Healthy Prostate

Prostate problems usually begin after age 35. By age 50, about 25 percent of all men have enlarged prostate, and by age 80, nearly 80 percent have prostate problems of some sort.

There are two major factors contributing to prostate problems: obesity and hormonal changes.

Maintaining kidney health is integral to your prostate health. Treating prostate problems with medications often affects the health of the kidneys.

Prostate cancer has to do with testosterone levels in the body. Patients diagnosed with prostate cancer are often prescribed female hormones to reduce the male testosterone.

A plant-based or vegetarian diet reduces testosterone levels. The fiber in plant foods facilitates the removal of testosterone from the body. When the liver filters the blood, it removes testosterone through the bile duct into the small intestine. The fiber from plant foods then soaks up the testosterone and removes it with other waste products out of the body. Another reason for consuming plant foods is that a protein known as sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG) in plant foods is responsible for keeping testosterone inactive until needed.

The lycopene in tomatoes reduces the risk of prostate cancer. Cooked tomatoes are more protective than raw ones. Other foods that contain lycopene include watermelon, strawberries, and pink grapefruit.

If diagnosed with prostate cancer, avoid all animal products. Eat plenty of grains and green vegetables to accelerate the removal of excess testosterone. Use diet to control prostate cancer. Surgery should be the last option, since prostate cancer occurring at advanced age seldom leads to fatality.

Healthy Prostate provides good information to provide you with a healthy prostate.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © 2018 by Stephen Lau

Avoiding Cancer Stress

Avoid Cancer Stress

The high incidence of cancer has continued to increase at an alarming rate, especially in the last century. But the disease is as old as age.

Indeed, many people who are apparently living a healthy lifestyle (that is, not smoking and drinking, exercising regularly, and eating healthy) are being diagnosed with cancer. Cancer has become the disease of the century despite all the medical efforts to fight the disease.

There are many reasons why and how you may get cancer. That is to say, in many ways you are responsible for it. Lack of medical knowledge is one the many reasons. Some knowledge of cancer may help you avoid the deadly disease.

First of all, cancer is not a mysterious disease. If someone does not smoke, how does he or she get lung cancer? The myth of the mysterious affliction is mainly due to the holistic nature of the disease; that is to say, cancer has multiple causes, resulting in internal disharmony that provides an optimal environment for the pre-existing cancerous cells to thrive, grow, and become malignant. Worse, the conventional methods of cancer cure are often compartmentalized, that is, focusing exclusively on the cancerous organ or tissue. To illustrate, for decades, the medical community had ignored the role of diet in cancer. Accordingly, any cancer approach, whether it is prevention or treatment, must be holistic because cancer is a multifaceted disease.

As such, in many ways you are responsible for it.

It is a common assumption that cancer is genetically inherited. This assumption has led many people to exonerate themselves from their role in cancer diagnosis. Some scientists have contested with the assumption that cancer is mainly due to family history, that is, genetically predisposed to cancer. In the middle of the 20th century, about one in 20 American women had breast cancers; now the the incidence of breast cancers has skyrocketed to one in ten. This drastic and dramatic increase does little to justify the genetic cancer theory.

If cancer is not a genetically predisposed disease, then there must be many other factors contributing to the disease; or, rather, many triggers in modern life that are responsible for the rampancy of cancer. In other words, you may be responsible for the disease. Understanding how and why you may get cancer may help you avoid the deadly disease.

To illustrate, given that cancer may involve genes, that is, certain genes may promote, while others may inhibit, the growth of cancer, the human role is also a contributing factor that may trigger the disease. According to some medical research, calcium deficiency may be culprit. The explanation is that calcium deficiency enables carcinogens to penetrate cell walls, and thus causing mutations of genes within those cells. If you do not consume a calcium-rich diet, are you not in some way responsible for the disease?

Modern diet has become more processed and unnatural, depleting the body of nutrients, and thereby compromising the immune system. What you can do is to eat natural foods, as well as to avoid overcooking them because heat destroys enzymes in foods (eating raw occasionally is the way to go). On the other hand, eating processed and dead foods and overcooking them are some of the ways you may get cancer.

The environment, its toxins from fluoride, herbicides, pesticides, mercury, and industrial wastes, is another factor contributing to cancer growth. You may not be in a position to control the environment, but you are in a position to go organic, to drink clean water, and to remove mercury fillings from your teeth, among others. Most importantly, you can detox your body to remove harmful chemicals.

Metal detoxification is a must for protect your health from toxic metals from the environment, the processed foods, and your drinking water.

Stress is yet another major factor in causing disharmony within the body, and the underlying cause of cancer. It must be mentioned that cancer diagnosis, cancer treatments, and cancer recovery journey--only further aggravate the stress in life. Again, you can control and manage your stress through mind power to change perceptions, effective time management, natural sleep, and meditation for relaxation.  

Start Zen: Meditation holds the key to total relaxation of the body and mind. 

The bottom line: Help your mind help your cancer through empowerment of knowledge and information about cancer, which is, after all, a multifaceted disease.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © 2018 by Stephen Lau

Reversing Aging

Reversing Aging

As you continue your life journey, you will notice that every day you look older, because aging is no respecter of persons. Look at the mirror, and see if you’ve wrinkles.

Everyone likes to look forever younger. The reasons are obvious.

The youthful look of a person is primarily based on the skin of that individual. The first impression of a person is the face: the perception of youthfulness in that individual is determined by the following factors:

Skin color

Skin texture

Feel and touch of the skin

Your skin renews itself every 35 to 45 days. Your skin maintains its youthfulness through its continual rejuvenation. Aging begins to take its toll on the skin when the rejuvenation or renewal process is interrupted. Such interruption varies with different individuals, and that variation determines how the skin of that individual may age, as well as how it may look as it ages.

Intrinsic aging is caused by internal factors in your body, some of which are beyond your control.

Cessation or interruption of skin cell replication process

Your skin cells divide and replicate continually. However, after a while, they stop the replication process. Surprisingly, the skin cells do not perish; instead, they accumulate in your skin and secrete substances that further interrupt the natural renewal process of other healthy skin cells. Such interruption adversely affects the level of collagen, which is the most abundant protein in your body. Given that collagen makes up approximately six percent of your body weight, its breakdown takes away support of the skin, and thus causing fine wrinkles to appear on your face.

Decline of hormone production

In chronological aging, your body’s production of hormones declines as you age.

Being a woman, your estrogen (hormones) level may decline by as much as 30 percent during the first ten years of menopause. This significant loss of estrogen not only causes your skin to become thinner and less elastic, but also prolongs the renewal process of your normal skin cells.

Change in physical structure of the face

Over time, the physical structure of your face changes due to the loss of bone mass and the decline in the volume of fat under the skin.

Stress 

Stress may cause the flare up of acne, eczema (red swollen skin), and rosacea (a chronic skin disease in people with fair or light skin).

There are ways to reverse your aging if you take care of your skin, have an anti-aging lifestyle..

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

Healthy Liver the Chinese Way

Healthy Liver the Chinese Way

Chinese medicine is about qi, which is internal life energy coursing through the meridians in the body in order to bring oxygen and nutrients to different body organs and tissues. Qi is the invisible energy that flows through not just the human body but also the universe; the human body is but a microcosm of the universe. Therefore, if the flow of qi is disrupted for any reason, the entire body system will be in jeopardy.

The liver is responsible for promoting the smooth flow of qi and "blood" throughout the body. In Chinese medicine, liver health is longevity health because a healthy liver maintains the overall wellness of an individual. In Chinese medicine, "blood" is quite different from that observed in Western medicine. To the Chinese, "blood" serves three major functions in the body system:

1. It nourishes the body by providing nutrients. After your food and drink are digested in you stomach, they are extracted by your spleen and transformed into "blood."

2. It moistens and lubricates the body by giving it movement and flexibility in the form of qi.

3. It stabilizes the mind, making your thoughts clear and stable.

In Chinese medicine, a healthy liver regulates the amount of blood circulation. If you are active, your liver will produce and release more blood, and your blood flow will be strong and flexible. If our liver is impaired, your blood flow will be disrupted. Liver disharmony, due to liver damage, often leads to emotional disharmony, such as anger and sudden outbursts. Emotional problems are often stress-related. People suffering from mental depression often have a weak liver constitution.

Because liver function affects your blood, liver problems also have an adverse impact on tendons, that is, your movements and flexibility. Liver problems are manifested in your nails and your eyes. Nails are seen by the Chinese as tendons. Good liver health is indicated by strong nails, and liver problems result in pale and brittle nails. Your eyes, considered by the Chinese as "windows" of your internal health, require nourishment of your liver. A healthy liver gives you good vision, while liver damage results in inability to see clearly, both visually and mentally.

Do not damage your liver with alcohol. If you have a drinking problem, stop alcohol addiction right away.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © 2018 by Stephen Lau

Health Strategies for Natural Healing

Health Strategies for Natural Healing

Preparing to heal is an integral part of the natural healing process. Health strategies to maximize health fitness and minimize chronic disease prepare you for natural healing.

(1) The first health strategy is to stop auto-intoxification, which is self-poisoning of your body with toxins from the environment you are exposed to, the processed food you eat, and the unclean water you drink. Protecting yourself from these toxins prepares you for the self-healing process.

(2) Next, detoxification is a necessary health strategy for internal cleansing, without which self-healing cannot occur. Health strategies for internal cleansing may include: fasting, use of foot patches, skin brushing, foods and herbs, exercise, and water therapy.

(3) Healthy eating is one of the important health strategies for natural -healing. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, once said. "Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food." Always eat whole foods, not their processed counterparts. Include these foods in your daily diet:

• Alfalfa sprouts: a super food for superb nutrients and effective detoxification
• Beets: a unique vegetable for a healthy liver for internal cleansing
• Burdock: a potent "blood purifier" with anti-cancer properties
• Green barley: a green cereal grass with balanced concentration of nutrients found in nature
• Brown rice (not white rice): one of man's oldest foods for tissue detoxification, as well as a pain-free staple food

 (4) Providing an optimum environment for health rejuvenation is another health strategy to sustain natural healing. A balanced acid-and-alkaline environment is conducive to cell replication and rejuvenation. Acid and alkaline are substances with opposing qualities. Your body functions at its best when the pH (acid-alkaline) is optimum, which is slightly alkaline. The pH of your blood, tissues, and body fluids directly affect the state of your cellular health. The pH scale ranges between one and fourteen. Seven is neutral. Anything below seven is considered acidic, while anything above seven is considered alkaline. Any deviation above or below 7.30 and 7.40 pH range can signal potentially serious symptoms of disease.

Too much acidification not only decreases enzyme activity for proper digestion of foods and assimilation of nutrients; but also depletes alkaline minerals, leading to bone loss and joint inflammation.

Some of the common sources of acidification are animal products, cereals, sugars and sodas, alcohol and tobacco. 

Natural healing takes time, and nature can never be rushed. Diligent application of health strategies will bring about ultimate  natural healing.

Stephen Lau 

Copyright © 2018 by Stephen Lau

Stop Smoking

 Why You Must Quit Smoking

You must quit smoking if you wish to live longer and healthier. Longevity has no room for a cigarette smoker. Cigarette smoking is not a way of life for healthy living for longevity.

Cigarette smoking is the worst health hazard in America today. According to the Surgeon General of the United States, approximately one-quarter-million of Americans die each year as a result of cigarette smoking. If you wish to age healthily, quit smoking.

(1) Cigarette smoking is one of the three major factors—the other two factors are high blood pressure and bad cholesterol—contributing to heart attacks and strokes. A smoker is 10 times more at risk than a non-smoker.

(2) Cigarette smoking is bad for the lungs, resulting in emphysema, chronic lung disease, and chronic bronchitis. Cigarette smoking is also implicated in cancers of the lungs, esophagus, stomach, kidneys, pancreas, and bladder.

Understandably, it may be extremely difficult to quit smoking. Many cigarette smokers have been led to believe that cigarette smoking is just a "habit," not an addiction; they have the illusion that it is just one of those "bad habits" in life. Unfortunately, due to its mood-altering effects, cigarette smoking promotes consistent and repetitive use, leading to tolerance, and subsequently the cigarette addiction.

According to research, approximately 75 to 85 percent of the 50 million smokers in the United States would want to quit smoking, but find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to give up smoking. That is because quitting always inevitably leads to many undesirable withdrawal symptoms, including weight gain. If you are among one of those struggling to fight the addiction, you should exert extra effort to quit smoking.

Do not erroneously believe that "filter cigarettes" are safer than regular ones. They are not! Research studies have shown that smoking lower-nicotine cigarettes may result in inhaling more deeply, taking longer puffs, and smoking longer to compensate for the lower level of nicotine. Filter cigarette is as deadly as non-filter cigarette.

So, if you are still a cigarette smoker, you must quit smoking!

Stephen Lau

Copyright © 2018 by Stephen Lau