60 Day Turnaround

You can buy Turmeric here – Beyond Organic Terrain

Or see Dr. Mercola’s article for more options…

By Dr. Mercola

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death. What if there was a safe, natural herb that could work for nearly every type of cancer?

According to Dr. William LaValley, who focuses most of his clinical work on the treatment of cancer, curcumin—a derivative of turmeric, and the pigment that gives the curry spice turmeric its yellow-orange color—may fit the bill. It’s a natural compound that has been extensively researched, and has been found to have numerous health applications.

Like me, Dr. LaValley was trained in general medicine, but he’s devoted a considerable amount of time to understanding the biochemical pathways that can support health nutritionally.

In 1982, he participated in an exchange program to the People’s Republic of China, where he got first-hand experience with the ancient practices of traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture.

“One of the important messages that I learned there was that natural products, natural molecules, from plants and animals that are already available in nature, have been used by the Chinese for at least hundreds, probably thousands of years. That deeply changed my perspective in the world of medicine,” he says.

“I came back to medical school, and thereafter, looked at how I could integrate the perspective of conventional pharmaceutical administration as well as natural extract, natural product administration.”

Curcumin Has Potent Anti-Cancer Activity

In 2005, he took a 75 percent sabbatical from clinical practice to immerse himself in the science of molecular biology, specifically the molecular biology of cancer. He also devoted approximately 9,000-9,500 hours building a relational database from the PubMed literature about the molecular biology of cancer.

One important lesson he learned through that venture is that the understanding of molecular biology can be applied across a range of diseases and symptoms described in the scientific literature. That knowledge can be applied by searching PubMed and other related databases, looking at the relevant molecular pathways involved.

“In learning the molecular biology of cancer pathways, and in learning that what the evidence actually shows for the effect of natural product extracts on various relevant molecular targets in various cancers,

We see that there’s actually quite a large amount of evidence that supports using various molecules, natural products, and pharmaceuticals that are already approved and that have been around for a long time to affect anti-cancer activity along that pathway at that target. That’s called molecularly targeted anti-cancer treatment, and it’s widely practiced in oncology today.

What’s not widely practiced is the use of the natural products for the molecularly targeted anti-cancer activity. I provide that for my patients because the evidence base suggests and supports the use of these treatment recommendations.”

Curcumin—A ‘Universal’ Cancer Treatment?

Interestingly, curcumin appears to be universally useful for just about every type of cancer, which is really odd since cancer consists of a wide variety of different molecular pathologies. You wouldn’t necessarily suspect that there would be one herb that would work for most of them. Dr. LaValley explains how he came to this conclusion:

“I went back to the literature and looked at how I can support the decision-making process and the recommendations that I’m making for treatment from the scientific literature, including literature that goes from the treatment of humans with oral products like pharmaceuticals or natural products.

This is where I learned about this molecule called curcumin, all the way down to its use in animals and then its use in test tubes or petri dish… One of the amazing things about curcumin is that this molecule has some profound anti-inflammatory activity and has activity in many molecular targets.

There are molecules that are in the cells, and those molecules interact with each other along certain pathways or tracks. The traffic of that interaction, the signals that are transferred in that trafficking of information in the molecules, presents many different targets or molecular-specific complexes.”

As explained by Dr. LaValley, whether the curcumin molecule causes an increase in traffic or activity of a particular molecular target, or a decrease/inhibition of activity, studies repeatedly show that the end result is a potent anti-cancer activity. Furthermore, curcumin does not adversely affect healthy cells, suggesting it selectively targets cancer cells. Research has also shown that it works synergistically with certain chemotherapy drugs, enhancing the elimination of cancer cells.

Curcumin Destroys Cancer in Multiple Ways

Curcumin has the most evidence-based literature1 supporting its use against cancer of any nutrient, including vitamin D, which also has a robust base. Interestingly, this also includes the metabolite of curcumin and its derivatives, which are also anti-cancerous.

Curcumin has the ability to modulate genetic activity and expression—both by destroying cancer cells and by promoting healthy cell function. It also promotes anti-angiogenesis, meaning it helps prevent the development of additional blood supply necessary for cancer cell growth. As for its effect on molecular pathways, curcumin can affect more than 100 of them, once it gets into the cell. More specifically, curcumin has been found to:

Inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells	Decrease inflammation
Inhibit the transformation of cells from normal to tumor	Inhibit the synthesis of a protein thought to be instrumental in tumor formation
Help your body destroy mutated cancer cells so they cannot spread throughout your body	Help prevent the development of additional blood supply necessary for cancer cell growth (angiogenesis)

Read more of Dr. Mercola’s article here: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/03/02/curcumin-benefits.aspx

Consumer Turmeric Terrain on a daily basis – Get Jordan Rubin’s Amazing product here:  Beyond Organic

Keeping the 60 Day Turnarounders rolling in the right direction, and bringing you all along with them!  We do workouts of the week with the intention of making them repeatable and enjoyable (I know, sounds crazy to you doesn’t it) and part of an ongoing pursuit of the fourth essential!  (increased lean muscle and oxygen)

So, as always, our workouts are going to be short fast and intense.  This one is no different.  Lets get to it.

4 Rounds of:
10 Squats
10 Squat Jumps (squat deep then jump up and pull your knees to your chest)
10 Burpees (start standing, get to lying on the ground, back to your feet, then jump up and clap your hands over your head; you can jump to the ground, or slowly work your way down depending on your intensity)

That is the workout, just push yourself through as fast as you can, expect your legs to burn, and expect them to burn for the next day as well.  You can cut it to two rounds if you feel like 40 reps of each is too much for you.

WHY?

The Why is what drives us to work hard, and ultimately the why behind short duration high intensity work is too complex for this Sprout.  But there are some great bullet points that I can give you that should help you understand why long cardio will be a thing of the past, other than doing it out of enjoyment.

• Shorter duration reduces the amount of oxidative stress on the system, thus it is safer and healthier.
• High intensity drives an increase in Growth Hormone and Testosterone.  Both of which drive greater health and healing.
• Aerobic capacity goes up much faster when you push aerobic potential to the max, it is the best way to gain increased cardiovascular function.
• Moving your body through full range exercise gains the highest level of function.  Squat depth improves flexibility.

Like I said at the start, the depth of these four bullet points alone, could fill six pages of material, but simply getting this basic truth, will help you get smart and get intense!  The weather will be perfect this weekend, get out and do something!

Be well and Be blessed!  – Dr. E

My moniker is the “health guy” to many.  Yet I am NOT a “health nut” according to myself.  I am a man in the pursuit of health.  The reason why this is such an important designation, is because we are so quickly turned towards the symptom.  The MOMENT we have a significant health crises, we are willing to turn our backs completely on the pursuit of health for the symptom.

I am going to go back to my wife’s battle with Lyme disease, and use this as an example.  Lyme disease is based on these bacteria that attack the body in may ways, but heavily neurological.  Numbness, tingling, burning, weakness… all based on neurological insufficiency.  In addition, as you know, the nervous system controls every single organ in the body, every function.  So if you have a disease attacking your nervous system, then you will very likely end up with symptoms all over your body.

Cardiac conditions tend to be prevalent in chronic Lyme patients, as well as higher neurological issues, some that cripple cognition, or in some cases cripple motor function, leaving patients wheelchair bound.  Obviously, in these severe cases, the symptoms become very important.  Would I advise one who lost the ability to walk, to ignore that disability to stay focused on the underlying condition only?  Well, maybe.  But only if they were so focused on the symptom that they lost site of winning the battle.

The pursuit of health means, that regardless of where you are, you keep a keen eye focused on what it takes to get healthy.  So let me give you the top down approach, and first.  My wife’s naturopath was my inspiration to write this sprout, as he is focusing my wife’s treatment, very much the way I would.  On her overall state of health.  It is painful to see someone you love suffer from symptoms.  But if you have knowledge, it is more painful to see them lose sight of what it takes to get healthy.

As I have watched documentary’s, read books, and researched online, I have seen the stories of individuals who have spent years on antibiotic treatments, and cardiac meds, and other symptomatic treatments.  Years.  The most common trait that ties these people together, beyond Lyme disease, is that they failed to look at the pursuit of health, but got tied up in the symptomatic treatment.

When we chose to go down the path of antibiotics for my wife, we knew that it would be a decently long course (ten weeks), but we knew our plan would be to stop at the end of that, and to not continue down that path again.  But rather, to take steps to drive towards health.  To be in pursuit of health.

So, back to top down approach.

We have five essentials of health.  And they stand out in respect to Lyme disease.

1. Nervous System Function
2. Reduced Toxin Living
3. Healthy Nutrition
4. Healthy Mind
5. Maximized Oxygen and Lean Muscle

If one is hoping to be truly healed, lifetime healed from any disease, these steps are absolutely critical.  They should be at the core of our existence.  Not our focus, like I said, I am not a health nut.  But I have important objectives in life, as does my wife, and in order for us to reach them, we need to be in this pursuit.  Otherwise, we’ll succumb to the typical cultural issues.

Next Thursday night at 7pm, we’ll be at the Bread Beckers, talking about the five essentials of health.  Don’t miss this focused and informative free talk.  Sign up today, and bring a friend.  Someone who doesn’t know who we are or what we do… you just might save a life.

Be well and Be blessed!  – Dr. E

We all face stressors in life, but ultimately it is up to us to decide if we are stressed or not.  I often say that I don’t get stressed, and if you ask those close to me, they would agree… to a fault they might even say.  But I feel strongly that God does not want you to be stressed, so it is a goal of mine not to stress.

Recently, my daughter Brooke was given antibiotics after living her entire nine years without ever taking any drug of any kind.  I didn’t stress.  She is an amazing girl, with amazing health, and is in a time where she could use some assistance to insure that the best outcome occurs.  But I did not stress, nor will I now over her ability to overcome any residual effect of the drug, or the illness that made us go in that direction.

Likewise, my life has been loaded with stressors in the last 9 days, but stress has been a small part of my life.  However, it has been there more in this time than I think I have had in the last year or more.  It all started with my decision to bring my wife into the planning of Garage Games One (the largest competition that my gym holds). As many of you know, I am a partner in four CrossFit gyms, the first of which, started a competition series that hosted over 150 competitions last year around the country.  And partnered with close to 220 different CrossFit gyms to do it.

Well, GG1 is the largest one that we host, and I am very closely tied to this one.  Myself and another owner and his wife, along with mine (resume story from above) planned this one.  By the end of last weekend, Laura and Beth described the event as having a baby.  It all started kind of fun and nice about 6 months ago as the planning began.  Almost exciting even.  But as it approached, the anxiety and discomfort grew, right to the point where labor began… and it continued… and continued.  Finally when it was over, it was a euphoric kind of high (well, maybe not that).

The only problem, is that the event started Friday the 14th, and ended Sunday night the 16th.  It was loaded with action from start to finish, and we had moving parts all over the place.  So we spent the night in Suwanee on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Got home Sunday night around 11pm, then left for Steamboat Monday midday.  So, while my wife lie in bed, thinking about the event on Friday night, letting her potential for four and a half hours of sleep, slip away as she lie awake, stress not only slipped into her life, but into mine.

Fast forward to Steamboat.  All was going pretty well, until the girls got a little better in their ski skills, and I took them out onto the slopes.  Man.  Nothing can prepare a father for that moment when you are teaching your child to work through mortal fear… especially when it seems totally unfounded.  Now, I remember that feeling of “this is too steep, I cannot possibly make it down this hill alive”, but I also remember conquering that fear.  So as my two daughters and I were quickly becoming the “last people” on the mountain on Thursday night, I got a little stressed.

In the end it all worked out, we ended up skiing that run three times without issue over the following two days.  But, oh… the stress of it.  One daughter too scared to move, the other daughter too anxious to stay put (kept getting further away from us down the mountain)… this was a tough one.  But, if I can take a second, we are all responsible for our own stress, I am the only one responsible for putting myself in that situation.  So even though, my daughter was “stressing” me out, it was all mine.  Don’t forget that.

Jump ahead, Saturday AM, we just bought lift tickets for the day (we flew out Sunday AM from Denver at 6:30am, so needed to get in the car to get to the Hotel in Denver by a decent time), we had originally planned to NOT ski on Saturday, and simply spend some time around Steamboat.  So, within about thirty minutes of getting our lift tickets, and renewing our rentals for a day, we get the call that our dog isn’t doing well (our dog sitter is absolutely awesome for being quick on picking this up).  A little while later we get a call, his blood isn’t looking good, and the vet wants to send him somewhere else, a few hours and another call, our awesome dog Toby is on the verge of death (he is home with us, and alive right now still).

Fast forward to the hotel room in Denver.  My wife realizes that her license is gone.  No photo ID to board the plan in the AM.  Fast forward again, wake up at 3am so that we can get to the airport early in order to convince TSA that she is who we say she is, and to let her fly (in the end it worked out).

Now that you see the whole picture, lets step back and look at how I responded.

1. Yelled at my daughter to get herself moving on the mountain that was scaring her to death… why?  Because I was stressed, and I knew that she would be fine if she followed me.  But fine isn’t the goal.  Strike one.

2. Yelled at God on the mountain after the second phone call.  How could my dog be dying, now?

3. Yelled at everyone in my vicinity when I was forced to drop off the rental car late last night, in order to catch a shuttle early enough from the hotel to the airport to get to argue with TSA.

You see.  I don’t get stressed very easily, but when I do, I don’t handle it well.  Normally, it just rolls off my back, but as soon as it begins to take a hold of me… look out.  And that isn’t good.  So my point in this, is not the damage that stress does to your health.  I have told that story many times over, and I will tell it again.  But the story that I want to tell today, is that your relationships are the most valuable thing you will ever have.  Your spouse and your children… parents… siblings.  They are all incredibly important, and depend upon you sucking up you, and shoving it back down to where it belongs.

I went to drop the car off, it was about 10pm Denver time, and I was thinking about how I wanted to time this just right to get to the airport just right, to get the hotel shuttle to pick me up and take me back to the hotel, so I could sleep five hours, then get back on the hotel shuttle to the airport.  You see what I was doing here?  Traveling with shuttles to do it cheap, so I called a cab after I realized, i need quick, not cheap.  Well the one cab company estimated 45 minutes to pick me up.  Ugh.  So I decided to go with cheap.

Well, I got to the rental car company, and the woman (after five minutes of clicking on her computer for some information that I wasn’t privy to learn), asked me “is it full?”  “No, I got that whole pre-pay thing”  “well it isn’t on your account”  “so i need to fill it up or pay you a ridiculous amount per gallon?”  “yep”

So as I was driving out tot he gas station having this conversation with the lady in my head “well, this guy Hector ought to be fired for forgetting to add my gas, causing me to drive out into the snow at 10pm, when I already have a ridiculous night ahead of me, and my dog is dying and my wife’s license is gone, and….”

That is all it took for me to break down in laughter.  “God – I cannot believe that I am complaining about losing a dog… not a person.  That I would want someone fired because I had to lose about ten minutes of my life, and that in the midst of all that is going poorly in the world, that I would be concerned with any of this.  Sorry, forgive me, lets laugh.”

And that is what I did, for the next ten minutes, and I joked with the shuttle driver, and the taxi stand attendant who kept me in conversation while I waited on the wrong side of the terminal for the hotel shuttle, and then finally the lady next to me in the packed hotel shuttle. It was all good.  And as I snuck into my room with my kids sound asleep, and the iDream app kicking out crazy loud “river” noise… I smiled, and thanked God for helping me find perspective.

Be Well and Be Blessed – Dr. E

February 19th, 2014

Written by: Dr Mike

Breast cancer is the 2nd leading cancer among women. Screening for this particular condition has been around for about a century by way of x-ray and physical examination. It wasn’t until 1969 that the mammogram made its way onto the scene as a powerful new way to detect breast lumps much smaller than you could feel during a self check.   Since then, they have been considered the gold standard of breast cancer detection and prevention in the medical world. Almost 40 million mammograms are done each year, as it is recommended that women over the age of 40 take 4 films of each breast annually.

A study was launched in 1980 to scientifically assess whether or not the risks of having a mammogram outweighed the benefits.  This study was recently published in the British Medical Journal and reported on by mainstream media such as CNN and the New York Times.  The results will tend to raise an eyebrow or two…

More than 89,000 women were tracked over the 25 year span.  They were split into 2 groups.  One half took their yearly mammograms, while the other took to the less invasive self examination. After 25 years, the study found that deaths due to breast cancer in both groups were identical.  Not only this, but they also found that 22% of these cancers were over diagnosed and would have likely not been a threat to the individuals overall health had they been left alone.

Mammograms have a been a topic of controversy over the years as countless studies have exposed the risk factors to routine breast mammography:

• If the standard mammography schedule is followed, each breast is exposed to approximately 1 rad, or about 1000x greater radiation than received from a chest x-ray.  Exposure to this amount of radiation actually promotes the formation of cancer cells, especially in premenopausal women.

• Tight and painful compression of the breast during a mammogram can lead to lethal spread of malignant cells to distant parts of the body.

• False positives are very common in breast cancer diagnosis, resulting in unnecessary chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and mastectomies.

• Finally, it has been shown that this is a “not so reliable” early detection tool.  Breast cancer can be present for up to 8 years before it is detected.

So, with all of this being said… it begs the question, “How do you get checked?”  There are safer techniques including the back to basics way… self breast examination.  Also, breast thermography is a safe and effective way to search for breast pathology.  Breast cancer is an estrogen sensitive cancer and can be assessed effectively by Extronex testing.  A test used to measure estrogen metabolites in the urin.

Overall… breast cancer is a chronic disease of epigenetic/lifestyle origin.  The breast cancer gene (BRCA1 gene) can be expressed just as often as it is unexpressed.  This is explained by environmental factors.  The key is to optimize your health, by eating well, minimizing toxins, and getting adjusted.  Studies have shown increases in natural killer cells, substance P, and interleukin 2 cells after an chiropractic adjustments… all contribute to our body’s innate defense against cancer.

After NINE years, today was the day that I made the decision to give my daughter Brooke a medication.  Well, Laura and I decided together.  Her first med of any kind, and it was an antibiotic.  I had hoped that she would make it out to her teen years without needing anything, and the reality is, she didn’t need it today.  But, the question came, “is the risk enough, that the risk of the medication effecting her negatively, is less than the risk of not having?”  We decided it was.

So what we diagnosed her with, is a two week bought of scarlet fever.  I have seen it before in my patients, and I have advised patients to fight through it.  You see, we are all designed to kill strep, and we do it all the time.  I am reminded of the time, about 15 years ago, when I was part of a lab class at school that got to culture the throats of 36 healthy individuals.  Then we prepared slides and tested both for staph and strep.  All slides prepared were positive using field analysis (counting how many of the bacteria were present in each slide view).  Amazing to think that we all would have tested positive for clinical “infection”, yet nobody had symptoms, and nobody needed a med.  That was a very powerful lab experiment.  I believe all MED students should have to do the same.

So the risk of chronic scarlet fever, is simply that there is potential for the strep to pass further into tissues of the body, where fighting off the strep can become difficult.  Now, I should reference my “least common denominator” Daily Sprout from years ago, where I outline the difference between a healthy person, and an unhealthy person.  The fact is that most of the risks referenced in journal studies as they relate to infection, and disease, are aimed at the weakest of our society.  Not the strongest.

If you treat the weakest of society, and then study them… you only make them weaker, and you then only report the story of the weaker, creating a desire to treat the stronger… who now become weaker because of your treatment.  Pretty bad spiral in the wrong direction.  I have made it my life focus to make my daughters the stronger.   And I believe that Brooke is a stronger, and very capable individual when it comes to her health.  I do not believe that she needs this antibiotic.  But I do believe there is a very slight chance that she could, and with that slight chance that she could have worse impact if she doesn’t fight this off.

Remember, don’t fall into the trap.  This is her first time in NINE years, and will likely be the last time for the next NINE years.  Do you remember the study that i reference in my doctors report.  JAMA – February 2004 – Antibiotic Use in Relation to the risk of Breast Cancer.  I just re-read the abstract, and again, I am reminded that every day that I safeguard my family from an antibiotic, that they are better off.  I am also reminded, that in the name of fear, we can make horrible choices.

So, why now?  Well, I think that her health is so good, and her immunity has been developed to be so strong, that there is little side effect for me to be concerned with regarding the use of the med.  I am confident that she will rebound, and I am confident that if there was a concern over the strep that she is fighting now, that it will be gone with the use of the med.  So together, it is not a “win/win”, but the win outweighs the lose.

Brooke is saddened by it.  I think she has looked at her health as a trophy, even though I have tried hard in my education to remind her that our choices are decisions that made day by day with a goal of health in mind.  “It is not our philosophy that is at stake, it is our health.  And I have told you all along, that we don’t think all meds are bad, we just think the way they are used is bad.”  Then of course I had to remind her that her mother just went through over two months straight of antibiotic use to fight off Lyme dx.

Yes.  We are better without meds 99% of the time.  But yes, there is a time and a place.  We will just continue to strive to be better in our pursuit of health over the next period of our life, and see what that yields.  Maybe we’ll get out ten years before the next need arises… maybe not.  Regardless, I’ll trust God first, then everything else after.

Be well and Be blessed!  – Dr. E