Rather Be Healthy

Are you vitamin D deficient? Most people, living in the “modern” (indoor) world are deficient in this “sunshine” vitamin – which is actually an essential hormone for every facet of your life. In fact, a low vitamin D level in your blood is directly connected to a higher incidence of cancer, osteoporosis, depression, arthritis and just about every other degenerative disease.

If your doctor doesn’t believe, or understand, the value of vitamin D – find another healthcare provider. Healthcare costs are skyrocketing and conventional medicine only “treats” disease while ignoring natural solutions. Forget what you’ve heard from the lamesteam media, vitamin D can help reverse disease (naturally) without drugs or surgery.

Visit: http://www.naturalhealth365.com and enter your email address for our vitamin D show details + a FREE gift!

The top 10 most prescribed drugs cause toxicity and (more) pain

According to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, a pharmaceutical market intelligence firm, here is a list of the 10 most-prescribed drugs in the United States:

1.Hydrocodone (combined with acetaminophen) — 131.2 million prescriptions
2.Generic Zocor (simvastatin), a cholesterol-lowering statin drug — 94.1 million prescriptions
3.Lisinopril (brand names include Prinivil and Zestril), a blood pressure drug — 87.4 million prescriptions
4.Generic Synthroid (levothyroxine sodium), synthetic thyroid hormone — 70.5 million prescriptions
5.Generic Norvasc (amlodipine besylate), an angina/blood pressure drug — 57.2 million prescriptions
6.Generic Prilosec (omeprazole), an antacid drug — 53.4 million prescriptions (does not include over-the-counter sales)
7.Azithromycin (brand names include Z-Pak and Zithromax), an antibiotic — 52.6 million prescriptions
8.Amoxicillin (various brand names), an antibiotic — 52.3 million prescriptions
9.Generic Glucophage (metformin), a diabetes drug — 48.3 million prescriptions
10.Hydrochlorothiazide (various brand names), a water pill used to lower blood pressure — 47.8 million prescriptions.

But, here’s the problem, not one of these drugs – listed above – address the underlying nutrient deficiencies that cause inflammation (pain); depression or any other health-related dis-ease. Contrary to popular belief, most conventionally-trained physicians have a very limited education about health.

They’ve been taught how to write prescriptions; perform surgical procedures and make referrals – when necessary. But, remember, this has nothing to do with health – only “disease management”.

Vitamin D can prevent serious health problems and here’s the scientific evidence to prove it

According to Harvard School of Public Health, several studies link low vitamin D levels with an increased risk of fractures in older adults. In fact, “researchers found that high intakes of vitamin D supplements – of about 800 IU per day – reduced hip and non-spine fractures by 20 percent, while lower intakes (400 IU or less) failed to offer any fracture prevention benefit.”

The Health Professional Follow-Up Study checked the vitamin D blood levels in nearly 50,000 men who were healthy, and then followed them for 10 years. They found that men who were deficient in vitamin D were twice as likely to have a heart attack as men who had adequate levels of vitamin D. Most natural health experts agree that a healthy blood level for vitamin D is around 50 – 60ng/ml – some suggest even higher levels for therapeutic reasons.

There are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of well-done, scientific papers about how vitamin D virtually eliminates the risks for disease. But, William Grant, Ph.D., a top vitamin D researcher, sums it up best when he said, “vitamin D intake or production at the rate of 2000 – 4000 IU/day, leading to serum calcidiol levels of greater than 40ng/mL (100nmol/L) can significantly reduce the burden of both chronic and infectious diseases. Those with darker skin should take higher vitamin D supplementation.”

Jonathan Landsman and Dr. Marc Sorenson talk about how vitamin D can help prevent, even reverse cancer, heart disease, arthritis, depression, ED plus much more. If you want to dramatically improve your health – don’t miss this important show!

Visit: http://www.naturalhealth365.com and enter your email address for show details + a FREE gift!

This week’s guest: Dr. Marc Sorenson, internationally recognized vitamin D expert

Learn how vitamin D helps to stop cancer, arthritis, heart disease + much more – Sun. June 30

Dr. Sorenson graduated from Brigham Young University with a doctorate in education and an emphasis in health education and exercise. He has a passion for wellness which has driven his career. Years of advanced medical and scientific research led him to gather a comprehensive understanding of health and weight control. With his wife, Vicki, Dr. Sorenson founded National Institute of Fitness (NIF), one of the world’s highest rated destination health and fitness resorts.

National Institute of Fitness was credited with successes such as helping clients lose remarkable amounts of weight, and for educating diabetics regarding methods to help reduce or eliminate medications. The Institute also provided health education on topics like high cholesterol, lupus, arthritis, migraines, heart disease, hypertension, angina, and allergies. Many physicians visited NIF to achieve better health and to find alternative methods for their patients.

With healthcare costs skyrocketing and the failure of conventional medicine to cure disease – isn’t it time for a change? In truth, there are very simple ways to prevent, even reverse disease – naturally without drugs or surgery. Discover the importance of vitamin D in your life.

Six unique and surprisingly easy ways to experience more energy every day

As we try to keep up with hectic activity demands by consuming more caffeine, sugar, and other energy “boosters” we become more frazzled, get less quality sleep, and add more chronic stress.

It’s that sort of vicious cycle that leads into a downward spiral of poor physical and/or mental health. There are natural solutions we can begin to practice, increasingly allowing new habits to replace our energy draining-behavior and rejuvenate depleted energy naturally.

Mild dehydration that is often not apparent can be a source of fatigue. Drink good water if you’re feeling run-down from a reliable source, not sodas or caffeinated beverages.

Minimize discharging energy and maximize recharging
1. Sleep is the foundation of recharging your energy. It’s the quality of sleep more than the amount of hours that allows your immune system to re-organize and recharge. Make sure you give yourself some time to unwind before retiring. Restful music or a relaxing walk in nature can help.

When you hit the sack, make sure sounds and lights are non-existent, unless you’re sleeping outdoors or on a porch. Turn off EMF-emitting devices or keep them far away. More on quality sleep in the sleep article, source below.

2. Getting rattled, upset, and fretting about imagined future situations drains your energy. Two psychological methods for that are witnessing and humor. When you witness, you observe attentively from a neutral, non-attached and non-controlling.

For example, getting upset about traffic and traffic lights, banging on the steering wheel and cursing everyone around you is actually exhausting. But so is suppressing your emotions.

Work at doing neither. Practice at becoming an impartial observer and witness without negative emotions. Realize that you can’t control all external activities, but you can control your reactions to them.

A helpful gimmick is humor. Whenever the absurdity of any situation begins to irritate you laugh or at least snicker, either at the situation or the absurdity of your rising temper. Laughter is a great tension release valve.

3. There are mild exercise routines that are meant to relax and center you while giving you more energy. Yoga, especially if climaxed with the corpse pose correctly, is the most commonly adopted energy expanding exercise from India.

Tai chi is also designed to increase our energy. Qi gong or chi gong is the esoteric predecessor to popularized tai chi, and it has proven to heal chronic maladies as well. And now there’s a newly imported routine known as the Five Tibetans. See two Five Tibetan demos below.

4. If your work involves lots of indoor sitting, standing and moving moderately while changing your field of vision is helpful. Standing and moving your body a bit works muscles enough to release tension and get bodily fluids moving.

Looking at interesting sights outside windows or anywhere but you computer screen can help you become alert again. These things should be done briefly but often throughout your work day. Each event should be done long enough to refresh you. You’ll wind up getting more work done with less anxiety.

5. Grounding is an ancient technique that is even more appropriate for our electronically polluted environment. It literally lets you discharge pent-up electrical charge from your body into the earth. All it takes is going barefoot outdoors.

Some prefer to stroll on a beach or in a park. But most grounders recommend simply standing outdoors barefoot with feet together. After some or several minutes, you should feel refreshed.

6. Meditation is the top energy recharger most ignored. It certainly will let you unwind before retiring if you use it to relax and let go rather than attempt to anxiously grind out the events of the day.

There are groups and classes if you think you could use some direction within an encouraging environment. Some focus on breath, or a body part, or a mantra. While meditating, whatever comes up mentally, allow it to come and go without trying to control it.

Steady meditation practice has been proven to improve heart health, overall immunity, and even restore youthful energy (http://www.naturalnews.com/028694_anti-aging_meditation.html).

Sources for this article include:

Sleep Article http://www.naturalnews.com/026637_sleep_health_immune_system.html

http://www.lifeevents.org/5-tibetans-energy-rejuvenation-exercises.htm

http://www.mindbodygreen.com

http://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/HEALTHbeat_060706.htm

Are mammogram parties an organized form of medical date rape?

The cancer industry has apparently become so desperate to recruit new customers that it is now resorting to what can only be described as a type of medical date rape. A number of hospitals and cancer centers across the country are reportedly now holding community-driven “mammogram parties,” a deceptive cancer marketing scheme that basically entails deliberately getting women tipsy or drunk on alcohol with their friends and neighbors in order to entice them into getting medically molested via mammograms.

The horrendous bait and switch tactic is taking place under the guise of “saving lives,” as it is specifically designed for women who feel uncomfortable with getting mammograms, and who would otherwise avoid getting them if it were not for the added pressure of being wined and dined in a comfortable and relaxing environment. Women are being encouraged to “grab their girlfriends” for a night out at the local cancer center, during which time they take turns getting blasted with ionizing radiation in between munching down fancy cheeses and chocolate fondue, and sipping down delectable wine.

“It may be a good way to improve compliance and make having a mammogram more enjoyable,” claimed Dr. Julie Silver, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, to ABC News about the disturbing mammogram party phenomenon.

Are mammogram parties an organized form of medical date rape?
It is interesting that Dr. Silver would use the word “compliance” in conjunction with mammograms, as the word is generally used in reference to someone giving an order or command to do something. This, combined with the fact that cancer centers which hold “mamm” parties are basically having to induce inebriation in order to convince many women to get mammograms, shows how slyly coercive the cancer industry is becoming in its quest to recruit new cancer patients.

With thousands of women waking up to the fact that mammograms are much more dangerous than we are all being told, and a cause of cancer in and of themselves, it is hardly surprising that the cancer industry has sunk to unconscionable new lows. And yet at the very same time, getting women drunk in order to compress their breasts for a radiation screening is technically a form of rape, or at the very least, molestation with alcohol and ambiance representing the date rape drugs of choice.

Even worse is the fact that many insurance companies are now covering the costs associated with holding mamm parties, which include not only food and beverage costs, but also all the massages and other luxurious spa resort amenities that increasingly characterize many of the gatherings. Whatever it takes to get women to subject themselves to radiation blasts is fair game, in other words, and it appears as though the specious strategy is quite a success.

“I am having fun,” explained one woman attending a recent mamm party in Nevada to KTVN Channel 2 News in Reno. “Way better than the last time I came here and had [a mammogram]. This time it didn’t hurt. Maybe it was the glass of wine I had before I went.”

Sources for this article include:

http://abcnews.go.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

http://bellevue.patch.com

Statins are the world’s most-prescribed class of medications. A staggering one in four Americans over the age of 45 now take cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Pravachol, Mevacor, Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor, and others. A majority of them are taking these drugs for primary prevention of heart attacks and strokes.

However, mounting research suggests this could be a critical mistake.

Most recently, two separate studies have concluded that progression of coronary artery calcification, which is the hallmark of potentially lethal heart disease, is INCREASED with statin drug use.

Statins Increase Prevalence of Coronary Calcification by More than 50 Percent!

A new study in the journal Atherosclerosis1 shows that statin use is associated with a 52 percent increased prevalence and extent of calcified coronary plaque compared to non-users. None of the participants in the study – 6,673 in all – had any known coronary artery disease at the time of undergoing coronary CT angiography (CCTA) – a non-invasive method that allows you to see coronary atherosclerotic features, including plaque composition.

Arterial plaque is a hallmark of cardiovascular disease and increases your risk of all-cause mortality, so clearly, anything that increases calcification and stiffening of your arteries is wisely avoided. And statins seem to fall into this category.

These disturbing findings come right on the heels of another study published in the journal Diabetes Care,2 which discovered that type 2 diabetics with advanced atherosclerosis who are frequent statin users have significantly higher amounts of coronary artery calcification compared to less frequent users of the drug.

Furthermore, in a subgroup of participants who initially were not receiving statins, progression of both coronary artery calcification as well as abdominal aortic artery calcification was significantly increased when they began frequent statin use.

The authors concluded that:

“More frequent statin use is associated with accelerated coronary artery calcification in T2DM patients with advanced atherosclerosis.”

So much for statins being the answer for diabetics… Diabetes is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is why many diabetics are prescribed a statin drug to reduce their risk. Alas, as these studies show, statins actually accelerate the progression of disease!

Making matters worse, statins have also been shown to significantly increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes3 if you don’t have it already. This is a risk everyone needs to be aware of. In one study, statins increased the risk of type 2 diabetics in postmenopausal women by 48 percent.4

Few People Really Benefit from a Statin Drug

Statins, I believe, are one of the most unnecessary drugs on the market. A small group of people with familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic defect that causes cholesterol levels above 325-350, do seem to benefit from statins. However, in my clinical experience over more than two decades and tens of thousands of patients, I had a grand total of three patients that fell into this category as it’s a relatively uncommon genetic problem.

The fact that one in four Americans over the age of 45 is now taking a statin drug as a form of “preventive medicine” does not bode well when you consider the massive increases in disease risk these drugs are now associated with. It’s downright shocking that doctors are so slow to realize the potential damage inflicted on their patients for no reward at all.

The research that led to statins being heavily promoted as a form of primary prevention of heart disease and stroke was funded by AstraZeneca, the maker of Crestor. Since the release of that study in 2008, none of their claims have turned out to hold water in subsequent research. On the contrary, as the two featured studies show, they actually worsen cardiovascular disease progression.

The drugs also come with an avalanche of other potential side effects, which tend to be dose dependent.5 In fact, as of 2009 there were well over 900 studies proving their adverse effects, which run the gamut from muscle problems to increased cancer risk. One of the primary mechanisms of harm appears to be CoQ10 depletion. If you take statin drugs without supplementing with CoQ10 (or ideally, the reduced form, called ubiquinol, which is far more effective), your health is at serious risk.

GreenMedInfo.com has compiled over 300 documented adverse health effects associated with statins,6 some of the most common of which include:

Muscle problems, polyneuropathy (nerve damage in the hands and feet), and rhabdomyolysis (a serious degenerative muscle tissue condition)

Anemia

Acidosis

Sexual dysfunction

Immune depression

Cataracts

Pancreas or liver dysfunction, including a potential increase in liver enzymes

Memory loss

What You Need to Know About Cholesterol in Order to Understand the Dangers of Statins

Statin drugs work by preventing the formation of cholesterol and reduce LDL cholesterol, which is considered the “bad” cholesterol. There is no argument that these drugs can effectively lower your cholesterol levels. However, what has NOT been proven is that they significantly lower your risk of dying from heart disease. In no way, shape or form do they treat the underlying cause of your problem. They are nothing more than a toxic band-aid.

So just what makes statins so dangerous, and why are they not the answer for managing your cholesterol levels?

First you need to understand the biological workings of cholesterol. In fact, there is no such thing as “good” or “bad” cholesterol. Both HDL and LDL cholesterol perform vital functions in your body, which is why it’s actually dangerous to bring your LDL levels down too low.

HDL (high density lipoprotein) and LDL (low density lipoprotein) are actually proteins that transport the cholesterol to and from your tissues. Cholesterol in turn is a precursor to your steroid hormones, bile acids, cell membrane walls and vitamin D. For example, cholesterol is essential for you to make testosterone or estrogen, cortisol, DHEA or pregnenolone, or a multitude of other steroid hormones that are necessary for health, without cholesterol. Even more importantly, your cells cannot regenerate their membranes without it.

The reason you have LDL to begin with is to transport the cholesterol to the tissues in order to make new cells and repair damaged ones. However, there are different sizes of LDL particles and it’s the LDL particle size that is relevant, and statins do not modulate the size of the particles. Unfortunately, most people still don’t know about that part, and very rarely, if ever, get tested for particle size. The particles are sticky, so very small LDL’s can easily get stuck in different areas, and the build-up eventually causes inflammation and damage.

The only way to make sure your LDL particles are large enough to not cause damage is through your diet. In fact, it’s one of the major functions of insulin.

Conveniently enough, a healthy diet is also the answer for type 2 diabetes, so by focusing on what you eat, you’re treating both your diabetes and your cholesterol levels, and reducing your associated risk of heart disease. If you eat properly, which is really the only known good way to regulate LDL particle size, then it does the right thing; it takes the cholesterol to your tissues, the HDL takes it back to your liver, and no plaque is formed.

The Critical Importance of CoQ10

Again, if you’re on a statin drug, you MUST take at least 100-200 mg of ubiquinol or CoQ10 per day. Ubiquinol is also beneficial for those not taking statins. If you’re not on a statin drug, the amount of CoQ10 or ubiquinol you might need depends on how sick you are. The sicker you are, the more you need. As a general guideline if you’re not ill, taking 50-100 mg per day would probably be sufficient. If you’re over the age of 70, double that dose, or up to 200 mg per day. This is because your natural CoQ10 levels begin to drop after the age of 40, and by the age of 70, levels begin to precipitously drop.

Ideally, you’ll want to split the dose up to two or three times a day, rather than taking it all at once, as this will result in higher blood levels. Other dosing guidelines include:

Hypertension 200 mg/day

World class athletes who need extra ATP turnover, 300-600 mg/day

Heart transplant or severe CHF, 300-600 mg/day in divided doses

Arrhythmia 200 mg/day

Typical athlete 100-300 mg/day

Mitral valve prolapse, a combination of 400 mg magnesium and 100-200 mg of CoQ10

How to Help Lower Your Cholesterol Naturally

There’s really virtually NO reason to take statins and suffer the consequences from these ill-conceived drugs. If you truly want to normalize your cholesterol levels, following these simple lifestyle changes can help get you there:
•First, normalize your insulin levels by eliminating sugar (particularly fructose) and grains. A fasting insulin level is easy to draw and is very inexpensive. It should be below 3.
•Take a high-quality animal-based omega-3 supplement, such as krill oil.
•Eat a good portion of your food raw (ideally organic to avoid agricultural chemicals).
•Eat healthy, preferably raw, fats, such as:

Olive oil

Coconut and coconut oil

Organic raw dairy products

Avocados

Raw organic nuts

Seeds

Pastured eggs (raw, or lightly cooked with yolks intact)

Organic, grass-fed meats

•Regular exercise is another important tool. When you exercise you increase your circulation and the blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of fighting an illness before it has the opportunity to spread.
•If you are a man, or a woman who is in menopause, you should check your iron levels, as elevated levels of iron can cause major oxidative damage in the blood vessels, heart and other organs. Excess iron is also one of the major contributing factors of cancer risk.
•Avoid smoking and drinking alcohol excessively.

If you’re like most Americans, you’re likely not getting enough sleep. Nearly 41 million US adults are sleeping just six hours or less each night, which recent research has linked to an increased risk of chronic inflammation and heart disease in women.1

Over the course of the five-year long study,2 women who slept poorly—quantified as sleeping less than six hours per night—had 2.5 times higher increases in inflammation levels compared to men who slept poorly. As reported by the featured article:3

“Researchers speculated that the gender difference may be due to lower estrogen levels in the study’s post-menopausal female subjects, whereas men were protected by higher levels of testosterone.”

But regardless of gender-based hormonal differences, summertime can be a time of year when sleep becomes harder to come by, courtesy of rising temperatures. This is just one of a whole host of factors that can have an adverse effect on your sleep. Restless legs syndrome is another ailment that can prevent you from getting sufficient amounts of shut-eye.

Interestingly, a recent observational study4 found that men with restless legs syndrome have a whopping 40 percent higher risk of total mortality. This finding was independent of other known risk factors, including a variety of chronic diseases. As reported by MedPage Today:5

“The relationship between restless legs syndrome and all-cause mortality was stronger for men who had symptoms 15 or more times per month compared with those who had symptoms five to 14 times per month.”

According to the researchers, one (of several) potential mechanisms that might account for this increased mortality risk is disturbed sleep. Previous research has also found that people with chronic insomnia have a three times greater risk of dying from any cause.

Sleep Deprivation Takes a Serious Toll on Your Health…

You can have the healthiest diet on the planet, doing vegetable juicing and using fermented veggies, be as fit as an Olympic athlete, be emotionally balanced, but if you aren’t sleeping well it is just a matter of time before it will adversely, potentially seriously affect your health.

Sleep deprivation is such a chronic condition these days that you might not even realize you suffer from it. Science has now established that a sleep deficit can have serious, far reaching effects on your health. For example, interrupted or impaired sleep can:
•Dramatically weaken your immune system
•Accelerate tumor growth—tumors grow two to three times faster in laboratory animals with severe sleep dysfunctions, primarily due to disrupted melatonin production. Melatonin inhibits the proliferation of a wide range of cancer cell types, as well as triggering cancer cell apoptosis (self destruction). The hormone also interferes with the new blood supply tumors require for their rapid growth (angiogenesis)
•Cause a pre-diabetic state, making you feel hungry even if you’ve already eaten, which can wreak havoc on your weight
•Seriously impair your memory; even a single night of poor sleep—meaning sleeping only 4 to 6 hours—can impact your ability to think clearly the next day. It’s also known to decrease your problem solving ability

What You Need to Know About Sleeping Pills

While it may be tempting to look for a pill to quickly help you sleep, these will not address any of the underlying causes of insomnia. In fact, researchers have repeatedly shown that sleeping pills don’t work, but your brain is being tricked into thinking they do…

In one meta-analytic study, they found that, on average, sleeping pills help people fall asleep approximately 10 minutes sooner. From a biomedical perspective, this is an insignificant improvement. On average, sleeping pills increase total sleep time by about 15-20 minutes. But here is the catch: This study also discovered that while most sleeping pills created poor, fragmented sleep, they also created amnesia, so upon waking, the participants could not recall how poorly they’d actually slept!

Worse yet, sleeping pills have also been linked to a wide variety of health hazards, including a nearly four-fold increase in the risk of death, along with a 35 percent increased risk of cancer.

Additionally, most people do not realize that over-the-counter (OTC) sleeping pills — those containing Benadryl — can have a half life of about 18 hours. So, if you take them every night, you’re basically sedated much of the time. Not surprisingly, they’re associated with cognitive deficits in the morning. Trust me, there are far better, safer and more effective ways to get a good night’s sleep…

Tips for High-Quality Shut-Eye from a Sleep Wellness Consultant

As previously discussed by Dr. Rubin Naiman, a leader in integrative medicine approaches to sleep and dreams, sleep is the outcome of an interaction between two variables, namely sleepiness and what he refers to as “noise.” This is any kind of stimulation that inhibits or disrupts sleep. In order to get a good night’s sleep, you want your sleepiness level to be high, and the “noise” level to be low. Under normal conditions, your sleepiness should gradually increase throughout the day and evening, peaking just before you go to bed at night. However, if noise is conceptually greater than your level of sleepiness, you will not be able to fall asleep.

Total video Length: 1:02:37

Download Interview Transcript

In a recent CNN article, 6 sleep wellness consultant Nancy Rothstein offered up six tips to improve your sleep, wisely starting off by addressing environmental “noise” in your bedroom (for the rest of her suggestions, please see the original article):7
•Create a sleep sanctuary. This means removing items associated with entertainment, recreation, work and hobbies, and turning your bedroom into a single-purpose space—one for sleeping. Of utmost importance: Make sure your bedroom is cool, dark and quiet. These three factors can have a major impact on your sleep.

In regards to temperature, studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is quite cool, between 60 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, so keep the temperature in your bedroom no higher than 70 degrees.

As for light, even the tiniest bit of light in the room can disrupt your internal clock and your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and serotonin, hormones involved in your body’s circadian rhythm of sleep and wakefulness. So close your bedroom door, get rid of night-lights, and most importantly, cover your windows. I recommend using blackout shades or heavy, opaque drapes. Also cover up your clock if it has a lit display. Alternatively, you could wear an eye mask to block out any stray light.
•Turn off your gadgets well before bedtime. Again, the artificial glow from your TV, iPad, computer or smartphone can serve as a stimulus for keeping you awake well past your bedtime by disrupting melatonin production. I recommend turning off all electronic gadgets at least one hour before bed. As Rothstein suggests, that time is far better spent reading a good old fashioned book, practicing relaxation techniques or meditating.

Some people find the sound of white noise or nature sounds, such as the ocean or forest, to be soothing and sleep-promoting. An excellent relaxation/meditation option to listen to before bed is the Insight audio CD. Another favorite is the Sleep Harmony CD, which uses a combination of advanced vibrational technology and guided meditation to help you effortlessly fall into deep delta sleep within minutes. The CD works on the principle of “sleep wave entrainment” to assist your brain in gearing down for sleep.
•Exercise to sleep better, but do it early! Exercising for at least 30 minutes per day can improve your sleep, but if you exercise too close to bedtime (generally within the three hours before), it may keep you awake instead.
•Party-goers beware: alcohol tends to prevent good sleep… Summertime tends to spark party invitations, but as Rothstein warns, it would be wise to consider how a few drinks will affect your sleep pattern. Although alcohol will make you drowsy, the effect is short lived and you will often wake up several hours later, unable to fall back asleep. Alcohol can also keep you from entering the deeper stages of sleep, where your body does most of its healing.

The same applies to eating. Ideally, you’ll want to avoid eating or snacking at least three hours before bed. Especially troublesome are grains and sugars, as these will raise your blood sugar and delay sleep. Later, when your blood sugar drops, you may wake up and be unable to fall back asleep.

Two More Aces Up Your Sleeve When Sleep Becomes Elusive…

My personal favorite fix for insomnia is the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). Most people can learn the basics of this gentle tapping technique in a few minutes. EFT can help balance your body’s bioenergy system and resolve some of the emotional stresses that are contributing to your insomnia at a very deep level. The results are typically long lasting and improvement is remarkably rapid.

Another strategy that can help is to increase your melatonin. Ideally it is best to increase your levels naturally, by exposing yourself to bright sunlight during daytime hours (along with full spectrum fluorescent bulbs in the winter) followed by absolute complete darkness at night. If that isn’t possible, you may want to consider a melatonin supplement. In scientific studies, melatonin has been shown to increase sleepiness, help you fall asleep more quickly and stay asleep, decrease restlessness, and reverse daytime fatigue. Melatonin is a completely natural substance, made by your body, and has many health benefits in addition to sleep.

If you decide to give melatonin supplements a try, start with a very small dose, about an hour before bed—as little as 0.25 mg can be sufficient for some.8 Many end up taking too much right off the bat, which could end up having the reverse effect you’re looking for. Taking too much could also result in side effects9 such as drowsiness, confusion, headache, nightmares, and more. So, start with a tiny dose, and if after three nights you notice no improvement, take a little more. The tips discussed so far are among the most important for a restful night’s sleep, but they are only the beginning. For more, please read my comprehensive sleep guide: 33 Secret’s to a Good Night’s Sleep.

Improving Your Sleep Hygiene Pays Off in Health Dividends

There’s convincing evidence showing that if you do not sleep enough, you’re really jeopardizing your health. Everybody loses sleep here and there, and your body can adjust for temporary shortcomings. But if you develop a chronic pattern of sleeping less than five or six hours a night, then you’re increasing your risk of a number of health conditions, including heart disease.

To make your bedroom into a suitable sleep sanctuary, begin by making sure it’s pitch-black, cool, and quiet. Remember, even the tiniest bit of light can disrupt your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and serotonin. For this reason, I highly recommend adding room-darkening blinds or drapes to your bedroom, or if this is not possible wearing an eye mask to block out any stray light.

For even more helpful guidance on how to improve your sleep, please review my 33 Secrets to a Good Night’s Sleep. If you’re even slightly sleep deprived, I encourage you to implement some of these tips tonight, as high-quality sleep is one of the most important factors in your health and quality of life.

A growing body of research clearly shows the absolute necessity of vitamin D for good health and disease prevention. However, despite vitamin D’s role in keeping your body ticking along like a well-oiled clock, you are likely deficient in the “sunshine vitamin”—because the majority of people are.

Our vitamin D levels have dropped as a result of being scared sunless by those spreading misinformation that the sun causes melanoma, a myth that survives by mass promotion but really lacks any factual basis. It has been repeated so many times that most people believe it.

Vitamin D affects your biological function by influencing nearly 3,000 of your genes through vitamin D receptors. In fact, vitamin D receptors are found throughout your body, which should come as no surprise, given we humans evolved in the sun.

Recent research1,2 has also revealed yet another benefit of sun exposure beyond the protective benefits of producing vitamin D, namely the production of nitric oxide—a compound that lowers your blood pressure.

According to the researchers, the heart-health benefits from this may outweigh the risk of developing skin cancer. Your vitamin D level varies not only with time of day, season, and geographic location, but also with your genetics.

For example, if you have dark skin, you may need up to 10 times more sun exposure to maintain an optimal vitamin D level as a person with pale skin. Redheads have to be particularly careful, as they appear to be genetically predisposed to developing melanoma, regardless of whether or not they spend time in the sun.

Tens of Thousands of Health Studies Attest to Vitamin D’s Importance

Sunshine’s gifts extend well beyond vitamin D production. As discussed in the featured article by Sayer Ji,3 five of the many noteworthy properties of sunlight include:
1.Pain-killing (analgesic) properties
2.Increased subcutaneous fat metabolism
3.Regulation of human lifespan (solar cycles appear to be able to directly affect the human genome, thereby influencing lifespan)
4.Daytime sun exposure improves evening alertness
5.Conversion to metabolic energy (i.e. we may “ingest” energy directly from the sun, like plants do)

When it comes to vitamin D production, the benefits are simply immeasurable. In fact, correcting a vitamin D deficiency may cut your risk of dying in half, according to an analysis of more than 10,000 individuals.

According to a January 2013 press release by Orthomolecular Medicine4, 3,600 medical papers with vitamin D in the title or abstract were published in 2012 alone, bringing the grand total to 33,800. Research to date shows vitamin D has far reaching benefits to your physical and mental health, with the following chart representing only the tip of the sunbeam.

Pregnancy outcomes (reduced risk of Cesarean section and pre-eclampsia)

Autism

Childhood language impairment

Cardiovascular disease

Type 1 diabetes

Alzheimer’s disease

Type 2 diabetes

Bacterial and viral infections

Falls and bone fractures

16 different types of cancer

Stroke

All-cause mortality

Another Way Sun Exposure Protects Your Heart Health

UVB exposure also improves your mood and energy level, helps regulate melatonin, and, as mentioned earlier, increases nitric oxide production5, which benefits your cardiovascular system. With regards to the latter:

“Richard Weller, Senior Lecturer in Dermatology, and colleagues, say the effect is such that overall, sun exposure could improve health and even prolong life, because the benefits of reducing blood pressure, cutting heart attacks and strokes, far outweigh the risk of getting skin cancer,” Medical News Today reports6.

Weller and colleagues found that the body’s production of nitric oxide is separate from production of vitamin D… Human skin contains large stores of nitrite (NO2) and nitrate (NO3). The researchers note that while nitrate is “biologically inert”, the action of sunlight can reduce it to active nitrite and nitric oxide (NO).They found that circulatory nitrate fell and nitrite rose during UV and heat exposure, but not during exposure to heat only. There was no difference in vitamin D levels.

Weller says in a statement that: ‘We suspect that the benefits to heart health of sunlight will outweigh the risk of skin cancer. The work we have done provides a mechanism that might account for this, and also explains why dietary vitamin D supplements alone will not be able to compensate for lack of sunlight… If this confirms that sunlight reduces the death rate from all causes, we will need to reconsider our advice on sun exposure.'”

Skin Cancer, in Brief

Before we discuss melanoma, you need a basic understanding of the three most common types of skin cancer, each named for the type of cells affected:
1.Basal cell carcinoma (BCC): Begins in the basal cell layer of the skin, typically on the face; the most common form of skin cancer and the most common type of cancer in humans; least likely skin cancer to spread.7
2.Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC): Begins in the squamous cells, typically on the face, neck, ears, lips, and backs of hands; tends to grow and spread a bit more than BCC.
3.Melanoma: Begins in the melanocytes (the cells that produce the pigment melanin, responsible for your tan); melanin protects the deeper layers of your skin from excess radiation. Melanoma is more likely than other types of skin cancer to spread to other parts of your body and causes more deaths than any other type of skin cancer.8

Don’t Fall for the Melanoma Myth

If you believe the lure of the sun is equivalent to the siren’s call for melanoma, you’ll be relieved to learn melanoma is not actually caused by sun exposure, unlike the other two types of skin cancer, BCC and SCC. Although the reported number of new cases of melanoma in the US has been reportedly increasing for more than 30 years,9 a landmark study in the British Journal of Dermatology10 suggests this apparent increase is a result of non-cancerous lesions being misclassified as “stage 1 melanoma.” In other words, people are being diagnosed with melanoma even when they have only a minimal, non-cancerous lesion, and these diagnoses are significantly skewing cancer statistics.11 The sun is nothing more than a scapegoat in this phenomenon of “increased melanoma.”

But this misdiagnosis is doing more than just skewing statistics—it’s causing a mountain of unnecessary melanoma surgeries. A study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology12 found that 90 percent of melanoma excisions end up NOT being melanoma at all. But if the sun doesn’t cause melanoma, then what does?

The REAL Role of the Sun in Melanoma

As with all serious diseases, there are multiple interacting factors that cause your immune system to go awry, such as nutrition, environmental toxins, stress, inadequate sleep, etc. But for melanoma, the sun does appear to have a significant role—melanoma may signify too little of it!

Studies show melanoma mortality actually decreases after UV exposure. Additionally, melanoma lesions do not predominate sun-exposed skin, which is why sunscreens have proven ineffective in preventing it. Exposure to sunlight, particularly UVB, is protective against melanoma—or rather, the vitamin D your body produces in response to UVB radiation is protective. The following passage comes from The Lancet:13

“Paradoxically, outdoor workers have a decreased risk of melanoma compared with indoor workers, suggesting that chronic sunlight exposure can have a protective effect.”

And this from the British Medical Journal:14

“There is solid descriptive, quantitative, and mechanistic proof that ultraviolet rays cause the main skin cancers (basal and squamous). They develop in pale, sun exposed skin, are related to degree of exposure and latitude, are fewer with avoidance and protection, are readily produced experimentally, and are the overwhelmingly predominant tumor in xeroderma pigmentosum, where DNA repair of ultraviolet light damage is impaired. None of these is found with melanoma.”

The bottom line is, by avoiding the sun, your risk for vitamin D deficiency skyrockets, which increases your odds of developing melanoma and a multitude of other diseases. The risks associated with insufficient vitamin D are far greater than those posed by basal cell or squamous cell carcinomas, which are fairly benign by comparison, as you’ll see by reading on.

Vitamin D Could Prevent 90 Percent of Breast Cancers

Download Interview Transcript

Theories linking vitamin D deficiency to cancer have been tested and confirmed in more than 200 epidemiological studies, and understanding of its physiological basis stems from more than 2,500 laboratory studies. In the above interview, GrassrootsHealth founder Carole Baggerly believes 90 percent of ordinary breast cancer is related to vitamin D deficiency. In fact, breast cancer has been described as a “vitamin D deficiency syndrome.” The way vitamin D interferes with breast cancer’s ability to spread is by affecting the structure of those cells—without adequate vitamin D, they fall apart and are forced to “overmultiply” in order to survive.

Previous research has shown that optimizing your vitamin D levels can reduce your risk for as many as 16 different types of cancer, including pancreatic, lung, ovarian, breast, prostate, and skin cancers. A study of menopausal women showed that maintaining vitamin D serum levels of 40ng/ml lowers overall cancer risk by 77 percent.

Two recent papers in the journal Science Express15 shed light on how cancer might begin. A cancer cell can be created when unusual mutations occur in a small area of its DNA that controls and regulates its genes, as contrasted with mutations in the genes themselves. The mutations spur the cell to make telomerase. One of the functions of telomerase is to prevent telomere shortening, which leads to cell death. According to Harvard researchers, abundant telomerase is so important to cancers that it appears in nine out of ten.

In addition to being a strong cancer preventative, vitamin D is crucial for pregnant women and their babies, lowering the risk for preterm birth, low birth weight, and C-section. And sadly, 80 percent of pregnant women have inadequate vitamin D levels.

Low Vitamin D in Pregnancy May Increase Your Baby’s Risk for Multiple Sclerosis Later in Life

Sunshine is so important to your overall health that science is now finding a connection between the strength of your immune system and your birthday, called the “birth month effect.” If you were born in the spring, you are statistically more vulnerable to developing an autoimmune disease such as multiple sclerosis (MS), than if you were born in the fall.16, 17

Why would this be?

Some researchers suggest it’s related to a pregnant woman’s vitamin D levels during her baby’s gestation. April and May babies have been gestating during the colder, darker months, as opposed to November and December babies, who’ve been developing over the spring and summer. Now a study in JAMA Neurology18 shows this hunch may be correct, suggesting a mechanism related to thymic development. Another study suggests sun exposure and vitamin D may play roles in the CNS demyelination associated with MS.19

And the sun can lift your mood! New research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows that Google searches for mental health related issues drop by 15 to 42 percent during the summer months, which could very well be related to the boost in vitamin D.20 Vitamin D deficiency is a known factor in cognitive impairment and dementia.

Practicing Safe Sunning

Safely exposing your bare skin to the sun is the best way to optimize your vitamin D levels, and is therefore the best protection against melanoma. Sunburn should be avoided at all cost. I recommend reading our article about safe sunning guidelines and listening to the video above for detailed instructions about how to do this safely and effectively.

Vitamin D3 is an oil-soluble steroid hormone (the term “vitamin” is a misnomer) that forms when your skin is exposed to UVB radiation from the sun or a safe tanning bed. When UVB strikes the surface of your skin, your skin converts a cholesterol derivative into vitamin D3. It takes up to 48 hours for this D3 to be absorbed into your bloodstream to raise your vitamin D levels. Therefore, it’s important to avoid washing your skin with soap for 48 hours after sun exposure. In case you do develop a sunburn, immediately apply raw aloe vera, as it’s one of the best skin remedies.

As a general guideline, research by GrassrootsHealth suggests that adults need about 8,000 IU’s per day to achieve a serum level of 40 ng/ml. If you opt for a vitamin D supplement, you also need to boost your intake of vitamin K2 through food and/or a supplement. How do you know if your vitamin D level is in the right range? The most important factor is having your vitamin D serum level tested every six months, as people vary widely in their response to ultraviolet exposure or oral D3 supplementation. Your goal is to reach a clinically relevant serum level of 50-70 ng/ml.

Overuse of Sunscreen May Turn You into a Melanoma Magnet

Following the advise of health officials’ to slather on sunscreen may increase your melanoma risk instead of decreasing it, which is certainly not what you want. Indeed, you never want to let yourself burn. However, if you practice safe sunning, you will avail yourself of all of the sun’s health benefits with none of the risk.

If you do use a sunscreen, please be careful about which product you choose as many sunscreen products contain chemicals you don’t want absorbed into your body. According to the Environmental Working Group’s 2012 Sunscreen Guide,21 about 75 percent of sunscreens contain potentially harmful ingredients, such as oxybenzone and retinyl palmitate. Avoid products with SPFs higher than 50, and make sure yours offers protection against both UVA and UVB rays.

Keep in mind SPF only protects against UVBs—but it’s the UVAs that increase your risk for skin cancer and are responsible for photoaging your skin. Recall that it’s the UVBs that stimulate your vitamin D production, so you don’t want to block out too many of them.

Using an “internal sunscreen” is an alternative to topical sunblock agents. Astaxanthin—a potent antioxidant—has been found to offer effective protection against sun damage when taken as a daily supplement. It can also be used topically and a number of topical sunscreen products contain it. Some sunscreens are also starting to use astaxanthin as an ingredient to protect your skin from damage. As an alternative, you can cover up with lightweight clothing to protect yourself. Sometimes we forget about the simple things, like simply wearing a hat.