Exercise and Cancer

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-link-between-cancer-and-exercise/
"First of all, it has been shown that exercise can significantly reduce a person's risk of developing cancer. For women especially, regular exercise is an important cancer deterrent. Coupled with plenty of rest, moderate doses of physical activity have "consistently been associated with reduced risk of cancer incidence at several sites, including breast and colon cancers." Scientists suspect the preventive powers of exercise can be linked to its effect on hormones, body weight, and immune system strength, but they're not sure.
And, as the Swedish medical school Karolinska Institutet so bluntly put it, exercise "cuts cancer death in men," too. The Swedish researchers examined some forty thousand men of varying ages for seven years. Of that group, around 3700 developed cancer; 1,153 died from it. For those cancer patients who also walked or cycled for at least thirty minutes a day, the survival rate increased 33% against those who didn't exercise at all. An extensive (60 to 90 minutes a day) exercise program was even shown to reduce the incidence of cancer by 16%.
New research also shows that it's never too early to start reaping the benefits of regular exercise. Beginning as early as age twelve, girls and young women who exercise regularly enjoy a substantially lower risk of getting breast cancer before menopause. A study of almost 65,000 women revealed that active women had a 23% reduced risk. Furthermore, early exercise - between the ages of 12 and 22 - had the most effect on risk later in life."

Sun and D, Still More

"Today’s children have weaker bones are are much more prone to fracture than children of a few decades ago.  As Dr. Holick reports

Even more alarming is a new epidemic in which bone formation in children appears normal but is actually much softer than is should be.  Girls today break their arms 56 percent more often than did their peers forty years ago.  Boys break their arms 32 percent more often.

I’m sure the girls and boys of forty years ago were much more rough and tumble than the ones of today, yet the kids of today suffer more fractures.

While writing this post I got an email notifying me of a recent study showing that melanoma, a virulently malignant form of skin cancer is occurring with frighteningly high frequency in today’s teens.  These are the adolescents at the leading edge of the great heoliophobe movement, the very ones whose parents, in an effort to protect them, coated these kids liberally with sunscreen every time they walked out of doors.  Did their well-meaning parents set them up for this terrible disease?  Are the chickens coming home to roost?  It’s difficult to say for sure, but, in my opinion, it’s more than likely.  Here’s what happened."

Vitamin D and Sports

"According to The Vitamin D Council Executive Director Dr. John Cannell, the Blackhawks are “the first Vitamin D team in modern professional sports history.” According to his sources, most of the Chicago Blackhawks players are taking 5,000 IU of Vitamin D daily to deal with a myriad of deficiency issues the team physicians had observed. Their sudden improved play from mediocre to title contender is capturing the attention of the sports world like no other story right now. Although I’m not a current pro hockey fan, I think I might be watching to see how the Chicago Blackhawks do in the Stanley Cup.

Improved athletic play and quick recovery from injuries are two of the tell-tale signs that Vitamin D levels are at their proper levels. It can boost physical performance and improve athletic performance although this has been known for more than three years. It’s exciting to think that taking a simple and inexpensive supplement like Vitamin D3 gel caps could be responsible for the Chicago Blackhawks adding another Stanley Cup championship their banner in 2010, but the odds are 4/11 that they will do just that! Perhaps this will start a Vitamin D revolution that is sorely needed if we want to do something about the chronic health problems usually attributed to fibromyalgia, hypertension, and other ailments. Can you imagine if they’d combine low-carb nutrition with their Vitamin D supplementation? The possibilities would be limitless!"

http://www.examiner.com/x-867-LowCarb-Lifestyle-Examiner~y2010m5d24-NHLs-Chicago-Blackhawks-The-first-Vitamin-D-team-in-professional-sports

Businesses Save On Health Care Costs

Track Your Plaque reduces healthcare costs 35%

Another great post from Dr. Davis, documenting how a business saved on HC costs by using his program.

"Why not just take the supplements and forget about the sun?

Vitamin D made in the skin lasts at least twice as long in the blood as vitamin D ingested from the diet.  When you are exposed to sunlight, you make not only vitamin D but also at least five and up to ten additional photoproducts that you would never get from dietary sources or from a supplement.

Old Mother Nature is pretty parsimonious with her creations, and I suspect she wouldn’t have five to ten photoproducts circulating around if they didn’t do something good for us.  Just because we aren’t advanced enough yet to figure out what it is they do, doesn’t mean they don’t do something.  Thus Dr. Holick’s recommendation to hit the sun if at all possible instead of the supplement bottle.

Plus, there are some downsides to indiscriminately throwing back the supplements without monitoring your 25 (OH)D levels.  See here and here, for example."

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/supplements/sunshine-superman/#more-4165

Do You Want A Pill?

Do you want a pill to make you skinny so you don't have to exercise?

I know some of us would rather not - but exercise is integrated into my life.  I don't exercise to be thin.  I eat for thin, exercise to feel and be fit.
But, for those who'd rather have a pill, read on.
http://news.discovery.com/human/exercise-fat-calorie-burn.html

Farm Girl Paradox

BLUF: Brilliant woman finds synergy between eating real food and selling real food - this is the mythical 'Real Food' store I've day dreamed about come to life! And a book described thus: ""Real Food: What to Eat and Why, an ode to the nutritional glory of animal fat, raw milk and eggs, butter and cheese—everything, basically, we've been told to avoid for years (catastrophically, according to Planck). Here, she explains herself and makes a strong case for lard."
Go Nina, go!
http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/17130/
The Farm Girl's Paradox
Nina Planck takes on the industrial-food juggernaut and the Greenmarket Goliath, all in the same week.
Revenge is a dish best served cold—unless, that is, you're launching a new pair of farmers' markets outside the jurisdiction of the agency that unceremoniously fired you two and a half years ago, in which case it looks more like a bowl of guacamole. That particular dip, heretofore unavailable at local farmers' markets (avocados, after all, aren't exactly local), is only one of the eyebrow-raising foodstuffs that will appear at the two pocket-size Real Food Markets opening in downtown Manhattan (at Petrosino Square at Lafayette and Spring Streets, and at Sixth Avenue near Bleecker Street) on June 17. The markets are run by Nina Planck, the Virginia farm girl and market maven whose brief tenure as Greenmarket director was marked by resistance to the stricter rules she'd tried to enforce on peevish farmers. It's ironic, then, that her new venture takes a more lenient approach, permitting such Greenmarket taboos as farmer co-ops and items made with ingredients grown elsewhere. The markets' name ties in to Planck's equally controversial new book, Real Food: What to Eat and Why, an ode to the nutritional glory of animal fat, raw milk and eggs, butter and cheese—everything, basically, we've been told to avoid for years (catastrophically, according to Planck). Here, she explains herself and makes a strong case for lard.
What's Real Food?
Food we've been eating for thousands of years. Not industrial food. I grew up on chicken and liver and eggs and whole milk—and then I became a vegan and a vegetarian and my health suffered. I started eating beef and crème fraîche, eggs and raw-milk cheese, and my health improved. I thought, Hmmm, this is interesting. I wonder if I'm going to get a heart attack. So I started to do some homework. The book is the result, and I concluded that Real Food isn't going give you a heart attack, despite what they say.
You avoided cardiac arrest, but how did your health improve?
I'm 25 pounds thinner, my cholesterol and lipids are off-the-charts healthy, I'm less depressed. My digestion is better. And I exercise half as much as I used to—instead of six miles a day, I run three.
Does Real Food have the potential to become the next fad diet?
The book is not written for weight loss—but I think you can be fit and healthy eating this way.
Lard—you can't seem to get enough of it. How can you get more lard into your diet?
Well, I bake with lard—biscuits and pie crusts. Mostly, I think one shouldn't be afraid of the lard that's in bacon and sausages. The thing about lard is that it's mostly unsaturated fat, which nobody knows, and the monounsaturated fat in it is the same one in olive oil.
What did you have for dinner last night?
Braised pork belly in some red wine and beef stock.
What would you do if you were invited to a vegan restaurant?
That'd be fun; I used to go to so many. The thing that I think is funny is the raw-food people. They have it exactly right—nutrients are destroyed when you cook food. But they have the foods upside down. We should be cooking broccoli and carrots to make them more nutritious. And we should be eating raw beef, raw fish, raw egg yolks in Caesar salads, and raw milk.
Do you ever order in?
Never.
What's always in your refrigerator?
My own pickled hot peppers. And there's always buttermilk, yogurt, stone-ground grits and eggs, and always greens. Right now I have beet tops.
What vegetable do you hate?
White asparagus. Totally overrated.
What will people find at Real Food Markets they won't find at Greenmarket?
Farmers who can't get to Greenmarket for one reason or another. We're going to add to the variety and diversity of local and traditional farm foods. We'll have pastured pork, beef, and chicken from a co-op in the Hudson Valley. Trout and wild New York landed fish from Eden Brook Fish Co. Artisan pickles. And Murray's Rob Kaufelt is doing a line of buttercream and eggs and raw-milk cheeses, called Cowfelt's, that come from all over the Northeast.
You've said some farmers are not being served by Greenmarket. How so?
In the farmers'-market world, we say no a lot. At Real Food, we're lengthening the food chain a tiny bit. We're adding co-ops and people repping other farmers and even purveyors. Meat, poultry, produce, and dairy have to be from the region because we raise all those things, but we allow you to buy minor ingredients and spices from outside the region.
Some might consider these markets your idea of revenge.
Oh no, I love Greenmarket. I buy tons of food there. I have nothing but the best wishes for Greenmarket. I just want to serve another niche.