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TMHS 291: 5 Simple (But Overlooked!) Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer
Billions of dollars have already been spent on cancer research. But it’s shocking to me how little effort has been invested in teaching our society the basics of cancer prevention.
What if there were SIMPLE lifestyle changes that were clinically proven to reduce your risk of various cancers by over 50 percent? Wouldn’t that justify a couple million dollars in promotion? I think so.
Benjamin Franklin said it best, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” But the money and attention is on the backend… in drugs and other treatments for cancer that have startlingly low long-term success rates. Today I’m advocating that we remove the veil from cancer, and stand up to reduce the rates of cancer even showing up in the first place!
This episode is filled with practical, actionable advice that can serve you and your family for a lifetime. Check it out now, and please make sure to share it with those you care about.
In this episode you’ll discover:
- Why immersion is so significant in transforming our health (and life overall).
- Which food is proven to protect your body from abnormal gene mutations.
- Why it’s important to demystify cancer, and what cancer actually is.
- What role your immune system plays in cancer prevention.
- What carcinogens are.
- What causes gene mutations.
- Which group of vegetables has the most profound cancer protection benefits.
- How many servings of vegetables to target each day for optimal cancer prevention.
- Which vegetables can actually INCREASE your risk of cancer.
- The surprising truth about cell phone radiation and it’s official rank as a carcinogen.
- How cell phone radiation is potentially impacting your myelin sheath.
- How cell phone radiation can influence your brain waves during sleep (this is nuts!).
- The shocking connection between working the overnight shift and cancer.
- The two conditions that must be met in order to produce adequate melatonin.
- Which medicinal mushroom have been clinically proven to improve sleep quality and prevent cancer growth.
- How water intake influences cancer rates.
- The incredible amount of cancers that can be reduced or prevented through daily exercise.
- What aromatization is.
- Why exercise and movement is so effective at reducing cancer rates.
Items mentioned in this episode include:
- Foursigmatic.com/model _ Get 15% off your daily health elixirs and coffee!
- Organifi.com _ Use the coupon code model for 20% off
- Themodelhealthshow.com/takecontrol _ Use Promo Code MODELHEALTH
- Master Your Mindset – With Eric Thomas – Episode 120
- How To Uncover Your Unique Gift – With CJ Quinney – Episode 285
- Cancer Truth – With Ty Bollinger – Episode 22
- The Answer To Cancer – With Ty Bollinger – Episode 51
- The Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 Lists
- Sleep Smarter _ Get the book right here!
- Hydration & Water Masterclass – Episode 73
Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Model Health Show. If you haven’t done so already, please take a minute and leave a quick rating and review of the show on Apple Podcast by clicking on the link below. It will help us to keep delivering life-changing information for you every week!
Transcript:
Shawn Stevenson: Welcome to The Model Health Show. This is fitness and nutrition expert, Shawn Stevenson, and I'm so grateful for you tuning in with me today. Listen, my mission is to make sure that as many people as possible feel empowered in their own health and well-being, and today we're going to be covering a topic that we've talked about in the past, but we're going to revisit this issue because it's becoming even more prevalent in our culture today. And a lot of people might not realize this, but cancer is the number two leading cause of death in our culture, and there are some very specific things that we can do to dramatically- dramatically reduce our risk of cancer, and that's what we're going to be covering today. They're going to be very important, very powerful, clinically backed, and also very simple as well. And also I want to tell you about something very, very, very special coming up. I believe that one of the most powerful ways to transform our own mind, and our lot in life, and to really up-level ourselves whether it's financially, in our relationships, in our mindset, in our health and fitness, is immersion. To get in the environment, you know? To be around it. It's very difficult to not be fit and to not eat healthy if you're around healthy people all the time. Alright? And that goes for everything in our lives, you know? Immersion, being in the culture so that it becomes a part of who you are. This is why I think live events are so important. And people have been asking me in my hometown of St. Louis when are we going to do an event there? Well I've got some good news for you, plus this is big news for everybody. Alright? Eric Thomas, the number one motivational speaker on the planet, he's doing an event here in St. Louis along with me, and I want to make sure that you are there, alright? This is happening on June 24th, so it's coming up here quickly. Tickets are still available, we're going to knock this out of the park. Alright? This event is really focused on taking control, that's the name of this series that they've been doing across the country, Take Control. Take control of your finances, take control of your mindset, alright? And I'm going to be talking about taking control of your health and fitness. Alright? So I definitely want you to be in the house. Go to www.TheModelHealthShow.com/takecontrol. TakeControl will be together as one word. So www.TheModelHealthShow.com/takecontrol, get signed up for the event. And here's an exclusive. This is nowhere else you're going to get this, got a 10% discount code for tickets, alright? It's code 'MODELHEALTH' together as one word. 'MODELHEALTH.' Alright? You're going to get 10% off. They've got general admission, they've got VIP, which I highly, highly encourage you to get the VIP. You get the full experience, whole day event, and come hang out with us. I promise you, it's going to be life-changing. Alright? So again, www.TheModelHealthShow.com/takecontrol. And this event, just a little head's up, this is really going to be geared towards especially if you're in the field of entrepreneurship. Alright? To really take control of your business, to really get your business going. If it's something that- maybe you're a sidepreneur right now, or you want to get into starting your own business. I'm telling you, there's no better people to learn from than the crew that's coming in for this event, alright? ET and his team, CJ as well is going to be there. CJ was on the show recently as well, I'll put his episode in the show notes. I'm telling you, you want to meet CJ, you want to hang out with us, it's going to be amazing. So head over there, check it out, get your tickets now because this event is definitely going to sell out, alright? And on that note, again this topic today, the second leading cause of death in our culture, and I really wanted to help to demystify this condition, and there's going to be a lot of links to past episodes, and if anything really jumps out at you, I highly encourage that you check those episodes out in the show notes and go back and really get a master class on those particular subject matters. Alright? We did some episodes very early on talking about even the business of cancer, you know? This is a multi- multi-billion dollar industry that is continuously putting people into this system, and it's not seeing very good results. You know? A lot of people don't realize that there's a large percentage of folks that don't actually die from cancer, but they die from the treatments that they're undertaking with conventional medicine. And just to be upfront, treatments like chemotherapy are very, very effective at killing cancer, but they're also very effective at killing your immune system cells as well, your healthy cells that you want to be around to protect you from future reoccurrences. Alright? So it's putting everything into perspective, understanding that everything is an option, but I want to make sure that you have these simple, clinically proven things to help you to prevent cancer in the first place, and that's what we're really going to talk about. And with that said, just a little nutrition piece to get things started, is looking at spirulina. Alright? Spirulina- and this was highlighted by Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, found that spirulina can actually protect you from genetic mutations caused by chemicals in radiation. Alright? That's pretty profound. How many things do you know can do that? Alright? Cheerios can't do that. It doesn't say like, "Cheerios - this can protect you from cancer." No, it doesn't say that on the box. Alright? The honeybee, he's not going to do that as well, alright? It's just not something that we see commonly with the food that we're exposed to. But this food has been around literally thousands of years. This was one of the main protein sources from ancient civilizations of like the Aztecs, for example, or cultures in Chad across the pond. And so understand, this is something that wasn't invented in a laboratory. This is a real, whole food. This is an algae that has been used for a very long time. It's the highest protein food that we've ever discovered. It's about 70% protein by weight, and it's contributing all of these various amino acids that we need to be healthy and functional in the first place, plus it's concentrated with these really interesting chemicals like phycocyanin. Phycocyanin has been found to help your body to produce more stem cells, or increase stem cell mobilization. You know? So that's something really interesting. Now also it's loaded with beta carotene. We've got an incredible source of magnesium. All these things help your cells and your hormones to communicate properly, and that's how the defense against cancer really is. Because we want to talk about what cancer is a little bit more, and understand that making sure that your cells are communicating is of the utmost importance. So spirulina is great, it's one of the highlighted superfoods that's found in Organifi, and I literally just had some this morning. This is something I've been using for a couple of years now. I absolutely love Organifi. It's something that I use for my kids as well. They've got spirulina, they've got chlorella, the highest chlorophyll food ever discovered. We've got ashwagandha, we've got moringa, it's just incredible and it tastes good. So you could throw it in with your green smoothies, or with your juice, or even with water, you know? I make sure that my son, at least a couple times a week, has his spirulina in his little sippy cup, alright? He's got the little sippy cup. But he's kind of a little bit bigger kid now, so he's got like the Spiderman like jump off with the fancy lid and all that stuff. But anyways, as long as you put it in that cool cup, maybe a crazy straw. Get a crazy straw, it highlights the event even more. Alright? So make sure that you're using Organifi if you're not already. I promise you, this is something that is a critical part of our health strategy moving forward, because every person needs to be on a green superfood blend. This is where we're getting all of these alkaline minerals from a bioavailable source, not some synthetic, just highly processed vitamin or 'vitamin supplement.' Alright? That's not what we want. Do your cells even recognize that stuff? You know? Are you literally just peeing out your money? Alright? If we're using real, whole foods, concentrates like this low-temperature processed incredible superfood blend with Organifi, we're really going to get the stuff we're looking for. Alright? So head over, check them out. It's www.Organifi.com/model. That's www.Organifi.com/model for 20% off, alright? 20% off, head over there, check them out. Again, www.Organifi.com/model, and now let's get to the iTunes review of the week. ITunes Review: Another five-star review titled 'My Day Zero,' by Sands167. "I call this review 'My Day Zero,' given this is where it started. I was at a time in my life with different challenges with my mental and health life. The Model Health Show was the starting point to live a more fuller, authentic, and rational life. Shawn's approach to health and fitness opened doors into a subject of my life that I've always ignored. His knowledge, sense of service, a positive message inspired me to start changing my life and taking care of all the areas of my body that have gone ignored for so much time. Thank you for your service and guidance for all of us who have started our path to a better being." Shawn Stevenson: Wow, that is absolutely amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for leaving me that review. And everybody, please, if you've yet to do so, head over to iTunes and leave me a review for the show. It truly does mean so very much to me. And on that note, let's get to our topic of the day. Today we're going to be covering five simple ways to reduce your risk of cancer. And I thought it was important to start off with a very rudimentary discussion about what cancer actually is, just to again, demystify it a little bit. Because this is something that oftentimes we're fearful of, but we don't really even know what it is, and that's really the scariest thing, is when we don't know what's on the other side of the curtain, or what's under the bed, or whatever, alright? So we're going to take a peek under the bed. It's not going to be like Poltergeist though, alright? I mean that movie messed me up for years, alright? It's not going to be like that, it's going to be much more gentle and entertaining, but just keep in mind the more that we can expose these things, the more that we understand it, the less fear that we will have attached to it. Now first thing to understand is that we have cancer cells every day. All of us, every single person, of the billions of people on the planet, we all have cancer cells that develop every single day. It's kind of a natural part of this cell replication process, and things are just bound to go a little bit off from time to time. But here's the thing, when those defects happen, a healthy immune system is generally going to be right on top of it, and take out those rogue cells that aren't acting correctly. And so the question is how are those cells even displaying that type of behavior in the first place? Now we have cell replications going on all the time, alright? Your cells are continuously replicating, and growing, and developing, and through this replication process there's something known as the Hayflick limit. This is where the cell replication process is supposed to stop, alright? So that new cells can take over. These old cells have been printing out copies over and over again, are getting cleaned out, and now new cells can come in and take their place. But cancer cells don't obey this Hayflick limit, alright? This Hayflick limit says- for example, after sixty-four cell replications, now this cell is going to go into a programmed cell death, alright? This is called senescence, alright? But cancer cells, these rogue cells, ignore that Hayflick limit, they ignore that signaling. They for some reason don't abide by this law of the body, and continue to grow, and they can eventually become cancerous tumors. And so to dig a little bit deeper, what is allowing these cells to have this behavior? Where did the signaling go wrong? And according to the Mayo Clinic, a number of forces can cause these mutations to happen, and specifically gene mutations that allow for this behavior to take place. Such as things like smoking, radiation, viruses, cancer-causing compounds called carcinogens, obesity, hormone imbalances, inflammation, lack of movement. All of these things are now known factually to contribute to these gene mutations, and thus these rogue cells being able to kind of take place. But a key point here that I want you to keep in mind is that a healthy functioning immune system is generally going to be able to get on top of and acknowledge, sense when rogue cell behavior is taking place, and go in, and clean those cells up, alright? And take them out. So a big problem, and one of the things we're going to be addressing today- so we're going to continue to come back to this, is making sure that our immune system is healthy and intelligent and doing its job. So now let's go ahead and dive into the five simple ways to reduce your cancer risk. Now again, this is going to be simple, profound, but also again, clinically proven. So number one on this list is to eat green vegetables. That's right, eating green vegetables is literally going to significantly reduce your risk of cancer. A European study published in 'The Journal of the National Cancer Institute' tracked 142,605 men, and 335,873 women, for an average of nearly nine years, and eating more vegetables was associated with a statistically significant reduction in cancer risk, alright? The data actually translated- listen to this, 4% lower risk of cancer for every two servings of vegetables a person eats each day, alright? 4% lower risk for every two servings of vegetables. What? We're getting some actionable things to start looking at here, and specifically eating cruciferous vegetables at least once a week, as compared with folks who eat no or occasional consumption, showed significantly reduced risk for cancer of the oral cavity, esophagus, colon, breast, and kidney. And so what is this cruciferous group of vegetables? So this is broccoli, arugula, bok choy, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, kale; all of those are in that cruciferous family. And the question might come up, and I'm always interested in this stuff, so why? Why is this particular group of food, this sub-category, so powerful? Well part of it is indole-3-carbinol, alright? This is going to be a byproduct, or you're going to get pre-cursors to indole-3-carbinol when you eat these cruciferous vegetables. And also, sulforaphane have been most frequently examined for their anti-cancer effects. Both of these have been found to inhibit the development of cancer in several organs including bladder, breast cancer, colon cancer, liver, lung, and stomach cancer. Alright? Indole-3-carbinol and sulforaphane, alright? So those are some of the things that you're going to get access to in your body to do this cool stuff, keep you healthy, and also prevent disease. So how does this work? What do we do with taking advantage of this insight with our green vegetables? And also, we can't look past the fiber. This is kind of obvious. We see statistically higher incidents of things like colon cancer when folks are constipated, alright? So high quality vegetable fiber is going to be a great necessity for us to protect our bodies from the tragedy, the ravishes that can take place with cancer, alright? So keep that in mind. Fiber, and also the micronutrients. So I mentioned some of those earlier with spirulina, and how many incredible micronutrients are there. These micronutrients are like little keys that unlock processes, alright? So micronutrient deficiencies can cause your body to be incapable of doing certain processes including hormone communication, neurotransmitter communication, and also cell replication, alright? Your cells dividing depend on certain compounds being present, and many micronutrients have a hand to play in that whole scenario. But hold your horses, alright? Hold your horses. It's the first time I think I've ever said this. My grandma used to say that to me all the time, "Hold your horses." And I thought about it like right now, I guess it was like literally holding your horses, pulling back the reigns, right? Slow down. I guess the updated one is pump your brakes. Alright? Pump your brakes. Vegetables- so we talked about how vegetables can literally protect you from cancer, and here's something for you to understand, and this is kind of- this is a sad other side of the coin. Vegetables with pesticides may actually increase your risk of cancer. So the Glasgow University team links increased use of nitrate fertilizers to rise of esophageal cancer in the UK, alright? So cancer of the esophagus. So this is something to keep in mind when we're consuming these vegetables, are they being treated with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, things that are known to have estrogenic impact and also neurogenic impact? So we've got to keep that in mind. Now this doesn't mean that everything that you eat has to be 'organic,' and a lot of stuff- you know especially if you're going to farmer's markets, they might not have that organic label, but they're doing stuff the right way. But you can take advantage of the Environmental Working Group. They publish each year the Dirty Dozen. So these are the twelve highest foods that are containing pesticides, alright? And one of those is spinach. That's on the list. So if any of the greens that you want to eat organic, definitely make sure that it's spinach, alright? That's one that you definitely want to go for the organic rather than conventional. They also publish some of the other foods, the Clean Fifteen, right? Things that you can look at like avocados, for example, that generally whether or not you're getting organic or conventional, you're not going to be bringing in a lot of pesticides when you consume them, alright? So how do we implement and take advantage of this insight with knowing that- no, it's not just eat your veggies just because, or eat your veggies to be healthy, but eat your vegetables because this is going to help your body to defend itself from cancer, alright? So this is not a small thing, this is absolutely powerful, and you have the full capacity to do this. So minimum, this is what I want you to hit every single day. We got that 4% for every two servings a day, 4% protection, let's double that. Alright? That's going to be the bare minimum. So I want you to make sure you're getting in four to five servings of non-starchy vegetables each and every day. And I think that the biggest issue, it's not necessarily for lunch or dinner, I think we're missing out on a great opportunity to get those in for breakfast, right? Because traditionally, I know I grew up- listen, I grew up, I went right for the cereal, alright? I went right for the Crunch Berries. I didn't like the original just plain Captain Crunch. It was okay, but also we had the off brand a lot. So it was like- it wasn't Captain Crunch, it was more like Sergeant Crunch, or something like that. And so- but I really dug the Crunch Berries. I kind of liked the fruity cereals, alright? Fruity Pebbles, the Crunch Berries, Froot Loops, Apple Jacks. Apple Jacks, man. That- what did they put in there? Straight up, that stuff was very crackish. So that's what I went for, you know? And this is what we talk for healthy breakfast, you've got your toast, you've got your pancakes, you've got your bran muffin. All of that is just bringing in a tremendous amount of sugar into your body, and where are the vegetables? Like where are the non-starchy- Like consciously we're not even putting vegetables in a mental frame of having them at breakfast, and we need to change that, alright? Breakfast is just another meal, first of all, and it's a great time to get in those veggies, but we can do it in a more conventional manner as well. So doing a veggie omelet, right? Just load in that veggie with a handful of spinach, and mushrooms, and tomatoes, or whatever it might be that floats your boat. I really like jalapenos. Alright? Throw that in there, it's a California omelet, alright? That's another great option, alright? Also green smoothies. Green smoothies are popping today, alright? Everybody's heard of green smoothies at this point, but I was doing this when it wasn't that cool. Alright? I'm making these in like nutrition class, people were like, "You're putting kale in there? Is it going to be good?" But I got the chocolate in there, they loved it. Alright? But just keep in mind, green smoothies. We want to be heavy on the green, alright? That's the point of the green smoothie, alright? Not a sugar smoothie, a sugar bomb, but making sure we're getting plenty of green veggies in there. Also just on the side, you know, maybe if you're having your kind of- if you're doing a traditional kind of conventional breakfast like maybe it's some scrambled eggs, and some avocado, and then you've got some sautéed spinach on the side, alright? So make sure to get some veggies in, in the morning. I think that's a great, great implement for this particular tip here, alright? So that's number one on our list of these five simple ways to reduce your risk of cancer. Oh, let me throw one more out here for you. Getting more vegetables in, let's make it taste good, alright? Let's not suffer down like some raw broccoli that's just like- you just cut the broccoli and you just eat it. Some people can do that, alright? I respect that. But for most of us that's a little bit- that's going a little too far. Alright? So let's cook it and make it taste good, alright? Some grass-fed butter. Fats make veggies taste really good, alright? Coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil. Cook your sautéed spinach in a little bit of coconut oil and make it taste good. And of course the seasoning so maybe you've got some garlic, you cut up a little garlic, some onion powder, some sea salt, a little black pepper. Make it taste nice so you enjoy the process and something that you actually look forward to eating. Alright, so that's number one, again on our list of five simple ways to reduce your risk of cancer. I'm going to move on to number two. This is going to sound a little bit crazy, but stick with me, this research is going to blow your socks off. Are your socks- like do you got ahold on them? You'd better have a hold on them because they're going to blow right off. Listen, number two here is keep your cellphone off of your head. Keep your cellphone off your head, it's going to help to reduce your risk of cancer. So listen, ionizing radiation given off by sources like x-rays are well-noted to cause cell mutations leading to cancer. This is well-known, but now non-ionizing radio frequency radiation that cellphones and other wireless devices that we're all privy to today, we're all taking- billions of people are using these things, are being increasingly studied due to their potentially dangerous biological effect, which is an ability to heat tissues by exciting your molecules. Alright? Now since 2011, radiofrequency radiation has been classified as a group to be carcinogen. Human carcinogen. Bet you didn't know that. To be is a 'possible human carcinogen.' Alright? But- and this is by the International Agency on Cancer, and also this is NHC of the World Health Organization. Now it's likely going to be reclassified as probable human carcinogen with more recent findings. So according to researchers at the Department of Oncology at University Hospital in Orebro, Sweden, people who begin using cellphones heavily as teenagers have four to five times more brain cancer as young adults. Alright, just let that sit for a minute. Wow. In recent surveys, a large majority of respondents, 71% said they usually sleep with their phone next to them. 3% of these people, and this is- again this is taking a population study, 71% of people have the phone right next to them when they're sleeping. 3% say they sleep with the device in their hand. I know somebody in this room, I've got my team in here, somebody's sleeping with that phone in their hand, alright? They don't want their girl to check their snaps, alright? Now I just saw that today on the interwebs, alright? A little meme of somebody falling asleep with their phone in their hand, and their significant other comes and checks it, alright? So if it's that serious for you, I get it. Alright? It's love and war. Or maybe it's not love, but you know, you've got to be careful with that. But another 13% said that they keep it right next to them in the bed, it's their little electronic teddy bear. 55% say that they leave it close to them right next to them on the nightstand, alright? 71% of folks are almost attached at the hip with their cellphone. So we wonder why, again this is not a small thing of like let's be more conscious of our use of our- like we're very, very attached to these devices. Still evidence advanced by the studies shows prolonged exposure to even low levels of radio frequency radiation is potentially causing these gene mutations, and it is perhaps by mechanisms that are other than the heating of the tissue. So we don't quite know exactly what the causative factor is, but we do know that it's causing disruption between the cells- the cellular communication in your body, alright? So one study looked at how rats are actually uniquely prone to a rare tumor called a schwannoma, and this affects a type of neuron called a schwann cell, and this is something that we have as humans as well. Schwann cells are any of the cells of the peripheral nervous system that produce the myelin sheath that coat around your neuronal axons. Now this is how your cells literally- like nerves firing and you doing processes, they get coated by myelin, right? The myelin sheath to make these movements, behaviors, thought patterns, all these different things on automatic, so they create more insulation over those nerves firing, and this can cause tumors of those cells. So why schwann cells and glial cells appear to be targets of cellphone radiation is not yet clear. Dr. David Carpenter, who's the Director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University of Albany, he explained that the purpose of these cells is to insulate nerve fibers throughout the body. These are electrical systems, so that might be one big part of why this is influencing those cells, because these are electrical cells, and we're talking about radio frequency radiation that can affect electricity. And so male rats in this study and other studies were found to have this development of schwannomas of the heart at statistically higher rates than control animals that were not exposed. Alright? So keep in mind, the heart is a very electrical organ as well, and actually contains neuro tissue, alright? So we're talking brain tissue, or tissue that is thought to be a part of thinking that is actually located in your heart. How crazy is that? A different $25 million study, this was completed by researchers at the National Toxicology Program provided the most compelling evidence connected to radio frequencies with heart schwannomas in male rats. The researchers also reported elevated rates of lymphoma when they were exposed to these frequencies, as well as cancers affecting the prostate, skin, lung, liver, and the brain in these exposed animals. Again, we haven't tested this on humans. I don't know who's going to sign up for that study, but it's important for us to keep this in mind, alright? So rates for those cancers increased as well, they statistically increased as the doses of exposure were higher, alright? So there was a parallel increase. Now both of these studies also had smaller findings linking the radio frequency exposure to cancer of the glial cells in the brain, and that was specifically happening in the female rats. So again, I want to keep this in perspective. This does not mean we need to run out and throw our cellphones in the ocean, alright? I think my cellphone is amazing and this is such a great opportunity and technology, and just rationally looking at this, we can't say for certain still, even with this bit of data that we have, that this is a huge causative factor for cancer. But it's something we need to be aware of, and I'm going to share a little bit more evidence with you, and the big reason we can't say conclusively yet is this. Right now if you just take a bigger perspective, we haven't had cellphones that long in our kind of human evolution, alright? This is still a relatively new thing. Many of us know a time when we didn't have cellphones, alright? We grew up and this wasn't something we had access to. We had to like- if you wanted to walk around with a phone, like you had that super long cord, right? You had the super long cord that oftentimes had some issues itself, it was staticky and that kind of thing. Or the first cellphone like the rappers had, right? That big- can you imagine the kind of radiation that did? Right? That's like probably an x-ray to the head, right? This big box contraption that they you put up to your head. Who knows what that was doing. And so just keep that in mind, many of us have not had this as a part of our reality, but kids today are growing up with it and this is all they know. And here's the issue, is that brain cancer has a long latency of development, so this explains why we have not seen potentially higher rates in the population due specifically to cellphone use. Alright? Because it takes time for this to develop. So I'm very confident that we'll see more evidence on this as the years go by, but I don't want you to be a guinea pig, alright? I want you to be a little bit more intelligent in your use of your cellphone, and I'm going to talk about that in a minute. But I wanted to share this. This is in my book 'Sleep Smarter,' alright? This is directly from 'Sleep Smarter.' A study sponsored by mobile companies themselves found that using cellphones before bed caused people to take longer to reach critical deep stages of sleep, and they spent less time in deep sleep. This translates to a diminished ability for the body to heal, depresses immune system function, depresses hormone function, and have poorer performance the following day. Researchers at Loughborough University Sleep Research Center in England set out to test the impact of cellphone radiation on the human brain. In the study they strapped cellphones to the heads of study participants and monitored their brainwaves by EEG while the phone was switched on and off by remote computer. The experiment revealed that after the phone was switched to talk mode, as if you were on a call, brainwave patterns called delta waves remained depressed for more than one hour after the phone was turned off. These delta brainwaves are the most reliable marker of deep sleep. A significant portion of your sleep consists of this stage and interference with it will have a noticeable effect on sleep efficiency, which is exactly what the researchers observed. Alright? So this stuff is playing games with your head, alright? Literally. It's not a small thing. Just by switching the phone on and having it up to their head, it changed their brainwaves, alright? So again, keep all of this stuff in context, and also this is a good transition point to the next tip here. So with cellphones, what do we do? Use your speakerphone more often. Use a wired ear piece if you can more often. Switch back and forth. Sometimes I use the phone and put it up to my head, but I won't do it for long periods of time. I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but if you've ever been on your cellphone for maybe thirty minutes or an hour up to your head, you might get even like a little bit of a headache, or you might feel fatigued. I don't know if you've ever noticed this before. A lot of people report that, it's a lot of anecdotal evidence, of even people getting sores in their ears from that tissue getting cooked, alright? By that cellphone radiation. So again, just use it a little bit differently, alright? Use your other tools, and features, and tech that we can to not have the cellphone up to our head. So this particular insight for reducing our risk of cancer is definitely something that a lot of people don't know about, so again I just want to plant that seed for you, just to keep an eye on it, be more conscientious so we can reduce that risk. Alright so we're going to move onto number three. Alright, so this is number three on our list of five simple ways to reduce your risk of cancer. Number three is to sleep at night. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has now classified overnight shift work, so not sleeping at night is classified as a Class 2A carcinogen. This is a cancer causing agent, not sleeping at night. This is nuts. A lot of people don't realize this, and that is in the category of probably cancer causing agents. So this means that staying up late and not sleeping at night repeatedly, working overnight is enough to get categorized with lead exposure and UVA radiation. Alright? How could it be that much of a potent carcinogen? There was a study published in the 'International Journal of Cancer' found that women who work the overnight shift had a 30% greater incidence of breast cancer. Other studies on female nurses who worked overnight found that the greater the number of years that they worked the late shift, the more their rates of cancer would skyrocket. I want you to know this. This is very, very important for us to understand this and to take action appropriately because this correlation is really, really fascinating. So what's going on here? 'The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology' published extensive research showing that melatonin has a very strong anti-estrogenic effect, alright? Very strong anti-estrogenic effects. Many breast cancer drugs actually utilize synthetic anti-estrogens because of their ability to inhibit breast cancer cell proliferation. And your body is producing this when you go to sleep at night, or not, right? So this is something that this is used clinically, synthetic drugs, or you can produce it just by getting sleep. And this is one of the things that we're looking at. Why is this staying up at night causing a 30% greater incidence in breast cancer for women who do shift work? This is one of the big reasons. They're not producing adequate melatonin, which melatonin itself is a very powerful- it's not just about regulating sleep or regulating your circadian rhythms, it's a very potent anti-cancer hormone, and if you're not producing enough of it, you're going to be far more prone to having these genetic mutations take place. Also sleep deprivation, one of the very first things that happens when you're sleep-deprived, is your immune system gets hit. So you have a suppression of your immune system, and this is when a lot of folks- when they're sleep-deprived, and they're like running around, and traveling, they're not getting a lot of sleep, this is a lot of times start getting colds, and getting sick, and things like that because it does suppress your immune system. And your immune system, as we talked about in the very beginning, is really the governing force that's making sure that when these abnormal cell divisions or mutations take place, that it's on top of it, and it's sending out these natural killer cells, and it's taking out any rogue activity. But if your immune system is sleepy, if your immune system is not doing its job, if your immune system is being abused, it's not going to be able to do its job properly. Alright? So I hope that makes sense. And so what are the action steps here? If you are currently working the overnight shift, and you're like, "Shawn, this is all I can do. This is the only job that I can do right now." There's two things, and I've talked about this on previous episodes, and by the way, make sure to read this chapter in 'Sleep Smarter' talking about this aspect. So this is going to be in chapter six, but there's two ways to look at this. So if you're working shift work because you feel this is the only thing that you can do, then you have to stop telling yourself this story because it's just not true. Alright? There is always a possibility of doing work at normal hours and being able to sleep at night, you just have to do your due diligence and stop telling yourself the story that, "This is all that I can do. This is the only job I can get." Whether it's to do with your kids- and I've seen this, I've done it. I have done it. I had to be at work at 2:30 in the morning before. Alright? When I was- ironically when I was in college, alright? This is crazy. Alright? And I would go to the club. I would go to the club, leave the club which I shouldn't have been at, alright? And then I would go straight to work sometimes. Alright? Those days on the weekend, alright? So I've been up through the night, and I remember driving to work- I actually remember driving to work one day, and just like it popped in my head like, "I hope I don't get cancer." You know? We just have that kind of crazy thought come in our mind. I didn't have any idea what cancer was, I just hoped that I didn't get it. And this isn't something that- again it's so mysterious, we're breaking down and demystifying what it is, and very specific things we can do to help to prevent it, alright? Now of course, and I want to make this clear as well, nothing in life is guaranteed, alright? Like we're spinning around on this blue ball in the middle of the universe, alright? There's a lot of stuff that's up in the air, alright? But what we want to do is stack conditions in our favor, do what we can to make the very best of the opportunity that we have, and that's what this is about. Because if you're not doing these things, you're setting yourself up for failure, and why do that to yourself? A big part of it is lack of knowledge, lack of education, not knowing that this is the thing. And so once we become aware, then we can start to begin, enlighten ourselves, and remove the veil. And once we turn this stuff on, it's very difficult to turn it off. Right? So that's part one. Part two is application. Once you know, do. And how do we best do that? Simply by having strategies in place, and being consistent. Reminding ourselves whenever we make a mistake, just get back on the horse, right? Pump the brakes, hold your horses, whatever. Alright so that's number one, if you're telling yourself, "This is something that I have to do," you have to change your story. But on the other side, if this is about service, if you're working the overnight shift because you're dedicated to service, to- maybe you're in emergency services as a firefighter, or a nurse in a hospital, or a physician, then we have a whole different issue to address, alright? This isn't necessarily like- again, throwing in the towel. So the first objective is like what's more important, my health or this job? Right? But again, if it's about service, this is tied to your health. Right? You doing work that fulfills you. So what those individuals need to do is to try to construct and replicate night as best as they can, because melatonin functions on exposure to darkness. Light depresses melatonin production, alright? Cornell University found that- they had the test subjects in an otherwise dark room, but they put a light the size of a quarter behind their knee, and that was enough to disrupt their sleep cycle. Just that little bit of light hitting their skin, alright? Because your skin has photoreceptors that pick up light and send it to your brain and internal organs to try to figure out what time it is. Alright? What time is it? I just thought about Flavor Flav. Forgive me, alright? So keep this in mind, alright? So if you are doing shift work, working overnight, you've got to make sure that your room is pitch black. I'm talking like you can't even see your hand in front of your face. Black that room out so that your bedroom, it's like you're replicating the darkness of night, alright? That sounded very Batman-esque right there, I know, but that's what you're going to be replicating, and it also needs to be consistent because there's two prerequisites. Number one is darkness, number two is cyclical pattern, right? It has to be consistent. So they're finding that folks that might not necessarily do shift work every night, but when their schedule is jumping around, they're still having ever-increasing risk of cancer, specifically breast cancer, even if they're only doing it a few nights a week because their body cannot get on a consistent cycle. Those are a couple of action steps with this particular one, and before we move into the next one, I want to- I can't do an episode talking about cancer without talking about this. A study published in 'The Journal of Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior' found that the renowned medicinal mushroom rishi was able to - so we're talking about sleep here, this is the transition - significantly decrease sleep latency, meaning you fall asleep faster, increase overall sleep time by taking rishi, and also increased non-REM deep sleep time and light sleep time, all by utilizing this medicinal mushroom that's been around for thousands of years called rishi. But also the science on cancer. Research published by the Public Library of Science looked to demonstrate rishi's effectiveness against breast cancer. Researchers said, "Our results provide evidence that rishi suppresses protein synthesis and tumor growth by affecting survival in proliferative signaling pathways that act on translation, suggesting that rishi is a potential natural therapeutic for breast and other cancers." There you have it. Alright? Rishi is no joke, and it also has been found to increase your natural killer cell activity over 300%. So that's your NK cells, the cells that are kind of designed to take out pathogens in abnormal cell development, alright? Anything that doesn't look right in your immune system, by training up those NK cells, they'll go and take it out, alright? So I utilize rishi from Four Sigmatic, as I do for all my medicinal mushrooms; my cordyceps, my- I love, love the cordyceps coffee. Today I had the Lion's Mane coffee with chaga, which is also- it might be the most studied medicinal mushroom for cancer treatment, alright? So all this stuff, I use Four Sigmatic and not company X because they do a dual extraction. So they're doing a hot water extract and an alcohol extract to make sure that you're actually getting all of the various compounds that you might not be getting if you only do one extraction method, alright? So definitely check them out. Rishi is great to have as a kind of nightcap, alright? So it's www.FourSigmatic.com/model. That's www.FourSigmatic.com/model, 15% off all of their incredible products; the mushroom coffees, the mushroom hot cocoas, the new chais. Check them out, www.FourSigmatic.com/model, 15% off. Now let's move on to number four here on our list of four clinically proven simple ways to reduce your risk of breast cancer. So number four is to drink water, alright? Drink water. This sounds outrageous, I know, alright? It sounds outrageous, but there's some clinical data showing that simply making sure that we're properly hydrated can prevent cancer formation. Alright? Now this is something that you were like, "I know I'm supposed to drink water," but if you attach this to it, cancer prevention by you drinking that water, it might give you a better reason to take a sip. Research published in 'The Journal of Clinical Oncology' looked at water intake of 47,909 patients during a period of ten years, and found a strong correlation with bladder cancer. The greater a person's fluid intake on a daily basis, the lower their risk was of developing bladder cancer. Now from the study itself, when fluid intake was modeled as a continuous variable, the risk of bladder cancer decreased by 7% for every increment of about eight ounces that the person drank a day. 7% decrease in risk for every eight ounces you drink. That is amazing. And the study participants in the highest quadrant of fluid intake had a 49% - that's kind of where it capped off - a 49% lower incidence of bladder cancer than those in the lowest quadrant. Now the reason that this might be so important for bladder cancer specifically, is that researchers believe dehydration exposes the bladder to more concentrations of these carcinogens, alright? So they become more concentrated in the bladder. Now other research published in 'Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention,' found that adequate water intake was associated with a lower risk of colon cancer in both men and women. The same thing was found to be true of a study that looked at breast cancer as well. And so researchers hypothesized that 'sub-clinical or chronic dehydration may compromise intracellular water, alter cellular concentrations, affect the activity of enzymes in metabolic regulation, and inhibit cellular carcinogen removal.' Alright? So there you have it. Drink more water to literally help your body to defend itself against these gene mutations. You can literally damage your DNA through dehydration. It's one of the really interesting things that happens, you know? There are some profound things that take place when you're dehydrated, and one of them is histamine response, and excess histamine can also suppress interferon, and this is a critical anti-cancer chemical that's present in a healthy, hydrated body. Alright? So these are just small things to keep in mind, and how your DNA can be influenced, interferon, and we're just going to reduce our risk of bladder cancer and breast cancer and colon cancer, and the list goes on really because your body doesn't operate in a vacuum. Like everything influences everything, alright? So what do we do? Number one, make sure to listen to the classic episode of The Model Health Show, the water and hydration master class, to get the ins and outs of this whole situation with water because it's much bigger than what we think at first glance. I'll put that in the show notes. And just make sure that you're doing that basic- what we throw out as a kind of tentative baseline is take your body weight and divide it in half, right? So if you're 150 pounds, divide it in half, you've got seventy-five pounds. Now we want to drink that many ounces of water, so seventy-five ounces. So take your body weight, divide it in half, the number that you get, that's the number of ounces that I want you to make sure is a baseline of water that you're drinking each day. And also, how do we ensure that we do it? Make sure that you're just keeping your bottle around. Like I've got my bottle right here. Where I go, my bottle goes. This is my water containing boo, alright? Make sure you keep your bottle with you so that you're able to fill it up when you need to. This is another strategy that I've seen work great. Chalene Johnson does this, she has three bottles, and she makes sure that they're all filled ready to go each day, and by the end of the day, she needs to drink all three of those, alright? So there you go, that's number four on our list of these five clinically proven simple ways to help to prevent cancer. Let's move on to number five, so this is our final one. Number five is move your body, alright? Exercise. Specifically walking. A meta-analysis published in 'The British Journal of Cancer' found that physical activity was clearly associated with reduced risk of endometrial cancer with active women having an approximately 30% lower risk of cancer than inactive women. I want you to get up right now. If you're not already up walking, are you at the gym or something? Like or if you're driving obviously you can't, okay I get that, but if you can, get up and start walking around, alright? This is a big call to action. This movement, your body needs this in order to function correctly. Alright? When I thought about moving around the car and walking I thought about the Flintstones, when Fred put his feet through the bottom to stop the car with the brakes. I don't know if you know about this. The biomechanics of that doesn't really work, but it's neither here nor there. And why in the world was Fred Flintstone always hating on Barney? Right? He just hated on Barney. Barney was just like very easygoing, but you know, he threw all kinds of shade on Barney. Threw shade Barney's way. Maybe because his wife was a little hotter? I don't know. So anyways, research at the US National Cancer Institute reported that higher levels of physical activity were associated with a lower risk of thirteen types of cancer, including bowel cancer, breast cancer, uterine cancer, liver cancer, and lung cancer. So what's going on there? How does this work? Well exercise changes or triggers changes in your hormones, and one of the biggest ways that exercise reduces cancer risk is that physical activity can halt the overproduction of estrogen. Now estrogen in and of itself is not bad, this is something we all need, men and women, but it needs to be in balance, but it's a growth-related hormone. And when enzymes unlock certain cells- like so we're talking about enzymes helping to unlock cells and utilize cholesterol and turning it into hormones, sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone. This is normally functioning every day and your body is looking to have a balance of those things. But fat cells contain an enzyme called aromatase, and this helps to convert testosterone into estrogen. It converts testosterone into estrogen and can create a situation of estrogen dominance if your fat cells are not kept in check, alright? Now- and I did a whole episode talking about estrogen dominance, that was episode 148, we'll put that in the show notes. So that's one way that exercise helps to reduce your cancer risk, is that it helps to regulate the function of estrogen and keeping it balanced in your body. Another reason that it's effective is that exercise induces something called autophagy. Autophagy is the natural regulated destructive mechanism of the cell that disassembles unnecessary or dysfunctional components. Research out of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2012 confirmed that exercise induces autophagy in the peripheral tissues and in the brain. And on top of that, exercise is also about elimination. Exercise, exorcise, right? Exorcism, getting stuff out that shouldn't be there. The words are very similar, but that's what exercise is really about is elimination of toxins. Assimilation of nutrients and elimination of toxins. If you're not moving, your lymphatic system is not moving, which is kind of your extracellular sewage system. It's kind of gross, but your lymphatic system, you have four times more lymph than you have blood, and your circulatory system has a pump in essence, which is your heart, but your lymphatic system doesn't have a pump. It moves when you move. It requires movement in order for it to move. It's kind of like a one-way valve system that moves up your body and it dumps back into your system after it gets right around like your collarbones. So if you're not moving, your lymphatic system, this waste management system, extracellular waste management system is literally getting gummed up, alright? It's not moving, and that can't be good news. So that's another reason why exercise is so valuable. Now I hope that this really brought some light to a few things and created another anchor of why movement, drinking water, eating vegetables, getting sleep, and chilling with the technology is so valuable in your life. Alright? We're talking literally about preventing cancer, stacking conditions in your favor by doing these things. Now it's difficult to say if these things alone will substantially reduce your risk of cancer by themselves, but when you couple them together, you give yourselves a real chance to thrive, and that's what it's really all about. Alright? So thank you so much for tuning into the show today, I hope you got a lot of value out of this. And listen, hopefully I'm going to see you in St. Louis coming here on June 24th with me, the number one motivational speaker in the world, Eric Thomas. I'm telling you, you want to be around ET. You want to experience this. It's really going to be a life-changing event, so make sure that you come out and hang out with me if at all possible. If you're in St. Louis, I know you're going to be there. But even if you're outside of town, this would be something for you to fly in and be a part of because this is going to be a once in a lifetime experience with this Take Control Conference. Make sure to hop over and come hang out with us. Alright? So that's www.TheModelHealthShow.com/takecontrol, one word. Use the coupon code 'MODELHEALTH.' 'MODELHEALTH' together one word, and you're going to get 10% off those tickets. Alright? So again, thank you so much for tuning into the show today. We've got some amazing, amazing guests coming up, so make sure to stay tuned. Alright? Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon. And for more after the show, make sure to head over to www.TheModelHealthShow.com. That's where you can find all of the show notes, you can find transcriptions, videos for each episode, and if you've got a comment you can leave me a comment there as well. And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome, and I appreciate that so much. And take care, I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.
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I would love a link to all the research!!
I would to hear your thoughts on Polyphasic sleep patterns