I’ve been putting off writing this post for a long time. But when I read that Gordon Ryan is retiring from competition due to stomach problems, it reminded me that I have a responsibility to share what I’ve learned. Stomach problems, even when not life-threatening, can be debilitating, painful, and drag on for years. If I can help even one person recover from gastritis more quickly, it’s worth sharing this post.
Tag: ginger
Update: I didn’t notice any benefits from discontinuing fish oil, and I feel better on my regular supplemental dose (about 3g/day). My latest thinking is that fish oil may calm down an overactivated immune system via increasing IL-10, and that this may be helpful not only for asthma but for any number of conditions where tissues can get “stuck” in an inflammatory state.
Fish oil has been good to me. It was the first supplement that I noticed reduced my asthma symptoms, over fifteen years ago. Along with dietary changes, supplemental vitamin D, and evening primrose oil, I used 2-4 grams of fish oil per day, and for the most part stayed asthma free.
Collage of mixed fruits and vegetables, MRI, by Wellcome Images.
Cancer. It’s one of the few diseases with a personality. The F*ck Cancer meme is much stronger than the F*ck Heart Disease meme, even though both kill a similar number of human beings. While both diseases can develop with no obvious warning signs, cancer is perceived as a sneakier, meaner disease.
Maybe that’s because cancer is mysterious. There are more than 200 different types, and risk factors and causes are multitudinous: genetics, chemical exposure, radiation exposure (including sunlight), age, certain viruses, smoking, alcohol abuse, lack of exercise … the list goes on.
But cancer isn’t a death sentence. As several of the older members of my family have experienced in the past few years, cancer can be successfully treated. Though my family members used both conventional treatments and lifestyle changes, sometimes cancer goes away with lifestyle changes alone.
About half of people in developed countries will be diagnosed with some kind of cancer in the course of their lives. 100% of middle-aged or older people will have small pockets of abnormal cell growth — microcancers — most of which will be either too slow-growing to ever cause a problem, or will be eliminated by the immune system. And if you get cancer and beat it, the only way you know for sure you are “cured” is when you die of something else.
Nobody is totally safe from cancer, but there are things we can do to improve our chances of not developing the disease in the first place. While genetic risk factors play a significant role, so do environmental (lifestyle) factors. The clinical research is there to prove it. We can prevent cancer (or at least improve our odds) in at least seven ways: