, cumin, ginger, rosemary. Always choose diet before pills. Newlife has a supplement called Zyflamend that has a bunch of the good herbs/spices in it.

Which Probiotic do you recommend?

You want to have one that has at least 2 or 3 different kinds in it.

Primadophillus Optima by Natures Way (refrigerated)

While Yogurt is really good for you for many different reasons, the shelf life of probiotics in it is only a few days because it is a foreign thing introduced into the environment and the yogurt overpowers it within a few days.

What is the role of anger in the immune system?

Repressed anger has been correlated to cancer

When you go through something challenging you can either become a better person through it or we can shrink.

Xilitol something to research more about. Has been shown to do all sorts of good stuff with things like your teeth. (I missed part of this talk)

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve had a bad habit, you can always change today.

                When we do something wrong, we give ourselves a hard time about it and then we feel guilty for a long time. How can you be a better person if you’re still holding onto the problems/mistakes of the past? Bring yourself back with compassion.

Look for book “how to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk” amazing book for all people. With or without kids.

Gratitude list

Laugh everyday

Meditate Daily

Artists way

Expressive writing, says first thin in the morning to wake up and write 3 pages. Anything, whatever is on your mind. Just do it. Even if all you write is “blah blah blah”

Caffeine

It’s really not that bad

Between eating more fruits/veggies and cutting out caffeine. I would choose cutting out caffeine.

Choose to focus on other things before thinking about caffeine.

How does gastric bypass affect your immune system?

 You have to take a multivitamin .

The biggest issues is how things get impaired from having it done, you have to follow what your doctor says and make sure to get enough nutrition.

Thyroid – effects when its removed?

It effects your immune system. Look to nutrition first. Usually you go on a thyroid supplement so there shouldn’t be much change except for the better.

Zinc – is it still seen as an immune booster?

It’s essential for your immune system to work for over 300 things/reasons.

Be careful not to over do it, don’t go over 40miligrams a day or it prevents copper absorption.

Do not use a nasal spray, it causes sinus problems and smelling problems.

Apricot Kernal/Seeds

Check out holistic community for cancer

Don’t recommend taking this stuff. Latio can be dangerous (the stuff pulled from the kernals)

Is Challenging yourself good for your immune system? Like challenging yourself to try new things and learn new languages.

It’s good to challenge yourself to do new things and learn new things and keep your mind active. Like what they recommend for altzimers.

Everyday you should ask yourself/I ask myself what can I do emotionally, physically, and mentally for myself first before looking to medication.

Canola Oil

When you cook on high heat you create/release cancer causing chemicals into your food.

You need enough Omega 3s to balance out the Omega 6s.

Don’t do lunch meat because they’re full of nitrates (unless it’s organic).

Dose it matter to take digestive enzymes with meals to be helpful/essential for nutrition absorption?

Not that I’ve heard of. I will need to do more research to really know about that.

Dose being cold and wet lower your immune system?

There have been some studies that say yes to that effect. At least having to do with cold. And wet cold is a colder cold.

Make donations to cancer connection to support these forums

Men’s health forum is in the spring.