Author: Tina Rice

This Week’s News

Sharing a few promising developments…

USC scientists discover how to create a never-ending supply of cancer-fighting cells | ScienceDaily

https://share.google/jXsAMknmCrAoss4IP

MIT news: Engineered “natural killer” cells could help fight cancer

https://news.mit.edu/2025/engineered-natural-killer-cells-could-help-fight-cancer-1008

Pitt and UPMC researchers developed a diet-based mouse model to study a serious side effect affecting up to 40% of patients

https://www.upmc.com/media/news/102226-microbiome-linked-cancer

Exerpt: “…fecal microbiome transfers from patients consuming a Western-style diet to germ-free mice led to increased severity of immune-related adverse events, showing that diet and the gut microbiome is responsible for these toxic side effects.”

AI detects “invisible” signs of pancreatic cancer years before diagnosis

ScienceDaily https://share.google/Z3soatkW9zTNnlQBw

Crybaby

Looking back on my physical state prior to getting diagnosed, I can see the symptoms. I didn’t understand them at the time, but they make sense now.

I’m a born and raised Floridian, but in 2018, we moved to the Great Lakes area to be closer to my husband’s side of the family.

I was going thru menopause. A lot of changes in my weight and vitality happened during this time, and I blamed them all on menopause. I did discuss some of these with doctors, who also connected them to menopause.

2018 was the first real winter I’d ever been through, and I did my best to adjust to the cold, darkness, and isolation that this particular cross-country move entailed.

I was exhausted from the move, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Upset with myself, upset with my husband for bringing me here, and ashamed that I had left my grandmother, who lived in our neighborhood back in Tampa, and was in her 90s. Sure, my parents and sister were there to help her… but I had gone and taken my kids, who were a source of joy and happiness for her. I couldn’t think about what I had done. It was crushing.

Food was my consolation. I gained weight, for the first time in my life.

I look back on that first winter as a true hibernation. We would get up and drink coffee on the couch, let the dog out in the backyard rather than take him for a walk, then go to work, which for me was 20 steps from the couch, in a different room.

By the time work was done, it was dark and blustery outside, and again we would skimp on the outdoor time with the dog, eat a meal and then jump on the couch for TV time, throw blankets, and our semi-hibernation.

I’ve come a long way.

God Wink?

A few weeks ago, I was thinking about a tree fort I used to play in as a kid. It was a mature orange tree, and the branches draped almost to the ground. But if you parted the branches and went inside, there was a space in between the center trunk and the “curtain” of leafy branches. A little circle of space.

I’d play in there with my sister Gabi and my friend Jason. It was our house.

I was feeling all nostalgic … remembering eating oranges off the tree … wondering whatever happened to Jason.

🍊

A day or two later, I was out walking my dog, and I noticed that someone had thrown away a tree… It was about 6 feet tall, just laying next to their driveway, roots exposed. It looked like an orange tree. I grabbed a leaf and broke it, and, wow, it smelled like an orange.

I didn’t bring it home. I mean, I live way up here in New York. We just had a 6+ month winter. How do you even keep a citrus tree alive?

🍊

Next time I walked the dog past that house, the tree was still there, looking even more pathetic. I had to do something…

So I picked it up and brought it home. That’s when I noticed the thorns. Big ones! Huge!

I put it in the biggest pot I could find and gave it some water, cut off the dead branches, and trimmed these needle-like thorns.

And I wondered… did my tree fort have thorns like this?

🍊

A week or so went by, and I got stuck downtown during a rainstorm. I ducked into an ice cream parlor, and what did I find? A potted lemon tree, with fruit! You CAN grow citrus here!

At the ice cream parlor.

So the little tree has been out on our back porch for a few weeks now. And I’m happy to report that we are seeing new growth!

It’s probably a lemon or lime, which usually have big thorns. But who knows? Regardless of what type of citrus tree it turns out to be, I feel special that the universe sent this one my way.

🍋🍊

Chili Night

I made a pot of chili last week, which disappeared quickly… so on Mother’s Day, I made another one, bigger this time.

I have been reading Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, and Optimizing Your Microbiome by Dr. Will Bulsiewicz, and had just read about how good beans are for us, and for gut health. He also repeats the “30 different plant foods per week” rule.

So, yeah, I manifested it!

I started with 2 big celery stalks, a huge onion, some garlic cloves, a green bell pepper, and a yellow bell pepper. Chop and saute in olive oil.

Add a pound of organic grass fed beef, and let it brown & meld together.

Then add 3 cans of beans, 1 can of chopped, stewed tomatoes. Maybe some sundried tomatoes in olive oil.

Let it simmer for a while. Spice it up with dark chili powder, cumin, curry, salt, and pepper.

I gotta say, it is so nice to be able to get so many organic options at Aldi. Seems like they are really listening to what people want and delivering the goods.

Aldi for the win 🏆

All three of these came up with a 100 score on the Yuka app. They each have only 3 ingredients… the beans themselves, sea salt and water.

I made a little salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and an avocado.

Plating: Start with a layer of organic corn chips, then add salad (no need for dressing),  then a big scoop or two of chili, plus cheese on top if you like. And maybe some chopped cilantro if you’ve got it.

So, how many different plant foods are in this meal? Eighteen, baby, in one meal!

🫘🤘🏻🫘🍅🫑🌶🧅🧄

Zumba!

I have gone back to Zumba! I used to really enjoy it, and now that the snow has (mostly) tapered off, it’s time to get out and sweat!

I have been listening to a podcast where they often talk about somatic therapy, which is focused on how emotions appear in the body.

I am often in my head, thinking, mulling, etc. And I know that when I play a video game or crochet, I can sort of “turn my brain off” for a while because I’ve directed it at something. I’ve focused it and can go into Flow State.

Dancing goes beyond that to shift the brain activity to being focused on movement. Watching the instructor, mirroring her movements, singing, dancing, counting in Español…. The parts of the brain that I constantly overwork just seem to turn off.

I’m realizing how much I need to shift into physical mode…

💃🕺

Mytavin

Just found out about this website and wanted to share. Mytavin.com is a research tool and website where you can identify the nutritional impacts of drugs you may take.

For example, I typed in the drug named omeprazole, which my husband took for years for heartburn and acid reflux. Actually, I didn’t have to type it because it is such a widely-used drug, there’s a built-in button for it…

Then click “Find Deficiencies,” and the following nutrients are shown:

  • Iron
  • Magnesium
  • Vitamin B12
  • Zinc

Depletion or poor absorption of any of these nutrients will cause other health issues – some quite serious!

This website is valuable because it could change your trajectory.

A patient or their doctor COULD use this info to supplement the depleted nutrients and fix a situation.

They could also use it to understand side effects, and realize what is causing them …and fix the nutritional deficit rather than prescribing another medication which would of course have other side effects, and cause other nutritional deficiencies.

Ideally, a person would change their diet to avoid the reflux and stop taking the meds, like my hubby did. ❤️

There are many “read more” opportunities on the site, and research is linked. Check it out!

Coconut Magic

I made ice cream this weekend from coconut milk, and it was AMAZING! It’s already gone and we’re clamoring for more.

Here’s the recipe:

  • 1 small can of coconut cream (5.5 ounces)
  • 1 and a half cans of coconut milk (18 to 19 ounces)
  • 2/3 cup maple syrup (~5.3 ounces)
  • 2 teaspoons mint extract
  • 1/8 teaspoon sea salt

I used the Cuisinart ice cream churn, which requires that the bowl be frozen for 24 hours before churning.

I assembled and turned it on, poured in the mixture, and then chopped about 1/3 cup of bittersweet chocolate morsels into smaller bits. I added those as the churn turned.

It takes about 20 minutes to get to the right consistency.

I stored it in a glass casserole dish with a tight fitting lid. When serving, pull it from the freezer and let it warm up for a few minutes, as it gets very hard and hard to serve.

I used organic products shown below, and some maple syrup a friend harvested and shared.

Max Deserves the Best 🐶

Max is our 15-year-old Chihuahua. We want him to live long and healthy, so a few years ago, we started feeding him “Fresh Pet” dogfood, which is sold in a refrigerator case at the grocery store. It’s kind of expensive.

My husband is a chef, and one day, he decided to try and recreate the recipe. It worked great! Now, we create a big batch every 6 weeks or so and freeze it in sandwich-size baggies. It saves money and guarantees that Max is getting the best food possible.

I thought it might be nice to share this, just in case you’d like to do this for your dog, too. Here’s how:

  • In a small pot, cook 2 cups of rice. I’m using organic “Field Day” basmati.
  • In a large pot, brown 3 pounds of ground turkey. Add a sprinkling of turmeric and a tiny dash of salt. You could also use ground chicken, beef, lamb, pork… or mix them. Don’t drain the fat.
  • Cut 3 or 4 carrots into small bites OR drain and add 1 can of cooked carrots.
  • Add a can of pumpkin (stock up in the fall) OR 3 to 4 peeled, diced sweet potatoes.
  • Add a can of green peas.
  • Add diced butternut squash.
  • Chop broccoli into tiny bites and add that, too. (Unless your dog is much larger than Max and has all his teeth!)

Simmer all of these together until the carrots are soft.

Add rice until it looks like a good mix. I ended up adding about 3/4ths of the rice I had cooked to this amount.

After I combined all the elements, we were concerned that the carrots were still too hard, so I added 3 cups of water and let it simmer for a while, maybe an hour.

After most of the water evaporated out, we move the dogfood to baking trays so that it can cool.

Once cooled, we bag it and seal up the bags, stacking them like bricks in the freezer.

Max loves helping with the clean up. 🩷🐕

The bags are easy to thaw … just pull one out and set it in the sink for a couple of hours. I usually put a little warm water over it when I feed him so that it warms up and makes a little “gravy.”

❤️