List of Lifestyle Choices

I have identified 22 Lifestyle Choices which are generally responsible for the state of our health and wellbeing for you to look at to assist you to see how you compare.

If you have any form of cancer it becomes more important for you to fully understand the seriousness of the assessment of your “Lifestyle Choices”. How you decide what you are going to change over the next few months may be a matter of life and death.

It’s YOUR CHOICE and NOW you have the unique opportunity to take control of your own health and wellness destiny by doing an assessment of this summary list of the “Lifestyle Choices”.

1. Nutrition – This is the most critical choice you have to make – You need to focus on your nutrition needs and understand what you should be eating to provide your body with the essential alkaline nutrients it requires to enable you to fight cancer and to achieve optimum disease free, health and ultimate wellbeing. (See the Section on Nutrition later in this Section).
2. Your Own Diet.  Compare what you should be eating from point no: 1 above with what you are eating and make the necessary changes or consult a nutritionist who focuses on Alkaline Diets. Many of the following points will assist you to know what to eliminate, however I also have a section called “NOT Allowed” in Chapter 4 - “My Daily Routine”.

3. Processed Foods. Unfortunately virtually all processed foods are packed with acidic chemical additives, including preservatives, sweeteners, colourants and enhancers. The worst being poisonous ingredients, like Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), Aspartame and Nitrosamines which you must try to avoid completely.

4. Fast Foods. It is a proven fact that fatty, fried foods, trans fats, hydrolysed fats and hydrogenated oils are causing chronic diseases like cancer and the obesity epidemic.

5. Refined Carbohydrates. You must try to limit sugar, flour, cakes, cookies, biscuits, white breads and sweets as these do cause acidic waste build up if not eliminated from your body.

6. Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners. If you have cancer – You MUST eliminate all forms of sugar and sweeteners. This is the deadly duo that are part of the deadly toxins responsible for most chronic diseases, especially Cancer.

7. Soft / Cold Drinks. Beware !! These are liquid poison, this is where sugar and artificial sweeteners perform at their best – or is that at their “worst” ?.

NOTE: Let’s look at an example of one of the worst “acid forming” culprits – “fizzy cold drinks”. On average a soft drink cola has a pH of 2.5. This means it is very acidic and would need 32 glasses of water (neutral pH 7) to counter act the acid forming effect on the body. In addition each can of cola has an average equivalent of 13 teaspoons of sugar, and most diet drinks contain aspartame, a highly toxic substance. You can see that this is a toxic disaster and a certain precursor to cancer, obesity, diabetes, ADHD and a number of other chronic diseases.

8. Fresh Produce Pollution. Modern commercial farming is all about profits at any cost. If you aren’t eating organic produce you can assume most vegetables and fruit are grown using dangerous toxic chemicals. The fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides are contaminating the fresh fruit and vegetables that we eat, contributing to chronic disease and premature death. Of course GMO produce is also slowly flooding the market with its toxic proteins and unknown consequences as yet.

9. Groceries. This includes food, household detergents and cleaners, many of which are packed with “nasties” including carcinogens and excitotoxins like phenols, formaldehyde, methanol, benzene, toluene and xylene. You must learn to read the labels to find out on which shelves you will find cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, obesity and more.
10. Water. This is an essential nutrient but it must be the right water, preferably alkaline water or filtered water with a neutral or alkaline pH, not normal bottled water.

11. Nutritional Supplements. There are good and bad supplements so it is important that you have a Nutritionist on your “Support Team” to customize supplements for your specific situation. Alkalizing Green powders are essential.

12. Processed Dairy Products. Most commercial processed dairy products have “nasties” including antibiotics and bovine growth hormones that cause serious health problems.

13. Smoking. This one is obvious it is well known that cigarettes contain carcinogens that are known to cause cancer. Research indicates that smoking cuts an average of ten years off your normal lifespan.

14. Alcohol. Affects many parts of the body, including the brain, heart and liver with Liver Cirrhosis being the most serious, but research also links alcohol to cancer.

15. Emotional Stress. This is the second most critical lifestyle choice – stress is the worst possible driver of chronic disease and premature death, especially cancer and heart disease; and the most difficult to manage. The key disease drivers are anger, fear, rage, trauma, hate, resentment, guilt and jealousy.

16. Environmental Pollution. It is important for you to fully understand how air, water and environmental pollution affects your health and wellness and try to avoid exposure.

17. Cosmetics and Personal Care Products. This is the biggest surprise package. Many of these products are packed with carcinogens and reproductive developmental toxins and have nasty long term consequences because they are used on a daily basis.

NOTE: A survey done by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit organization, founded in 1993, included more than 2,300 people in the US and was conducted together with a coalition of public interest and environmental health organizations.

Here are just 2 points that were among the findings and are listed here to give you a better understanding of the Personal Care products used by most of us on a daily basis.

• 2 million adults - one of every 13 women and one of every 23 men - are exposed to ingredients that are known or probable human carcinogens every day through their use of personal care products.
• One of every 24 women, 4.3 million women altogether, are exposed daily to personal care product ingredients that are known to be probable reproductive and developmental toxins, linked to impaired fertility or developmental harm for a baby in the womb or a child. These statistics do not account for exposures to phthalates that testing shows appear in an estimated three quarters of all personal care products but that, as components of fragrance, are not listed on product ingredient labels (EWG et al. 2002).

18. Sunscreen and Tanning Lotion. Most of the chemical sunscreens use one or more chemicals including oxybenzone, avobenzone, octisalate, octocrylene, homosalate and octinoxate. Most of these are “nasty”, however oxybenzone is considered an endocrine disruptor, can reduce sperm count in men and may contribute to endometriosis in women.

Note: Of the 1,400+ sunscreens tested by the EWG, only 5% met their safety standards and over 40% were listed as potentially contributing to skin cancer.

19. Exercise and Sunshine. These are essential for good health and especially if you have cancer. Although some cancer patients might have difficulty exercising, even walking in the sun or spending a few minutes every day on a “rebounder” (mini-trampoline) makes a huge difference.

20. Prescription Drugs and Illegal Drugs. Illegal drugs are obvious however you will be very surprised to hear that the total number of deaths caused by conventional (modern) medicine (mainly prescription drugs) is an astounding 783,936 per year. It is now evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the US.

NOTE: This is an excerpt from “Death by Medicine”, a report released in October 2003 by the Nutrition Institute of America (NIH), which also stated that between 1993 and 2003 – medical mistakes took 7.8 million lives, more deaths than all the wars America fought combined.

21. Breathing and Meditation. Of course we are all breathing, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this article, BUT most of us are lazy shallow breathers, you must practice “deep” breathing and I suggest combine it with meditation. Both are so important as part of a healing programme and generally for your health and ultimate wellbeing.

22. Meaningful Work, Hobbies and Relaxation. Keeping your mind active through work or a hobby and practicing body relaxation is critical to achieving health and wellness and a fulfilled quality of life. This is critical for cancer patients.

With Love and caring,