The Most Important Dietary Supplement

No matter what you think of his politics, you know that George W. Bush had a group of highly qualified doctors taking care of his health while he was in office. But did you know that the only supplement they recommended he take was . . . fish oil. Studies in the 1970s revealed that the Eskimos had very low levels of heart disease, yet they ate large quantities of salmon and whale. Scientists discovered that the protective factor in their diet was DHA and EPA fish oil, also known as omega-3 fatty acids. These nutrients are largely deficient in the American diet, and so supplementation is just about the only way to get enough. Omega-3 fatty acids balance the excess omega-6 acids most of us consume too much of. Fish oil has been linked with lower incidence of heart disease, steadier heart rhythm, and even reduced depression and a boost in mood. If I had to advise someone to take one supplement, I would agree with the President’s doctors. “If you take nothing else,” I would advise, “take fish oil daily. Aim to consume 1 to 5 grams each day.”

The Wilhelm Reich Museum

Last summer our friends went to Kansas and enjoyed their trip so much they told us that we should visit the state as well. Instead we visited myrtle beach vacation rentals. Next summer we will go to Kansas. The entire idea of a vacation pleases us and encourages us to try both Kansas and the Florida trip that we already tried. Next spring we may also go to Rangeley, Maine, where Wilhelm Reich had his home and where a museum now stands.

Japanese Seaweed

Normally I do everything I can to avoid harmful chemicals or ingredients. Companies claim they have what are called the best diet pills but these are typically ineffective. However, I must admit that I have been impressed by the research on Japanese seaweed. It has a chemical in it that speeds up metabolism. Perhaps this could be used for a diet pill. In fact there are some who have made it into one.

Nitric Oxide and Health

Nobel Prize winner Dr. Louis Ignarro, who received the prize for his work with nitric oxide, discusses the importance of nitric oxide for cardiac and other health. He is, not surprisingly, extremely lucid and clear in his speaking style. And he has an ability to make his work clear for a layman.

The J.D. Salinger Diet

I do not believe in phentermine or other appetite suppressors. Maybe they work for some, but I feel the risks outweigh any advantages. The drug is an amphetamine-like jolt to your system and the side effects are numerous and dangerous. A better way to weight loss might be through a vegan diet, through the Atkins diet, through the alternate-day diet (which involves caloric restriction), or through the Salinger diet (named after J.D. Salinger because it involves eating little dairy and restricting the intake of junk foods).

Watch Your Way to Athletic Success

Novice swimmers like to learn what they can from practice and from getting in the pool. But professionals know a secret. They know that they can use an LCD TV to learn more than their competitors. Coaches and Olympic athletes agree: training that is both physical and mental is better than training that is purely physical. The mind must be part of the athlete's complete training course. And watching your performance on video is the latest in this competitive world.

Fluoride-Free Toothpaste

This video is a wonderful interview with former BBC journalist Christopher Bryson, authof of The Fluoride Deception. In 1993 he got a call from a British radio producer who wanted to know whether there was "an American angle" to the fluoride controversy. But Bryson had no idea. His subsequent investigations opened a Pandora's box of problems and secrets about how fluoride is harmful and damaging to health. There is enough fluoride in a tube of toothpaste to kill a two-year-old child . . . I'd like to point out that Tom's of Maine makes a few very good fluoride-free toothpastes.

How Caloric Restriction Works in the Real World

I do not use a pill to lose weight. Like the great American writer J.D. Salinger, I have discovered something even better than a weight loss product, in fact so revolutionary that most people have never heard of it. It involves what is called the alternate day diet. This entails eating normally on alternate days and fasting on the other days. The objective is to reduce caloric consumption to 500 to 1,000 calories on the fasting days. This is almost impossible to do on a daily basis, but on an every other day basis it is much easier.

Repairing the Human Machine

A number of persons interested in plasma mounts recently asked me to say a few words about them. Honestly I have a great deal of respect for the machines. The stability of a product depends, to a large extent, on the quality of the work that goes into its design and construction. Nothing could be more important. Sometimes it is the simple things that are the most useful and rewarding. That is the way the designers look at it, anyway. For my money, the simpler the machine the more reliable. A possible reason for this might be that the fewer moving parts the more reliable. The human machine, for example, is constantly being repaired.

Warning: Fried Food Linked with Cancer

Researchers have found a strong link between fried food and cancer. One study found that those who ate fried meat had an increased risk of developing "female-hormone-related cancers, i.e., cancer of the breast, endometrium and ovary combined."^1,2 Cooking meat and fish causes heterocyclic amine (HA) carcinogens.³ "Recently, another amine carcinogen, acrylamide, was found at relatively high levels in cooked carbohydrate-rich foods, especially potatoes."⁴ But making the assessment of risk difficult is the fact that cooked meat also contains specific anti-carcinogenic constituents.⁵

References

1. "Intake of fried meat and risk of cancer: A follow-up study in finland." 2006. Paul Knekt, Gunnar Steineck, Ritva Järvinen, Timo Hakulinen, Arpo Aromaa. International Journal of Cancer. Vol. 59, No. 6, Pp. 756 - 760.
2. Some studies suggest that there may be a link between eating cooked meet (such as hamburgers) and cancer. "[A] significant fraction of human cancer could be ther result of consuming AIAs from cooked meat." 1986. "Identification of the mutagens in cooked beef." J S Felton, M G Knize, N H Shen, B D Andresen, L F Bjeldanes, and F T Hatch. Environ Health Perspect. August; 67: 17–24.
3. "A meat and potato war: implications for cancer etiology." 2006. James S. Felton and Mark G. Knize. Carcinogenesis. November 1. 27(12):2367-2370; doi:10.1093/carcin/bgl165.
4. Ibid.
5. Carcinogenesis. 1987. Dec; 8 (12):1881-7. "Anticarcinogens from fried ground beef: heat-altered derivatives of linoleic acid." Ha YL, Grimm NK, Pariza MW.