Today, UCSF issued a statement saying that aggressive prostate and breast cancer screening has not brought about the decrease in mortality that they had hoped for and that the aggressive screenings that have been done have likely led to an INCREASE in treatment of cancers that probably didn’t even NEED treatment to begin with!!

This is especially true with prostate and breast cancers that often grow slowly, but they admitted that the FASTEST growing breast cancers, the ones that are the MOST dangerous and really DO need aggressive treatment, are the ones being missed most frequently!

While this is great that researchers are beginning to recognize this, current policy is not likely to change anytime soon. In what I call HABITUAL medicine, things that are ‘perceived’ to work, even if in reality their is little to no proof that they actually DO work, will be continued indefinitely until their is a ‘sea-change’ in thinking- which often takes decades to centuries to achieve historically in medicine.

What I found interesting about the press release is that the word ‘Prevention’ was only used ONCE. Why is SCREENING so focused upon when it is APPARENTLY NOT WORKING!! Especially when prevention is almost completely ignored by doctors, researchers, those doing clinical trials, etc. See why Prevention and Screening are NOT the Same Thing.

(update- The US Preventive Services Task Force actually DID revise their recommendations. Good for them. The Mayo Clinic Newsblog states, “Experts suggest screening every two years for average risk women ages 50 to 74 achieves most of the benefits of annual screening, but with less harm.). So, in essence they are admitting not just FAILURE to detect cancers, but that previous guidelines have caused HARM! Do they REALLY know that these guidelines are BETTER, or are they just experimenting with women’s lives once again without any real change in breast cancer incidence?

We HAVE effective prevention strategies that doctors are simply ignoring, and we wouldn’t NEED so much screening and treatment if prevention were focused upon. Here are two prevention strategies for breast cancer specifically that SHOULD be implemented, but that are NOT even being considered.

Vitamin D Sufficiency
The 2/16 OH Estrogen Level Test

Vitamin D Sufficiency

Dozens of Vitamin D researchers have stated that if everyone were to have sufficient vitamin D levels that it WOULD reduce breast cancer rates up to 75%. Breast Cancer and Vitamin D is a major breakthrough in risk reduction that is NOT being talked about.

Up to 75%!!!

That’s a 3 exclamation point statement that doctors in clinical practice just don’t seem to care about at all. If there were a drug that could prevent up to 75% of breast cancers, doctors and hospitals would have every woman taking it from the time she were a child. Instead, because it’s a natural substance, it is being IGNORED as a breast cancer prevention strategy!!

This is a serious tragedy that I think history is going to look back on with much disdain that we are letting all these women GET breast cancer and doing nothing about it beforehand when we already have the knowledge.

The 2/16 OH Estrogen Level Test

This is a test that can test for your breast cancer RISK by measuring levels of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ estrogen that contribute to breast cancer risk….AND allowing you to do something ABOUT that risk and RETEST to see if you have altered that risk!! How cool is that!? The 2/16 OH Estrogen Level Test is inexpensive, readily available and is done AT HOME using a single urine sample. You don’t even need a doctor to order it!

But medical professionals don’t use this test! Yet it is the ONLY test that can test for your RISK for breast cancer. Not even genetic testing can do that because the MAJORITY of women with breast cancer do NOT have the gene for breast cancer!! So, this shows that breast cancer is more about modifiable lifestyle factors then about genetics! When will the medical profession learn this?

So, even though UCSF is declaring the past 20 years of breast cancer screening a failure, YOU do NOT have to live in fear of breast cancer. You CAN take matters into your own hands with simple measures to modify your risk of cancer- using simple and inexpensive measures.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

We all know that we feel better when we are getting enough sleep, and every health pundit tells us that getting enough sleep is extremely important to your health. But when you sleep are you getting all of the benefit that you COULD be?
We hear a lot about getting enough sleep, but rarely do we hear about the TIMING of your sleep and the importance of the adrenal gland fatigue hormone called cortisol and sleep. And the TIMING is AT LEAST as important as getting enough sleep.

Humans evolved as diurnal animals. That means that, as a species, we evolved to sleep at night as opposed to the daytime. For thousands of years, we had no light except firelight after dark and therefore we Slept when it became dark. With the advent of the electric light, we have learned that we can manipulate this rhythm and stay up all night if we desire. But our manipulation of the environment, in this particular case, is to our detriment of the cortisol and sleep rhythms and contributes to Adrenal Gland Fatigue.

The adrenal glands, a pair of small glands that sit on top of each kidney, produce the hormone cortisol, among other hormones. Cortisol is one of the main hormones responsible for the stress response in our bodies. It goes up when we are stressed and ideally it returns to normal when stress is reduced.

Some people are stressed so much that their cortisol level is continually high. Others have had so much stress in their life that their adrenals are unable to produce enough cortisol to remain at normal levels even when the stress is removed. These people have chronically low cortisol levels – not a good state to be in.

Interestingly, cortisol has a daily rhythm of ups and downs. Levels are highest at about 6 am and lowest around 10:00 pm. This gives us the energy we need to function throughout the day and allows our bodies to rest and repair during the night as we sleep.

This rhythm is MOST effective if we go to bed around 10:00 to 10:30 PM and wake up around 6:00 to 6:30 in the morning.

Humans are designed to these cortisol and sleep cycles based on our exposures to light and dark from thousands of years of evolution. These levels are OUTSIDE OF OUR CONTROL and we cannot change them based on when we work and when we sleep. People who consistently work at night and sleep during the day do NOT reset this rhythm, they go AGAINST this rhythm and it will eventually catch up with them.

In fact, workers who do shift work have higher levels of certain diseases- notably breast cancer and cardiovascular disease, than people who work daytime hours.

Any amount of time that you go to sleep after 10:30 PM, your body will perceive as stress, disrupting your cortisol and sleep cycles and contributing to adrenal gland fatigue.

To make matters worse, the late night DROP in cortisol levels that occur when you go to bed in an unstressed state around 10 pm is what triggers the release of Human Growth Hormone. Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is directly related to the regeneration and repair of the body. It is SO effective that a relationship has been observed between the vitality of elderly adults and their HGH levels.

There is a whole industry out there trying to make effective HGH supplements so that people can feel more vital and have more energy. Most of these supplements have been largely ineffective and the studies that have shown these remarkable effects from HGH have mostly been done with injections.

But YOU can boost the levels of HGH in your body and reap the benefits that so many people are trying to get in supplement form.

Just go to bed between 10 and 10:30 PM and get about 8 hours of sleep and you will MAXIMIZE the amount of HGH that you produce, contribute to a positive cortisol and sleep balance and ward off Adrenal Gland Fatigue.

The hours between 10 pm to 2 am are PRIME hours for rest and repair where the highest amount of HGH is produced. You CAN NOT make this up by sleeping in later. Your body ONLY produces these hormones during these particular hours. If you miss it, it’s gone forever!

Cortisol and sleep cycles are also responsible for Immune System Health. When cortisol levels are too high or too low, the immune system can’t work at its best. By going to bed late, you are making yourself chronically susceptible to colds, flu, infections and even cancer if your stress levels compromise your immune system bad enough for long enough.

Coming in second only to dietary changes, sleep is the most effective lifestyle change that you can make. If you get to bed later than 10:30 regularly, you can make PROFOUND changes in your health just by getting your cortisol and sleep cycles back in balance and improving your adrenal gland fatigue.

Adrenal Gland Fatigue Resources

:

Test Your Adrenal Glands Right in Your Own Home
Dr. Carolyn Dean’s Future Health Now Program- Reduce the Stress on Your Adrenal Glands with Effective Lifestyle Changes. Get the First Module Free!
Sublingual Melatonin- Get a good night’s sleep with Melatonin

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

Wow! The Mayo Clinic has Identified 2 Multiple Sclerosis Genes for Therapeutic Targets, this EXCITING news that makes headlines for the Mayo Clinic MIGHT produce a practical way to use these new findings in A COUPLE OF DECADES! But THIS is the kind of exciting news that the Mayo Clinic is coming out with!

These ridiculous genetic studies get money POURED into them by non profit groups and governmental organizations (meaning YOU as a taxpayer). But genetic studies have not given us ONE SINGLE PRACTICAL treatment that has helped anyone. These organizations argue that it broadens our understanding of the disease, but if you HAVE Multiple Sclerosis, do you want the Mayo Clinic to “broaden their understanding”, or do you want them to FIX you and make you better?

Why are the studies that are done on NON DRUG treatments that ACTUALLY WORK, then ignored and not used?! Take Vitamin D for instance.

Vitamin D and Multiple Sclerosis

There have been AT LEAST 2 human clinical studies and tons of Research about MS and Vitamin D, and these trials have shown Vitamin D’s ability to prevent relapses in Multiple Sclerosis. It has been shown to be not only effective, but harmless- with virtually no side effects. Or should I say, no NEGATIVE side effects. Many people also experienced increased strength, less pain and improved mood as well.

But these trials are ignored because no one is going to make any money off of them. And because of this, Multiple Sclerosis Sufferers are not even told about it’s benefits. And neither are neurologists who let most of their Multiple Sclerosis patients languish with Vitamin D Deficiency and not even considering patients requests to get a Vitamin D Level, just to bring their levels up to NORMAL, let alone use Vitamin D Therapy as a TREATMENT for Multiple Sclerosis.

Ridiculous!

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

What are the Swine Flu Vaccine Dangers? Well, to see what these dangers are, lets see who is NOT getting the Swine Flu Vaccine. If THESE prominent physicians (or their families) are not getting the swine flu vaccine, then should YOU be getting this vaccine that has been “Fast-Tracked” through the FDA.

What Does it Mean to Be Fast-Tracked?

What does ‘Fast Tracked’ mean? Don’t let the cutesy name fool you, ‘Fast Tracking’ simply means that it is UNTESTED to the sufficient normal standards of the FDA (which lets drugs like Vioxx and Baycol get through even under NORMAL testing standards).

So, do you REALLY want to get a vaccine that contains:

Mercury
Squalene
Aluminum

AND that has been untested?

Who’s NOT Getting the Swine Flu Vaccine?

If you are debated whether to get the swine flu vaccine or not, you might want to see who believes that Swine Flu Vaccine Dangers are great enough that they are NOT getting the Swine Flu Vaccine.

1) Dr. Mercola is NOT getting the vaccine. He believes that the risks of Thimerosol (Mercury) and the additiveSqualene, that has been linked to autoimmune disorders, just makes the risks too great.

2) Dr. Kent Holtorf, an Infectious Disease Specialist. Thinks that levels of Mercury are Too High. He’s NOT getting the swine flu vaccine:

3) Dr. Mehmet Oz, “America’s Number One Doctor” and Oprah’s Personal Physician. In public on the Oprah Show, he urges everyone to get their swine flu vaccine. In private, his wife and children are NOT getting the swine flu vaccine. VERY Interesting:

4) Dr. Ron Paul is NOT getting the Swine Flu Vaccine (while he is a congressman, he is ALSO a medical doctor and has the unique perspective of being in the position to decide for the nation as to whether it should be required by law. Gives an interesting perspective that we are turning the medical care of the country over to The Department of Homeland Security! Shouldn’t the Health Department be in charge?!:

5) Dr. Carolyn Dean. Not only is she a Naturopathic Doctor (ND), but she is ALSO a ‘Regular’ physician (MD) as well. Is she getting the flu shot or recommending it to her patients. Nope! Read why she’s not on her blog post Why The Swine Flu VACCINE May Be More Dangerous Than the VIRUS.

Dr. Carolyn Dean also runs the VERY AFFORDABLE health program Future Health Now. Go there and take a look and she will give you the first module for FREE.

6) Dr. Russell Blaylock, author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills is a neurologist and neurosurgeon. He has PERSONALLY treated patients with neurologic problems associated with vaccinations. He is NOT getting the Swine Flu Vaccine.

7) Dr. Rauni-Leena Luukanen-Kilde, former provincial medical officer of the Finnish Lapland Province is not getting the Swine Flu injection. She calls the swine flu vaccine “Rubbish”.

So, if these prominent doctors, including an Infectious Disease Specialist- who are NOT getting the Swine Flu Vaccine, then should YOU take the Vaccine?

Got Vitamin D?

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

When you think of ‘Prescription Strength’, most of us will think, somehow, that it is automatically better or stronger than a similar ‘Over the Counter’ variety. But with prescription vitamin D supplements, this is far from the case. In fact, these prescription vitamin D supplements are Completely inferior to the vitamin D3 supplements that you can buy in any health food store in many ways. They are less potent, have more potential for toxicity, don’t have the ‘active’ component that regular vitamin d does and they have a shorter shelf life. Do you STILL want prescription strength vitamin D?

Vitamin D has become somewhat famous lately, with tons of studies showing that millions of otherwise ‘healthy’ people are vitamin D deficient, in many cases SEVERELY so, and that the consequences are diseases like cancer, heart disease and multiple sclerosis. As clinicians become more aware of the problems associated with vitamin D deficiency, more are testing for and treating it. And while awareness of vitamin D is GREATl, it will also bring more prescription vitamin D supplements- which may NOT be so great.

The most common form of prescription vitamin D is in the form of Vitamin D2, also called Ergocalciferol. This is also the same type of vitamin D that is used for the ‘fortification’ of most milk and cereal products. But the ‘over the counter’ formulation of vitamin D in the form of Vitamin D3, also called Cholecalciferol, is far superior to the prescription formula that is routinely prescribed. First of all, prescription vitamin D is at least one-half as effective as vitamin D3 and possibly even up to one-tenth as effective. In ‘The case against ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) as a vitamin supplement’, the authors state, “50 000 IU vitamin D2 should be considered equivalent to 15000 IU vitamin D3, and likely closer to 5000 IU vitamin D3″. That’s One-Tenth as effective as vitamin d that you can buy in stores. When these differences were discovered in the 1950′s, Germany reformulated their prescription vitamin D to vitamin D3, but almost 60 years later, the United States is still using prescription vitamin D that doesn’t work.

And it really doesn’t work. One consequence of vitamin D deficiency is an increase in parathyroid hormone levels which alters calcium metabolism and preventing calcium from building bones. Studies measure the effectiveness of vitamin D treatment by measuring vitamin D levels increasing AND parathyroid hormone levels decreasing. In studies that compare the two different types of supplements, vitamin D3 supplements decreased parathyroid hormone while vitamin D2 didn’t. Another extremely important function of vitamin D, one that can’t be understated, is vitamin D’s ability to bind to ‘Vitamin D Receptors’ in the body. These receptors, also called VDR, are present in almost every tissue in the body and are one possible explanation for the extremely diverse health effects of the vitamin. When VDR’s are bound with an active form of vitamin D, it can help to prevent the expression of a mind boggling array of disease causing genes. Yet, vitamin D2 produces an active hormone that has 40% less binding ability to VDR’s than does the hormone produced from vitamin D3. This makes vitamin D2 much less ‘Biologically Active’ than a Vitamin D3 Supplement and leads to the possibility that prescription vitamin D doesn’t even prevent the diseases and problems that treatment of vitamin D deficiency is supposed to alleviate!

Another disadvantage of prescription vitamin D , is that it has a shorter half life in the body. Water soluble vitamins need to be replenished continually; for instance B vitamins and vitamin C are best metabolized in small doses throughout the day. But fat soluble vitamins like vitamin D do NOT need to be taken every day. In fact the half life of vitamin D3 supplements is 3 weeks. This means that 3 weeks after you take one dose, one half of that dose is still left in your body. This is true whether you get it from the sun, food or supplements. But prescription vitamin d has a much shorter half life, which means that you not only need more of the vitamin to prevent or treat deficiency, but you also need to take that higher dose more OFTEN.

But these higher doses could cause more problems. Researchers since the 1930′s have found higher potential for toxicity, more impurities and less consistent formulations in vitamin D2 preparations than in Vitamin D3 Supplements . In fact, researchers interpreting studies on vitamin D find that the studies done using vitamin D2 have less consistent results and recommend that all vitamin d research be done using vitamin D3 supplements for its more consistent results, better method of action in the body, lower toxicity levels and its improved shelf stability.

So while progress is being made in the awareness of the widespread problem of vitamin d deficiency, doctors who actually test for and treat vitamin D deficiency most often choose to ignore the advice of vitamin D researchers Dr’s Houghton and Vieth who state, “… vitamin D2, or ergocalciferol, should not be regarded as a nutrient suitable for supplementation…”. It seems that patients would be better served if their doctors, instead, recommend their patients go to the local health food store to treat their vitamin D deficiency.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner

Usually, the presence of a condition called macrocytic anemia is what makes doctors suspect and begin to look for vitamin B12 Deficiency. But macrocytic anemia is the result of years of vitamin B12 deficiency. This means that until a doctor is willing to even LOOK FOR the easily correctable problem of vitamin B 12 deficiency, a patient will have suffered for years with symptoms that would have been prevented if they had looked for the deficiency based simply on one of the most common physical complaints that patients have- fatigue.

Fatigue is a problem that affects most of the population at one time or another, but when it becomes chronic it can seriously affect quality of life to the extent that they become disabled. While fatigue can have MANY different causes, one underappreciated cause of fatigue is Vitamin B 12 deficiency.

When a doctor suspects vitamin B12 deficiency, they will often do a routine blood test that checks for a condition called macrocytic anemia. Macrocytic anemia is characterized by particularly large red blood cells that are accompanied by a decreased Number of total cells. It is often a Consequence of vitamin B12 deficiency, but can have several other causes as well. Macrocytic anemia, however, is NOT vitamin B12 deficiency, and Vitamin B 12 deficiency can exist with or without the presence of macrocytic anemia. In fact, macrocytic anemia may not occur for up to 2 years after the Start of vitamin B12 deficiency, yet the ‘standard of care’ that doctors use has them look for vitamin B12 deficiency ONLY if macrocytic anemia is present!

“clinical features that are associated with
vitamin B12 deficiency may indeed precede
evidence of macrocytic anemia”
How B12 Deficiency Can Impact on the Individual…

If Vitamin B 12 deficiency were a rare problem that required expensive and invasive testing in order to find, this would be a reasonable way to look for this problem. But vitamin B12 deficiency is VERY common and testing is as easy as a simple blood test done right in the same lab that tests for macrocytic anemia! There is even a Vitamin B12 Urinary Test that is inexpensive and VERY accurate. In addition, just like other medical problems that are evaluated on their OWN signs and symptoms, vitamin b12 deficiency ALSO has its OWN signs and symptoms that can be evaluated in the same way.

Vitamin B12 deficiency has a whole list of common presenting features that include:

Fatigue
Brain fog
Weakness
Depression

People who go to the doctor with conditions such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome often have these same symptoms, yet they are almost NEVER screened for this simple vitamin deficiency. Considering that there are over a million chronic fatigue sufferers in the US alone who are not getting help for their debilitating condition, there is no way of knowing how many people are suffering unnecessarily from a simple vitamin deficiency simply because doctors are not looking for it! The research study, Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) deficiency in elderly patients believes that more than 20% of elderly people in the United States have undiagnosed vitamin B12 deficiency- and that is just in ONE high risk group.

Besides Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the somewhat vague symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency can mimic many other diseases as well. According to Doctors Norbert Goebels and Michael Soyka, “Vitamin B(12) deficiency has long been associated with a wide variety of hematological, neurological, and psychiatric disorders.” Unfortunately, until doctors begin to look for Vitamin B12 deficiency and not macrocytic anemia, we are calling these problems things like:

Chronic Fatigue
Fibromyalgia
Dementia
Mental Illness
And Even Multiple Sclerosis

when many of these patients really should be diagnosed with simple vitamin B12 deficiency. Testing for vitamin B12 deficiency is the ‘standard of care’ for doctors ONLY in the case of macrocytic anemia EVEN when vitamin B12 deficiency is seemingly staring them right in the face. And because standard of care is a legal protection for doctors in court, most doctors are unlikely to go ‘outside of the box’ to try to find answers to patient problems.

Standards of care change slowly in the medical world; with clinical guidelines lagging scientific finding by years and even decades, things are not likely to change soon until people with illnesses become educated and DEMAND testing for these simple problems that can have DRAMATIC effects on their health and their quality of life.

But even easier than fighting for testing that your doctor may never be willing to do or spending money on tests, you could spend about $30 on a couple of bottles of Vitamin B12 Supplements, take two to three sprays a day and if you feel better, then you definitely have vitamin B12 deficiency, if you don’t then you either:

Need a higher dose

OR

You are NOT vitamin B12 deficient.

But for those people who ARE severely vitamin B12 Deficienct, sometimes DRAMATIC responses to vitamin B12 happen. If you are tired all the time, don’t let another day go by without either getting a Vitamin B12 test or doing a trial of High Dose Sublingual Vitamin B12 Supplements, you’ll be glad that you did!

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

The National Cancer Institute has a new website that really outlines the worst in medicine in the US. It is a site to match up patients with cancer to clinical trials to help ‘cure’ their cancer.

They claim that there are over 8000 clinical trials for cancer going on right now. I attempted to find a clinical trial in which they attempted to determine which strategy worked best to PREVENT cancer by attempting to select NONE under the ‘conditions’ box, but unfortunately, NONE was not a choice in any of these 8000 clinical trials. This is a very telling reminder that in the US, we really are not interested in preventing cancer and it probably says something about our underlying beliefs that we are really not ABLE to prevent cancer because it is something that simply happens to random people at random times.

Check out the Website for “The Cure for Cancer” here at:Search for Clinical Trials – National Cancer Institute.

What a sad commentary on our society that we are only willing to spend money on ‘The Cure’ and not on prevention.

To her credit, Dr. Susan Love has started the Army of Women to help “Go Beyond the Cure” with the goal of preventing breast cancer (with an Army of REALLY unhappy looking women on the Home Page of its Website by the way. If you are reading this Dr. Love, you might want to put some happier women on your site- you are PREVENTING BREAST CANCER- Yeah!). But once signed up, I was sent to a page of clinical trials that I could join to help find the cure. All but one was for women currently with breast cancer or who are ‘survivors’. The one study that was for women without breast cancer was being done in Baltimore (or I would have entered) and was for only 300 women. A study that size would be labeled ‘interesting’ by researchers, but will inevitably get some sort of conclusion like, “We found that women with such and such characteristic are at a higher risk for breast cancer, but larger double blind studies will need to be done to confirm these findings.”

So, we will be back to where we are right now, with pharmaceutical companies determining which pharmaceuticals work best to kill the cancer without killing the patient in the process and no one who is REALLY looking to find the “PREVENTION” for breast cancer. But in any case, we pretty much already know. Diet, exercise, sunlight exposure, clean water, no toxins. But no one likes to hear that their CHOICES caused their cancer. It’s much easier to say that it is your genetics and not at all your fault.

The folks over at the Cancer Prevention Coalition have an interesting take on ‘The Cure For Cancer’. They outline all of the American Cancer Society’s apparent efforts to thwart ANY research or information about any prevention or cure for cancer that actually might benefit people. Take a look, it might make you raise a few eyebrows and wonder about just WHO the American Cancer Society is out to benefit!

And we actually DO have ways to reduce risk of cancer, but since they are not 100% proven (or doctors don’t unanimously accept that they reduce breast cancer risk- which is most likely):

Vitamin D For Breast Cancer
Estronex Breast Cancer Risk Test

So, see what your doctors are NOT telling you about breast cancer risk.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com