Free Radicals

We are not talking about aging Black Panthers; we are talking about tiny atoms that wreck havoc inside our bodies. For those of us who were educated in biology prior to ‘free radical’ thinking, you may well be asking what they are, where do they come from and how can you make them go away.

Free radicals are simply atoms that are missing an electron. These atoms naturally seek to be properly balanced and they achieve balance by stealing electrons from our healthy cells. The result is cell damage or cell death. This produces sickness, aging and diseases such as cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and many others.

We shouldn’t underestimate the threat free radicals pose to our health. They are associated with, or causal factors in nearly every known disease. The bottom line is we have to deal with the free radicals if we want to remain healthy because we simply can’t avoid them.

There are many sources of free radicals: smoking, stress, sunlight, pesticides, pollution, medications, foods and food additives, X-rays, exercise, chlorine in water, mercury in seafood and just living your life. So if we can’t avoid them, how do we neutralize or eliminate them?

Since free radicals are seeking to steal electrons, you neutralize their impact by providing antioxidants that have atoms with an extra electron that they give up to free radicals. Antioxidants protect your cells and DNA from damage, and in some cases they can actually repair damaged DNA before it replicates. In non-medical terms, to avoid free radical damage, you must simply supply enough antioxidants in our diet to counterbalance the free radicals that are in your body. Thus, antioxidants are your defense against aging, sickness and disease. Maintaining proper antioxidant levels is vital to your health.

Antioxidants are found in fruits and vegetables, nuts, oils, beans, and other foods. They are also found in high quality vitamin supplements (A, C, E, Beta-carotene, Lutein and Lycopene). Given that most adults do not eat the right foods to provide antioxidant protection, the American Medical Association recommends supplements. The supplements should include many types of antioxidants and be natural for maximal absorption by the body.

There are a number of companies that sell antioxidant products. Click here to compare their cost and antioxidant power. I sell the Xten™ product. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing this product.

If you want to be healthy, think ‘radicals’ and take antioxidants

Disrupt The Disease Cycle

Mary Madsen, a dear friend who serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation For Caregivers http://www.ffcg.org/ that I established after my wife’s death, worked with me to write a series of short articles focused on getting and staying healthy. These are based on our research and our own experience. The message we present is designed to help you understand and take actions to Disrupt The Disease Cycle. With Mary’s permission, I will republish these articles in this blog over the coming months.

We are reminded daily of the consequences of disease. One of two men and one of three women will get cancer in their lifetime. Fibromyalgia, unheard of 15 years ago, is now common. Chronic fatigue syndrome, Alzheimer’s, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, and many other diseases are viewed as inevitable when they need not be. The scientific, medical, and increasingly mainstream media are reporting on a growing body of research that definitely links many illnesses to toxins in our bodies.

The World Health Organization recently reported that 24% of the disease burden (lost years of healthy living) is attributed to “modifiable environmental factors;” things that we have the knowledge or technology to control. The National Geographic dedicated much of their October 2006 issue to the causes and effects of chemical toxicity. I am working on a future post entitled ‘Our Chemical Report Card’ this will be a summary of their published findings.

In retrospect, the link between toxins and illness seems obvious. More than 40 years ago Rachael Carson published Silent Spring and we “discovered” that the proliferation of chemicals was devastating our wildlife, forests, and waterways. How could these same chemicals not affect our own health? Some of course saw the linkage; many of us missed the obvious. To remain healthy, we must act to Disrupt the Disease Cycle.

Disrupt the Disease Cycle is a phrase that proposes a proactive approach to health management based on an understanding of the fundamental cause of disease. Consider, for example, that approximately 80% of cancers are due to factors that have been identified and can potentially be controlled. Diet, tobacco use, air and water pollution, alcohol, medications, the HPV virus, and radiation are some things we all need to control to avoid cancer. Cancer isn’t an event. It is a process we can disrupt.

If you want to live healthy longer, you must modify environmental factors that make your cells sick. You need to lower the amount of toxins you ingest, remove to the fullest extent possible those that have collected in your body, and maintain a lifestyle that will slow the rate of reintroduction and toxic buildup in your body. You have to do things that promote cellular health and natural cleansing. This requires a bit of knowledge and guidance.

I am not a medical professional and I cannot diagnose or give medical advice. But I can research and compile publicly available data, distilling it to what I believe are key issues and vital information you need to consider in order to proactively manage your health. I can encourage you to maintain a healthy lifestyle, control your personal environment and provide your body with the nutrition it needs to handle today’s toxic onslaught. If you Disrupt the Disease Cycle you can Retire Healthy!

Health and Happiness

At any age, but particularly at retirement age, happiness requires three things. The first is health; without health your life will be less than it could or should be. The second is money. You don’t have to be rich but you need enough money to live, to pay your bills, and hopefully enough to partake of some of the pleasures that are available. Finally, you need time. Not only on a day-to-day basis, but time in the sense of years of healthy living so that you can enjoy the fruits of your labors.

Today I will talk about health. I am not a doctor, so don’t take what I say as “medical advice”. Essentially, it is just good common sense.

If you read my first entry, you already know that I lost my wife to cancer and then had my own cancer event. I could write a book about what this does to your head, and I would guess that each of us would have a different reaction, but for me it raised a single question “why” that I felt driven to answer. Not why did this happen to her or to me. That would have been the first step to insanity or at the very least depression. My “why” was why is this happening to so many people.

A figure you hear a lot is that 80% of all illnesses are lifestyle related. To me, that meant that if I took the proper steps, I could prevent, or at least delay, 80% of the illnesses I can expect to experience in my “golden years”. My goal then was to try to figure out what these steps were, to figure out how to "disrupt the disease cycle".

I read everything I could get my hands on. A lot of it was medical babble far beyond my ability to comprehend. However, I did find some real gems, often sitting in plain sight in easily obtained and very readable texts. Whenever I could I searched for others who could corroborate the "kernels of truth" that I discovered. I was surprised to find that most were well know and well documented. Although many are incredibly simple, few are being used by the medical profession.

I will try to cover the basics here, but remember these are just the basics. Each of these subjects is covered by one or more books, so what I write here will just touch the surface. In each case I will try to provide enough for you to gain some measurable benefits if you take even the simplest of steps. But, I urge each of you to take a little time to follow these strings further to see where they lead you.

The debilitating conditions we suffer today aren’t sudden occurrences, they build slowly over time and it all comes back to cellular health. Every cell in your body is replaced within one year, most multiple times in a year, some in a matter of days. These new cells are built with the materials your body provides, and so your cellular health is a reflection of what you consume and how you treat your body. Unless you are actively managing your intake and exercise, each succeeding generation of cells become slightly less healthy until ultimately a sufficient number of cells cease to function as they are designed and that is when you “discover” that you have an illness.

This gradual eroding of our cellular health is not inevitable; it can be slowed, and in some cases even reversed. Here are three simple things you should start doing immediately to slow this gradual deterioration. First try to limit (eliminate would be ideal, but it is seldom practical) those things that damage your cells: toxicity, cigarette smoke, pesticides, soft drinks (these are nothing but water and chemicals that your body can’t use), processed foods, and chemicals in lotions, deodorants, hair treatments, etc., are some of the most common. Reducing stress is also important to cellular health.

Second, try to help your body shed the toxicity, including all those dead cells I talked about above, by drinking at least 8 glasses of water each day – coffee, tea, and sodas don’t count. In fact they are “polluted” water bringing more toxicity with every swallow. Your body needs water, just water.

Exercise regularly so that you work up a good sweat, yes a sweat. Perspiration is one of your body’s best cleansing agents and muscle action is vitally important. A mini-trampoline is actually one of the best ways to get most of your muscles moving, but if nothing else is available simply shake your arms and legs. Muscle action causes your lymph system to circulate and your lymph system is what carries the toxicity away from the cells. Do you know that in China many doctors require you to do “lymphatic exercises” for at least 30 minutes before they will see you? They believe that most ailments are due to clogged lymphatic systems. Exercise can help get it moving.

Limit the amount of deodorant you slather under your arms. Antiperspirants in particular plug your pours and that keeps your body from cleansing. At the same time the deodorant is putting more toxic chemicals into your body so this is a double negative. Here is a tip: limiting your red meat intake will benefit you at multiple levels. First you will find you have less body odor so you will need less deodorant. Second you will probably see your weight and your blood chemistry improve. Maybe even to the point where you will need fewer medications. I will talk about alkalinity in a future blog and red meat, actually most meats, are acidic when cooked. So try to cut back.

Third, start taking high quality nutritional supplements so that your cells will have the proper building materials with which to construct new cells. I will do an entire blog entry on this subject, it is a biggie. Just remember, you would never build a house out of scrap wood, why are you allowing your body to build new cells out of garbage nutrition? To do so only speeds cellular deterioration, ultimately leading to illness.

In summary, limit your toxic intake, and work to eliminate the toxins that build up in your body. Drinking sufficient water and exercising are two simple steps that will help. Finally, no matter what you think, you are not getting sufficient nutrition in your food so you need to start taking high quality nutritional products to feed your cells.

Just to make a full disclosure, I do sell nutritional supplements; that is part of my personal “Plan B”. But that fact does not alter anything I have said. You still need to feed your cells.

What is your "Plan B"?

Let me start by telling you that this blog is written specifically for people who are approaching, planning for, or already in retirement. My purpose is to urge you to develop a "Plan B".

For most, your “Golden Years” are not looking so golden. Your 401K is greatly diminished, your home value is ½ what it was and you may well be underwater on your mortgage. You may be out of work and if you are over 60 you are basically unemployable. Even if you are employed, your company's retirement plans may be underfunded and at risk.

Health insurance is being overhauled on the backs of seniors; Social Security has already announced there will be no 2010 COLA so you just took the first pay cut. If Congress has its way, Medicare will soon take huge hit, your second pay cut.

You need a Plan B focused on: 1) staying healthy and 2) creating an income stream that is independent of your investments, your company retirement, and Social Security.

Back in 1968 Eldridge Cleaver said, “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem”. What I am proposing is that you must “Be The Solution”. No one is going to bail you out. You can’t count on the Government or your company; your house value is not about to bounce back and as for your investments, well, who knows. If things work out, that's great, but what if they don’t? What is your “Plan B”?

Let me tell you my story. I will turn65 in January. I had a great career; I made good money as an international business consultant and I traveled extensively. In 2004 I was at the top of my game. I had a contract in Paris (2 weeks a month) and a long term deal in Tokyo. My wife of 25 years and I had just bought a new 4,500 sf home on ½ acre in Northern VA. All but the last of our children had made their way through school and were out living their own lives. We were not rich but we had a good life and a nice nest egg, a large portion of which was “secure” in the equity of our home. We were well positioned for retirement in five or so years.

One day in August of 04, my wife came home complaining of stomach pain; 3 hours later she couldn’t get out of bed, 8 months later she was dead. The cancer’s appearance was sudden, it was brutal, and it overwhelmed our lives in so many ways. You can read My Story if you want to know more.

Health insurance took care of all but about $75,000 of her medical costs; my financial meltdown began when I had to stop working to take care of her and our then 15-year old daughter. Stopping work meant no income. Three months after my wife passed, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Fortunately it was early stage and through surgery it was removed and I recovered completely.

As a single parent my ability to travel was severely limited; it was impossible to rebuild my former career. I was then over 60 and with the economy starting to slow there were few opportunities for employment. When the economy started to tumble, I was able to liquidate some investments, but there was little I could do as my home equity disappeared.

Losses from my wife's illness, my career change and investments were devastating. I had no Plan B; I had to start from scratch. "Welcome to Wal-Mart" was starting to sound ok.

This blog will focus on how I developed my Plan B, what I learned, alternatives I considered and some of the mistakes I made. Through it all, my goal is simple; I want you to construct your own Plan B. I will offer suggestions, talk about alternatives and even act as a coach should you want.

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