Total Health Breakthroughs: Free Natural Health Newsletter and Alternative Health Articles

One of the most promising developments in immune health was discovered by accident…

Paul Fagenel had an unusual problem on his hands. Paul was Vice President of a company called Diamond V Mills, and the workers in his production facility kept complaining to the human resources department.

They weren’t complaining about poor working conditions, long hours, or low pay. In fact, they were very happy working for the company. The complaint was that their annual sick days were going to waste every year.

You see, the workers in the factory were staying healthy year-round. Many of these employees had not missed a day of work for years, and they wanted to add their annual “sick days” to their vacation time.

When Diamond V executives reviewed the situation, they discovered something unusual…

I used to catch a cold or flu about twice a year, like clockwork. I would usually get sick once during the winter. Then I would get sick again at some point during the year when I was tired and stressed out and my defenses were down.

It was never anything serious. I might feel miserable and miss a day or two of work, but with rest and fluids, I would feel fine again within a week. It was mainly an annoyance. Something I thought we all had to live with.

Then, with just a few changes to my diet and lifestyle, I stopped getting sick…

In the last eight years, I have had only one cold. That was the week after my wedding. The week before, I was up late every night getting ahead on work. And I was stressed out, making plans for our out-of-town wedding. Avoiding stress and getting a good night’s rest are vital to your immunity. In fact, one study showed that getting less than six hours of sleep per night can increase your risk of contracting a cold by 300 percent.

One of the most common refrains you will hear in Total Health Breakthroughs is that we should mimic the diet and lifestyle of our Paleolithic ancestors. That includes what we eat, how we exercise and even our patterns of sleep (early to bed, early to rise).
The reasons are simple. Our genetics [...]

Have you ever seen a fat Amish person?

When I was in my early teens, my mother took my brother and me on a road trip up the East Coast of the United States. One of our stops was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania – the heart of Amish country.

I still remember the gently rolling fields, the agrarian lifestyle, and the juxtaposition of cars whizzing by on the highway as the Amish trotted into town in their horse-drawn wagons.

I was reminded of my experiences there when I read the responses to this week’s issue of Total Health Breakthroughs – Undercover. In this issue, I exposed the myth that a low-fat diet is the key to weight loss and the prevention of heart disease.

In recent years, numerous health researchers and authors have examined the dietary habits and the health record of the Amish. The results are quite telling. The Amish consume a high fat diet. They often cook their food in lard or bacon grease. And they consume a fair amount of meat and dairy.

For more than three decades we have been subjected to dietary propaganda that a low-fat diet is the key to losing weight and preventing disease. Public officials and the medical profession continue to broadcast the message. And the food industry – eager to sell their low-fat, high-margin, fake foods – is happy to reinforce the belief that a low-fat diet is the key to plaque-free arteries and a slim figure.

The problem is that this is exactly the wrong advice for weight loss and your health. In fact, the “solution” has actually made our problems with obesity, heart disease and diabetes much worse.

The misplaced vilification of fat began in the 50’s and 60’s. But it was not until the late 1970s that the message was broadcast to the public. It began with a 1976 Senate report, titled Dietary Goals for the United States. It was written by a journalist with no background in health, who was advised by a Harvard nutritionist who viewed dietary fat as the nutritional equivalent of smoking cigarettes. Shortly after, countless health organizations (including the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association) and mobilized to spread the word that “eating fat makes you fat” and that a low-fat diet is the best way to prevent disease.

In Friday’s issue of Total Health Breakthroughs, I talked about two types of hunger…

Physical hunger is the feeling you get at the end of a long day. It is how you feel after a vigorous workout. Your stomach growls. You become tired and weak and your thinking slows down. This is your body telling you that it needs nutrients and energy.

Hormonal hunger, on the other hand, has little to do with mealtime. In fact, it can often strike shortly after a big meal. Hormonal hunger can cause strong cravings and a near continual desire to eat.

This type of hunger is the result of various hormones and neurotransmitters rising and falling in response to the foods we eat. These hormones not only influence your hunger mechanism, they also play an important role in how your body stores and burns fat.

One of the most important “hunger hormones” is leptin…

I used to always be hungry and crave food…

I was hungry when I woke up. I was very hungry before I went to bed. And I was even hungry not long after a big meal. Thankfully, I was not obese. I was younger then and I liked to exercise. But I did carry about 20 pounds too many. And I had a round face and a soft belly.

I was eating and drinking a full menu of high-density carbohydrates back then. Pizza, cereal, bagels, sandwiches, chips and soda were all on the list. I consumed plenty of calories. Yet, I was still hungry.

And not only was I frequently hungry, but my mood and energy levels would swing wildly. I would become irritable… sometimes depressed. And I always felt like I needed a nap about two in the afternoon. But there was one thing that always seemed to boost my mood and energy – more carbs!

Then, about 10 years ago, I began to study the diet of our Paleolithic genetic ancestors…

Before that, I had not thought much about what I should eat to remain healthy and lean. But I didn’t like the fact that I was gaining weight.

For more than 30 years, government health organizations and the cancer societies have pushed the idea that early detection and treatment increases your odds of surviving cancer. The messages are everywhere. They urge us to check for prostate, breast, colon, skin cancer and more.

Logically, it makes sense that the earlier you discover a cancer, the more likely you will be alive in five years. This has driven millions of people to their doctors’ offices for screening and it has poured billions of dollars into the coffers of the cancer industry.

But does it save lives? And do the risks outweigh the benefits? Apparently, the answer to both of those questions is no.

The studies show that people are not living longer after they get cancer. While they might live longer after their diagnosis, that is because we are diagnosing the disease much earlier. In fact, the age-adjusted mortality rates for all forms of cancer combined have steadily increased over several decades. Orthodox medicine is losing the war on cancer.

In the last month, the British government’s National Health Service (NHS) and the American Cancer Society (ACS) both have stated that they are updating their public health messages regarding cancer screening.

For decades, these organizations were among the staunchest defenders of screening. The organizations now admit that they overstated the benefits of screening. Even worse, they intentionally downplayed the risks.

In a New York Times article, Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society states that, “American medicine has overpromised when it comes to screening. The advantages to screening have been exaggerated.”

You don’t need to be a scientist to know that chronic back pain can have a negative impact on your life, often bringing with it anxiety and depression. It can affect your ability to work, sleep, and perform other daily activities.

Until recently, it has been assumed that whatever changes occurred in the brain as a result of chronic back pain were only temporary and that the brain would revert to a normal state once the pain stopped.

Recent findings by researchers from Northwestern University have turned this assumption on its head. What they found was that chronic back pain — defined as pain lasting six months or longer — can cause significant and long-lasting damage to the brain, aging it up to 20 times faster than normal.¹

The Northwestern study is consistent with other research on chronic pain and cognitive ability.

Evidence of a link between chronic pain and brain function comes from a study done at Keele University in the United Kingdom. Scientists compared the “prospective” memory — such as remembering to pick up groceries or keep a doctor’s appointment — of 50 subjects with chronic back pain to the memory of 50 subjects who were pain-free.

Investigators used something called the Prospective Memory Questionnaire, a self-rating scale that requires users to record the number of times their prospective memory fails in a given period of time. The scale measures three types of prospective memory: long-term habitual, short-term episodic, and internally cued.

The name Max Gerson doesn’t ring a bell with most people. We can thank the dirty tricks of the American Medical Association for that. Gerson is one of the great doctors of the 20th century. If more of us knew his name, there wouldn’t be millions of needless cancer deaths in the US every year. In fact, there might even be monuments erected in his honor.

In the 1920s, Dr. Gerson pioneered a revolutionary diet that proved to be a potent nutritional and metabolic therapy for tuberculosis, diabetes, and even migraine headaches. Then amazingly, he started curing his patients’ cancer with it. The Gerson therapy blends a diet of organic fruits and vegetables and fresh juices with special detoxification methods. For decades — both during and after Gerson’s lifetime — his therapy has helped thousands of people recover from cancer — despite the fact that the FDA and AMA did everything they could to discredit him.

Dr. Gerson understood the connection between diet and cancer. He knew that poor nutrition, exposure to chemicals, and cooking that destroys vital nutrients are big reasons our bodies get sick. When we add to these factors a poorly functioning liver, pancreas, and immune system, cancer can flourish. But importantly, Gerson also believed cancer could be controlled with a healthy liver and a proper balance of sodium and potassium in the body.