Ian Gawler blog: Chemo-brain - a problem in need of a solution

Imagine feeling as if someone has turned a washing machine on in your head. This is what it felt like for me when I had 2 ½ months of chemo in 1976. I had expected the bad feeling, but there was no preparation for the memory loss that went with it.

Know anyone who has experienced a similar problem?

Over many years helping others deal with cancer, I have been faced with continual reports from people suffering “chemo-brain”. What to do?

Common symptoms include a wide range of cognitive problems. Loss of ability to pay attention, find words, remember things, think clearly, and perform daily activities in both the short and long term seem to be frequent side-effects.


So this week we go Out on a Limb once more, report on new research that is finally beginning to look into this vexed area, suggest antidotes (there are no significant medical solutions offered) and the request is there to share experiences you or people you may have know that were affected by chemo-brain via the comments section below

Also, if you have not seen them, I am having heaps of fun each week on Facebook linking some of my photos (yes, I do love photography) to meditation, with the caption "meditation delivers". You might like to check it out at www.facebook.com/driangawler, but first




Thought for the day

If a person is beset with mental pain,
He can relieve his suffering
By learning how to meditate
And then practicing it.

The turmoil gradually goes from his mind,
And the hurt of the mental pain is no longer there.
I have seen this happen with many, many people,
So I know beyond all doubt that it is effective.
         Dr. Ainslie Meares


Dr Meares published the world's first book on therapeutic meditation in 1967 - Relief Without Drugs. It sold over one million copies all around the world.




My take on chemo-brain is that it is a widespread, under-acknowledged, under-reported, under-treated problem that creates significant problems for a large number of people treated with chemotherapy. In extreme cases, I have had some people tell me the effects were so bad and so long-lasting that if they had known how badly their minds would be affected, they would not have had the chemotherapy.

Happily, at last months annual meeting of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) in the USA, cognitive dysfunction, commonly known as chemo brain, was reported to be a new "area of intense research".

In my view this cannot come too soon as the problem has been overlooked or neglected for many years.

In fact, one of the presenters at the meeting, Elizabeth Kvale, MD, medical director of the Supportive Care and Survivorship Clinic, at the University of Alabama, Birmingham commented that there is "limited" evidence to guide the management of this condition, and that "It is anticipated our understanding will expand substantially," with the benefit of new research.

What is known from research is that cancer-associated cognitive dysfunction impacts about 20% to 30% of all cancer survivors. In my experience, supported again by the research, effects last from months to a few years. In some there seems to be a life long affect.

Studies include a 2012 meta-analysis of 17 longitudinal breast cancer trials that found patients treated with chemotherapy performed worse than those who did not receive it in terms of verbal ability and visuo-spatial ability (J Clin Oncol. 2012;34:3578-3587).

One of the difficulties in this area is that research has shown a poor relationship between patient symptoms and objective measures that have attempted to quantify them. For example, the correlation between patient reports of cognitive decline and the results of investigative neuropsychological testing are "modest" according to the NCCN guideline on survivorship.

At present, there is no effective screening tool for the problem. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and other tools lack "adequate sensitivity for subtle decline in cognitive performance," according to the NCCN.

However, among 189 breast cancer survivors who complained about memory, there was a significant association between results of neuropsychological tests and the complaints.

The NCCN guidelines do advise clinicians working with patients who complain of cognitive problems to inquire about their ability to pay attention, find words, remember things, think clearly, and perform daily activities.

Patients appreciate having their symptoms "validated," says the NCCN. “Validated”? Maybe we could hope for something more!

The NCCN does suggest people at risk can be screened for other factors such as depression that may contribute to cognitive impairment, while imaging studies are not recommended.

“Aside from giving a patient a neuropsychological evaluation and optimizing management of depression or other problems such as sleep disturbance, the only other first-line intervention for these patients is occupational therapy”, said Dr. Kvale. In the second line, clinicians can consider use of psychostimulants, according to the NCCN guide.

Suggested antidotes - from experience!

1. Be prepared

Chemotherapy varies in its intensity and side-effects, but clearly does commonly knock people around. Ideally, before starting treatment, during and after, adopt a anti-inflammatory, regenerative lifestyle - details are in You Can Conquer Cancer.

In my experience, this approach will minimize side-effects, optimize results and minimize chemo-brain.



How to do it? Eat good food and meditate – and exercise regularly. Keep this up throughout treatment.

2. Detox during chemo
If on 3 weekly cycles of chemo, many people have reported benefited from having a juice day or simple fast 2 weeks after each treatment.

3. Detox after chemo
Once a treatment cycle is completed, many report feeling significant benefit from doing a longer, more thorough detox. In my experience, a mono-diet works best in this situation, and all the details are set out in You Can Conquer Cancer.

4. Live to live
Once cancer free, it makes logical sense to look after yourself - look after your life - by continuing to live an anti-inflammatory, regenerative lifestyle. For me, it is worth enjoying being thorough. A long, happy life post cancer is possible!!!

RELATED BLOGS
The Cancer Council, the survivors and the book

RESOURCES
Book: You Can Conquer Cancer

CDs / Downloads : The Gawler Cancer Program

Eating for Recovery

NOTICEBOARD
Cancer, Healing and Wellbeing 
Only 3 weeks to go before this 8 day cancer residential Ruth and I will present personally in Auckland and spaces are still available to join us.

We will cover the full range of Integrative Medicine options, – therapeutic nutrition, exercise and meditation, emotional health, positive psychology, pain management, the search for meaning and so on.

I will personally present the majority of the content but along with Ruth, participants will have the additional support and experience of Liz Maluschnig and Stew Burt; two very experienced and committed New Zealanders.

For details on this and the other cancer related residential programs for 2014 CLICK HERE 

Ian Gawler Blog: Learn to relax, and change your life

We hear so much these days about mindfulness and meditation, yet relaxation is often overlooked or even dismissed. It seems relaxation has become the poor cousin of Mind-Body Medicine.

Having taught meditation for over 30 years now, it is my experience relaxation itself is incredibly useful, and without deep physical relaxation, mindfulness and meditation are far less effective.

So this week, how to deepen physical relaxation before meditating and how to maintain relaxation of body and mind in daily life. Only 4 weeks before the cancer residential Ruth and I will present in Auckland,  Cancer, Healing and Wellbeing - more detail later, but first, with the spirit of Easter still close by,





Thought for the day

Truly I tell you
If you have faith as small as a mustard seed
You can say to this mountain
‘Move from here to there,’ 
And it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you.
                   
                       Matthew 17: 20, 21      






Why bother with learning to relax?
You may take up meditation to manage stress or to heal physically or mentally, to find more peace and balance in your life, to be more efficient at work or to perform better at sport, or to be a nicer person. All these things will be vastly assisted by beginning by learning to relax.

There is a beautiful synergy between relaxing the body and calming the mind. The more we relax the body, the more that relaxation flows on to calm the mind. The more we calm the mind, the more the mind sends out messages that relax the body. Therefore, when we bring concentration and mindfulness to the process of relaxing the body, this synergy leads to profound relaxation of both the body and the mind.

Mindfulness-Based Stillness Meditation
Mindfulness-Based Stillness Meditation (MBSM) is the style of meditation I have been teaching for over 30 years and it is very simple. There are four key steps, preparation, relaxation, mindfulness and stillness.

Preparation is to do with all the practical details of your meditation.


Relaxation comes second, and here we take time to learn how to relax our body and our mind. This


frees us to be in an ideal state to learn and practice mindfulness, and to then advance into the simple silence of meditation itself.


                   Cats are pretty good at relaxing


How to get started – a summary
The Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) is an age old, well tried and tested, super reliable way of letting go of tension and stress, relaxing deeply and experiencing inner peace. Again, my feeling is that this technique may well be overlooked or disregarded by many meditators – to their disadvantage.

To learn the PMR, we learn how to pay attention to four things in each muscle group of the body, starting with the feet, then moving on to the calves, thighs and so on.

These are the 4 things we need to pay attention to
1. Notice how each area of the body feels when we first take our attention to it.

2. Contract the muscles in that area and hold the contraction long enough to notice the feeling that the tightening of the muscles creates.

3. Slowly and smoothly relax the muscles, noticing the feeling of tension releasing and the feeling of relaxation that follows.

4. Give attention to what that area feels like now that we have relaxed it.
We begin by noticing the feeling of relaxation in the muscles of the feet, then we work our way up through calves, thighs, tummy and so on up through the head.

Concentration and the PMR
As we practise the PMR exercise, we do need to concentrate. We concentrate on doing the contracting and relaxing of the muscles, and we particularly concentrate on the feeling as we go through the 4 steps described above.

However, it will work best if our concentration is light rather than too intense. As an analogy, consider a stringed instrument such as a violin or a guitar: if the strings are either too tight or too loose it will sound bad. The strings need just the right amount of tension for them to be in tune and for the instrument to sound its best.

So it is with the mind. If we are too relaxed, too ‘loose’, it will not work so well. Too intense, too serious, too much effort, and again it will not be so useful.

Mindfulness and the Progressive Muscle Relaxation exercise
There are two ways to do an exercise like the PMR. One way is to do it mindfully, the other is mindlessly. Mindfulness is simply concentrating on what we are doing in a way that is focused but free of judgment.

Mindlessness, on the other hand, is when we do not pay attention, when we do not concentrate, and when our mind wanders off and thinks about all sorts of other things.

The wandering mind

Almost everyone will find that, as they do these exercises, the mind will wander, so we need to use the vigilant part of our mind to notice when we do become distracted and, once we recognise this, to bring the mind gently back to the exercise again.

The key here is to avoid beating yourself up in the process. Be reassured that this is the normal experience. Especially for beginners, the mind does tend to wander and become distracted. We need to notice this and bring it back.



Beginning your practice
The text for the Progressive Muscle Relaxation exercise is in all my books. You can either learn the
script so that you can lead yourself through the exercise or you can use a CD or download to guide you through. You do not necessarily need to learn the scripts word-for-word, although you can if you prefer.

The PMR follows a simple pattern of contracting the muscles and relaxing them, starting with the feet and then moving progressively up through each significant muscle group of the body.

The phrases recommended for use between each set of muscles are intended to keep the mind focused and to build a feeling of relaxation all through the body. The fewer phrases you need to use to stay focused and the longer the gaps between the words before you become distracted, the simpler the whole exercise is and the better it works.

Of course, initially it can be helpful to be led by an experienced teacher through exercises like these, and many people find listening to CDs very useful, especially as beginners. But either way, the intention is to learn to do these exercises for yourself, and to repeat them until you master them in the way described.

Making progress
You will probably find within a week or two of beginning this practice that you can do the PMR without having to think about it too much. The next step is to simplify it. To learn to gain the same depth of relaxation more directly. So we learn to do the PMR without contracting the muscles first. Then even more simply. All this is in the books.

Do be warned that as you become more familiar with any exercise there is a tendency to lapse into doing it on automatic, in that way we describe as being mindless. So as you become more familiar and proficient with this and all the other exercises, remember to do them mindfully. The key principle is to pay attention and be interested in what you are doing; interested in that open, curious and non-judgmental way.



Concentration, mindfulness and relaxation


By concentrating on the feeling of relaxation in the body, it is as if we become absorbed in the feeling of relaxation itself. As we feel the body relax, the mind goes with it. The relaxation of the body flows into the mind. Our body is relaxed. Our mind is relaxed. And we simply rest in that feeling of relaxation.




               But then again, some dogs relax OK too!



How to proceed
In my experience this approach based on the PMR works well for many people. In fact, when I first started to teach meditation, this was all I taught. Many people reported developing a deep awareness of relaxation in both the body and the mind, and were satisfied with this as a reliable technique for meditation.

RELATED BLOGS
Slow down and go faster

RESOURCES

BOOK
 : Meditation – an In Depth Guide, Ian Gawler and Paul Bedson:  a useful manual to practice with, to study and refer to. Details : CLICK HERE

CDs and Downloads : A series of meditations to help support and develop your meditation has been prepared by my wife Ruth and myself : Details : CLICK HERE

Mindbody Mastery  - The on-line meditation program and support system I helped develop.
Details : CLICK HERE

NOTICEBOARD

1. Warrnambool:  Sunday May 4th, 2014

The heart and science of
Health, Healing and the Mind

Seeking to use the power of your mind
for health, healing and wellbeing ?

Interested in a deeper experience of meditation ?

What really is best to eat ?

• Dissolve every day stresses; experience mindfulness, relax effortlessly, meditate profoundly
• Discover the practical, life changing implications of neuroplasticity, epigenetics and telomere research
• Clarify your questions; be confident of eating well and living well – and enjoying it!

Ideal for people interested in evidence based health and wellbeing, disease prevention and management, for health professionals and for those seeking profound healing

Date: Sunday May 4th, 2014 : 10am (arrive 9.30) to 4pm
Venue: St Brigid's Community Center, 186 Port Fairy - Koroit Rd, Crossley 3283
Cost: $130, conc $90 Includes morning tea.  Please bring lunch to share.
Enquiries: Integrative Health Services - Rosemary Gleeson : 0447 6177 68
                    or email rosemarygleeson@ymail.com

Bookings: Online CLICK HERE 
                   or via telephone with Visa, Mastercard : call Angela on (03) 5966 6130



2. Cancer, Healing and Wellbeing : Auckland, May 16 - 23
This 8 day cancer recovery program residential program is evidence based and will be highly experiential. We will cover the full range of Integrative Medicine options, with the emphasis on what people can do for themselves – therapeutic nutrition, exercise and meditation, emotional health, positive psychology, pain management, the search for meaning and so on.

I will personally present the majority of the content but along with Ruth, participants will have the additional support and experience of Liz Maluschnig and Stew Burt; two very experienced and committed New Zealanders.
For details on this and the other cancer related residential programs for 2014 CLICK HERE

Ian Gawler Blog: One small step

This year's Meditation in the Forest is well underway with a wonderfully varied full house. Such a delight to have old and young, people from all walks of life; all treating themselves to time out and gathering for a dedicated period of meditation.

It has been challenging and rewarding for me to prepare the sessions on contemplation, this year’s additional theme for the retreat. My sense is that contemplation is one of the least appreciated of meditation’s pantheon of possibilities and I plan to share the theory and techniques more widely – probably will include some aspects of it in the tour of workshops planned for July onwards up the East Coast.

It was way back in the eighties that Ronda and Peter Hall attended a lecture that I gave at the
Camberwell Town Hall. They followed up by attending a weekend retreat in the Yarra Valley – before the days of the current Gawler Centre, though the property had just been purchased.

That was the start of a long association and this week I have invited Peter to present a guest blog and share a remarkable grass roots project he has initiated, You may be inspired to support their work through www.nepalaid.org.au, but first

                                                                                   Peter and Ronda Hall with Ruth and myself, 
                                                                                   Meditation Under the Long White Cloud, 
                                                                                   New Zealand, December 2013
Thought for the day
The purpose of life is not to be happy. 
It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, 
to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Peter Hall continues:
Among the numerous retreats we have attended the most memorable have been Meditation in the Desert in 2006 and Meditation under the Long White Cloud in New Zealand last year.

Through such activities we have come to know Ian and Ruth for the great work they do.  We also appreciate the support they have given for what has become almost an obsession for me, and that is doing our bit to improve the lives of people in rural Nepal.

It all began with a trek in 1993 with some friends from my Scouting days, followed by further visits, with Ronda at my side, as we were drawn back by the friendships we had formed with the people of Paudwar village.  We began to understand what life is like in a country that is rated by the UN Development Program Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index to be in the bottom 3% of countries of Asia/Oceania.


By 2008 Krishna Pun, whom we had met in 2001 as Science Teacher and who subsequently became headmaster, had been forced out of his village by the threats of Maoist guerrillas.


He was living in Kathmandu with his two children at a private school, while in order to support the family his wife Sita had taken a job as a nanny in Israel.  She is still there, hoping to return home soon.


Krishna shared with us his dreams which included the introduction of English medium teaching at Paudar school so that the village children could gain the benefits that his own children enjoyed at a private school.

That led in 2009 to my joining Rotary International and registering the Nepali Village Initiatives Project.  Our objective was not to deliver aid, but to help the villagers with their own initiatives for progress.



We firmly believe that the best way to help such a poor country is to enable the people to help themselves.  And one of the best ways to do that is to improve education.  We were appalled to learn that as many as a third of teachers in rural government schools had finished school at year ten and began teaching without training.  They knew nothing better than “chalk and talk” to a sheet of slate on the classroom wall.  No wonder the children were inattentive.




And so we became involved in the delivery of teacher training, utilising the services of REED, a Nepalese NGO that had built its capabilities working in the Solo Khumbu (Everest) district with support from the Australian Himalayan Foundation, the UK Himalayan Trust, UNICEF and others.

So began what has been a three year program delivering teacher training to 40 teachers of Paudwar and neighbouring villages.  This year we are ready to move on, though to do so we have had to set up LEARN as a new NGO (“Lifting Education, Advancing Rural Nepal”), as REED’s commitments to AHF, now in receipt of Ausaid funding, have meant they can no longer service our needs as well.



This has been a blessing in disguise, as we have found that by expanding our program we can reduce our costs per trainee day – delivering more bang for the bucks.  This year we expect to have 160 teachers in training!  It has meant a bigger budget and the need to seek more funding, which you can read about in the newsletter published at our website www.nepalaid.org.au.




I will be returning yet again this month, with three volunteers, to observe and assist a training course and to deliver a holiday program for children.  One of our group is Susan Carew, who has taken it upon herself since 1998 to work as a World Peace Clown.  You can read about Susan, including her receipt of a Rotary Peace Scholarship and her travels in Russia with renowned medical clown Patch Adams, at her website www.worldpeacefull.com.  Readers of this blog may know her from her past working associations with Siegfried Gutbrod.

Susan’s problem is that, working mostly as a volunteer with no fixed income, she has not the money to cover her travel costs.  As we are convinced that she has much to offer both the teacher training and the holiday program we want to support her, and so have launched a funding campaign.  Please go to http://www.chuffed.org/project/send-an-education-clown-to-nepal/ to find out what it is all about. Most of the needed funds have been raised - just a little more is needed - can you help?

I wish to express my warmest thanks to Ian, not just for his own contribution to this cause, but for this opportunity to share with others our passion to help the people of Nepal.  Little did Krishna know, when he shared his dreams with us six years ago, where they might lead!

NOTICEBOARD
Warrnambool:  Sunday May 4th, 2014
The heart and science of
Health, Healing and the Mind

SEEKING TO USE THE POWER OF YOUR MIND
FOR HEALTH, HEALING AND WELLBEING ?

INTERESTED IN A DEEPER EXPERIENCE OF MEDITATION ?

WHAT REALLY IS BEST TO EAT ?

• Dissolve every day stresses; experience mindfulness, relax effortlessly, meditate profoundly
• Discover the practical, life changing implications of neuroplasticity, epigenetics and telomere research
• Clarify your questions; be confident of eating well and living well – and enjoying it!

Ideal for people interested in evidence based health and wellbeing, disease prevention and management, for health professionals and for those seeking profound healing

Date: Sunday May 4th, 2014 : 10am (arrive 9.30) to 4pm
Venue: St Brigid's Community Center, 186 Port Fairy - Koroit Rd, Crossley 3283
Cost: $130, conc $90 Includes morning tea.  Please bring lunch to share.
Enquiries: Integrative Health Services - Rosemary Gleeson : 0447 6177 68
                    or email rosemarygleeson@ymail.com
Bookings: Online CLICK HERE
                   or via telephone with Visa, Mastercard : call Angela on (03) 5966 6130

Cancer, Healing and Wellbeing 
This 8 day cancer recovery program residential program is evidence based and will be highly experiential. We will cover the full range of Integrative Medicine options, with the emphasis on what people can do for themselves – therapeutic nutrition, exercise and meditation, emotional health, positive psychology, pain management, the search for meaning and so on.

I will personally present the majority of the content but along with Ruth, participants will have the additional support and experience of Liz Maluschnig and Stew Burt; two very experienced and committed New Zealanders.

For details on this and the other cancer related residential programs for 2014 CLICK HERE 

Ian Gawler Blog: How long before you are paid to eat vegetables?

Government and Health Insurance funds that pay the public to eat more vegetables are likely to save a fortune! The latest evidence shows that if you eat enough fruit and especially vegetables you dramatically reduce your risk of contracting an expensive and debilitating disease and you are 50% less likely to die early.

This week we find out what is best to eat, as well as examining a collection of the latest research. For those of you who love science like me, research is now confirming what I have been recommending in practice for years and makes offering guidelines for family and friends easier to give confidently. Its here for all. Maybe this is a post to share with those you care about!

So as we follow on from last week’s post that was more specifically focused on cancer prevention, there is also more news of the workshop at Warrnambool coming up Sunday May 4th and the Cancer residential program Ruth and I will present in Auckland May 16 – 23, but first

Thought for the day
Every thing we have, every thing we use,
touch, eat, possess, see, smell,
everything is gifted to us from the Earth.
How long can we keep taking without thought and respect?
It is time to rethink our ways and only take what we need - not what we greed.
Each time you shop whether for food or anything, ask yourself,“Do I really need this?" regardless of fashion or what people think. 

It is time for us to help our Earth Mother not only for the earth
but to ensure there will be enough for the next seven generations.
                                   Anne time – relax; Facebook

How would you like to halve your risk of dying? A recent study conducted over 12 years in England showed that the more vegetables and fruit you eat, the more you cut your risk of dying from all causes, and specifically cancer, heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes, stroke and obesity.

Eat just 1 – 3 portions of vegetables and fruit; reduce the risk of dying from all causes by 14%. Sounds helpful. But eat 3 – 5 portions and reduce the risk by 29%. Better. However, eat 7 portions per day and the risk of dying drops 42%. And all that is needed is to eat sensibly!

And yes, there is more! Those who ate the highest amounts of fruit and vegetables in the study, cut their risk of cancer by 25% and heart disease by 31%.

Regularly eating canned and frozen fruit INCREASED the risk of dying by 17%, while drinking fruit juice appeared neutral.

Three things to do
1. Tell your friends. We all have the possibility of being social activists. This may sound a little grandiose, but I think how much I would have liked to know about all this stuff before I developed cancer back in the seventies. So consider sharing this post and maybe last week's one as well.

2. Tell your politicians and health funds. Seriously. Lobby them. I wrote a related blog on “How long before you are paid to meditate” some while back. Clearly our health system is heading for major dysfunction as the chronic degenerative disease spiral out of control.

Prevention is the cure. Surely we are not far away from incentives being provided to encourage more people to make intelligent, healthy choices, to reward those people who are prepared to look after themselves and to penalise/gather funds from those making poor choices. Not the “nanny state”; just inevitably, sooner or later due to common sense and economic forces we will be paid to eat good food and meditate.

3. Start now – it seems the more fruit and vegetables you eat, and the less meat and dairy, the more likely you and those you love are likely to enjoy good health and a long life.

If you are new to this, try meat free days more often. Buy a vegetarian cookbook - Eat Well, Be Well  is excellent. Consider starting a vegetable garden. Learn to enjoy eating lots of vegetables and fruit.

Personally, I love all things fruit and vegetable, but remember, whatever you do often enough you get used to and you can enjoy! Bring on the brussels sprouts!

4. Not convinced yet? Read some of the recent, related research:

Animal products linked to cancer – just as much as tobacco ! (see the recent post, Eating meat or smoking? Which is worse for your health?)
This vast study examined 21 different cancers in 157 countries and found that consumption of meat and other animal products is strongly linked to several types of cancer. In fact, it claimed the association between animal product consumption and the risk of developing cancer was as strong as that linking tobacco and cancer.

Possible mechanisms for risk include the way animal products promote growth and their high iron and fat content. The author notes that animal product consumption has been recognized as a cancer risk for more than a century.

Grant W. A multi-country ecological study of cancer incidence rates in 2008 with respect to various risk-modifying factors. Nutrients. 2014;6:163-189.

Red and Processed Meat Endangers Health
Red and processed meat products increase women’s disease risk, according to a recent Harvard study. As total red meat consumption increased, C-reactive protein (a biomarker of infections and diseases including heart disease and cancer), haemoglobin A1c (an indicator of diabetes risk), and stored iron (a mineral which in excess is associated with heart disease, cancer, and diabetes) also increased.

Weight and calorie intake also increased with increased intake of red and processed meat products.

Ley SH, Sun Q, Willett WC, et al. Associations between red meat intake and biomarkers of inflammation and glucose metabolism in women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2014;99:352-360.

Animal based diet linked to bacteria that causes inflammatory bowel disease
In this small Harvard study, people on an animal-based diet had an eight-fold increase in the gut population of a bacterium that may cause inflammatory bowel disease, Bilophila wadsworthia. Growth of this bacterium may be stimulated by the digestion of dairy products.

In addition, gut concentrations of a compound linked to liver cancer, deoxycholic acid, rose in the animal-based diet group. The authors note that diet may contribute to the development of inflammatory bowel disease via changes in gut microbes.

David LA, Maurice CF, Carmody RN, et al. Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome. Nature. 2013;505:559-563.

Vegans have lower cholesterol and less risk of heart disease
From Europe this time - those who consume vegan diets have better cholesterol levels than people who eat meat, fish, dairy, and/or egg products. They also consumed the most fiber, the least total fat and saturated fat, and had the healthiest body weight and cholesterol levels, of all the diet groups.

A previous analysis from the same study (EPIC) found that vegan and vegetarian groups had a 32 percent lower risk of hospitalization or death from heart disease.

For more information on diet and cholesterol, visit PCRM.org/Cholesterol.

Bradbury KE, Crowe FL, Appleby PN, Schmidt JA, Travis RC, Key, TJ. Serum concentrations of cholesterol, apolipoprotein A-I and apolipoprotein B in a total of 1694 meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2014;68:178-183.

Vegetarians have less diabetes
Now we go off to Taiwan where Buddhist women and men who avoided all meat products were approximately 33% and 50% respectively less likely to develop diabetes.
The lead author notes that those in this study classified as “omnivorous” still consumed a predominantly plant-based diet with little meat and fish, suggesting that even modest animal consumption can increase the risk for diabetes.

Chiu THT, Huang HY, Chiu YF, et al. Taiwanese vegetarians and omnivores: dietary composition, prevalence of diabetes and IFG. PLOS One. Published online February 11, 2014.

Vegetarians have lower blood pressure
Finally, America and another meta-analysis, this one including Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine president Dr Neil Barnard that examined 39 studies and showed those who follow a vegetarian diet when compared with omnivorous diets (including meat, dairy etc) have a systolic blood pressure about 7 mm Hg lower and diastolic blood pressure 5 mm Hg lower than those who eat meat.

This review is consistent with other studies and stresses the significance of a dietary approach to preventing and reducing the risk for hypertension.

Yokoyama Y, Nishimura K, Barnard ND, et al. Vegetarian diets and blood pressure: a meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med. Published online February 24, 2014. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.14547
Direct link

RESOURCES
Books: You Can Conquer Cancer -  There is so much about prevention in this book. I would love it if more people who were well were to read it.

Eat Well, Be Well – the excellent vegetarian recipe book from the staff at the Gawler Foundation – highly recommended!

CD:  Mind Training – How the mind works and how we can use it to best advantage – including developing healthy habits

RELATED BLOGS
How long before you are paid to meditate

Cancer prevention – it’s all in the mind - and the booze and the shopping!

NOTICEBOARD

Having been kindly invited to speak 

in Warrnambool in a few weeks time

Warrnambool:  Sunday May 4th, 2014

The heart and science of 

Health, Healing and the Mind

                 

A day where we get to share all the best I have learnt over the last 30 years!

• Dissolve every day stresses; experience mindfulness, relax effortlessly, meditate profoundly
• Discover the practical, life changing implications of neuroplasticity, epigenetics and telomere        research
• Clarify your questions; be confident of eating well and living well – and enjoying it!

Ideal for people interested in evidence based health and wellbeing, disease prevention and management, for health professionals and for those seeking profound healing

Date:         Sunday May 4th, 2014 : 10am (arrive 9.30) to 4pm

Venue:      St Brigid's Community Center, 186 Port Fairy - Koroit Rd, Crossley 3283

Cost:         $130, conc $90 includes morning tea.  Please bring lunch to share.

Enquiries: Integrative Health Services - Rosemary Gleeson : 0447 6177 68
                    or email rosemarygleeson@ymail.com



Bookings: Online CLICK HERE    Telephone with Visa, Mastercard : call Angela on (03) 5966 6130



Cancer, Healing and Wellbeing  AUCKLAND, NZ.  May 16 - 23 , 2014

This 8 day cancer recovery program residential program is evidence based and will be highly experiential. We will cover the full range of Integrative Medicine options, with the emphasis on what people can do for themselves – therapeutic nutrition, exercise and meditation, emotional health, positive psychology, pain management, the search for meaning and so on.




I will personally present the majority of the content but along with Ruth, participants will have the additional support and experience of Liz Maluschnig and Stew Burt; two very experienced and committed New Zealanders.

For details on this and the other cancer related residential programs for 2014 CLICK HERE