5 Mistakes You're Making Cleaning Your Ears

If you regularly use cotton swabs or other methods to clean earwax from your ears, you may be in for a surprise. This common habit may do far more harm than good, as can these other widespread ear-cleaning mistakes.



April 09, 2016

Story at-a-glance

• Your ears are self-cleaning and earwax will migrate out of your ears naturally
• Cotton swabs are not meant to insert into your ears and doing so can damage your eardrum, skin or ossicles
• One of the primary risks of cotton swabs is they can push the earwax into the deeper part of your ear canal leading to impaction

By Dr. Mercola

Is cleaning out your ears with cotton swabs part of your regular hygiene routine? If the answer is yes, you’re certainly not alone. But, contrary to popular belief, cleaning your ears isn’t only typically unnecessary; it’s potentially dangerous.

Your ears are unique in that they’re a self-cleaning part of your body. If left alone, the earwax will migrate out of your ears naturally. There’s no need to forcefully remove it.

Further, sticking any foreign object in your ear poses the potential for injury, especially if the thin skin of your ear canal is broken or the ossicles (bones of your middle ear) are damaged.

Boris Chernobilsky, MD, assistant clinical professor of otolaryngology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, told Time:1

“In the worst-case scenario, damage to the ossicles can result in a leak of fluid from the inner ear … This would result in severe vertigo and potentially a permanent hearing loss.

… If skin is broken, it can get infected and lead to a painful external ear infection—swimmer’s ear, in lay terms.”

Are You Making These Five Ear-Cleaning Mistakes?

Dr. Chernobilsky shared five common habits that may be putting your ears at risk.2

1. Cleaning Your Ears Regularly

You probably don’t need to clean your ears at all, let alone daily or every other day. Known technically as cerumen, earwax is made mostly of dead skin cells but is also contains lysozyme, an antibacterial enzyme, fatty acids, alcohols, cholesterol and squalene.3

Earwax isn’t a substance you need to guard your ears against; it’s actually beneficial and provides protection, lubrication and antibacterial properties. As explained by the American Hearing Research Foundation:4

“Too little ear wax increases the risk of infection …  at least ten antimicrobial peptides are present in ear wax preventing bacteria and fungi from growing.”

Further, the skin in your ears grows in an outward direction in order to move earwax and skin debris out of your ear canal. The removal of earwax is also helped along by movements of your jaw (talking, chewing, etc.).

Once it reaches your outer ear it will simply fall out or be removed when you shower or bathe. You can use a washcloth to gently remove wax from your outer ear, if necessary, but you needn’t clean your ear canal.

In an interview with Common Health, Dr. Steven D. Rauch, professor of Otology and Laryngology at Harvard Medical School, explained:5

“The skin of the ear canal migrates outward like a conveyor belt and pushes the wax out, so by and large, ears are self-cleaning. If you leave your ears alone, they’ll leave you alone.

In some cases, because of the shape of the canal or the consistency of the wax, you need someone to clean it, but routinely, that’s not the case, and you’re thwarting the normal conveyor belt mechanics when you plow the stuff down into the deep part of the canal.”

2. Inserting Cotton Swabs in Your Ears

Cotton swabs are not meant to insert into your ears and doing so can damage your eardrum, skin or ossicles. The cotton head of the swab could also potentially pop off and get stuck in your ear canal, which would require professional removal.

Under normal circumstances, earwax is only produced in the outer one-third of your ear canal.

One of the primary risks of cotton swabs is they can push the earwax into the deeper part of your ear canal, near the eardrum. As the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) noted:6

“When a patient has wax blockage against the eardrum, it is often because he has been probing the ear with such things as cotton-tipped applicators, bobby pins, or twisted napkin corners. These objects only push the wax in deeper.”

When earwax is pushed deep into your ear where it doesn’t belong, it can bring fungus, bacteria and viruses from the outer ear into the inner ear, increasing the risk of infection. It can also block your ear canal, leading to hearing loss, or even cause a ruptured eardrum.

It’s a vicious cycle, too, because the more you rub your ears with cotton swabs, the more histamine will be released, which makes your skin irritated and inflamed. This, in turn, may make you want to insert a cotton swab again, leading to additional dryness and irritation.7

3. Inserting Any Pointy Object in Your Ears

Inserting objects such as bobby pins, long fingernails, or sewing needles into your ear involves many of the same risks of cotton swabs, and the pointy tip could cut and damage your skin quite easily. According to AAO-HNSF:8

“ … attempting to remove earwax with cotton-tipped swabs, bobby pins, or other probing devices can result in damage to the ear, including trauma, impaction of the earwax, or even temporary deafness.

These objects only push the wax in deeper, and can block the ear canal entirely.”

4. Ear Candling - Playing With Fire

Ear candling involves putting a hollow cone-shaped device or “candle,” typically made of linen or cotton soaked in wax or paraffin, in your ear canal and lighting it on fire. Proponents and practitioners of candling maintain the procedure removes wax and other impurities from your ear.

It’s said that as the smoke moves down the candle into your ear and back out again a vacuum is created that pulls out wax and other debris from your ear into the hollow candle. Experts, however, typically warn against this procedure and I wholeheartedly agree.

Dr. Chernobilsky told Time, “I have seen eardrum perforations and burns from people’s hair catching on fire.”9

Further, research published in the journal Laryngoscope measured this pressure and concluded that no negative pressure was created.10 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has also warned against ear candling and notes that it’s been linked to the following risks:11

Fire	Burns to your face, ear canal, eardrum and middle ear
Injury to your ear from dripping wax	Plugging of your ears by candle wax
Bleeding	Perforation of your eardrum

5. Rinsing With a Syringe

Rinsing with a syringe can be safe, but if you neglect to dry your ear when you’re done you could end up with swimmer’s ear. Generally, there’s no need to rinse your ears with a syringe.

Is Using Cotton Swabs Really That Dangerous?

Many people have no intention of giving up their cotton-swab habit, even after recognizing the risks. The ear is an erogenous zone, after all, and cleaning the ears with cotton swabs is satisfying for many.

Others like to use swabs to dry their ears out after a shower or bath or still feel the need to clean out earwax, even though it’s not necessary. So if you keep using cotton swabs in your ears, are you guaranteed to do damage? Probably not, but there’s no way to know whose ears might end up damaged and whose will not. Dr. Steven D. Rauch, the Harvard Medical School professor, explained:12

“Lots of people stick Q-tips in their ears. Some of them do harm by doing that. They either push the wax down deep where it can’t clean itself out and they have to get professional care, or they traumatize the canal so that it bleeds or hurts, or they make little scratches and bacteria get in and cause infection.

So it’s a well-known mechanism for causing ear trouble, but that’s a numerator with no denominator. Say I see 50 people who have Q-tip issues, but I don’t know how many out there use them and never have a problem. I don’t know whether it’s 50 out of 75, or 50 out of 5000 users. It’s impossible to know how big the problem is.

And it’s not a secret. It’s not an unknown problem. Everybody in the medical profession, every primary care doctor and ENT specialist, knows this. I think a lot of the public knows it too, but the public does a lot of things that are not good. They ride bikes without helmets and don’t put on seat belts and drink giant soft drinks.”

A Safe Way to Remove Earwax

An ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor, or otolaryngologist, can remove earwax using a special suction, miniature instruments and a microscope. If your eardrum is perforated, manual removal by a physician is recommended, however in most other cases you can clear earwax blockages at home.

The simplest way to do this is to first soften the wax by placing a few drops of olive oil, coconut oil or water in your ear. Then, pour a capful of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide in each ear to flush the wax out. It’s worth noting that using plain sterile water, or a sterile saline solution, to soften earwax works just as well as oil or over-the-counter eardrops.

As an aside, the hydrogen peroxide trick (pouring a capful of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide in your ears) also works remarkably well at resolving respiratory infections, like colds and flu. You will hear some bubbling, which is completely normal, and possibly feel a slight stinging sensation. Wait until the bubbling and stinging subside (usually 5 to 10 minutes) then drain onto a tissue and repeat with the other ear.

It’s also worth noting that frequent excess buildup of earwax can oftentimes be traced back to an omega-3 deficiency. The remedy for this is quite simple: eat more omega-3s or take a high-quality animal-based omega-3 supplement like krill oil. Good dietary sources of omega-3 include sardines, anchovies and wild-caught Alaskan salmon.

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/04/09/ear-cleaning-mistakes.aspx

Salmon - Disguised as Healthy, Is This One of the World's Most Toxic Foods?

It should be one of the healthiest foods you can eat, but in recent tests it showed up about 5 times more toxic than any other food tested. Please be ultra-careful.

An Inside Look Into the Fish Industry Reveals Disturbing Facts That Could Threaten Your Health

April 30, 2016

Story at-a-glance

• Salmon farming is a disaster both for the environment and for human health, and tests show farmed salmon is about five times more toxic than any other food tested
• In animal feeding studies, mice fed farmed salmon developed obesity and diabetes — effects researchers believe are related to toxic exposures
• Besides pesticides and antibiotics used in fish farming, the most significant source of toxic exposure is the dry pellet feed, which contains dioxins, PCBs, and other toxic pollutants

By Dr. Mercola

Nicolas Daniel’s documentary “Fillet-Oh-Fish” takes a critical look at the fish industry, featuring exclusive footage from fish farms and factories across the globe. Many still have a rather romanticized view of fishing, but when it comes to large-scale food production, the picture is actually rather grim.

Today’s fisheries are faced with a range of severe problems, from overfishing to chemical pollution and genetic mutation from toxic exposures. As noted by the producers of the film, “through intensive farming and global pollution, the flesh of the fish we eat has turned into a deadly chemical cocktail.”1

Despite that, the fish business is booming, in part due to efforts to keep the dirty underbelly of modern fisheries from public sight.

Aquaculture promotes itself as a sustainable solution to overfishing. But in reality, fish farms actually cause more problems than they solve. There’s really little difference, in terms of environmental pollution, between land-based feedlots and water-based ones.

Farmed Salmon — One of the Most Toxic Foods in the World?

The film starts off in Norway, looking at the chemicals used in fish farms. Kurt Oddekalv is a respected Norwegian environmental activist, and he believes salmon farming is a disaster both for the environment and for human health.

Below the salmon farms dotted across the Norwegian fjords, there’s a layer of waste some 15 meters high, teeming with bacteria, drugs, and pesticides. In short, the entire sea floor has been destroyed, and since the farms are located in open water, the pollution from these farms is in no way contained.

A salmon farm can hold upwards of 2 million salmon in a relatively small amount of space. These crowded conditions result in disease, which spreads rapidly among the stressed salmon.

According to Oddekalv, sea lice, Pancreas Disease(PD)2 and Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus (ISA) have spread all across Norway, yet consumers are not informed of these fish pandemics, and sale of these diseased fish continue unabated.

A number of dangerous pesticides are used in an effort to stave off disease-causing pests, one of which is known to have neurotoxic effects. Fish has always been considered a health food, but according to Oddekalv, today’s farmed salmon is one of the most toxicfoods in the world!

Toxicology researcher Jerome Ruzzin has confirmed Oddekalv’s claims. He’s tested a number of different food groups sold in Norway for toxins, and indeed, farmed salmon contains the greatest amount of toxins of them all, and by an incredibly large margin.

Overall, farmed salmon is five times more toxic than any other food product tested. In animal feeding studies, mice fed farmed salmon grew obese, with thick layers of fat around their internal organs. They also developed diabetes.

Ruzzin notes that a theory gaining traction is that rising rates of obesity is related to the increasing number of toxins and pollutants we’re exposed to through our environment and food. In light of his own studies, Ruzzin has stopped eating farmed salmon.

Genetic Mutations and Other Crazy Facts

Besides keeping pests like sea lice in check, the pesticides used also affect the fish’s DNA, causing genetic mutations. Disturbing examples of deformed cod are shown in the film.

What’s even more disturbing is that, according to Oddekalv, about 50 percent of farmed cod are deformed in this fashion, and female cod that escape from farms are known to mate with wild cod, spreading the genetic mutations and deformities into the wild population.

Farmed salmon suffer less visible but equally disturbing mutations. The flesh of the farmed salmon is “brittle,” and breaks apart when bent — a highly abnormal feature.

The nutritional content is also wildly abnormal. Wild salmon contains about 5 to 7 percent fat, whereas the farmed variety can contain anywhere from 14.5 to 34 percent.

Many toxins accumulate most readily in fat, which means even when raised in similarly contaminated conditions, farmed salmon will contain far more toxins than wild.

Shockingly, research reveals that the most significant source of toxic exposure is not actually the pesticides or the antibiotics, but the dry pellet feed! Pollutants found in the fish feed include dioxins, PCBs, and a number of different drugs and chemicals.

What Makes the Fish Feed so Toxic?

So what’s wrong with the fish feed? Why is it so toxic? In one Norwegian fish pellet plant, the main ingredient turns out to be eel, used for their high protein and fat content, and other fatty fish from the Baltic Sea.

That’s where the problem begins, as the Baltic is highly polluted. Some of the fish used have toxic levels of pollutants, which then simply get incorporated into the feed pellets.

In Sweden, fish mongers are now required to warn patrons about the potential toxicity of Baltic fish. According to government recommendations, you should not eat fatty fish like herring more than once a week, and if you’re pregnant, fish from the Baltic should be avoided altogether.

Swedish Greenpeace activist Jan Isakson reveals some of the sources of all this pollution. Just outside of Stockholm, there’s a massive paper mill on the bank of the Baltic that generates toxic dioxins.

Nine other industrialized countries surrounding the Baltic Sea also dump their toxic waste into this closed body of water. Dioxins bind to fat, which is why herring, eel, and salmon are particularly vulnerable, and end up accumulating higher amounts than other fish.

As a result of being deemed unfit for human consumption, some of these fatty fish are now primarily used as fish food. In this way, toxicity in the farmed salmon is allowed to build up even higher than in the wild.

One of the Best Kept and Most Dangerous Secrets of the Fish Industry

But there’s yet another problem, and it stems from the manufacturing process of the pellets. The fatty fish are first cooked, resulting in two separate products: protein meal and oil. While the oil has high levels of dioxins and PCBs, the protein powder further adds to the toxicity of the end product.

To the protein powder, they add an “antioxidant” called ethoxyquin. According to the filmmaker, this is one of the best kept secrets of the fish food industry. Ethoxyquin was developed by Monsanto in the 1950s — as a pesticide. Its use is strictly regulated, so why is it being added to fish pellets?

A couple of years ago, a Swiss anti-fraud laboratory was surprised to find extremely high levels of ethoxyquin in farmed fish — some 10 to 20 times higher than the 50 mcg per kilo allowed in food in the European Union — and that discovery began to unravel the secret. Ethoxyquin was designed for use on fruits and vegetables, but the fish feed industry discovered another novel use for it — they add it to the feed to prevent the fats from oxidizing and going rancid.

However, the fish feed manufacturers never informed health authorities of their use of the chemical. As a result, the EU strictly regulates ethoxyquin levels in fruits, vegetables, and meat — there are even standards for kangaroos and reptiles — but not for the fish people consume. What’s more, the effects of this chemical on human health have never been established.

The one and only study ever done on ethoxyquin and human health was a thesis by Victoria Bohne, Ph.D. a former researcher in Norway who made a number of disturbing discoveries, including the fact that ethoxyquin can cross the blood brain barrier, and may have carcinogenic effects. Bohne, as many other researchers who have made unpopular findings, was pressured to leave her research job after attempts were made to falsify and downplay her findings.

Others have linked the secret use of ethoxyquin in Norwegian fish farming, and the lack of scientific investigation into its effects, to the Norwegian Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs, Lisbeth Berg-Hansen, who also happens to be a major shareholder in a commercial salmon farm, and has held many high-ranking positions within the fishing industry.

The Rise of Panga Exploited Fish Consumption

In France, fish consumption has more than doubled in the past five decades, now surpassing consumption of both beef and chicken. To meet demand, fish is being imported from around the globe. Rarely will you find a fish caught off the coast of France. Nearly half of all fish sold in France is raised in fish farms. Lesser known and less expensive species have also been brought to market.

Panga, which is now one of the 10 most consumed fish in France, was relatively unknown a decade ago. Its low price has also made panga a top seller in the school system. The questions asked in the film are, how can this farmed fish be sold at such low prices, and what’s actually in these fish that children are now eating on a regular basis?

The investigation begins in southern Vietnam, where panga is part of the culinary tradition. However, behind this cultural image, there’s a more disturbing reality. Over the past 15 years, panga exports have become a major source of income for the region. In fact, 95 percent of the global production of panga comes from southern Vietnam, and this success has resulted in both environmental and human exploitation.

Farmed panga grow twice to four times as fast compared to those in the wild, allowing them to reach adult size in about six months. The fish are then harvested and processed, which includes washing the fillets in big vats filled with water and polyphosphates — chemical additives that facilitate freezing.

The chemical also allows the fish to soak up water, which artificially increases their weight. After this process, the fish lack both taste and odor, and will take on the flavor of whatever spices you add to it during cooking.

Environmental Pollution Poses Risks

Many panga farms are plagued with disease, courtesy of the polluted waters in which they’re raised. Mekong River, where many panga farms are located, is one of the most heavily polluted rivers in the world. In 2009, the World Wide Fund for Nature placed panga on their “red” list of products that pose a danger to environmental and human health.

Millions of Vietnamese households dump their waste directly into the Mekong River each day. Pesticides used in rice cultivation also migrate into this waterway. Green algae and bacteria release toxins into the water and reduce oxygen levels in the water, which adds further stress on the fish’s immune systems, making them more prone to disease.

To address disease, farmers add industrial quantities of drugs into their fish ponds, including a wide array of antibiotics. The side effect is drug resistance, which forces the farmers to keep increasing the dosages. The panga are not the only thing affected by this strategy, of course. Antibiotics spread through the river systems, are absorbed into the fish’s tissues and excreted through feces, which redistributes the drugs into the environment — and to those who eat the fish.

Are You Eating Fish, or Fish Waste?

Fish can be one of the healthiest foods you can eat, but in the industrial age you have to be ultra careful about choosing the right type of fish. If you needed another reason to avoid processed foods, watch this film to the end, where it describes how fish waste has become a “highly valued commodity” used in processed foods. At less than 15 cents per kilo, these fish heads and tails, and what little meat is left over after filleting, is a real profit maker.

Virtually nothing actually goes to waste anymore. Fish skins are recycled for use in the cosmetics industry. The remainder of the fish waste is washed and ground into a pulp, which is then used in prepared meals and pet food.

Since food manufacturers are not required to tell you their products contain fish pulp rather than actual fish fillet meat, this product offers a high profit margin for food manufacturers. One tipoff: if the product’s list of ingredients includes a fish without specifying that it’s made with fillet of fish, it’s usually made with fish waste pulp.

Fish fraud is also commonplace. Investigations have shown that 1 in 3 fish labels are false or misleading. Typically, an inexpensive fish is mislabeled as a more expensive one. Some farmed fish are also passed off as wild. Since traceability is more complex in the processed food industry, due to the mixing of ingredients, that’s where most of the fish fraud occurs. It’s somewhat more difficult to pass off fillets of fish as another species, although that also occurs.

Best Seafood Options: Wild Alaskan Salmon, Sardines and Anchovies

It’s become quite clear that fish farms are not a viable solution to overfishing. If anything, they’re making matters worse, destroying the marine ecosystem at a far more rapid clip to boot ... So what’s the answer? Unfortunately, the vast majority of fish — even when wild caught — is too contaminated to eat on a frequent basis. Most major waterways in the world are contaminated with mercury, heavy metals, and chemicals like dioxins, PCBs, and other agricultural chemicals that wind up in the environment.

This is why, as a general rule, I no longer recommend getting your omega-3 requirements from fish. However, I do make two exceptions. One is authentic, wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon; the nutritional benefits of which I believe still outweigh any potential contamination.

The risk of sockeye accumulating high amounts of mercury and other toxins is reduced because of its short life cycle, which is only about three years. Additionally, bioaccumulation of toxins is also reduced by the fact that it doesn't feed on other, already contaminated, fish.

Alaskan salmon is not allowed to be farmed, and is therefore always wild-caught. My favorite brand is Vital Choice Wild Seafood and Organics, which offers a nice variety of high-quality salmon products that test high for omega-3 fats and low for contaminants. Canned salmon labeled "Alaskan salmon" is a less expensive alternative to salmon fillets. 

The second exception is smaller fish with short life cycles, which also tend to be better alternatives in terms of fat content, such as sardines and anchovies, so it's a win-win situation — lower contamination risk and higher nutritional value. A general guideline is that the closer to the bottom of the food chain the fish is, the less contamination it will have accumulated. Just make sure they’re not from the Baltic Sea.

Other good choices include herring and fish roe (caviar), which is full of important phospholipids that nourish mitochondrial membranes.

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/04/30/salmon-fish-farming.aspx?

Healthy Beef Stroganoff Recipe

Beef Stroganoff is a Russian dish that combines the trio of juicy beef, mouthwatering sauce, and fresh noodles. While this meal may look simple, it can please even the pickiest of taste buds. If you want to make Beef Stroganoff for family or friends, start with this healthy version adapted from Simply Organic.

• Recipe From Simply Organic
• Date Published: February 11, 2016

Healthy Beef Stroganoff Recipe

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1 pound grass-fed beef tips
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/4 cup grape, pomegranate, or cranberry juice

• 2 packages Simply Organic Mushroom Sauce Mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 8 ounces egg noodles (you may also substitute rice for the egg noodles)

Procedure

1. In a large skillet, heat ¼ cup water on high and brown beef on each side.
2. Add sliced mushrooms and sauté with beef for 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Turn heat to low. Add 1 cup water, juice, and Mushroom Sauce Mix and stir. Blend in sour cream.
4. Leave meat/sauce dish simmering on low heat and prepare egg noodles according to the directions on the package. Serve mixture over prepared noodles when ready.

Note: This dish is traditionally served over noodles, but it’s delicious without. You may also substitute the noodles for spaghetti squash or rice.

Flavors Abound With This Healthy Beef Stroganoff Recipe

There’s no doubt that the star of this dish is grass-fed beef. It contains vitamins, minerals, higher conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) levels, and a balanced ratio of essential omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. Ideally, grass-fed beef is what you should use in your family’s meals, not conventional grain-fed beef.

Grain-fed cows are fed grain and growth hormones and additives, a far cry from their usual diet of grass. What’s worse, these cows aren’t able to roam around pastures, unlike grass-fed cows. Instead, they’re kept in cramped living conditions, a potential breeding ground for diseases that could mean disaster for your health.

Want creamier dishes without the guilt? Use sour cream, since it’s lighter without skipping the flavor. However, most sour cream sold today is made from milk and cream tainted with rBGH, a growth hormone that was found to increase breast cancer risk. Use sour cream made from organic and unpasteurized raw milk instead. Even better, make your own sour cream from fresh, raw, and organic cream by combining it with a lacto-fermentation starter culture.  

Mushrooms not only provide additional flavor to this recipe, but health benefits too. They help manage your weight, boost your immune system, allow nerves to regenerate, and even destroy cancer cells. You can use any type of mushroom you have on hand, but make sure to clean them with a damp cloth before using to prevent mushroom poisoning.

https://recipes.mercola.com/beef-stroganoff-recipe.aspx

Healthy Chicken Soup with Lentils Recipe

There is perhaps no more comforting food than a warm bowl of chicken soup, but the benefits are not only to your psyche. Chicken soup has been used as a remedy for the common cold since at least the 12th century.1

January 18, 2015

The fluids it provides can help your body fight infection, while the steam might help ease your congestion. But beyond this, chicken soup contains beneficial compounds that might alleviate inflammation.2

When you’re sick with a cold, part of your body’s inflammatory response is to send white blood cells to your upper respiratory tract to help fend off the invaders. This, however, may stimulate many of the symptoms of the common cold, including mucous production, cough, and sneezing.3

One study showed that chicken soup helped to stop the migration of the cells, which could potentially help to stop some cold symptoms from developing. According to the study:4

“Chicken soup significantly inhibited neutrophil migration and did so in a concentration-dependent manner... chicken soup may contain a number of substances with beneficial medicinal activity.

A mild anti-inflammatory effect could be one mechanism by which the soup could result in the mitigation of symptomatic upper respiratory tract infections.”

Did You Know?

• Chicken soup has been used as a remedy for the common cold since at least the 12th century
• Chicken soup contains beneficial compounds that might alleviate inflammation
• This tasty twist on chicken soup contains yellow lentils, cabbage, and a hint of balsamic vinegar for flavor

Chicken Soup: More Than a Placebo Effect?

Other studies looking into the health benefits of chicken soup also suggest it has more than just a “placebo effect.” As reported in the New York Times,5one study found that eating hot chicken soup helped increase the movement of nasal mucus more than simply drinking hot water.6

Separate research also showed chicken soup improved the function of cilia, which are hair-like structures in your nose that help keep pathogens from entering your body.7 The New York Times reported:8

“None of the research is conclusive, and it’s not known whether the changes measured in the laboratory really have a meaningful effect on people with cold symptoms. However, at the very least, chicken soup with vegetables contains lots of healthy nutrients, increases hydration, and tastes good, too.”

What Else Makes Chicken Soup So Healthy?

Beyond the potential anti-inflammatory activity, there’s good reason to eat chicken soup – it’s full of healthy vegetables and other nutritious ingredients.

Chicken

Chicken is an excellent source of protein, B vitamins, selenium, phosphorus, and choline. It provides all B vitamins along with a surprisingly varied number of additional nutrients.

Chicken also contains a natural amino acid called cysteine, which can thin the mucus in your lungs and make it less sticky so you can expel it more easily. As reported by the George Mateljan Foundation:9

“Chicken is perhaps best known for its high protein content, but it is a food that actually provides broad nutrient support… Included… are plentiful amounts of sulfur-containing amino acids like cysteine and methionine, as well as branched chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) that are important for support of cardiac and skeletal muscle.

All B vitamins are present in chicken meat… In terms of minerals, chicken is richest in selenium… Zinc, copper, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron are also provided by this food.”

Bone Broth

I encourage you to make your own homemade bone broth to use as a base for your chicken soup. Bone broth contains valuable minerals in a form your body can easily absorb and use, including calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur chondroitin, glucosamine, and a variety of trace minerals.

The gelatin found in bone broth is a hydrophilic colloid. It attracts and holds liquids, including digestive juices, thereby supporting proper digestion. You can find a recipe to make chicken bone broth here.

Cabbage

Cabbage, which is part of the chicken soup recipe below, contains powerful antioxidants like vitamins A and C and phytonutrients such as thiocyanates, lutein, zeaxanthin, isothiocyanates, and sulforaphane, which stimulate detoxifying enzymes and may protect against breast, colon, and prostate cancers.

Cabbage also contains a wealth of anti-inflammatory nutrients to help keep inflammation in check. Among them are anthocyanins, a type of polyphenol that’s particularly plentiful in red cabbage, although all types of cabbage contain anti-inflammatory polyphenols.

Garlic

Studies have demonstrated more than 150 beneficial health effects of garlic, including reducing your risk for heart disease, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure, and various cancers such as brain, lung, and prostate cancer.

Garlic also has immune-boosting properties and is a triple threat against infections, offering antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties.

A New Twist on Chicken Soup: Chicken Soup with Yellow Lentils

The recipe below comes from my Healthy Recipes for Your Nutritional Type cookbook. It’s simple to prepare and takes a new spin on ordinary chicken soup, with the addition of two varieties of vinegar, cabbage, and yellow lentils.

Healthy Chicken Soup with Lentils Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 whole organic pasture-raised chicken, cut up (marinate overnight in lemon juice if you have time)
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 jar crushed tomatoes (or substitute fresh)
• 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• ½ cup yellow lentils, soaked overnight
• 4 cups chicken stock or bone broth
• ½ head medium cabbage, chopped OR ½ pound spinach
• 4 cloves garlic, minced

 

Procedure

1. Heat a large pot over medium heat and add coconut oil. Place chicken in pot and brown each side for 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.
2. Place onions in the pot and sauté for 4-5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and sauté for another 5-10 minutes. Add both vinegars, lentils, stock, and chicken. Simmer for 1 hour on low heat.
3. Remove chicken and take off skin and bones. Then return the chicken to the pot.
4. Add the cabbage and cook for 15 minutes. Add the garlic and spinach (if using). Cook for another 10 minutes.
5. Serve with Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

https://recipes.mercola.com/chicken-soup-recipe.aspx

Think an Oncologist's Goal Is to Treat You? You'll Be Stunned by Their Answers

Straight from their own mouths, oncologists reveal why their goal isn't to treat you as an individual. These cancer patients found that truth hard to swallow and instead chose to buck the system, including a glioblastoma brain tumor patient who's still alive 19 years later because he did.

Atrocious State of Cancer Treatment in the U.S.

• April 09, 2016 • 533,315 views

Story at-a-glance

• Despite a decades-long war on cancer, and the “most advanced” treatments known to 21st-century oncologists, many cancer diagnoses remain a death sentence
• Patient requests for possible experimental, natural or outside-the-box treatments are typically denied by oncologists who refuse to deviate from the hospital’s standard protocol
• The film “Surviving Terminal Cancer” follows the story of those who have survived terminal cancer by bucking the system and taking their health and cancer treatment into their own hands

By Dr. Mercola

Being diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a type of brain tumor, is considered a death sentence by modern medicine.

Despite a decades-long war on cancer, and the "most advanced" treatments known to 21st century oncologists, people who develop this aggressive, fast-growing cancer are given a prognosis of about 15 months to live — if they're lucky.

Aggressive treatment, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, is often started, even though oncologists know it won't cure the disease. If you ever find yourself in this type of nightmarish scenario, you can imagine the desperation you would feel to find something, anything, that might offer hope.

Most people turn to their oncologists or neurosurgeons with such requests for possible experimental or outside-the-box treatments, but you're unlikely to receive any help that deviates from the hospital's standard protocol.

It's not that such treatment options don't exist; they do. The problem is that the oncologist can't, or won't, prescribe them. To do so would risk his or her reputation and even medical license, should you decide to sue.

The film interviews a number of oncologists that carefully describe their predicament. But the problem is even larger than this. Modern cancer care is not set up to treat you, an individual. Their primary goal is to validate experimental therapies for future cancer patients many years down the road.

Due to regulatory red tape, drug-company greed, failures in the scientific process and lack of a universal will to do what's best for each and every patient, modern cancer care fails an unacceptable percentage of the time.

As Albert Einstein said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This describes modern cancer treatment in a nutshell.

How One Man Survived Terminal Cancer

Ben Williams, Ph.D., professor emeritus of Experimental Psychology at University of California, San Diego, shouldn't be here today. He should be one of the statistics — 1 of the more than 15,000 people who die from glioblastoma multiforme in the U.S. every year.1

Yet, he's alive — 19 years after his initial glioblastoma multiforme diagnosis. His survival was brushed off as a rare fluke by his doctors, but Williams believes otherwise.

In his book "Surviving Terminal Cancer: Clinical Trials, Drug Cocktails, and Other Treatments Your Oncologist Won't Tell You About," he details the multi-faceted strategy he used to overcome the disease. You can hear him tell his story first-hand in the film "Surviving Terminal Cancer," above.

It's becoming increasingly clear that in order to outsmart cancer, you've got to attack it from multiple angles, especially in the case of complex brain cancer. And that's what Williams did.

He described a mushroom extract that's used routinely to treat cancer in Japan. It has zero toxicity, but it's not even mentioned in the U.S.

He did his own research, finding out about the potential to use existing non-cancer medications off label to treat the deadly disease. Once a patent expires on a drug, its potential to rake in major profits plummets. As such, drug companies typically abandon them in favor of newer, more profitable pursuits.

Abandoned Drugs Show Promise but Oncologists Won't Prescribe Them

Some of these abandoned drugs have shown promise for glioblastoma multiforme, but they're not offered to U.S. patients. While I'm not in favor of over-prescribing medications, if you're facing a deadly prognosis you're probably willing to risk the side effects if it gives you a chance for survival.

High-dose tamoxifen, a breast cancer drug, is one such medication that has shown some promise in treating glioblastoma multiforme.2

The anti-malaria drug chloroquine is another.3 There's even a good chance your neuro-oncologist may be aware of the promising studies done with these drugs, but he or she won't offer them as a potential treatment because they're considered experimental. As Williams said:

"It made absolutely no sense to me not to use everything that might have a benefit as long as the toxicities were acceptable. Why wouldn't anyone want to add them? It seemed to be totally irrational that people didn't use everything that was available."

When Modern Medicine Fails Them, Cancer Patients Turn to Self-Medication and the Black Market

In order to survive, Williams turned to self-medicating, a dangerous prospect by any account but, again, when your life is at stake you're willing to take the risk. And his story is not unique.

Many have traveled to other countries, forged prescriptions, feigned illnesses to get access to different medications and even traded medications and nutraceuticals on the "black market" in order to have even a chance at survival.

In Williams' case, his daily cocktail of off-label medications and natural products worked. In just six months, his brain tumor had disappeared and it hasn't been back since.

There are more than a handful of others who have defied odds and lived long term with glioblastoma multiforme, and they've taken matters into their own hands too.

Williams now spends the bulk of his time trying to help others with terminal cancer, and he makes his book, which he updates annually, free to cancer patients in need.

Natural Cancer Fighters Overlooked by Modern Medicine

Nature is an invaluable resource for fighting cancer, yet natural products, even those that have been intensely studied, are also left out of cancer patients' treatment plans. Curcumin — one of the most well-studied bioactive ingredients in turmeric — is one glaring example.

It exhibits over 150 potentially therapeutic activities, including anti-cancer properties.

As noted by Dr. William LaValley — a leading natural medicine cancer physician whom I've previously interviewed on this topic — curcumin is unique in that it appears to be universally useful for just about every type of cancer.

Superficially, this appears unusual considering the fact that cancer consists of a wide variety of different nuclear genetic defects. One reason for this universal anti-cancer proclivity is curcumin's ability to decrease the primary mitochondrial dysfunction that is likely one of the foundational causes of cancer. Once it gets into a cell, it also affects more than 100 different molecular pathways.

And, as explained by LaValley, whether the curcumin molecule causes an increase in activity of a particular molecular target or decrease/inhibition of activity, studies repeatedly show that the end result is a potent anti-cancer activity. Moreover, curcumin is virtually non-toxic, and does not adversely affect healthy cells, suggesting it selectively targets cancer cells — all of which are clear benefits in cancer treatment.

Research has even shown that it works synergistically with certain chemotherapy drugs, enhancing the elimination of cancer cells. If you have cancer, curcumin is one substance you should be taking, but your oncologist won't recommend it.

To Survive Cancer, Many Must Defy Their Doctors

Should you bring up the fact that you are using approaches to fight cancer that are outside of your oncologist's realm of experience — things like supplements, medical marijuana, herbal preparations, and more — you might be scolded, berated, threatened or even fired from the practice.

Williams never told his oncologists about his self-prescribed treatment; he knew it would fall on deaf ears. The cancer industry should be learning from the people who have beaten the odds and survived terminal cancer — studying their methods and trying to apply them to others — but instead they're ignored.

It's an unfortunate state of affairs when patients must actively defy their doctors in order to survive. As Williams explained, going against the advice of his doctors was initially an act of desperation, but it was necessary to save his life. This certainly applies to the majority of conventional oncologists, but there are exceptions — doctors who are blazing a new trail to find a cancer cure.

This includes Dr. Marc-Eric Halatsch, a professor and senior consultant neurosurgeon at the University of Ulm, Germany, who, along with colleagues have developed a new treatment protocol for relapsed glioblastoma.

It's based on a combination of drugs (very similar to the early HIV treatments) "not traditionally thought of as chemotherapy agents, but that have a robust history of being well-tolerated and are already marketed and used for other non-cancer indications."4 As noted in the featured film, even though the protocol uses mainstream medications, he's put his reputation on the line to step outside the conventional cancer-treatment box.

Cancer Patients Should Have Access to the Best of Eastern and Western Medicine

Dr. Raymond Chang, who is featured in the video above, is one such pioneer in the integration of Eastern and Western medicine. He is known for his work on anti-cancer Chinese botanicals especially involving bioactive polysaccharides and medicinal mushrooms.

He and colleagues with the Institute of East-West Medicine have created the Asian Anti-Cancer Materia Database, which brings together traditional Asian medicines that have potential anti-cancer activity into one database that can be accessed by all.5 In his book, "Beyond the Magic Bullet ― The Anti-Cancer Cocktail," Dr. Chang explained:

"While scientists win occasional skirmishes in the battle against cancer, the overall war continues to go badly. Stories abound about revolutionary drugs that may be available in the future, but offer no real help to those who have cancer today. At present, conventional approaches continue to rely on a narrowly focused strategy of treatments, with doctors using, at best, only one or two drugs or other therapies at a time.

While this may be acceptable in a laboratory setting or a clinical trial, it has done little to diminish the number of people who die each year from this dread disease. Recently, however, conventional medicine's core strategy has been re-examined, and a new, potentially more effective approach has emerged ― one that combines the best of Eastern wisdom with Western science."

More Than Half a Million People Expected to Die From Cancer in 2016

In 2016, nearly 1.7 million new cases of cancer are expected to be diagnosed in the U.S., while nearly 600,000 will die from the disease.6  That is nearly 1,650 people dying EVERY DAY in the U.S. alone. Public health agencies claim that we are winning the war against cancer, but from 2003 to 2012 death rates from cancer decreased by only 1.8 percent per year among men and 1.4 percent per year among women.7

Meanwhile, the 2014 World Cancer Report issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) predicted worldwide cancer rates to rise by 57 percent in the next two decades.8

The report refers to the prediction as "an imminent human disaster," noting countries around the world need to renew their focus on prevention rather than treatment only. Christopher Wild, Ph.D., director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, told CNN:9

"We cannot treat our way out of the cancer problem. More commitment to prevention and early detection is desperately needed in order to complement improved treatments and address the alarming rise in cancer burden globally."

There is so much you can do to lower your risk for cancer, but please don't wait until you get the diagnosis — you have to take preventative steps now. Cancer doesn't typically develop overnight, which means you have a chance to make changes that can potentially prevent cancer from developing in the first place. Most of us carry around microscopic cancer cell clusters in our bodies all the time.

The reason why we all don't develop cancer is because as long as your body has the ability to balance angiogenesis properly, it will prevent blood vessels from forming to feed these microscopic tumors. Trouble will only arise if, and when, the cancer cells manage to get their own blood supply, at which point they can transform from harmless to deadly. It's much easier to prevent cancer than to treat it once it takes hold.

Top Cancer Prevention Strategies

I believe you can virtually eliminate your risk of cancer and chronic disease and significantly improve your chances of recovering from cancer if you currently have it, by following these relatively simple strategies.

1.Eat REAL Food: Seek to eliminate all processed food in your diet. Eat at least one-third of your food raw. Avoid frying or charbroiling; boil, poach or steam your foods instead. Consider adding cancer-fighting whole foods, herbs, spices and supplements to your diet, such as broccoli sprouts, curcumin and resveratrol.

2.Carbohydrates and Sugar: Sugar/fructose and grain-based foods from your diet need to be reduced and eventually eliminated. This applies to whole unprocessed organic grains as well, as they tend to rapidly break down and drive up your insulin level.  

The evidence is quite clear that if you want to avoid cancer, or you currently have cancer, you absolutely MUST avoid all forms of sugar, especially fructose, which are dirty fuels generating excessive free radicals and secondary mitochondrial damage.

3.Protein and Fat: Consider reducing your protein levels to 1 gram of protein for every kilogram of lean body mass, or one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. Replace excess protein with high-quality fats, such as organic eggs from pastured hens, high-quality grass-fed meats, raw pastured butter, avocados, pecans, macadamias, and coconut oil.

4.GMOs: Avoid genetically engineered foods as they are typically treated with herbicides such as Roundup (glyphosate), and are likely to be carcinogenic and contribute to mitochondrial dysfunction. Choose fresh, organic, and preferably locally grown foods.

5.Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats: Normalize your ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats by consuming anchovies, sardines, wild Alaskan salmon or taking a high-quality krill oil and reducing your intake of processed vegetable oils.

6.Optimize Your Gut Flora: This will reduce inflammation and strengthen your immune response. Researchers have found a microbe-dependent mechanism through which some cancers mount an inflammatory response that fuels their development and growth.

They suggest that inhibiting inflammatory cytokines might slow cancer progression and improve the response to chemotherapy. Fermented foods are especially beneficial for gut health, and the fermentation process involved in creating sauerkraut produces cancer-fighting compounds such as isothiocyanates, indoles and sulforaphane.

7.Exercise and Move More: Sit less, move around more and try to take 10,000 steps a day.  Exercise also lowers insulin levels, which creates a low-sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancer cells. In a three-month study, exercisewas found to alter immune cells into a more potent disease-fighting form in cancer survivors who had just completed chemotherapy.

Researchers and cancer organizations increasingly recommend making regular exercise a priority in order to reduce your risk of cancer and help improve cancer outcomes. Exercise may also help trigger apoptosis (programmed cell death) in cancer cells. Ideally, your exercise program should include balance, strength, flexibility, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT). For help getting started, refer to my Peak Fitness Program.

8.Vitamin D: There is scientific evidence you can decrease your risk of cancer by more than half simply by optimizing your vitamin D levels with appropriate sun exposure. Your serum level should hold steady at 50 to 70 ng/ml, but if you are being treated for cancer, it should be closer to 80 to 90 ng/ml for optimal benefit.

If you take oral vitamin D and have cancer, it would be very prudent to monitor your vitamin D blood levels regularly, as well as supplementing with vitamin K2, as K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity.

9.Sleep: Make sure you are getting enough restorative sleep. Poor sleep can interfere with your melatonin production, which is associated with an increased risk of insulin resistance and weight gain, both of which contribute to cancer's virility.

10.Exposure to Toxins: Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, herbicides, household chemical cleaners, plastics chemicals, synthetic air fresheners and toxic cosmetics.

11.Exposure to Radiation: Limit your exposure and protect yourself from radiation produced by cell phones, towers, base stations, and Wi-Fi stations, as well as minimizing your exposure from radiation-based medical scans, including dental x-rays, CT scans, and mammograms.

12.Stress Management: Stress from all causes is a major contributor to disease. It is likely that stress and unresolved emotional issues may be more important than the physical ones, so make sure this is addressed. My favorite tool for resolving emotional challenges is the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).

Have You Been Diagnosed With Cancer?

One of the most essential strategies I know of to treat cancer is to starve the cells by depriving them of their food source. Unlike your body cells, which can burn carbs or fat for fuel, cancer cells have lost that metabolic flexibility. Dr. Otto Warburg was given a Nobel Prize over 75 years ago for figuring this out, but virtually no oncologist actually uses this information.

You can review my interview with Dominic D'Agostino, Ph.D. below for more details. Integrating a ketogenic diet with hyperbaric oxygen therapy is deadly to cancer cells. It debilitates them by starving them of their fuel source. This would be the strategy I would recommend to my family members if they were diagnosed with cancer.

Download Interview Transcript

Your health is under siege from every direction. Environmental toxins, ultra-processed foods, EMFs, government-subsidized GMOs and a host of other threats surround us. It is simply not possible to protect yourself unless you are armed with cutting edge health information.

The most complex tasks can be made easy if you just take one step at a time. Taken as a whole, this 30-tip plan makes for a comprehensive guide that can change your life. Just a few of the topics addressed are:

• What to eat and when to eat it
• Exercise strategies that you can implement today
• The power of emotional health
• Enhancing your health with essentials like air, sunshine and water
• How to get the restorative sleep that your body requires

It may seem that health and wellness are no longer the norm. An opioid epidemic sweeps the country, the obesity rate is skyrocketing, life expectancy is dropping and chronic diseases are rampant. Our communities are being damaged at every level and the only way to reverse these trends is through education and personal example. My 30-tip plan provides you with the tools you need to take control of your health. The time is ripe for revolution — a health revolution.

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