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Boosting Your Immune System with Antioxidants

During this very stressful time of coronavirus lockdown people aren’t able to go about their daily lives. They are stuck at home with family and bored out of their mind. Some may even have loved ones with coronavirus. One way to reduce stress is to get more antioxidants.

What is an antioxidant? It is a compound that prevents oxidation caused by stress. Whole plant foods are high in antioxidants while animal foods contain little to no antioxidants. The heme iron found in animal foods is actually a pro-oxidant.

Some of these items are easier to find than others but you can always get them on Amazon. At the grocery store you should be able to find red cabbage / purple cabbage which has a high antioxidant content, is the least expensive, and most widely available. But if you want the highest antioxidant content known to humans get Amla or Indian Gooseberry. It comes in powered form which is easily available online. Amla powder is super bitter but you only need a pinch.

Spices like cloves, ginger, rosemary, and turmeric are high in antioxidants and great for inflammation such as muscle pain, headaches, migraines. The human body uses all of the antioxidant you intake. Antioxidants don’t get wasted so get as many as you can.

Some of the capsules sold in stores and online may contain inert or harmful substances instead of what is on the label so I have included links to products below that allow you to fill your own capsules while saving money.

Wishing you a safe, healthy, and happy tomorrow.

References:

Amla the most antioxidant-packed, non-contaminated, non-mutagenic whole food on the planet: dried Indian gooseberry powder.
Dragons Blood

#1 antioxidant bargain in the world: purple cabbage—red cabbage.
Superfood Bargains

The More Antioxidants you eat the more you benefit.
Maxing Out on Antioxidants

The Top Four Anti-Inflammatory Spices

Iron may be a double-edged sword. “Iron deficiency causes anemia, whereas excessive iron [may increase] cancer risk, presumably by” acting as a pro-oxidant, generating free radicals.
Donating Blood to Prevent Cancer

Products:

Capsu-Tray Manual Capsule Holding Tray

Capsules Express- Size 00 Clear Empty Vegan Capsules

Organic Amla Powder

Drug Companies Lie for Profit

Drug companies and device makers often report the effectiveness of a drug in relative numbers instead of absolute numbers. I’m going to show you how to figure relative and absolute numbers so that you can look at a study and see the effectiveness of a drug. In this example I will be using a real study on a drug called Tamoxifen.

Tamoxifen is reported to be about 27-33% effective in preventing breast cancer. High numbers like this are often relative numbers. Let’s figure out what this really means.

Tamoxifen for prevention of breast cancer: extended long-term follow-up of the IBIS-I breast cancer prevention trial

7154 women in study
3575 women in placebo group, 350 or 9.8% developed cancer
3579 women in Tamoxifen group, 251 or 7% developed cancer

To find relative and absolute risk use the following formula.

1. Find the percentages.

(350/3575)100 = 9.8% placebo group
(251/3579)100 = 7% Tamoxifen group

2. Subtract the placebo group from the Tamoxifen group.

9.8% – 7% = 2.8%

3. Divide the answer by the placebo group and multiply the answer by 100.

(2.8% / 9.8%)100 = 28%

The relative effectiveness of Tamoxifen is 28%.

The absolute effectiveness of Tamoxifen is 2.8%.

This means that the drug has a 97% chance of NOT preventing breast cancer. In addition to this you must also consider the side effects of the drug some of which are: absent, missed, or irregular menstrual periods, bladder pain, blindness, bloating or swelling of the face, arms, hands, lower legs, or feet, bloody or cloudy urine, blurred vision, chills, confusion, difficult breathing, burning during urination, dizziness, chest pain, nervousness, etc. Is it really worth the risk?

I hope this information has helped you to see that the drug companies and the medical industry only care about one thing PROFIT. They do not care about your health.

References:

Dr Pam Popper: Breast Cancer Prevention Start in Childhood; Risks/Benefits of Tamoxifen

Tamoxifen Continues to Shine for Breast Cancer Prevention

Tamoxifen for prevention of breast cancer: extended long-term follow-up of the IBIS-I breast cancer prevention trial

Tamoxifen Side Effects

Does Salt Raise Blood Pressure?

Salt has long been used throughout history as a treatment for respiratory illnesses by great doctors such as Hippocrates^[1] (460 – 370 BCE) but does it raise blood pressure?

Some studies show that it does in fact raise blood pressure but others show that it only effects a small percentage of people. I did a case report by measuring my blood pressure over about six days while increasing salt intake and found that it does not raise my blood pressure.^[2] Now you might think that I’m going to go polish off a gallon of pickles, a bag of pretzels, and a jar of olives, well I’m not. Why? Because a high intake for salt has been linked to stomach cancer but a small amount of salt has been shown to improve health.

Most published epidemiological studies provide positive evidence for an association between salt or salted food consumption and stomach cancer risk, which was also supported by experimental studies. ^[3]

Compared with moderate sodium intake [3000 mg], high sodium intake [7000 mg] is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events and death in hypertensive populations (no association in normotensive population), while the association of low sodium intake with increased risk of cardiovascular events and death is observed in those with or without hypertension.^{[4, 8]}

Sodium intake was associated with cardiovascular disease and strokes only in communities where mean intake was greater than 5 g/day [5000 mg]. A strategy of sodium reduction in these communities and countries but not in others might be appropriate.^{[5, 6]}

So a small amount of sodium improves health in the majority of the population and too much may cause cardiovascular events and death. Now the question becomes what were they eating? The study was done on people that live in many countries around the world. We can make the assumption that the majority of the people in this study were eating the western diet. This is a diet high in animal products like meat, eggs, dairy and processed foods like chips and cookies. Increased potassium intake reduces sodium.^[6] Had this study been done on a group of whole food plant-based individuals it would have most likely resulted in much less risk of cardiovascular events and death because of the increased potassium in the diet.

Humans consume a wide range of sodium from less than 250 mg/day to over 30,000 mg/day. For example, a sodium intake of about 200 mg daily has been documented in the Yanomamo Indians living in the Amazon Basin of Brazil.^[7]

Early humans didn’t eat a high salt diet they ate mostly plants. Which is a much healthier diet than most Americans follow. Low sodium of about 200mg – 1000mg is what we are adapted to intake but the human body can handle much more. For a small minority of people salt may cause swelling or water retention.^[8]

Salt intake is not really the problem though. It is the company salt keeps. Animal products such as milk, cheese, eggs, ham, chicken, beef, and fish are high in salt but are also high in fat and protein which both contribute to fat gain. Processed foods such a doughnuts, pie, cake, cookies, and ice cream have added salt and are also high in fat. Eat fat and animal protein and watch your buttocks and belly grow.

High salt intake of 5000 mg or less does not raise blood pressure in the majority of the population.^[5,6] High salt intake and high blood pressure are markers for an unhealthy diet. Blood pressure medicines and cholesterol medicines only improve the marker they do not reduce risk of cardiovascular events or death. Drugs and supplements do not address the underlying cause of the problem which is an unhealthy diet high in animal products and processed foods.

References: