You probably don’t think about it in this way, but aging begins the moment you’re born. You will never again be as young as you are at this moment. So the concept of “anti-aging” is a misnomer. You can’t stop aging. At best, you can slow down its progression.

Aging occurs when healthy cells get damaged and lose their ability to divide. Eventually, these damaged cells produce inflammation. You may remember that all chronic illnesses have inflammation at its core. This includes breast cancer. So when we look at breast health, we need to include inflammation as a marker of aging.

Not everything in your body ages at the same rate, however. The tissues around your breasts age differently from a lot of other tissues. Based on the discovery of a biological clock, which measures the age of various tissues, scientists at UCLA recently found that healthy breast tissue is about two to three years older than the rest of a woman’s body.

Not all breast tissue is healthy, however, says Steve Horvath, author of this study. “If a woman has breast cancer, the healthy tissue next to the tumor is an average of 12 years older than the rest of her body.” And older cells can become damaged more easily than younger cells. This speeds up aging, and it could explain why breast cancer is the most common cancer among women.

Tumor tissue is older

Dr. Horvath found that tumor tissue was even older than the tissue next to a tumor. In fact, it was an average of 36 years older than healthy breast tissue! No wonder our risk of getting breast cancer increases with age.

Around one out of eight invasive breast cancers occur in women under the age of 45, while two out of three invasive breast cancers occur in women 55 or older. This strongly suggests that older tissues should be examined carefully for toxicity and damage, and treated as early as possible to slow down aging and reduce the risk for breast cancer.

Hormone balance is a major key in the prevention of breast cancer. A blood test may show that you have low estrogen in your bloodstream, which is protective against cancer, and still have high amounts of estrogen in your breast tissues, which may be a sign of a malignancy.

There are a number of nutrients available both in supplements and foods that can correct this kind of hormone imbalance and slow down your aging at the same time. With the prevalence of breast cancer, and this new way of measuring the age of breast tissue in and around the site of a tumor, it’s now possible to support breast health by balancing your hormones. Here are some ingredients I particularly like to use for this purpose. You may want to include them in your daily supplement regime.

Phytoestrogens

Plant-based estrogens (phytoestrogens) are beneficial forms of estrogen. They get into estrogen receptors, which are like spaces in parking lots, and block the absorption of stronger, harmful estrogens from occupying them.

DIM (diindolylmethane) is a weak and effective phytoestrogen that can prevent breast cells from dividing. If the weaker estrogens bind to the receptors instead
of the stronger ones, there may be less breast cell division – otherwise known as breast cancer.

Begin by including foods high in phytoestrogens in your diet. These include soy and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. If you are at a high risk for breast cancer, have had it in the past, or just want the best protection possible, you may want to take a DIM supplement daily.

If you do, be sure to take one that is easily absorbed. Many DIM supplements are not. Fats and oils, and other beneficial ingredients like an enhanced bioavailable curcumin extract, increase the absorption of DIM. Any DIM supplement you take should include fats and/or a bioactive curcumin with essential oils.

Curcumin, the major active ingredient in turmeric root, slows down aging by protecting your heart, liver, and kidneys from chemotherapy and radiation toxicity. It also turns on antioxidant enzymes like glutathione and reduces free radicals. Although it’s most widely known as a spice and herbal medicine, curcumin has increased the lifespan of laboratory animals including roundworms, fruit flies, and mice. It is now being tested as an antioxidant for its anti-viral and anti-cancer properties.

As with DIM, a major limitation with curcumin is its poor bioavailability. However, its bioavailability can be enhanced by combining the active curcuminoids with essential oils.

One way aging occurs is when healthy cells become damaged and accumulate in the body, producing inflammatory hormones. Curcumin has been widely used
for a number of inflammatory conditions.

Breast thermography, which I talked about at length in my book 456 Most Powerful Healing Secrets (800-610-2107), is one way to help identify inflammation in the breast. Although it’s primarily used to detect heat in breast tissues, it can be used to scan the full body. Hot spots found with thermography are not necessarily a sign of a malignancy, but an indication of an abnormality that should be further checked out. You can find thermography centers that will do full body scans at www.breastthermography.com.

Medicinal mushrooms improve heart and brain function, and reduce the formation of plaque in the arteries. Among other qualities, medicinal mushrooms also activate immunity. They are among my favorite protective ingredients. Some mushrooms contain compounds that have a strong anti-inflammatory activity. Others have been found to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy. I consider medicinal mushrooms to be among the most important supplements available.

Because various mushrooms have slightly different beneficial qualities, I like using a variety of species rather than a single one. This includes Lentinula edodes (Shiitake mushroom) and Agaricus blazei (button mushroom), which I take in supplements and use frequently in cooking.

I’ve written a number of articles on medicinal mushrooms, available on my website for all subscribers, and many are in my book. If you take the time to read them, I think you’ll understand why I’m so enthusiastic about mushrooms.

Breast health solutions

Until recently, you would need to take high amounts of different supplements just to support breast health. Now, there’s another option. My friend and colleague, Dr Isaac Eliaz, MD, LAc, has formulated a supplement, Ultimate Breast Support, that protects and enhances breast health.

Not only does this formula include many of the protective health-strengthening ingredients I’ve been talking about today, along with important mineral co-factors such as calcium, zinc, and selenium, you only need to take a single capsule a day to reap its benefits. This is because the synergistic activity in its ingredients, and essential oils, increases its effectiveness. You can order this new supplement by calling 800-791-3395. Be sure to give them offer code WH1315 when ordering.

Better Than the Best Immune Booster I’ve Ever Found

Cold and flu season is here, and I’m always looking for new ways to keep from getting sick. I know all too well what being sick feels like. As a child, I caught every virus and bacterial infection that was going around. My throat was often sore, my tonsils were enlarged, and my nose was either runny or stuffed. No matter what I did, if there was a cold or flu to catch, I caught it.

Then, more than a decade ago, I found a formula that kept me healthy year after year. In fact, the only time I got sick was the one season I was lazy and neglected to take it. The formula is MycoPhyto Complex – a combination of medicinal mushrooms grown on immune-enhancing herbs.

The herbs feed the mushrooms and make them more powerful than they are on their own – and on their own they’re very powerful. Plus, each of the mushrooms in this formula has a synergistic effect with the others that makes it far more beneficial than any of them alone.

Growing mushrooms on medicinal Chinese herbs is a blending of ancient wisdom and current science. The result is a whole food supplement that contains co-factors along with minor nutrients that haven’t yet been studied or understood – but that are known to work beautifully to support immunity and ward off colds and flu.

MycoPhyto Complex works best when it’s dissolved in hot water at the first sign of a cold. But few people remember to carry the capsules with them, or find it convenient to open them up and dissolve them into a cup of hot water. And those who do, find its taste leaves much to be desired.

That’s why the folks at EcoNugenics who developed MycoPhyto Complex found a way to increase its absorption and improve its taste. They enhanced its flavor profile and packaged it in convenient one-serving amounts. Now you can get this improved formula, MycoPhyto Vegetable Soup, in individual packets. Its taste has been greatly improved, although some people prefer adding a few grains of salt. Now you can easily make a cup of hot immune-boosting soup at the first sign of illness and knock out that touch of a sore throat or hint of a stuffy nose before it turns into anything serious or bothersome.

If you’ve waited too long and have a cold or the flu, this soup could shorten your episode.

I also take a packet of the soup many days from mid-November until the first of the new year when I’ve been exposed to young children. They don’t know the meaning of good hygiene, and they are constantly passing colds and flu bugs amongst themselves. You can order the new MycoPhyto Vegetable Soup by calling 800-791-3395. Be sure to give them offer code WH1415 when ordering.

Simple Ways to Get the Protein You Need

I don’t like to eat breakfast. I’m not hungry for two or three hours after I wake up, and early mornings are when I’m mentally ready to sit down and write. The last thing I want to do is to spend time preparing a meal that has no appeal to me. Also, while I know I should eat high protein foods, many of them like almond butter and peanut butter, make me feel too full.

But I’ve noticed that when I don’t eat anything early in the day, I’m mentally foggy and unable to fully wake up for hours. So I’ve found some foods I’m willing to fix and eat the first thing in the morning that don’t make me feel this way.

Here are a few suggestions you may want to try that help me get good quality protein into my daily diet. If you eat animal protein, limit it to once a day and choose two of the following. If you are on a vegetarian diet, you’ll need three servings a day. Add them to meals containing little or no protein, or eat them as a snack. If you feel too full after boosting your protein intake, take digestive enzymes with them.

When I don’t want to eat but I know I must, I make a smoothie with Advanced Protein Powder from Advanced Bionutritionals (800-791-3395). I add a scoop of Advanced Greens Formula and half a cup of frozen berries to a cup of coconut, soy, or almond milk. This gives me a minimum of 20 grams of protein. The rest of the day I just need one serving of any protein to meet my nutritional goals.
I add edamame (green soybeans) to any vegetable dish – often a curry with brown rice, and add a little granola to walnuts and yogurt. A hard-boiled egg
or stick of string cheese are emergency foods when nothing else appeals to me.

And new foods like Chicken-Free Strips or Cruncha Mame (freeze dried edamame), found in health food stores, give me variety when no protein sounds good to me. New snack foods are flooding the market weekly.

How Plant Stem Cells Can Make Your Skin Look Youthful – And Protect Against Skin Cancer

If you’re interested in natural solutions for skin care, chances are you’ve heard about plant stem cells. These cells have been an exciting discovery because they allow us to mimic what our own stem cells do for our skin. This is important because stem cells can help you maintain a youthful, healthy appearance. Plus, as I’ll show in a moment, they can help fight skin cancer as well.

Every organ in your body relies on stem cells because stem cells are “master cells.” They regenerate damaged tissue and help the body repair itself. They have the ability to develop into many different types of cells. When a stem cell divides, it can either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function — like a skin cell. And since our skin is our largest organ, stem cells are particularly important to it.

Researchers have been fascinated by how stem cells work in the skin. New research, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell and conducted by Kim Jensen at the Biotech Research and Innovation Centre at the University of Copenhagen, recently investigated the role of these cells more closely. Jensen reports, “Until now, the belief was that the skin’s stem cells were organized in a strict hierarchy with a primitive stem cell type at the top of the hierarchy, and that this cell gave rise to all other cell types of the skin. However, our results show that there are differentiated levels of stem cells and that it is their close micro-environment that determines whether they make hair follicles, fat glands, or sweat glands.”

Through this research, Jensen and his team were better able to understand how stem cells work and how they affect skin maintenance. These results give insight into how skin cells turn into skin cancer without any genetic changes in the stem cells. They’ve also been able to mark early stem cells so they can map the cells’ behavior and create a “family tree” of cells.

An interesting discovery they’ve made is that when tissue is damaged, different types of stem cells all rush in to help repair the damage as quickly as possible. But this can be dangerous, because this repair can trigger stem cells’ genes to activate, which can give rise to cancer. This discovery helps the team have better direction in understanding the role of tissue damage in skin cancer — and gives all of us another reason not to damage our skin with sun exposure.

Clearly, our stem cells are vital to the health of our skin. But we lose them as we age. That’s where plant stem cells can come in and make a big difference. One of my favorite ways to take advantage of plant stem cells is through the Système 41 line of products. These products harness a plant-based stem cell extract called PhytoCellTec®, which reinforces your own stem cells to keep your skin looking young, healthy, and vibrant.

Système 41 was developed by my good friend Janet Zand, OMD, LAc. Dr. Zand is a board certified acupuncturist, doctor of Oriental medicine, nationally respected author, lecturer, natural health practitioner, and herbal and nutraceutical products formulator who has helped thousands of people achieve better health. I love her products as well as her Skin Care Insider newsletter. This weekly newsletter gives you information on how to protect and enhance your skin — naturally. Find out more about her products and her fantastic tips by visiting her at www.systeme41.com. Your skin will thank you.

Medical News Today, 19 Aug 2013.

Have You Seen Red Wine Toothpaste? It Could Happen

A study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has found a new way to control dental plaque. Plaque often has serious side effects, such as periodontal disease and tooth loss. But a substance in red wine may counteract these effects.

There are hundreds of different species of microbes in our mouths. Some are able to stick to the surface of our teeth for long periods of time. When this happens, pathogenic bacteria can react with fermented dietary sugars and remove some of the minerals on your teeth. This can eventually cause dental problems.

You can control plaque by brushing well after meals. This can remove most of it. Or you can use an antimicrobial mouthwash. The problem with some of these oral products is that they can change the way foods taste, and they can cause your gums to become discolored. They may even contribute to antibiotic resistance.

This study found that moderate amounts of red wine, either used alone or with grape seed extract, were the most effective at fighting pathogenic bacteria in the mouth. For example, extracts from grapes and wine have been found to inhibit the growth of Streptococcus. Out of all these ingredients, grape seed extract had the highest antimicrobial activity.

You may have seen or heard about a study that found no evidence that resveratrol – a popular antioxidant found in grapes – is protective against heart disease and cancer. All this means is that the benefits from red wine probably don’t come from resveratrol alone. But they do seem to come from other substances in the wine.

So don’t be surprised if someday soon you see a toothpaste or mouthwash containing red wine or grape seed extract. It’s not a gimmick. Red wine really does have a place in your dental health.

NUTRITION DETECTIVE

Using Mental Exercises to Tone Your Muscles

If you’ve had a stroke or other condition where you haven’t been able to exercise, there’s still something you can do to keep your muscles toned and stronger. Instead of lying around getting weaker and weaker, take a page from professional athletes and visualize yourself exercising.

That’s right. Visualization can actually have a physiological effect on your body. Imagine yourself slowly and methodically doing the exercises that your body won’t allow you to do. Professional athletes use this technique as part of their training. If this can work for athletes – and it does – it can work for you.

In the first study of its kind, published in the Journal of Neurophysiology, researchers from the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine found that patients who were unable to exercise could stop or slow down their muscle deterioration simply by imagining doing the exercises that affect it. The more specific and detailed the visualization, the better it works.

This study gives us a better understanding of the importance of the brain in regulating muscle strength. It’s the first one to show that imagery can affect muscle strength loss after periods of disuse.

LETTERS

Q: I have a sensitivity to gluten and have completely removed it from my diet. Most of the time I feel better, but I still get occasional bouts of diarrhea. What else do you suggest? I’m willing to make a few more changes, but I’d also like to keep any program as simple as possible. – M. Evans, Madison, WI

A: You’ve taken the first big step by removing gluten from your diet. But the damage it did hasn’t healed yet. Gluten issues often leave people with inflammation and an imbalance of friendly to pathogenic bacteria – too much “bad” bacteria and not enough of the “good” ones. This is why I suggest taking probiotics and digestive enzymes to help heal the gut.

My preference is to get at the root of the problem by taking a blend of anti-inflammatory herbs and enzymes. Take enzymes either at the beginning or middle of the meal so that they come into contact with undigested food. But don’t take them with extremely hot foods or drinks. This can inactivate enzyme activity.

The enzyme formula I’ve found that helps digestion and best heals the intestines is Integrative Digestive Formula. It is packed with a dozen different medicinal mushrooms and Chinese herbs designed to warm your digestion and gently move waste products out of your body. This decreases both diarrhea and constipation.

Probiotics are often low in people with digestive problems, but there are so many different friendly bacteria that you may easily miss getting the ones you need most. This is why I prefer rotating probiotics rather than taking one probiotic or one probiotic formula. Some of my favorites are Culturelle and Natren’s Healthy Trinity, found in many health food stores, as well as Advanced Probiotic Formula. You can order Integrative Digestive Formula and Advanced Probiotic Formula from Advanced Bionutritionals by calling 800-791-3395.

Q: I read somewhere that chocolate can improve age-related memory loss in seniors. This sounds like something I’d enjoy trying. How much can I eat each day? – S. Van Horn, Los Angeles, CA

A: Hold on! It’s not that simple. It’s true that chocolate contains naturally occurring antioxidants called flavanols that improve blood flow to and from the brain. This is one reason why researchers are studying chocolate as one way to improve memory. But you can’t just eat some candy every day and expect to remember where you left your keys! One reason is that most chocolate isn’t as high in flavanols as most people think.

It’s important to remember that it’s not the chocolate that improves memory. It’s the flavanols in chocolate. And the chocolate used in studies is not the same as the chocolate in cocoa or candy bars. When chocolate manufacturers process cocoa, they remove many of these beneficial flavanols. So make sure you’re eating dark chocolate with a cocoa content of 70% or higher. But for you to get the amount of high flavanols seen in many studies, you’d need to eat about seven average-sized chocolate bars. So you need to get your flavanols from other sources as well.

Fortunately, flavanols are everywhere. They exist in numerous other foods including black tea, blueberries, citrus fruits, and red wine. You’d be better off eating a number of these foods instead of so much chocolate.