Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

                Who doesn’t remember these words from the Star Trek TV and movie franchise, a favorite show to countless millions of viewers and fans around the world? I definitely remember them, and I happily watched every single episode.  Naturally, something I noticed as a health “fanatic” was the Vulcan way of living.  In the show, Vulcans are classified as a highly intelligent, extra-terrestrial humanoid species, with a more robust appearance than an ordinary human.  To me, it was interesting that in writing this mythos, Gene Roddenberry chose to demonstrate the direct correlation between strength and intellect in the Vulcan race; an ideal coincidentally, held in high regard by the ancient Greeks. Being fascinated with the fictional Vulcan way of living, and their healthy life philosophies, I began researching available data, in the hope of extracting singular enlightenment for the human race.

Vulcan Diet

Vulcans prefer a vegetarian diet and would eat meat on a very rare occasion, if nothing else is available or for specific needs.  They choose water over other options and will drink alcohol only for celebratory purposes, because they don’t want alcohol to affect their logical faculties.  To Vulcans, consuming chocolate makes them inebriated, so they minimize their intake of it.

Vulcan Meditation

Vulcans live lives of strict self-control through extensive meditation practices.  While Vulcans are exceptionally emotional, they developed a meditation technique that calms them down and allows them to solve problems in a logical manner; this is one of the best ways to find logical solutions instead of emotional conflict.  Vulcans meditate on a daily basis to keep their center and calm. Put simply, their motto is “live long and prosper”…

Vulcan Training

Although generally philosophical and non-violent in nature, the Vulcans nonetheless developed martial arts techniques for their hand-to-hand combat.  Martial Arts are a highly ritualistic practice similar to the philosophy of Kung-Fu or Karate.  The majority of Vulcans are skilled in self-defense, and particularly known for their neck pinch that renders victims instantly unconscious.  Overall, Vulcans are physically stronger and more skilled in combat than their human counterparts.

                In the Star Trek narrative, Vulcans have become more advanced and evolved than humans, a necessary transition implemented to overcome their past behaviors, which might have been worse than that of humans. Consequently, they evolved because they chose intellect, healthy lifestyle, and mental balance (and even honing their combat and military skills).  Through this evolution, they have achieved a more fulfilled and longer lifespan; ranging between 100-200 years.

I wrote this article in an attempt to motivate millions of Star Trek fans around our own planet to live more like Vulcans. To harness the wisdom of our favorite characters like Spock and T’Pol!  Even if the Vulcans are fictional people, they still represent an ideal society, one replete with enlightenment, honor and tremendous skills, all of which we desire.  By following a similar philosophy, and finding an equilibrium between physical fitness, healthy nutrition, and mental balance, we can all benefit and improve our own society.

A special thanks to visionary Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek Franchise, for developing such a rich storyline and an avant-garde society.

Here are 10 reasons Yoga is amazing for you!

1. Stress Relief– Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on the body. By encouraging relaxation, yoga helps to lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Related benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart rate, improving digestion and boosting the immune system as well as easing symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, asthma and insomnia.

2. Pain Relief– Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated that practicing yoga asanas (postures), meditation or a combination of the two, reduced pain for people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, auto-immune diseases and hypertension as well as arthritis, back and neck pain, and other chronic conditions. Some practitioners report that even emotional pain can be eased through the practice of yoga.

3. Better Breathing – Yoga teaches people to take slower, deeper breaths. This helps to improve lung function, trigger the body’s relaxation response and increase the amount of oxygen available to the body.

4. Flexibility – Yoga helps to improve flexibility and mobility, increasing range of movement and reducing aches and pains. Many people can’t touch their toes during their first yoga class. Gradually they begin to use the correct muscles. Over time, the ligaments, tendons and muscles lengthen, increasing elasticity, making more poses possible. Yoga also helps to improve body alignment resulting in better posture and helping to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.

5. Increased Strength– Yoga asanas (postures) use every muscle in the body, helping to increase strength literally from head to toe. And, while these postures strengthen the body, they also provide an additional benefit of helping to relieve muscular tension.

6. Weight Management– Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid weight control efforts by reducing the cortisol levels as well as by burning excess calories and reducing stress. Yoga also encourages healthy eating habits and provides a heightened sense of well being and self esteem.

7. Improved Circulation – Yoga helps to improve circulation and, as a result of various poses, more efficiently moves oxygenated blood to the body’s cells.

8. Cardiovascular Conditioning – Even gentle yoga practice can provide cardiovascular benefits by lowering resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise.

9. Focus on the Present – Yoga helps us to focus on the present, to become more aware and to help create mind body health. It opens the way to improved concentration, coordination, reaction time and memory.

10. Inner Peace – The meditative aspects of yoga help many to reach a deeper, more spiritual and more satisfying place in their lives. Many who begin to practice for other reasons have reported this to be a key reason that yoga has become an essential part of their daily lives.

By DISH CONTRIBUTING WRITER: WHITNEY BROOKE ROBERTS:

1.)    Skipping meals has been a confusing topic as of late.  On one side, fasting has resulted in positive results for obese people, yet in other studies intermittent feeding reduces the risk of diabetes and has proven to increase cardiovascular health.

The most recent study Metabolism concluded that skipping meals during the day and eating one large meal in the evening resulted in harmful metabolic changes. More specifically, meal skippers had increased glucose levels and a delayed insulin response: two conditions that commonly lead to diabetes.

Adversely, the study Free Radical Biology & Medicine published in March of 2011, found that skipping meals could benefit health for sagnificantly overweight adults.  For 2 months, the participants followed a strict restrictive diet which resulted in an average loss of 8% loss in body weight.  

Conclusively, unless you are obese, skipping meals has more NEGATIVE results than positive.  Of course, always consult your doctor before trying any fad diets.

2 & 3)    Did you know that Americans now consume 19% more added sugar than they did in 1970? (according to recent figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture)

We all know that excess sugar can cause muffin tops, increased waistlines, and cavities.  But new studies have revealed that too much sugar can lead to high levels of blood fats which raise the risk of heart disease…YIKES!

More specifically, stay away from these toxic “ose’s”:  SUCROSE, DEXTROSE, AND GLUCOSE which are the ingredient culprits inside most vending machine treats.

The health guidelines most doctors will give you are: HDL levels below 50 mg/dL for women and 40 mg/dL for men are considered to be on the low side. According to resources 43% of the highest sugar consumers recorded low HDL, while only 22% of the lowest sugar consumers did. (NOTE: HDL is the "GOOD" cholesterol where as LDL is the "bad")

4) INADEQUATE SLEEP: William Kilgore, professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, recently concluded,

“When you are sleepy, there's a good chance that you won't be able to control how much you eat.  You may be drawn to unhealthy foods because you are not putting the brakes on as well as you would be if you were well-rested.” 

His study followed adults aged 19-45 who were persistently “sleepy”, dozing off at daily common activities, but not falling in the more aggressive category of “sleep disorders”…in other words, these people fell into the normal range of sleepiness.  Kilgore's conclusion?  The sleepiest people felt more hungry throughout the day.  More specifically, getting less sleep leads to an increase ghrelin, a hormone which tells you when to eat, and decreases in the hormone leptin which this tells you to stop eating.

Try going to bed 30 minutes before your regular bedtime.  Snooze away and watch the pounds go away.

5) You don’t have to be a Rhodes Scholar to believe that the more calories you burn exercising will take off weight.  It’s logical, right?  But actually sticking to a routine, or lifestyle consistently is the barrier most of us can’t overcome.  Solution?  Schedule appointments in your calendar, whether electronic or manual, with your gym, yoga studio, fitness trainer, or running buddies.  The biggest key to get moving is to block out sacred time for your cardio health.  You take time to feed yourself daily, why not schedule sacred time to make your body stronger, leaner, and more healthy?  Personally, I’ve found that scheduling daily dog walks is not only beneficial to my aerobic health, but my dogs enjoy the exercise as well.  Finding a win-win easy work out regimen will motivate you to continue even if you have a hangover! You may be able to make excuses to stay in bed, but Fido has to piddle!! 

Now get moving!

To Read more about these topics, here are our SOURCES:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/26/the-risks-and-rewards-of-skipping-meals/

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1983542,00.html

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/sleep/articles/2011/06/13/sleep-deprived-people-may-crave-high-calorie-foods

http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/news/20091106/even-a-little-exercise-fights-obesity

Apparently there is a new study showing there is a 10% increase in teaching hospital deaths due to medical errors. AND the trend continues through until the Fall just not as high.

So What's the reason? Your Doctor is thinking about their vacation? NO! It's not a case of the Summer Brain...Apparently, July is the month when all of the med school graduates start work as interns and tend to make more mistakes. Not just in the Operating Room but in prescribing meds and effective follow up.

The numbers are staggering....almost 1 million people a year die due to a medical shall we say "Mishap"? That works out to a completely filled 747 crashing and killing everyone on board every other day.

Moral of this story?? Don't schedule elective surgery or any other unnecessary medical procedure at a teaching hospital in the summer months.

This doesn't mean your newbie DR. won't end up being amazing or even being the one who eventually cures cancer, it just means everyone makes mistakes and please try not to be one of them!

Photo credit - Fran w/ Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) & Congresswoman Jac Schawkowsky (D-IL)What an exciting few weeks!  I just returned home from a great trip to D.C., where I went to support the introduction of the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010.  Can you believe 1 in 5 personal care products contain chemicals linked to cancer?  If the bill is passed, the FDA will oversee the ingredients used in cosmetic and personal care products.  What we put ON our bodies is just as important as what we put IN them, so let your elected officials know that getting harmful chemicals out of your daily products is important to you!

I also had the chance to participate in a web chat with Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services Secretary, and Donna Norton, National Director of MomsRising where we discussed healthcare and preventative services for women and families.  Both are fabulous women on a mission to ensure we have the resources we need to keep ourselves healthy.  If you missed it, check out the video here.

And that's not all!  This month, Cancer Schmancer and I also played a vital role in passing a bill in California to ban the hormone disrupting chemical, BPA, from baby bottles, containers and sippy cups.  (BPA has been banned from baby bottles in NY, and outright banned in Maryland, France and Australia.)  A chemical associated with so many health conditions should never be present in children's products!

My friends, we stand at a crossroads where a safer, healthier U.S. is only steps away.  I thank you for all your support and urge you to stay in the know through Twitter, CancerSchmancer.org, and/or our RSS feed.

All my love,
Fran

P.S. Thank you, thank you so much for submitting your reviews of Cancer Schmancer.  We were named one of the Top-Rated Health Nonprofits by GreatNonprofits! Yahoo!

“I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!”

That was my very intense reaction when my friend and business partner Rachael told me about the story she saw on the local ABC affiliate the other day.  The story was all about the toxics in baby products.  Yes, that includes the lavender scented baby wash we all love to use on the soft little heads of our newborn babies.

I haven’t been paying very close attention to toxic products in our household for very long.  Having children and a husband with a horrible genetic illness has changed my outlook, so I’ve recently started doing some research and the information is astounding. 

Turns out, ALL of that stuff we spend out hard earned money on so we can give our babies the very best, may actually be the very worst.

I searched the tv station’s website and couldn’t find the actual story, however, I found a similar one from February 2008 from the Associated Press and it was an entire 2 page article!  Turns out, a study in the February issue of the Journal of Pediatrics shows elevated levels of phthalates in the urine of babies who’d been recently shampooed, powdered or lotioned with baby products.  In case you’re not familiar with phthalates, they are chemicals used to stabilize fragrances and make plastics flexible. 

Mind you, phthalates aren’t required to be on product labels.  In all fairness, Stephanie Kwisnek of the Food and Drug Administration says they have “no compelling evidence that phthalates pose a safety risk when used in cosmetics.  Should new data emerge, we will inform the public as well as the industry.”

Of course, that’s the same FDA that is now recalling all kinds of drugs that they now say are harmful, after approving them for public consumption.  But now is not the time for my soapbox.

With all this information in hand I was more than a little curious.  So I pulled my own baby shampoo off the shelf.  One of the first ingredients is something I had never heard of before.  It’s called Quaternium-15.  Qua-what??

Quaternium-15.  If you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone.  Most of us haven’t until we start looking more closely at the ingredients in most of our products.  So I looked it up on the internet.

According to Wikepedia, Quaternium-15 is “used as a preservative in many cosmetics and industrial substances.  It acts as a formaldehyde releaser.”

Hmm.  That doesn’t exactly sound healthy or safe.  But that’s not the end of the definition.

“It can cause contact dermatitis, a symptom of an allergic reaction, especially in those with sensitive skin, on an infant’s skin, or on sensitive areas such as the genitals.”

Greeeeat.

But like the little researcher I am, I continued on.

Search: “Side effects of Quaternium-15”

Pages of information came up.  But the most interesting by far was on About.com: Allergies.  Found lots of info there!  And apparently, baby products aren’t the only products with Quaternium-15 in it.  

The article states, “Mascara also can cause dermatitis, either from formaldehyde/quaternium-15 or from the nickel present in the applicator device.” (Eyelid Rash: Causes of Eyelid Rashes and Allergies, by Daniel More, MD, About.com Guide, Updated January 20, 2010)

But that’s not all.  My search also brought up the book, “Side Effects of Drugs Annual 27” by J.K Aronson, (2004, Elsevier B.V.).  It states that over a 10-year study, there were “several cases of contact allergy to formaldehyde…”  In fact, in the same paragraph, it states the frequency of positive reactions has increased from 0.7% to 3.5% from 1991-2000.

Now, I’m not going to pretend the scientific terms make a whole lot of sense to me.  But I think it’s pretty clear that this stuff isn’t exactly the safest product to be using.  So what do we do? 

Back to that Associated Press report.

They quoted a 2005 CDC report that states, “Although several studies in people have explored possible associations with developmental and reproductive outcomes,…more research is needed.”

Well, while you do the research, CDC, I’ll go find some safer alternatives to use now.  I’m willing to bet most of them can only be found on the internet.  But I’ll take my chances.

In the meantime, thank you, local ABC affiliate, for bringing the information to us! Even if it just made me do more research. 

Now I’m off to shop on the internet…….

After a few months, some cold days some warm, workouts and lounge days we all discovered this: It stinks to stink and using alternative methods may make you feel better emotionally or mentally better but physically...WE STINK STANK STUNK! (with a small lavender overtone that went away QUICKLY!)

Conclusion: On cold days these natural alternatives are fine but here in Texas where those days are few and far between the aluminum way is the way to go unless you want to stand down wind from all of your friends which is too much effort for us.

For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible.

This is the best news!!! Let's pray together that this comes to life sooner rather than later!

Sure you don't feel well, naturally you're scared but just as the soldier on the frontline battlefields cannot indulge those feelings, neither can you.

There is only so much time you are going to get once you enter the examining room and you must make every second count.

Let me walk you through the process based on of my own experience.

• Starting from when you make the appointment, get the name of the person you're speaking with and request that any forms that may need to be filled out be faxed to you in advance so that you won't have to deal with that in the outer office.
• Also fax them all of your insurance information and credit card info should any advance payment be necessary. Again, the less of this crap you have to deal with at the time of your appointment the better.
• Make sure you ask if any blood, urine or fecal tests will be taken that may require you to fast for several hours prior to your appointment. Do not expect the person from the doctor's office to be the picture of efficiency. In fact, expect just the opposite and cover as many bases as possible yourself.
• If there is anyway to NOT go on a Friday or right before a holiday I advise you not to as it just protracts the agony of waiting for test results and/or a prognosis.
• If there is a procedure, test or surgery that is pending the results of the exam, ask to pre-book in advance of seeing the doctor. The last thing you want to hear is something looks suspicious but you'll have to wait two weeks to get an opening for that MRI or CT scan, not to mention operating room. These things can always be cancelled but if they're booked, you're plain out of luck.
• If you are getting a second opinion, or being referred to a specialist, get involved in the transport of your previous test results. Imaging tests come on disc, or film or are digitized and I recommend you pick them up from one place and hand deliver them to the other. The less middle men involved the less opportunity for screw ups. Also have copies of all lab work results and doctor evaluations as well.
• Prepare a list of questions that you or your loved ones want the doctor to answer. Don't expect to remember everything becauseyou won't, so start your medical "grocery" list immediately and add to it as you think of the questions.
• Always go to the doctor with at least one other person whom you consider to be strong, confident and in control. Your head will reel with all the information mixed with emotions that this sick person is YOU they are talking about . This person will be your eyes, your ears, your significant other. Don't choose a person for whom you will need to be strong or have to calm down. This experience must be about you and only you. Bring them right into the examining room and never let them leave your side. Give them the responsibility of writing down notes, asking how to spell words and medical terms with which you are unfamiliar. Having a solid caring presence on your behalf to share the load lightens the burden of having to navigate through ominous un-chartered waters by yourself. Heed my warning, don't try to go it alone even if you're sure you can. Every soldier needs a "buddy".
• Don'tomit any symptoms you may be feeling even if you're positive that it has nothing to do with the larger health issue at hand. A good diagnostician needs to see the overall picture before making an informed diagnosis.
• Make certain that you discuss all options with your doctor and don't allow yourself to feel rushed. As a medical consumer you are entitled receive the physician's undivided attention.
• Ask yourself if what you are being told makes sense. Don't underestimate your instincts.
• Look up everything on the internet to better evaluate the information from the doctor.
• Whenever going for a second opinion, and I believe this is an absolute must, go outside of your doctor's hospital to get a totally objective opinion . (BTW the idea of insulting or upsetting your primary physician is B.S. Any worthwhile doctor will expect it and regardless, it's your body, your health, your life so do it!
• If you are diagnosed with cancer, your research must be extremely diligent. The internet will point you towards the medical leaders in the field of your particular disease. The same names will come up again and again in research studies and medical reports. These are the doctors you should be talking to. Call any and every important and powerful person you know or know someone who knows. We are all six degrees of separation from someone who can help you get through to a hard to get to specialist.
• If radiation and/or chemo-therapy is recommended, realize that there is no standard for these treatments and application changes from state to state, city to city and yes even hospital to hospital. So make an informed decision based off of many things but mostly what you "feel" is the right approach for you. The hospital where your surgeon is associated, may not necessarily be where you do your post-op treatment. I had my cancer surgery at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, but had I decided to do the radiation, I was going to fly down to MD Anderson in Houston. This decision was based onwhere the most state of the art equipment for the particular form of radiation I would have needed was, as well as each hospitals policy for the frequency and strength of treatment.
  Most important, plan your play and then play your plan. Be Well.

Fran Drescher
Cancer survivor, activist and New York Times bestselling author of the book, Cancer Schmancer.

For More information, please CLICK HERE to visit the Cancer Schmancer website to see how you can help!