Cancer cells are masters of disguise. That’s one of their greatest strengths, and one reason the disease is so hard to beat. Cancer cells can hide themselves from the body’s built-in immune cells that target and kill “bad cells”.

But now you can give your body a secret weapon that strips away a cancer cell’s disguise and allows your own immune cells to wipe it out.

Studies have shown that a potent natural compound is effective against a wide variety of cancers including, breast, colorectal and skin cancers. You can safely use it while receiving chemotherapy. So if you want to combine conventional treatments and alternatives, this one is especially good to know.

It may also be a good supplement for preventing cancer. It makes sense, but researchers don’t know for sure yet.

It’s called Avemar, and it’s the brain child of Hungarian doctor and Nobel Prize winner Dr. Szent Györgyi.

More than 100 papers published in prestigious journals have reviewed clinical and experimental results with this extract, and it’s now a medically approved substance for cancer treatment in Europe.

Avemar comes from a patented process that ferments wheat germ with baker’s yeast. The result is a supplement that performs three vital functions in the body:

1. Helps the body regulate metabolism — and more efficiently create energy from the nutrients we eat
2. Boosts the body’s immune system — and helps create stronger T-cells and macrophages (the cells that eat invaders)
3. Helps the body target “bad” cells and eliminate them — by shutting off the “cloaking mechanism” that tells the body not to kill cancer cells

To understand how it helps the body exterminate cancer cells, you need to understand how cancer plays a dirty little trick on our normal immune function.

Your body has a miraculous frontline defense of natural killer (NK) cells. These are the cells that jump on invading bacteria and viruses as well as mutated cells like cancer. An NK cell has receptors that tell it to either kill or move on once it attaches to a potential invader.

The NK cell is like a cop that stops someone suspicious, demands to see an ID, and asks a few questions. If it decides the target cell is “innocent,” it moves on. If not, watch out!

This means any kind of invading or mutated cell is only able to grow and thrive if it convinces the body’s NK “police” that it’s a normal cell. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what cancer cells do.

Cancer “lies” to the NK cells, telling the NK’s receptors, “It’s okay, I’m a good guy.” It does this with a surface molecule called MHC-1 that performs the same function as a criminal’s fake ID. Once the NK cell “reads” this molecule, it moves on.

But here’s where Avemar comes in. Avemar suppresses the cancer cell’s ability to display the “fake ID” and thereby lie to NK cells. Now the immune system can consume the invader and keep it from growing and multiplying. (Okay, a real cop doesn’t devour a criminal, so the metaphor kind of breaks down here. But on the whole, I’m glad these NK cops are killers! After all, that’s why they’re called natural killer cells.)

There are numerous published findings on successful human clinical trials of Avemar, with more underway as you read this.

The FDA designates Avemar as a GRAS substance (Generally Recognized as Safe). This allows its use in foods, beverages and dietary supplements. Avemar has the toxicological profile of bread, so it’s very safe to consume at the recommended usage levels.

You can find Avemar in the U.S. under the brand name Avé. It’s recommended as a dietary supplement in a once-a-day, instant drink mix. I’m told it’s pleasant to drink — I haven’t tried it myself. Folks who suffer from wheat or gluten allergies should avoid it, because it’s a wheat product. The manufacturer also says to avoid it if you have bleeding ulcers or have received an organ transplant.

It’s a good thing great cancer treatments keep coming along, because we’re in a constant race against all the chemicals in our world that cause cancer. In the last issue, we talked about one of the most common ones — it’s urgent that you avoid it. If you missed the news, you can click here and read it now.

For some folks, the word ‘wheatgrass’ conjures up images of juice bars and health food stores filled with, well, health nuts.

But have you ever wondered just what it is and why so many folks are so eager to chug down wheatgrass concoctions? They know what they’re doing, so please keep reading…

Wheatgrass is typically sold as a juice made from the young grass of the wheat plant. Health food stores may sell the produce itself or products such as wheatgrass tablets, powder or frozen juice.

As for why the plant has so many fans—a major reason is that it packs a punch when it comes to nutrient density!

Wheatgrass contains at least 13 vitamins as well as all 21 amino acids (including the 9 “essential” amino acids that your body is unable to make for itself). You need all of these nutrients to power up your immune system to protect you from damaging diseases.

Plus it’s a rich source of the plant pigment chlorophyll. This amazing body detoxifier provides the perfect alkaline balance for the acidic foods Americans commonly eat.

It is this combination of nutrients that many people believe is the secret to optimal health. And here’s why many folks are convinced that wheatgrass could be an effective cancer treatment, too…

How can wheatgrass help cancer patients?

According to the Livestrong organization, chemotherapy treatments may suppress bone marrow activity, which can cause:

• A decreased capacity for carrying oxygen throughout your body
• Insufficient blood cells to boost your immune system
• Decreased blood clotting ability

This condition is called myelotoxicity and it significantly compromises a cancer patient’s immune system.

But wheatgrass juice may be able to boost low levels of white blood cells, helping to prevent this condition from occurring.

This claim is supported by a 2007 study published in Nutrition and Cancer involving 60 breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatments.

Researchers found that patients receiving a daily serving of wheatgrass juice during the first three cycles of chemotherapy experienced a significant reduction in myelotoxicity.

These patients also had a reduced need for drugs to help boost their white blood cell production.

Another study showed that wheatgrass juice could be an effective alternative to blood transfusions for terminally ill cancer patients. I’m not quite ready to buy into that, but studies suggest wheatgrass provides abundant benefits to the blood even if it’s not quite a direct substitute for red blood cells.

In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers examined the effects of wheatgrass juice on 348 terminally ill cancer patients at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Cancer Research Institute in India.

Researchers wanted to know if the plant juice could help improve hemoglobin levels, serum protein and overall patient health performance.

They found that these patients experienced significant improvement in total protein & albumin levels.

Although white blood cell and platelet counts remained the same, the patients’ overall health performance increased from 50 percent to 70 percent!

But wheatgrass has the potential to do far more than work as a complementary cancer treatment.

Peek inside Mother Nature’s medicine cabinet!

According to the respected Hippocrates Health Institute, proponents of wheatgrass use it to treat a wide variety of health disorders. For example, anecdotal evidence suggests wheatgrass can:

• Cleanse your colon when juice is held in the lower bowel for about 20 minutes. This is done by inserting a rectal implant that contains a small amount of juice.
• Detoxify your liver to protect you from pollutants and other carcinogens.
• Freshen breath when juice is used to gargle.
• Lessen the effects of radiation through its enzyme SOD, an anti-inflammatory compound that may prevent cell damage.
• Mend damaged hair and itchy scalp when rubbed into the scalp before shampooing.
• Protect your brain and organs by neutralizing heavy metal toxins such as cadmium and mercury, as well as other toxins such as nicotine.
• Reduce blood pressure by dilating pathways blood travels throughout your body.
• Restore proper pH balance to your body by improving blood alkalinity.
• Treat gastrointestinal problems such as constipation, diarrhea, peptic ulcers and ulcerative colitis.
• Slow the aging process by cleansing your blood and rejuvenating aging cells.
• Soothe and heal sunburn, cuts, burns and itching when applied externally to your skin.
• And much, much MORE!

For example, one animal study suggests that wheatgrass may help lower cholesterol. In the 2011 study from Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica, scientists found that treating rats with wheatgrass juice helped reduce total cholesterol and lowered LDL (or ‘bad’) cholesterol in rats with abnormally high cholesterol levels.

Granted, there are no studies yet demonstrating whether wheatgrass might have the same cholesterol-lowering effects in humans.

But the superfood nutrients in wheatgrass certainly shouldn’t hurt you either!

Remember, the chlorophyll in wheatgrass is a rich source of oxygen. Boosting the oxygen flow in your body helps power up every cell in your body.

It also can help increase your immune defenses to protect you from diseases. Wheatgrass is generally safe for use, but some people experience an upset when they first start taking it, as it begins its detoxifying work.

As your system begins to flush toxins, you may experience mild nausea. You may need to start slowly by drinking a minimal amount of wheatgrass juice or powder (e.g. one ounce daily), then slowly build your tolerance level.

As with any treatment, be sure to consult your medical professional before using this alone or in combination with other medications. And as with so many foods, wheatgrass is most beneficial when fresh. True devotees grow their own wheatgrass (for instance, in a windowbox) and make their own juice.

Wheatgrass does not contain gluten and shouldn’t pose a problem to people who are wheat- or gluten-sensitive. Gluten is present only in the wheat grain. Wheatgrass is harvested when the shoots are young, well before a seed head forms. For more information about wheatgrass, you can check out Issue #60.

Turning to another topic, conventional medicine in the United States has tried to suppress a whole competing school of medicine that’s more than 200 years old and has produced remarkable results for millions of patients. You should consider this approach for cancer or ANY health condition. We wrote about it in the last issue. If you missed it then, you can click here and read it now.

You’ll want to think twice about
conventional treatments after you read this

Many people have been handed a life of “living hell” as a side effect of traditional cancer treatments” yet hardly a doctor warns of the dangers. What’s more, the side effect doesn’t go away once the treatment is over. You may suffer with it for the rest of your life.

One more reason to avoid conventional treatments. . .but what if it’s too late for you and you’re already afflicted with this nightmare? Conventional doctors will tell you there’s nothing they can do. As often happens, they’re wrong. We’ve got some tips to help you manage this painful result of mainstream cancer medicine. . .

Lymphedema is an abnormal fluid build-up that causes swelling, mostly in the arms and legs. It develops when lymph nodes are removed, impaired, or damaged, as often happens when a breast cancer patient has a mastectomy or lumpectomy. But it can also be a result of radiation treatment.

Any time the normal drainage pattern is disrupted, the swelling called lymphedema may occur.

Lymphedema is a common complication of conventional cancer treatments. If you’ve had ovarian or cervical cancer, prostate, testicular, bladder or colon cancer — and if you’ve undergone conventional treatments — lymphedema would affect your legs and feet instead of your arms as happens with breast cancer.

Tamoxifen, a cancer drug, is another common cause of lower extremity lymphedema and blood clots.

And yet your doctor may never warn you about this complication.

Some people develop lymphedema immediately following these treatments… others do so months or years later. The degree of swelling varies. Some people experience extreme swelling, with the affected arm or leg ballooning to several inches larger than the other arm or leg.

How bad is it? Many patients complain that dealing with lymphedema has taken over their entire life.

Besides the damage to your looks and the painful side effects such as lost range of motion, tightness, and difficulty fitting into clothing in one specific area… lymphedema also increases your risk of serious infection, which can become a life-threatening emergency if it spreads throughout your lymphatic or circulatory systems and reaches vital organs.

Mainstream medicine’s ‘non-treatment’
of lymphedema

While the best lymphedema prevention in my view is to avoid cut/burn/poison interventions in the first place, I also recognize that many people do them first and then learn later how damaging they can be.

After all, we’re all learning as we go. Most people submit to conventional treatments just as their doctor tells them, and turn to alternative treatments only when the first way fails.

Although mainstream medicine is the main source of the problem of lymphedema, mainstream medicine leaves you high and dry when it comes to solutions to the problem.

For example, the Cleveland Clinic and others take the rather pessimistic view that there’s not much they can do. They consider lymphedema a chronic disease that usually requires lifelong management.¹

They suggest conservative treatments (catch the irony here?) such as bandaging, compression garments, and exercises.

Surgery has been tried as a lymphedema treatment, but it usually doesn’t work and often makes the condition worse.

Doctors may also refer patients to a physical or occupational therapist who specializes in lymphedema. They will work with you to create a treatment plan that may include:

• Specific exercises or a complete exercise program
• Manual lymphatic drainage therapy (a gentle form of massage)
• Mechanical pumping devices as needed

Very important… Be sure the therapist you see has specific training and experience with lymphedema cases.

An ounce of prevention
is worth a pound of cure

If it’s not too late, consider skipping conventional treatment plans with their almost certain negative side effects… Or at least give extremely careful consideration to some of the alternative protocols available — such as the Budwig Protocol, and Dr. Max Gerson’s.

If you have late-stage cancer, conventional treatments are just about sure losers and definitely not worth trying. If your cancer is early-stage, it’s a tougher call. Me? I’d go with alternatives. (I don’t like to keep reminding these unfortunate late-stage patients that their chances are so slim, but that’s what this newsletter is all about. You need to start doing alternatives — pronto — and stop listening to the mainstream nonsense. The only way to say it is to say it, so I’m not going to mince words here. I’m sorry if it comes across as harsh.)

But what’s your next step if you’ve already done the surgery, undergone radiation or chemo… and now suffer from lymphedema?

Hope and help from natural medicine

Counter to hand wringing from the conventional camp, there are some measures you can implement that may help control or even cure your lymphedema.

1. Detoxify.

   As much as possible, detoxify your system to create the best possible health and internal cleanliness. Use Epsom salt baths, which are known to chelate ionizing radiation and radioactivity from your body.

2. Lose Weight

   Studies show that lymphedema is typically worse in overweight individuals, so shedding a few extra pounds may give you relief.

3. Dietary and Lifestyle Protocol

   Dr. Budwig’s Protocol makes sense for anyone facing any kind of a cancer challenge. It may also, due to its somewhat “blood thinning” effect, help facilitate lymphatic flow.

   Add enzymes such as bromelain (found in raw pineapple) to your diet. Bromelain and other proteolytic (protein-digesting) enzymes are known to reduce swelling and inflammation. (Note: If you’re allergic to pineapple, you may develop a rash. There are many other proteolytic enzymes to choose from. They’re also called proteases. For the full story on enzyme therapy, read our Special Report The Missing Ingredient for Good Health. EVERYONE should be taking enzymes, sick and healthy people alike.)

   Better yet, go raw! Raw foods are filled with living enzymes and cancer fighting nutrients. Get out your juicer or food processor, even if you haven’t used it in awhile. Juicing does some of the ‘pre-digesting’ for your body.

   Focus on these cancer cell killing nutrients — all raw, of course: carrots, broccoli, cabbage, green asparagus, pineapple, whole purple grapes with seeds, skins and all, apricot seeds (they contain laetrile), strawberries, red and black raspberries, blueberries, beetroot, and turmeric.

   Enjoy some “green power foods” and drinks… Freshly pressed organic wheatgrass, celery, and parsley juice, and spirulina have helped a great many patients overcome both cancer and lymphedema.

   Choose anti-inflammatory foods — which means sidestepping wheat, sugar, dairy, and all processed foods.

4. Herbs

   Certain herbs are known to help increase lymphatic flow, including butcher’s broom, ginger tea (made from powdered ginger), sweet clover ointment (which contains coumarin — a lymph flow stimulant).

   “Indigo Drops” — formulated by herbalist Ingrid Naiman for lymphatic blockages — has been reported to help “in as little as five to six hours”. I don’t have much information about this, but it sounds worth checking out.

   Frankincense, myrrh and ginger essential oils may also promote lymphatic movement… and cayenne is an all-round helpful herb.

   Ginger tea prepared with about half a teaspoon of powdered ginger in a cup of water may help increase circulation of lymph, and reduce inflammation.

   Red clover (which has anti-cancer properties) and fenugreek seem to be helpful also. As do the oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPCs) found in grape seed or pine bark extract tablets, taken as supplements.

   Several capsules of echinacea daily help stimulate lymph flow.

5. Activate Your Lymphatic System — Here’s How…

   Your lymph system is your waste removal system. But unlike your heart, which has a pump, your lymph must be stimulated by action and movement.

   For example, you can stimulate it by brisk walking.

   But some believe there’s no substitute for jumping on a small trampoline (rebounder) for five to ten minute sessions without too much heavy breathing. This stimulates lymph flow like nothing else (except possibly jumping rope).

   Lothar Himeise, eminent cancer researcher, proclaims in his book Chemotherapy Heals Cancer and The World is Flat:

   “Please do not underestimate the pronounced positive effects that jumping on a trampoline can have on your lymphatic system. Even if you do not feel the healing effect immediately, this simple device offers immense support to your detoxification efforts.”

   Be sure to get a quality rebounder.

   Another option is using a Power Plate, used in the space program to stimulate immune and bone health. It also induces the motion and gravitational forces of a rebounder — only much faster. Indeed, it is said to be able to multiply your exercise efforts, giving you far better results in substantially less time.

   Another activation method is to brush… With a soft natural bristle brush, start at the tips of your fingers and brush toward your collar bone, left side then right side. Circle each breast, stroking gently but firmly, and always toward the respective collarbone. This is where the lymph fluid reenters your blood circulation.

   On your lower body, start with your toes, and stroke with long strokes toward the lymph nodes in each groin, near your front lower abdomen — where your largest and most important lymph nodes are located, and where lymph toxins are “digested”.

6. Wear loose fitting clothing

   Never restrict lymph flow by wearing tight clothing such as bras and tight pants. There’s a direct link between the length of time a bra is worn and breast cancer incidence… as well as a notable absence of prostate cancer in countries where men wear loose-fitting pants. (Tight fitting pants create local hyperthermia, restrict lymph flow, and ‘starve’ local cells.)

7. Cabbage Leaf Packs

   It sounds bizarre, but cabbage leaf applications were a backbone of naturopathic Swiss doctor Father Thomas Haeberle’s books and practices. Cabbage is well established as an anti-cancer food. But as a poultice it is relatively unknown in modern times, though there is some evidence it was popular during Roman times.

   I know of no scientific studies that back this as a treatment — so please take this story as it is intended, strictly as an anecdotal case.

   A woman who reportedly suffered from lymphedema had tried elastic bandages with no improvement. Hearing that cabbage leaves might help, she crushed cabbage leaves and held them in place over her lymphedema with elastic bandages. She reported marked improvement in just one night, and almost completely dissipated swelling in three nights. There’s likely no harm in trying this, but realize that we don’t have scientific studies to show its efficacy.

8. Red Light Treatment

   Several studies now show the healing benefits of light, and especially red light. (No blue light for lymphedema.) Red light wavelengths easily penetrate your skin, stimulating your mitochondria — the cellular powerhouses that make your tissues and organs run more smoothly.

   The first study, published in the journal Lymphology in 1998², showed that women getting red light treatments once or twice a week for 10 weeks had measurably less arm swelling, and improvements in measures of pain, tightness, heaviness, cramps and arm mobility.

   Red light therapy not only reduces lymphedema… it also helps activate the local immune system by stimulating the white blood cells that can kill and carry away pathogens. This makes for a more sanitary cellular environment and thereby reduces infection risk. I’ve seen a couple of products recommended: The X Light from Chee Energy Company and the Light Shaker from Light Energy Company. Haven’t checked them out, I’m just passing the info along.

   But the ultimate light treatment might be sunlight. After all, it’s been available throughout the ages and assists your body to produce vitamin D which is highly protective against cancer.

   The Russians found that sunlight speeds up detoxification by twice to as much as twenty times. But the best results were when sun exposure began before toxic exposure began — a compelling reason to get regular sunlight.³

Your lymph nodes do an amazing job of keeping you detoxified.

So, even if you don’t have lymphedema, or have never had cancer — you might be well advised to employ many of these strategies strictly for their health-enhancing benefits. After all, if your lymph nodes do so much for you, why not give them the assistance to do their job better?

Of course, the best thing is to find cancer really early and avoid this whole nightmare. We’ve got just the thing, at least if you’re a woman: There’s a great new way to find breast cancer. If you missed this article in our last issue, click here and read it now.

Well, not the products themselves…

But it’s possible if you’re talking about one of their components, hydrazine sulfate—also called HZ. Let me explain. . .

Besides being ingredients in rocket fuel and weed killers, HZ compounds are also used to refine minerals… as a cleaning agent for soldering metals… and to perform blood tests…

And according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), one HZ compound has been used to treat Hodgkin’s disease, melanoma, and lung cancer since the 1960s!

Despite gaining notice from a mainstream medical organization, this inexpensive treatment has endured its share of bad press.

For example, some critics point to early studies that suggest HZ caused lung and liver carcinoma in rats. And others focus on supposed evidence that HZ produces hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) in dogs and rabbits.

Joseph Gold, M.D., director of the Syracuse Cancer Research Institute, has also developed HZ as an anticancer drug. Writing in the MedTruth blog, Dr. Gold exposed some of the tactics the cancer establishment has used in its smear campaign against HZ.

Dr. Gold is critical of NCI’s 2004 statement that HZ “has shown no anticancer activity in randomized clinical trials.” He says NCI failed to acknowledge the ten years of randomized clinical trials performed by Harbor-UCLA Medical Center from 1981-1990.

He further seeks to debunk claims that HZ may actually cause cancer. Dr. Gold acknowledged that HZ was shown to be carcinogenic in some mice that had ingested the drug in their drinking water since birth.

But he emphasized that there has “never been a case of human cancer reported as a result of HS therapy.”

This is something that providers of chemotherapy drugs could NEVER say about their products, which Dr. Gold points out can produce up to 26 percent of “second cancers!”

The case of HZ versus HZ

Why are some folks convinced that HZ is a marvelous cancer treatment while others insist it should be avoided?

Well, here are a few things that the conventional cancer heavyweights would prefer you didn’t know about this remarkable compound…

• HZ is a combination of hydrazine salt and sulfuric acid that helps clobber cachexia—the muscle and weight loss that many cancer patients experience…
• Clinical trials conducted in the 1970s by the Petrov Research Institute of Oncology in St. Petersburg [then Leningrad], Russia found that some advanced cancer patients treated with HZ reported improved appetite, less weight loss, greater strength, or reduced pain. Some patients noticed that tumors either reduced in size or stopped growing…
• In 1980, randomized, double-blind clinical studies at Harbor UCLA Medical Centre in Los Angeles showed hydrazine sulfate could increase or stabilize a cancer patient’s weight and lead to ‘statistically significant survival increase’ in patients with lung cancer.
• Successful clinical trials conducted on hydrazine sulfate have been published in peer-reviewed medical journals worldwide…
• Every controlled clinical trial of HZ performed according to internationally accepted standards of scientific conduct has indicated that it is both safe and effective!

In short, HZ isn’t a miracle cure for cancer, but it does appear to relieve some of the unpleasant symptoms, such as pain, weight loss and nausea, and in some patients it actually controls or reduces tumors. It can be used in conjunction with chemotherapy.

Dr. Gold pointed out that the only contrary study results came from NCI-sponsored trials of hydrazine sulfate where researchers used incompatible medications with the test drug! This sort of allegation against NCI is common. It seems the Institute has a habit of sabotaging trials of alternative remedies.

HZ is known to be a potent monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor, a type of drug used to treat depression. MAO inhibitors are known to have a potentially deadly interaction with other nervous system depressants such as alcohol, barbiturates and other tranquilizers.

Because cancer patients frequently receive tranquilizers and similar compounds the NCI researchers were warned against using HZ in combination with any of these agents—a warning which they chose to ignore, according to Dr. Gold.

He says NCI researchers did use the anti-nausea agent Compazine and benzodiazepine tranquilizers in their animal studies.

Thus it’s no surprise that the group published a series of three negative study results in the June 1994 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

In some cases the rats that received both HZ and these incompatible chemicals became comatose. What’s more, some 50-60 percent of animals that received the forbidden chemical combinations actually DIED!

In a subsequent 1994 investigation conducted by the General Accountability Office (GAO), NCI vigorously refused to acknowledge that HZ was an MAO inhibitor. This denial came despite decades of pharmacology entries describing the compound as just that.

Dr. Gold points out that despite investigations into charges of flawed study procedures—the final GAO report of the NCI studies was entitled, “Contrary to Allegation, NIH Hydrazine Sulfate Studies Were Not Flawed.”

The choice is yours…

The negative NCI studies might have been intended to put a nail in the coffin of an inexpensive cancer treatment.

Yet today, you can still find HZ marketed in the United States as a dietary supplement. It is also widely used as an anticancer treatment in other countries.

Hydrazine sulfate is typically administered three times a day in a small 60 mg pill. The only potential side effects noted were possible dizziness, drowsiness, mild numbness of fingers and toes, nausea and mild sensations of itching.

Remember to discuss HZ and any other cancer treatment options with your medical professionals.

There are no known compatibility issues with HZ and other cancer treatments or supplements. But because it is an MAO inhibitor, you should not use HZ while taking tranquilizers or alcohol.

With proper use, HZ could be an effective way to combat some sickening side effects of one of our greatest health enemies!

Meanwhile, some manufactures would like you to believe they’ve removed a deadly toxin from their packaging. Well, not quite. If you missed this news in the last issue, you can click here and catch it now.

We struck a nerve with our article a few weeks back on “Cookware That Won’t Leach Poison Into Your Food” (Issue 265). Readers flooded us with their ideas and suggestions.

I’m not surprised people are so interested. The kitchen is usually the heart of the home. Even if you take pains to buy healthy, organic, free-range foods, it’s a bummer to have to wonder if your pots and pans are sabotaging those efforts.

So this issue is a follow-up, including recent research on healthy cookware and an overview of cooking options we didn’t mention before, often based on tips from our readers. They came up with some interesting types of cookware I didn’t know about. . .

Glass bakeware:

Many users of glass bakeware and cookware rave about the easy cleanup and assumed safety. But I wouldn’t be so quick to recommend it. For one thing, the glaze on glass cookware is often manufactured with lead, the level of which is set by the manufacturer. That’s what gives it shock resistance and color uniformity. It’s possible to get unglazed glass pots and pans.

But the biggest problem with glass bakeware is that it can explode. Consumer Reports states that Pyrex and Anchor Hocking bakeware products, made from soda-lime glass, are more likely to shatter than European-made bakeware, which is made of a more expensive type of glass called borosilicate.

In fact, consumer-news website Consumer Affairs reported more than 20 complaints of exploding Pyrex in just the first three months of 2013. Pyrex-maker Anchor Hocking chalks this up to user error. It seems hot glass bakeware should never be placed on the top of the stove, on a metal trivet, in a sink, directly on a counter, or on a damp towel. Set the glass down on a dry towel or a dry, cloth potholder instead.

If you still like the idea of glass bakeware but the idea of exploding glass in the kitchen bothers you, I’d recommend doing an online search for “borosilicate bakeware” to find a better source, and be sure to look for an unglazed version.

Ceramic-coated nonstick cookware:

Ceramic is not a new type of surface, but it’s been improved in recent years. It used to be used to line heavy, cumbersome cast iron, but nowadays you can find razor-thin ceramic coatings fused onto a sturdy aluminum base. The base is lighter than before, and the cooking surface is said to be more nonstick and scratch-resistant then Teflon.

The biggest complaints about ceramic-coated products used to be chipping and cracking. But new lines on the market appear to withstand wear better over time.

Cuisinart is making a lot of noise over its GreenGourmet™ line, boasting that their ceramic-based (as opposed to petroleum-based) coating is completely free of PTFE and PFOA.

I’ve been happy with my cast iron (and pricey) ceramic-lined Le Creuset Dutch oven, but without a doubt it’s heavy to lift.

Clay cookware:

There’s a newer product on the market called Flameware that sounds impressive, though I haven’t had the chance to test it and found little information on it from consumer-test websites.

Several of our readers wrote in to recommend it, though, so I think it’s worth mentioning here.

Made by a company called Longaberger, Flameware is made of 100% natural materials and has no lead, aluminum, or other harmful metals. The main ingredient is Australian clay. It’s dishwasher safe, though you should only scrub it with non-metallic pads. Staining over time can be expected — some folks call this a patina or “history of use” on the pan. The pans take a little longer to reach standard cooking temperatures, but they also retain heat for longer.

The company recommends you season it using whole or homogenized milk — you’re looking for the milk proteins to adhere to the bottom of the pan. This is supposed to make for easy cleanup, since the pans don’t have traditional, toxic nonstick coatings (and so are completely free of PFOAs). Because of that, you’ll want to cook with oils to keep your food from sticking.

According to the Longaberger website, the Chinese have been cooking on non-vitrified Flameware for thousands of years.

Silicone Cookware:

Silicon is actually a common element found in rocks and sand. It makes up roughly 28 percent of the Earth’s crust. Silicone is a synthetic rubber made out of bonded silicon and oxygen. It is flexible and strong, stain resistant and nonstick, and is now a popular material for muffin pans, cake pans, cupcake liners, and even spatulas.

Silicone pans are considered great by those looking to make perfectly-shaped cakes and cupcakes, because the material bends and stretches. This means you can “pop” out your baked goods with minimal damage. Silicone cookware also comes in bright colors — part of the “color revolution” going on in kitchens.

It would be great if all silicone cookware were 100% silicone. But filler materials found in low-quality silicone products reduce the quality and heat-resistance.

Some consider silicone cookware the next great innovation in the kitchen, but I’m not convinced. Early reports of overheated silicone cookware talk about dyes or silicone oil oozing out of the bakeware. As of now, there hasn’t been much definitive research on the topic. Silicone rubber is said to be chemically inert and stable, meaning it’s not likely to react with foods or leach chemicals. But if you have any kind of chemical sensitivity, I’d steer clear of it till we see more conclusive research.

While all these options sound fascinating, I do most of my cooking on stainless steel or copper lined with stainless steel, and those still seem like the most sensible choices to me. There’s also a lot to be said for cast iron — I know serious cooks who love it — but I haven’t used it much.

Don’t damage your cookware while cleaning

Getting serious about the health aspects of your cookware might mean changing how you clean things — especially if you’ve been relying on easy-to-clean Teflon. You’re going to find the nontoxic surfaces are more challenging to clean.

One of our subscribers wrote in to recommend Cameo Stainless Steel Cleaner for scrubbing black stains that gather at the base of stainless steel pans. I’ve also heard ketchup and steel wool will do the trick — but steel wool is an abrasive (same stuff found in SOS or Brillo pads). It will scratch most surfaces.

As I said, I mostly cook on stainless steel, and clean it with steel wool pads. This approach is not for people who want to keep everything looking as good as new — you lose the shiny, pristine surface. But it sure is easier.

Some sources raise a concern that this will release toxic nickel used in the manufacture of stainless steel, but an engineer assured me this is nonsense. He said there’s no way you’re going to get significant amounts of nickel from a stainless steel pan.

Another reader suggests you put ammonia in the pan, put the pan in a trash bag in the sun for a few hours, and then open (keeping your face away from the opening) and scrub with soap and water.

I haven’t tried this approach. It may be effective, but I wouldn’t be keen on putting ammonia on a surface I’m going to cook on or eat from. Presumably it all washes off, but it’s nasty stuff and I just don’t care for the idea. I should think this is for stainless steel only. It sounds like a bad idea for a ceramic, clay or silicone pan because ammonia is such a powerful solvent.

Cast iron is best cleaned immediately after use, when the pot or pan is still warm. Use a sponge with hot water, but avoid soaps and steel wool that might strip the pan’s seasoning. Hard-to-clean spots respond best to Kosher salt and water. Another option is to boil water in the pan and then clean.

Searing foods is another technique that makes for easy cleanup and keeps you from having to use harsh cleaners. It works for stainless steel and cast iron: Get the pan hot enough to instantly sear your food when the food makes contact. That helps you avoid black stains that would otherwise require impossible scrubbing.

Searing has become a popular method of food preparation in recent years. Menus at good restaurants are full of seared fish, seared steak, seared this and seared that. The idea is that the inside of the meat or fish isn’t cooked at all, it remains very rare, while the outside is blackened or dark brown. Many people like it that way. It’s not to my taste.

It’s your life — opt for quality

We live in times of rapid change. People are cooking more at home and want to know where their food comes from. Along with that comes a natural vigilance for making sure your food is prepared in the safest way possible.

One thing is pretty clear: The safest cooking options are not the cheapest. That doesn’t mean you have to shell out half your pension for toxin-free cooking. Shop thrift stores, eBay, and even garage sales if you’re looking for cast-iron skillets or stainless steel (which is what I use, except for my prized Le Creuset Dutch oven).

At the end of the day, though, a splurge might be worth it. As someone once said, “Buy a cheap item and you cry every time you use it. Buy quality and you cry just once, when you pay the bill.”

By the way, when you get rid of your Teflon-coated pans, do the world a favor and put them in the trash. Don’t try to re-sell or donate used Teflon and pass the toxins along to someone else.

Someday I hope we’ll see change (and hopefully, advances) on the cookware scene. There are loads of options out there, though I’d like to see a bigger emphasis on the long-term health effects of different cookware brands. I’ll keep my eye on developments as they come and will pass them on to you.

In our last issue, we discussed one very special vitamin that turns out to have enormous cancer-killing power. If you missed the news, click here and read it now.

Most Americans assume that when they turn on the tap, clean and pure water gushes forth. But as our last article showed, they’re most likely mistaken. Drinking water in most communities is filthy and toxic. (We’re rerunning that article below, following this one.)

The last article was about the problem. This one is about the solution. Keep reading to learn what you can do in your own home to create safe, drinkable water. . .

Do you spend up to 10,000 times
TOO MUCH for your water?

That’s what you’re doing if you choose to drink bottled water. It can be a reasonable solution, but it IS expensive. And if you choose the wrong product, it may not be all that safe.

The bottled water industry is actually LESS regulated than your local water system.

Your community’s public waterworks are required to test for contaminants more often than bottled water companies do, and these public utilities must give consumers a report specifying what contaminants are in the water. A bottler doesn’t have to do that.

In fact, there’s little empirical evidence to suggest that bottled water is any cleaner or better for you than its tap equivalent. I’m confident that water from a quality, brand-name bottler IS better than most tap, but no long-term human studies really prove the health benefits.

Actually, much of bottled water originates from municipal systems, just like tap water. The bottlers just filter it, ozone it or whatever, then sell it to you at fantastic markups. And there’s evidence that blanket assurances of purity and safety from the bottled water industry are false.

Testing shows that bottled water can be contaminated too. Of more than 1,000 bottles tested, 22 percent were contaminated at levels that violated California state limits. And 17 percent exceeded sanitary guidelines for microbiological purity.¹ To be fair, that means something like 80% of such water (four bottles out of five) did meet the state standards.

But even the best bottled water probably has some level of contamination. Consider the fact that water containers are generally plastic, raising the danger that BPAs get into your water. These chemicals are known to be carcinogenic. We wrote about the dangers in Issue #196. In a few weeks we’re following up with another article on BPAs.

The high cost of bottled water

Millions pay 240 to over 10,000 times more per gallon for bottled water than for tap water…

If you’re purchasing for a family of four, bottled water can set you back a hefty $950 to $1,800 or more per year. I don’t know about you, but to me that’s real money. A home water system may set you back some bucks, but our research suggests it should pay for itself in a year or two.

Secondly, what’s all that plastic doing to our planet? The biggest toxic dump in the world now stretches from Hawaii to Japan, spewing out chemicals into our sea water and our fish. And due to plastic’s slow breakdown, nearly all the plastic ever made still exists… somewhere. Why contribute to all that collateral damage by buying plastic bottles?

Filter your tap water
into safe drinking water

I advise anyone drinking tap water to use some form of filtration system to reduce your exposure to contaminants. Most pollutants can be drastically reduced or eliminated with the right filter.

Sorry to say, it’s not easy to decide which filtering system to buy…

The first step is to find out what YOUR particular water issues are.

If you’re on municipal water, you can learn about your supplier’s water quality from the “Consumer Confidence Report” published by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) online here (http://water.epa.gov/drink/local/index.cfm). If it’s not available online, you should be able to get it from your city or town hall. It is updated July 1st of every year.

But please be aware — the report doesn’t address what happens to your water during the trip from the street to your faucet. Old piping — municipal piping AND that in older buildings — may add lead and other junk. Even brand new copper piping in a brand new house is coated with oil. It washes off gradually after a short while (so they say. . .)

The best way to know for sure what’s coming out of your tap is to have it tested. National Testing Laboratories, Ltd., of Cleveland, Ohio (with testing labs in Ypsilanti, Michigan) is known to be a high quality testing organization, and they’ll test both city and well water.

Then, once you know what you’re dealing with…

Find the right filter for your contaminants…

Here’s where it gets tricky — and pays to do your homework! There’s a wide range of prices, filter media, and effectiveness.

There are thousands of water filters on the market. Some of them are more full of empty promises than clean water. Some use multiple technologies, others use just one.

These are some categories of filters to consider:

• Pitcher
• Faucet-mounted
• Countertop
• Under-sink
• Shower filters (protect your lungs from breathing toxic fumes, and your skin from absorbing them)
• Water softener
• Whole house filter system

Whole house filters are more effective at removing sediment, rust and scale. Pitcher and faucet filters remove organic chemicals, industrial solvents, and chlorine byproducts — and will improve your water’s taste.

Which filter medium is right for you? A primer…

Once you’ve decided where to put your filter, consider which medium will best resolve your water’s problems. The idea is select a filter that matches your budget and the type of toxins you need to remove.

Following is a short list of filter media and what they remove. They each have their pros and cons, and you’ll have to weigh them for your personal situation. I wish I could say “just do this and your problem will be solved.” But sometimes life is more complicated than we’d like (most of the time, come to think about it!)

1. Activated Carbon. Gets rid of: bad tastes and odors, including chlorine. Activated charcoal with NSF 53 certification filters out most concerning pollutants, disinfection byproducts; pesticides; radon; and volatile organic chemicals (MTBE and TCE).

   A word to the wise: A countertop filter cannot remove perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient that contaminates some water supplies.

   Found in: Countertop, faucet filters, under-sink units.

   How activated carbon works: Positively charged, highly absorbent carbon attracts and traps contaminants.

   Disadvantages: While the primary advantage is a low up-front cost, its shorter filter life will nickel and dime you with frequent replacements. And it is unable to remove certain metals, fluoride, most radioactive compounds, asbestos, and bacteria.

2. Reverse Osmosis.Gets rid of: Most contaminants, including parasites (Giardia and Cryptosporidium), heavy metals (cadmium, copper, lead and mercury), plus other pollutants including arsenic, barium, nitrates and nitrites, perchlorate, selenium…

   Found in: Under-sink, often in combination with a carbon filter or UV disinfection unit.

   How it works: Semi-permeable membrane separates impurities from water.

   Disadvantages:

   1. De-mineralizes your water. Most mineral particles are larger than water molecules, so the semi-permeable membrane of the RO system removes them. Removing naturally occurring minerals is like drinking distilled water, which robs you of valuable minerals, according to some health advocates. They say if there are no minerals in your water, the water will leach them out of your body because water’s natural state is to contain some dissolved solids. This theory hasn’t been proven, as far as I know, but it’s plausible enough to make me wary of drinking distilled water or other mineral-free water without taking steps to make sure I’m getting enough minerals. Removing all minerals also leaves water rather tasteless. Some people re-mineralize their RO water for taste and health benefits.
   2. Acidity. Removing minerals makes the water acidic… often well below 7.0 pH. Many alternative health advocates very strongly believe that the body’s pH balance is essential to good health. The body should be slightly alkaline. Acidity contributes to cancer and many other diseases. Again, I’ve never seen large-scale studies to support this acid-alkaline theory of health, but after years of seeing alternative doctors turn around cancer cases, it gets my vote.
   3. Wastes water. A reverse osmosis system uses substantial amounts of water during the process. Tap water is pretty cheap (especially compared to bottled water) so I don’t think this needs to be a major consideration for most people.
3. Ultraviolet Disinfection.Gets rid of: Bacteria, parasites… Has been studied since the 1930′s and is used to destroy microbes that cause indoor air and water pollution, and in hospitals.

   Found in: Under-sink and whole-house systems, often combined with carbon and sediment screen.

   How it works: UV light deactivates and rearranges the DNA of bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens, thereby destroying their ability to multiply and cause disease.

   Some sources say UV is a must for anyone on a well. Expect to pay in the neighborhood of $1800 for a UV unit (which can be added to other units). Personally, I’m on a well and I don’t have one. Very likely your body ALREADY HAS any microbes that are in your well, and if they haven’t killed you yet, they probably won’t. But I’m in the mountains and my water, while heavily mineralized, isn’t downstream of a cattle or hog feed lot and doesn’t contain runoff from cropland that’s laden with pesticides and herbicides. THIS IS WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT’S IN YOUR WATER AND GET A SYSTEM THAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU.

4. KDF (Kinetic Degradation Fluxion) with Redox — may be a major water purification breakthrough.Gets rid of: Best known for removing chlorine, iron, iron bacteria, and hydrogen sulfide (the rotten egg smell). Some sources say it also removes lead, mercury, calcium carbonate, magnesium, chromium, bacteria, algae, fungi, and more… However, one water expert we contacted wasn’t so sure.

   How it works: KDF is a patented medium — a giant step forward in water purification.

   It uses the oxidation and reduction of ions known as redox (reduction of oxidation) to remove most soluble heavy metals, reduce mineral hardness scale accumulation, and reduce pathogen levels.

   KDF media are made from highly pure copper-zinc granules, and supplement or replace other technologies to dramatically lengthen the life of the system, control heavy metals, toxic gases and pathogens, lower total cost, and decrease maintenance.

   Hydrogen sulfide and iron are oxidized and are attracted to the media’s surface as if to a magnet. Heavy metals (lead, mercury, iron, cadmium, aluminum) are removed via an electrochemical process.

   This redox process converts contaminant electrons into harmless components.

   It inhibits bacteria, algae, and fungi growth by creating an electrolytic field where most pathogens cannot survive, and forms substances that interfere with the pathogens’ functional abilities.

   Disadvantages: KDF works best when combined with other media for full-spectrum protection. It does not remove organic chemicals (pesticides, disinfection byproducts, MTBE, etc.), or parasites (giardia and cryptosporidium) by itself. If that’s a concern, use other media in combination.

   KDF filters must be backwashed periodically to remove insoluble contaminants. This wastes many gallons of water, and dislodged pollutants can come out later with the (supposedly) filtered water.

5. Activated Alumina — a major breakthrough in fluoride and arsenic removal.Gets rid of: Fluoride, fluorine, selenium, and sulfur.

   Found in: Pitcher filters, countertop and under-counter, and whole house units.

   How it works: Made of aluminum oxide. With an extremely high surface-area-to-weight ratio, its tiny pores run like tunnels throughout. As water passes through, it absorbs and traps these poisons.

6. Ion Exchange Water Softener.Gets rid of: Calcium and magnesium, which form mineral deposits in plumbing and fixtures, plus barium and other ions that can create health hazards.

   Used in: Whole-house, point-of-entry units

   How it works: “Softens” hard water — a simple, well-documented ion exchange process. Solves a common and basic water problem — hardness. It’s simple, inexpensive and somewhat automatic… no strong chemicals needed (just salt).

   Disadvantages: Does not create high-quality drinking water but merely exchanges the hardness ions for less-troublesome sodium ions. The treated water contains sodium instead of calcium or magnesium — but it is still unsuitable for most uses.

7. Distiller. Gets rid of: Heavy metals, like cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and mercury, plus arsenic, barium, fluoride selenium and sodium. Also kills all or most microbes.

   Used in: Countertop or whole house point-of-entry units, can be combined with a carbon filter.

   How it works: Boils water and re-condenses the purified steam.

   Disadvantages: Removes beneficial minerals from the water, and any toxins it fails to remove can easily become even more concentrated in your water. I guess it’s possible that lightweight chemicals are retained in the gas (i.e. the steam or water vapor) and may not be eliminated.

8. Alkaline water. Does not filter contaminants out per se. It simply alkalinizes water that’s already been made pure.

Before you buy…

Obviously there are many options depending on your location and situation. And, unless you’re wealthy and very determined, it’s not likely your water will end up being absolutely perfect.

Don’t get caught in the trap of throwing up your hands and doing nothing because we can’t give you a pat answer. Remember, in most cases you’re better off doing something than doing nothing… removing some contaminants rather than none.

Aim to get rid of the big problems — lead and arsenic, for example. (Arsenic is common in some parts of the country.) Herbicides and pesticides. Chorine and fluoride, of course. A sink or pitcher filter might get rid of some of this junk. It’s better than doing nothing.

Bacteria may or may not be a problem, depending on where you live and what’s in your water. If you don’t have deadly bacteria — congratulations! You don’t need to spring for an expensive ultraviolet microbe-killer. But be especially wary if you’re in a farm area with big factory chicken farms or livestock feed lots. The fecal matter may find its way into groundwater.

I’m not an expert, but here’s my take: A combination of activated carbon and reverse osmosis will give you very clean, safe water, and you need to add a UV layer of protection only if bacteria are a real problem.

The only downside I see to this approach is that reverse osmosis removes desirable minerals. You can buy a system that adds back minerals or simply take mineral supplements (which you probably do anyway, if you’re a fan of this newsletter). Potassium, magnesium and calcium (iron, too, if you’re female) are very inexpensive supplements.

Next best option is a system to distill your water, and you can get countertop distillers that make a gallon or two for drinking and cooking. When you drink distilled water you know you’re getting nothing but pure H2O, and, frankly, I find that attractive (okay, maybe a few lightweight chemicals are retained). True, distilled water doesn’t have any minerals in it, but see above. That problem is easy to fix.

Some people say distilled water doesn’t taste as good as mineralized water. I have to say it tastes fine to me. And attention, all you sellers of machines that alkalinize water: please don’t write about the “dangers” of distilled water. I’ve heard your schtick. People who eat a mineral-rich diet including supplements have little to worry about.

Okay, so how much is this going to cost?

Costs vary drastically between pitcher-style filters starting at around $25 (but requiring new filters very frequently), up to a whole house unit, which can cost from $1500 to $3000 when purchased outright but might go ten years without a new filter. (Rental is sometimes an option.)

Under-sink systems can shave the initial cost substantially (at around $300 to $500). This article is focused on drinking water. Obviously, an under-sink system won’t filter toilet and laundry water. If you have a well, that may be a concern for rust stains.

Be SURE you know how often filters need replacing — and how much they cost. This can cost you some serious money, especially if the filters cost $30 or $60 and need replacing every week or month. Don’t get scared off by a higher initial price if the unit has a much lower ongoing cost. Project the total lifetime cost of the unit.

Consider also how long you plan to stay in your home before springing for a $2000 or $3000 water system. If your time horizon is short you might want to opt for a sink unit instead of a whole-house unit, as most home-buyers won’t place the same high value on whole-house as you do.

Once you narrow your options but before you invest, check out online reviews, consult with local water companies, and check to see that your proposed unit is certified by a reputable independent water certification agency.

One of the most stringent certifications is UL (Underwriters Laboratories), which verifies product claims, and ensures the system is structurally sound and that its literature and labeling are truthful.

Units certified by the California Department of Public Health must pass more rigorous standards than those found elsewhere. And National Sanitation Foundation is a reputable independent product evaluation company. You can also look for a Water Quality Association (WQA) certification.

Water is a life essential — so why not make it as healthy, clean and safe as possible today?

If you still don’t feel motivated to clean up your drinking water, click here and read the article from our previous issue. Once you know what might be in your water, I think you’ll do whatever it takes to clean it!

(The second of two articles about the 2013 Annie Appleseed Conference)

by Andrew Scholberg, Author of German Cancer Breakthrough and co-author of The Amish Cancer Secret and Cancer Breakthrough USA

Cancer authority Bill Henderson gave a provocative talk about “Living Cancer Free” in which he pointed out that hardly any cancer doctors even know what cancer is. They treat cancer as if it were an alien infiltrator in the patient’s body. That’s why they’re so focused on cutting it out, burning it out, or poisoning it out. But their understanding of cancer is flat-out wrong.

Keep reading for the real story about cancer. . .

Bill pointed out that every person has about 75 trillion cells, 15 trillion of which are in our immune system. Every day, each of us produces about a million cancer cells. In that sense, everybody has “cancer” all the time, but it’s not a problem because our immune system mops up these abnormal cells. Our immune system is what keeps us cancer free.

Cancer only becomes a problem when the immune system gets overwhelmed or collapses, said Bill. In fact, he suggested we should stop calling it “cancer” and call it SISD instead (Sluggish Immune System Disease).

Bill said it’s also time to start using a more descriptive label for “diabetes” — ESD (excessive sugar disease). Cancer and diabetes aren’t really diseases but rather are the body’s reaction to negative experiences or lifestyle choices.

Bill explained the three big causes that account for 98 percent of cancers. (1) Emotional shock or stress can rip the immune system to shreds, leaving the body vulnerable to cancer. (2) Root canals unavoidably leave nasty toxins in the jawbone that get into the bloodstream. Surprisingly, root canals often cause breast cancer and even prostate cancer. Bill says root canals must be cleaned out by a competent biological dentist. (Conventional dentists don’t even recognize that root canals are a problem.) (3) What we put into our mouths — the standard American diet, excessive drinking, and tobacco smoke — can cause cancer.

After years of intense research on how to become cancer free, Bill has devised a simple and effective 7-point plan, which he describes in his book Cancer Free. You can get this remarkable book from Cancer Defeated by clicking here. For free information about the condensed version of Bill’s book, How to Cure Almost Any Cancer at Home for $5.15 a Day, for which I was Bill’s co-author, see this website.

Speaker exposes a scary,
sneaky culprit behind cancer

A young documentary film maker and health authority, Richard Longland, gave a brilliant talk on “Why Am I Still Sick? The Silent Role of Biofilms in Chronic Disease.”

You’re probably wondering, “Biofilms? What are they?”

Biofilms are sludgy, slimy masses in which a variety of bacteria thrive. For example, a biofilm can easily form on your teeth; dental plaque sticks to this biofilm. If you think biofilms have nothing to do with cancer, think again. Poor oral health practically guarantees you’ll get cancer, heart disease, or some other degenerative disease.

You see, biofilms are much like cancer cells: they can break away and spread via the bloodstream throughout the body, causing problems in remote sites. According to Mr. Longland, dental plaque and artery plaque are exactly identical!

Mr. Longland pointed out that prostatitis, which often causes prostate cancer, is a biofilm infection. So are urinary tract infections. So is Lyme disease. So are diabetic sores and other wounds that won’t heal. Mr. Longland said that Christopher Reeve, the actor who played Superman, died of a biofilm infection. His bedsores wouldn’t heal, and the biofilm infection overwhelmed his immune system.

At least 17 million Americans have biofilm infections, this provocative speaker told the attendees. How do you identify a biofilm problem? Mr. Longland said if it looks like a low-level chronic infection, and if antibiotics don’t get rid of it, then biofilm is probably the culprit. Because biofilms have a cell wall, they don’t grow in a culture. And antibiotics don’t disturb them a bit.

Staph infections and MRSA get all the publicity, while biofilms hide in plain sight. Mr. Longland said the difference between a microbial infection like staph and a polymicrobial biofilm infection is like the difference between a criminal and a gang. According to his theory, the variety of bacteria within a biofilm communicate through electrical connections. The biofilm functions as a single organism! That’s scary.

Richard Longland suffered for years from an undetected biofilm infection: Lyme disease. Once he identified the problem, he cured his Lyme disease through naturopathic treatment plus a healthier diet. To decrease biofilm, he recommends cranberries and cranberry juice, and also xylitol, including xylitol chewing gum for teeth and gums.

His recovery also involved juicing, walking outside barefoot to connect with the electromagnetic energy of the earth, bouncing on a mini-trampoline to move the lymph, and following the Gerson anti-cancer eating plan, which is vegetarian.

For healing diabetic wounds, Mr. Longland recommends Dr. Randy Wolcott, M.D., of the Southwest Regional Wound Care Center in Lubbock, Texas. Dr. Wolcott has saved many diabetic patients from needless amputations.

For more information about biofilm infections — how to detect them and get rid of them — visit these websites: BioFilmCommunity.org, WhyAmIStillSick.com, and Arthropatient.org.

Boss says, “I want you to find a cure for cancer”

Not many employees get such a tall order from the boss as the one Bharat Aggarwal, Ph.D., got from his boss at Genentech, a California biotech company. When he first started working for Genentech, his boss walked into his office and said, “I want you to find a cure for cancer.” The boss was serious! So Mr. Aggarwal, a brilliant researcher, rolled up his sleeves and got to work on finding a cancer cure.

As Mr. Aggarwal explained in his talk, his research kept leading to one key factor: inflammation. Inflammation, he found, is the major culprit in most chronic diseases, such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, and cancer. Control inflammation, and you control the disease! It’s like a house that’s on fire: you get some water on it as soon as possible before it burns to the ground.

How, then, do you control inflammation? Genentech develops sophisticated drugs to address medical problems, and I was expecting Mr. Aggarwal to tout some new drug his company had developed. He didn’t. That shocked me.

Instead, he said his research had uncovered a certain anti-inflammatory food that beats any drug by a country mile — not just for its anti-inflammatory effects but also for a wide array of other benefits. This food, for example, also kills bacteria and even viruses. And it’s 50 times more active than vitamin C. What drug have you ever heard of that has those features? No such drug exists.

“Curcumin will kill all cancers”

The food that stood out as the champion for its anti-inflammatory and broad-range effects is curcumin — extracted from turmeric, the spice from India with the yellow color. Mr. Aggarwal declared, “Curcumin will kill all cancers.”

Compared to America, India has few cases of prostate cancer, Mr. Aggarwal pointed out. He also said that no country in the world has as much Inflammatory Bowel Disease as America. Inflammation is causing a catastrophic breakdown of Americans’ health.

The solution, according to this speaker, is not to rely on a “Pharmer’s Market” (prescription drugs) but a Farmer’s Market. Eat fruits, vegetables, and cereals, he said. And also add spice to your life — especially turmeric or its more potent extract, curcumin. He also cited other spices that have spectacular health benefits, including cinnamon, rosemary, oregano, and cardamom.

I never expected a highbrow biotech researcher to recommend food as a far better cure than a drug! Mr. Aggarwal summed up his talk by quoting Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

Why most Americans don’t
enjoy vibrant, glowing health

“Ancient Medicine” was the title of the talk by Mark Kaylor, Ph.D., an expert on medicinal mushrooms. Medicinal mushrooms have been traced back to ancient China and to prehistoric Europe. For example, the frozen body of “Ötzi,” the 5,000-year-old ice mummy discovered in the Alps, was found with chaga mushrooms in his medicine pouch. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote about the chaga mushroom as a cancer cure in his 1968 novel Cancer Ward.

Mushrooms are remarkably powerful foods. If you eat the wrong one, it will kill you. If you eat the right one, it could cure your disease. Some mushrooms act as a general tonic for an astonishing array of health benefits. And that’s where most Americans miss the point about health, Kaylor said.

He pointed out that most Americans don’t look for a health remedy until they get a disease. And then they look for a remedy that targets just that one disease. That’s all wrong, Mr. Kaylor said.

Instead of waiting until our health breaks down and we suffer from a disease, we should seek vibrant, glowing health and shouldn’t settle for anything less. To achieve that, he said everyone should take two medicinal mushrooms: cordyceps in the morning, and reishi in the evening.

He said these two mushrooms have hundreds of compounds with healing properties to boost the immune system, normalize blood pressure, improve sleep, increase the oxygenation of your cells, lower cholesterol, restore the adrenal glands, and strengthen the heart, lungs, brain, liver, and so on.

If you only take one mushroom, Mr. Kaylor favors the reishi, though he also highly recommends cordyceps. The chaga and meshima mushrooms are especially helpful for cancer patients. And the maitake mushroom is a strong immune booster with other benefits.

You can buy these mushrooms in raw form in oriental markets, but some of them are complicated to prepare in such a way that you get the full benefit. It’s more convenient to order high quality extracts of these mushrooms from a company such as Mushroom Wisdom.

Incidentally, Mr. Kaylor is also a colossal fan of turmeric. He said, “If you’re not using turmeric, you’re crazy!” As mentioned before, the key ingredient in turmeric is curcumin, which is readily available as a supplement.

Two long-term cancer survivors
said NO to conventional treatment!

Thirty-eight years ago, doctors told lung cancer patient Carl Helvie he had six months to live. He gave a talk about how he cured his cancer without any conventional treatment. He used meditation, took laetrile, practiced visualization exercises of the laetrile destroying his cancer cells, prayed regularly, and ate a healthy diet.

Mr. Helvie eats fruits, vegetables, and occasionally chicken and fish, but no farm-grown salmon. His doctor had ordered him to quit eating nuts for good because of his diverticulitis, but Mr. Helvie cured it by drinking aloe vera. (He recommends a brand called Georges.) He now eats as many nuts as he wants — about four pounds per week. He also eats cheese — a lot of it. He hasn’t eaten beef for 25 years. And he eats no sweets.

Is organic food too expensive? Mr. Helvie says it’s cheaper than paying your doctor. Good point. His website, www.BeatLungCancer.net, features his book You Can Beat Lung Cancer Using Alternative/Integrative Interventions.

The next long-term cancer survivor to speak was Reagan Houston, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer 16 years ago. Mr. Houston bought Linus Pauling’s book on controlling cancer through vitamin C and decided to follow Dr. Pauling’s advice.

Mr. Houston told his doctor what he was doing, and the doctor said, “It’s not approved.” Mr. Houston also decided to take multivitamins. Again, his doctor said, “It’s not approved.” But the doctor, to his credit, agreed to monitor him.

Mr. Houston said, “You didn’t get cancer because you were lacking in radiation or chemo, so why add those?” Another good point. He has lived for 16 years cancer free with no pain. Vitamin therapy, he said, is based on excellent science and doesn’t cost much money. It’s a powerful therapy for all types of cancer — both early-stage and widespread (metastasized) cancers. The title of his book is Vitamins Can Kill Cancer.

The entire audience was grateful to Ann Fonfa for presenting another informative and inspirational conference.

Of course, the best move of all is to avoid cancer in the first place. Our last issue had some important information about one of the major causes, so if you missed it, please click here and take a look now.

For years we’ve been told that brain loss was an inevitable part of aging… that we automatically lose neurotransmitters as we move on through life.

Until now the medical community has denied the possibility that adult brain cells could regrow.

Now researchers know that neurogenesis — the process of brain cell regeneration or regrowth — does occur. And it plays a pivotal role in releasing stress, preventing Alzheimer’s, dementia, and depression, and maintaining your “Master Control”.

Best of all, you can enjoy all these wonderful benefits for free and with no damaging side effects. So what can you do to regrow yours? Let’s take a look. . .

One, single activity can mean the difference between feeling full of energy, vim and vigor — or feeling drained, depressed, and droopy. It may also be your key to aging in your own home, versus moving to an assisted living facility (or worse).

So what’s the single most important thing you can do for your brain?

Get plenty of regular exercise!

Once you’ve heard the exciting findings in recent studies, I’m sure you’ll agree that seeing these results in your own life will be worth whatever effort it takes. After all, your brain cells play a central role in everything your body does.

By the way, the effort required to reap the brain benefits isn’t all that much. You don’t have to be an exercise fanatic. And you’ll not only boost your brain, but reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer while you’re at it.

Keep your “master control” center
cruising full speed ahead

Your body’s “Master Control” center — your nervous system — is made up of your brain, your spinal cord, and your peripheral nervous system (PNS) or nerves.

The nervous system controls every action in your daily life, from breathing and blinking to helping you memorize facts or navigate heavy traffic. Without these functions, you’d be a vegetable, a zombie.

Your sensory nerves collect environmental information and send it to your spinal cord, which relays the message to your brain. Your brain interprets the message and fires off an appropriate response. Your motor neurons deliver those instructions to the rest of your body via your spine’s ‘superhighway’.

But here’s the problem:

Hardly anyone thinks about what they need to do to keep their brain at its peak.

They’re more likely to look in the mirror and think about belly fat (sometimes a legitimate concern). Since you don’t see your brain, it’s easy to underrate its importance– until its degeneration becomes obvious.

So, jog your brain a bit…

Experts now say your brain is no different than your muscles. You either use it or lose it. It’s now well established that exercise bolsters both the structure and function of your brain.

Not only is exercise a smart thing to do for your heart and weight — it can literally make you smarter.

It increases your heart rate, oxygenating your brain. Scientists think this oxygen flow helps reduce your brain’s free radicals. One of the exciting findings of recent decades is that these inflows are almost always accompanied by an uptick in mental sharpness.¹

Exercising also fuels plasticity to encourage growth of new connections between cells in your brain’s cortical areas.

Recent research from UCLA shows that exercise increases growth factors in your brain — inducing the growth of new neuron connections.²

Best growth stimulant for your brain

Stephen C. Putnam, MEd, embraced canoeing in a serious way to combat adult ADHD. He followed it up by writing a book called Nature’s Ritalin for the Marathon Mind, in which he writes about the benefits of exercise on hyperactivity and the inability to focus on tasks.³

Putnam cites studies of children who ran around for fifteen to 45 minutes before class and thereby cut their squirminess in half during class. Their running benefits lasted for two to four hours after exercising.

Putnam also cites preliminary animal research suggesting that exercise may cause new stem cells to grow — enabling your brain to refresh itself. Putnam calls it “Miracle-Gro” for the brain. And it appears there’s plenty of science to confirm his observations.

Is exercise the easiest way on earth
to reduce stress?

Have you ever heard of “runner’s high”?

It’s like an all-natural antidepressant. And it’s also linked to a drop in stress hormones.

A study out of Stockholm⁴ showed that “runner’s high” also stimulates new cell growth in the hippocampus — the part of your brain responsible for learning and memory.

Scientists know that exercise releases a rush of hormones, which discharge pleasure chemicals like serotonin and dopamine that make you feel calm, happy, or euphoric…

So if you don’t want to wait around for good feelings to happen on their own, you can nearly always bring them on by exercising.

“First aid” for your brain

Researchers are finding that those who exercise later in life help protect their brain from age-related degeneration more than those who don’t exercise. But it gets even better. Exercise may also act like a soothing balm for aging or damaged brain cells.

In a large brain-imaging study done at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, researchers found a strong and direct correlation over a 3-year period showing that as physical activity increased, brain shrinkage decreased.⁵

This study tapped into a highly respected longitudinal aging study, the Lothian Birth Cohort Study. It looked at 638 adults between 70 and 73 years old.

They found that those who walked several times a week had less brain shrinkage, and fewer signs of brain aging in general, than did the less active folks.

On the other hand, this study found no benefit on brain size for participating in socially or mentally stimulating activities. So if you want to maximize the mind-enriching benefits of playing chess or piano, walk or run across town to do it.

This study indicates that exercise is an important “medicine” to keep your brain’s size healthy and reduce brain damage as you age.

The brain scans showed that those who were more active had less damage to their white matter (the wiring that sends messages around your brain) and had more grey matter (the part containing nerve cell bodies).

Study participants provided details of their daily activities, ranging from basic chores to engaging in heavy exercise or competitive sports — as well as non-physical leisure activities.

Those most devoted to exercise showed better brain circuitry connections and less brain shrinkage — regardless of initial IQ or social class.

Dementia plummets by almost three-fourths

A group of American researchers⁶ looked at the part of the brain called the hippocampus, your brain’s memory center.

They followed adults over 65 years old… an aerobic walking group versus a control group.

The results were dramatic — and are huge for anyone wanting to sidestep dementia and other forms of brain decline.

Adults this age usually lose one to two percent of their hippocampal volume per year.

In this study those in the aerobic walking group GAINED an average of 2% in hippocampal volume per year — versus an average 1.4% LOSS for those in the control group!

See what I mean about teaching an “old dog” new tricks?

And, the aerobic walking group showed marked improvements in memory, too. This is remarkable because the researchers found measurable proof in both the physical organ — the hippocampus — and the mental performance.

This study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, expands on a previous extensive Italian study published in 2008.

The Italian study followed a group of age 65+ adults for four years. They used cognitive assessment tests to determine participants’ mental health and then looked for relationships between those and the participants’ exercise patterns.

Not only did this study find a staggering 73% decrease in dementia for the regular exercisers compared to those who didn’t exercise… it also showed that the intensity of exercise had hardly any bearing on the results. Walking, climbing stairs, and gardening were just as effective in preventing dementia as more strenuous activities.

It even helped those who
already had Alzheimer’s

Another study found that those diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s who were less fit had four times more brain shrinkage compared to more physically fit older adults… suggesting that physical fitness can slow down progression of the disease.⁷

At least two large studies have found a significantly lowered dementia risk in those who had higher physical fitness levels⁸ or who exercise three or more times per week.⁹

It’s never too late to start. . .
but watch out if you quit!

So, you made a New Year’s Resolution to exercise more in 2013… And you’ve already dropped the ball and stashed the gym stuff in the depths of your closet like millions of others.

Did that short-term commitment help you or hurt you?

While there’s plenty of evidence to show that you gain benefits from taking up exercise late in life even if you’ve always been a couch potato… there’s also emerging evidence to show you might be wasting your energy if you don’t stick with it.

A study presented at the 2012 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans¹⁰ showed some troubling results. But the study also pointed to an obvious work-around.

Researchers from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil took a group of healthy adult rats and let them run as much as they wanted on wheels, which they enjoy doing. The rats were also injected with a substance that measures newly created neurons in the hippocampus, because exercise is known to spark the creation of two to three times as many new hippocampal neurons.

On the other hand, the control group had no running wheels. Both groups were monitored for new brain cell growth.

At the end of the first week, the runners’ wheels were locked so they also became inactive.

At the end of week 2, the researchers memory-tested both the exercised and control rats by requiring them to find and remember the location of a platform placed along the wall of a small swimming pool. Rats are not fond of water, so they’re motivated to find this escape route. Those with better memories paddled to the platform more easily.

After one week of inactivity, the rats that had been allowed to run during the first week were much faster on the water test than the controls that had never exercised. The exercisers also had two or more times the number of new neurons.

The remaining animals took the same memory test after three weeks or six weeks of inactivity.

The animals that were inactive for three or six weeks performed FAR worse on the water maze test than the ones who were only inactive for one week.

In fact, their memories were about equal to the control animals, the ones that had never exercised. The results suggest how transient your exercise-induced benefits may be.

Brain benefits of exercise are lost quickly

A second study presented at the same conference looked at mood and stress in sedentary animals following several months of running.

They found that after 10 weeks of running, followed by three weeks of inactivity, the running rats’ brains were nearly indistinguishable from those of animals that never exercised. It was as if they’d never run.

Though these are animal studies, indirect evidence suggests that people are just as vulnerable to losing brain function once regular exercise is stopped.

So it might be wise to stick to that New Year’s exercise resolution after all.

Exercise for your brain, not just your body

Remember how “mission critical” your brain is to all of your life? Give it a workout today.

The easiest way to keep your brain sharp is to find some kind of physical activity you love doing, mix it up with an alternative type exercise… then mark it on your calendar as an important appointment.

Because it could prove to be the most important one of your day!

Exercising in the morning before work not only spikes brain activity and prepares it for the day’s challenges… it also increases retention of new information and aids problem solving on complex issues.

Many experts also advocate that it promotes regular workouts, as fewer activities clamor for your attention early.

Looking to change up your workout? Try an activity that requires coordination along with cardio exertion, like a dance class.

If you like crunching time at the gym alone, try circuit workouts, which spike your heart rate while constantly redirecting your attention.

Any way you do it, always remember this doctor’s admonition… “Exercise is really for the brain, not the body.”

So what have you done today for YOUR brain?

Our last issue covered what may be the most important cancer treatment on earth, as described by one of the world’s leading experts on it. I’d absolutely insist on receiving this therapy if I had cancer. If you missed the news, click here and read it now.