7 Simple Strategies for Correcting Hormone Imbalance and Harmonizing Your Life
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on August 5, 2010 – -When you hear the term “hormone imbalance” do you right way think about PMS or menopause? If you’re not suffering from hot flashes or cyclic irritability, you may be tempted to dismiss information about hormone imbalance as “not applicable to me”.
What you may not realize is that your hormones are involved with just about every aspect of your day to day life, including:
- Your metabolic rate, which means how quickly you burn fuel for energy. Imbalances can lead to hard to shed extra pounds and low energy.
- Your response to stress. Hormone imbalance affects your ability to respond to stress without burning yourself out or getting sick.
- How much sugar is in your blood and how much reaches your brain, controlling your mood and your ability to think clearly. Imbalances can lead to diabetes, hypoglycemia and insulin resistance.
- Your mood and attitude, due to the intimate relationship between hormones and neurotransmitters. Hormone imbalance can lead to depression, anxiety and irritability.
- The efficiency of your digestion. Imbalance can lead to ulcers, irritable bowel and chronic infection.
- Your sex drive and ability to enjoy intimacy.
- The quality of your skin and hair.
- Your short term memory and ability to think clearly and quickly.
- The quality of your sleep.
The list goes on and on. This is just a sampling of the widespread and diverse effects of your hormones.
How Hormone Imbalance Effects your Health
Hormones are like members of your family. When they’re in sync, everyone is communicating well, resulting in happy and harmonious relationships. When they are out of sync, you’re sunk. Communication gets disrupted and dysfunction results.
There are over a dozen major players in your hormone family, and your health relies on proper communication and balance between them.
The sooner you get them working in harmony, the happier and healthier you’ll be.
While hormone imbalance can result in unpleasant conditions like depression, dry skin, low energy, irritability, insomnia and hot flashes, what’s more important is that hormone imbalances underlie much more serious illnesses, like osteoporosis, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
So getting your hormones in balance is not just about improving the quality of your life; it’s about actually saving your life.
So how do you get your hormones in balance? Do you need the latest designer drug or exotic supplements? Expensive medical procedures?
Natural Methods for Hormone Imbalance
Fortunately, in most cases, balance can be restored through the application of diet and lifestyle actions combined with targeted and specific supplementation of nutrients and possibly bioidentical hormones, if your body can no longer make them on its own.
There are foods to avoid, foods to include, environmental factors to clean up, stressors to manage, and simple things like the amount and type of movement you do, how much sun you get and the balance between activity and rest.
Here’s a list of seven simple strategies you can get started on right away to get you started on hormone balance. This is a handful taken from the dozens included
in brand new “The Secrets of Being Sexy and Vibrant at ANY Age” course.
7 Natural Approaches for Hormone Imbalance
1-Consume at least 32 ounces of green drink daily, made from at least a pound of green leafy vegetables. This may sound like a lot but the greens are so important and drinking them rather than just eating them helps increase the quality you consume. You can make delicious green smoothies, juices or soups. Greens are filled with antioxidants, minerals and the B vitamin folate, which is very important for hormone balance. Be sure to include sprouts and cruciferous vegetables as they’re especially potent hormone balancers.
2- Break a sweat every day, even if just for 30 second bursts. Exercising to exhaustion for 30 seconds at a time, for a total of 4 to 8 minutes is an amazing way to increase testosterone levels, balance adrenal hormones and the hormone insulin, support your thyroid hormone production and overall strengthen your immune system.
3- Get outside for at least 20 minutes, preferably in the middle of the day, for fresh air and sunshine. This supports your body in making Vitamin D and excreting the chemicals you breathe from indoor air.
4- Open your windows, even if just a crack, for at least 15 minutes every day. This brings fresh air in to replace the buildup of hormone disrupting chemicals found in indoor air.
5- Dump the sugar for whole fresh fruits. Sugar disrupts your B vitamins which are essential for hormone regulation. It also affects the balance between estrogen receptors that are protective and those that promote growth. When these receptors get out of balance, your risk
of hormonally induced cancer increases.
6- Drink pure water from glass containers, rather than plastic. Hydration is vital to production and circulation of hormones and chemicals in the plastic have been shown to be hormone disruptors.
7- Take time each day to appreciate your gifts and the people you love. Appreciation has profound effects on your immune system, the level of stress hormones in your system and your ability to cleanse and detoxify the toxic exposures that disrupt hormone balance.
You’ll most likely notice changes right away when you master these 7 simple strategies.
If you’re already suffering from symptoms of hormone imbalance, like depression, fatigue, sugar cravings, excess weight around your middle, menstrual irregularities or pain, hot flashes or other menopausal symptoms, or if you or a family member have had breast cancer, or if you’d just like to circumvent these problems and be vibrantly healthy, strong and sexy your whole life through, it’s worth it for you to invest the time to learn all you can about keeping your hormones safe and balanced.
To bring you the whole scoop on hormone balance, I’ve teamed up with world renown hormone expert Dr. Lindsey Berkson, author of “Hormone Deception”, “Safe Hormones, Smart Women”, “Natural Answers to Women’s Health Questions”, “Healthy Digestion the Natural Way”, and at least 8 other books on natural health. We put together a groundbreaking 5 week course that’s filled with information about hormones that even most doctors don’t know.
We’re thrilled to bring you cutting edge information that will enhance your life and may even save your life. It saved Dr. Lindsey’s! Read her story for details.
It’s such a joy to have steady energy and mood, strength and stamina and the clarity of mind that balanced hormones brings. We experience this daily and we teach our patients to do the same. We’d like you to have the same experience. For the first time ever, we have packaged this material in a way that we can share it with you in a convenient and cost effective manner.
If you’re ready to take charge of your own hormones and create balance and vibrant health, we invite you to check out the course we’ve put together.
Love, Health and Joy,
Dr. Ritamarie
http://www.drritamarie.com/go/vibranthormones
Tags: bioidentical hormone replacement, dr lindsey berkson, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, hormonal imbalance, Hormone Imbalance, menopause, PMS
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Green Smoothie Cleansing for Combatting Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on July 26, 2010 – -Green Smoothie Cleansing is easy, affordable and very effective if you suffer from low energy, chronic fatigue, aches and pains and even fibromyalgia.
Here are just a few of the results we’ve seen this week:
- My fibro pain has lessened.
- I feel better physically, emotionally and spiritually.
- I have more energy
- I have lost some weight and hope to continue losing
- I feel better and hope to continue with this.
- I feel like I am not stuck anymore and am finally changing!
- The blockage is gone.
- My food cravings are gone.
- I do feel a sense of accomplishment and that I can keep learning and growing and healing.
- I still have trouble falling asleep- but do wake up ready for the day and with a feeling of gratiitude.
- My stress level is less
- no drippy nose; the chronic mucus is gone.
- I feel comfortable in my body now.
- My senses are more acute (except for my eyes; they seem to be a bit blurry still).
- My allergies are clearing up. I don’t have as much mucus/ sneezing.
- Lost about 4 lbs
- Less aches in my body.
- My energy level is improving.
- The fat around my middle has decreased.
- My congestion is gone.
- The ache in my shoulder that has been nagging me since January is gone.
- I am peaceful, calm and joyful.
- My energy is through the roof.
- My mind is clear and focused.
- I am sleeping like a baby and waking up with ease.
These are taken form the participants journals. I’ve enjoyed watching their progress.
We repeat the Green Smoothie Cleanse as a group every 3 months. The materials and support are avaialble to do the program on your own as often as possible. The newest feature we added recently is onlien pre and post cleanse assessments and daily online journals. It helps me offer more personalized support.
Here are a few delicious recipes submitted by one of our participants.
“Orange Sunrise”
1 cup frozen mango
1 cup frozen mixed fruit
4 medium oranges
4 cups spinach
1 tsp whole vanilla bean powder
“Swiss Garden Soup”
3 tomatoes
1 english cucumber
4 cups red swiss chard
Juice of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove
1/8 tsp cayenne
1 tsp spirulina
“Garden of Eden Smoothie”
1 cup papaya
1 cup frz mango
1 cup frz mixed fruit
4 cups spinach
3 celery stalks
2 medium oranges
1 tsp dried mint or handful fresh
1 lemon juiced
1 Granny Smith Apple w/ Skin (Organic)
1 ginger nub
Enjoy these recipes. For more information about Green Smotohie Cleansing, visit
Tags: Adrenal Fatigue, Cleansing Programs, detoxification programs, Dr. Ritamarie, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, DrRitamarie, fatigue, fatigue symptoms, Green Cleanse, Living Foods, Raw Foods
Posted in Adrenal Fatigue, Cleansing Programs, Fatigue Treatment, Green Smoothies, Raw and Living Foods | No Comments »
Adrenal Fatigue: Tips to Restoring Your Energy and Your Health
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on July 5, 2010 – -
Do you ever wake in in the morning, even after a long night of sleep, only to feel sluggish and wishing you had another few hours to rest?
This is one of many signs of adrenal fatigue.
Adrenal fatigue is a common condition in our fast paced, stressed out society.
Your adrenal glands are your body’s mechanism for responding to stressful situations. In the olden days, this meant getting chased by a tiger or dealing with severe cold without shelter or proper clothing.
Fortunately for us, tigers and lack of clothing are not problems we deal with on a regular basis.
Unfortunately we have our own modern day tigers, and they chase some of us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Modern Day Tigers that Stress Your Adrenals
- Deadlines at work?
- Juggling kids schedules with your own?
- Worry about the economy?
- A sick parent or child?
- An unreasonable boss?
Whatever it is, the response is similar to a real tiger chasing you. Your adrenal glands step into action and do what they do best…shift you into what is often called “fight/flight mode”, and in scientific terms, “sympathetic nervous system dominance”.
In hyper vigilant adrenal state, your heart rate increases, your respiration quickens and the blood supply to your brain and vital organs decreases and is sent to your extremities…so you can run away or fight.
In addition, your digestive track activity decreases and the sphincters– the valves between sections of the digestive tract– tighten. This is to protect you from needing to use the bathroom in the middle of running away from or fighting a tiger.
Translate this into modern life. If you find yourself stressed out and worried quite a bit of the time, you increase your risk of indigestion, constipation, gas and bloating as well as heart and circulation problems due to prolonged increased heart rate.
Oh, and I forgot to mention. In fight flight mode, your sex drive goes away, too.
Doesn’t help to be having lustful thoughts when you’re trying to get away from that tiger. On a biochemical level, the same chemical molecules that make the adrenal hormone cortisol, which gets elevated under stress, are also needed to make estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, all needed for libido and reproductive function.
Another problem with cortisol is that in excess it can cause damage to your mitochondria, the energy producing mechanisms in each of your cells. Cortisol also damages your hippocampus, the part of your brain that helps with short term memory. Ever walk into a room, only to forget what you went there for? That’s likely because your hippocampus has been impeded by the cortisol you produced when you were stressed out.
Yikes! SO if this is you, what can you do to fix things?
In my over two decades of clinical practice, I’ve seem many cases of adrenal burnout and the damages caused by chronic stress.
Fortunately there are actions you can take reverse the damage and repair your adrenal glands. But if you keep getting stressed out, you’ll be a lot like a hamster on a wheel….working hard but never getting anywhere. Repairing your adrenals and transforming your response to stress take some time and retraining, and the transformations you experience when you do can be miraculous.
3 Tips for Combating Adrenal Fatigue
1- Learn stress management and stress transformation techniques. One of my favorites is called Heart Math, and uses a combination of deep breathing, focusing on your heart and feeling appreciation. It completely changed my life. I did a 90 minute stress transformation teleseminar a couple of years ago that guided the participants through the process and the response was dramatic.
2- Nourish your adrenals. Did you know that 80% of the vitamin C used in your body is used by your adrenal glands? Excessive stress depletes your vitamin C stores and can lead to allergies, poor wound healing, easy bruising and increased susceptibility for colds, flu and other infectious disease? Your adrenals also use lots of B vitamins, especially pantothenic acid and B6. That’s why a lot of B complex formulas are called Stress formulas. Eating a whole foods, high raw, high green diet will ensure you have adequate intake of nutrients to maintain your adrenals when they are brought back to normal;however, when you’re in the mode of recovery, supplementation is often needed.
3- Support your body’s detoxification systems by periodic cleansing. Face it, eating on the run, making even occasional poor food choices and being stressed out impair your liver’s ability to do it’s job of cleansing. One of my favorite ways to cleanse my body is with green smoothies. Even though I eat really healthfully, exercise on a regular basis, and do my Heart Math exercises daily, I’m not perfect. I still get stressed out sometimes, I’m exposed to toxins and I eat on the run more often than I’d like.
I personally do a Green Cleanse at least quarterly by taking a week off eating and just drinking green smoothies or juices for 7 days. I am always amazed at how much more energy I have when I do this. That’s why every 3 months, I lead a group green smoothie cleanse. I have hundreds of success stories from people who feel they got their life back after a green cleanse. This time around I’ve added a new component – daily interactive journals. The details about the cleanse, go to my Green Smoothie Cleanse Website.
If you’ve already done a green cleanse or a short cleanse and are ready to take it to the next level, I suggest you do a deep tissue detox like my Six Week Deep Tissue Detox or something similar.
Bedtime and Wake-up Rituals for Adrenal Fatigue Support
One last tip for rebuilding your adrenals – create supportive bedtime and morning rituals that re-establishes
your circadian rhythm. Here’s a starting set that I recommend to my adrenal fatigue patients:
- Shut off all electronics within an hour of bedtime.
- Eat your last meal within 3 hours of bedtime.
- Fill a 16 ounce glass with pure water and the juice of 1 lemon and put it by your bedside.
- Find 3 things to appreciate before you fall asleep.
- Find 3 things to appreciate before you get out of bed.
- Drink the water as soon as you get up.
- As soon as you get up, go outside and get 5 – 15 minutes of sun, even if the sun is not out. Face in the direction of the sun and sip your water.
Get going on these habits, cleanse regularly and master the Heart Math techniques and you’ll soon be bouncing out of
bed in the morning with vim, vigor and enthusiasm for life.
I hope to meet you soon on a green smoothie cleanse.
Love, Health and Joy,
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: Adrenal Fatigue, chronic fatigue, Cleansing Programs, detoxification programs, Dr. Ritamarie, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, DrRitamarie, green smoothie, green smoothie. detoxification programs, Living Foods, Raw Foods, raw foods diet, raw foods recipes, Vibrant Health
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Green Smoothies vs Green Juice, Fruit Friend or Foe, and Other Controversial Topics
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on July 1, 2010 – -
Green Smoothies have been my friend for close to 25 years now. My daily smoothie habit is a part of my life, just like brushing my teeth. When Dr. Brian Clement spoke here in Austin earlier this month, he brought up a very controversial issue…Green Smoothies vs Green Juices. He flat out said that green smoothies were “a step above soft drinks” because 90% or nutrients are lost through oxidation when the fruits and vegetables are blended.
I personally have a hard time with this. Nutrient destruction can occur as a result of damage by heat, light and air. The amount of damage is a function of severity and It is generally accepted that nutrients begin to be damages when heated above 118 degrees F. I have not found any studies that confirm this. In fact there is quite a bit of evidence that refutes this.
First of all we need to define what we mean by nutrients.
- Macronutrients: nutrients consumed in large amounts , ie protein, carbohydrates and fats.
- Micronutrients: nutrients consumed in small mounts , ie vitamins, minerals, enzymes
Not all are similarly sensitive to oxidation. Take minerals for example. You can leach them out with prolonged heat, but its hard to destroy calcium by blending. In fact, calcium becomes more available after blending because ti’s released form the cell walls, a feat ordinarily accomplished by stomach acid – which becomes deficient as we age and abuse our bodies.
The smoothie vs juice debate is a hot topic these days. Her’s an excerpt from an excellent article written by Kevin Gianni of Renegade Health. Kevin gave me permission to reprint it . Thanks Kevin. You saved me some precious time.
There are 5 important issues to address when discussing the Green Smoothie vs Green Juice debate, according to Kevin.
1. Oxidation
2. Fiber
3. Sugar Content
4. Available Nutrients
5. Ease of Making them.
Number 1: Oxidation
It’s said that high speed blenders can oxidize your nutrients so that when you drink a smoothie you won’t get the health benefit of it.
This is why you should drink juices instead.
This is false.
Victoria Boutenko did a study using potatoes in a blender and in a juicer and found that the potatoes in a blender oxidized much more SLOWLY than the potato juice.
- Fiber actually protects the smoothie from oxidizing quickly.
- Juices should be consumed right after you make them for the highest nutrient profile.
- Twin gear juicers like the Tribest are best for slowing the oxidizing process when you juice. (Sold in the Renegade Health store)
So the bottom line is this…
Smoothies oxidize slower, which means you will be able to preserve more nutrients for longer.
For oxidation, we like smoothies best.
Number 2: Fiber
Don’t we need fiber to prevent heart disease?
Why would we take the fiber out when we make a juice?
These are good questions.
First off, we do need fiber… but if we’re eating a high raw diet we’re getting plenty of fiber. Your body won’t miss the fiber from the juice.
Why take the fiber out of the juice?
For fast absorption (and maximum) of the nutrients.
A juice to me is like a power-packed supplement to your regular healthy diet.
For fiber, the smoothie has more, but the juice has a different purpose.
Number 3: Sugar Content
For sugar content, if you’re using fruits and sweet vegetables for your juices and smoothies you’re going to get sugar. Most people can deal with moderate amounts of sugar in their diet for an extended period of
time. (Higher sugar for shorter periods)
Because there is fiber in your smoothie, your body will absorb the sugar slower. This is good for your pancreas. When you juice fruit, you take away the fiber and this can cause your pancreas to struggle to regulate your blood sugar.
For this reason, I recommend smoothies with sweet fruits and veggies and juices with greens and low glycemic fruits like lemons and limes. This way you can enjoy your fruits without blood sugar spikes and enjoy a nice, clean green juice!
Just to recap, smoothies contain more fiber, don’t oxidize as fast, and allow for slower nutrient absorption.
Juices have less fiber, oxidize quicker and allow for quick absorption.
Now again, this doesn’t mean that juices are bad, they just have their place. We use them as we would a supplement. Drinking an organic vegetable juice is an opportunity to get great nutrients and minerals straight into your system.
4. Available Nutrients
When you juice a veggie, you strip away all the fiber. This makes the nutrients extremely available for your system to absorb. When you blend a veggie, you break down the fiber making the nutrients easier to absorb, but you still have a bunch of fiber that will slow absorption in your intestines.
For sugary foods this is ideal. For greens it’s good too, but not as good as a green juice. When it comes to readily available nutrients, juices take the lead.
5. Ease of Making Them
Smoothies hands down on this. Put your ingredients into a blender and turn it on. Cleaning with a blender is simple too. Rinse it out a bit, add some water and soap, then put it back on the base. Turn it on for a few seconds, then use a sponge to clean out what’s left.
Juicers are harder to clean because they have more moving parts.
To get the best of both worlds, you can use your blender to make juices.
Add your juice ingredients to the blender, add some water, and blend. When you’re done, strain everything through a nut milk bag and you have your juice ready to go.
http://www.renegadehealth.com/smoothieweek
Check out Kevin’s Smoothie Wee Specials…1/2 off Kevin’s “Smoothies for Optimal Health” book, and discounts on Kev’s Super Smoothie Powder.
For the second topic, Fruit friend or foe, we’ll continue tomorrow.
Bottom line: enjoy your smoothies and have juice too, for a powerful nutritional boost.
For a super powerful nutrition and energy boost, check out our Green Smoothie Cleanse as part of our “Drink Green Stay Lean” Coaching Program.
Love, Health and Joy to You,
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: Adrenal Fatigue, Cleansing Programs, detoxification programs, Dr. Ritamarie, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, DrRitamarie, green smoothie, Living Foods, raw and living foods holiday recipes, raw foods diet, vegan foods, Vibrant Health
Posted in Cancer Nutrition, Detox Program, Green Smoothies, Holistic Nutrition, Vibrant Health | 6 Comments »
39 Quick and Easy Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Getting Cancer
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on May 31, 2010 – -
Cancer is often referred to as a modern day disease, as if it was barely recognized as a disease back at the turn of the 20th century.
Yet I recently found a book called “Cancer…Its Causes, Symptoms and Treatment”, by Eli G. Jones, MD. It was recommended by my herbal medicine mentor David Winston. It sat on my shelf for almost 2 years and I just happened to come upon it during my recent reorganization frenzy. What I read blew me away.
The cover looks modern enough, since it was reprinted in 2004, yet the inside has many tell-tale signs of age. The book was written in 1921! What shocked me were the cancer statistics presented in the very first chapter. Before reading this, I had thought that cancer was practically unheard of in the early part of the 1900’s.
In the US in 1890, there were 18,536 deaths from cancer. In 1900 there were 29,222 and in 1921 there were over 50,000. In 1921, it was estimated that one man in 32 and one woman in 11 die of cancer.
Cancer Statistics: Are We Really Making Progress?
Conventional medicine would like us to believe that great strides have been made in the eradication of cancer. Yet the statistics say quite the opposite. Today, in the US alone, there are over 562,000 deaths per year from cancer and it’s estimated that 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 people will get cancer. And if do you get cancer, the odds are bleak if you rely on modern medicine to bail you out.
The Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2004 (16:549) published a study done by two Australian oncologists who looked at every randomized controlled clinical trial between 1990 and 2004. On average, the 5 year survival rate for 22 types of cancer treated with chemotherapy and radiation was 2.1 percent. Admittedly, the survival rates tend to be higher in the general population than in studies. Michael Boyer, head of oncology at the Sydney Cancer Center estimated the 5 year survival rate to be closer to 5 or 6 %. It should be noted that in drug trials, anything with less than 30% effectiveness is considered placebo.
The cancers with the best 5 year survival were:
- Hodgkin’s lymphoma – 40.3%
- Testicular cancer – 37.7%
- Cervical Cancer – 12%
- Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma 10.5%
What About Nutritional Cancer Interventions?
Are the statistics much better for non-conventional treatments? Hard to say because we really don’t have good statistical analysis for non conventional treatment approaches. And to further complicate things, most people who undergo alternative cancer protocols do so AFTER conventional treatment has failed. At this point their bodies are so ravaged from the chemotherapy, radiation and surgery that it would take a miracle for them to recover.
Still, there are so many case reports of people who have been given up as dead who turned to nutrition and natural therapies and went on to live for decades.
The Hippocrates Institute in Florida was originally founded by Ann Wigmore who at the age of 56 was given 6 months to live. She turned to the natural medicine wisdom of her grandmother, completely reversed her disease and went on to use her approach to do the same for thousands of others with cancer and other serious illness.
The Gerson Institute in San Diego California, uses a program of organic foods, juicing, coffee enemas, detoxification and natural supplements developed by Dr. Max Gerson in the 1920’s and has helped thousands of cancer patients recover their health.
The Oasis of Healing in Tempe, Arizona, is a comprehensive and integrative medical and healing facility that helps cancer patients and their families learn to re-establish health. It’s run by Dr. Thomas Lodi, whose 3 pillared approach has restored health to thousands of people. Dr. Lodi combines juicing, living foods and emotional healing with elements of modern medicine to guide the patients to stop making cancer, target and eliminate the cancer without harm to healthy cells and enhance the immune system.
There are many other healing centers that utilize natural methods, mainly diet and nutritional balance, movement and attitude in helping hundreds of thousands of cancer patients regain their health. Others include Optimal Health Institute in Austin and San Diego, Creative Health Institute in Michigan, and an Oasis of Hope Hospital near Los Angeles, California.
Strengthening Cancer Defenses vs Killing Cancer Cells
The approach of natural cancer interventions is to increase the body’s ability to get rid of cancer cells or to cause the cancer cells to self-destruct. Contrast that to chemo therapy which initiates machine gun fire on all cells, hoping the cancer cells die before the good ones. Statistics tell us that’s not what usually happens. Many cancer deaths are a result of the treatment, not the illness
According to Mike Anderson, author of “Healing Cancer from the Inside Out”, when caught during the initiation or promotion stage, a true anti-cancer diet has 100 percent chance of reversing the disease. When it’s progressed beyond that, nutritional treatment extends patients lives form months to years, or at minimum, reduced pain and suffering.
Seems to me the best approach is to adopt a diet and lifestyle to PREVENT cancer long before it strikes. Prevention programs target what you eat, how you think, the quality of your relationships, with others and yourself and a long list of lifestyle choices over which you have day to day choice.
There are many books and many natural cancer prevention and management programs. The one thing that almost all have in common is that the diet is primarily or exclusively plant based, fresh, whole living foods.
Your body makes cancer cells every day. Your body also has the ability to destroy the cancer cells before they multiply and create a problem. Your daily choices determine how effectively your immune system checks the growth of cancer cells keeps you safe and healthy. If you wait until cancer is detectable, you’ll have to work a whole lot harder to get rid of it that you would have to prevent it in the first place.
It’s your choice. You can choose health or you can make choices that increase your risk of cancer. What will it be?
39 Quick and Easy Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Getting Cancer
- Eat plenty of sulforaphane. Say what? Sounds like the name of a chemotherapy drug. It, in fact, is a compound found in the cruciferous family of vegetables. These are broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale and all their relatives. Sulphorophane blocks cancer cells. Broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower also contain a compound called indole-3-carbinol that can combat breast cancer by converting a cancer-promoting estrogen into a more protective variety. If that’s not enough to have you packing in the crucifers, they also contain lutein and zeaxanthin, antioxidants that help decrease prostate and other cancers.
- Try a daily dose of ellagic acid. It’s found in about 46 different foods. The highest concentrations are in berries, particularly raspberries, and pomegranates, grapes and walnuts. Ellagic acid stops cancer cells from mitosis, the process they use to replicate themselves, prevents destruction of the p53 tumor suppressor gene, and causes cancer cells to commit suicide.
- Eat an alkalizing diet. Your blood maintains its pH slightly alkaline at 7.35. Life presents acid residue at every turn – when you exercise, get stressed, and in the foods and chemicals you take into your body. Foods that create an alkaline residue help balance life’s acids. Cancer thrives in an acid environment. Additional information on acid/alkaline balance is found at http://drritamarie.com/Articles.htm
- Exercise daily and vigorously. Cancer cells thrive in an environment deprived of oxygen.
- Take a break from the news. Studies show that the biochemical changes that occur when you’re stressed worried or feeling powerless affect tumor growth and spread by effecting DNA repair and the regulation of cell growth.
- Give your body an oil change. Heated oils oxidize, causing cancer-producing free radicals to form. Switch them out for raw omega 3 fats like flax seeds, chia seeds and hemp seeds. Minimize the use of oils. Instead choose whole food fats.
- Tame your sweet tooth. Cancer cells thrive on sugar. It’s best to eliminate all forms of refined sugar, and if you already have cancer, its best to eliminate all sweet foods, including fruit, with the exception perhaps of those fruits mentioned below, used therapeutically for their cancer fighting properties.
- Avoid animal foods. Study after study has reported on the cancer protective effects of a diet free of meat and dairy products. One of the most renowned is the “China Study”, conducted by T. Colin Campbell, and published in a book with the same name. Animal foods are devoid of fiber and travel slowly through your digestive track, producing toxic metabolic wastes en route. One mechanism proposed for the increased cancer rates in meat eaters is that the digestion of meat requires large quantities of the pancreatic enzymes trypsin and chymotrypsin, which leaves less of these enzymes available to dissolve the protein coat on cancer cells.
- Get plenty of sunshine. Vitamin D is made in your skin from exposure to sunlight. Maintaining appropriate blood levels of vitamin D has been shown to protect against many forms of cancer. If you can’t be out in the sun, take a vitamin D supplement and test your vitamin D blood levels regularly.
- Eat organic foods as much as possible. Pesticides affect your immune system and detoxification systems and put you at higher risk of cancer.
- Use “Green” cleaning products. Products using natural substance reduce the toxic load. Many of the chemicals used in commercial cleaning products are carcinogenic.
- Keep cholesterol levels in a safe range. Excess cholesterol can trigger cancer proliferative estrogens.
- Keep your colon clean. You need to be having at least 2 good sized bowel movements each day to keep the waste flowing out. Sluggish bowels predispose you to toxic recirculation and increased risk of cancer.
- Breathe deeply and fully to increase oxygenation of your tissues and minimize cancer risk. Cancer can’t thrive in well oxygenated environment.
- Avoid refined foods. These are devoid of cancer protective phytochemicals and nutrients and usually contain preservatives and chemicals that can increase your risk of cancer
- Chew your food thoroughly. When you eat under stress and on the run, your digestion becomes inefficient. Toxic residues accumulate from unchewed and undigested food, leaving you more prone to immune stress and cancer formation.
- Avoid food allergens. Anything you are allergic to creates an immune system response, which distracts your system from the more important work of cancer surveillance and destruction.
- Drink plenty of pure water. Insufficient hydration decreases your kidney’s ability to excrete water soluble toxins. Recirculation of these poisons increases your cancer risk. Rule of thumb is ½ your body weight in fluid ounces each day.
- Eat lots of green leafy vegetables every day. They are loaded with cancer protective phytochemicals, minerals and nutrients that protect from cancer and disrupt the functioning of cancer cells.
- Load up on Vitamin C. It’s a powerful anti-cancer nutrient that’s frequently given in IV form to treat cancer. Foods like fresh greens, bell peppers, berries, citrus, and sweet potatoes are rich sources. Supplementary vitamin C can be taken in the form of buffered ascorbic acid or whole food concentrates, like camu camu, amla, goji, acerola cherry and pomegranate powder.
- Eat laetrile containing foods, like apricot and peach kernels, buckwheat, berry seeds, grape seeds, chick peas, lentils, lima beans, mung sprouts, cashews, alfalfa brown rice, millet, bitter almond and macadamia nuts. Laetrile has very powerful anti-cancer properties. It works by killing cancer cells and building the immune system to fend off future outbreaks. For the treatment of cancer, many experts recommend a daily dose of 24 – 40 apricot, spread throughout the day.
- Eat carrots, which contain thousands, of phytonutrients, many of which have already been identified for their cancer-fighting abilities.
- Eat flax seeds, which contain antioxidant lignans that block or suppress cancerous growth.
- Season with Garlic. Its immune-enhancing allium compounds .increase the activity of immune cells that fight cancer, help block carcinogens from entering cells, and indirectly help break down and slow tumor development. Diallyl sulfide, a compound found in the oil of garlic, has been shown to deactivate carcinogens in the liver.
- Enjoy Citrus fruits. Grapefruit and oranges contain monoterpenes, which appear by clear carcinogens from the body. Tangerine peels contain cancer destroying Salvestrol 40, a type of phytoalexin produced to repel insects or fungi. Oranges and lemons contain Iimonene which stimulates cancer-killing immune cells
- Eat red grapes, especially concord grapes with the seeds. They contain cancer protective compounds such as ellagic acid, catechin, quercetin, oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPC), resveratrol, pterostilbene, selenium, lycopene, lutein, laetrile, beta-carotene, caffeic acid and/or ferulic acid and gallic acid! There are several books written about a cancer treatment called the grape cure, during which a water fast is followed by a diet of blended grapes. The idea is that the cancer cells love the grapes because of their high sugar content and while eating the sugar, they are poisoned by the chemo therapy that grapes naturally contain.
- Make friends with mushrooms. There are a number of them that have been shown to have cancer protective effective and immune building effects, including shiitake, maitake, and reishi. The mushrooms contain lentinan, beta glucan and lectin –powerful substances that help build immunity.
- Eat 2 Brazil nits every day. They provide cancer protective selenium, an essential mineral. Other nuts contain the antioxidants quercetin and campferol that may suppress the growth of cancers.
- Season your food with cancer protective herbs and spices. Turmeric is extremely powerful as an antioxidant and anti-cancer agent. It inhibits production of cyclo-oxygenase 2 (COX-2), which reduces inflammation and cancer cell growth, especially bowel and colon cancer. Rosemary contains carnosol, which inhibits breast and skin tumors in animals. Rosemary may help increase the activity of detoxification enzymes.
- Indulge in asparagus when in season. It contains cancer reducing saponins. Blend 1 or 2 stalks into a green soup or salad dressing.
- Add beets to your salads. They contain anti-cancer proanthocyanidins (OPC’s).
- Get tropical. Enjoy raw pineapple and papaya. In addition to lots of vitamin C, they contain the enzymes bromelain, papain and pexoxidase that have been shown to have anti-cancer properties.
- Eat from the sea. In addition to being an excellent source of minerals that support your immune system, sea vegetables contain substances which bind to heavy metals and toxins and eliminate them from your body. Powdered sea vegetables like kelp and dulse can be added to salads, soups and smoothies.
- Switch from coffee to green tea. Green tea contains polyphenols , one in particular called particularly epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG , that inhibit an enzyme required for cancer cell growth and kills cancer cells without harming healthy cells.
- Eat tomatoes. They contain lycopene, an antioxidant that attacks cancer promoting free radicals. Blend them into a sauce with rosemary, basil, thyme and oregano for extra immune support.
- Prioritize fresh foods. Adopt a diet that contains 75% or more fresh raw foods, including lots of sprouts and greens.
- Drink a green smoothie every day to provide lots of fresh raw cancer fighting plants.
- Learn to love your lawn. There is a cancer protecting effect of several of the cereal grasses. There have been several prominent rat studies which showed a definite reduction in cell mutation in rats fed wheat grass juice along with a highly carcinogenic substance called benzopyrene compared to when they were fed the benzopyrene alone. Barley grass extract was demonstrated to inhibit growth of human prostate, breast and melanoma cancer cells in a study done at George Washington University Medical Centre. While wheat grass juice may not be the tastiest juice you can drink, it sure does appear to be one of the most health promoting ones.
- Practice the Art of Appreciation. There is no better way of getting your stress hormones settled down and your immune system fired up than taking time to deeply appreciate your blessings. Do it daily, morning and evening. Find 3 things to appreciate and experience how good it feels.
So there you have it. Creating cancer protective habits is not difficult. There are lots to choose from. While you don’t need to master all 39 tips all at once, the more you do, the better your odds of protecting yourself from clenches of cancer.
To hear more, visit www.drritamarie.com/cancertalk.
Love, Health and Joy ..and lots of Fun!
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: alkalize, Ann Wigmore, Cancer, cancer prevention, cruciferous, detoxification, emotional health, green juice, green leafy vegetables, green smoothie, immune system, Living Foods, natural medicine, sugar and cancer, sulphorophane, sunshine, wheat grass juice
Posted in Cancer Nutrition, Green Smoothies, Holistic Nutrition, Raw and Living Foods, Vibrant Health | 4 Comments »
Detox Strategies
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on April 8, 2010 – -
Remember the days when cleansing referred to clothes and dishes and detoxification was for drug addicts and alcoholics?
We live in a more sophisticated world now, and colon cleanse products are now sold at Walmart!
But do you really understand these processes? Or are you confused by the myriad of options, powders, potions, teas and procedures that are touted to be the “best detox ever” or to “cleanse your body in only 3 days.”
Cleansing and Detoxification are often used interchangeably in regards to programs designed to rid your body of impurities and restore that youthful glow. Are they over-rated? Is detoxification just something that your body does naturally and you need just to let it alone?
It helps to understand what parts of your body are involved in detoxification and how the process works.
There’s so much information about detoxification out there. It’s all over the internet. If you were to type the word “detoxification,” you would get hooked up to all kinds of websites that would try to sell you this potion, this powder, and this magic cure, saying, “take this for seven days and you’re going to be completely clean and pure.”
The fact of the matter is that toxins happen. Toxins are a byproduct of life. There are the toxins that you breathe in the air, put there industrial waste, pesticides, and cleaning products we use. There are toxins in your water. One thing you may not be aware of is that there are lots of toxins generated inside of your body, from the movement of your muscles, the foods you eat and the feelings of stress you experience.
While you have many inborn mechanisms for detoxification, your chief detox organ is your liver.
If you lived in a pristine and serine world, your liver would have no problems keeping up with the removal of toxins. In the real world, though, your liver tends to become overburdened by the constant barrage of chemicals it’s expected to remove. And sometimes, your liver gets so tired, that it falls asleep on the job. When this happens, toxic overload occurs and you experience symptoms of what we have come to call disease.
Did you know that most disease is the result of toxicity? I’ve seen and experienced miraculous recovery from chronic illness as a result of a properly conducted detoxification program.
Today I’ll share 3 Strategies for Detoxification Success. On my teleseminar 10 Tips for Choosing a Cleansing Strategy That’s Just Right for You, I go into all the details.
3 Strategies for Detox Success
- 1- Begin with the End in Mind. What is it that you’re looking to achieve by doing a detox program? Are you looking to shed a few pounds? Clear your skin? Clean up your digestion? Rest? Your goals will help you figure out the best strategy to take and keep you focused if the going gets rough.
- 2- Create a Support System. If you attempt to do it alone, as soon as it gets a little bit challenging, you’ll be tempted to through in the towel. If you have a buddy to call, or you’re doing a group cleanse with phone support, you’ll likely stick with it better than if you’re doing it alone.
- 3- Be realistic. If you choose a program that takes 3 hours a day to implement and requires a lot of expensive products, you need to clear the space and budget the money for or it. If you are a single mom with 3 kids, you probably need a program that’s easy and inexpensive.
When I work with people on choosing the best strategy for them, I keep these 3 things in mind and we work from there. I have a checklist for choosing the best strategy, based on your lifestyle, dietary preferences, activity level and finances.
I share it on my teleseminar 10 Tips for Choosing a Cleansing Strategy That’s Just Right for You.
Cleansing and detoxification programs are deeply personal and have the potential to profoundly change your life.
If you’ve never done one, you owe it to yourself to find out more, and schedule time to cleanse and rejuvenate.
I created 10 Tips for Choosing a Cleansing Strategy That’s Just Right for You, to demystify the cleansing and detoxification process and empower you to chose the process that’s just right for you.
Learn all you can and then engage fully. Your liver will love you for it.
Sign up for my FREE teleseminar 10 Tips for Choosing a Cleansing Strategy That’s Just Right for You,and get access to the recording so you can play it back whenever you need a booster.
Sign up now, right HERE.
Love, Health and Joy,
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: cleansing, colon cleansing, colonics, detox, detoxification, Dr. Ritamarie, liver, toxicity
Posted in Adrenal Fatigue, Detox Program, Green Smoothies, Vibrant Health | No Comments »
The Health and Spiritual Aspects of Giving Up Eating Meat
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on March 26, 2010 – -People become vegetarian for many reasons. For me it was strictly health at first, then it evolved to so much more. I love hearing others stories and perspectives, about why they forgo animal foods and about why they choose to continue them. While I believe that there are no absolutes, the evidence is clear to me that diets that are high in green plant foods and low in animal foods provide the best protection against cancer, heart disease, diabetes and autoimmune disease. Yet I am not here to convince anyone of anything, and I am certainly not one to adhere to a dogmatic viewpoint in the face of evidence that a particular dietary regime is not working. I love raw foods and it’s the diet that works best for me. Here’s the perspective of my Book Doula, Dr. Liz Alexander:
Inside Out Eating
Dr. Liz Alexander
It wasn’t just red meat that was served for most meals when I was growing up, but any part of an animal that was remotely edible. Brain, liver, kidney, tripe, tongue—I swear that if my mother had found a recipe for entrails stew she would have served it. I faced so much congealed nastiness, given the rule in our house: If you don’t eat it for dinner, it will be waiting for you at breakfast. I struggled mightily at breakfast times.
As soon as I left home my dietary selections changed to higher end cuts. No more stewing steak with fat and gristle for me; it was to be prime rib steak or nothing. I’d toyed with being a vegetarian at age 15, more as an expression of teenage rebellion than anything else. But in the north of England during the late 60s, early 70s, vegetarian options were few and far between. My mother refused to allow me to think of our home as a “hotel” where I could opt for different meals than the rest of the family, plus there were only so many nut rissoles I could stomach. So the carnivore in me lived on.
Fast forward to my early 30s when, as a freelance reporter for a pan-European TV channel, I was asked to take part in (and report on) a six week detox. No more meat, bread, sugar, caffeine, or alcohol. The emphasis was to be on raw food as much as possible. After decades of eating processed and packaged meals you can image what the first week was like. L
et’s just say I didn’t venture far from the bathroom, at times thinking my end had come and I’d never feel good ever again.
But I did. In fact, I felt so marvelous after I’d cleansed decades of gunk out of my system that I maintained my “no red meat, no caffeine, no alcohol” regimen for several years afterwards. And I noticed a distinct change. No more protruding belly (I’ve always been slim, but with what my mother called a “tummy”), or constipation, or insomnia. But gradually red and white meat (especially lamb and bacon—I loved lamb and bacon!) crept back into my diet, even though I’ve stayed away from caffeine and alcohol in order to calm my over-active mind.
Then an interesting thing happened. As an author and journalist I started writing less about alternative health and more about spiritual principles. I devoured personal growth material voraciously, coming to appreciate that I could—as Ernest Holmes articulates in The Science of Mind—“turn away from the condition,” that is, disallow external circumstances to delude me into thinking that reality is fixed or outside my control. As advised by early 20th century personal development thinkers like Earl Nightingale, I chose to change the image I had of myself, from the inside out.
As I embraced this more vibrant, energetic, happy and serene “me” I found I was no longer attracted to certain foods, particularly meat. Yes, I agree with all the intellectual arguments for foregoing hormone-laced meat and I abhor the disgraceful treatment of animals and poor husbandry practices of much of today’s food industry. But that’s not how I manage to successfully shun meat. I succeed because it’s not consistent with who I am, whom I’ve chosen to be.
Today, I find it easy to maintain a yummy 75% raw diet, to slug down 2oz wheatgrass shots daily, experiment with 
home juicing and make delicious smoothies. Not because of any external or left brain “rational” arguments, but simply because I live from the inside out. What I put into my body, how I honor my inner being, and the way I feed my flesh and spirit allows me to smell sizzling bacon or see “lamb curry” on a menu, smile at the memory and realize that’s no longer who I am.
So, if you find yourself struggling to exclude meat from your diet, maybe you could try something similar? Ask yourself: What’s my new image? Then act the part, consciously and consistently until it becomes second nature. I don’t set myself any rules or deny myself anything that I love. I simply found that I was naturally ready to say “goodbye” to the old carnivore in me in the process of living life as my best self.
Dr. Liz Alexander is the author of ten nonfiction books, including The Magic of Labyrinths: Following Your Path, Finding Your Center (written under her former name of Liz Simpson), published by HarperCollins in 2002. Also known as The Book Doula, she works with would-be authors to creatively conceive, grow, and birth books that help them leave a legacy and use this promotional tool to boost their business, service, or subject-matter expertise. www.bookdoula.biz.
Tags: detox, meat, personal development, Raw Foods, spirituality, vegetarian, vegetarianism, wheatgrass
Posted in Green Smoothies, Raw and Living Foods, Vegan Diet, Vibrant Health | 1 Comment »
Conquering Food Cravings: Stop Sugar Cravings and Overcome Adrenal Exhaustion
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on November 3, 2009 – -What causes food cravings…you don’t really need the sugar and bread, do you? The cravings for food you you can’t seem to control are a cry from your body for help. What really causes food cravings is a deficiency of one of your basic needs. When nutrients are out of balance, your body craves food to rebuild its stores. When you respond to the cravings with sugar, starches and nutritionally depleted and harmful foods, you add stress to your body, which burdens your adrenal glands. So giving in to food cravings can contribute to adrenal exhaustion.
Learn why and and how breaking free from emotional eating and providing the nutrition you really need will stop cravings in their tracks. By supplying your body with the building blocks of a healthy mind and body, you allow your adrenals to rebuild, your fatigue and exhaustion improve and the cravings lessen.
Question of the Day: What do you crave and how do you handle it when the craving gets really strong? Post your answer in the comments box below.
Tags: Adrenal Fatigue, emotional eating, fatigue symptoms, food cravings, green smoothie, Living Foods, raw foods diet, stop cravings, sugar, sugar cravings
Posted in Adrenal Fatigue, Articles, Green Smoothies | 4 Comments »
Protecting Yourself From the Flu: 5 Tips for a Strong and Healthy Immune System
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on October 20, 2009 – -It’s that time of year again. As the autumn ushers out the warm and balmy sun filled days and the days grow shorter and shorter, we enter into the season that many associate with colds and flu. This year we’re particularly aware of the flu season as reports fill the airways of the dangers of the swine flu and the miracle of the new vaccine.
Before you jump in and get in line with your sleeves rolled up, ready to have the flu shot, I suggest you do some research and make an informed decision. The main ingredient in any vaccine is either killed viruses or live ones that have been weakened and made less harmful.
A hidden danger of flu vaccines is the chemicals they may contain, such as ethylene glycol (antifreeze), formaldehyde, phenol and thimerasol(mercury containing preservative) . There has been legislation passed to remove thimerasol from all vaccines because it has been correlated with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. That ban was lifted so as to get the swine flu vaccine to market faster.
While there is a lot of reliable information on the web about the swine flu vaccine, there is also a lot of garbage. I have quotes below form what I believe are reliable sources.
Dr. Sherri Tenpenny one of the country’s most knowledgeable and outspoken physicians regarding the impact of vaccines on health, has a lot of good information about the swine flu vaccine as well as other vaccines. I suggest studying her information before making a decision. .
I found her article The Truth About the Flu Shot to be particularly enlightening.
An article was published in Natural Health News last Monday called Vaccine Revolt.
In it, Mike Adams explores the hype and the dangers of the vaccine. Here are a few highlights, interspersed with my comments:
1- more than fifty percent of moms are refusing to expose their children to the swine flu vaccine, and nurses and health practitioners across the US and UK are going vocal with their opposition to the vaccine.
2- Swine flu is actually no more deadly than a normal seasonal flu
3- While there is evidence showing that the vaccine produces antibodies, the mere existence of vaccine-induced antibodies doesn’t directly translate into functional, real-world immunity!
4- The vaccine has not been properly safety tested by the FDA or the drug companies. They were approved by the FDA with a waiver, bypassing the normal process of long-term safety testing that the public expects the FDA to enforce.
Dr. Mercola published several good articles on the swine flu vaccine. One called Squalene-The-Swine-Flu-Vaccines-Dirty-Little-Secret-Exposed discusses the dangers of the adjuvants put in vaccines, and this one in particular, squalene, that’s in the swine flu vaccine.
Here are a few highlights from Dr. Mercola’s article:
“The purpose of an adjuvant added to a vaccine is to enhance your immune response to the vaccination. Adjuvants cause your immune system to overreact to the introduction of the organism you’re being vaccinated against.
A study published in the American Journal of Pathology demonstrated that a single injection of squalene into rats triggered “chronic, immune-mediated joint-specific inflammation,” also known as rheumatoid arthritis.
Your immune system recognizes squalene as an oil molecule native to your body. It is found throughout your nervous system and brain. In fact, you can consume squalene in olive oil and not only will your immune system recognize it, you will also reap the benefits of its antioxidant properties.
The difference between “good” and “bad” squalene is the route by which it enters your body. Injection is an abnormal route of entry which incites your immune system to attack all the squalene in your body, not just the vaccine adjuvant.
Your immune system will attempt to destroy the molecule wherever it finds it, including in places where it occurs naturally, and where it is vital to the health of your nervous system. ”
I highly recommend that you read and research before deciding about immunizations for flu. There are lots of possible adverse effects.
You may be wondering how to protect yourself from the flu without the risks of the vaccine? The secret is to build a strong immune system.
I’ve shared 5 ways below. For more you can sign up to receive the recording of a teleclass I held a couple of weeks ago on this Immune Boosting, Flu Protection Strategies
1- Give you immune system the nutrients it needs to fight infection. These include Vitamin C, beta carotene, bioflavinoids, magnesium, zinc, B-vitamins and omega 3 fats. And how do you get these nutrients? My favorite sources are fresh fruits, green leafy vegetables, root vegetables and raw seeds like flax, hemp, chia and pumpkin. The best way to insure that what you eat has the highest nutrient content is to eat these foods in their fresh, raw, organic and natural state. Fresh pressed green juices are extremely nutrient dense, as are green smoothies.
2- Get lots of fresh air and sunshine. Vitamin D is one of the key nutrients in immune health. Studies show that you can knock out the flu within a few days by taking very high doses of oral vitamin D. The best source of Vitamin D is the one made by your body when you’re exposed to natural sunlight during the peak UV times of the day, approximately 11AM -4PM. If you’re unable to do this then you need a Vitamin D supplement
3- Cleansing your body from the inside out. Giving your system a rest from heavy foods, stress and constant activity allows it to get rid of the waste products that accumulate as a result of your busy lifestyle and exposure to toxins in food, air and water. The simplest way I’ve found to cleanse is using Green Smoothies. I conduct a guided green smoothie cleanse about 5 times a year and I never cease to be amazed at the results people get. What better way to prepare yourself for the flu season that to do a Green Smoothie Cleanse. For details, refer to http://www.GreenSMoothieCleanse.com
4- Get plenty of rest and sleep. Studies show that the less sleep you get the more likely you are to get sick. Your body repairs and cleanses from the day while you sleep. If you sleep less than 4 hours a day, this ability is severely impaired, leaving you susceptible to illness. Don’t chance it. Get at least 6 hours of sleep each night, and 8 is closer to ideal.
5- Avoid sugar and processed food like the plague…because it is like the plague! At this time of year it’s particularly pervasive. Sugar abounds. Halloween is coming in a couple of weeks, and with it the onslaught of candy and processed junk food. Did you know that there is a 50% decrease in the effectiveness of your white blood cells to fight infection for up to 4 hours after eating just 2 teaspoon of sugar? Imagine your poor immune system after Halloween, if you continue to eat the traditional treats. There is an alternative. My book Healthy Halloween Treats is filled with delicious recipes and information to keep you healthy this year. It’s available at http://www.drritamarie.com/Halloween
And speaking of Green Smoothies, we are proud and excited to be hosting a presentation on Friday October 23, featuring Victoria Boutenko, author of Green for Life and many other books, and her son, Sergei, author of Fresh and founder of Harmony Hikes, which specializes in leading wild edible walks and multi day adventures.
The seats are going fast, and we’re almost sold out. If you’re interested in attending, you can register if you hurry over to http://www.drritamarie.com/boutenko
The talk is in Austin Texas, but will be broadcast live over the internet to all over the world. Replays are also available. To signup, go to
http://www.drritamarie.com/boutenko.
I wish for you the joy and freedom that a strong and healthy immune system brings.
Love, Health and Joy,
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: Add new tag, children's health, Cleansing Programs, detoxification programs, flu protection, gluten free, green smoothie, Halloween, Halloween treats, holiday diet, Living Foods, livingfoods, raw and living foods holiday recipes, Raw Foods, swine flu protection, swine flu vaccine
Posted in Green Smoothies, Healthy Holiday, Healthy Smoothies, Raw and Living Foods | No Comments »
Cleansing and Detoxification – What Does I Love Lucy Have in Common with Your Liver?
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on September 14, 2009 – -I’m always asked questions like, “What’s the best way to cure Chronic Fatigue“ or “How can I get my hormones in balance?” The strategies for both are amazingly similar. In fact, when it comes right down to it, adrenal exhaustion, irritable bowel, eczema, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, thyroid problems, arthritis , depression and just about any condition you can name all have at least one thing in common. All of these conditions can be traced back to a body overloaded by toxicity.
In our modern world with its modern conveniences, we are constantly inundated by “modern” toxins. There are chemicals in the air, plastics in the food, pesticides and drugs in the water and toxic emotions spurred by watching the news. Then there’s all the processing that takes what once was a real food and leaves it filled with empty calories, oxidized fats and enough free radicals to cause a revolution!
I recorded a video clip on cleansing to answer the questions I get all the time. Cleansing is something your body knows how to do, as long as it doesn’t get overloaded. And when it does, it’s time to take a break and allow healing and cleansing to take place. Listen in for some tips and tricks. Then afterward, have a look at my favorite I Love Lucy clip.
Dr. Ritamarie Discusses Cleansing and Detoxification Strategies. For support in cleansing, visit www.GreenSmoothieCleanse.com
” I Love Lucy” – Lucy and Ethel show what happens when the liver gets overloaded with toxins. It gets caught up when you do a Green Smoothie Cleanse or a Juice Cleanse
When I first learned about toxins and how to eat, breath, think and feel to eliminate them, (almost 25 years ago) I did my very first cleanse. It changed my life. I now do mini cleanses at least 4 times a year.
Give cleansing a try. It will change your life.
Love, Health and Joy,
Dr. Ritamarie
www.FreshnFunLiving.com
Tags: "I Love Lucy", Adrenal Fatigue, Cleansing Programs, detoxification programs, fatigue, fatigue symptoms, Living Foods, livingfoods, raw and living foods holiday recipes, Raw Foods
Posted in Adrenal Fatigue, Chronic Stress, Cleansing Programs, Exhaustion, Fatigue Treatment, Green Smoothies, Living Foods, Raw Foods | No Comments »
