What Your Doc Doesn't Know About Weightliftingby Nikhil Rao
Nikhil Rao, by his own description, is "strong for an Indian (dot not feather). In other words, not very. Some day he hopes to be a mediocre powerlifter/strongman."
We support Nik's quest, but in the meantime he'll be doing his medical residency in psychiatry and ultimately plans to research how exercise and nutrition affect mental health.
As a member of the medical profession and an avid weight trainer, Nik is forced to deal with the "idiocy and ignorance of medical professionals" at a variety of levels when it comes to weight training and muscular individuals. He explains it this way:
"While most of your readers understand how little doctors know, there are a lot of things that their doctors tell them that are simply wrong. These could even be detrimental to our health in some ways."
This is his first article for TMUSCLE.
Sir William Osler, the founder of modern medicine, once remarked that "The greater the ignorance, the greater the dogmatism."It's kinda ironic, then, that the field of medicine is so ignorant—and so dogmatic—when it comes to exercise and nutrition. It's not hard to see where it comes from. Pride. Hubris even.Medicine is one of the most demanding fields in the world. After 8 years of college and medical school, I'll be taking my Hippocratic oath in a couple of weeks. And then I still have 6 years of residency training ahead of me. Some of my classmates have even more. That's a lot of time, a lot of studying, and a lot of effort. And the responsibility? Every day we make life or death decisions. Every time we examine a patient we have a chance to pick up—or miss—a sign or symptom of a disease that could take our patient's life or cause irreparable damage to their health. We are among the best and brightest, the most highly educated, and most influential people in the world. Hard not to let that go to your head.Medicine is ultimately about authority and knowledge. We know more about the human body in health and disease, and hold more responsibility for it, than anyone else. Contrast this with science, which is ultimately about ignorance. Science moves forward when we look to what we don't know, and try to figure it out. Needless to say, finding ignorance is one of the most important lessons a scientist can learn. In fact, one could say that is the sole duty of a scientist. Doctors learn a lot about what science has revealed about the human body. But they aren't trained to be scientists, or to think like them. A doctor knows what he or she knows, and that's the end of it.Doctors have a lot of opinions on diet and exercise. Weight training isn't healthy. Weight training hurts your heart. You'll destroy your joints. Squats are bad for the knees. Deadlifting is bad for the back. You should only do light weight and high reps. You're too heavy and will die of heart disease and diabetes unless you lose some weight. You're destroying your kidneys with all that protein. Creatine is bad for you. The only exercise you need is cardio. I could go on for days. Most of us have heard it. A lot of us don't pay too much attention. Some of us do, and change the way we work out. And almost all of us wonder just how true these things are, if we really are destroying our bodies in the quest for strength and physical perfection. The real question is, how much attention should we pay to these experts?Like I said, medical education is extremely intense, and extremely broad. It has to be. That said, there is a lot it doesn't cover. We learn the atomic structure of every amino acid (most of us promptly forget all of this after the biochemistry final). We learn the equations for cardiovascular physiology. We learn the branches of every nerve, the origin and attachment for every muscle in the human body. But we don't learn the basics of healthy nutrition. We don't learn about cardiovascular and musculoskeletal adaptations and responses to exercise. We don't learn about how insulin facilitates the utilization of protein and creatine. We don't even learn what all of those muscles in the body actually do. We don't learn about the difference between myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Or the training effect of high versus low reps. Heck, most doctors aren't even aware of the concept of High Intensity Interval Training, let alone how much more effective it is than steady-state cardio.And yet doctors think that their opinions on eating right and exercising actually matter. I honestly don't know whether to laugh or cry about it. All of those years of school, and everything I know about exercise and nutrition I had to teach myself. A lot of it coming from right here at TMUSCLE. And most of my colleagues don't see why I make such a big deal about it. There's nothing else to call it but pathetic.What I'm hoping to do in this article, and possibly future ones, is deal with some of these issues where doctors have it all wrong; sometimes because of the field's ignorance about exercise physiology and nutrition, and sometimes because they don't understand the limits of their own knowledge.The following are just a few examples of things they've got wrong.
Body CompositionMost of the guys on this website are 'overweight' or even 'obese' according to the BMI. There are a lot of dramatic studies out there about the health risks of being too heavy, from heart disease to stroke to cancer to dementia. I don't think that's a point of much contention. Being fat is bad for you. The real question is whether or not the BMI is a decent tool for assessing how fat you are. It seems like every other time I go to the doctor's office he (or his nurse) brings up my BMI of 29 and suggests I lose weight. Now, in the interest of full-disclosure, it's been a while since I saw the bottom two cans in my six-pack, and my love handles actually have names, but if it weren't for my gluteal muscles these 32" pants would fall right off. I'm pretty sure my 'borderline obesity' has more to do with the fact that I can barely stuff myself into a size 48-suit coat than it does a dangerous level of body fat.When a well-muscled individual brings up this point, doctors often reply that "Okay, yeah, it doesn't work for people with a lot of muscle, but it works just fine for the general population."Does it? Does it really??? I have my doubts. After all, the BMI consists of ONLY your height and your weight, and pretty much ignores everything else, like bones and lean body mass, which can be highly variable even within the so-called 'normal' population. Some researchers at the Mayo Clinic had doubts of their own, with good reason as it turns out.(1) When they assessed the diagnostic performance of BMI using the World Health Organization reference standard 25% (body fat) for men and 35% for women, they found that only 36% percent of obese men actually had a BMI of over 30. The majority of people carrying around unhealthy amounts of fat actually had 'normal' or 'overweight' BMIs. If that wasn't bad enough, it turns out that in people with a BMI of less than 30, it actually correlates better to lean body mass than it does body fat percentage. A study by a different group in Canada found similar results.(2)So using the BMI doesn't work so well for the 'normal' population either. As if failing to identify two thirds of the people that need to lose weight weren't bad enough, this also means that literally decades of population studies on the health risks of obesity are also largely invalid. Most people with a BMI over 30 are indeed 'obese'. But almost half of the population with a BMI less than 30 is also 'obese'. Which means most of these studies are drastically underestimating the health risks of obesity. This isn't so much of a concern for those of us in MMA, lighter weight classes, or mostly in it for physique. But for the powerlifters and strongmen out there who do carry around their fair share of adipose tissue, it means that those extra pounds are MORE dangerous than you or your doctor realize.Lastly I want to touch on lean body mass. A lot of studies have found what many doctors think of as a 'paradoxical' effect in which people in the 'overweight' BMI range (25-29.9) actually tend to live longer, have less heart disease, be more likely to survive cancer, and have less disability. Studies that have compared BMI to body fat and lean body mass have found that people in the 'overweight' range weren't necessarily any fatter than people in the so-called 'normal' range; rather, their extra mass came from lean tissue. So contrary to what your doctor says about all that extra muscle you're carrying around, your weight training is probably doing more for you than all that running is doing for a marathoner.But that doesn't mean higher lean body mass doesn't have its downsides. Injuries come with the territory when you push yourself in the gym. That excess mass and the heavy weights do put more strain on your joints, although this is counterbalanced by the fact that your muscles bear more of the load and your connective tissue less. The more weight you carry around, the harder your heart has to work. More muscle means a faster metabolism, and thus less chance of dementia, diabetes, and heart disease. But it also means more free radicals and potentially more inflammation, which means more stress on your endocrine system, cardiovascular system and brain, and possibly higher rates of cancer. So is there a point of diminishing returns? Is there a point where you have 'too much' muscle? Probably. But because long-term population research has only used the BMI, we have no idea what point that is. The BMI has outlived its usefulness. Not only in well-muscled individuals, but in everyone. You wouldn't let someone do stiff-legged deadlifts with locked knees and a round back, and you shouldn't let people judge their own health status and weight-loss goals based on BMI either. Tell them to try a Tanita monitor, skinfold testing, or DEXA instead. Something this entrenched and this insidious needs to be attacked at every level by every person in the know. Spread the word.
High Blood PressureHypertension is among the most common chronic diseases out there. And even though there aren't any symptoms, it can have devastating effects on your kidneys, your brain, and your heart.(3) Which is why it's called the 'silent killer'. And is one of the reasons your doctor almost always checks your blood pressure, regardless of the reason for your visit. The medical profession is absolutely justified in the time, resources, and intensity with which we attack hypertension. But, like the BMI (although orders of magnitude better), our method of measuring blood pressure is less than perfect.If you really do have high blood pressure, it's vital that you get it treated. But what if you don't? Whether it's the inconvenience, the cost, or the side effects, no one wants to take pills if they don't have to. A more pragmatic concern has to do with health insurance. In this era of medical underwriting and denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, the last thing you want is for the label of 'hypertension' to follow you around in your medical charts for the rest of your life.Back to blood pressure measurement. The only accurate way to measure blood pressure is to take a catheter with a pressure transducer on the tip and thread it up through an artery into your aorta. Not terribly convenient. Or fun. Which is why we use the blood pressure cuff. In really sick patients, though, we often do monitor the blood pressure directly through a catheter. In my limited experience, novice physician that I am, most of the time the arm cuff agrees with the intra-arterial blood pressure measurement. But that isn't always the case.Error can come from the cuff itself. Too small a cuff will give too high a reading. A standard cuff tops out at around 14-15" of arm circumference, conservatively. But most of the people we use the larger cuffs on are rather gifted in adiposity. It often doesn't occur to health professionals that a lean arm can simply be too big for the cuff. Even when I tell them ahead of time that the regular cuff is too small, they'll often insist on trying it first. Now in me, the regular cuff either completely fails to get a reading, or reads such an absurd pressure that they give up and get the large cuff. But in many, with a cuff slightly too small, it'll just give the kind of reading you'd expect in someone with hypertension. It's still a false positive. So if I were you, I'd ask for them to take a reading with the larger cuff if the regular cuff gives a high value.The second problem comes from the fact that you've got muscle and fat surrounding that artery, so the reading on the cuff is actually a result of how the pressure gets transmitted from the artery through the fat and muscle. Fat, being very compressible, can act like a sponge or a shock absorber, leading to falsely low measurements. In fact, I once had a patient that was so morbidly obese, no one in the office was able to get a blood pressure reading from the upper arm. We had to use the forearm. Muscle, on the other hand, is very firm, and can actually lead to higher than expected readings.This is known as 'spurious systolic hypertension' (SSH).(4) In most people with high blood pressure, both the high (systolic) and low (diastolic) number are elevated (systolic >140 and diastolic >90). Some people present with what's called 'isolated systolic hypertension' (ISH). In this condition, only the high number is elevated. Most commonly we see this in older people, and we think it's because their arteries aren't as elastic as they are in younger people, due to breakdown of the connective tissue calcium deposits in the walls of the arteries. People with SSH tend to be young and have no major health risk factors (obesity, smoking, high cholesterol etc). In other words, nothing like the people we normally see ISH in. They tend to be different from normotensive people of the same age only in that they have a higher BMI and are more likely to engage in athletics.(5) SSH most likely has nothing to do with blood pressure and everything to do with the anatomy of a muscular individual's arm.So if you're getting a high blood pressure reading, first check the cuff size, and then look at your diastolic number. If it's lower than 90, chances are you have SSH and don't need either the label of hypertension or a medication.
Kidney FunctionIt's common dogma among physicians that high protein diets are bad for your kidneys. Dr. Lowery here at TMUSCLE has beaten that idea pretty much to death recently.(6) So I won't get in to too much detail here on that. But the bottom line is that high protein intake may be harmful to your kidneys, and it may not be. We have literally no evidence to go on one way or the other. So your doctor pretty much doesn't have a leg to stand on when he tells you that you're killing your kidneys.The notion that protein is harmful comes from studies of people with damaged kidneys—people with either chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) or chronic renal failure (CRF). In these people there's no doubt about it. The higher your protein intake, the faster your kidney disease is going to worsen. It makes sense when you think about it. These are people whose kidneys can't even keep up with the basic demands their bodies place on them. Increasing the demand on the kidneys above that basal state can't possibly be good. But can we extend that principle to people with normal and healthy kidneys? There's no reason to think we can, and a lot of reasons to think we can't. The kidneys are remarkably robust organs with a lot of excess capacity. In fact, you have to lose about 75% of the functioning units (nephrons) in your kidneys before we even see changes in your kidney function tests. And that doesn't even take into account the fact that the kidney can dramatically increase its filtration rate from the resting state in a healthy adult.An analogous situation occurs with the heart. In a healthy adult, HIIT, or any kind of cardio for that matter, is good for your heart. But take someone with heart failure, or severe coronary artery disease. It's probably not a good idea for them to start running stair laps. Heck, that's why all the ED drugs have disclaimers to ask your doctor if it's safe for you to have sex. If you take an already weakened heart and stress it, bad things can happen. But you don't see doctors recommending healthy people avoid exercise, do you?Our next concern regarding kidneys is the blood tests doctors use to determine how well they're functioning. There are two numbers in particular we're interested in: Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN) and blood creatinine (Cr). BUN is a waste product of protein metabolism. Creatinine is a breakdown product from the creatine phosphate found in your muscles, heart and brain. Doctors normally check these values with a simple blood test, which tells them the concentration of each. Here's where things get tricky—and where doctors can make wrong assumptions. The concentration of these substances in your blood is affected by multiple factors, only one of which is kidney function. BUN concentration changes with your hydration status (low when you're well-hydrated, high when your dehydrated). It also changes in response to how much protein you're digesting and turning over. The more protein you take in, the higher your BUN is going to be.Creatinine on the other hand is a lot more stable. It's produced at a relatively constant rate; higher or lower depending on how much muscle you have, due to the constant process of muscle breakdown and rebuilding. As such, the concentration in your blood has a lot to do with how much lean body mass you have. That said, there are certain things that can make your creatinine spike. Severe infections or other stressors increase muscle breakdown as a consequence of the cortisol and inflammatory hormones coursing through your body. For the same reason, a particularly intense workout or competition can do the same thing.There is a 'normal range' for each of these things. And people with blood levels of BUN and Cr that are outside of this range often do have kidney problems. On the other hand, there are a heck of a lot of weight trainers that end up seeing abnormal values in their bloodwork, which can set them and their doctors to freaking out. But these 'normal' ranges are based on the assumption that you're 'normal' when it comes to all of those other factors I just discussed. Higher protein intake means a higher BUN. Higher lean body mass means a higher blood Cr. Greater physical stressors (and consequent increase in creatine turnover) means a higher Cr. Do you think any of these factors apply to T-Men? Darn right they do.So your blood test comes back and your renal function tests indicate a possible problem. The doctor calls you in a panic, telling you that you've murdered your kidneys with all that protein and creatine and you need to stop them now. What do you do? Well, your doctor's just overextended himself. He actually has no clue how your kidneys are doing and neither do you. But it's okay, because we do have the tools to directly calculate how well your kidneys are working, we just don't use them very often. But it's going to need a piss test. One heck of a piss test. Twenty-four hours' worth of pee in an opaque jug to be exact. You see, the only way to figure out if your kidneys are filtering waste products well enough is to see how much they're excreting. Seems like common sense, doesn't it?What I would do is ask to do a direct creatinine clearance measurement. You're going to want to hold off on working out for a couple days—which will drop your creatine down to the basal level from simple muscle turnover—but I wouldn't stop taking protein and creatine. After you've given your system time to clear out any possible stress-related increase in creatinine production, come back in for another blood test and to grab the jug. The lab will compare your blood concentration of Cr to the amount in your urine. This will tell us exactly how well the kidney is disposing of waste, and allow us to control for all those ways in which you're 'abnormal'.Like I said, it could turn out that your kidneys really are in rough shape. But more than likely it's just the fact that you get more protein and have more muscle than most.
Conclusion:Einstein once remarked, "It is by no means an idle game if we become practiced in analyzing long-held commonplace concepts and showing the circumstances on which their justification and usefulness depend, and how they have grown up, individually, out of the givens of experience. Thus their excessive authority will be broken."You wouldn't be here if you didn't take your health seriously. That, and your love of iron, makes you abnormal. Which means sometimes you won't fit the model other people use to judge you, whether it's figuring you for a mindless meathead or determining the state of your health. It's important to understand the assumptions on which doctors base their thinking. Sometimes the assumptions make no sense at all (as with BMI) and at other times, you're just different enough from a 'normal' person that 'normal' methods just won't apply.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Cancer update from John Hopkins. A must read
John Hopkins Update - Good article
AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY ('TRY', BEING THE KEY WORD) TO ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY..
Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins :
1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.
3 When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.
9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it w ith the foods it needs to multiply..
*CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses, but o nly in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.
b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer cells are being starved.
c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).
e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
12.. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.
13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the bodies own killer cells to destroy cancer cells.. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.
15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.
16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.
1. No plastic containers in micro.
2. No water bottles in freezer.
3. No plastic wrap in microwave.
Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This infor mation is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Cast le Hospital, was on a TV program to explain this health hazard.. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Pa per isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning War e, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.
Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead. This is an article that should be sent to anyone important in your life.
AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY ('TRY', BEING THE KEY WORD) TO ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY..
Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins :
1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.
3 When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.
9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it w ith the foods it needs to multiply..
*CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses, but o nly in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.
b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer cells are being starved.
c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).
e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
12.. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.
13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the bodies own killer cells to destroy cancer cells.. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.
15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.
16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.
1. No plastic containers in micro.
2. No water bottles in freezer.
3. No plastic wrap in microwave.
Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This infor mation is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Cast le Hospital, was on a TV program to explain this health hazard.. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Pa per isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning War e, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.
Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead. This is an article that should be sent to anyone important in your life.
For women only: Cancer fighting breakthrough article by Charles Poliquin
For Women Only: Cancer-Fighting Breakthrough
Why calcium D-glucarate is a key supplement for women
by Charles Poliquin
Although it is now taken for granted that biological differences between women and men require different approaches to supplementation, there is still considerable confusion as to what supplements are specifically beneficial for women, with the exception of iron (thanks to commercial television). Do women need extra iron? Possibly. A zinc supplement? Highly recommended. Fish oil? Absolutely. But those are the easy answers - how about calcium D-glucarate?
For women, I consider calcium D-glucarate as important as fish oil - it is that good! And although the mainstream media has yet to catch on to the significance of calcium D-glucarate, if you're a woman you shouldn't wait to avail yourself of this important compound.
Calcium D-glucarate is the patented form of glucaric acid. It is not an artificially engineered drug but a nontoxic compound present naturally in the body. It is found in fruits such as apples, grapes and grapefruit and in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower. Of course, this begs the question If calcium D-glucarate is found in fruits and vegetables, why would we need to take the supplement form of it? The answer is that it would be difficult to get enough of it from natural sources - honestly, how often do you eat five servings of vegetables a day?
Although glucaric acid has benefits for men, particularly in the prevention of prostrate cancer, I consider calcium D-glucarate an essential part of my women's line of supplements. The compound can play a critical role in total protection against (1) diseases caused by excess estrogen, (2) xenobiotics, which are pollutants or chemicals not produced naturally by the body (an antibiotic is an example of an xenobiotic), and (3) fat-soluble toxins, which are toxic compounds stored in body fat.
There is plenty of solid science to support the effectiveness and, consequently, the endorsement of calcium D-glucarate in the areas of cancer prevention and treatment. Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston (considered one of the top cancer centers in the United States) have conducted considerable research on the health benefits and healing properties of calcium D-glucarate. Their efforts led to the production of a patented form of the compound that can be used as a dietary supplement.
In animal studies, for example, researchers have seen as much as a 60 percent decrease in development of cancers of the lung, skin, liver, breast and colon; and there is also evidence to suggest that calcium D-glucarate can inhibit the development of bladder cancer. Especially promising are the nearly two dozen studies that suggest that calcium D-glucarate may be useful in the prevention of breast cancer. When you consider that cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the United States (behind heart disease), such promising research regarding the effects of calcium D-glucarate should be taken seriously by our nation's healthcare system.
The Detoxification Solution
In addition to heredity, factors responsible for cancer include diet, lifestyle and also environmental factors such as exposure to sunlight and radiation. Because the amount of harmful pollutants in our environment continues to increase, it is more important than ever to find effective means of detoxifying our bodies.
One way calcium D-glucarate accomplishes detoxification is by enhancing glucuronidation activity. Glucuronidation is a chemical reaction the body produces to rid itself of harmful toxins and carcinogens; the process makes substances more water soluble so they can be eliminated through urination. Among the carcinogens that glucuronidation removes from the body are fungal toxins, steroid hormones, nitrosamines, aromatic amines, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Calcium D-glucarate also improves the body's natural enzymatic processes of detoxification by inhibiting the effects of a detoxification-reversing enzyme called beta-glucuronidase in the gut. When calcium D-glucarate dissolves in the stomach, it forms D-glucaric acid, from which is derived the potent beta-glucuronidase inhibitor D-glucaro-1,4-lactone. By neutralizing the effects of beta-glucuronidase in the gut-bound estrogens, xenobiotics and fat-soluble toxins do not become reabsorbed into the body, and as such do not stress the system of detoxification and thereby place women at greater risk of cell damage in various tissues such as the breast.
I believe that any woman with high levels of estrogen exposure (incidentally, American women have the highest levels of estrogen in the world) and/or difficulty with consistent bowel elimination should consider supplementation with calcium D-glucarate as protection therapy. Additional amounts of this supplement are of paramount importance for individuals who are exposed to harmful chemicals such as cigarette smoke and for those who according to their medical history are at greater risk for certain types of cancers such as breast cancer and lung cancer.
Clinical trials studying the potential of calcium D-glucarate to prevent cancer are currently being conducted by such respected medical organizations as the National Cancer Institute and the AMC Cancer Research Center in Denver, Colorado. These trials are building upon the extensive research that has been amassed over the years by the medical industry on this valuable compound.
All the research points to calcium D-glucarate as one of the most promising supplements you can have in your cancer-fighting arsenal. If you're a woman who is seriously concerned about countering the harmful effects of the environment on your body and reducing your risk for certain types of cancer, then calcium D-glucarate should be a part of your overall wellness program.
Why calcium D-glucarate is a key supplement for women
by Charles Poliquin
Although it is now taken for granted that biological differences between women and men require different approaches to supplementation, there is still considerable confusion as to what supplements are specifically beneficial for women, with the exception of iron (thanks to commercial television). Do women need extra iron? Possibly. A zinc supplement? Highly recommended. Fish oil? Absolutely. But those are the easy answers - how about calcium D-glucarate?
For women, I consider calcium D-glucarate as important as fish oil - it is that good! And although the mainstream media has yet to catch on to the significance of calcium D-glucarate, if you're a woman you shouldn't wait to avail yourself of this important compound.
Calcium D-glucarate is the patented form of glucaric acid. It is not an artificially engineered drug but a nontoxic compound present naturally in the body. It is found in fruits such as apples, grapes and grapefruit and in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower. Of course, this begs the question If calcium D-glucarate is found in fruits and vegetables, why would we need to take the supplement form of it? The answer is that it would be difficult to get enough of it from natural sources - honestly, how often do you eat five servings of vegetables a day?
Although glucaric acid has benefits for men, particularly in the prevention of prostrate cancer, I consider calcium D-glucarate an essential part of my women's line of supplements. The compound can play a critical role in total protection against (1) diseases caused by excess estrogen, (2) xenobiotics, which are pollutants or chemicals not produced naturally by the body (an antibiotic is an example of an xenobiotic), and (3) fat-soluble toxins, which are toxic compounds stored in body fat.
There is plenty of solid science to support the effectiveness and, consequently, the endorsement of calcium D-glucarate in the areas of cancer prevention and treatment. Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston (considered one of the top cancer centers in the United States) have conducted considerable research on the health benefits and healing properties of calcium D-glucarate. Their efforts led to the production of a patented form of the compound that can be used as a dietary supplement.
In animal studies, for example, researchers have seen as much as a 60 percent decrease in development of cancers of the lung, skin, liver, breast and colon; and there is also evidence to suggest that calcium D-glucarate can inhibit the development of bladder cancer. Especially promising are the nearly two dozen studies that suggest that calcium D-glucarate may be useful in the prevention of breast cancer. When you consider that cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the United States (behind heart disease), such promising research regarding the effects of calcium D-glucarate should be taken seriously by our nation's healthcare system.
The Detoxification Solution
In addition to heredity, factors responsible for cancer include diet, lifestyle and also environmental factors such as exposure to sunlight and radiation. Because the amount of harmful pollutants in our environment continues to increase, it is more important than ever to find effective means of detoxifying our bodies.
One way calcium D-glucarate accomplishes detoxification is by enhancing glucuronidation activity. Glucuronidation is a chemical reaction the body produces to rid itself of harmful toxins and carcinogens; the process makes substances more water soluble so they can be eliminated through urination. Among the carcinogens that glucuronidation removes from the body are fungal toxins, steroid hormones, nitrosamines, aromatic amines, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Calcium D-glucarate also improves the body's natural enzymatic processes of detoxification by inhibiting the effects of a detoxification-reversing enzyme called beta-glucuronidase in the gut. When calcium D-glucarate dissolves in the stomach, it forms D-glucaric acid, from which is derived the potent beta-glucuronidase inhibitor D-glucaro-1,4-lactone. By neutralizing the effects of beta-glucuronidase in the gut-bound estrogens, xenobiotics and fat-soluble toxins do not become reabsorbed into the body, and as such do not stress the system of detoxification and thereby place women at greater risk of cell damage in various tissues such as the breast.
I believe that any woman with high levels of estrogen exposure (incidentally, American women have the highest levels of estrogen in the world) and/or difficulty with consistent bowel elimination should consider supplementation with calcium D-glucarate as protection therapy. Additional amounts of this supplement are of paramount importance for individuals who are exposed to harmful chemicals such as cigarette smoke and for those who according to their medical history are at greater risk for certain types of cancers such as breast cancer and lung cancer.
Clinical trials studying the potential of calcium D-glucarate to prevent cancer are currently being conducted by such respected medical organizations as the National Cancer Institute and the AMC Cancer Research Center in Denver, Colorado. These trials are building upon the extensive research that has been amassed over the years by the medical industry on this valuable compound.
All the research points to calcium D-glucarate as one of the most promising supplements you can have in your cancer-fighting arsenal. If you're a woman who is seriously concerned about countering the harmful effects of the environment on your body and reducing your risk for certain types of cancer, then calcium D-glucarate should be a part of your overall wellness program.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Introduction to Steel Performance and Personal Training
Hello everyone and welcome to the official Steel Performance and Personal Training blog. My name is Jessie Casteel and I am certified through the International Sports Sciences Association as a C.F.T. or Certified Fitness Trainer. I work with any individual looking to increase their standard of living by increasing strength, performance, and health. My main area of expertise is strength training and through this type of training you can increase your functional strength for every day activities ranging from increased sport performance to carrying groceries. The beauty of strength training is that you can effectively burn fat and increase your metabolic rate while balancing out your body composition. I approach every client with care and compassion and love the challenge of educating and taking your goals on as a challenge and I dont like losing a challenge. below is a description of what I offer to each and every client with no discrimination. This means I can train men looking to gain lean muscle mass as well as women who just want to tone and lose fat. I have trained children and teens with fun informative exercise as well. I strongly encourage parents or family members to cooperate and be involved with child fitness as well. I believe in natural healing and supplementation to balance hormonal actions in the body and have a deep passion for fitness and educating people on said topics. Here is a description of my system which has been proven to be very effective and rewarding.
Program description and rate information for Steel Performance and Personal Training.
I will assess you on strength, (sit-ups, pushups, etc.) nothing serious, if you cant do some fine if you can only do a few that’s fine and I will explain later. Then I will assess flexibility through a couple of basic stretches. Next is a muscle balance assessment where I check to see if there are any muscle imbalances which are what I would start the program off with. Then with all the information I gather through weight, body fat percentage, age etc I can calculate your body mass index, target heart rate and begin putting a specific program for you. When clients come to me I expect them to be weak and range from slightly out of shape to full on class 3 obiese. That’s fine that’s what I want but we train with the mindset of we are training our bodies into shape hormonally, physically and mentally. nutrition is 80% of fat loss and recovery and 15% is training and the last 5% is physiological so if we train our brains to think of training the body vs. working out, we will have more focus, dedication, and drive to be successful and always work for progression. I would expect someone to come to me if their weak. I can fix that, it’s what I do, and what I love to do. I expect to see some belly and that’s fine. My job and goal is to help you change these things but it’s up to you to want it. Just ask yourself deep down inside, Am I happy with my current health? Do I want to live a longer happier, healthier life? I can help you and I am willing to but I have to make sure you want to be helped before you or I can be successful at it. I start my systems off with 2 weeks of lower impact stability ball core and flexibility movements with some light dumbbell work. I will not train anyone less than 2 sessions a week but would prefer 3-4 sessions a week. After the initial 2 weeks of light training I can assess you by watching your balance form and performance so I can work on isolated muscle imbalance work. Let me explain that last sentence, One of the most common imbalances in muscle groups is he deltoid or shoulder caps. In most of my current and previous clients, in fact every client I have had has had a serious imbalance in the posterior or rear deltoid head. This is because we use medial or side movements and anterior or front movements more than we do rear movements. What I do is find that imbalance and isolate that muscle head to strengthen it. Yes the other muscle heads may help with the movements but the angle you use in the exercises actually target the lacking muscle fiber. Once balance is restored we do compound exercises for the muscle group to strengthen it as a whole using more advanced exercises and at that point we only use isolations as a maintenance tool. This is just the next progression and the muscle balancing phase takes roughly 6 weeks at 2 sessions per week which once again is the minimum but added cardio like walking in the evenings or some kind of cardiovascular work on off days will speed the process up more. Nutrition has got to be a cornerstone of your fitness especially at this point. When we start compound movements or multi joint movements your metabolism will speed up even more than it did when you started eating healthier meals more frequently. So now you have had two increases in your metabolic rate naturally. I will help you with nutrition planning as well. This part of the program can last 3-6 weeks and then we move into Olympic style lifts at this point your metabolism will be sped up more and your body will crave food all the time and here is the best part, you get to feed it. After all of that we move on and the sky is the limit. I will say that the results will depend on you and what you are willing to put into it. Everyone’s body is different so when you talk results, yeah I can get you results but its up to you to make better nutrition choices and I will help you with that, Genetics play a role in the process as well as past health, exercise, and hormonal imbalances. Of course I am a big believer in body detoxification which in almost every one of my clients made huge differences and is just a very smart thing to throw into your body transformation plan. I offer all this to each client equally and I have had success thus far. I have all the knowledge and equipment to balance your body and strengthen it in a proven manner that while gaining strength you will burn fat (depending on your nutritional diligence). If you want help and want an affordable trainer that will take your goals as a challenge and do everything I can to get you where you want and have fun doing it, then I am the trainer for you. That’s the skinny on training with me and I look forward to hearing back from you but also keep in mind you have the right to shop around and try to find what works best for you.
I can be contacted via E-Mail at Trained_by_steel@yahoo.com also feel free to visit my Myspace page at www.myspace.com/trained_by_steel to view before and after photos in my photo albums and if you have a Myspace account feel free to add me. I also have a question and answer segment I perform on myspace where people are encouraged to ask me fitness, nutrition or supplementation questions and i answer in a bulletin posting to allow everyone access to the information. this is a very popular subject that is highly respected by many enthusiast and it allows me to stay sharp on new topics and techniques. I have recieved a high level of success and recognition with my no nonsense straight advice and I value all the support and great questions that have been asked of me in this segment. below is a few testimonials from clients and friends as well that I have had the pleasure and blessings to help.
"My Boy Steel, I've been training for well over 20 years. I've taken just about everything over the counter and across the border you could take to achieve size and strength. But the information and knowledge I have gained from you through nutrition and training the last couple of months will help me get another 20 years at this iron and nutrition lifestyle I would probably not have obtained from my prior practices. Thank you for your insight and your complete love and passion you have for this sport called life. God Bless." -Michael Collins AKA The Cooler (Team BDU).
"I've been into bodybuilding and weight training for many years now and am always reading everything that I can get my hands on to increase my knowledge. Since meeting Jess a short time ago, I've learned so many new things and ideas on training/diet/supplements and has also renewed my motivation for completing my own Personal Training certification. I highly recommend Jess for anyone looking to get in the best shape of their lives." -Kalev Kallas AKA BullDawg (team BDU West Coast Officer)
Thank you~
Jess Casteel Steel Performance and Personal Training
Team BDU West officer
www.myspace.com/trained_by_steel
trained_by_steel@yahoo.com
Program description and rate information for Steel Performance and Personal Training.
I will assess you on strength, (sit-ups, pushups, etc.) nothing serious, if you cant do some fine if you can only do a few that’s fine and I will explain later. Then I will assess flexibility through a couple of basic stretches. Next is a muscle balance assessment where I check to see if there are any muscle imbalances which are what I would start the program off with. Then with all the information I gather through weight, body fat percentage, age etc I can calculate your body mass index, target heart rate and begin putting a specific program for you. When clients come to me I expect them to be weak and range from slightly out of shape to full on class 3 obiese. That’s fine that’s what I want but we train with the mindset of we are training our bodies into shape hormonally, physically and mentally. nutrition is 80% of fat loss and recovery and 15% is training and the last 5% is physiological so if we train our brains to think of training the body vs. working out, we will have more focus, dedication, and drive to be successful and always work for progression. I would expect someone to come to me if their weak. I can fix that, it’s what I do, and what I love to do. I expect to see some belly and that’s fine. My job and goal is to help you change these things but it’s up to you to want it. Just ask yourself deep down inside, Am I happy with my current health? Do I want to live a longer happier, healthier life? I can help you and I am willing to but I have to make sure you want to be helped before you or I can be successful at it. I start my systems off with 2 weeks of lower impact stability ball core and flexibility movements with some light dumbbell work. I will not train anyone less than 2 sessions a week but would prefer 3-4 sessions a week. After the initial 2 weeks of light training I can assess you by watching your balance form and performance so I can work on isolated muscle imbalance work. Let me explain that last sentence, One of the most common imbalances in muscle groups is he deltoid or shoulder caps. In most of my current and previous clients, in fact every client I have had has had a serious imbalance in the posterior or rear deltoid head. This is because we use medial or side movements and anterior or front movements more than we do rear movements. What I do is find that imbalance and isolate that muscle head to strengthen it. Yes the other muscle heads may help with the movements but the angle you use in the exercises actually target the lacking muscle fiber. Once balance is restored we do compound exercises for the muscle group to strengthen it as a whole using more advanced exercises and at that point we only use isolations as a maintenance tool. This is just the next progression and the muscle balancing phase takes roughly 6 weeks at 2 sessions per week which once again is the minimum but added cardio like walking in the evenings or some kind of cardiovascular work on off days will speed the process up more. Nutrition has got to be a cornerstone of your fitness especially at this point. When we start compound movements or multi joint movements your metabolism will speed up even more than it did when you started eating healthier meals more frequently. So now you have had two increases in your metabolic rate naturally. I will help you with nutrition planning as well. This part of the program can last 3-6 weeks and then we move into Olympic style lifts at this point your metabolism will be sped up more and your body will crave food all the time and here is the best part, you get to feed it. After all of that we move on and the sky is the limit. I will say that the results will depend on you and what you are willing to put into it. Everyone’s body is different so when you talk results, yeah I can get you results but its up to you to make better nutrition choices and I will help you with that, Genetics play a role in the process as well as past health, exercise, and hormonal imbalances. Of course I am a big believer in body detoxification which in almost every one of my clients made huge differences and is just a very smart thing to throw into your body transformation plan. I offer all this to each client equally and I have had success thus far. I have all the knowledge and equipment to balance your body and strengthen it in a proven manner that while gaining strength you will burn fat (depending on your nutritional diligence). If you want help and want an affordable trainer that will take your goals as a challenge and do everything I can to get you where you want and have fun doing it, then I am the trainer for you. That’s the skinny on training with me and I look forward to hearing back from you but also keep in mind you have the right to shop around and try to find what works best for you.
I can be contacted via E-Mail at Trained_by_steel@yahoo.com also feel free to visit my Myspace page at www.myspace.com/trained_by_steel to view before and after photos in my photo albums and if you have a Myspace account feel free to add me. I also have a question and answer segment I perform on myspace where people are encouraged to ask me fitness, nutrition or supplementation questions and i answer in a bulletin posting to allow everyone access to the information. this is a very popular subject that is highly respected by many enthusiast and it allows me to stay sharp on new topics and techniques. I have recieved a high level of success and recognition with my no nonsense straight advice and I value all the support and great questions that have been asked of me in this segment. below is a few testimonials from clients and friends as well that I have had the pleasure and blessings to help.
"My Boy Steel, I've been training for well over 20 years. I've taken just about everything over the counter and across the border you could take to achieve size and strength. But the information and knowledge I have gained from you through nutrition and training the last couple of months will help me get another 20 years at this iron and nutrition lifestyle I would probably not have obtained from my prior practices. Thank you for your insight and your complete love and passion you have for this sport called life. God Bless." -Michael Collins AKA The Cooler (Team BDU).
"I've been into bodybuilding and weight training for many years now and am always reading everything that I can get my hands on to increase my knowledge. Since meeting Jess a short time ago, I've learned so many new things and ideas on training/diet/supplements and has also renewed my motivation for completing my own Personal Training certification. I highly recommend Jess for anyone looking to get in the best shape of their lives." -Kalev Kallas AKA BullDawg (team BDU West Coast Officer)
Thank you~
Jess Casteel Steel Performance and Personal Training
Team BDU West officer
www.myspace.com/trained_by_steel
trained_by_steel@yahoo.com
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