Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Why prevent the FDA from doing harm....

Today's post:  Tuesday, 11-29-2016

The proposed FDA Guidance on supplements requiring that those new in any way since 1994 must have drug style testing is so harmful to the public health and so likely to cause such  huge increases in ineffective medical care costs, it simply must not be allowed to be used.

We cannot afford MORE people with heart failure and cancer and Alzheimer’s disease when we could have less instead.

The planned FDA policy would produce more costs and more people who suffer and harm our economy besides.

The reason this is so is later in this post; but first the background I list first shows that this policy is not needed to get the results that are intended.

1.  Background:

Supplements don’t need this kind of testing.  And the drugs ARE tested in this way do NOT protect the public the way they are thought to do.

The FDA did not work with the supplement industry after DSHEA was passed to develop a reasonable and workable way to introduce new supplements.

Then a law was passed during the Clinton administration in 2008 requiring the FDA to state what tests a new supplement must pass before the makers can make claims for it.

Now it’s almost 8 years later and the FDA was saying it intended to withdraw all supplements that are new even in minor formulation changes since 1994.

The FDA has the authority to remove supplements that have things like contaminants and unannounced drugs but has rarely used it due to having no budget needed to do so.

But the mainstream supplements introduced between 1994 and the present that ARE produced using decent quality control and do NOT have those problems have had fewer reports of minor side effects than aspirin and acetaminophen have deaths in a year.

The statistical chances of a supplement that has been taken 10,000 or 100,000 times with no problems having some problems for a small minority exists but it is quite small.

And, since supplements are extracts of foods and herbs and vitamins and minerals or naturally occurring components of the blood and the like, they do NOT need the kind of testing drugs do with their hundreds of times more concentration or completely off the charts of natural ingredients do.

In fact, the FDA has approved many drugs that have proven to neither be effective or safe to take using the hugely expensive and years long testing for drugs.

Proton Pump Inhibitors and the slightly changed estrogen from horse urine were found after the FDA style of testing to be harmful.

The FDA did not and has not removed these from the market.  Women found that the not bioidentical version of estrogen did not reduce heart disease and did increase cancer.  So they simply stopped taking it.  Fewer people know that proton pump inhibitors cause damage to the insides of the blood vessels of people taking them causing increased stroke risks and kidney damage AND that taking any acid reducer means that failure to supplement with sublingual B12 and taking magnesium and vitamin K2 is necessary to avoid mental decline and hip fractures.

So gradually as people learn this people will stop taking proton pump inhibitors.

So the benefits of causing supplements to do drug style testing are not needed because they are almost always safe without it AND the news travels faster when there are problems with supplements.

A recent Consumer’s Reports issue talked of problems with several supplements.  Only one of these on their list are at all widely sold because people won’t take them because these harms were publicized long ago.

So the rationale behind doing drug style testing on supplements is not needed.  The existing system that actually stops use of problematic supplements that supplements already have is better than drugs have which DO have such testing.

Secondly, much of the research on the benefits of supplements has already been done and is in the data compiled by the Life Extension Foundation.

And, the University of Maryland has a less complete but for some supplements excellent coverage of already done research showing the benefits of the supplement

Asking the supplement makers to pay exorbitantly for research that has ALREADY BEEN DONE is simply not OK.

2.   The existing FDA Guidance on supplements requiring that those new in any way since 1994 must have drug style testing is so harmful to the public health and so likely to cause such  huge increases in ineffective medical care costs, it simply must not be allowed to be used.

We cannot afford MORE people with heart failure and cancer and Alzheimer’s disease when we could have less instead.

The planned FDA policy would produce more costs and more people who suffer and harm our economy besides.
Here’s why that’s so:

Now most of the people who are in the prime working ages and who are educated still eat things that make them fat and sick.  Very few of them get the minimum amounts of vigorous cardio and strength training they need to stay well now and into their seventies and beyond.  Some of them still smoke or use tobacco products as well.

Meanwhile the few who do the reverse – eating & drinking health supporting foods and do the key exercises each week and add targeted supplements to prevent or stop the health problems that would cause death and disability in each key area -- will usually live productive, mobile, and independent lives into their nineties.  And the years of them being economically productive will be far higher than is the case now.

My personal mission is to do things that cause this change for a majority of those in the prime working ages so they are capable and interested in working and buying things they like.

This will cause our medical care costs to go down a bit instead of continuing to go up fast enough to collapse our economy.

The health professionals and doctors who use these lifestyle changes and supplements IN ADDITION TO the appropriate drugs and medical procedures when needed that I have learned from are already bringing this change about.

I am working to triple how fast this change happens.

The existing FDA guidance will slow this change by decades.

That means everyone pays more for health care and health care coverage.  It means far more people with Alzheimer’s disease and cancers of several kinds.

That is simply unacceptable on humanitarian grounds to cause that much avoidable suffering.

The huge increases in medical care costs to treat diseases supplement use is already preventing is simply unacceptable.

Heart failure, heart attacks, strokes, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancers are enormously expensive to treat and cause severe disruption to people who get them while still working.  

Yet lifestyle upgrades plus the supplements that help prevent them, are under attack by this FDA proposed policy.

It would mean far fewer people would prevent these diseases than do now when otherwise it will be more!

This is simply unacceptable.

In addition, in the United States, the shockwave first part of the baby boom is beginning to cascade into the over 65 ages when people who have already lived badly begin to have very large increases in the health care and health care expenses that they need.

This literally means the FDA's proposed policy could destroy our economy helping to bury us in costs and by reducing our productive workforce at the same time!

If the FDA does try to keep this original harmful plan, I urge you to join me in asking our representatives in Congress to act to prevent it.

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Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Fast recovery from flu or workouts....

Today's post:  Tuesday, 11-22-2016

Both recovering from the flu and recovering from workouts depend on either less damage to your cells and mitochondria to begin with or faster repairs after the fact.

a) When you get the flu, you often can take as long after you are over it to recover your normal energy as it took to get rid of it or longer – weeks sometimes. 

Wouldn’t it be nice to cut that to one or two days or less?

b) In strength training you actually damage your muscles a bit when you train with enough weight to make progress.  The progress comes when your body repairs this damage and adds a bit extra.

So, fast recovery that reflects this process working better and faster not only makes you more comfortable, it allows you to work harder and make more progress!

Wouldn’t it be nice to have that kind of youthful fast recovery even if you are older now?

1.  Getting 10,000 iu a day or more of vitamin D3 does this.  That much D3 boosts your viral and bacterial killer T cells substantially AND makes them more accurate in only attacking those and NOT your own cells.

It also has been shown to prevent injuries and speed healing from injuries.

(A doctor in Georgia, where good high school football teams are almost as good as their good college teams that the NFL recruits from, discovered that people who were sick or injured recovered better and faster if he made sure to give them at least that much D3.

He contacted the coach of a good high school football team and suggested they give all their players that much D3 to see if it helped.  They did so.  They then compared the number of injuries for the season before that and the season where the players took D3.

The total number of injuries fell in half compared with season without D3 for all the team!)

So, when you get that much D3 daily your cells get less damaged from the flu and from workouts.  And, when your cells are damaged, D3 has been shown to speed healing.

(You are also less likely to GET the flu AND when you get a flu shot while taking D3, it’s more likely you won’t get the covered flu strains too!)

2.  Dr David Perlmutter, in his Better Brain book, also noted a similar experience with the internal super-strength antioxidant, glutathione. Your body makes this internally if you are healthy and eat the things glutathione is made from.

When Dr Perlmutter had patients sick enough to be in the hospital he measured their level of glutathione.  It was usually below normal AND the lower it was the sicker the patient was, the more likely they were to die, and the longer they took to get well and had to stay in the hospital.

Conversely, the patients who had higher glutathione levels were less sick and got well much faster.

Then he tried giving the patients with low glutathione an IV with glutathione to boost it to the level of the patients who got well and recovered faster.

That DID happen.  It was a very useful thing to do to speed his patients getting over illness and recovering faster.

(Surprisingly, given the cost cutting pressures now and this result, I’m quite surprised that this has not become standard practice for all hospitalized patients!)

Why does this happen?

And, how can you get this to happen in your body?

a ) One set of answers came about 3 weeks ago:

A supplement maker Quantum Wellness Botanical Institute in an email said this:

http://greenvalleynaturalsolutions.com/LIFO/LifeForce-short.php?SC=JNLLIFO103116MIH

“Research done at Odense University in Denmark found that centenarians (aged 100-105 years old) had significantly higher glutathione levels when compared to younger elderly subjects (aged 60 – 79).

And – get this -- the 100+ year-olds that were able to function the best had the highest glutathione levels of all.3

Scientists at the University of Louisville, KY found that females aged 60 to 103 who were in top mental and physical shape had very high glutathione levels in their blood.4

The consensus is:

Plentiful glutathione = good health and long life
Depleted glutathione = sickness and death

Glutathione supercharges your natural killer (or NK) cells – also known as your immune system’s top assassins. In fact, it doubles their disease-fighting power.

Plus, it protects your NK cells and other immune system cells from free radical damage – so this germ-destroying team can operate in top form and give you more “well” days to enjoy your life.”

It goes on to say that usually glutathione levels drop as you get older but that taking the supplements that help your body make Glutathione can overcome this.

(This suggests that older people who boost their glutathione get the robust protection from the flu shot that younger people get.  And, like vitamin D3, they are less likely to get other kinds of flu.)

Sulfur is a key ingredient in glutathione, so taking NAC, n-acetyl cysteine, boosts your levels of glutathione in part because cysteine is a sulfur containing amino acid.

Taking even one 500 mg capsule a day of NAC works.  Jarrow sells the one I take.

b)  And in an HSI eAlert email I found this:

“Now, a new study from researchers at Oregon State University confirms why there's no time like the present to get ahead of the aging curve and start beefing up your defenses.

But this team found something else that's just as important where this amazing antioxidant is concerned. A way to boost your glutathione levels so your tank isn't running on empty, no matter what your age.

It's no secret that as we get older we become more vulnerable to all kinds of bodily insults and injuries. Bouncing back from something is a much bigger deal when you're 70 than when you were 17!

And that's exactly what the researchers confirmed in the laboratory when they "stressed" cells from younger animals versus older ones.

They found that younger cells lost a small amount of glutathione, but had plenty left in reserve to keep them alive and kicking.”

And:

“But in older cells, the level of this antioxidant was drained to nearly dry, cutting their lifespan in half!

In other words, running low on glutathione speeds up the aging process of cells.

In the second part of the study, Oregon researchers called for backup from an amino acid called N-acetylcysteine (NAC).

When researchers pretreated those older cells with NAC, and then doused them with a toxic substance, it was like a fort had been built around them. In much greater numbers, they survived and thrived.

And this study isn't the first good news we've heard about NAC by a longshot.

In a 15-year-old study, NAC was found to improve cognitive function in patients diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's disease.

For many years, doctors have used NAC to dissolve the mucus that contributes to asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, and sinusitis.”

So, getting enough glutathione and the supplement NAC which boosts it in your body, means that being sick and working out hard kill less cells which means that instead of waiting until you replace the cells that were killed to recover, you only need to boost the cells that are still alive to recover.

That is a much faster process than growing new replacement cells from scratch!

And, reducing the mucus produced by upper respiratory diseases makes them less unpleasant and easier to get rid of AND cuts the chances of the mucus becoming infected with bacteria!

So, besides taking 10,000 iu a day or more of D3, taking one or two doses a day of NAC, will enable you to get sick less often and recover faster.

And, it also allows you to recover faster from workouts and have less downtime from injuries.

d)  What if you could get an instant direct boost to your glutathione levels?

If you had one, you could do it just before and just after workouts.  This would allow you to work out harder without feeling too hammered and might allow you to make faster progress.

Many illnesses during recovery, you feel better in the morning only to have them get worse and feel worse in the late afternoon.

If you had a fast glutathione level booster, you could do it just a bit earlier in the afternoon to prevent this.  And if you still needed it because this effect still happened, you could do it a second time.

And, doing this would likely further speed overall recovery too.

Now, there IS one!:

Dave Asprey of Bulletproof developed one he now sells.

Instead of taking glutathione that your digestive system destroys before it goes into your blood stream, by adding a liposome coating to prevent this, his product DOES boost blood levels of glutathione.

He calls the product Glutathione Force.

And, he says it also works as a mood and performance booster when you are working hard and have become tired or a bit burned out.

He says you can feel the boost to your energy and mood.

“"One of the most crucial antioxidants can’t be found in any known ‘superfood’...

And while your body naturally makes a certain amount of this “master antioxidant” called glutathione…

Most people don’t get enough to feel the full benefit – even if they take a supplement.

That’s because glutathione all by itself simply can’t get past your stomach acid to get absorbed in your gut and go where it’s needed."

"....why does Glutathione Force absorb so easily?

Glutathione Force uses a patented process called Active Liposomal™ delivery to bind glutathione to a unique peptide (like a protein, only shorter) called lactoferrin that can pass through your stomach intact.

That means the glutathione survives your stomach acid intact to get to your small intestine where it can be absorbed into your bloodstream."

"What People Are Saying About Glutathione Force…

“Amazes me how much clearer my thoughts are, not to mention a sustained energy increase.”
–Scott N.

“Absolutely love the Orange Spice glutathione. I enjoy the taste now but best of all this stuff works fast. I can tell a difference within 15 minutes if I have any inflammation in my body. Best stuff ever!”
–Julie

“I am using the glutathione force in combination with the upgraded Bulletproof coffee and find I have better clarity and increased and sustained energy. I have been struggling with brain fog and fatigue, so this has been a godsend!”
–Kerry ”


Bulletproof does have its own website.  But I’ve found their products are much easier to buy by buying them on Amazon.     

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Monday, November 21, 2016

My Monthly Fatloss Report....

Today's post:  Monday, 11-21-2016

A.  Here's the key news:

My fasting the last 5 days of this past 4 week period DID work about as well as the average results the author of the book on fasting has found typical in his patients who do a 5 day fast.

It was good enough to do every four weeks or a month for the next 6 months or a year because that might remove the fat I want to get rid of.

And, after that to keep that fat off and for health it may make sense to do a five day fast once or twice at this time of year and once every two months or every three months after that.

Here are the details:

I fasted the last 5 days, just before the day I measured for the month, Saturday, 11-19, fasting on 11-14, 15, 16, 17, & 18.

Results:

The good news is that I DID likely lose more fat than I'll regain by next month.  So this time I may make some permanent progress by simply doing this once a month.

I  lost 4.7 pounds, about four and a half pounds since last time.  And, I lost it all the week I fasted. 

I went from about 3 pounds over my goal weight to about a pound and a half under it.

Clearly, some of that was the food I normally would have in my belly being processed.  But If I did lose about two and a half pounds of fat, I may be able to lose one or two pounds a month by fasting 5 days once a month.

(Dr Jason Fung says his patients who do 5 day fasts lose an average of 2.5 pounds of fat.  So if 2 pounds is about what replacing food in my belly gains back; and I regain a half a pound or a pound and a half of fat in the intervening 3 weeks, I think I can net out a loss of a pound or two each 4 weeks or so.)

My belly seemed smaller.  And, I felt noticeably lighter and found I was able to walk more easily.

I lost a bit over an inch on my chest measurement and my fat underneath my nipples did seem less.

Despite looking smaller both to my wife and to me, my waist tape measurement did not change even a quarter of an inch.

And, I lost a quarter inch off my hips.

I had hoped for a half inch or more loss from my waist.  But perhaps if I do this fast each month for a year or two, that will happen eventually.

B.  Experience of the fast & the strategies I used:

1.  Except once or twice, I was very little hungrier than usual. 

Given that I’ve been eating a high protein, high vegetable, medium health OK oils, no grain, very low sugar diet that leaves me with only mild hunger some times already, this is about the same as normal for me or a bit less.

2.  But I did feel a bit lightheaded at dinner time before the beef broth with a bit of salt and the decaf coffee with a bit of coconut oil and Kerrygold grass fed butter I put in it.

3.  Dr Fung said to eat a very low carb, high protein diet the last day before I fasted; and I did do so on Sunday 11-13.

4.  Dr Fung suggested having some salted beef broth at dinner to help with my electrolytes and that the small amount of beef fat wouldn’t turn off the fat burning or running my brain with fats instead of glucose.

5.  Dave Asprey of Bulletproof said that some of his Bulletproof very low to zero mold coffee and his Brain Octane MCT oil that is only the better tasting fraction your brain runs well on could help while fasting.

I had his French Roast Bulletproof coffee (“French Kick”) and some of his Brain Octane first thing each morning with only my supplements.

I had the office French Roast coffee about half a cup plus about half a cup of green tea and some of his Brain Octane as a lunch replacement with my normal lunch supplements.

6.  And, I had some bone broth from simmering a bone chunk from Whole Foods from a 100 % grass fed, grass finished, organic cow.  This cost $12 for two bones.  (The premade grass fed bone broth available online DID exist but for hundreds of dollars for that much broth!)

And, I had organic decaf coffee with coconut oil and some Killaree butter from grass fed cows after that.

That infusion of salt and bit of health OK fats DID turn off the spacey feeling I had by that time each day.

7.  I take 733 mg a day of magnesium and about 254 mg of Calcium in my multi and two Calcium Ascorbate vitamin C capsules.

That plus the salt seemed to keep my electrolytes going.  Dr Fung also says the beef broth keeps up the electrolyte effect of phosphorus and phosphate.

But the morning of the third day, my blood pressure jumped a bit extra.  It occurred to me that all the fruits and vegetables with potassium I normally eat were missing.  So I added a 99 mg a day potassium supplement; and my blood pressure went back to its normal readings.

(Eating organic fresh fruit at least once a day prevents BOTH kinds of strokes.  And it’s very effective and protective. 

So, I’ve continued eating wild organic blueberries three times a week and a banana twice a week and organic kiwi fruit or other organic fruit twice a week.  I also take bilberry, elderberry, cranberry, and cherry extract supplements each day.

I did keep up those supplements.  But to be sure to keep up that protection I got another bigger dose bilberry supplement and took 3 a day to partly replace the blueberries I missed 3 days during the fast.)

8.  Because I was NOT constipated before my fast from exercise and a high fiber diet AND my normal coffee plus the other drinks, I was NOT constipated during my fast or just after it. I kept up the coffee and tea and water I normally drink also.)

(I also take a probiotic twice a day which I continued.)

9.  What I did get during my last 3 days of the fast was a kind of slurry plus water at my normal times for taking a dump.

I had a mild upset tummy; and the slurry smelled much worse than my dumps do.

10.  My energy was fine or better than usual.  And, my mornings, lunch time, and dinner time, I had about 10 minutes each of extra time from not having to fix or eat meals.

So, I was productive with a bit less effort and rush than usual during the five days.

Conclusion, it was more doable than I feared it might be for the whole 5 days managing things the way I did.  But it was less pleasant and more obnoxious the last 3 days than I’d expected.

C.  My exercise performance during the fast:

1.  My strength training was 100% of what it would have been had I not fasted on the first day, the second day, and the fourth day.

2.  My cardio exercises on Weds, Friday, and the Sunday after the fast were about the same.

3.  But my strength training on Saturday after 5 days of fasting and before I’d resumed eating and this morning after I had just resumed were noticeably affected. It was about a 5% drop off.

But I’ve read that they will recover and a bit more by a week from later from the experience of others doing similar things.

4.  My cardio exercises on Friday and my 7 minute fast walk, were easier than normal with less in my tummy and enough less weight I was literally lighter on my feet – and this was quite noticeable!

Overall conclusion:

Doing it with the strategies I had in place was doable.  And I clearly DID lose fat during the week.  I’m not unusually hungry today. And, I believe it did NOT cut my metabolism.

Discussion:  How effective it is in my case depends on how much of the 2.5 pounds of fat I gain back before I do it again.

That we will know by next time!

If I can lose a pound or two each four weeks – and that continues – it will be the solution for me that I have been after now for about 5 or 6 years with little results.

I’d rather not have to do a 10 day fast each four weeks or do two 5 day fasts each four weeks.  That looks quite likely to work if I have to do it.


But if one 5 day fast each 4 weeks will work, I’ll like that far better. And I suspect continuing to add strength and muscle will be easier too!  

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Thursday, November 17, 2016

Big news for the Great American Smokeout 2016

Today's post:  Thursday, 11-17-2016

Every year, on the third Thursday of November, smokers across the nation take part in the American Cancer Society Great American Smokeout event.

There are 3 pieces of BIG, GOOD news this year.

1.  Last year we posted on “You can quit smoking without gaining weight.” 

(And that whole post including how incredibly harmful tobacco smoke and tobacco products really are is included below.  The great thing is that beginning the things that prevent fat gain or even begin to remove it ALSO double and redouble the chances that people who do them will succeed in quitting smoking.)

What if you already have fat to lose or gain some anyway? 

The big news is that we now know how to get rid of it without reducing your metabolism and gaining back!  (More details on that are below.) 

That means that it’s even more likely you can quit smoking without fat gain.  In fact, you can even get rid of fat you had before you quit!

Because half of all smokers who want to quit won’t try due to wanting to avoid fat gain, this is HUGE good news!

2.  Some people have quit smoking by beginning to “vape” or use e-cigarettes.  While this is a bit less harmful than smoking, research has shown that both for the people who use it and those exposed to it by people who do ARE harmed almost as much.

Continuous use of nicotine has been shown by research both to increase the risk of heart disease and to increase the risk of cancers.  Worse, the flavorings when heated release enough harmful chemicals other research has found to cause lung damage!  These chemicals include formaldehyde.

Fox news had this: "Aside from ALS risk or other nervous system consequences, formaldehyde is a respiratory irritant that causes chest pain, shortness of breath, coughing, and nose and throat irritation, according to the ATSDR. It can also cause cancer, and has been linked to an increased risk of asthma and allergies in kids."

Does that mean that vaping can cause ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, asthma, and cancer? It likely does.

In addition, many teens who would not start smoking otherwise begin using e-cigarettes as it is commonly thought safe. 

Now research has proven this also increases the number of young people who smoke because most of those kids start smoking.

So, because it’s the metabolism boost of nicotine that people who quit use that keeps off fat, quitting e-cigarettes without fat gain works the same way as it does for people who quit smoking.

Since e-cigarettes are this harmful and cause more young people to start smoking, wouldn’t it be nice if there were an incentive to quit or not start?

Yes.  And NOW there is!

3. Proposition 56 passed in California and is set to go into effect on April 1, 2017!

The $2 tax per pack on cigarettes will give some enough incentive to quit.  But the tax on the nicotine used in vaping will go up even more!

So the 3 pieces of good news this year are:

1.  We now know how to remove any fat you gain by quitting nicotine either by quitting smoking or e-cigarettes and even more fat than that if needed.

2.  There is enough evidence now that vaping IS also harmful that including e-cigarettes in areas where smoking is banned is clearly justified.

3.  And, in California, there will soon be a financial incentive to quit smoking and vaping or do much less.

But of these, the biggest one is the first one:

We now know how to remove any fat you gain by quitting nicotine either by quitting smoking or e-cigarettes and even more fat than that if needed.

We posted on that just one week ago:  “The importance of the new information on fasting.”  Thursday, 11-10-2016.

(You can see both of these two posts by just scrolling down from this one.)

I’m doing a 5 day fast this week because fasting takes off belly fat first and most; and that’s the part of me that’s fat and which I’ve had little success getting rid of.

Such fasts, Dr Fung has found, take off 2 to 5 pounds of fat.  (They also tend to remove belly fat first!!)

Plus, they do so without slowing your metabolism too!

To find out more, get and read Dr Fung’s book, The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting by Jimmy Moore and Dr. Jason Fung.

It’s available on Amazon.  Just enter   Dr Jason Fung   on their books search field.

You can also read my post next Monday, 11-21, My Monthly Fatloss Report, which this time will be about my fast, how effective it was, and the tips I can pass on from my experience with it.

(I’m just a bit over three days into my five days and it’s already clear it’s been effective because my belly looks significantly smaller than it did last week!)

              Besides these 3 big news stories here is last year’s post:

You can quit smoking without gaining weight....Thursday, 11-19-2015

Today is the Great American Smokeout Day that happens every November a bit before Thanksgiving.

The hope is that some of the people who pledge to not smoke just for today will realize they can just not restart tomorrow and will quit successfully.

And, of course with thousands who get the message and quit just for today, a small percentage WILL quit smoking and never smoke again.

But that’s pretty weak.

Surprisingly we DO now know how to help people quit successfully.  But it hasn’t yet been packaged and sold to the people who need it and want it.

There are three reasons people fail at quitting smoking.

1.  Some people want to quit smoking but won’t even mess with trying because they absolutely do NOT want to get fatter!  This goes double for women smokers. But it’s true for men also.

And except for very light smokers and very heavy smokers who quit, people who quit smoking routinely gain as much as 5% of their previous weight as added new fat.

Not only can you quit and NOT get fatter, the things you do to not get fatter make it more than twice as likely you’ll quit smoking successfully!  (We cover that last.)

2.  People either see no reason to quit at all or only try 5% hard enough if they do try to quit because they have no clue how horribly harmful tobacco smoke and using tobacco products that touch your mucous membranes actually is!

3.  People who try to quit often cannot beat the addiction to nicotine.

This post will cover those in reverse order.

3.  Recent research has found that of the two main uses of smoking, boosting your ability to concentrate and relax when too stressed, the addictive part of nicotine is the boosting it does to your ability to boost your mental energy when you want or need to do so.

Then when people quit smoking, they not only lose that tool, they have their ability to focus and concentrate go down and stay down enough it slashes their quality of life enough it’s very challenging to put up with it.

You almost have to have sky high motivation or training in continuing in very unpleasant circumstances that would to credit to a Navy Seal to quit.

There are three pieces of good news on this one:

a)  If you really knew what was going to happen to you that is completely avoidable by quitting, your motivation WOULD be sky high!  (That’s coming up next right here!)

b)  Navy Seal, retired, Rorke Denver, wrote a book, Damn Few, that has the mental strategies and practices that you can use to get the skill of continuing in very unpleasant circumstances.

And, in his book and in a comment by another retired Seal is the basic strategy:

If you prepare by learning to make an extra effort when it counts by becoming unusually physically fit, you can do far more than you may realize.

Then, when you are tested with a difficult problem under harsh conditions, you may have to try so hard to succeed at it and hang in there that you are 100% exhausted after you do it.

The trick is what comes next:

You say to yourself as Rorke Denver did in his own style of course,

That was insanely hard; but I did do it.  Since this is important to me and that shows I can beat these challenges, I’ll keep beating the next ones too.

It may be tough; but I CAN do this.

The people who fail say something like this: 

That was insanely hard.  Maybe I’ll not be able to beat the next one.  Then they drop out.

But the underlying ability to beat the challenges is about the same!

So, if you are tempted to quit in that way, once you know this, the cure is this.

“I’ll not beat myself and give up. 

No matter what the next challenge is, I’ll assume I can do it and I’ll try just as hard or harder than I did on this one. 

They’ll actually have to give me an impossible task before I stop; and they may not be able to.

I refuse to quit before that actually happens!  Based on my beating this last one, they may not be able to!

c)  There looks to be a new way to do what nicotine does well enough to simply overcome the withdrawal and boost your concentration so well on demand that you’ll never need to waste your money doing it with nicotine again!

I’ve not tested it yet personally; so I’ll hold off on posting about it yet.  But if it does work that well, beating nicotine addiction will be a slam dunk!

(Hint:  Don’t buy tobacco company stock!)

2.  People either see no reason to quit at all or only try 5% hard enough if they do try to quit because they have no clue how horribly harmful tobacco smoke and using tobacco products that touch your mucous membranes actually is!

Lower class people don’t expect good health or long life. And, since smoking likely won’t kill them next week since it didn’t happen last week, they simply believe smoking isn’t harmful.  And, few of them have any interest in quitting.

But most people, and for sure those literate enough to be reading this post, have tended not to try hard to quit for a different reason.  They have heard and believe that the big risk of smoking is lung cancer.  Many smokers don’t get lung cancer.  (True: Even in very heavy smokers 3 of every 4 won’t get lung cancer.)  Then since they have other things to deal with, they just assume they’ll be in the lucky group of people.  Then they don’t try to quit.  Or, if they try, they don’t try very hard.

This will be brief.  But OMG this is SO wrong!

Would you get off the track if an express train was coming?

If yes and you smoke, are exposed to second hand smoke, or use nicotine or tobacco products in other ways, you are at enough risk you should try at least that hard to put a screeching halt to it.

a) Every single puff of tobacco smoke begins to build up heart disease by harming the inside of your blood vessels which your body patches in a way that will close them eventually. 

b)  Every single puff of tobacco smoke begins to age your lungs enough to make you functionally MUCH older.  This happens to new, teenaged smokers.  When some of them got their lung function tested and tested like they were decades older, they quit.

c)  Every single puff of tobacco smoke shortens your telomeres and dramatically speeds up your aging process.

d)  The excessive cadmium in tobacco smoke and tobacco products not only is one of many ways they cause cancer, it doubles your chances of getting Alzheimer’s disease!

Those mean that every single puff of tobacco smoke harms you. If you smoke even a few cigarettes a month, YOU are being seriously harmed.

NO ONE who is routinely exposed to cigarette smoke escapes!

If the exposure happens, so does the harm – every single time!

e) What about cancer?

OMG!  THAT is far worse than most people have a clue it is too!

Because tobacco and tobacco smoke cause cancer so many ways, it looks like fully half the people who have cancer would have escaped it had they not been exposed to tobacco smoke or tobacco products.

The cadmium in tobacco causes cancer; nicotine causes cancer; NKK is a nicotine metabolite in tobacco leaves and cause cancer; polonium is in tobacco today and is radioactive and causes cancer anywhere and everywhere in your body your blood goes once you breathe tobacco smoke or use tobacco products.

THEN, if you smoke and use a lighter with its very hot flame your risk of cancer AND of lung cancer skyrockets up.  (Almost all smokers today use lighters too!)


Here’s the much better news!

1.  Some people want to quit smoking but won’t even mess with trying because they absolutely do NOT want to get fatter!  This goes double for women smokers. But it’s true for men also.

And except for very light smokers and very heavy smokers who quit, people who quit smoking routinely gain as much as 5% of their previous weight as added new fat.

Not only can you quit and NOT get fatter, the things you do to not get fatter make it more than twice as likely you’ll quit smoking successfully! 

a) People who begin to exercise regularly each week, even if they start with just few minute walk or exercises for a few minute ONE day a week, begin to see themselves as health oriented and able to make other health changes.

In fact, 50 years ago, it was found this effect was so strong people found it so much easier to eat better and smoke less they simply began to do so!

Then of course most of them add more days a week and learn to exercise better and in more ways.

Here’s the best news:  Research shows that people trying to quit smoking double their chances of success if they do this.

b) That same research found that if people added ONE serving of a non-starchy vegetable ONE day a week to do every week, people trying to quit smoking also doubled their chances of success if they did this.

c)  Maybe people who do both – and starting at that easily doable level that’s quite easy to
do – won’t be four times as successful in quitting; but they will be more than twice as likely to succeed.

d) What about stopping smoking without permanent fat gain?

If you start regular exercise and eating vegetables alone and keep getting a bit better, you will dodge gaining any permanent fat.  And your chances of quitting go up that much too!

e)  What if you want to be sure to not gain fat?  Is there anything I can add to do that?

YES. 

Some will find it easier than others.  But if you exercise and eat vegetables also stopping the foods and drinks that only fatten you, many people lose over 25 pounds from that alone!

Stop all soft drinks totally.  Both regular and diet soft drinks test as extremely fattening.  And research is beginning to find they are almost as harmful to your health as smoking!

Stop eating anything that contains the high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners that are in soft drinks.  They are just as fattening and harmful in other foods.  Read the labels because so many foods contain them!

Stop eating ANY food that contains wheat as an ingredient.  Both refined white wheat flour and real whole wheat flour we now know are as fattening and harmful as soft drinks.

Stop eating any food that contains any trans fats or any kind of hydrogenated oil.  Any regular intake builds up in your system to high levels that then become nearly as harmful as cigarettes.  AND, almost everything they are in contain the other things on this list too!

Conclusion:  It’s not only possible to quit smoking without fat gain the news is even better!

If you do these things – or even begin them all at that tiny a level – you will also more than double your chances of quitting smoking too! 



And, if you do ALL these things you are quite likely to wind up LESS fat than you are now!  

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