Monday, October 22, 2012

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.

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