Here are a collection of five short videos from celebrated doctors and scientists that clearly and concisely explain how you can prevent, arrest and even reverse three of the most devastating chronic diseases plaguing our society today. Take the time to watch them and pass them along to those for whom you care……..
God bless
Putting aside all the mounting clinical evidence that points to a plant-based diet as being the answer to obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases, I just love these anecdotal testimonies!
By Ashely Chong
I recently celebrated my two-year anniversary of being 100% plant based. My journey began in March of 2012. I was determined to lose weight and get healthy, so I began researching about nutrition and overall health. I stumbled across information about vegan diets, and how animal protein and dairy really distort the body. After more research and watching a lot of documentaries, including Forks Over Knives, I decided to give plant-based eating a try.
On April 1st of 2012, I went 100% vegan overnight. About ten days in, I felt amazing, my skin was clearer, and I had lost a good amount of weight. I could not return to my previous diet and feel sick again, so this experiment became a lifestyle change―one that I fell in love with! I fell in love with how I felt, how I started to look, and how I started to think.
My fiancé Andrew started his journey not long after I did, and we continued this beautiful lifestyle together. Over the course of two years, I have lost 125 lbs., and Andrew has lost about 75. We are living examples of the havoc that an animal-rich diet full of processed, chemical-ridden, genetically modified foods can wreak on a body. This super lifestyle has benefited us not only physically, but mentally and spiritually as well. We have truly experienced nothing but positive results!
God bless
If you’ve followed this blog for even a short period of time, you know that I am committed to sharing health information that will help prevent, arrest and even cure some of our most insidious chronic diseases. The emerging science and clinical trials focused on the profound impact diet, exercise and your mental state can have on the manifestation of these diseases is too long in coming, but is finally having a major impact. Probably the most overlooked and misunderstood contributors to compromising our immune systems are stress and anxiety. New studies have now shown that, much like diet (Nutrigenomics: A Life-Saving Science), our gene expression is influenced greatly by our emotional states. Both good and bad genes can be turned off and on, depending on whether we exist in a state of appreciation and peace or one of stress and anxiety.
Whereas exercise and diet have been widely touted, written about and generally accepted as a means to improving health, the practice of meditation has historically been relegated to mystical status practiced primarily by outliers. The medical community has recently been more supportive of the role meditation can play as evidenced by researchers out of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine in Massachusetts illuminating the mechanisms of meditation’s effects, specifically the relaxation response. According to Dr. Benson, the relaxation response is, “a physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to stress (e.g., decreases in heart rate, blood pressure, rate of breathing, and muscle tension)” and is characterized by:
As Dr. Kelly Brogan points out, “Only recently have the tools to assess gene-based changes been available. Genetic study of eight-week and long-term meditators demonstrated evidence of changes to gene expression – specifically antioxidant production, telomerase activity, and oxidative stress – as a result of the relaxation response.” She goes on to say “It appears that the relationship between gene expression optimization and relaxation response is dose-related, so that increasing amounts confer increasing benefit.” Roughly translated, even a little meditation will have positive effects, but the more you induce the relaxation response, the more likely you will be up-regulating the good, chronic disease fighting genes and down-regulating those genes that promote disease.
Obviously, this message is huge and has ramifications that require your daily attention, just as diet and exercise do. The techniques for meditation are extensive and diverse. A quick Google search will produce seemingly limitless options, with varying degrees of effort and time commitment on your part. For those of you who want an easy, effective and passive method, I have a recorded session that I often use that you can put on your smartphone and listen to when you go to bed at night or when you first wake up in the morning. If you would like a copy, just shoot me an email at rbmilligan@aol.com and I will send you the audio file free.
Here’s a quick video from Dr. Brogan I believe you’ll find interesting:
(If the video doesn’t load, go here)
God bless
I came across an article the other day written by a doctor who was using himself as a guinea pig in the quest for knowledge about how our bodies burn different fuel, primarily fat and glucose. He was fascinated by our ability to switch back and forth between these fuel sources, depending upon our state of activity, and by the body’s ability to actually manufacture certain fuels required to run our brains. The triggering event for this interest was his shocking diagnosis of Metabolic Syndrome, despite being relatively young and a long-distance swimmer. I had never heard of Metabolic Syndrome and decided to dig deeper.
Basically, you are diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome if you have any three of the following:
The doctor I mentioned above was okay with the first two, but his blood chemistry told a different story and had him trip-up on the last three. How do you prevent, arrest or reverse Metabolic Syndrome while avoiding prescription drugs? Here are the most effective answers and, in the case of our doctor friend, the dietary adjustment had the most profound effect:
Here’s a quick video that provides a comprehensive solution:
(If the video doesn’t load, click here)
God bless
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The healthcare system in this country has gotten so far out of whack, it seems ridiculous to even refer to it as “healthcare”. Taken literally, it would lead you to believe the system is actually designed to care for your health, right? Unfortunately, for a whole host of reasons, many of which are profit-related, the reality is that we have become obsessed with “disease management” which, with it’s focus on alleviating symptoms and prolonging life under sometimes horrific circumstances, has little to do with maintaining one’s health by avoiding these chronic diseases in the first place. One of the drivers of this upside down approach is, of course, the billions of dollars made by the pharmaceutical companies in pushing pills and encouraging surgeries. Where’s the profit in telling someone to exercise, eat a plant-based diet, meditate and engage in all the other clinically proven strategies to stay healthy?
Fortunately, technology may be a reasonable way out of this mess; an answer to the desperate search on the part of individuals, companies, municipalities and others who are footing the bill for this terribly expensive and ineffective system. There is an emerging effort to capture and utilize specific individual health data in the context of outcomes, accepted standards of the most effective care and prevention and all the related expenses, then to share all this information with the individual, the primary care physician and the entire healthcare system. Imagine your having access to all your health information on your smartphone, with both you and your primary care physician being financially incentivized to communicate regularly on best practices for either remaining healthy or managing a condition in the most effective manner. The access to this massive pool of health data and the creative use of it is now putting the management of your healthcare back where it belongs, in the hands of you and your doctor. If you look at any employee population, for example, the largest health claims expense is related to a certain set of disease conditions. Reducing the incidence of these conditions among the employee group produces substantial savings, a portion of these dollars can then be used to encourage both healthy behavior among the employees and doctors to become more engaged in the maintenance of a patient’s health.
This is an effort that deserves your wholehearted support. Be on the lookout for companies like Medical Health Exchange (www.medicalhomeexchange.com) who are now providing this sophisticated and effective technology solution to large groups of employees. The healthcare system in this country is a behemoth that will not change easily. There are too many players with an enormous financial interest at stake and they will not give up their stranglehold without a fight, but those of us who are actually paying for this broken system are fed up and hungry for change. Whenever possible, seize the opportunity to do whatever you can to encourage the shift to a healthcare system that just makes so much more intuitive sense and will save billions of wasted dollars.
God Bless
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Last week, I shared the message about “epigenetics”, which is generally an emerging field of study about how our environment influences the expression of our individual genetic makeups. “Nutrigenomics” is a subset of this groundbreaking science that focuses specifically on the effect nutrition has on switching on and off both our good, disease-preventing genes and our bad, disease-causing genes. I implore those of you who either have or are at high risk of developing chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and even cancer to watch this short video below and take the message very seriously. More and more credible clinical data is emerging that diet can prevent, arrest and even reverse these chronic diseases. With heart disease alone, if you compare the largely ineffective, long-term results of both drug therapy and extremely invasive surgery against the effectiveness of a plant-based diet, the choice is simple. And the bonus is that, with the lifestyle change to a plant-based diet, you actually feel better and enjoy a higher quality of life versus the frightening consequences of radical, chest-splitting surgery or a drug regimen riddled with devastating side effects.
(If the video doesn’t load click here)
God bless
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For most of my life, I was under the delusion that it really didn’t matter what I ate. Because I was always so active swimming, surfing, skiing or playing football, lacrosse or tennis, I never gained weight and was always in pretty good shape. It wasn’t until I went totally plant-based that I discovered just how naive and uninformed I really was. There are a lot of other measures, besides weight, that I have now come to appreciate as indicators of true health. The increased energy levels, absence of colds, increased endurance, less muscle and joint pain, quicker recovery times, better moods, in addition to an even leaner body, can all be traced back to going plant-based. So, if you haven’t made the switch to a plant-based diet because you don’t need to lose weight or out of compassion for the treatment of animals, as the following testimony confirms, there are a whole host of additional benefits that hopefully will convince you to do so.
I immigrated to the United States seven years ago from Russia. Right away the pleasures of American cuisine turned out to be irresistible to me. Going out to eat two to three times a week with my new American friends? Sure! All of the temptations at supermarkets and fast food places? Bring them on!To compensate for all that fattening food, I took up running for the first time in my life and immediately fell in love with it. Running helped me avoid packing on weight, and I found myself in the trap a lot of active people fall into: “I exercise, so I can eat whatever I want, right?”
Over the course of three years, I ran seven half-marathons, one full marathon, and a few 5k and 10k races. As much as I loved running and exercise, I had a growing concern: my body was almost constantly sore, my joints ached … and I was only in my 20s! I was worried that the activity I loved so much was undermining my health. Plus, I kind of stalled in my fitness because of all that soreness. I knew that if I wanted to get stronger without ruining myself, I would have to look into what other athletes who were much better than me were doing.
This is how I discovered that a lot of really good endurance athletes were on a plant-based diet! I became curious and went on to do some research. I learned that eating animal products and junk food do a lot of harm to us, no matter how hard we exercise. One night, my husband and I watched the amazing documentary Forks Over Knives, and it blew my mind!
At first, I was afraid that adopting the plant-based lifestyle would be too hard: there are too many temptations out there … going out to eat could be a challenge … and what about the opinions of family and friends? I kept on reading wonderful books about plant-based athletes (like Scott Jurek’s Eat and Run) as well as articles by T. Colin Campbell, John McDougall, and others. Eventually, after watching Forks Over Knives — The Extended Interviews, I was completely convinced that a plant-based diet is the healthiest for us, and all my previous fears and excuses fell by the wayside.
The first couple weeks were all it took for me to believe that I was on the right track: my energy levels skyrocketed and stayed high throughout the day; I started waking up early with no problem, even though I considered myself an owl before; all the skin blemishes that had plagued me since adolescence cleared up; I was finally able to exercise harder and recover quicker; and my muscles and joints were no longer sore.
Leaving my old eating habits behind turned out to be no problem: I found a lot of delicious plant-based vegan recipes through Pinterest and bought a couple great cookbooks. My husband was a little skeptical at first, but after I showed him all the scientific information about plant-based eating and started cooking delicious vegan meals, he was convinced.
On November 10, I ran my first plant-fueled marathon in 4:08:18. I fully credit my plant-based diet for making me stronger than ever. I am living proof that plant foods alone can fuel a physically demanding lifestyle perfectly … and what could be more convincing than learning through my own experience!
It’s been six months since I became plant-strong, and I am proud to say that this way of life has not only made me healthier and assured me of my inner strength, it also gave me confidence to find my voice and inspire others — by sharing my story through my new blog!
Thank you, Forks Over Knives, for encouraging me to embrace this healthy lifestyle!
God bless
Here’s some particularly insightful advice on how to make your holiday family gatherings more enjoyable and peaceful. Wayne Dyer’s premise here is critical in that the most effective way to change the dynamics of any relationship is to work on the only thing over which you have control…..yourself!
by DR. WAYNE W. DYER
Many years ago, when the holiday season arrived and certain relatives were due to make their annual appearance, I felt a sense of increasing dread. Far too many of us suffer from the pain of family get-togethers, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Somehow we allow the expectations and demands of our family members to be the source of so much unhappiness and stress, when what we really want is to be authentically ourselves and at peace with our relatives. The conflict seems too often to be a choice between being authentic, which means no peace with certain relatives, or having peace at the price of being inauthentic. Being peaceful and authentic can define your relationship with your relatives. First, though, you may have to assess your relationship with the closest relative of all—you.
In order to change the nature of family relationships, you’ll have to change your mind about them and consider that you are the source of the anguish in your relationships, rather than the individual whom you’ve pegged as the most outrageous, the most despicable, or the most infuriating. Over the years, all of these individuals have been treating you exactly as you’ve allowed them to with your reactions and behaviors. This can miraculously change when you choose to be at peace with everyone in your life—most particularly, your relatives.
If the focus of your inner dialogue about your family members is on what they’re doing that’s wrong, then that’s precisely how your relationship with them will be experienced. If your inner speech centers on what’s annoying about them, that’s what you’ll notice. But if you’re thinking, I am authentic and peaceful with this relative, then that’s what you’ll experience—even if that relative continues to be exactly the way he or she has always been.
The key to having peace in all your family relationships is forgiveness. Your relatives are simply doing what they’ve been taught to do over a lifetime, and the lifetimes of many of their ancestors. Shower them with understanding and forgiveness from your heart. Rather than being in a state of non-peace concerning any family members, say a prayer of gratitude for their presence in your life and all that they have come to teach you.
The likelihood is great that you’ll see dramatic changes in your relatives as you teach them with your own persona how you intend to be treated. But if they don’t change, and if they continue their nonpeaceful ways, let go of your need to see them transformed. It all works in divine order, and the saying Let go and let God guarantees your own peace, and you dramatically increase the odds of helping others to do the same.
Merry Christmas and God bless
This title is actually a quote from John Ratey, a neuropsychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, who is making the case that fitness has a long-term influence on a wide range of cognitive abilities. It’s generally accepted that exercise is effective in reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Recent research by Ratey and others now suggests that the physical exercise in which we engaged as children helped power the brain through the many changes into adulthood and the subsequent decrease in physical activity as we age is partially responsible for the onset of dementia. One German study, published in 2010, tracked 4,000 people older than 55 for two years. It found that those who rarely took part in physical activities were more than twice as likely to suffer from a cognitive impairment by the end of the study than those who engaged in exercise such as gardening, swimming or cycling a few times a week. Another study, which followed 1,500 people for 20 years, showed that those people who exercised at least twice a week during middle-age were less likely to develop dementia in their 60s and 70s.
There are three possible explanations for the link between exercise and brain function. One is the euphoric effect and clarity of mind felt after exercising which produces a drop in stress levels, long recognized as an impairment to cognitive function. The second is the effect on blood pressure. High blood pressure, especially in the arteries that feed the brain, has been linked to a slump in mental performance. Regular exercise tends to lower blood pressure, thereby reducing the stress and damage to these arteries. The third, Ratey describes, is “exercise also prompts the brain to send out growth factors such as insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF is like ‘Miracle-Gro for your brain’ because it creates an environment where neurons can flourish and promotes the formation of new connections between cells.”
Most importantly, you can produce this beneficial effect at any age, even with moderate exercise like walking. Ratey suggests starting slowly with an exercise regime that is not likely to produce injury or initial discouragement. However, in concert with the most recent exercise theory, he goes on to stress that the most dramatic effect will be through High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Aside from producing the best physical results, HIIT seems to also produce the best mental conditions as evidenced by a German study in which participants incorporated two three-minute intervals of high-intensity sprinting into a 40-minute run. They produced much higher levels of BDNF and noradrenaline, and the runners performed 20 percent better in a post-run vocabulary-building exercise than those who had taken more leisurely exercise.
The only benefit to dementia is that you meet new friends and family every day. It’s a horrendous condition, but science is now suggesting you have some control over it manifesting in your life. Start moving!
God bless
With the holidays looming, I thought it would be nice to help justify those sumptuous glasses of red wine you plan on sharing with with family and friends. The evidence seems to be clear that regular, moderate consumption of red wine is beneficial to your health. Without getting into all the scientific gobbledygook behind them, here’s a quick rundown on the benefits to help you educate others:
That’s an impressive list, but remember, these benefits are associated with moderate and consistent consumption. Excessive imbibing and binge drinking can lead to a whole host of health problems including increased cancer risk, liver disease, high blood pressure, heart failure and addiction. Wine also contains empty calories, which can lead to weight gain in the absence of exercise and proper nutrition.
So go ahead and enjoy your red wine over the holidays…….responsibly and in moderation.
God Bless
Mill's Message 