Health & Fitness

Sydney-based health and wellness influencer Cassey Maynard recounts her breast 'explant' journey, and how a Facebook group gave her the courage she needed to remove her E-cup implants. 

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Have you discovered seaweed salad? Since it has become a popular restaurant item as an appetizer or garnish in Japanese restaurants and sushi bars, some consider it the new coleslaw. Also called hiyashi wakame and goma wakame, seaweed salad is usually seasoned with sesame oil and seeds with red pepper flakes, vinegar, salt, mushrooms and seaweed-based agar agar added.¹

While many people enjoy the taste of marine-derived greens, which include kelp, nori, kombu and wakame, seaweed is also one of the world's best sources of iodine.² It has also been credited with significant health benefits such as neuroprotective,³ anti-inflammatory⁴ and anti-viral properties.⁵

Seaweed is also being studied as useful for high blood pressure⁶ — yes, your seaweed salad may lower your blood pressure. In an observational study in children,⁷ seaweed consumption was shown to lower diastolic blood pressure in boys and systolic blood pressure in girls.

As for adults, research published in the American Journal of Hypertension found that a preparation made from seaweed decreased mean blood pressure in 62 middle-aged patients with mild high blood pressure.⁸ An article in Marine Drugs also cited several studies linking seaweed consumption to decreased blood pressure.⁹ The associations are encouraging.

Seaweed Actions That May Lower Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is defined as a condition in which the long-term force of blood against artery walls is too high and may eventually cause health problems.¹⁰ Although there are many prescription drugs available to treat high blood pressure, their side effects are numerous.

That is why natural treatments such as seaweed are so important. This is how researchers writing in Marine Drugs explain the likely potential actions of seaweed compounds on high blood pressure:¹¹

"Polyphenols have been described to act as Angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. ACE is a zinc-containing metalloproteinase that catalyses the conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II, the latter is a potent vasoconstrictor involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension.

ACE also facilitates the degradation of the vasodilator bradykinin. This enzyme has a crucial role in the control of BP [blood pressure]. In consequence, its inhibition has become a major target for hypertension control …

… several polyphenolic compounds from plant extracts have been reported to inhibit ACE activity through the sequestration of the enzyme metal factor, Zn2+ ion. Similarly, phlorotannins might be found to be associated with proteins or glycoproteins, forming a complex. This complex inhibits the ACE activity, following a noncompetitive profile.

In contrast, commercial ACE inhibitors, such as captopril, show competitive inhibition. In fact, several studies have confirmed this activity for different phlorotannins, such as those present in extracts from Ecklonia cava or Ecklonia stolonifera, including phlorofucofuroeckol A, dieckol and eckol …

… In addition to E. cava and E. stolonifera, other marine algae containing phlorotannins, such as Lomentaria catenata, Lithophyllum okamurae, Ahnfeltiopsis flabelliformis and Fucus spiralis also exert potent ACE inhibitory activity."

In short, seaweed polyphenols exert effects similar to ACE inhibitor drugs, which in conventional medicine are often prescribed as a first-line treatment for high blood pressure.

High Blood Pressure Is a Modern Condition

High blood pressure is a condition fueled by lifestyle behaviors. It began to emerge in adults in higher income countries from changes in how people live, eat and work.¹² Contributors to high blood pressure include:

Unhealthy diet — Processed food, trans fats and too much sugar can lead to high blood pressure over time.

Sedentary lifestyle — Lack of physical activity weakens the heart, contributing to weight gain, high stress levels and high blood pressure.13

Smoking — Cigarette smoke and second-hand smoke contribute to arterial stiffness and the chance of developing high blood pressure.14

Excessive alcohol intake — Regularly drinking excessive amounts of alcohol can significantly increase blood pressure levels.15

Stress, anxiety and depression — These conditions can cause short-term blood pressure spikes and lead to overeating and consuming too much alcohol.16,17,18

Sleep deprivation19 and chronic dehydration20 — These symptoms of an overactive lifestyle can also put you at risk of high blood pressure.

Acute pain, medications and stimulating drinks — These factors can also cause high blood pressure with symptoms like dizziness or shortness of breath.21

High Blood Pressure Is a Dangerous Condition

One in 3 Americans suffers from high blood pressure, which amounts to 75 million people.²² People may not be aware that they have high blood pressure, but the condition is far from harmless. Worldwide, high blood pressure causes 9.4 million deaths each year, according to the World Health Organization.²³ Here are some of the major complications of high blood pressure, according to the Mayo Clinic:²⁴

"Heart attack or stroke. High blood pressure can cause hardening and thickening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), which can lead to a heart attack, stroke or other complications. Aneurysm. Increased blood pressure can cause your blood vessels to weaken and bulge, forming an aneurysm. If an aneurysm ruptures, it can be life-threatening.

Heart failure. To pump blood against the higher pressure in your vessels, the heart has to work harder. This causes the walls of the heart's pumping chamber to thicken (left ventricular hypertrophy). Eventually, the thickened muscle may have a hard time pumping enough blood to meet your body's needs, which can lead to heart failure.

Weakened and narrowed blood vessels in your kidneys. This can prevent these organs from functioning normally. Thickened, narrowed or torn blood vessels in the eyes. This can result in vision loss.

Metabolic syndrome. This syndrome is a cluster of disorders of your body's metabolism, including increased waist circumference; high triglycerides; low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the "good" cholesterol; high blood pressure and high insulin levels. These conditions make you more likely to develop diabetes, heart disease and stroke."

Other Serious High Blood Pressure Complications

There are other serious complications increasingly linked to high blood pressure, such as dementia and cognitive decline.²⁵ Those with high blood pressure are at risk of memory and understanding problems as well as vascular dementia, likely because of narrowed or blocked arteries that can limit blood flow to the brain.

Here is what scientists sharing their research in Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology wrote in 2016:²⁶

"Hypertension and dementia are two of the most prevalent and damaging diseases associated with aging. Chronic hypertension, particularly during mid-life, is a strong risk factor for late-life cognitive decline and impairment.

Hypertension is also the number one risk factor for stroke and a major contributor to the pathogenesis of vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Despite the vast epidemiologic and mechanistic evidence linking hypertension to cognitive impairment, and the positive effects of blood pressure lowering on reducing the risk of post-stroke dementia, uncertainty remains about the benefit of antihypertensive medication on other forms of dementia."

Researchers are also now exploring the links between high blood pressure and the development of breast cancer. Evidence of links exist, wrote researchers in Scientific Reports in 2017:²⁷

"Observational studies examining the relationship between hypertension and breast cancer risk have reported conflicting findings … We included observational studies that reported relative risks (RR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (Cis) … We observed a statistically significant association between hypertension and increased breast cancer risk.

In the subgroup analysis, we found a positive association between hypertension and breast cancer incidence among postmenopausal women … This meta-analysis collectively suggests a significantly association between hypertension and breast cancer risk, specifically for postmenopausal hypertensive women."

Other Studies Cite Seaweed Benefits for High Blood Pressure

There is more evidence of seaweed's value in controlling high blood pressure. This is what researchers wrote in a 2009 issue of Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition about seaweed's effect on metabolic syndrome, a condition in which high blood pressure is central:²⁸

"Incidence of the metabolic syndrome is increasing worldwide, with notable exceptions of some Asian countries where seaweeds are commonly consumed. 13 men (mean age 47.4+/-9.9 yr) and 14 women (average age 45.6+/-12.2 yr) with at least one symptom of the metabolic syndrome were recruited in Quito Ecuador to a randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled trial.

Subjects were assigned to either Group 1 (1 m[onth] placebo, followed by 1 m[onth] 4 g/d seaweed [Undaria pinnatifida]) or Group 2 (1 m of 4 g/d seaweed, followed by 1 m of 6 g/d of seaweed).

Blood pressure, weight, waist circumference, inflammation biomarkers, and lipids were measured monthly … Consumption of 4 to 6 g/d seaweed, typical for most people in Japan, may be associated with low metabolic syndrome prevalence."

Further, even as only one part of an improved diet, seaweed has been found useful in treating high blood pressure, according to research in Current Hypertension Reviews.²⁹

The study found that following a diet that includes traditional Japanese foods, including seaweed, green/yellow vegetables and mushrooms, supports the prevention and improvement of high blood pressure for people with readings in the high-normal range.

More Seaweed Benefits

As I noted earlier, seaweed is a good source of iodine, which is an important nutrient. In fact, kelp is credited as the largest known dietary source of iodine — capable of providing close to 2,000% of the recommended daily intake.³⁰ Iodine helps regulate the thyroid gland to produce strong, healthy hair, skin and nails and forms the important thyroid hormones, thyroxine and triiodothyronine.

Iodine is also crucial for regulating the body's energy and brain metabolism, which are under the effect of the pituitary gland, and for formation of your skeletal framework itself. Iodine is an especially important nutrient for developing babies.

Balanced iodine during pregnancy and breastfeeding is central to the myelination process, correct formation of the baby's central nervous system and the development of a baby’s brain cells.³¹

Edible seaweed contains other valuable substances such as potassium, calcium, iron and alginic acid. Alginic acid naturally protects marine plants from bacteria and binds to heavy metals in humans, a process sometimes called chelation. This makes seaweed an important detoxifying food.

It is not a surprise that alginic acid is used, medically, as a chelator to remove heavy metals from blood. It is also used to make dental and prosthetic molds and in wound and burn dressing.³²

Compounds containing alginic acid are also used in the treatment of patients with symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) because it displaces the postprandial gastric acid pocket in people in whom GERD medications don't work.³³ In fact, seaweed outperformed antacids for this purpose in some studies.³⁴ Alginic acid is also used in weight loss.³⁵

Clearly any new treatments for high blood pressure, especially natural ones, are good news for those affected. So, don't forget to enjoy your seaweed salad — and be sure any seaweed you consume is harvested from nonpolluted waters.

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Heart disease is the leading cause of death for many groups in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention¹ reports that nearly 25% of all deaths are the result of heart disease. Coronary artery disease is the most common type, and every year 735,000 Americans suffer a heart attack.

Risk factors include high blood pressure, smoking, obesity, poor diet and physical inactivity. The annual cost for treating cardiovascular disease has been estimated at $351.2 billion, including direct and indirect costs.²

According to a report released by the American Heart Association³ in early 2019, 48% of all adult Americans experience some form of cardiovascular disease.⁴ The majority appears to be driven by the rising number who have high blood pressure. In 2016, cardiovascular disease claimed the lives of more than 840,000 in the U.S.

Vitamin K2 MK-7 Form Protects Endothelial Function

Inside your heart and all blood vessels is a thin membrane of cells called the endothelium.⁵ These are responsible for controlling the relaxation and contraction of the vascular system; a malfunction is a significant predictor for stroke and heart attacks.

Endothelial dysfunction can result from diabetes, smoking and high blood pressure. After testing, some physicians may turn to pharmacological interventions, including lipid-lowering statins and ACE inhibitors or beta blockers for blood pressure management. Another option with fewer side effects is the use of vitamin K2 MK-7.

One group of researchers⁶ developed an animal study in which atherosclerosis was induced and mice were given a four-week treatment of vitamin K2 MK-7 at low doses. The data revealed an improvement in acetylcholine and flow-induced endothelium dependent vasodilation in the aorta and femoral arteries.

The effect was measured using an MRI and was associated with an increased production of nitric oxide (NO). Higher doses did not demonstrate further improvement. The researchers found the data identified an endothelial profile activity for vitamin K2 that had not been previously described. Hogne Vik, Ph.D., NattoPharma Chief Medical Officer, commented:⁷

“The study demonstrated that vitamin K2 - MK-7 improved NO-dependent endothelial function in mice, and the results showed that K2 - MK-7 provided a vaso-protective effect independently whether endothelial dysfunction was treated with vitamin K2 - MK-7 prior to or concurrently with the occurrence of atherosclerotic plaques.

This contributes nicely to our already substantial body of research showing MenaQ7 is a cardio-protective nutrient, and reaffirms why the medical community is interested in ongoing study of this important nutrient for the betterment of global health.”

Do You Get Enough Vitamin K Each Day?

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin your body uses for several functions. Since the body stores little of it, you'll experience a rapid depletion without regular intake. Additionally, several common drugs can also reduce your levels of vitamin K. There are two main forms of vitamin K, and two common subtypes.

Vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) is found in green leafy vegetables and is best known for a role in blood clotting. Without enough of this, your blood does not clot properly, resulting in potentially life-threatening consequences.

Vitamin K2 (menaquinone) plays a primary role in bone and heart health. Your body can synthesize vitamin K2 in your gut using certain bacteria. There are two common subtypes. The first is menaquinone-4 (MK-4), a short chain vitamin K2 found in animal products. MK-4 has a short half-life, which makes it a poor candidate as a dietary supplement.

Menaquinone-7 (MK-7) is a longer chain found in fermented foods. There are several varieties of long-chain forms of vitamin K2, but the most common is MK-7. This is the form you'll want to look for in supplements.

One of the best ways to get a good source of vitamin K2 is to ferment your own vegetables using a starter culture with bacterial strains that produce K2 and the MK-7 form. MK-7 stays in the body longer, helping to prevent inflammation and reduce the risk of bone fractures as it's more effective at reaching the bone.

Vitamin K2 Plays a Preventive Role in Heart Disease

One of the ways vitamin K2 influences bone and heart health is through the activation of proteins, such as the enzyme matrix GLA-protein, in the vascular system and osteocalcin in the bone. “GLA” stands for glutamic acid, which is responsible for binding calcium found on your arterial walls and facilitating integration into your bone.

When calcium in the lining of your vessels is not removed the deposits become atherosclerosis, responsible for the hardening and narrowing of the arteries slowly blocking blood flow. This is a common trigger for heart attack, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.

In the Rotterdam study, participants who had the highest amount of K2 were 52% less likely to experience severe calcification of their arteries and 57% less likely to die from heart disease in a seven- to 10-year period. The researchers also found that those who consumed 45 micrograms (mcg) of K2 everyday lived an average of seven years longer than those who consumed just 12 mcg each day.

Vitamin K2 improves arterial flexibility and reduces the risk of atherosclerosis. The synergistic relationship between vitamin K2, vitamin D, calcium and magnesium improves your bone and heart health.

Combination of Selenium and CoQ10 Reduces Mortality Risk

Optimal cell functioning depends on several factors, including the amounts of selenium and coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) that are consumed. Researchers have written about the low intake of selenium in Europe and the production of CoQ10 that decreases with age. One interventional trial,⁸ involving selenium and CoQ10 as a dietary supplement, took place over a four-year period.

Participants from a rural area in Sweden showed a reduction in cardiovascular mortality as a result of the study’s intervention. Twelve years later, the researchers sought to determine if this reduction in mortality would persist after the study was completed.

After evaluating data from the original participants, they found a continued reduction in cardiovascular mortality among those who had used the selenium and CoQ10 supplements. The active treatment group experienced a mortality rate of 28.1%, while the placebo group had a mortality rate of 38.7% after 12 years.

The researchers also found a significant reduction in risk in those who suffered from ischemic heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and impaired functional heart capacity. The protective action was not confined to just the interventional period; it persisted during the follow-up as well. The study leaders cautioned this small study should be used to generate hypotheses and not conclusions.

The Difference Between CoQ10 and Ubiquinol

CoQ10 and the reduced version, ubiquinol, are popular supplements people use for heart health and mitochondrial health. The rapid growth in sales of these products suggest more people are becoming familiar with the importance of mitochondrial health.

A poll also revealed CoQ10 is the number one supplement recommended by cardiologists to their patients. CoQ10 is a fat-soluble antioxidant used to mop up potentially harmful byproducts of metabolism. Heart disease appears to be rooted in mitochondrial dysfunction, which means CoQ10 plays a unique and important role.

Researchers have found CoQ10 may improve recovery after bypass and heart valve surgeries and may help reduce effects from congestive heart failure and high blood pressure. CoQ10 and ubiquinol also help combat the negative effects of many drugs including antiarrhythmic drugs, statins, antibiotics, ACE inhibitors and diuretics.

Ubiquinol is the reduced version of CoQ10. The conversion from CoQ10 to ubiquinol occurs thousands of times inside the mitochondria, as it flips back and forth between the two molecular forms transforming food into energy. Your body begins increasing production of ubiquinol in early childhood, but by the time you reach 30 it begins to decline.

Those younger than 30 may effectively absorb CoQ10 supplements, but those who are older do better with ubiquinol because it's more readily absorbed and used. You may also improve your body's ability to convert CoQ10 to ubiquinol through sensible sun exposure and eating green leafy vegetables, which loaded with chlorophyll.

Micronutrient Selenium Important for Heart Health

Micronutrients⁹ are used by your body in energy production, immune function, blood clotting, bone health and other processes. These dietary components are only required in small amounts, yet they are vital to well-being and disease prevention. Micronutrients cannot be produced by the body so they have to be consumed in your diet.

Selenium is a micronutrient and trace element discovered nearly 200 years ago. Scientists from our time have recognized it is essential because of its potent anti-inflammatory, antiviral and anti-cancer activities.

At the cellular level, selenium is an active element of glutathione peroxidase, an enzyme responsible for converting hydrogen peroxide to water and serving as a first line of defense against harmful free radicals.

Researchers have found that those with higher levels of selenium experience lower rates of cancer. The best food source is Brazil nuts, which average 70 to 90 mcg of selenium per nut. Just two or three each day meet your daily requirement. Other food sources include sardines, pastured organic eggs, wild caught salmon and sunflower seeds.

While vitamin K2 MK-7, CoQ10 and selenium are all available as supplements, the nutrients are often more bioavailable when consumed from whole food. If you do choose to use a supplement, take care to use a quality product from a source you trust.

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Dietary fats are a crucial component of a healthy diet, but the devil’s in the details, and the type of fats you choose can make a world of difference. Replacing dangerous oils with healthy fats is one simple way to boost your health and reduce your risk of chronic disease.

Sadly, the fats that promote ill health are the very ones we’ve been told are the healthiest, and vice versa. Among the absolute worst types of fat you can eat are vegetable oils, such as corn oil, soybean oil, sunflower and canola oil, found in most processed foods and restaurant meals.

According to the 2017 U.S. Department of Agriculture report,¹ “U.S. Trends in Food Availability,” consumption of saturated animal fats such as butter, lard and beef tallow fell by 27% between 1970 and 2014, while consumption of vegetable oils rose by 87%. Intake of salad and cooking oils specifically rose by a remarkable 248%.

In my view, processed vegetable oils, rich in omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), are the most dangerous dietary factor of them all, taking a greater toll on human health than high fructose corn syrup even.

Not only have vegetable oils been linked to heart disease, gastrointestinal diseases such as irritable bowel disorder, and inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, they’ve also been linked to cancer, especially neuroblastoma, breast, prostate, colon and lung cancer. ²

Vegetable Oils — A Hidden Cause of Cancer

In a November 8, 2019, Medium article,³ Maria Cross, a nutritionist with a master of science degree, discusses the science behind vegetable oils and what makes them carcinogenic. She explains:

“There are two classes of PUFA: omega-6 and omega-3. Although functionally distinct and non-interchangeable, these two classes are perpetually engaged in a metabolic balancing act, pushing and pulling as they compete for absorption in the body.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with omega-6 PUFAs: we need them … If omega-6 fat is essential to health, it makes no sense that it can also cause cancer …

That’s why scientists believe that it is not omega-6 per se that is to blame; it’s the balance between the two groups of PUFA that is out of kilter and wreaking havoc on our bodies. We evolved on, and are genetically adapted to, a diet that provides more or less equal amounts of omega-3 and omega-6⁴ …

With the industrialization of our diets, and the vast quantities of vegetable cooking oils that go into them, the ratio between omega-6 and omega-3 has shifted enormously and we consume up to 25 times⁵ more omega-6 than omega-3 …

There can only be consequences, and indeed there are: experimental data⁶ supports the theory that it is this skewed balance between the two PUFAs that influences the development of a tumor.”

How Lopsided PUFA Ratios Promote Cancer

The cancer connection is also reviewed in a 2016 paper,⁷ “Role of Diets Rich in Omega-3 and Omega-6 in the Development of Cancer,” which points out that “Omega-6 and omega-3 PUFAs often compete with one another for metabolism and act in an opposing manner.”

Your body metabolizes omega-3 and omega-6 PUFAs into eicosanoids, which are hormone-like substances, and as a general rule, omega-3 eicosanoids are anti-inflammatory while omega-6 eicosanoids have proinflammatory effects.⁸ Part of the benefits of omega-3 fats is that they block the proinflammatory effects of omega-6 eicosanoids.

As noted in the 2016 paper⁹ cited above, “several studies have demonstrated that omega-6 PUFAs induce progression in certain types of cancer,” while “omega-3 PUFAs possess a therapeutic role against certain types of cancer.”

Table 1 in that paper lists eight known mechanisms by which omega-3 lowers your risk of cancer. For example, omega-3 has been shown to inhibit insulin-like growth factor (IGF) and down-regulate growth factor receptors involved in cancer.

Omega-3 fats also reduce angiogenesis and cell-to-cell adhesion, improve the structure and function of cells, combat inflammation (which is a hallmark of cancer¹⁰) and induce cancer cell apoptosis (cell death).¹¹ Table 2 in that same paper lists the pro-tumor mechanisms of omega-6 fats, which include:¹²

• Creation of reactive species that damage DNA
• 17-beta-estradiol epoxidation, which in turn generates a carcinogenic compound
• Enhancing the genotoxic effects of other compounds

As explained in my book, “Superfuel,” co-written with James DiNicolantonio, Pharm.D., omega-6 also inhibits cardiolipin, an important component of the inner membrane of your mitochondria that needs to be saturated in DHA in order for it to function properly.¹³

Cardiolipin can be likened to a cellular alarm system that triggers apoptosis (cell death) by signaling caspase-3 when something goes wrong with the cell. If the cardiolipin is not saturated with DHA, it cannot signal caspase-3, and hence apoptosis does not occur. As a result, dysfunctional cells are allowed to continue to grow, which can turn into a cancerous cell.

Vegetable Oils Promote Virtually All Chronic Disease

Cancer is by far not the only health risk associated with vegetable oils. As mentioned, they promote virtually all chronic disease by throwing your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio off kilter. But they also influence your disease risk in other ways.

Importantly, vegetable oils degrade when heated, forming extremely toxic oxidation products, including cyclic aldehydes.¹⁴ Cyclic aldehydes cause oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) associated with heart disease. They also crosslink tau protein and create neurofibrillary tangles, thereby contributing to the development of neurodegenerative diseases.

As explained by Dr. Cate Shanahan in her book, “Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food,”¹⁵ in order to understand how dietary fats affect your health you need to understand how fats oxidize.

The omega-6 PUFAs found in vegetable oils have highly perishable bonds that react with oxygen, creating a free radical cascade that turns normal fatty acids in your body into dangerous high-energy molecules that zip around, wreaking havoc in a way similar to that of radiation.

What’s more, many of the vegetable oils produced today — especially corn and soy oil — are genetically engineered and a significant source of glyphosate exposure, and glyphosate has also been linked to gut damage and other health problems.

Shanahan’s book also expounds on the hazards of 4-hydroxynonenal (4HNE), which forms during the processing of most vegetable oils. 4HNE is highly toxic, especially to your gut bacteria, and consumption of 4HNE has been correlated with having an obesogenic balance of gut flora.

4HNE causes cytotoxicity and DNA damage, and instigates free radical cascades that damage the mitochondrial membrane. As noted by Shanahan in our 2017 interview, featured in “Dietary Fats — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”:

“You can’t design a better delivery vehicle for a toxin that’s going to destroy your health slowly over the course of maybe 10, 20 years, depending on the genetics of your antioxidant system capacity.”

Shanahan also notes that organic vegetable oil is not the answer, as 4HNE occurs even if the oil is obtained from organic crops. It’s an intrinsic byproduct of the refining and processing of the oil, no matter how healthy the oil initially was.

The omega-6 found in vegetable oils also damages the endothelium (the cells lining your blood vessels), allowing LDL and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) particles to penetrate into the subendothelium.

In other words, these oils get integrated into your cell and mitochondrial membranes, and once these membranes are impaired, it sets the stage for all sorts of health problems.

They also make cell membranes less fluid, which impacts hormone transporters in the cell membrane and slows your metabolic rate, and inhibit the removal of senescent cells — aged, damaged or crippled cells that have lost the ability to reproduce and produce inflammatory cytokines that rapidly accelerate disease and aging.

Vegetable oils also strip your liver of glutathione (which produces antioxidant enzymes), thereby lowering your antioxidant defenses,¹⁶ and inhibit delta-6 desaturase (delta-6), an enzyme involved in the conversion of short-chained omega-3s to longer chained omega-3s in your liver.¹⁷

Address Your Omega-6 to Omega-3 Ratio to Protect Your Health

Marine-based omega-3 is one of the most important fats in the human diet, as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) are actually key structural elements of cells, including your brain cells, and not just simple fuel. If you don’t have enough DHA and EPA, your body’s ability to repair and maintain healthy cell structures is seriously impaired.

The key that many overlook is the importance of getting the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 right. Simply adding in more omega-3 might not be sufficient if you’re not also taking steps to significantly lower your omega-6 intake, and vegetable oils are a primary source.

As noted in the 2002 paper,¹⁸ “The Importance of the Ratio of Omega-6/Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids”:

“Excessive amounts of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and a very high omega-6/omega-3 ratio, as is found in today’s Western diets, promote the pathogenesis of many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, whereas increased levels of omega-3 PUFA (a low omega-6/omega-3 ratio) exert suppressive effects.

In the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease, a ratio of 4/1 was associated with a 70% decrease in total mortality. A ratio of 2.5/1 reduced rectal cell proliferation in patients with colorectal cancer, whereas a ratio of 4/1 with the same amount of omega-3 PUFA had no effect.

The lower omega-6/omega-3 ratio in women with breast cancer was associated with decreased risk. A ratio of 2–3/1 suppressed inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and a ratio of 5/1 had a beneficial effect on patients with asthma, whereas a ratio of 10/1 had adverse consequences.

These studies indicate that the optimal ratio may vary with the disease under consideration. This is consistent with the fact that chronic diseases are multigenic and multifactorial.

Therefore, it is quite possible that the therapeutic dose of omega-3 fatty acids will depend on the degree of severity of disease resulting from the genetic predisposition. A lower ratio of omega-6/omega-3 fatty acids is more desirable in reducing the risk of many of the chronic diseases of high prevalence in Western societies …”

Since most processed foods and restaurant foods contain these oils, ridding your diet of them means ditching processed fare and restaurant meals, and cooking from scratch using healthier cooking fats. While you do need omega-6, it should be in its unprocessed form, not industrial vegetable oils. Good sources are whole, raw plant seeds and tree nuts.

Healthiest Fats for Cooking

While the devil’s in the details, and the details may be complicated, the simplest way to understand what a healthy diet consists of is to think back 100 years or so and consider what food was back then, and how it was prepared.

What you’re aiming for is real food — whole food that is as close to its natural state as possible. This may be particularly important when it comes to fats. Again, ditching vegetable oils and any food cooked with it can go a long way toward lowering inflammation and mitochondrial and cellular damage, which will protect you from a variety of common killers, including cancer. As for what to replace the vegetable oils with, the following are among your healthiest options:

To round out your healthy fat intake, be sure to eat raw fats, such as those from avocados, raw nuts, raw dairy products and olive oil. Also increase your animal-based omega-3 fat intake by eating more sardines, anchovies, mackerel, herring or wild-caught Alaskan salmon, or take a supplement such as krill oil.

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Say hello to the gluten, dairy, sugar-free vegan treat of your dreams. Yes, really.

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Writer, Stephanie Nuzzo, followed Miley Cyrus's diet and exercise routine but here is why she called it a 'diet and exercise plan from hell' by the end of it.   

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Don’t throw away all your hard work this festive season. These calendars will keep you on track so you feel your best heading into the New Year.

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Made of just cream and salt, many people think butter is a more natural choice. But here’s our dietitian's harsh reality check. 

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In this interview, Dr. Jason Sonners discusses hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), which is a tremendously beneficial and widely underutilized therapy. Sonners, a chiropractor, also has a degree in applied kinesiology,¹ and has worked with HBOT for over 12 years.

Even if you're not trying to treat a specific condition and are generally healthy, HBOT can have significant benefits for longevity.

"On its most basic premise, hyperbaric oxygen [therapy] is literally the breathing of either air or oxygen under pressure. You're inside some type of pressurized device or hyperbaric chamber. Due to the pressure, you're exposing the body to a higher percentage of oxygen.

You could also increase that oxygen by piping oxygen into the chambers. As a result of that environment, you're increasing the body's capacity to absorb more oxygen than what you and I can get here at 1 atmosphere (atm)," Sonners explains.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Basics

Most healthy individuals have somewhere between 96% and 98% oxygen in their hemoglobin, which means your capacity to increase your oxygen level is between 2% and 4%, were you to breathe medical-grade oxygen, for example. That's it; there's no way to raise your oxygen level beyond that. The exception is if your body is under pressure.

"Two main laws govern how that works," Sonners says. "Boyle's Law and Henry's Law. Basically, as you take a gas and exert pressure on it, you make the size of that gas take up less space. As a result of that pressure, you can then dissolve that gas into a liquid.

An easy example is a can of seltzer. They're using carbon dioxide and water. But basically, you can pressurize that can, so you can put carbon dioxide into that can. As a result of that pressurization, you can dissolve molecules of carbon dioxide into the water.

In the hyperbaric version of that, we're using oxygen, and the can is the chamber. But as a result of dumping excess oxygen inside that chamber, you can dissolve that into the liquid of your body … directly into the tissue and the plasma of your blood.

Normally your blood does not carry oxygen. We rely wholly on red blood cell oxygen-carrying capacity. But inside the chamber, you could literally bypass the red blood cell oxygen-carrying capacity altogether, and you can absorb oxygen directly into the plasma and tissue of the body."

Your Body Needs All the Oxygen It Can Get

Sonners, who has a lot of experience with functional medicine and nutrition, views oxygen primarily as a nutrient.

"We need about 100% of the oxygen that we're capable of carrying every minute of every day just to perform normal functions," he says, "so there's very little room for creating an excess of oxygen for the sake of healing or helping some of the conditions that we'll talk about later on …

In nutrition, there's deficiency, which has consequences. There's optimum range, which is allowing us to do what we need to do every day. And then there are periods where we need a surplus of that nutrient to help us deal with some issue that we're having in our health or in our life.

I look at oxygen the same way. If you're not getting enough oxygen, whether that's globally because of a lung or heart issue or if that's locally because of a trauma … or some type of injury or inflammation, you could have an area of your body that has oxygen deficiency. We call that hypoxia.

There's an optimum range of oxygen, which for us is virtually almost 100% of our oxygen-carrying capacity, every minute of every day. And then periodically, we might choose that we want to create a surplus of oxygen because oxygen … helps us detoxify, it controls inflammation, it runs our energy production and helps us to heal …

Once you expose the body to increased levels of oxygen … the whole oxidative phosphorylation [process], the whole ATP and energy production system of our body increases its capacity to produce ATP and to produce energy …

Sometimes, we might need more than the optimum range to help us get over some sort of health issue, or … from a quality of life, longevity, regenerative medicine-type standpoint …"

Conditions That Can Benefit From HBOT

Considering the importance of oxygen, there's a long list of conditions for which HBOT is recommended. Insurance will pay for some, but not anywhere near all of them.

While HBOT can be used to help speed healing of any inflammatory condition, in the U.S., there are only 14 conditions for which insurance will pay, whereas there are up to 100 approved indications for HBOT internationally.

"In the States, we reserve it for pretty tough cases: really bad infections like gangrene, osteomyelitis, radiation burns … diabetic neuropathy … chronic wounds that are not healing with traditional attempts at antibiotics and things like that," Sonners says.

From my perspective, it's medically reprehensible and inexcusable for a doctor to not treat patients with diabetic neuropathy, infections in the distal extremities or peripheral vascular disease with HBOT, as it will in most cases prevent the need for amputation.

That the U.S. limits the use of HBOT to a last resort for only a few hard-to-treat conditions is truly unfortunate, as there's a wide range of other conditions for which HBOT can be beneficial. This includes:

All autoimmune conditions

Neurological conditions, including concussion, traumatic brain injury, dementia and post-stroke

Musculoskeletal injuries, including broken bones, disk herniations, and torn muscles and tendons

Any condition involving mitochondrial dysfunction (which includes most chronic and degenerative diseases)

Any condition involving damaged microcirculation or that can benefit from capillary growth

Chronic infections such as Lyme disease, and subacute infections that cause damage over time — As noted by Sonners, "When you go into these pressurized hyperbaric chambers and you're breathing and absorbing these higher levels of oxygen, they literally act as a natural antibiotic." The hyperbaric oxygen kills anaerobic bacteria and helps break down the biofilm that many anaerobic bacteria produce to protect themselves. At the same time, it's boosting your immune system through increased neutrophil-macrophage stimulation and by feeding healthy bacteria. Hyperbaric oxygen also combats viral and fungal infections, in part by stimulating neutrophil and macrophage activation. "You literally stimulate an increased production of white blood cells," Sonners says, "and that's what your body uses to fight infections"

Cancer co-management — As noted by Sonners, researchers are looking at HBOT in cancer treatments in a number of different ways. For example, doing it may allow you to use less radiation or chemo and still get the same outcome. Or, it may allow the patient to tolerate higher amounts of radiation by speeding the healing between sessions. A third avenue of investigation is the use of HBOT in isolation. "Some of them are using it as a method to help with or augment the cancer treatment itself. Some are using it as a way to heal," Sonners says. "There are consequences of chemotherapy. There are consequences of radiation. The idea with most cancer treatments is we're trying to kill cells. Hopefully, the person survives that process. If you're augmenting with hyperbaric oxygen simultaneously, the idea is that you're also helping to heal the tissue so that the healthy tissue can still survive or even thrive …"

HBOT Improves Mitochondrial Function

"If the idea is that we need to control inflammation, if we need to improve the rate of healing, if we need to improve mitochondrial function — all of these are going to be very solid indications of people who would respond very positively to hyperbaric treatment," Sonners says.

One of the reasons I'm fascinated by HBOT is because of its ability to improve mitochondrial function. As noted by Sonners, longer term hyperbaric exposures will result in larger mitochondria and a greater density of mitochondria.

"Just to give you an idea, [after] 20 or 40 hours of exposure, what you're going to end up getting [are] more efficient, bigger mitochondria, and you're going to get a lot more of them," he says.

"Even if you're stuck at like 80% efficiency, if you had twice as many mitochondria, producing 80% efficiency, you're still going to get a much better output for the patient. I think the capacity there for improving these chronic illnesses is really tremendous."

HBOT Boosts Stem Cell Production

HBOT also activates stem cell production. Conventional stem cell therapy can cost $10,000 to $20,000 and isn't covered by insurance. HBOT costs far less, may be covered by insurance (depending on your condition), is completely safe and has a whole host of other beneficial effects as well.

Even if you decide to get stem cell therapy, using HBOT before and after can significantly improve your end results, as the hyperbaric oxygen will help optimize your internal environment to make it more conducive to the newly injected stem cells.

Sonners suggests 10 to 20 hours of HBOT before your stem cell treatment, as that's when your body will start upregulating its own stem cells. If you're extracting the stem cells from your own body, you will now also have much higher amounts. After the stem cell injection, Sonners suggests doing 20 to 40 hours of HBOT to make sure the new stem cells will thrive.

Difference Between HBOT and EWOT

On a side note, there's a similar therapy that many people confuse with HBOT. EWOT is an acronym for "exercise with oxygen therapy," which usually involves using an oxygen concentrator and a large oxygen-filled bag that you then breathe from while exercising.

While EWOT certainly has its benefits, it's not interchangeable with HBOT. They're really very distinct therapies and accomplish different things. For starters, while EWOT is an active process, hyperbaric oxygen is a passive process.

With hyperbaric oxygen, you're typically sitting or lying down and simply breathing normally. "Especially in some patient populations, you can't even express the level of exercise you would need to in order to gain some of those benefits. That's one difference," Sonners says.

The primary difference, however, is that with EWOT, you're basically increasing demand through exercise, and then you're increasing supply through the oxygen concentrator. However, you're still relying on your red blood cell oxygen-carrying capacity.

"If you have an issue that is trauma-related — chronic inflammation, damage to the microcirculation — there's nothing about that excess oxygen that you're creating through supply and demand that's ultimately ever going to change that. So long as you are relying on red blood cells carrying, you will not get oxygen to the damaged site.

The only way you're going to change that environmental issue, and especially the microcirculation … [and stem cells, is through] exposures to oxygen [under] pressure. This is where oxygen will be absorbed directly into the plasma and tissues along the hypoxic tissue gain access to the oxygen.

What we're finding is that it's not just the level of oxygen absorption. Some of our epigenome is pressure-sensitive. Pressure alone increases the response to oxygen and stimulates some of these healing responses.

The biggest difference is that one is active and one is passive. One is still relying on red blood cell oxygen-carrying capacity; one is basically bypassing red blood cell oxygen-carrying capacity.

To some degree, they're both increasing oxygen, but I don't think you could really compare it. I mean hyperbaric is definitely increasing oxygen capacity to a degree that is significantly higher than anything else that exists."

So, to recap, your red blood cells (if you are healthy) are typically already saturated with oxygen at 98% to 99%, and breathing pure oxygen at normal pressures will not significantly change that. But if you breathe oxygen under pressure, it will diffuse into your cellular fluids and provide a greater delivery of oxygen to your tissues, especially if they have compromised microcirculation.

Soft Versus Hard Shell Chambers

There are two primary types of HBOT chambers: hard shell and soft shell. Hard-shell versions are available in two types — the kind you find in hospitals and the kind you typically find in private clinics or can purchase for home use.

While treatments involving hard shell chambers with 100% oxygen are quite costly, typically running around $2,000 per treatment (which may or may not be covered by insurance), hard and soft chambers found in private clinics are much more affordable, typically ranging between $90 to $180 per session. While this may still sound like a lot, it could well turn out to be one of your less expensive options in the long run.

"Clinically, we used to do our typical protocols. When people weren't responding the way we expected them to, we would introduce hyperbaric oxygen.

At this point, it's become literally one of the first things that we do, because if we do [HBOT] early on, so many of the other therapies that we used to have to do, we don't need to do anymore," Sonners says.

HBOT Treatment Suggestions

Typically, you'd want to start out getting about 10 hours of treatment at a local facility to see if and how your condition responds. If you're trying to address trauma, an injury or a condition that has a beginning and end, then whatever benefits you get from the therapy, you will keep as you heal.

Progressive and degenerative conditions, on the other hand, and/or if you're using it for longevity purposes, treatment will need to be ongoing for long periods of time. This is a case in which you may want to consider buying your own chamber.

"Somewhere between 10 and 20 hours, you kind of know if it's a good fit for you. From that point, with guidance of the practitioner, you should be able to figure out a baseline of what your protocol should look like," Sonners says. "Ultimately, if you're going to be using this thing for years and years, then you're better off, in most cases, just to have your own."

Unfortunately, it can be tricky finding a local HBOT facility. Usually, online search results tend to focus on hospitals, and hospitals will not provide you with HBOT unless you have one of the 14 approved indications.

"To find a center, you're just going to be looking up hyperbaric oxygen [centers]. You're going to be looking in the private sector, because those are the only people outside the hospital who are going to treat these other indications," Sonners says.

One alternative is to contact either the International Hyperbaric Association² (IHA) or Hyperbaric Medical International³ (HMI). These are the two organizations focused on educating the public on the use of HBOT in the U.S., especially for indications that aren't FDA-approved.

"They have a tremendous amount of resources," Sonners says. "They also probably help direct people … to centers that might be more local … That's probably the best. Otherwise, you'd be looking at different manufacturers that produce chambers and how to get those into your home."

If you're in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, you can visit one of Sonner's clinics — New Jersey HBOT Center, or HBOT PA. You can also learn more on HBOTusa.com, which is Sonner's primary education website. There you can find a list of treated conditions, research, the benefits of HBOT in athletics, testimonials and much more. Sonners has also written a book, "Under Pressure: How One Unexpected Tool Is Revolutionizing Health," which you can preorder here.

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Dawson Church, who has done a lot of work on the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and brought a level of scientific legitimacy to the value of this powerful tool, recently published a new book with the self-explanatory title, "Mind to Matter: The Astonishing Science of How Your Brain Creates Material Reality."

"I was one of those people who was very focused on the effects of energy therapies in the physical body. I did the first triple-lined, randomized control trial showing how EFT affects cortisol levels. I've been very focused on immunoglobulins, brainwaves, hormones and all the things that we can measure in the body," Dawson says.

"I have a friend at Harvard who's a psychiatrist, who told me, 'It's the energy that's making those molecules be the way they are.' I was always a little skeptical about that. But with him and others, [such as] Dean Radin, Rollin McCraty … they all said, 'Dawson, it's the energy. There is really a direct chain of causation between our thoughts and things.'

But I thought, 'When I look at all the links in that chain, I'm sure I'll find a lot of broken links.' I began to look at the studies, the primary research … There were no broken links … It's just remarkable to me how our thoughts literally create things in our bodies and all around us."

Heart Coherence Allows Synchronistic Events to Occur

The term Dawson uses in his book is "synchronicity." And it was a series of synchronicities that led to the writing of this book.

"One of those synchronicities, just one of many, [occurred when] I was writing this chapter on synchronicity. I wanted to understand these things called 'field line resonances.' These are scientific concepts. The earth is like a giant magnet. It has a north pole and a south pole [and] these lines of magnetic flux around the planet.

As a solar wind goes by the Earth, it literally plucks these magnetic force lines like strings on a violin. I wanted to know more about this really fascinating but very complex subject.

I was speaking at a conference with Dr. Joe Dispenza … After my talk, they put me on a science panel. On the science panel was McCraty, who had just done the most remarkable piece of research, the authoritative paper on field line resonance. He told me all about it."

An interesting anecdote on synchronicity described in Dawson's book was how he managed to find a set of keys he lost while snorkeling in Hawaii. He retells the story:

"On this particular day, I snorkeled all over this big bay. I got back to the Jeep, put my hands in my pocket to grab the keys. No keys … So, my keys were lost and I thought I should get back to the water and try and find them.

I spent about an hour [searching]. Now, I didn't panic. That's the big thing. I talk a lot in the book about synchronous mind and being in synchrony with the universe. I got into that state. It's the synchrony of heart coherence; feeling totally fine, no panic.

I swam around this bay looking for them. But again, this is a big bay. I'm looking for two tiny keys lost in the coral 10 to 12 feet deep. There's no logical way of finding them. But my intuition said, 'Let's do this.' As dusk began to fall, a father with three teenage sons got into the water …

My intuition said, 'Just go talk to them.' I said to them, 'I've been noticing you, seeing you dive to the bottom. Did you, by chance, find anything in the coral down there?' The youngest boy held up my keys. The chances of that happening are infinitesimally small.

But when those things happen to you, again and again, it's like the universe saying to you, 'Hey. Pay attention. Something's going on here.' Synchronicity, when we're in sync, when we're in that state of a heart coherence, when we meditate, when we tap away our stress, we enter that space of what I call nonlocal mind.

In the nonlocal mind, we have access to information we don't have at a level of local mind. I begin the book and end the book with this really powerful plea to make that your life. That you aren't living your life just kind of limited by what you see at the commission of your local mind; that you open yourself to meditation every day, and to the mystery of the nonlocal mind …

Nonlocal mind is doing all kinds of miracles in our lives and nature all the time. If we just open ourselves to that level of information, we gain access to levels of consciousness [and] knowing that is far beyond the ones we have at the level of our small, little local minds."

Being in the Flow

This synchronous mind Dawson is talking about is the same as what athletes experience as "being in the flow" or "being in the zone." Using electroencephalography (EEG), researchers have shown that when an athlete is in the flow, their brainwaves are in phase. On the other hand, if you look at the EEG of someone who is angry or frustrated or processing a negative emotion, you find their brain waves are not in step.

"It's not a figure of speech, it's literally a flow state," he says. "You could actually measure the brain[waves], and then recreate that. It's not a mystery anymore. We know the formula. We could reproduce the formula. We can train anybody to acquire that kind of a state."

The book also discusses research showing how our brainwaves affect our biology. Delta frequencies, for example, have been shown to trigger cellular regeneration. Up until a few years ago, we didn't have the equipment to measure really slow delta waves below one cycle per second. Now, there's research showing that telomere regeneration is sparked by ultraslow brainwaves at 0.19 cycles per second.

How do you generate delta brainwaves? Certain types of meditation will get you there. Doing EFT will also generate delta frequencies. Certain theta frequencies, meanwhile, stimulate stem cell production.

According to Dawson, the Schumann frequency of 7.8 hertz is a special frequency generated through meditation that is associated with a number of beneficial changes in your body. This is also why many integrative cancer specialists are now stressing the importance of lowering stress and incorporating meditation in their cancer treatment programs.

A Cancer Story

A woman named Beth Misner is writing a book about her cancer experience, and how she drove her cancer into remission using nothing but energy medicine. In March 2017, she was diagnosed with a 5-centimeter (2-inch) tumor in her right breast. The lymph nodes under her right armpit were also inflamed and full of cancerous cells — a sign that the cancer had spread into her limbic system. They also discovered three areas of concern on her right lung.

Her doctor at MD Anderson in Houston (a famous cancer clinic) wanted to initiate radiation right away, but Misner decided to wait. She eventually decided to address her cancer on the level of energy. She contacted Dawson for advice and suggestions. Dawson recounts what happened next:

"She began to do chi gung intensively. She began to tap intensively. She began to do energy medicine exercises, and got energy medicine treatments. She cleaned up her diet. She got rid of stress in her life. She did a whole bunch of proactive things to shift herself at the energy level.

Now, this is March [when] she gets the diagnosis of MD Anderson. By May, scans showed that all the lymph nodes under her right armpit were completely clear, and the tumor shrunk from 5 centimeters to 1.4 centimeters. One of her doctors said, 'Well, it looks to me like it's just necrotic. It's just dissolving. Her body has removed it.'

She, again, just kept on the energy techniques and later on her bloodwork showed not a trace of cancer in her body. That's the power of using energy. That's why I urge people, whatever your challenge is — it doesn't mean this is the right approach for everybody — but pay attention to stress. Pay attention to energy."

A very important side note here is that you have to make a choice, and it's not necessarily an easy one. If you have chemo and/or radiation, energy work will not be effective, as the treatments are simply too toxic. Metabolic cancer therapies such as cyclical ketosis and fasting, on the other hand, can be very beneficial.

"I'm not saying [energy work] is going to work perfectly for everyone. What I'm saying is look at your energy options. What 'Mind to Matter' shows you is that my consciousness and energy has enormous effect on the matter of your cells. If you're ignoring that leverage point, you're ignoring the biggest possible leverage point of your own health," Dawson says.

How to Get Into a Coherent Flow State

So, how do you get into a coherent state of flow? Lifelong meditators can do it effortlessly, showing that it's a matter of training. Through experimentation, Dawson developed a program he calls EcoMeditation that combines HeartMath's quick coherence technique with tapping and mindfulness.

Dawson cites research showing that EFT can cause a 37 percent drop in cortisol in just one week. And, when cortisol goes down, DHEA goes up, because they make the same two precursors. It also improves many beneficial enzymes. For example, in one week, baseline immunoglobulin levels rose by 113 percent, basically more than doubling immune-functioning markers. It also decreases sympathetic nervous system activation.

"We know now, because we've looked at this in peak performers, athletes, business people, financial experts, in people in meditative monasteries and nunneries and people who are really focused on meditation in the long term.

We know that meditation has these effects, but how do you get there quickly? You can spend an hour with your eyes closed and not be meditating. Or you can spend two minutes and enter a deep state. How do you get there? I'm focused on that really intently now," Dawson says.

Dawson defines meditation as the ability to sustain an alpha state for 15 seconds or more. EcoMeditation can get you into a coherent brain state in about four minutes.

"You essentially are mimicking the breathing, the posture of that 10,000-hour Tibetan monk. If you do what they do, if you mimic with no belief, no spiritual superstructure, and just give the physiological cues to your body, you go into that what we call the 'awakened mind state' just like that," he says.

Seven Steps to Awakened Mind

You can find a series of guided meditations by Church on InsightTimer.com, including entraining yourself with synchronicity and affirming inner peace.

There are seven steps to Dawson's EcoMeditation formula.¹ For best results, set aside 20 to 30 minutes for this practice each day. Studies suggest half an hour of meditation daily produces noticeable changes in about a month or two, but even as little as 10 minutes a day can produce shifts in about 10 days. 

When to Meditate for Optimal Results, and What To Do When Stress Strikes

Dawson recommends doing your meditation first thing in the morning, and to complement it with EFT during the day whenever stress might rear its ugly head.

"If you wake up and the first thing you turn your attention to is being in that alpha state, that dreamy state and meditating, then you capture all benefits of being in that alpha state … I see this as extending that sleep state out into your waking state," he says.

"[When] you start your day that way, you condition synchronicity. You condition beta thinking … [R]esearchers find that people's problem-solving ability goes up by 260 percent when they're in that state. Their creativity doubles. Their productivity at work increases dramatically. You're now a far more productive human being …

When you're going through the day and [stress gets triggered] … that's when you tap … Usually within two minutes, you will see your subjective units of distress scale go down to a low number, often a zero. Then go about your day. Now, you're much calmer, and you're able to proactively move through your day with this little technique to help yourself recover.

Recovery time is pretty fast. After a while, you develop a different and new homeostasis, where your irritability, your resentment levels, your level of guilt, shame, anger and blame, all of these negative emotions has to go way down."

Meditation Alters Your Brain Structure

According to Dawson, doing this meditation every day, your baseline levels of cortisol and immunoglobulin will begin to improve. Certain feel-good hormones will also increase. Once you get used to feeling good, that then becomes your new normal. This has to do with the neuroplasticity of your brain. Dawson explains:

"Neuroplasticity is like the hardware in our brains — the channels that conduct information, the neurons and the synapses that carry the flow of energy of information in our brains. The ones you use the most get developed … But the speed of this is extraordinary.

Within one hour of repeated stimulation, where there was just one synapse, now there are two. That's in one hour of repeat stimulation. If you stimulate that neural bundle for weeks, days, months and years, it grows much bigger. Eventually, the software of your consciousness literally creates the hardware of your brain."

One stunning story showing just how significantly you can change your brain through meditation is recounted in Chapter 1 of Dawson's book. Graham Phillips, a TV reporter, decided to try an eight-week meditation program given by Monash University. He was a skeptic, and wanted to test it out for himself.

"The experts there … did MRIs on every single region of his brain ... after which he began to meditate regularly and be mindful of the course of his day. After two weeks, he found, behaviorally, he was much less stressed. After eight weeks, he went back into the lab. Again, they spent a whole day going over all of these tests with him. They also got a second MRI to measure the volume of different parts of his brain.

This number sounds too crazy, it's almost like science fiction, but they examined a part of the hippocampus, the dentate gyrus, which is the memory or learning center that has to do with the regulation of emotion … and found it grew by 22.8 percent … So, it's not just a feel-good practice. It's literally reshaping the content inside your skull."

Healing Can Be Learned

Research shows that when you expose cells to a frequency of 7.81 hertz, DNA replication becomes far more efficient. Importantly, certain frequencies stimulate the reproduction of stem cells, while other frequencies cause the stem cells to migrate and adhere where needed.

To use stem cells for healing, those are the three things required: replication, migration and adhesion, and all three can be triggered through meditation. "In the book, I have a list of the conditions that are treated successfully with energy healing," Dawson says.

"The disease is a symptom of the dysregulation of your system. Take cancer, for example. Those cancer cells can't live in a normal healthy body. They only live in a body that is dysregulated. You want to improve all those factors that are dysregulating you, then you'll see a pervasive upwards spiral and good effect on your health generally," he says.

"The more I learn about the body, the more I see that the body is a [self-]healing machine. The body heals naturally. You have to do something pretty radical to stop the body from healing. When you load it up with sugar, stress and things like that, you get in the way of healing.

But your body is just an amazing healing machine, the way cells proliferate. All you have to do is get out of the way. Get out of the way by not stuffing things in your mouth, stuffing things in your mind, stuffing things in your environment that hurt you and don't work for you. If you just quit doing the bad stuff, then your body is naturally going to heal …

Some people do need an external stimulus … Sometimes I will say, 'You need to go an energy healer. You need a boost energetically to get the process going. Go get acupuncture. Go see an energy medicine practitioner. Go see a therapist.' You need that external push for some people's bodies …"

Mind to Matter

To learn more, I highly recommend picking up a copy of "Mind to Matter: The Astonishing Science of How Your Brain Creates Material Reality." In it, Dawson lists 30 lifestyle practices that can make a big difference in your physical and psychological health. You can also find more information — including a free EFT mini-manual and Dawson's published research — on his website, DawsonChurch.com.

"I want to inspire people [to take action]," he says. "You will literally feel yourself changing when you [meditate every day]. That's the biggest gift that you can give yourself. Release that stress. When you do that, your full human potential starts to shine. All those parts of yourself that have been stuck, all those limiting stories you start to let go of, then you can be.

The magnificence of you starts to come through. As you're hooked up to your nonlocal mind in meditation, you get access to ideas, solutions and all kinds of knowledge and wisdom you don't have when you're stuck in the level of local mind.

Then suddenly, your life becomes way easier. You're living in synchrony not just with other people around you, but with the whole universe. That's what I call a synchronous life …

If you're listening to this … please, I'm asking you to raise your hand now and make that commitment to meditating every day. Meditation is free. It's online. Go there. Grab it. Try it out. You will feel the shifts inside of yourself. But do that as your gift for yourself for the new year."

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