1.    Optimize your vitamin D levels. It's virtually impossible to discuss cancer prevention and treatment today without discussing vitamin D, as the scientific evidence of its anti-cancerous benefits is truly impressive.

Theories linking vitamin D to certain cancers have been tested and confirmed in more than 200 epidemiological studies, and understanding of its physiological basis stems from more than 2,500 laboratory studies, according to epidemiologist Dr. Cedric Garland, professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California - San Diego School of Medicine.

Dr. Garland is widely regarded as the leading epidemiologist on vitamin D and its relation to health. He led one of the latest studies on vitamin D for cancer prevention and proposed a new model of cancer development -- dubbed DINOMIT-- that is centered on a loss of cancer cells' ability to stick together.

The model is a departure from the older model of cancer development, which centers on genetic mutations as the earliest driving forces behind cancer.

2.    Control your insulin levels by limiting your intake of processed foods and sugars as much as possible.

3.    Get appropriate amounts of animal-based omega-3 fats, especially those from fish oil.

4.    Exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.

Exercise is also an important part of cancer treatment, as Harvard Medical School researchers found patients who exercise moderately -- 3-5 hours a week -- reduce their odds of dying from breast cancer by about half as compared to sedentary women.

In fact, any amount of weekly exercise increased a patient's odds of surviving breast cancer. This benefit also remained constant regardless of whether women were diagnosed early on or after their cancer had spread.

5.    Have a tool to permanently erase the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. My particular favorite tool for this purpose, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

6.    Only about 24 percent of people eat enough vegetables, so by all means eat as many vegetables as you are comfortable with. Ideally, they should be fresh and organic. However, please understand that, frequently, fresh conventionally grown vegetables are healthier than organic ones that are older and wilted in the grocery store. They are certainly better than no vegetables at all, so don't use that as an excuse. If you are a carb nutritional type you may need up to 300 percent more vegetables than a protein nutritional type.

7.    Eating according to your nutritional type has potent anti-cancer effects. When we treat cancer patients in our clinic, this is in fact one of the most powerful anti-cancer strategies we have.

8.    Maintain an ideal body weight.

9.    Get enough high-quality sleep.

10.  Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.

11.  Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them. Better yet eat as many of your foods raw as you can.

The sooner you implement these natural strategies, the better, as they will provide your body with the basic foundational elements necessary for health, healing and wellness.

Today, we're going to look into IBS or Irritable Bowel Syndrome. For those who aren't familiar, IBS is a disorder of the lower intestinal tract which involves abdominal pain and abnormal bowel movements.

IBS has become more publicized, because many celebrities, including entertainment figures, sports stars and politicians have IBS and are speaking out publically about the dangers. Former presidents Kennedy and Eisenhower both had IBS.

IBS symptoms may include abdominal distention, abdominal fullness, gas and bloating, abdominal pain that comes and goes, is reduced or goes away after a bowel movement and occurs after meals. IBS patients suffer from chronic and frequent constipation, usually accompanied by pain, chronic and frequent diarrhea, usually accompanied by pain, emotional distress, depression and loss of appetite.

Symptoms range from mild to severe. Most people have mild symptoms, but IBS symptoms may be worse in patients who also have stress or mood disorders, such as anxiety and depression.

IBS can be treated and contained relatively easily. Fortunately, there are some simple, basic strategies you can use as an alternative to the drugs such as antispasmodics and antidepressants 

First, avoid all sources of gluten. The first step for any patient that comes to my clinic with this problem is to go on a gluten free diet. Most people understand this means avoiding all forms of wheat, but you also need to be aware that there are many other hidden sources of gluten in your diet.

For instance, Gluten is a protein found in wheat, but it's also found in other grains such as barley, rye, oats and spelt. Typically, avoiding gluten for a week or two is enough to see significant improvement. Go to Just Food or your local cooperative and walk the aisles with an employee to see what is gluten free. In addition to gluten, food allergies can also play a role so be sensitive to that and start a trial-and-error process to determine which ones you have. By trial-and-error process, one should eliminate dairy for a week or two, along with beer, sugar, alcohol, etc. You should also get your spine checked to improve nerve supply to all digestive organs.

Another comprehensive strategy, to make sure you're not struggling with a physical condition that could be simulating IBS, is to have your stool checked for parasites. Some parasites, such as giardia, can sometimes be a contributing factor that needs to be treated.

Naturally, you will want to pay close attention to your diet. Ideally, you should eat according to your nutritional type

Part of nutritional typing is to also pay attention to the quality of your food. You�fll want to consume high quality, unprocessed food. Remember, 90 percent of the money Americans spend on food is for processed foods. When you choose foods like this, you're bound to experience physical complications, and it's no big surprise that one of those complications could be in your gut.

Examples of processed foods include BBQ sauce, catsup, beef jerky, Doritos and cookies. Whole foods are best -- apple, oranges, bananas (fruits and veggies). It's also important to make sure you have enough healthy bacteria in your gut. You can get healthy bacteria from fermented food

Now, once you lower the amounts of sugar and processed foods in your diet, you're automatically creating a milieu that will support the growth of good bacteria and diminish growth of bad bacteria. But you can enhance that process further by eating fermented foods or taking a high quality probiotic.

Taking additional fiber can also be very helpful to control IBS symptoms such as constipation and diarrhea. Fiber such as psyllium tends to be particularly helpful and is my personal favorite. I use it nearly every day.

Another good fiber is whole, organic flax seed. You can take a few table spoons of freshly ground flax seed per day. Another benefit of flax is that it�fs also a high quality source of plant-based omega-3 fats, particularly ALA, which nearly everyone needs on a regular basis.

Regular exercise is always good.

IBS can occur at any age, but it often begins in adolescence or early adulthood. It is more common in women. The condition is the most common intestinal complaint for which patients are referred to a gastroenterologist.

Most of the time, your health provider can diagnose IBS with few or no tests. Tests usually reveal no problems. Some experts recommend a lactose-free diet for two weeks to evaluate for possible lactage deficiency

Some patients may need an endoscopy, especially if symptoms begin later in life. Younger patients with persistent diarrhea may need this test to look for inflammatory bowel diseases that can cause similar symptoms, such as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. You may need additional tests if you have blood in your stool, experience weight loss, have signs of anemia or have recently traveled. Patients over age 50 should be screened for colon cancer.

Irritable bowel syndrome may be a lifelong condition, but symptoms can often be improved or relieved through treatment.

Last, but certainly not least, I've found that many people with IBS have an unresolved emotional component that contributes to their physical problem. This is also one of the reasons why antidepressants are frequently prescribed. Meditation, prayer and psychological techniques and tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) are all strategies you can use to effectively address your emotional challenges.

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It was bad enough that bloggers around the U.S.and newspaper reports in Great Britain began reporting miscarriages, stillbirths and other ill effects in mothers and their babies almost as soon as the H1N1 vaccination campaign started. Since then, according to the H1N1 summary report, more than 9,000 adverse reactions of all sorts were reported through January 2010, including 46 deaths. Some of those reports are of miscarriages, which have been tallied by a group of women who have formed a support group for women who believe the vaccine caused them to lose their babies.

I’m sorry to say the governments not doing much to help it’s own case. If you go to the government's website on clinical trials, you’ll see that at least one vaccine manufacturer is still recruiting pregnant volunteers for testing the safety and efficacy of the H1N1 vaccine. First, I have serious concerns about conducting any kind of pharmaceutical testing on pregnant women. But the sad thing about this testing is that it didn't start until months after the CDC ordered women and their unborn babies to the head of the H1N1 vaccine line!

As previously reported, this vaccine was NEVER tested in pregnant women – until now. That's because, when it comes to "emergencies" such as pandemics, certain things like clinical trials can be dismissed in order to speed up the delivery of what officials define as life-saving drugs. In other words, making H1N1 an emergency gave officials the right to shoot first, and ask questions later, when it came to safety trials for this vaccine.

One place that many women logically search when they're looking for information on how to have a healthy pregnancy and baby is the CDC's own website. There, under "Birth Defects: Having a Healthy Pregnancy," the CDC lists the ABC's of pregnancy tips for ensuring nothing bad happens to your baby while you're pregnant.

I find it interesting, if not ironic, that the "A" of the ABC's is Avoid exposure to toxic substances and chemicals – such as cleaning solvents, lead and mercury, some insecticides, and paint. Pregnant women should avoid exposure to paint fumes.

The "C" is Cigarette smoking, which can cause major health problems for both mother and child, from birth defects, to premature delivery, to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and more.

The "L" of the ABC's is for legal drugs such as alcohol – which has no known safety level – and caffeine, which can be found in many over-the-counter drugs, off-the-shelf foods and in beverages besides coffee and tea.

So – if you're pregnant, the CDC advises you to avoid smoking, alcohol, caffeinated food, drugs, paint fumes, pesticides, and other environmental toxins that you might breathe, ingest or even absorb through your skin.

Under "V," the CDC does say that vaccines are a "very important concern" during pregnancy. A "non-working" hyperlink directs you to what is supposed to be the CDC's website on getting vaccines during pregnancy. No luck there. But if you do your own search through Google, there’s a website where you'll find which vaccines the CDC recommends for pregnant women, and which ones they don't.

For example, the measles shot is a no-no. So is the live flu virus. But the regular flu shot is recommended, even though studies have shown that flu vaccinations don't make a bit of difference in whether a pregnant woman is going to get sick with the flu or not. The point is that the CDC goes to great lengths in spelling out the ABC's of protecting an unborn baby from all kinds of toxic substances – except those in vaccines.

What the CDC isn't bothering to tell is that one reason no evidence of risk exists is because several vaccines, including the ones for the flu, have never actually had any clinical trials done on pregnant women; until now.

Before Novartis and the other manufacturers started their flu vaccine clinical trials for pregnant women this fall, all they had was the public health experiments called post-marketing surveillances. Right now, the only information we have about flu vaccines and pregnancy is the post-marketing surveillance reports which, as I already said, show that some women have been reporting miscarriages after a flu vaccine, whether it's seasonal or H1N1.

The tragic thing about this is that many of these women have physicians who refused to even consider the possibility of the vaccine causing harm to them or their babies.

What’s really distressing to me, though, is that so many physicians, as well as the mainstream media, steadfastly ignore compelling research that shows that flu vaccines have no effect on whether pregnant women get sick with the flu or influenza-like illnesses – meaning it's not necessary to even give pregnant women flu vaccines in the first place!

This story is far from over!

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain disorder that affects millions of Americans each year and can be both physically and emotionally distressful. Fibromyalgia sufferers experience widespread chronic muscle pain, but localized pain in a series of tender points is another classic symptom.

Recently, fibromyalgia patients have been seeking chiropractic care increasingly often. Because fibromyalgia causes numerous tender points all over the body, many fibromyalgia patients suffer from back pain, neck pain and leg cramps. In an attempt to solve these problems, many sufferers have looked to chiropractors. Because simple adjustments to the neck and spine can restore the carriage of the whole body, a lot of fibromyalgia sufferers find that alignments of the spine can significantly reduce pain all over their bodies.

Many fibromyalgia patients suffer from a condition called upper cervical spinal stenosis. This causes the coverings of the upper spine, known as meninges, to become compressed. This can cause severe, debilitating pain all over the body. Chiropractors can adjust the head and neck so the spine is no longer compressed, helping to relieve the widespread pain symptoms of fibromyalgia.

Numerous studies have been conducted analyzing the benefits of chiropractic care in fibromyalgia patients. A research study asked 81 fibromyalgia patients to indicate drug or alternative treatments that best relieved their pain. Chiropractic care treatment scored surprisingly high in this study. Another study examined the effectiveness of spinal manipulation in relieving fibromyalgia symptoms. After just 15 treatments, fibromyalgia patients suffered from less pain and fatigue, and actually enjoyed better sleep quality.

• Stage one: A freezing phase; Symptoms being acute pain, tending to be worse at night making sleep hard if not impossible. Range of motion has not yet become restricted much, if at all.
• Stage two: A frozen phase; Symptoms being lowering pain levels but with your range of motion becoming severely limited. Most people find this to be the hardest phase to cope with.
• Stage three: A thawing phase; Symptoms being as the name implies, a gradual diminishing of the remaining pain along with a freeing up of movement again.

• Decreases overall time of treatment
• Fosters faster rehabilitation/recovery
• Reduces need for anti-inflammatory medication
• Decreased pain and increased function
• Improves or completely resolves chronic conditions thought to be permanent