Now there is new research divulging another difficulty inherent, it seems, with being overweight or obese.  Previous studies had been done on smaller “samples”; however, for this study, 730 people (70% female), having an average age of 60, were used.  What they looked for in the study was the association between the subjects’ body mass index (BMI), their waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio and the CT measure of their abdominal fat and their overall brain volume.

The study was led by scientist, Sudha Seshadri, an associate professor of neurology at the Boston University School of Medicine.   What was found  was that:

Brain regions key to cognition are smaller in older people who are obese compared with their leaner peers, making their brains look up to 16 years older than their true age. As brain shrinkage is linked to
dementia, this adds weight to the suspicion that piling on the pounds may up a person’s risk of the brain condition.

Other information from the research, which should be a wake-up call to those under the age of 50, is that for those in their 30s who have larger stomachs with a lot of visceral fat, it is highly likely their brains will be smaller as they get into their second half of life (50s and above).  The shrinking of the brain is linked to the fact that added weight reduces not only blood flow to the brain, but also nutrients and oxygen.

These studies are also showing a link between obesity and Alzheimer’s, because the blood of those who are obese generally has too much insulin.  Insulin does not get rid of amyloid plaque as well as blood that is healthy does; this amyloid plaque can then lead to brain damage in the Alzheimer patient.

Another scary fact that a recent imaging study has found is that (on average) the obese participants’ brain volume was 8% lower than those of a normal weight.  Their brains also

…looked 16 years older than the brains of those who were lean; and in overweight people, they looked 8 years older.

Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are both conditions that all of us over 50 think about, especially as we care for parents who are suffering right now from one or both.  It would seem to me that this should be a good incentive to want to take off some weight…added, of course, to all the other health problems I mentioned above.

I don’t know about you, but “thriving” as I get older does not include dementia or Alzheimer’s (even though there is a history of it in my father’s family).  If you do struggle with weight issues, I hope that this information may be something that will motivate you to think about how you can make changes that will positively affect your future overall health and well-being.

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WOW…well over a month since I posted to my blog! I guess another apology is in order…this time for human error rather than technical difficulties! It’s kind of like the cobbler’s kid having no shoes; a writer never gets time to write her own “stuff” when she’s busy writing everyone else’s!

For those of you who don’t communicate with me personally on a daily or weekly basis, an update is in order. I’m not sure I had shared in my blog what “therapy” I had been doing very soon after my diagnosis, aside from drastically changing my eating habits, resting more, and lowering my stress. I had been following a protocol researched and discovered by a German doctor way back when, Dr. Budwig, who actually was nominated for seven Nobel Prizes for her research. She found that a mixture of flax seed oil and cottage cheese taken daily had a certain effect on the outer “shell” of cancer cells, which left them vulnerable and able to be destroyed by a healthy immune system.

It seemed easy enough, although I did resort to making it into a smoothie with frozen berries and some almond milk each morning. While I did that, I continued to read and research and found something that I found more interesting and (hopefully) a little more promising. It is a product called Protocel, which was developed decades ago and thwarted by the FDA and others over the years. So now it is sold online as simply a health supplement. It’s taken five times a day (which can be a bit challenging), and more than six hours cannot lapse between doses. The great thing about this “treatment” is that I can be a little more lax on my diet, i.e. I can eat a little meat, such as chicken. I can also have honey and pure maple syrup, and a moderate amount of whole grain carbs. The other stipulations have to do with avoiding certain supplements (high doses of Vitamin C and E, as well as COQ10, which I had been taking) and other alternative treatments.

In addition, I’m taking ellagic acid (raspberry seed extract) twice a day. This is one of the alternative treatments that doesn’t interfere with the effectiveness of the Protocel.

Without getting into any long explanations, Protocel literally attacks the cells themselves and “kills” them; and your body eliminates the dead cells through a process called “lysing”. This elimination can happen in many ways…runny nose, “crusty” eyes, daily body “functions”, etc. Tiredness in the first few weeks is about the only side effect. I’ll take that over hair loss, nausea, and the decimation of my immune system any day!

Oh yes, I also went to see an oncologist finally. It wasn’t a horrible visit overall, and I did learn a couple good facts regarding my biopsy that I hadn’t been told before. I learned my cells are estrogen receptive, which means estrogen feeds them, so I won’t be doing any bio-identical hormone replacement anytime soon. I also learned that they measure the “proliferation rate” of the cells and found 67% of mine were not prone to “proliferate” and only 23% were, which I think is pretty good odds. With what I’m doing right now, I’m thinking I can control that 23% and, in the end, get rid of all of them!

Of course, she encouraged me to do the standard of care treatment (chemo, surgery, radiation), to which I again said “NO!” In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, she told me they would first want me to do a short round of chemo BEFORE the surgery, which made absolutely no sense to me! Why do something that is going to destroy my immune system, then do surgery on diseased cells that will probably be released into my system elsewhere, into an immune system that has been compromised by previously ingested poison! It seems just so ludicrous! I was also asked what is in the Protocel. When I couldn’t tell her the ingredients, she told me I should at least know what was in it if I was going to be taking it. Later, reviewing the conversation at home, I thought, “I wouldn’t know what is in the chemotherapy drugs, but you’d expect me to take them!!!” At least I know I can take Protocel every day for years, and it won’t kill me!

So that’s my update! I’m feeling good, except for needing naps regularly; and I get kind of bored with my current meal plan. Much of that is my fault for being too lazy to prepare different recipes. It’s just easier to reach in and grab the organic greens/spinach, organic broccoli, bell pepper, celery, etc. and throw my homemade salad dressing on it! Bon appétit!

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I think part of my problem has to be brain overload.  I’m reading soooooooooooooooooooo much about treating cancer the natural way that some days I feel as though my head is going to explode!  It makes me obsessive at times now.  For instance…my lack of sleep…does not give my body the amount of time it needs to regenerate and get rejuvenated!  If I take naps later today, will that make up for at least part of my lack of sleep tonight?

Do people who are diagnosed with other life threatening diseases obsess over every little choice they make?  No sugar anymore…but is a tablespoon of honey in my green tea okay?  Limited carbs…but is my occasional whole grain baguette with my soup at Bread Co okay?  What if I eat an occasional homemade potato chip in a restaurant?  Am I eating enough “green stuff” each day?  Not eating meat…but damn…someone just told me shellfish are bad.  Alkaline water is preferable and so is organic everything!  No more regular milk or soy…almond milk, instead!  Thank God berries are highly recommended…but what if I can’t find organic ones???  Sheesh!

Of course, all the obsessing is definitely worth the outcome, which I’m feeling extremely positive about every day!  Besides, I can now fit into some capris that I haven’t worn in at least three or four years, so I guess I won’t complain too much!   LOL….

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That “revelation” should also be carried over to our internal “looks”.  We all (or most of us) start with the same parts:  heart, lungs, liver, brain, intestines, cells, etc.; however, the lives we lead soon make all of us so different on the inside.  Yet the traditional medical community wants to treat those of us diagnosed with cancer as identical!  They recommend a “standard of care” treatment that generally follows a daunting route…surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.  In the traditional medical community, the faster they can get you under the knife and start introducing radiation and chemicals into your body, the faster they can “cure” you (or so they want you to believe).  Worse, if your cancer is in an advanced stage, they make the horrifying mistake of actually giving you a death sentence, turning off your brain to optimistic possibilities, and squashing what little hope you may be trying to cling to in order to get through treatment and RECOVER!!!

As I mentioned a couple of  weeks ago, I am doing a lot of reading about cancer…which I will be sharing in upcoming posts…but two of the most important things I’ve learned in the past two months are:

• People should be made aware that they have OPTIONS!  If someone (a surgeon or oncologist) tells you you have to have surgery, radiation, and/or chemotherapy, you need to understand that those are not your only options!  I’m not here to tell anyone what to do or that they should ignore the recommendations of their doctors…if they feel that is best for them and feel confident that the recommended treatment will make them better.  What I am saying is that you should “Take a deep breath” (which is what my very good friend, Linda, told me immediately after my diagnosis).  Do at least a little bit of research and reading, if only to find out how to make yourself the strongest you can be in order to come through surgery with the best odds of surviving without a recurrence or how to tolerate the chemicals you may be given.  YOU HAVE OPTIONS…AND IT’S IMPORTANT THAT YOU KNOW THIS!!

• No two people are alike.  Now, as you can tell from my story at the beginning of this post, I had already “discovered” this some time ago; but I’d never really considered it regarding my internal problems until my diagnosis.  NO TWO PEOPLE ARE ALIKE INTERNALLY, AND THIS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED WHEN TREATING CANCER. Although there are some things that all people who are diagnosed with cancer should do (which I will talk about at a later time), there are many things that should be assessed individually.  “Cookie cutter” treatment (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy) is not a good “standard of care”.

In upcoming posts, I will share a lot of what I’m learning in my attempt to “thrive to 105“!  I am confident that this little “blip on the radar screen” is not going to set me back or prevent me from getting there.  In fact, it may actually have been something I needed in order to assure I reach my goal!

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In their book called, Getting Well Again, Carl and Stephanie Simonton outline their research and an actual six-week program for helping those who are sick to use their minds as an aid to their healing process.  It’s a “step-by-step, self-help guide to overcoming cancer for patients and their families”.  Carl is an oncologist; Stephanie a psychiatrist…a powerful combination for the kind of work they’ve been doing for over three decades!

Part One of the book is titled:  The Mind and Cancer.  The first chapter is: The Mind-Body Connection; A Psychological Approach to Cancer Treatment.  It starts out dealing with the will to live, talks about the “whole-person approach” to treating cancer and discusses putting theory into practice.  My big takeaway from this chapter was:

It is our central premise that an illness is not purely a physical problem, but rather a problem of the whole person, that it includes not only body but mind and emotions.  We believe that emotional and mental states play a significant role both in susceptibility to disease, including cancer, and in recovery from all disease.  We believe that cancer is often an indication of problems elsewhere in an individual’s life, problems aggravated or compounded by a series of stresses six to eighteen months prior to the onset of cancer.  The cancer patient has typically responded to these problems and stresses with a deep sense of hopelessness, or “giving up”.  This emotional response, we believe, in turn triggers a set of physiological responses that suppress the body’s natural defenses and make it susceptible to producing abnormal cells.

WOW! As so many who are diagnosed with cancer must feel, I wondered “why” and “how” when I first heard the ‘c’ word.  But it made a lot of sense after reading the very detailed explanation in this book.  Eighteen months prior to my diagnosis (or possibly 24) I had the whole laundry list of events in my life that cause the most stress: I moved, I got married, I lost my job, my stepmom died, my relationships with the people I loved were strained, I got divorced.  At times I did feel a sense of hopelessness.  It makes so much more sense now.

Now understanding how the cells can become “abnormal”, it isn’t a hard segue to start wondering if it isn’t possible…with the right kind of physical and mental forces applied…to transform them into “normal” cells again.

We shall see!

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In the initial days of living in my new, wonderful apartment, I opened a box of books to unpack. On the top of the pile was a book I don’t even remember buying. It’s title…Making Miracles: An Exploration Into the Dynamics of Self-Healing (How 11 incurable patients battled illness – and won). If that wasn’t a ‘sign’, I don’t know what is!  I immediately found time to read this book!

In this day and age with millions of people out of work and millions without health insurance (like me), our initial reaction when faced with health issues is that our options are very limited…go into deep debt or get sicker! But yesterday morning it occurred to me that this is one of the “whys” of my path right now…to learn about different options and to share them with others like me or others who know and love someone like me. Our bodies are miraculous in and of themselves, and we seem to forget that reality as we go through the motions of everyday living. But this book is inspiring and enlightening!

One of the most well-known subjects in the book is Norman Cousins, who was the Executive Editor of the Saturday Review and an advocate for world peace, as well as the healing powers of our bodies. He cured himself from a terminal illness through massive doses of Vitamin C and laughter, literally restricting himself to a hotel room where he watched funny TV shows and movies and had a nurse read humorous stories to him. Years later he also recovered from congestive heart failure and a heart attack without surgery.

Here is a quote from the Norman Cousins’ interview with the author (Dr. Paul C. Roud) of the Making of Miracles:

The doctors would call my absolute confidence denial, but it can be beneficial to deny, to defy the verdict you think is attached to the diagnosis. If you can recognize that the diagnosis is a challenge, not a verdict, and that there are resources to work with, and not all of them lie outside yourself, you can liberate the body from the complicating factors caused by fear. It seems to me that this frees the healing system – whatever that is – to assert itself and also creates an environment in which medical treatment can do its best.

I doubt there are many of us in this day and age who aren’t aware of the terrible toll that depression and stress can have on our physical well-being. Unfortunately, our health insurance and national healthcare systems aren’t helping the sick feel confident, calm, and upbeat. But maybe if more of us become educated in the option that moves us away from dependence on strict, scientific medical treatments, we can help ourselves!

Again, from Norman Cousins:

Panic, fear, and depression inhibit the ability of the body’s own apothecary to function properly.

Helplessness is a product of our education; we seem to be convinced that serious illness always proceeds in a straight line unless interrupted by some outside agencies. It’s a kind of education that prepares us for weakness rather than strength. We’re not educated in the essential robustness of the human body. Consequently, victory seems to be very elusive.

Personally, I refuse to feel helpless, fearful or depressed! I refuse to let victory elude me!

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I have to say, “Thank you, God, and thank you, John Freeborn, for bringing Linda into my life”!  When we first met, we talked easily for a couple hours; and before I left our first chat fest, Linda offered to do one of her treatments on me so I could experience what she wants others to know and learn through her practice, Wellness Without Walls.  The “treatment” was an amazing session, relaxing me more than I think I have ever been and putting me in touch with MY  mind/body/spirit connection, the significance of which I am just now beginning to see.

Most of us have likely heard or read the opinion that if you have three or four true friends in your life, you should consider yourself fortunate.  Well, I am more…much more…than fortunate.  I believe that the number of my true friendships is quite a bit higher than that; and now Linda is a most welcome addition.  Why have I been so blessed?  Perhaps it was all building up to this very impactful time in my life, because God knows I need them all very much right now.   True to form, they have not let me down; and for that I am tremendously grateful!

Friendship…another sign!  Value your friends; nurture those relationships!  There may come a time when they will help to save your life!

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It’s hard to know where to begin; when you start to recall the signs, more seem to take shape that you may not have recognized before.  Perhaps the first one was the restlessness I began to feel living in the home of a very dear friend (Irene).  At the time, the opportunity of moving in with her was a God send for both of us.  Not only did it benefit us both financially, but it also rewarded us with time together to nurture our friendship at a juncture in our lives when we both needed it.

But I began to find myself feeling claustrophobic in my living space, my personal piles of “stuff” stifling and stressful.  I also found myself getting short-tempered and upset by insignificant things, which is a problem for me; because I am usually hard pressed to express anger outwardly towards others (which will become a topic of interest in future blog posts).  For this reason, I decided it was time to begin searching for my own place to live, knowing that the time was right for both me and Irene.

I sent an email “blast” to my wonderful circle of friends (to which I referred in my last post), asking them to help me find a new home of my own.  Needless to say, they came through for me and (thanks to Mary Kay and Sherley) I am writing this blog post from my antique rocker in the living room of my terrific and therapeutic new apartment.

The call to a new living space of my own was the first “sign” of things to come for me…and soon for other important people in my life.   Are you paying attention to the “signs” presenting themselves to you?  Today…try and be open to what the universe may be telling you that could impact your life…something that could help you “thrive” to….!

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Day three in my new “home”...

Many boxes and containers have been emptied, which is always a little like opening presents. It’s fun to find things you forgot about, re-read notes stuffed inside a book or just find something that makes you wonder…”why the hell did I keep that”?

I’ve gotten tired easily these past couple of days. Today I started (and hope to continue) an improvement in my sleeping, eating, and exercising habits. It’s amazing what a little ‘wake-up call’ will do for your focus and discipline!

Not too long ago, I wrote an article about longevity and the importance of friendship. Well, if longevity were dependent on friends alone, I would live to be 150!! I have the most wonderful family and friends anyone could ever want. The great thing is that I always know they are there and can be counted on “through thick and thin”; but since my diagnosis on Thursday, everyone has rallied ’round me like covered wagons of old circling together to protect me. I don’t feel weak or discouraged, but their love buoys me up and is a safe haven where I can be myself and escape, if necessary.

Quite honestly, I still don’t feel as if this is happening to me… and miracles do happen, don’t they? Who’s to say it won’t disappear as stealthily as it appeared with enough positive, healthy energy directed at it? Truthfully, I’m just not owning it at this point. It’s like there’s something more to this whole scenario than I understand…the why…because there is a why, a reason, a lesson. I’ve always been a really good student, and this course I intend to pass with flying colors!

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It never occurred to me that on the 13th of January (my birth date is the 13th of November), the thing I’ve never done would be having a biopsy on a lump in my breast and that the following day I’d be told I have breast cancer.  NOT POSSIBLE!!!  That’s what I want to tell them.  It can’t happen to me!  I’m planning to Thrive to 105!  Somehow cancer isn’t synonymous with thriving!

So much for the power of positive thinking, I think to myself…and actually mumble to others who love me and are trying to comfort me.  I was so sure when they found the lump it would be nothing but a cyst.  Then I was so sure that when they did the biopsy, it would be a papilloma…benign.  Now I’m faced with the specter of a mutilated breast at best or at the worst case, a mastectomy!  How…why…did this happen to me?  No doubt that is what every woman thinks when given this diagnosis.

I’m not the most diligent, health-obsessed person running around St. Louis; but I’m far from being unhealthy!  I don’t smoke, rarely drink, eat mostly healthy (except for desserts), used to exercise (and I promised myself I’d get back to it in my new apartment complex).  So why…how?

Of course I now agonize over the fact that I missed one year of having my mammograms…2008.  Why did I miss that one year?  I really don’t have a good reason.  If I had gone, would they have found it sooner before it became “invasive”?  I guess it really doesn’t matter.  As Mom so accurately advised last night, I can’t worry about what’s past and I shouldn’t worry about what hasn’t happened yet that I don’t know will happen.  So whether or not the lump was there since 2008, it doesn’t matter.  What matters is taking care of it now!

I vacillate between feeling angry and aggressive about it….okay, let’s get this over and done with so I can move on with the next 50 years of my life…and feeling scared…of the unknown, of being weak, of the possibility of losing my breast.  Those who know me best know I have a quiet independence about me, and I’m generally far from weak.  I have my moments (and I definitely had a few last night), but overall a victim mentality and pessimism is not my style.

So today I start a new chapter in the next half century of my life!  Thankfully, I am moving into a new apartment today!  Thankfully, because it is something that will distract me from dwelling on something I can’t change right at this moment.  Thankfully, because it is something happy and new that will counter-balance the news I was delivered yesterday.

I still intend to Thrive to 105!!  I refuse to let a few rogue cells rob me of 50 more years of joy and laughter, family and friends, work and play, love and life!!

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