LegendaryLife.com Blog

Well, it has been one month now since I completely stopped using toothpaste, my oral hygiene regimen of rinsing my mouth with baking soda / salt twice a day followed by brushing my teeth with plain water twice a day seems to have actually IMPROVED things!

Stumbling upon a far more effective alternative to mouthwash

I use to use mouthwash but it seems that, after a few hours, the “ickiness” would always return and overnight, well, in the morning I felt like I had drank from a swamp the night before. All those chemicals moving around in my mouth also don’t inspire much confidence considering all the health issues people are having later in life due to environmental and lifestyle choices followed over a lifetime. There HAD to be alternatives, I read a few online articles a few years back and stumbled upon the “salt” rinsing. It’s quite easy, fill a 1/2 cup of hot water and mix in about a tablespoon of salt and a teaspoon of baking soda. The result? Well, the best damn mouthwash you can ever have at a fraction of the price of what is being “marketed” as the best. Throw the rest into an oral irrigator and your mouth will be as clean as an emergency room floor (before the patient comes in of course).

Toothpaste, for all it’s wonders, is actually rather useless

I was brought-up being “marketed” by dentists and businesses that if I don’t use toothpaste, my teeth would fall-out and gingivitis was just around the corner… what a bunch of BS! Standing-up to commercial forces even in the face of conventional wisdom is actually a fantastic habit to have! Most of toothpaste ingredients are geared towards polishing, considering it’s thrown-out a few seconds after being “applied”, it makes you realize how either incredibly potent (ei: dangerous) or useless it really is. Consider toothpaste is a rather recent invention, I can safely say that it isn’t worth the status it has been given.

Results after one month

After one month of the no-toothpaste lifestyle, my gums have went from a slight redness along the gum-line to pink! My mouth always feels fresh and clean even after a meal or a few hours of heavy exercise. Even better… “tartar build-up” is gone and my teeth are actually WHITTER! What can I conclude? Well, I wish I started this regimen 30 years ago! It has saved me money and proven incredibly effective! Before you ask your dentist about following this regimen, realize that he or she, although a professional, is still being marketed rather heavily by companies that want you to use their oral products. Try this regimen for a month, go see your dentist, ask them if they see (or you feel) a difference THEN tell them what you have done!

Is Listerine environmentally friendly?

I have nothing against Listerine or other products but when a far more effective (and cheap) method exists that is environmentally friendly, why are we being marketed bogus junk? Just think of the chemical and logistical footprint that a simple product like Listerine has on the environment? A lot of wasted energy to produce an inferior product… that is mass-produced and marketed as THE BEST when it really falls rather short. I have no qualms about the “chemicals” in my salt/baking-soda mouthwash but who knows the long-term ramifications of the chemicals found in most toothpastes and mouthwashes these days. I think our governments have truly failed us on so many levels, it’s astonishing how much of our daily lives are influenced on a subconscious level by marketing whose focus is on profits rather than co-existing within our environment.

The Bigger Issue: The government doesn’t care

If the government really cared about our health, things such as alcohol, junk food (including TV diners), tobacco products… the list goes on, would simply not be available for consumption much less marketed to us on a daily basis. If the government really cared about the environment, mass-production of useless products when environmentally friendly alternatives existed wouldn’t be profitable. If the government really cared about it’s citizens, it would put a higher priority on physical education (government run gyms, school programs etc) instead of promoting a lifestyle of stagnation. Governments are there to help guide a population regardless of economic considerations but this sadly has changed where financial considerations have a higher priority than of the people it “should” be representing.

The Bottom Line

Only by standing-up against conventional wisdom can truth be discovered.

Cancer is a disease that, in a high portion of cases, is completely avoidable with proper diet, exercise and healthy living choices (including where and how you live). But for those unlucky enough to be diagnosed with cancer, I found this video that has some promising results. Screw chemotherapy, hello radio waves!

The Bottom Line

The best cure is avoidance.

For those who may not know who Randy Pausch is, he’s the university professor who was told he had only 6 months to live, as such, he decided to give one last lecture to his students. If you had only one last lecture to give, what would you speak about? This is great advice from somebody who has lived a very good life and some of these words may help you achieve your goals in the future.

Lecture’s Key Points

Aptly titled, his lecture is about achieving your dreams and allowing others to achieve theirs, here are the key points from his lecture:

• he grew up always being happy in his childhood, always dreaming about what could be, he was a child of the 60’s while people where landing on the moon when he was young
• dream specific dreams, they help to establish focus and make things happen
• get the fundamentals down otherwise the fancy stuff doesn’t work
• when people stop pointing out to you the things you are doing wrong, it means they have given up on you
• critics that carve you up are actually expressing their love for you
• experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted
• learning that is done indirectly is the most valuable type as they tend to stick with you through life and aren’t as easily forgotten
• you don’t have to be the smartest, most talented nor physically gifted person to succeed in life and lead others
• it’s cool to meet your boyhood idol but even better when they come to visit you because you have done something special
• brick walls are there not to keep you out but to provide a challenge to keep others out (how badly do you really want to achieve this goal?)
• it’s easy to sound smart when you study a subject intensely and ask others for advice
• wait long enough and people will surprise you
• it’s important to realize when you are in a pissing match and even more importantly to get out of it as quickly as possible
• there is a good way and a bad way to say “I don’t know”
• giving people a bar to strive for only does them a disservice, tell people they can always do better then they will, DO BETTER. People will always better themselves at a far faster pace then if you give them specific criteria to be met
• if you are going to be a pioneer in anything, you will get arrows in your back and experience many headaches but it will be all worth it when you look back
• find somebody better then you to give a project you hold dear
• self-reflection is the best give you can give anybody
• parents and mentors are vitally important to achieving a successful life
• being humble is a very difficult habit to build and maintain
• respect authority while questioning it
• never loose your childhood wonder, it’s what keeps your mind young and energy boundless
• it’s fun to do the impossible
• loyalty is a two way street
• actions speak louder then words
• never give up on achieving your goals
• you cannot get “there” alone, earnest people are worth more then any salesman could ever hope to be
• apologize when you screw up and focus on other people
• brick walls show us our dedication
• don’t bail out, the best gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap
• when you do the right thing, good things will come out of it
• get a feedback loop and LISTEN to it
• show gratitude
• don’t complain, just work harder
• be good at something that makes you valuable
• be prepared, luck is where preparation meets opportunity
• if you lead your life the right way, karma will make your dreams become reality

If you wish to watch this for yourself, here is the video of the entire lecture thanks to Google.

After the lecture

As some of you may know, this lecture became an international hit in 2007 after it was given. He appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss his situation and the lecture, spent a day with the Pittsburgh Steelers to accomplish his goal to play for the NFL and even better, Disney through it’s subsidiary, purchased the rights to his story for millions of dollars, providing his family with financial security long after he is gone. I think the only way to explain this is the last summary I wrote about his lecture, if you lead your life the right way, karma will make your dreams become reality.

The Bottom Line

Dreams are as important as breathing (hint hint).

PS: I wish everybody a very happy and prosperous 2008!

More information about:

• Randy Pausch himself at Carnegie Mellon
• Transcript of this lecture
• Alice Programming Project
• Entertainment Technology Center
• Randy Pausch on Wikipedia

There are two types of lies in this world, those you tell yourself and those you tell others… smokers seem to be experts in both! Caring about their health while smoking is one of the biggest.

Drug addicts are all the same

So far, I have talked to smokers from Canada, United States, Australia, Malaysia, Japan and Korea over an extended period of time and the excuses are all the same. They seem to relish describing how “addicted” or “hardcore” they are. I was talking to one addict yesterday and they where quite proud to say their breath smelled like that of an ash tray… interesting, another from Australia told me exactly the same thing while I was in that country! Here are some fantastically delusional lies you can expect to hear from a smoker (feel free to add more):

I can quit anytime

If this where true, they could quit right now but just try to get enough guts and throw their pack away in front of them… they will run like a squirrel right into the bin to get them. I know… I have done this several times with the same results.

I don’t smoke that much

Sadly, the effects of smoking both primary and second (onto non-smokers) is cumulative. You won’t die right away from emphysema or COD but I wouldn’t want to be a lung in a smokers body after a few decades of continual self-poisoning.

I feel fine

Next time a drug addict tells you that they feel fine, ask them to join you for a hike up a sizable hill… their tune will change guaranteed. The reason they feel fine is because they are use to living in a marginalized body, not because they are actually “fine”.

It helps me keep my shape (slim)

There are two ways to keep your body in shape, one is to exercise and the other is to under-feed it. Sure, smoking is keeping you slim, but guess what, you can accomplish far more by working out and quitting smoking then otherwise. What you are doing is actually starving your body, making it waste resources trying to clean the crap out of the air you take in instead of improving or optimizing it.

My father/mother/uncle smoked till they where 90 years old!

George Burns also smoked a cigar until he hit 100 years old, sure, there are some people out there with wonder genetics but odds are, you don’t have them. Imagine if George Burns never smoked, he might still be alive today! Regardless of how you cut it, smoking WILL reduce not only your lifespan but the quality of the live you live dramatically with time.

Smokers Facing Death

I had a grandfather who I wish everyday never smoked because he died a painful death over several years, his body was fine but his lungs where shot from a live addicted to cigarettes. Now, this week, I got news that one of my uncles, one who saw what my grandfather went through his final years, has been diagnosed with lunch cancer caused by smoking. My grandfather openly admitted that if he ever got a lung transplant that the first thing he would to is smoke and oddly, my uncle, even while at hospital surrounded by smokers slowly fading away, still had the conscience to go… you guessed it right… smoke in hiding! Each and every smokers has to face up to the fact that one day, guaranteed, they will face their maker far sooner then anticipated due to a slow, selfish, purposeful self-poisoning of the very body they inhabit.

Unfunny Joke

Here is an unfunny joke I seem to repeat to myself just about every time I see somebody smoking. What is the difference between a smoker and a junkie? One uses a legal substance. Sad isn’t it… mentally, a junkie is in the same place as a smoker.

How do I treat smokers?

I take my health very seriously, to the point that if I find out a friend smokes, they are no longer somebody I associate myself with. I would honestly prefer to be alone the rest of my life then to spend it with somebody hell bent on destroying their health. There is no sugar coating things, smokers have a death wish but are too much of a coward to get it over with, instead, they drag the emotions of those around them into the hole they inhabit. My only exception to this “banish them from my sight” rule is family but then I try to spend my time outdoors with them as much as possible, limiting exposure to second-hand smoke. Would I ever hire somebody who smoked? Nope, politically correct or not, why the hell would I want to invest my time and resources into somebody who doesn’t give a damn about themselves?

Spiders on Drugs

To some, alright, many out there, this may seem kinda harsh but I live my life by many simple rules, at the top of my list is that if you don’t care about yourself, then I don’t care about you. I do have a very well developed sense of humor so here is something to lighten up the mood on a serious topic. The effect of drugs on spiders! If you can’t laugh at even the worst of things, then the thoughts that follow them have no way out of your head.

The Bottom Line

Reversing a denial is the first step towards a successful life.

The American Cancer Society along with a list of Cancer experts has released a simple guideline that help women realize that they may be suffering Ovarian Cancer symptoms.

What is Ovarian Cancer?

Although the cause is unknown, like other cancers, they are a localized uncontrollable growth of cells, in this case, Ovarian Cancer occurs on the Ovaries which produce eggs and hormones for women. Because there may be very few noticeable symptoms until it reaches and advanced stage, early detection rarely occurs, as such, there is only a 50% survival rate after 5 years! Cancer sure does suck.

Ovarian Cancer Symptoms

Although the old guidelines still remain true such as:

• Abdominal discomfort and/or pain
• Gas, indigestion, pressure, swelling, bloating, or cramps
• Nausea, diarrhea, constipation, or frequent urination
• Loss of appetite
• Feeling of fullness even after only a light meal
• Unexplained weight gain or loss
• Abnormal bleeding from the vagina
• Hair growth, voice deepening, acne, loss of menstrual periods

This list is very generic and can be a host of any other less severe diseases, wasting precious time going down the wrong road. The American Cancer Society recently added the following to clarification to further promote early diagnosis of this treatable cancer.

If you experience any of the above for several weeks (ei: 2+) and it isn’t from a pre-existing condition, tell your doctor right away. I would suggest you be demand him to perform a CA-125 Assay which is a blood test to measure the amount of this substance in your body. If it’s elevated, it may mean Ovarian Cancer is present

Treatment and Prevention of Ovarian Cancer

Although there are no set guidelines for cancer prevention as the cause is still unknown, a good diet, exercise and healthy lifestyle will go a long way. If anything, this will allow your body to recover that much faster if you need to have surgery to remove the growth(s). Treatment options are surgery, chemotherapy and using radiation in various ways.

The Bottom Line

Cancer is an environmental and lifestyle condition 90% of the time, the healthier you are, the better your chances of not only avoidance but also pulling through in top shape.

References
American Cancer Society http://www.cancer.org
http://myfoodcount.com/healthylife/whatis/ovariancancer.html

I found out yesterday that my childhood dentist has been diagnosed with colon cancer… I then realized something I hadn’t previously thought about. No matter how impeccable your health is in one area, it’s the one that you are ignoring that will end up getting you.

The Irony of it all

My dentist had the most amazing teeth I have ever seen in an older person, very healthy gums, white teeth and always told me to brush, brush and brush some more. He was the embodiment of fanatical oral hygiene which is a difficult thing to achieve but in hind sight, my reply to him instead of “yes, I will brush some more” should have been “when was the last time you went for a colonoscopy”? His oral hygiene prevented him from getting gum disease, tooth loss and decay but he neglected a far more easily preventable condition that didn’t have to happen.

Colonoscopy

I went for a colonoscopy about a year ago, sure I was 30 but something wasn’t right and I always prefer to be safe then sorry. I was fine btw, what was causing my condition was eating rotten wheat germ for 3 months straight… that stuff smells like feet fresh or rotten! Anyways, after the age of 50, it is recommended that you get a colonoscopy for the prevention of colon cancer every 5 years. I dare say, go every year or two. It isn’t any fun but the peace of mind is well worth whatever feelings you may have and which would make you feel more embarrassed, showing your cute butt to a doctor or telling your family you have easily preventable colon cancer? The procedure is relatively painless and if your good, they give you a lolly pop at the end of it… kinda tough to refuse huh?

What is Colon Cancer (Colorectal Cancer)?

Colon cancer is one of the easiest cancers to prevent, regular screening and a very well sourced, high fiber diet will pay you huge dividends in this area. Although it’s unknown why it starts, like many cancers, part if it is genetic and an even larger part in my opinion is… you guessed it… LIFESTYLE. We take our bodies for granted, they will have the last laugh each and every time. Smoking, diabetes, alcohol consumption, being a couch potato and obesity are all leading risk factors as well. If you have stomach pains, anal bleeding and blood in your stool get yourself checked-up ASAP. Having Crohn’s disease is also a major risk factor.

What should you do if in doubt?

If you never got yourself checked-out, symptoms or not, then stop reading this, pick up the phone and give your doctor a call for a referral. Throw away all your junk food, adopt a healthy lifestyle that includes a lot of physical activity and turn your life around. Doing nothing is the best way to die a preventable early death. Still reading this? Call the doctor!

Realizations

I guess this whole experience made me realize how much WORK is involved in keeping yourself in top shape! Evaluating your general health, creating new exercise regimens, sourcing new diets and getting enough sleep at the end of the day to repeat this all over again the next. In a way, I am lucky because I spend much of my time researching health, constantly being exposed to what happens if you DON’T follow a healthy lifestyle is a great motivation for those days when the bed seems more attractive then stack of weights.

The Bottom Line

90% of ALL cancers are preventable by proper diet and lifestyle choices. Yes, 90%!

References
http://myfoodcount.com/healthylife/whatis/colorectalcancer.html

Cancer has grown increasingly prominent among western cultures whose population live their lives surrounded by a toxic soup that is a byproduct of their lifestyle. As incidents of smoking, pollution, poor diet and lack of activity take their toll slowly on the body, more of our internal systems to keep cancer at bay are damaged. It is estimated that 50% of all cancer incidences in women and 30% in men are directly associated with environmental factors.

The Bottom Line

The best way to fight cancer is not to get it in the first place, there is no 100% effective way to avoid cancer, but anything that reduces the risk should be adopted as part of any healthy lifestyle.

It seems I keep coming to the same themes in my quest to get health information out, I say one thing that sounds like a no-brainer and then a few months or years later, studies come out “discovering” what really is common sense. Cancer is no different.

I didn’t choose to get cancer

Let’s review, as much as 90% of ALL cancers are caused by lifestyle, the other 10% have strong genetic influences, for those unlucky 10%, I am truly sad for your plight and you have my deepest sympathies. If your entire family has gotten breast cancer by the age of 40 - there is a high likely hood that YOU will get it as well. What I don’t understand is why people simply accept this as a fact instead of doing lifestyle changes to reduce this likely hood. No, many people have not chosen to get cancer, nobody wants this condition but they do daily actions (knowingly or unknowingly) that lead to its development 90% of the time!

Two interesting studies to review if you have or worried about cancer

Here is a summary in plain English as to why people get cancer

Here is my list of things people do BY CHOICE to achieve the undesired goal of getting cancer:

1) Breath in contaminated air (smoking, smog, ozone, exhaust, particulate matter)
2) Eat contaminated food (fast food, processed food, junk food and “enriched” foods)
3) Sit on their ASS
4) Live within a contaminated body (if you maintain an unhealthy body, you are a cesspool of cancer causing agents waiting to get activated)
5) Drink unfiltered water (by the time city water gets to your tap, it has picked up so much junk that a mud pond is probably healthier to drink out of, reverse osmosis or distillation is the only way to go)
6) Avoid the doctor and dentist - these are your friends, a problem is easier to fix if you catch it EARLY.

But I have to…

Most of us live in a free society, we CHOOSE to go to work, we CHOOSE to commute, we CHOOSE to purchase junk food… the CHOICES are endless - if you make choices to stay in an unhealthy environment, then it is a choice. Don’t pass the buck and blame others or your boss, company, society or anybody else out there… YOU must make the choice. How important is your health to you? Well… how important is it? For me, my health is number one, above friends, family… anybody or anything. Without my health, I am nothing and neither are you.

“ME” Society

Right now, we live in a society that is “individualistic”, people prefer their own cars over public transportation, people want their own office instead of sharing, people want their own this, that and everything else. Cancer and many diseases are a warning sign that this kind of thinking is not healthy for any of us collectively as a species… natural selection is simply pecking off the weaker of us (genetically, habitually etc.) as it works it way up. Why are you obese? Because you don’t care about yourself… it’s that simple and guess what, others don’t care about you if you can’t take care of yourself.

Treatment vs Prevention

What does our society do in the wake of an epidemic? Forget about educating the public into doing some real action to prevent it, lets create a multi-billion dollar industry called “cancer treatment” whose sole focus is treating the people who have enough money to be able to undo the damage they have caused to themselves (again, directly or indirectly). We need a REAL change in our world societies, not this mickey mouse half-assed stuff we have done so far because of FEAR. EMBRASE change, don’t fear it!

The Bottom Line

Maybe I sound a bit rash, but I want you to get in your head that cancer in 90% can be traced back to lifestyle CHOICES, no matter how indirect. I am willing to wager that many other diseases would drop off the map as well.

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of premature death in the United States and many other industrialized countries.

I run a health site – of course my enemy #1 is tobacco related products, followed by obesity and general health laziness – all of which are lifestyle CHOICES that lead to a premature death and dramatic decrease in the quality of life.

My experiences with smoking and smokers

When I was a kid, I was as curious as anybody else and did try smoking – if everybody was doing it (especially back then)… it should be good for me too Well, I took one puff and my throat constricted and I felt like I inhaled a camp fire as I coughed immediately and vowed to never do that again. As I come from a French Canadian background, smoking seems to “us” as natural as eating or sleeping, when I visit my relatives – they pretty much all smoke (or are in the cycle of vowing to quit). So to me, living a life with nicotine addiction would not have been frowned upon very much.

If smoking is so bad for you – why do people do it?

I have come to the realization of many things in my 30 years of existence, the main factors as to why I think people prefer to slowly kill themselves instead of simply getting a gun and getting it over with are:

Smokers… a generation lost

We have added a new section on myfoodcount.com, it’s within our “famous people, everyday problems” section under Nicotine Addicts. I was surprised how many really famous people died prematurely from smoking related causes… here is a partial list of only entertainers (we have almost 300 so far from all fields of life).

If tobacco related products are so bad to you – why can you still buy them?

I blame this squarely on our government – the “don’t smoke” ads are a joke, they tend to make smoking look like eating cheese, “its not that bad for you but hey, if you want to stop eating cheese, give us a call”. The penalties regarding underage smoking are rarely enforced and worse, the government subsidizes tobacco producers (????).

The Bottom Line

Nobody cares about your health other then you… so you must take the initiative and make it YOUR top priority.

LINK OF INTEREST
Cigarette manufacturers increase nicotine yield in the past 6 years
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=2371123

As the effects of tobacco use in North America are leading to a slow but steady decline in their use, the opposite is true throughout the rest of the world. The big tobacco companies really don’t care too much about all the lawsuits etc in a shrinking market, they are already well ahead of the game in places like China and India - although the profits are not as high, having a strangle hold over more then half of the worlds population without having to worry about regulations more then offsets this.

Prohibition doesn’t work

Prohibition leads to increased value of banned products so here are some of my ideas that I think would play a significant role in reducing tobacco (and their related products) by being used globally.

Let us begin with tobacco

I also believe the above should also be adopted for beverages that contain over 30% alcohol to start as they also provide no benefit to society. If you govern a population where a moderate percentage needs to get drunk to get through another week - there is something wrong.

Long term effects of a healthy population

Study have outlined how a healthy people becomes less of a burden on health care, are more productive and generally see things in a brighter light. Getting rid of products that are counter to improving health should be strictly regulated. I doubt very much this will happen in my lifetime, there is simply too much pressure to keep things at their current status quo - but I can share my dream of a healthier society.

The Bottom Line

I think if the above was implemented and enforced, the leading causes of preventable death in this world today could be stamped out in a generation.