healthy living – Page 2 – The Cancer Canary

Detoxing

My mother has been struggling with muscle aches and recently figured out that they were actually side-effects of a prescription drug she had been taking for over a year. 😳😵‍💫😵

I remember my grandmother taking a similar statin drug, maybe 10 years ago, and having similar pain. She had been a pharmacist assistant for most of her life and knew a lot about drugs, so she got out a magnifying glass and her Merck manual and took a look at the little “indications” paper that comes with every prescription.

Well, she found a lot of undesirable side effects, such as muscle pain and weakness, liver damage, increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline, and memory issues.

The worst one, if we are ranking them, might be rhabomyolysis, the severe breakdown of muscle. This basically means that muscle tissue is broken down rapidly, which is painful, then the broken-down proteins (myoglobin) wreak havoc on the liver, which must clean it out of the blood.

Anyway, the task at hand for my mom, and for so many of us who are trying to reverse the damage from products, foods, medicines, etc., is to DETOX.

My first advice to her was to take Epsom salt baths, maybe use a charcoal supplement for a while, drink more, sweat more…. but what else is there, when a person wants to detox?

I came across this book recently… just starting to read it.

Have any of you read it?

Do any of you have detoxing wisdom to share?

Salt & Pepper

Was using my salt and pepper grinders today and realized that they BOTH have plastic grinding gears … yet another way for microplastics (or not-so-micro-plastics) to break off, get into our food, and then be consumed.

I’m throwing them out!!

Granite Pans

A few years ago, my son wanted to get me a Mother’s Day gift I would use… so he asked what I wanted, and I said an egg pan that was not Teflon coated but didn’t take all day to clean.

Tall order, I thought.

He got me two non-stick granite pans made by Michaelangelo. They looked good and worked great and I was really pleased.

Time has passed, and the surfaces have gotten fuzzy from repeated cleaning… and they’ve been pushed to the back of the cabinet as we have used the cast irons more and more.

But I wonder… what are granite pans made of anyway?

I Googled around and found that they are “not actually made of granite stone, but named for its resemblance to the texture.”

Okay, but what are the pans made of?

Seems there are 2 kinds: Teflon (PTFE) and vitreous enamel.

Teflon (PTFE) cookware can release toxic fumes when used at high temperatures. PTFE stands for polytetraflouroethylene.
Vitreous enamel cookware is considered safer than Teflon, but chips or cracks in the enamel can allow metal (aluminum) in the pan to leach into food.

For both types, it is recommended that you use soft utensils when cooking and wash them carefully to avoid scratches or pitting.

The Michaelangelo website sells these pans labelled as “100% Toxic-Free — Free of PFAS, PFOA, lead and cadmium.” I sure hope that is true!

Anyway, these are too scratched up. Throwing them away!

Up Your Reps

One of the first posts on this blog, Get Ye a Morning Ritual, shared a great morning workout by Master Shi Heng Yi.

I’ve been doing this for over a year now and have recently upped my reps to 36. Master Yi uses the Ayurvedic numbers, so I’ve followed this pattern.

Really feeling it in my arms/shoulders and tops of my thighs. But yeah, it’s all good and I’m happy and thankful that I can do it and of course I feel better after I do.

Here’s the original workout:

The only problem with the 36 reps is that it takes a while, and I often lose count. My husband asks me a question, or the dog sees me standing still and gives me his signals for backyard, walkie time, or breakfast time… and so I pause, forget where I’m at in my count ….

So today, I did an 18-rep workout, and then I did it again for a total of 36 reps. I think this is gonna stick.

Whatever your health situation, this is a great way to get moving in the morning, and move that lymphatic system!

Toxic Tagalongs

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but apparently tea bags are coated in a type of plastic or teflon, which is then heated in the boiling tea water and then goes into our bodies and stays, for years. Ugh. 😵‍💫😵

This is one more source of microplastics that are unfortunately accumulating in our bodies and especially our brains. 🧠 So last week, I started doing things a little differently.

I do have a couple of mesh tea balls, which can hold the contents of a tea bag or loose tea. Generally, the holes are a little too big, and the tea particles go rogue. And to be honest, I have no idea what metal they are made of…

I used a French press to make tea last week, and it worked pretty well. However, some little bits of tea found their way into my mug and then my teeth. Not a big deal… I did like putting lime slices into the press along with my hibiscus tea and pressing them together.

Then my husband found this cool little gadget on Amazon. The holes are crazy tiny and its made from stainless steel:

You empty the tea bag or put loose tea into the cup, put the little cup inside an empty mug, and pour the hot water into/through it. Then, put on the little cap on while your tea steeps.

After a minute or two of steep time, you can use the cap as a coaster when you take it out of the mug.

P.S. Doctor Li talks about microplastics in the video interview I posted recently.

Here’s more research on it: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31552738/

Yummy Yams

A bowl of these yummy yams is a delicious treat! Better than most desserts! And very, very good for you. Thanking my sister Gabi for this simple recipe.

● Peel and chop 3 purple yams into bite-sized pieces.

● Mix in a scoop of coconut oil and as much shredded coconut as you’d like.

● Preheat oven to 350°.

● Spread the chunks out on a cookie sheet.

● Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or a full hour. The edges will carmelize a bit.

Tee Vee

I watched TV with my husband last night, and every commercial break was for things we would never buy, knowing what we know now. Mainstream things that carry hidden harms and toxins, which most people don’t realize…

Time to put the roast on.

Tide laundry detergent: There are a lot of harmful chemicals and endocrine-disrupting scents in typical laundry soaps, such as Tide. Years ago, I reacted to clothes washed in Tide, got a full-body rash, and haven’t touched it since. We used Purex after that but recently changed to Meliora soaps for our laundry. Check them out at https://meliorameansbetter.com/
Febreeze plug scent boosters: This is a little machine that takes artificially-scented oil and shoots it into the air of your home, so that you and your loved ones can breathe endocrine-disrupting scents/chemicals at the touch of a button! You can also sign up to have more toxic chemicals sent to you regularly in the form of scent cartridges! Because your house smells so bad, folks…. don’t clean it or open windows, give your money away in exchange for this little button.
Downy fabric softener: First, the advertisement convinces you that you simply must get those smells out of your clothes! But we know that if you only used natural fibers, you could get the smells out with hot water. With polyesters, nylons, etc., you’ll need this chemical-laden potion to get smells out. There are so many alarms going off about this… People breathing microplastics shed from the polyester, chemical smell-removers, and endocrine-disrupting scents to follow you around when you wear the clothes. It’s too much. But the song is so catchy (Total eclipse of the heart, Bonnie Tyler)…
Starbucks Keurig pods: Brew your coffee thru plastic! Yay! Don’t think about how these things are artificially flavored or preserved. Don’t think about the waste you’re producing. Think of all the time you’ll save by not having to scoop the coffee into the little basket yourself. You deserve that little convenience, right?
Too many prescription drugs to mention, with strange names that I can’t begin to spell… and horrible side effects that may be worse than the original condition.
Charmin Ultra Soft: All I’m going to say is, if you eat better and take care of your microbiome, you won’t have situations that call for special, deluxe, quilted, top-dollar toilet paper. Enough said… Except did you know that every mainstream toilet paper brand except Scottissue uses formaldehyde in the paper?? Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen, folks!
Universal Orlando: Ok, this one looks good and reminds me of my son’s 12th birthday. 🫠 yes, go have some fun!

Sorry for the snark, but it’s as a “buyer beware” sort of world. Don’t let yourself be persuaded, fooled, or robbed of your money and health. XO.

Weekend Routine

The weekend priorities are to see as many people as possible, spend as much time outdoors as possible, and get lots and lots of exercise. And of course grocery shop for the week and get healthy foods.

Check out the steps I got yesterday! Farmer’s market in the morning, then a 5K CLL walk with my support group, then visiting with family all evening. Plus a couple of walks with Max. 🐕‍🦺

Weekday Routine

Over the past year and a half, I started keeping a food diary that grew into a scorecard of sorts.

I had been dealing with an unhappy gut for a long time and, as previously shared, got AMAZING results from simply drinking a shot of kombucha daily. Things got better FAST, and I felt so much healthier, but I knew I could still improve.

I had read that for optimal gut health, we should try to eat 30 different plant foods per week. That seemed like a good and achievable goal. So, I started keeping track in a notebook.

It was a way for me to put gut health in a spotlight. At the bottom of 30 numbered lines, I put a question: Did I achieve the goal? Yes or No.

So that was the start. I’ve been adding more tasks and check-offs along the way… some proved useful, others have been phased out…

Any notebook or journal will do, but if you pick up a planner (they’re really inexpensive in May), you’ll be able to see the calendar, too.

Some people like keeping lists, some people like crossing stuff off a list, and some people get a little charge out of hitting their goals. I like all of that! So, in a way, this is a game. I’ve gamified my health.

If I hit all my goals, I reward myself in a healthy way. 🧶

Feel free to print one out and try it for a week. Or, make your own… I find that the time it takes to create a page each week is kind of a nice ‘zen’ task. Get some markers and get creative!

Ooh… one thing that’s missing is the daily step count from my dumb watch. Gotta add that.

Nutrition and Mental Health

I’ve learned a lot about diet and nutrition since being diagnosed, but I hadn’t looked at the brain health/mental health aspect until recently.

Side note: A few weeks ago, I came across a mention, from a researcher I very much admire, that the ketogenic diet didn’t seem to have much of an effect on cancers of the immune system. So, briefly, I have “normalized my relationship with carbs,” and while it sure tastes good, I can feel a sluggishness taking over. Gotta get back on track.

The almighty algorithm put this video in my path today, and I am glad to see it. I’m amazed to find so much overlap with what I have learned about eating for cancer management and physical health.

Georgia Ede has a book and a website if you want to learn more: https://www.diagnosisdiet.com/