Category: Newsletters

A new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) found that the measure of brain inflammation in people who were experiencing clinical depression was increased by 30 per cent. The findings have important implications for developing new treatments for depression.

“This finding provides the most compelling evidence to date of brain inflammation during a major depressive episode,” says senior author of CAMH’s Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute. “Previous studies have looked at markers of inflammation in blood, but this is the first definitive evidence found in the brain.”

Specifically, the research team was able to measure the activation of immune cells, known as microglia, that play a key role in the brain’s inflammatory response.

To investigate whether brain inflammation was increased in people during clinical depression, The research team conducted brain scans on 20 patients with depression but who were otherwise healthy and 20 healthy control participants using a brain imaging technique called positron emission tomography (PET). Results showed a significant elevation of brain inflammation in participants with depression. Rates of inflammation were also highest among those with the most severe depression.

A growing body of evidence suggests the role of inflammation in generating the symptoms of a major depressive episode such as low mood, loss of appetite, and inability to sleep. But what was previously unclear was whether inflammation played a role in clinical depression independent of any other physical illness.

“This discovery has important implications for developing new treatments for a significant group of people who suffer from depression,” “It provides a potential new target to either reverse the brain inflammation or shift to a more positive repair role, with the idea that it would alleviate symptoms.”

The drive to uncover new ways to target and treat depression is fueled by the reality that more than half of people with major depression do not respond to antidepressant treatments and four per cent of the general population is the midst of a clinical episode. Current treatments do not target inflammation, and treating depression with anti-inflammatories is one avenue for future research.

-JAMA Psychiatry

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on Brain inflammation and depression:

As we have told patients for the last 30 years at Total Health Institute- Inflammation is the root of all disease and this includes mental and emotional disease according to this new study.

So if inflammation is the culprit in disease then what causes the inflammation? To answer that question you have to address the systems of the body. Health is only achieved when all the systems are in balance working in harmony. If one system malfunctions with lower function another system will compensate with an excessive function and this can be termed “inflammation”. What are the systems what we analyze with each patient we see at Total Health Institute?

1. Nervous system
2. Immune system
3. Hormonal system
4. Cardiovascular system
5. Lymphatic system
6. Digestive system
7. Detoxification system

Your body is this symphony of motion and action that continually flows life and health to your cells. If one system drops the ball because of an excessive stress placed upon it (your nervous system gets stressed from a poor diet that includes chemical additives, preservatives and excitotoxins then it malfunctions from a hyper response to a hypo or lower response. This can then trigger the immune system to counter with an increase of circulating inflammation producing white blood cells. This then leads to higher levels of inflammation throughout the blood and body. If this stays longer then necessary the end result is chronic inflammation in the blood, brain and body which can lead to any disease physically or mentally and emotionally.

What is the answer to get rid of inflammation?

Well it is NOT to take anti-inflammatory medication because that only works short term for acute situations and if taken long term will damage multiple organ systems including your liver.

The answer is found in balancing these 7 systems naturally. We do this at Total Health Institute with specific treatments and teaching a diet and lifestyle that heal the root of all inflammation. A first step that everyone should start today is to implement the  Seven Basic Steps to Total Healthinto your lifestyle. If you have more significant issues give us a call and we will help guide you to the best next step.

Stop thinking “I should take this for this and take that for that”. Instead get healthy in all your systems and the body will do what God designed it to do. It will heal.

 

People are more successful in taking up healthy habits if their partner makes positive changes too, according to research published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Scientists at UCL funded by Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, and the National Institute on Aging looked at how likely people were to quit smoking, start being active, or lose weight in relation to what their partner did.

They found that people were more successful in swapping bad habits for good ones if their partner made a change as well.

For example, among women who smoked, 50 per cent managed to quit if their spouse gave up smoking too at the same time, compared with 17 per cent of women whose spouses were already non-smokers, and 8 per cent of those whose spouses were regular smokers.

The study found that men were equally affected by their spouses and were more likely to quit smoking, get active, or lose weight if their spouses made the same behavior change.

The research looked at 3,722 couples over the age of 50.

One of the study authors, said: “Unhealthy lifestyles are a leading cause of death from chronic disease worldwide. The key lifestyle risks are smoking, excess weight, physical inactivity, poor diet, and alcohol consumption. Swapping bad habits for good ones can reduce the risk of disease, including cancer.

Lead author of the study at UCL, said: “Now is the time to make New Year’s resolutions to quit smoking, take exercise, or lose weight. And doing it with your partner increases your chances of success.”

Cancer Research UK’s head of health information, said: “Making lifestyle changes can make a big difference to our health and cancer risk. And this study shows that when couples make those changes together they are more likely to succeed.

“Getting some support can help people take up good habits. For example if you want to lose weight and have a friend or colleague who’s trying to do the same thing you could encourage each other by joining up for a run or a swim at lunchtime or after work. And local support such as stop smoking services are very effective at helping people to quit.

“Keeping healthy by not smoking, maintaining a healthy body weight and being active can all lower the risk of cancer, and the more people can help and encourage each other the better.”

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s  comment on “Two are Always Better than One when Restoring Health”:

What is the answer when it comes to changing a habit?  Jesus gave us the answer 2000 years ago.

For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

…every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’  Matt 18 NIV

What this research showed was that husbands and wifes will change habits of stopping smoking, starting exercise and losing weight when they do it TOGETHER!

The study showed women successfully changing a habit 50% of the time if there husband also changed with them. It dropped to 17% if their husband already had changed this habit before on his own. There was only an 8% chance of the habit changing if the women tried to change the habit that the husband was still engaging in.

What is the take home message?  Everyone has negative or health destroying habits that need to be broken and to break them you are going to need support, so what are your options for that support?

1. Your spouse is the best and first choice because he or she is supposed to be your other half. What this means is they would be willing to lay down their life for you and the real test comes when it feels like dying to break an old nature, flesh habit that is no only stealing your physical health but also blocking your spiritual growth.
2. A very close relative or friend that wants to also break the same negative habit. A word of caution do not start this with anyone who is not 100% committed to break this bondage no matter what the cost and what pain and suffering has to be endured. It does you no good and some harm to set a goal to lose 25 lbs. with your good friend and find that in two weeks she/he decides it’s just too hard and they quit.
3. A social group or community group that specializes in breaking this habit. These are not as good but at least there is some accountability.

A final word of encouragement to all of you who either have a spouse that does not want to change or have no one else to turn to. In the 30 years we have been treating patients at Total Health Institute we put patients on treatment programs to give them the best chance of healing their health challenges. When we do this we can see how much the spouse really loves their other half. Over the years we have seen the most Christ-filled spouses say “no matter what it costs I want her/him to overcome this and I also want to do the program with her/him and eat the same diet she/he does so we can do it together.”  What was unique about these spouses of our patients is that they truly laid down their life in every way for their other half so that the two would remain one.

With that said always remember and never forget who your first love is?

We have had patients heal with no support from their spouse or anyone else in their life but they did it together with their covenant partner Christ Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit within them. So if you have no one one your side do not concern yourself because you always have three others who will always be there for you and support you in anything that THEY put into your heart: The Father, Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit- Your FAMILY!

 

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that exposure to cold temperatures increases levels of a newly discovered protein that is critical for the formation of brown fat, the type of fat in our bodies that generates heat. With extended exposure to cold air, the protein, called transcription factor Zfp516, also helps the more abundant white fat in our bodies — the kind that stores excess energy — become more similar to brown fat in its ability to burn energy.

The researchers found that mice with boosted levels of the Zfp516 protein gained 30 percent less weight than control mice when both groups were fed a high-fat diet.

Unlike white fat, which stores excess energy, brown fat burns energy to keep us warm. Brown fat gets its hue from relatively high levels of mitochondria, the cell’s power station. In humans, brown fat was thought to be present only in infants, but stores of it were recently discovered in adults around such vital areas as the heart, brain, neck and spinal cord.

The study authors said that because we generally live our lives in controlled, ambient temperatures, our need for brown fat has decreased over time. It has been noted that outdoor workers in northern Finland who are exposed to cold temperature have a significant amount of brown fat when compared to same-aged indoor workers, but overall, the percentage of brown fat in adults is small compared to white fat. Obese people have lower levels of brown fat.

Brown fat is active, using up calories to keep the body warm. It’ll burn fat, it’ll burn glucose. So the idea is that if we can harness this, we can try to use this in therapy for weight loss and for diabetes.

-Molecular Cell

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Want to Lose Fat- Get Cold”:

The simple things are usually the best. In this study they found that if they exposed mice to cold air it stimulated a transformation of white fat which is stored calories that is very inflammatory into health promoting brown fat which is burned for heat similarly to putting logs in the fireplace to warm the house.

So what is the answer? If you live in a colder climate do not dread the winter and cold temperatures but instead get outside and exercise in them. This can be as little as a 30 minute walk to full out cross country skiing. It is important to understand you are constantly giving your cells messages and they listen to those messages and act accordingly. If the cells get the message of cold then they transform inflammatory white fat (which is nothing more than stored calories that one could do without) into health promoting brown fat which not only produces heat in the body but also kicks the body into a fat burning mode. In this study even when they fed the mice a high calorie diet, when they were exposed to the cold they did not gain weight.

So the take home message is this:

1. Keep it simple in life– live the simple Seven Basic Steps to Total Health.
2. See good in everything– What the world system and worldly people mean for evil God means for good. Remember Joseph’s brothers did him wrong by selling him into slavery but in the end Joseph became the second most powerful man in the world. What was the key in his journey? Two things- first he had to trust God and keep his eyes fixed on the vision that God had given him. Second he had to have a heart of forgiveness. If Joseph would have failed on either of these we would not have fulfilled his God appointed destiny.
3. See stresses in your life as weights to grow you stronger in body, mind and spirit. Cold will strengthen your body and make it healthier. Cold can also balance your attitude which can allow the Spirit of God to flow through you more powerfully. Whether you eat or drink (or go out for a walk in -20F weather) or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God and watch yourself grow healthy and strong in body, mind and spirit.

So in the winter, in the bitter cold remember when you go out into it you are burning fat, getting rid of inflammation and becoming healthier for it.

Researchers found that greater social support and more frequent hugs protected people from the increased susceptibility to infection associated with being stressed and resulted in less severe illness symptoms.

Instead of an apple, could a hug-a-day keep the doctor away? According to new research that may not be that far-fetched of an idea.

The researchers at Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences tested whether hugs act as a form of social support, protecting stressed people from getting sick. They found that greater social support and more frequent hugs protected people from the increased susceptibility to infection associated with being stressed and resulted in less severe illness symptoms.

The researchers chose to study hugging as an example of social support because hugs are typically a marker of having a more intimate and close relationship with another person.

“We know that people experiencing ongoing conflicts with others are less able to fight off cold viruses. We also know that people who report having social support are partly protected from the effects of stress on psychological states, such as depression and anxiety. We tested whether perceptions of social support are equally effective in protecting us from stress-induced susceptibility to infection and also whether receiving hugs might partially account for those feelings of support and themselves protect a person against infection.”

In 404 healthy adults, perceived support was assessed by a questionnaire, and frequencies of interpersonal conflicts and receiving hugs were derived from telephone interviews conducted on 14 consecutive evenings. Then, the participants were intentionally exposed to a common cold virus and monitored in quarantine to assess infection and signs of illness.

The results showed that perceived social support reduced the risk of infection associated with experiencing conflicts. Hugs were responsible for one-third of the protective effect of social support. Among infected participants, greater perceived social support and more frequent hugs both resulted in less severe illness symptoms whether or not they experienced conflicts.

“This suggests that being hugged by a trusted person may act as an effective means of conveying support and that increasing the frequency of hugs might be an effective means of reducing the deleterious effects of stress. The apparent protective effect of hugs may be attributable to the physical contact itself or to hugging being a behavioral indicator of support and intimacy. Either way, those who receive more hugs are somewhat more protected from infection, said the lead researcher.”

– Psychological Science

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Hugs help protect against stress and infection”:

A hug is the new apple making the new phrase, “a hug a day keeps the doctor away”.

Does body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body? According to this study the mind rules the body so what do you want to make sure you have covered when you are looking to be your healthiest? Of course your mind, your will and your emotions: these rule supreme over the physical body.

So what do you think is going to hurt your physical health more? Going to bed late or fighting with your spouse or boyfriend/girl friend? Not drinking enough water or not giving and receiving unconditional love? Not eating the right food or not saying the right words to the one you love?

Do not get us wrong, proper sleep, hydration and diet are crucial for your health and they are a part of our core teaching on how to be in total health. They are three of the Seven Basic Steps to Total Health.

But remember this very, very important truth: the physical is onefold positive or negative in your health and healing whereas the mental/emotional is tenfold positive or negative in your total health and healing. So this means if you do all the right physical steps but you are staying in your mind instead of living from your heart, if you are letting fear and doubt rule you instead of Love, Grace and Truth then you surely will open the door to disease in your body.

Let us change the phrase from “Just Do It” to “Just Live It from your heart and not your mind”. Do this and you will experience the blessing of higher levels of health and healing and don’t forget to hug the ones you love today and tell them how much you love them and how much a blessing they are to you and that you thank God everyday that they are in your life.

Adolescents who attend religious services with one or both of their parents are more likely to feel greater well-being while married couples who pray for their spouses experience greater relationship commitment, according to research.

These were among the findings of studies published in the Journal of Family Psychology looking at how spiritual beliefs or behaviors have appeared to strengthen generally happy marriages and how a person’s religious and/or spiritual functioning may influence that of his or her family members.

These studies exemplify an emerging subfield called relational spirituality, which focuses on the ways that diverse couples and families can rely on specific spiritual beliefs and behaviors, for better or worse, to motivate them to create, maintain and transform their intimate relationships.

Each of the studies moves beyond general measures of people’s involvement in organized religion or spirituality and investigates specific spiritual beliefs or behaviors that appear to influence marital adjustment and human development. All the studies present rigorous research into the roles that religion and spirituality can play in enhancing family well-being.

The studies:

• Looking at three generations, the researchers found that mothers have the most consistently positive influence on the religious lives of their children “because they are socialized to transmit critical values, beliefs and practices across generations, and because they embrace norms of femininity that reinforce such roles.” Additionally, grandparents — especially grandmothers — play a significant role in the religious socialization of grandchildren in families, according to this research.

 

• Low-income women who were primary caregivers of children between 8 and 12 and lived in disorderly neighborhoods experienced lower levels of parenting stress if they exhibited religious well-being, according to this study.

 

• Attending religious services with a parent or parents in late childhood is associated with greater psychological well-being as children age, according to this study, which looked at data on 5,739 youths over 15 years. “Even though attending services with parents may not reflect youth’s own religious beliefs (as they may not have a choice in attending), it may help to increase adolescents’ feelings of connectedness to both their parents and the larger religious community.

 

• Adolescents with access to religious resources are less likely to engage in substance abuse when coping with harsh parenting and poor self-control, these researchers found. “Religiousness may have the potential to negate the impact of high stress levels associated with experiencing harsh parenting and improve adolescent health and well-being within families who were not involved in clinical or social services for adolescent substance abuse or parental maltreatment.

 

• Youths who had stronger relationships with God were less likely to suffer from internalizing adjustment problems, but only if their mothers used more religious coping, according to the researchers.

 

• “Partner-focused petitionary prayer” (PFPP), in which one partner prays for the well-being of his or her romantic partner, increases the level of commitment to the relationship experienced by the praying partner. “In practical contexts, it suggests that PFPP is useful to relationships by increasing one’s own relationship quality and so can provide a helpful adjunct to other relationship enhancement activities.

 

• The more spiritual intimacy couples say they share, the better they handle their top three topics of conflict, according to this study. Additionally, couples who viewed their marriage as sacred had more positive marital interactions. Couples’ ratings of their spiritual intimacy were based on how often they revealed their spiritual beliefs, questions and doubts to each other, and listened supportively to each other’s spiritual disclosures. It didn’t matter whether the spouses were blue-collar employees with high school educations or wealthy professionals with advanced college degrees — the results were the same.

 

• Among older couples (average age 71), the perceived sanctity of their long-term unions predicted both husbands’ and wives’ marital satisfaction, according to this study. When wives reported that they viewed their marriage as suffused with sacred qualities, this tended to predict that both spouses would say they were more satisfied. The authors theorize that compassionate love may provide the motivation for couples to genuinely care for each other while minimizing the emotional costs traditionally associated with providing high levels of caregiving later in life.

 

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Religion/spirituality has positive impact on marital relationships and child development”:

What is the most vital component of this research on spiritual influences on children and marriages?

Women and mothers. It is shown that mothers influence the spiritual growth of children and this roots them in being the calm in the midst of the storm. Why mothers and not fathers? Are not fathers the head of the household? The answer is yes and no. The father is called by God to be the head of the household but not just because they are in the position of the father but because they are supposed to be the most spiritually mature in the family.

So why are these studies showing that women have the most influence in the spiritual lives of their children? Because it is obvious. Women are spending more time seeking God for their children and are hearing the Spirit speak to their heart on issues about their children. Also interesting to note in the one study quote: Youths who had stronger relationships with God were less likely to suffer from internalizing adjustment problems, but only if their mothers used more religious coping, according to the researchers.

What this is saying is that youths had a stronger relationship with God only if they saw their mother’s faith in trusting in God in all situations. The youths only believe what their mothers told them about God because their mothers were a witness of their faith. When the tests and trials of life hit, their mothers did not fall back but they pressed forward trusting that all the promises of God are YES and AMEN.

As is says in the book of James: faith without action steps is dead. What these youths were seeing from their mothers is them walking the walk not just talking the walk. When financial crisis came these mothers got down and their knees and thanked and praised God for all the provision that He has supplied through Christ. The children saw their mother’s stand on the Word and that Word manifest in their lives: ….my God will meet all our needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. And do not worry, about food or money but instead seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to us as well.

This is why mothers impact their children’s spiritual growth, it is not to say that fathers don’t because they do but sometimes in a busy world fathers get caught up with the task of being the provider and sometimes gets caught up with all the energy of “the job or business” when mothers focus more energy into the family and the children.

So what should these studies say? Both fathers and mothers equally impact their childrens spiritual lives because both fathers and mothers are equal testimonies of faith to their children.

Fathers all you have to do is get up real early in the morning to prayer and read the Word and in prayer dedicate your job or business to God, meaning it is not about you but about HIM. If it is a job then you are working for Jesus not for your boss so your work is an excellent form of worship not just trying to make a living. If it is your business then you dedicate it to God meaning it is HIS business not yours so you are working for and through HIM not for yourself.

Fathers if you start your day this way and continually dedicate your work, your life, and your family to HIM, then your name will also be mentioned in future studies right along with mothers as impacting their childrens spiritual growth and development.

Activated through permanent stress, immune cells will have a damaging effect on and cause changes to the brain. This may result in mental disorders. The effects of permanent stress on the immune system are studied by the research group at the LWL university clinic at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB).

Stress activates the immune system

The team focused mainly on a certain type of phagocytes, namely microglia. Under normal circumstances, they repair synapses between nerves cells in the brain and stimulate their growth. Once activated, however, microglia may damage nerve cells and trigger inflammation processes. The studies carried out in Bochum have shown that the more frequently microglia get triggered due to stress, the more they are inclined to remain in the destructive mode — a risk factor for mental diseases.

Susceptibility for stress effects varies from individual to individual

Not every individual who is under permanent stress will develop a mental disorder. US researchers demonstrated as far back as the 1950s that children born of mothers who contracted true viral influenza during pregnancy were seven times as likely to suffer schizophrenia later in life.

The researchers from Bochum confirmed this hypothesis in animal models. Now, they a striving to research into the mechanism that makes people susceptible to this disease.

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Are Mental Disorders Caused By Permanent Stress?”:

What does stress do? It causes the secretion of a hormone called cortisol. This hormone has many beneficial functions which include:

• Mobilizes and increases amino acids, the building blocks of protein, in the blood and liver.
• Mobilizes and increases fatty acids in the blood (from fat cells) to be used as fuel for energy production.
• Counteracts inflammation and allergies.
• Maintains resistance to stress (e.g., infections, physical trauma, temperature extremes, emotional trauma, etc.).
• Maintains mood and emotional stability.

But when Cortisol becomes in Excess or Decreased it:

• Increases blood sugar levels.
• Decreases protein synthesis.
• Increases protein breakdown that can lead to muscle wasting.
• Causes demineralization of bone that can lead to osteoporosis.
• Diminishes immune cell numbers and functions

This immune system suppression may lead to increased susceptibility to allergies, infections, and degenerative disease and CANCER.

Also long-term exposure to cortisol damages cells in the hippocampus in the brain; this damage results in impaired learning. Furthermore, it has been shown that cortisol inhibits memory retrieval of already stored information.

So you can see that stress is bad for the mind, emotions, brain and body. So what are you supposed to do move to an island away from everyone and everything that could stress you? No remember you are in this world but not of this world. This world is your training ground not your home so you are never to get too comfortable on planet earth because you are not truly a citizen of this world but of Heaven being sons and daughters of God.

So what is the best way to destress and heal or save your brain, mind and body? Live fully in the moment with no needs because your Father in Heaven meets all your needs if you by faith, live a life trusting Him 100% that what He said is true and what He speaks to your heart will eventually manifest if you keep watering the seed of Truth that was planted in your heart.

Phil 4:19

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.NIV

Do not every let this world steal your JOY. Do not let the physical and mental block the spiritual gifts that are yours IN HIM.  Many of our patients have been set free of their fears and doubts with our teaching on knowing who you are in Christ. The audio series is called “sally & george- Going Deeper”

As cities and incomes increase around the world, so does consumption of refined sugars, refined fats, oils and resource- and land-intense agricultural products such as beef. A new study led by University of Minnesota shows how a shift away from this trajectory and toward healthier traditional Mediterranean, pescatarian or vegetarian diets could not only boost human lifespan and quality of life, but also slash greenhouse gas emissions and save habitat for endangered species.

The study synthesized data on environmental costs of food production, diet trends, relationships between diet and health, and population growth. Their integrated analysis painted a striking picture of the human and environmental health costs of our current diet trajectory as well as how strategically modifying food choices could reduce not only incidence of type II diabetes, coronary heart disease and other chronic diseases, but global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and habitat degradation as well.

“We showed that the same dietary changes that can add about a decade to our lives can also prevent massive environmental damage,” said the professor in the University’s College of Biological Sciences. “In particular, if the world were to adopt variations on three common diets, health would be greatly increased at the same time global greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by an amount equal to the current greenhouse gas emissions of al all cars, trucks, plans trains and ships.

In addition, this dietary shift would prevent the destruction of an area of tropical forests and savannas as large as half of the United States.”

The researchers found that, as incomes increased between 1961 and 2009, people consumed more meat protein, empty calories and total calories per person. When these trends were combined with forecasts of population growth and income growth for the coming decades, the study predicted that diets in 2050 would contain fewer servings of fruits and vegetables, but about 60 percent more empty calories and 25 to 50 percent more pork, poultry, beef, dairy and eggs — a suite of changes that would increase of type II diabetes, coronary heart disease and some cancers. Using life-cycle analyses of various food production systems, the study also calculated that, if current trends prevail, these 2050 diets would also lead to an 80 percent increase in global greenhouse gas emissions from food production as well as habitat destruction due to land clearing for agriculture around the world.

The study then compared health impacts of the global omnivorous diet with those reported for traditional Mediterranean, pescatarian and vegetarian diets. Adopting these alternative diets could reduce incidence of type II diabetes by about 25 percent, cancer by about 10 percent and death from heart disease by about 20 percent relative to the omnivore diet.

Additionally, the adoption of these or similar alternative diets would prevent most or all of the increased greenhouse gas emissions and habitat destruction that would otherwise be caused by both dietary changes and increased global population.

–Nature

 

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “A Diet Change- You Get Healthy and the Planet Gets Saved”:

This study says so much about your health and the planet you inhabit. To make a long story short, if you eat a plant based diet you not only get very healthy, preventing most all disease, you also prevent the destruction of the atmosphere by preventing greenhouse gas emissions from the raising of animals used for food. You also prevent the destruction of forests which are cut down to make space to raise cattle. What was not mentioned in this research was another precious resource that is depleted when you cut down forests to raise cattle, the resource is water.

To date, probably the most reliable and widely-accepted water estimate to produce a pound of beef is the figure of 2,500 gallons/pound. Newsweek once put it another way: “the water that goes into a 1,000 pound steer would float a destroyer.” In this country we are having more and more water shortages so we need to look to our future and the future generations and make the right food choices that not only will make the world a healthier place but also help each one of it inhabitants live a long and disease free life. This can be achieved if globally we would adopt a plant based diet.

In this study the researchers said to switch to any of the three diets:

1. Vegetarian- no animal product diet
2. Mediterranean- plant based with fish
3. Pescatarian- plant based and fish

Where we would differ from the researchers is in their results of health improvement.

“Adopting these alternative diets could reduce incidence of type II diabetes by about 25 percent, cancer by about 10 percent and death from heart disease by about 20 percent relative to the omnivore diet.”

The diet they did not mention is a living/raw vegan diet which only consumes plant products that have not been cooked. This maintains the enzymes and biophotons, the two most vital components of food.

When a living/raw vegan diet is adopted not only do you save the planet but you also save yourself from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disease and most other diseases.

An important fact to remember: All animal products including dairy, eggs and fish are high in a signaling molecule called insulin like growth factor 1 or IGF-1. IGF-1 is a growth factor which will cause cancer cells to grow. How do you decrease IGF-1? Cut out all sugars, starches and cut out all extra protein. What is left? Vegetables, fruit (low glycemic index only), seeds, nuts, avocados, olives, olive oil and coconut oil.

By eating a diet with fish you are still increasing IGF-1 which increases cancer risk and rate. The answer is simple. It was stated in the beginning in the book of Genesis:

Gen 1:29-31

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground — everything that has the breath of life in it — I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. NIV

A team of Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland (CHORI) researchers has found that a category of lipids known as sphingolipids may be an important link in the relationship between diet, inflammation and cancer. Researchers provide evidence that a sphingolipid metabolite called sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) found in both animal food products can contribute to inflammation of the colon, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and inflammation-associated colon cancer, whereas plant-type sphingolipids called sphingadienes may protect against these conditions.

A connection between inflammation and cancer has been recognized for over a hundred years. This connection is particularly evident in colon carcinogenesis, because patients with IBD have a higher incidence of colon cancer than the general population. There is increasing evidence that inflammation contributes to the earliest stages of carcinogenesis, namely in the process of cell transformation, where the cell acquires many aspects of cancer characteristics. The observation that IBD and colon cancer incidence rise as nations industrialize suggests that changes in diet and nutrition contribute to colitis and colitis-associated colon cancer.

Bioactive sphingolipids play fundamental roles in carcinogenesis via their ability to regulate programmed cell death pathways, stress responses, immunity, and inflammation. The impact of sphingolipid metabolism is particularly important in colon cancer, as gut epithelial cells are exposed to sphingolipid metabolites generated by the breakdown of dietary sphingolipids. S1P, the final breakdown product of animal sphingolipids, is a pro-inflammatory signaling lipid that promotes cell growth and carcinogenesis. During malignant transformation and colon cancer progression, genetic changes occur in the gut tissues, including an increase in the enzyme that generates S1P and a decrease in S1P lyase (SPL), the enzyme that catalyzes S1P degradation. These changes lead to accumulation of S1P in the gut mucosa.

In contrast to the cancer-promoting effects of S1P, the researchers showed that plant-type sphingolipids called sphingadienes cannot be metabolized to S1P and instead enhance the metabolism of S1P by increasing SPL levels in gut tissues. Further, sphingadiene treatment reduced inflammation, signs of IBD, and the incidence of tumors. Finally, the researchers showed an increase in S1P-related gene expression in the colons of patients with IBD compared to controls.

The research suggests that while animal sphingolipids may promote inflammation and carcinogenesis, plant sphingolipids cannot be converted into S1P, are anti-inflammatory and reduce the activity of several cancer signaling pathways. The data suggests that dietary sphingolipids may enhance or inhibit carcinogenesis, depending on their ability to be metabolized to S1P. The findings reveal a mechanistic link between diet, inflammation and cancer.

–Journal of Clinical Investigation

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Plant vs Animal Based Diet- Inflammation and Cancer Risk”:

To put it simply, this study once again demonstrated that a diet high in plant fats decreases inflammation and cancer risk whereas a diet high in animal fats from all animal products including meat, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, butter and cheese increases inflammation and cancer risk.

Also an interesting note in the research was the comment of how as countries industrialize their risk of cancer increases. Do you know why?  Because they starting eating more animal products. Most third world countries are too poor to afford to eat meat so they eat a economically induced plant based diet. But this is when they are their healthiest. When disease was tracked in China amongst all the provinces, it was shown that the poorest provinces that ate only vegetables and rice lived the longest and had the least incidence of cancer and heart disease but the provinces that had the greatest economic wealth had the greatest incidence of cancer and heart disease and greatest risk for mortality. So what is the difference between poor and not poor? Poor eat what they grow. Not poor buy more food and definitely add animal products to their diet.

So what is the message we are trying to get across to you?

Animal products are inflammatory and increase risk of all disease including cancer. Plant products reduce inflammation and decrease the risk of all disease including cancer.

So what should you eat?

1. All vegetables especially green leafy vegetables
2. Sea vegetable like dulse and kelp
3. Sprouts- broccoli, fenugreek, clover, sunflower, wheatgrass (juice), mung.
4. Seeds- flax, hemp, sunflower, sesame, pumpkin
5. Nuts- almonds, Brazil, walnuts, macadamia, cashews
6. Avocados- this is one of the best all around foods
7. Fruits- lemons, limes and avocados (yes they are an oily fruit). You must keep the sugar content very low.

If you are a standard American and are having a difficult time giving up animal products then start by eating progressively less each week and when you do eat animal products eat very small portions with very large portions of vegetables. Remember not to cook the plants or you kill them and they become empty calories. The closer you eat as they did in the Garden the healthier you become.

Food is just one part of the 7 BASICS.

Exposure to moderate amounts of sunshine may slow the development of obesity and diabetes, a study suggests.The researchers showed that shining UV light at overfed mice slowed their weight gain. The mice displayed fewer of the warning signs linked to diabetes, such as abnormal glucose levels and resistance to insulin.

The beneficial effects of UV treatment were linked to a compound called nitric oxide, which is released by the skin after exposure to sunlight. Vitamin D — which is produced by the body in response to sunlight and often lauded for its health benefits — did not play a role, the study found.

The team says the new findings add to the growing body of evidence that supports the health benefits of moderate exposure to the sun’s rays.

Previous studies in people have shown that nitric oxide can lower blood pressure after exposure to UV lamps.

“Our findings are important as they suggest that casual skin exposure to sunlight, together with plenty of exercise and a healthy diet, may help prevent the development of obesity. These observations further indicate that the amounts of nitric oxide released from the skin may have beneficial effects not only on heart and blood vessels but also on the way our body regulates metabolism,” according to the Professor of Experimental Medicine and Integrative Biology at the University of Southampton. Senior Lecturer in Dermatology at the University of Edinburgh, said: “We know from epidemiology studies that sun-seekers live longer than those who spend their lives in the shade. Studies such as this one are helping us to understand how the sun can be good for us. We need to remember that skin cancer is not the only disease that can kill us and should perhaps balance our advice on sun exposure.”

– Diabetes.

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Sunlight Slows Weight Gain, and Balances Blood Sugar”:

This interesting study showed how sunlight has yet another powerful benefit beyond vitamin D production. This additional health aid is the production of a substance called nitric oxide.

What Is nitric oxide? Nitric oxide is a molecule that our body produces to help its 70 trillion cells communicate with each other by transmitting signals throughout the entire body. There have been over 60,000 studies done on nitric oxide in the last 20 years and in 1998, The Nobel Prize for Medicine was given to three scientists that discovered the signaling role of nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide has many health benefits which include:

• Decreases weight gain
• Balances blood sugar
• Heart healthy
• Lowers blood pressure
• Balances metabolism so it aids in thyroid function
• Helps the immune system with pathogens especially against tumors
• Decreases inflammation
• Improves sleep
• Improves digestion
• Increases strength

Important to under stand that you do not buy a nitric oxide supplement but instead must make it naturally!

Nitric oxide and the heart and blood vessels Nitric oxide has gotten the most attention due to its cardiovascular benefits. Nitroglycerin acts by releasing nitric oxide which relaxes narrowed blood vessels, increasing oxygen and blood flow.

How to increase nitric oxide in your body The most common way to increase nitric oxide is through exercise. As you age, your blood vessels and nitric oxide system become less efficient due to free radical damage, lack of sun exposure, lack of exercise, and poor diet, causing our veins and arteries to deteriorate. Think of a fire hose as water rushes through it to put out a fire – it needs to expand enough to handle the pressure, still keeping enough force to put out the fire. Athletes and youth have the most optimal nitric oxide systems, reflecting their energy and resilience.

The next way to increase nitric oxide is through sunlight exposure as this study showed. You do not have to tan but just get 30 minutes exposure a day.

A third way to increase nitric oxide is through diet, most notably by consuming the amino acids L-arginine. Arginine, which can be found in nuts, sesame seeds, spinach, spirulina/chlorella, directly creates nitric oxide inside the cell

The moral of the story is this: God designed your body to be healthy when you do BASICS

This includes proper diet which is what Adam and Eve ate or even more appropriately, a permanent Daniel fast from the world system food that is feeding our flesh and destroying our mind and body.

Next comes proper exercise which is high intensity and short duration. Do exercises that are one minute in duration with two minutes rest inbetween. To this add some weight training and stretching exercises.

Don’t forget the sunlight, it not only makes vitamin D but also very important for overall health is the production of nitric oxide.

At Total Health Institute we have been helping people get their health back in body, mind and spirit for the last 30 years. We have always done it the natural God designed way. You can start with some natural steps to take. We call them the 7 BASIC Steps to Total Health

 

Physical exercise has many beneficial effects on human health, including the protection from stress-induced depression. In a new study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden show that exercise training induces changes in skeletal muscle that can purge the blood of a substance that accumulates during stress, and is harmful to the brain.

The study provides an explanation for the protective biochemical changes induced by physical exercise that prevent the brain from being damaged during stress.

It was known that the protein PGC-1a1 increases in skeletal muscle with exercise, and mediates the beneficial muscle conditioning in connection with physical activity. In this study researchers used a genetically modified mouse with high levels of PGC-1a1 in skeletal muscle that shows many characteristics of well-trained muscles (even without exercising).These mice, and normal control mice, were exposed to a stressful environment, such as loud noises, flashing lights and reversed circadian rhythm at irregular intervals. After five weeks of mild stress, normal mice had developed depressive behavior, whereas the genetically modified mice (with well-trained muscle characteristics) had no depressive symptoms.

The research hypothesis was that trained muscle would produce a substance with beneficial effects on the brain. They actually found the opposite: well-trained muscle produces an enzyme that purges the body of harmful substances. So in this context the muscle’s function is reminiscent of that of the kidney or the liver,” says the lead researcher.

The researchers discovered that mice with higher levels of PGC-1a1 in muscle also had higher levels of enzymes called KAT. KATs convert a substance formed during stress (kynurenine) into kynurenic acid, a substance that is not able to pass from the blood to the brain. The exact function of kynurenine is not known, but high levels of kynurenine can be measured in patients with mental illness. In this study, the researchers demonstrated that when normal mice were given kynurenine, they displayed depressive behavior, while mice with increased levels of PGC-1a1 in muscle were not affected. In fact, these animals never show elevated kynurenine levels in their blood since the KAT enzymes in their well-trained muscles quickly convert it to kynurenic acid, resulting in a protective mechanism.

Skeletal muscle appears to have a detoxification effect that, when activated, can protect the brain from insults and related mental illness. Depression is a common psychiatric disorder worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 350 million people are affected.

-Cell

 

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Physical exercise protects the brain from stress-induced depression”:

What an interesting study. Exercise acts like a detoxification organ similar to the liver or the kidneys in getting rid of waste products that would circulate to the brain and cause depression.

 

The mechanism is through an enzyme that is produced by the muscle when it is activated and that enzyme (KAT) converts brain toxic kynurenine to kynurenic acid which cannot pass the blood brain barrier thus the brain is protected. Also it was very interesting that there are high levels of kynurenine in mental patients.

What is the bottom line?

When you exercise the way you were designed by God to exercise,

When you eat what you were designed by God to eat,

When you drink the amount of water you were designed by God to drink,

When you go to sleep at the time you were designed by God to sleep and

When you live a life of prayer (listening to God speak to your heart) and

Fasting (a permanent Daniel fast of living/raw plant food)

Then the diseases that plague the world would by no more!

Rather than reaching for a medication or even a vitamin pill, why not try getting back to the BASICS you were created to do?

As we have told patients at Total Health Institute over the last 30 years. If you feel stressed then your body secretes stress hormones that have two major negative results:

1. Stress hormones decrease your immune system function- they suppress your body’s ability to fight bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi and cancer.
2. Stress hormones break down your intestinal lining and cause “Leaky Gut Syndrome” which leads to inflammation throughout the body and also leads to malabsorption of nutrients so you become deficient even if you are overweight.

Remember if see a tiger coming towards you your body will secrete stress hormones that can cause damage to your body if they are secreted much longer than 15 minutes. So what do you do? You run! Or to put it another way you exercise to burn up these stress chemicals that you secrete from daily mental and emotional stresses.

You can swim, run, bike, do weight training or go up and down your stairs but you must exercise when you are feeling stressed because this will  protect your body and your brain.

To Your Total Health Always,

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec

I was blessed to be one of the 100 doctors in the world to be invited to this special event research conference held a Harvard Medical School. The speakers were the top in the world in their specific field of research. Some of the topics included:

• Approaches to Treating Diseases of Aging
• Aging reversal: fact or fantasy?
• Abnormal fat ratio causing Vascular Disease
• Systemic Cancer Treatment; Time for a Paradigm Change
• Gluten and Clinical Outcomes: How to Connect the Dots for a Healthy Lifestyle
• Functional Reduction of Inflammation in Neurodegenerative Disorders

Today I am going to talk about what the lead researcher in anti-aging research discussed at the Harvard Conference.

He was stated that there are three way that restricting calories increases lifespan. The were by:

1. Decreasing insulin,
2. Decreasing glucose and by
3. Decreasing a molecule called NAD.

What I want to focus on today are the two pathways YOU can work on yourself today. These are the insulin and glucose pathways. These are related to carbohydrate or sugar intake. As I shared last week the lead researcher said fat is the most important of the three macronutrients of carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

So if you want to increase your health, increase your chances of living longer and healthier then you need to cut sugar and general carbohydrates out of your diet. This includes bread, pasta, rice and all carbohydrates that have a glycemic (sugar) index of 50 or higher. If you have a health challenge then you should keep the glycemic index at 20 or below.

Now I know you are used to eating all those carbs but you are now going to eat more raw plant fats like seeds, nuts, avocados, olive oil and small amounts of coconut oil. Lots of salads and raw vegetables and if you eat animal products like fish, chicken or meat you are going to eat very small quantities. It is important to know that the lead researcher said when I asked him the question about calorie restriction vs. calorie selection he said that there has been a problem in the lab with protein.

The reason the lead researcher said that they had found some problems with protein diets is because protein if it is in excess in the diet it turns to sugar which either feeds pathogens like cancer cells, bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites or it is stored as fat which becomes an inflammation and hormonal factory that leads to disease.

What you need to know is protein does not store as protein in the body if you over eat it. No instead it is broken down into SUGAR yes i said SUGAR and store as fat. So much for the high protein diets. Also this high protein can and does feed cancer cell growth.

Your carbohydrates are going to come in the from of mostly raw vegetables. If you want to cook then make sure they are green like broccoli.

 

I was blessed to be one of the 100 doctors in the world to be invited to this special event research conference held a Harvard Medical School. The speakers were the top in the world in their specific field of research. Some of the topics included:

• Approaches to Treating Diseases of Aging
• Aging reversal: fact or fantasy?
• Abnormal fat ratio causing Vascular Disease
• Systemic Cancer Treatment; Time for a Paradigm Change
• Gluten and Clinical Outcomes: How to Connect the Dots for a Healthy Lifestyle
• Functional Reduction of Inflammation in Neurodegenerative Disorders

In the weeks to come I will be sharing with you some of this latest research in these areas.

Today I will address the question I asked the top two researchers in anti-aging and longevity research. The question I posed was:

Calorie Restriction vs. Calorie Selection especially living and raw plant food?

All the research for the last twenty years has shown that the only way to extend longevity in animals is by calorie restriction or reducing their calories they consume daily by 25-40%. This has caused researchers to try to create a drug that can mimic calorie restriction. This is a long and slow road because as we all know all drugs have side effects and sometime the side effects outweigh any  benefit of the drug.

The first researcher said he thought only the calorie count mattered but when he asked his colleague, he said that certain types of calories mattered more. Then the first researcher asked him which ones were the most important. The answer given by the lead research in the field of anti-aging was that fat was the most important because they had found problems in the lab with high protein diets.  Everyone knows that high carb diets are a problem because sugar feeds inflammation and cancer.

At Total Health Institute we have promoted a living/raw plant based diet for over 23 years with the largest part of the diet coming from from plant fats and raw vegetables and sprouts. Now the top researchers in the world have found that fat is the macronutrient that needs to be the primary source of calories along with complex carbohydrates in the form of vegetables.

The reason the lead researcher said that they had found some problems with protein diets is because protein if it is in excess in the diet it turns to sugar which either feeds pathogens like cancer cells, bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites or it is stored as fat which becomes an inflammation and hormonal factory that leads to disease.

More to come next week.

Scientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have found that bacterial products seep out of the colon, trigger inflammation throughout the body and set into motion the processes of cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, chronic kidney and metabolic diseases, and cancer.

“Because the space inside the colon (the lumen) contains the highest concentration of bacteria in the body, we provide evidence that bacterial products are leaking out of the colon into the bloodstream of these patients,” said lead researcher. “The immune system responds by launching an attack on these bacterial products, activating inflammation throughout the body that never stops.”

Bacteria can induce serious illness, but bacterial products are harmless remnants of dead bacteria. However, the immune system does not easily distinguish between live bacteria and bacterial products. Therefore, an immune attack is launched when bacterial products enter the bloodstream. In an infection, tight junctions within the colon become the weak link providing an entryway for bacterial products to leak out.

Tight junctions are small, indented areas along the epithelial surface of the colon, something like the interior folds of a partially inflated accordion. Tight junctions form a barrier within the colon by sealing adjacent epithelial cells, and each tight junction seals the gut lumen (colon interior) from the colon exterior. Epithelial (or surface) cells are compacted against each other, but a miniscule opening (the intercellular space) allows ultra fine molecules to pass through. The tight junction complex forms tiny strands to seal that intercellular space.

Researchers demonstrated in their investigation that patients had the weakest tight junctions where the most bacteria are located. Additionally, we correlated the reduced tight junctions with increased inflammation.”

The decline of the tight junctions correlated with increased microbial translocation and a greater level of inflammation throughout the body. This finding provides evidence that a defect in the gut wall allowing bacterial products to leak out is the likely source of immune activation and subsequent inflammation.

These findings provide a clear target for clinical intervention — repair the molecular and structural epithelial leakiness in the tight junctions of the colon.

–PLoS Pathogens

 

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Leaky Gut: The Source of Disease”:

Digestion is the key to health. This study showed that a breakdown of the tight junctions in the intestinal tract is the source of inflammation throughout the body leading to cardiovascular disease, neurological disease, metabolic disease, kidney disease and cancer to name a few.

This study also found the breakdown in the tight junctions was greatest in the presence of the colon where the bacteria were the greatest. What does this mean?

Leaky Gut comes from a breakdown of the intestinal lining tight junctions. There are over 30 causes of this and we address all of them at Total Health Institute but one of them spoken of in this article is bacterial overgrowth. There are good and bad bacteria (we test for this) and if the bad bacteria overgrow then this will break down the tight junctions and cause Leaky Gut Syndrome which is one of the largest causes of inflammation in the body.

What are some of the other causes of Leaky Gut?

1. Food sensitivities– we test each patient for their food to make sure they are never eating anything that they are sensitive to. One of the biggest two are sugar and dairy products.
2. Hormone imbalance– we test hormones on all patients and stress hormones out of balance will break down the tight junctions
3. Parasites– these must be tested for and a specific protocol for each parasite is used. Do not do general parasite cleanses or you will make them bore deeper into the intestinal lining.
4. Heavy metal toxicity– We test for heavy metals like aluminum, lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic. These destroy the tight junctions and cause Leaky Gut.

What can you do to help your intestinal function?

First get healthy by following the 7 Basic Steps to Total Healthevery day of your life.

Second make sure you are taking probiotics and digestive enzymes. These two are critical maintaining healthy intestinal function.

All these and more are tested in our treatment and teaching programs done at Total Health Institute. Also for those who live too far to come to THI we have a Stay at Home Program to help you improve your health.

If you want to improve your health make sure you improve your digestive health.

It may be possible to train the brain to prefer healthy low-calorie foods over unhealthy higher-calorie foods, according to new research by scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and at Massachusetts General Hospital. A brain scan study in adult men and women suggests that it is possible to reverse the addictive power of unhealthy food while also increasing preference for healthy foods.

“We don’t start out in life loving French fries and hating, for example, whole wheat pasta,” said senior and co-corresponding author and director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory. “This conditioning happens over time in response to eating — repeatedly! — what is out there in the toxic food environment.”

Scientists have suspected that, once unhealthy food addiction circuits are established, they may be hard or impossible to reverse, subjecting people who have gained weight to a lifetime of unhealthy food cravings and temptation. To find out whether the brain can be re-trained to support healthy food choices, Researchers studied the reward system in overweight and obese men and women, whom were participants in a new weight loss program designed by Tufts University researchers and those who were in a control group and were not enrolled in the program.

Both groups underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans at the beginning and end of a six-month period. Among those who participated in the weight loss program, the brain scans revealed changes in areas of the brain reward center associated with learning and addiction. After six months, this area had increased sensitivity to healthy, lower-calorie foods, indicating an increased reward and enjoyment of healthier food cues. The area also showed decreased sensitivity to the unhealthy higher-calorie foods.

“The weight loss program is specifically designed to change how people react to different foods, and our study shows those who participated in it had an increased desire for healthier foods along with a decreased preference for unhealthy foods, the combined effects of which are probably critical for sustainable weight control. To the best of our knowledge this is the first demonstration of this important switch.” The authors hypothesize that several features of the weight loss program were important, including behavior change education and high-fiber, low glycemic menu plans.

“Although other studies have shown that surgical procedures like gastric bypass surgery can decrease how much people enjoy food generally, this is not very satisfactory because it takes away food enjoyment generally rather than making healthier foods more appealing,” said the researchers. “We show here that it is possible to shift preferences from unhealthy food to healthy food without surgery, and that MRI is an important technique for exploring the brain’s role in food cues.”

–Nutrition & Diabetes

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Your Brain can be Trained to LIKE Healthy Food”:

For the last 30 years at Total Health Institute we have known what this research has just discovered. It is simply that you can train yourself to desire healthy food, the food God designed you to eat. This study proved that people who where overweight and addicted to junk food could actually be trained to like healthy food proven by MRI brain scans.  A powerful statement by one of the researchers was “We don’t start out in life loving French fries and hating, for example, whole wheat pasta, this conditioning happens over time in response to eating – repeatedly!”  What this means is when you keep doing something long enough, whatever that something is becomes an ingrained habit seen in the reward center of the brain.

Over the last 30 years we have had thousands of patients complete our program and almost universally they start the program not liking the health promoting food and they end the program desiring the food and not liking the food they used to crave. How do we achieve these results in 6 months? By teaching!  For example not many of our patients like raw garlic when they enter the program but once they attend our 90 minute class on all the research on garlic and its powerful health benefits almost all of them start implementing raw garlic into their diet without any forcing or coercing. Why do they do this?

Knowledge is power to change.

Now lets go to where all this food addiction began in the beginning:

When Adam and Eve disobeyed the covenant with God by eating that which was forbidden, they fell from Grace and as they Bible states “there eyes were opened and they realized they were naked” (ego was born) and then after ego followed the initial onset of the negative emotion of fear.

What happened to Adam and Eve once they broke covenant with God was they gave rise to what the Bible calls the sin nature, the flesh or the old man. We gave this nature a name in our book and audio series and called it “sally & george” you can call your old nature anything but not your name because it is not you it is only the memory of a lie that keeps trying to tell you who you are but it is all a lie.

In the beginning we desired fruits and vegatables because that is what God created us to eat and that is what we did eat. Once we broke covenant with God and ego was born this was the beginning of trying to please the flesh instead of enjoying the pleasure of God.

We have all gone astray and lost our way but that is what this study showed. If you get back to your roots, who you ARE (the sons and daughters of God) and what you desire for food (vegetables and fruits and plant foods) and what you desire for life (to be all that God created you to be in body, mind and spirit) then these desires with replace the old negative desires and you will return to the way you were meant to be in the beginning.

Now let us complete our phrase that we started:

Knowledge is power to change when that knowledge is based in TRUTH

Forget sun beds, sunbathing and fake tanning lotions. The secret to a sexy, healthy glow lies in eating your vegetables everyday, reveals new breakthrough research.

A new and innovative study recently published in sheds new light on the importance of skin color as a determiner of facial attractiveness. It also shows that carotenoid coloration has the upper hand over melanisation (tanning) when it comes to the rules of attraction.

“Skin coloration can arise as a result of two distinct processes,” explain the team leading the research: through tanning (melanisation) or the assimilation of fruit and vegetables (carotenoid ingestion).

While it is known that red and yellow pigments found in bright fruit and vegetables increase skin yellowness, recent studies have shown that “carotenoid coloration is a more important factor in healthy appearance than melanin coloration,” clarify the academics.

Determined to investigate the importance of skin color in judgements of facial attractiveness, as well as mate choices, in three separate, yet linked, Internet-based studies, the team set out to examine the importance of high levels of these pigments (carotenoids and melanin) in attraction choices.

Establishing the preference for one pigment over the other in judging the appeal of a face was also crucial to the research.

In the first two studies, two separate groups of 60 participants were shown 27 base faces, specifically created for the purpose of testing. Through color manipulation, the skin area of these composite faces was altered alongside the axis of carotenoid or melanin-associated derma colors.

High and low pigment versions of each face were shown in pairs to the partakers, who had to indicate which one they thought more attractive. Results from both studies showed a clear preference for strong color values; 86% of the attendants to the first study voted for the high carotenoid version, while 78.5% of the participants to the second one opted for the high melanin variant.

But that was not all: in a third and final study, the team pitched 24 high carotenoid and high melanin(tanned) faces against each other, asking attendants to choose the one deemed more appealing; results showed a 75.9% preference for carotenoid coloring over the melanin one.

This interesting research breaks new ground as it is the first to show strong evidence for the importance of skin coloration in attractiveness judgements. What’s more, it clearly exposes “the importance of carotenoid coloration as a cue to current health and attractiveness, [a fact that] may be pivotal in mate choices,” explain the team.

So, if eating too many carrots has worried you so far, it’s time to think again. Turning orange may not be that bad, after all.

-The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Exercise Increases White Matter in the Brain”:

What a great study that showed people prefer the healthy glow of green and orange vegetables to that of tanning or nothing at all. This study showed that people are actually attracted to those who have this carotenoid glow as opposed to those who have a tan. The researchers say it is a natural attraction to a color of health promotion meaning that you are attracted to someone who is naturally healthy versus artificially colored by tanning or even with lots of makeup. The researchers made a strong point that this is probably linked to survival tendency to be attracted to the person who is healthy and would be most able to stay healthy and support and raise a family.

What is beauty? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but as far as this study goes beauty is defined as a healthy glow that most people were attracted to.

So much money is spent in this country on skin lotions, potions and cosmetics. If more was spent on health promoting activities including diet, exercise, sleep and lifestyle changes, most would be amazed of how much better one would look and feel with a lot less lotions and makeup.

The reason the study proved that people are attracted to the healthy vegetable glow is because people are naturally attracted to healthy, fit and vital people who take care of themselves with proper diet, exercise, sleep, water consumption and who do not need a lot of cover ups because their skin, face and complexion are truly radiant, the God designed way.

So before you run to get a tan or prepare to put a lot of make up on your face think about your health which is made inside and then projects outward into the skin. Your skin is a primary detoxification organ which means it purges the body of impurities and toxins. If you want beautiful skin then become healthy by following the 7 Basic Steps to Total Healthevery day of your life.

So what can you do today for your beauty regime? Start drinking at least 8-10 glasses of purified water every day. Your skin is made of mostly water. If you do not drink enough your skin will wrinkle do to the dehydration and the less water to flush out chemicals and toxins the more toxic your skin will become. Next, start eating raw green and orange vegetables in salads or juicing (greens only to avoid the sugar overload). The antioxidants and phytochemicals in raw green vegetables are second to none for your health. Start eating salads with kale, collards, dandelion, spinach and broccoli. You can add some green onion, shaved yam and carrot to give it a nice flavor.

Next is sleep. If you do not sleep enough hour’s premidnight then your skin will sag much easier because most of your healing occurs before midnight so get to bed by 8PM but no later than 9PM.

Do not forget to exercise to increase the flow of the fluids in your body. The best is rebounding cellular exercise, then comes cardio workouts like going up and down stairs or going for a brisk walk.

Remember beauty is always there when you are truly healthy in body, mind and spirit.

Close to half (40%) of the adult population of the USA is expected to develop type 2 diabetes at some point during their lifetime, suggests a major study. The future looks even worse for some ethnic minority groups, with one in two (> 50%) Hispanic men and women and non-Hispanic black women predicted to develop the disease.

 

Over the 26 years of study, the lifetime risk of developing type 2 diabetes for the average American 20-year-old rose from 20% for men and 27% for women in 1985-1989, to 40% for men and 39% for women in 2000-2011. The largest increases were in Hispanic men and women, and non-Hispanic black women, for whom lifetime risk now exceeds 50%.

 

Primary prevention strategies are urgently needed. Excellent evidence has shown that diabetes can be prevented with lifestyle changes. However, provision of these interventions on an individual basis might not be sustainable. Only a population-based approach to prevention can address a problem of this magnitude. Prevention strategies should include optimization of urban planning, food-marketing policies, and work and school environments that enable individuals to make healthier lifestyle choices. With an increased focus on interventions aimed at children and their families, there might still be time to change the fate of our future generations by lowering their risk of type 2 diabetes.

 

-The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology

 

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “40% of Americans expected to develop type 2 diabetes”:

 

How can we have fallen to this level? With some groups of people, one out of every two will develop diabetes, what has happened to the world? We must go back to our roots, to the beginning:

 

Gen 1:29-30

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground — everything that has the breath of life in it — I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.NIV

 

How did we go from a living/raw plant diet to a processed high carb diet that causes insulin resistance and diabetes? The answer is found in these three:

1. The world system has made carbs and starches very cheap and very accessible. This means that most people that live in the world will eat these foods because they are so available and so inexpensive.
2. The world system has honed in on the pleasure of the taste buds and profiting from “feeding the flesh”. What this means is once you give the people a taste of sugar and starches (which turn into sugar), you have them hooked on a potent addictive substance. This means sales will always be high because people cannot do without it.
3. The busier we become the less we take care of ourselves. Many people work long hours and some two jobs. They do not get enough sleep, they do not drink enough water, they get no exercise because they are working too much, they are stressed not only physically but mentally and they do not make proper food choices because when one is on the go, one will grab what is inexpensive and tastes good or should we say that it is a fleshly pleasure to the world trained taste buds?

 What is the answer? How can we totally reverse diabetes of the present and the future? Follow these steps:

 

1. Realize who you ARE is not who you appear to be. This means you must wake up to the realization that you are the sons and daughters of God not human being here to feed the flesh, have some pleasure and live a good life. You must choose if you are going to walk in the Spirit or walk in the flesh. The choice is yours and that choice has to be made each and every moment of each day. Why do you think the apostle Paul speaks of fighting in the following:

 

2 Cor 10:3-6

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. NIV

 

1 Tim 6:12

Fight the good fight of the faith.NIV

 

2 Tim 4:7-8

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. NIV

 

2.You must master the mind and master the body. This is a must for every son or daughter of God. If you do not master them then they will surely master you.

1 Cor 6:12-13

“Everything is permissible for me”-but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”-but I will not be mastered by anything. NIV

 

1 Cor 9:24-27

 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. NIV

 

3. You must live 7 Basic Steps to Total Health every day of your life. These are knowing how to breathe, drink enough water, eat the health promoting food, getting the restorative sleep, exercising for health, and living a life of fasting (from the standard American diet with a permanent Daniel fast) and prayer (training yourself to hear the voice of God speaking to your heart).

 

It is never too late to make a change in your life, to stand up and fight even if you have never fought your whole life. You have a strong adversary who lives within you called the flesh, the old nature or the old man. It is not who you are but who you used to be, so it is up to you to stand up and take your position and fight against the flesh so you can walk in the Spirit and hear the Truth that God is speaking to your heart right now.

 

Once you walk in who you ARE. There will be no more diabetes, no more heart disease, no more cancer, and no more disease at all.

 

The journey starts with the first step and with the first fight against the flesh by saying “NO” I will not eat the world system’s food anymore no matter how good it tastes.

 

Stand up today and fight the good fight and become who you ARE! Become who He created you to BE!

Consuming fats with high polyunsaturated fatty acid content, in particular those containing omega-3s, is beneficial for the health. But the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are poorly known. Researchers investigated the effect of lipids bearing polyunsaturated chains when they are integrated into cell membranes. Their work shows that the presence of these lipids makes the membranes more malleable and therefore more sensitive to deformation and fission by proteins. These results help explain the extraordinary efficacy of endocytosis in neuron cells.

Consuming polyunsaturated fatty acids (such as omega-3 fatty acids found in flax seeds and hemp seeds) is good for the health. The effects range from neuronal differentiation to protection against cerebral ischemia. This means these fats are very important for brain and nervous system health. This research focuses on the role of these fatty acids in cell membrane function.

For a cell to function properly, the membrane must be able to deform and divide into small vesicles. This phenomenon is called endocytosis. Generally, these vesicles allow the cells to encapsulate molecules and transport them. In neurons, these synaptic vesicles will act as a transmission pathway to the synapse for nerve messages. They are formed inside the cell, then they move to its exterior and fuse with its membrane, to transmit the neurotransmitters that they contain. Then they reform in less than a tenth of a second: this is synaptic recycling.

These researchers show that cell membranes rich in polyunsaturated lipids are much more sensitive to the action of two proteins, dynamin and endophilin, which facilitate membrane deformation and fission. Other measurements in the study and in simulations suggest that these lipids also make the membranes more malleable. The abundance of these lipids in the brain could then represent a major advantage for cognitive function.

This work partially sheds light on the mode of action of omega-3.

The body cannot synthesize these fatty acid and they can only be supplied by a suitable diet (most powerfully in flax seed and hemp seeds) and proper supplementation.

-Science

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Fats are Critical to Cell and Brain Function”:

It is so important to understand that the most important macronutrient is fat, not protein or carbohydrates. Fats make up your cell membranes and if the diet is either low in health promoting fats or high in the wrong fats which are saturated animal fat or processing fat like hydrogenated or trans fats then the cell membranes will either die prematurely which causes cell death and that leads to organ inflammation which leads to conditions and diseases. The other fate is a high amount of wrong fats in the cell membrane which do not allow the malleability or fluidity necessary for the cell to absorb the proper nutrients. This too will lead to early cell death and organ dysfunction and disease.

What are the good fats and where do you get them from?

Ideally the cell membrane wants a 1:1 ratio of omega 3 fatty acids to omega 6 fatty acids. This is found in flax seeds, hemp seeds and chia seeds. It is also found in green vegetable but in small amounts. Because of the critical importance not only to the cell membrane and health of the cells but also most important for brain and neurological function including eye health we supplement all our patients at Total Health Institute with mercury free, radiation free plant source EPA/DHA essential omega 3 fatty acids.

What can you do to protect your cell, brain, neurological and eye health?

Start eating flax seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds and definitely supplement with plant base non toxic EPA/DHA, 9 capsules taken per day either split up three or at least twice per day.

Your brain and nervous system run all the other organs, gland and systems so this is very important to maintaining your physical health as well as mental health. These fatty acids have also helped reverse depression, anxiety and a variety of mental/emotional symptoms and conditions.

When a diet change or supplement can help your body and mind and emotions it is a very powerful addition in your natural health care.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that dietary capsaicin — the active ingredient in chili peppers — produces chronic activation of a receptor on cells lining the intestines of mice, triggering a reaction that ultimately reduces the risk of colorectal tumors.

The current study suggests one potential remedy might be spicy capsaicin, which acts as an irritant in mammals, generating a burning sensation in contact with tissue. Capsaicin is already broadly used as an analgesic in topical ointments, where its properties as an irritant overwhelm nerves, rendering them unable to report pain for extended periods of time. It’s also the active ingredient in pepper spray.

The researchers fed capsaicin to mice genetically prone to developing multiple tumors in the gastrointestinal tract. The treatment resulted in a reduced tumor burden and extended the lifespans of the mice by more than 30 percent.

-The Journal of Clinical Investigation

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Hot Peppers Inhibit Intestinal Tumors”:

This is yet another study that confirms that plants were not only meant for our food but also for our medicine. The active ingredient in hot peppers is called capsaicin and it is shown to not only reduce the risk of colorectal cancer but also reduce tumors in mice that already have multiple tumors AND increase their lifespan by 30%. All this with just the additional of chilli peppers.

Now what if you added raw garlic in the salad, adding some ginger and also some curcumin what would the decrease in tumors and increase in lifespan be then? Are you getting the messages? “Let your food be your medicine” according to Hippocrates. Much better then letting your toxic medication with 7-500 side effects being your medicine!

What if we all would get back to simplicity. Simple food, a simpler lifestyle, less instead of more. It has been proven in health and longevity that the less an animal eats, this is calorie restriction, the longer it lives.

Now apply this principle to natural treatment for health disorders. If you are having intestinal issues why not try taking probiotics, digestive enzymes, eating some hot peppers, change your diet, drink more water, get more exercise and spend more time listening to God speak to your heart.

Wouldn’t this be a better way unless your were in an emergency state and that is when true medicine shines because it can save lives, but the problem is they cannot extend lives. The life extension task is all up to you.

At Total Health Institute we have been helping people get their health back in body, mind and spirit for the last 30 years. We have always done it the natural God designed way. You can start with some natural steps to take. We call them the 7 Basic Steps to Total Health.

This is a great first step on your journey to Total Health. Always remember it is easier to take that step now rather than waiting until you absolutely have to take that step because full blown disease has manifested in your body.

We are here to help you. If you have a condition or disease that you need to consult with someone, give us a call and myself or one of our health associates will call you back to answer your questions. We do not treat symptoms, conditions or disease but instead treat health and restore health. Our phone number is 630-871-0000

Sometimes you just need to know that your doctor truly understands the cause of your situation instead of just trying to patch up all the effects that the underlying cause has produced.

 

 

 

Exposure to light at night, which shuts off nighttime production of the hormone melatonin, renders breast cancer completely resistant to tamoxifen, a widely used breast cancer drug, says a new study by Tulane University School of Medicine cancer researchers. The study is the first to show that melatonin is vital to the success in treating breast cancer.

In the first phase of the study, they kept animals in a daily light/dark cycle of 12 hours of light followed by 12 hours of total darkness (melatonin is elevated during the dark phase) for several weeks. In the second study, they exposed them to the same daily light/dark cycle; however, during the 12 hour dark phase, animals were exposed to extremely dim light at night (melatonin levels were suppressed), roughly equivalent to faint light coming under a door.

Melatonin by itself delayed the formation of tumors and significantly slowed their growth.

These findings have potentially enormous implications for women being treated and also regularly exposed to light at night due to sleep problems, working night shifts or exposed to light from computer and TV screens.

High melatonin levels at night put breast cancer cells to ‘sleep’ by turning off key growth mechanisms. But when the lights are on and melatonin is suppressed, breast cancer cells ‘wake up’ and start growing. The study could make light at night a new and serious risk factor for developing resistance to anticancer drugs and make the use of melatonin in, administered at the optimal time of day or night, standard treatment for breast cancer patients.

-Cancer Research

Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Total darkness at night key to success of breast cancer ”:

This powerful study showed how the strong antioxidant, sleep hormone melatonin suppresses cancer growth. In the study when they had very dim light in the room equivalent to some light shining under the door, this was enough light to shut off melatonin’s immune stimulating effects.

What this means is if you want to boost your immune system to a very high level where it can suppress cancer cell growth then you must do two things:

1. Sleep in total darkness so as not to suppress melatonin production.
2. Get to sleep as early as possible (8 PM is best) because the more premidnight hours of sleep the more stimulating and effect in strengthening the white blood cells to kill cancer cells.

What this study does not imply is that everyone should take melatonin supplements. There is a balance in all things and if melatonin like all other nutritional and hormonal is too high or too low it can encourage cancer cell growth. So what is the best way to know? Have it tested. We do a complete hormonal workup on all of our patients at Total Health Institute so we know exactly who needs melatonin and who does NOT.

What I liked most about this study is that God’s way is always the BEST way if we would just get back to HIS basics for health. When did God design the human body to go to sleep? When the sun went down. When did He design the human body to wake up? When the sun came up. Very simple. Follow the rule and health will be the byproduct.

The answer to cancer is not a melatonin pill or a drug. Do not look for the quick fix, but instead get to the root of the problems so you can resolve it once and for all.Getting to sleep early and making sure the room is blacked out is just one of 7 Basic Steps to Total Health. Ask yourself these questions: Air-are you deep diaphragm breathing to oxygenate your body? Water-are you drinking 32 ounces of distilled or reverse osmosis water per 50/lbs per body weight per day? Food-are you consuming a diet of living/raw plant food which has the highest energy, bioelectricity, enzymes and bioavailable nutrient content to either maintain or restore your health. Sleep-are you sleeping 8.0 hours with at least 3.0 of them before midnight in a totally dark room? Exercise-are you exercising 30 minutes every day? Fasting-are you fasting from the normal Standard American Diet (SAD) and lifestyle? Prayer-are you taking the time throughout your day to regularly listen to the voice of God being spoken into your heart? So the way to overcome cancer or any disease is just to live the God designed life of seven very basic step and to have a mission for which you are here. God did not bring you into this earthly realm for you to just take up space for 75 years and then die. No He sent you here for a purpose and if you search your heart you will find that purpose. Here a some helpful hints: When you are doing God’s will and His purpose you will lose everything you have for the mission. This is not a place of maybes or lukewarm. If He put it in your heart then nothing can take it out of your heart. The problem is too many people cover over the heart by following their mind ambitions instead of their heart’s desire. If you keep praying and listening to the voice of God spoken to your heart the purpose or mission just grow stronger and stronger and finally it cannot be denied you must obey your heart and step out in faith no matter what the cost. It is always up to you. You can choose life of death and you will received what you choose. Life if from the heart or death if from the mind.