Dr Joseph Mercola articles.doc

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This Simple Trick Stops Aging inIts Tracks

By Dr. Mercola

Almost from the beginning of time, people have been looking for a fountainof youth, or at the very least a magic potion that can keep you feeling andlooking forever young.

The potions usually come in a bottle or a jar or from plastic surgery butas it turns out, we've been searching in the wrong places.

Instead of running to the nearest outpatient center for plastic surgery or tothe store to buy a "potion," we should be looking no further than our running

shoes and workout clothes.

Exercise is One of the Best Ways to Slow Aging

According to new research published in the American Journal of Physiology,1

the best way to stay young is to simply pick up your feet and start exercisetraining. The training triggers mitochondrial biogenesis, a decline of which iscommon in aging. This reverses significant age-associated declines inmitochondrial mass, and in effect, stops aging in its tracks.

This is not the first time researchers have linked exercise to mitochondrial

changes. A 2011 review in Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism2

points out that exercise induces changes in mitochondrial enzyme contentand activity, which can increase your cellular energy production and in sodoing decrease your risk of chronic disease.

Aside from impacting your skeletal muscle and fat tissue, researchers notedthat exercise induces mitochondrial changes that may also benefit your liver,brain and kidneys. The mitochondria is the "power plant" of your cells,responsible for generating the energy that drives all metabolic functions.

Increasing mitochondrial activity is extremely important because free

radicals, which are toxic byproducts of metabolism as well as exposures tochemicals, pollutants and other toxins, can overwhelm your body's defenses,leading to oxidative damage to cells and tissues that can destroy cellularproteins, lipids and DNA; this process often leads directly to the loss ofmitochondrial function. In the long-term, irreversible damage in themitochondria can occur, leading to:

Impaired ability to utilize carbohydrates and fat for energy
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Insulin resistance Lower threshold for physical exercise Excessive weight gain Accelerated aging

At least two additional studies, one in the Journal of Applied Physiology3 andthe other in Neuroscience,4 also showed that exercise induces mitochondrialbiogenesis in the brain, with potential benefits such as reduction or reversalof age-associated declines in cognitive function and helping to repair braindamage following a stroke, respectively.

What's One of the Best Anti-Aging Exercises?

Make no mistake virtually all forms of exercise are beneficial, providedyou're challenging yourself without overdoing it. Overdoing it, particularlywith long bouts of traditional cardio, can actually damage your mitochondria

and should be avoided. According to fitness expert Ori Hofmekler

"When done chronically, it [aerobics] causes accumulated oxidative stress inthe mitochondria with increased risk of oxidative damage. And when chronicaerobic overtraining comes along with inadequate nutrition (such as withthose dieters who obsessively run on a treadmill to burn excess calories theyget from a bad diet) the results could be even worse...

The combined effect of bad nutrition with bad training can be extremelydestructive, and may lead over time to irreversible damage in themitochondria along with a total metabolic decline."

The end result is not to shun all forms of aerobic exercise, but to learn howto do it wisely. This brings me to my most preferred form of anti-agingexercise, which is Peak Fitness, or high-intensity interval training. High-intensity interval-type training boosts your body's natural production ofhuman growth hormone (HGH), a synergistic, foundational biochemical thataddresses the serious muscle loss and atrophy that typically occurs withaging.

Your production of vital human growth hormone increases by up to 771percent during a Peak Fitness workout because you are stimulating your fast

muscle fibers, which are rarely used during most exercise programs. Thehigher your levels of growth hormone, the healthier and stronger you will be.Once you hit the age of 30, you enter what's called "somatopause," at whichpoint your levels of HGH begin to drop off quite dramatically. This decline ofHGH is part of what drives your aging process, so maintaining your HGHlevels gets increasingly important with age.
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The longer you can keep your body producing higher levels of HGH, thelonger you will likely experience more robust health and strength. Someathletes choose to inject it for this very reason, though it is a bannedsubstance in nearly every professional sport. I do not recommend injectingHGH however, due to the potential side effects, the cost and, moreimportantly, it is likely to cause more long-term harm than good. Fortunately,your body produces HGH naturally when you exercise your super-fast musclefibers during vigorous, high-intensity exercise like Peak Fitness.

Because these exercises are so intense, you only need to do them threetimes a week, and the entire workout takes just 20 minutes. Doing themmore often can actually be harmful, as your body will not have enough timefor recovery. Here's a summary of what a typical Peak Fitness routine mightlook like:

1. Warm up for three minutes2. Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should feel like you

couldn't possibly go on another few seconds3. Recover for 90 seconds4. Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times

As you can see, the entire workout is only 20 minutes. Twenty minutes! Thatreally is a beautiful thing. And within those 20 minutes, 75 percent of that


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time is warming up, recovering or cooling down. You're really only workingout intensely for four minutes!

Keep in mind that you can use virtually any type of equipment you want forthis an elliptical machine, a treadmill, swimming, even sprinting outdoors

(although you will need to do this very carefully to avoid injury) as long asyou're pushing yourself as hard as you can for 30 seconds. But do be sure tostretch properly and start slowly to avoid injury. Start with two or threerepetitions and work your way up, don't expect to do all eight repetitions thefirst time you try this, especially if you are out of shape. For an in-depthexplanation of Peak Fitness, read this past article, and watch my videodemonstration below.

Fasting, and Fasting Before Exercise, Might Give You Even More of anAnti-Aging Boost

I have recently begun integrating Peak Fitness exercise with intermittent fasting, asit appears this will greatly catalyze the potential of exercise to reduce your risk ofchronic disease and help keep your body biologically young. Simply put, exerciseand fasting yield acute oxidative stress, which actually benefits your muscle.

Ori explains that acute oxidative stress is:

" ... essential for keeping your muscle machinery tuned. Technically, acuteoxidative stress makes your muscle increasingly resilient to oxidative stress; itstimulates glutathione and SOD [superoxide dismutase, the first antioxidantmobilized by your cells for defense] production in your mitochondria along withincreased muscular capacity to utilize energy, generate force and resist fatigue.

Hence, exercise and fasting help counteract all the main determinants of muscleaging. But there is something else about exercise and fasting. When combined,they trigger a mechanism that recycles and rejuvenates your brain and muscletissues."

The mechanism he refers to is triggering genes and growth factors, including IGF-1,brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) and muscle regulatory factors (MRFs),which signal brain stem cells and muscle satellite cells to convert into new neuronsand new muscle cells respectively. This means that exercise while fasting mayactually help to keep your brain, neuro-motors and muscle fibers biologically young.Even if you take the exercise component out, modern science has confirmed thereare many good reasons for fasting, including:

Normalizing your insulin sensitivity, which is key for optimal health as insulinresistance (which is what you get when after prolonged periods of over-secreted and elevated insulin) is a primary contributing factor to nearly allchronic disease, from diabetes to heart disease and even cancer

Normalizing ghrelin levels, also known as "the hunger hormone" Promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production, which plays an

important part in health, fitness and slowing the aging process
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Lowering triglyceride levels Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage

There's also plenty of research showing that fasting has a beneficial impact onlongevity in animals. There are a number of mechanisms contributing to this effect.Normalizing insulin sensitivity is a major one, but fasting also complements the

insulin like growth factor (IGF-1) and mTOR pathways, which plays important rolesin the repair and regeneration of tissues for sustaining a youthful body.

Aging is associated with a substantial decline in IGF-1 and mTOR expression andfasting can help reverse this process. Furthermore, fasting has also shown to inhibitthe over expression of IGF-1 and mTOR, such as in the case of chronic inflammatorydisease or cancer, which are often caused by age related metabolic disorders andimmune deficiencies. The fact that it improves a number of potent disease markersalso contributes to fasting's overall beneficial effects on general health.

Interestingly, one recent study that included more than 200 individuals, found that

fasting also triggered a dramatic rise in HGH1,300 percent in women, and anastounding 2,000 percent in men!5 The only other thing that can compete in termsof dramatically boosting HGH levels is high-intensity interval training, as mentionedin the section above.

Intermittent fasting isn't as hard as it may sound, as it includes either fastingcompletely or simply minimizing your food intake during the day to small servingsof light, low glycemic, mostly raw foods such as fruits, vegetables, whey protein orlightly poached eggs every 4-6 hours. You then do your workout while fasting (30minutes after your latest snack) followed by a very important recovery meal (wheyprotein) and then have your main meal at night. For more information on healthy,safe intermittent fasting, read this.

What Else Does an Anti-Aging Lifestyle Entail?

That said, longevity is the result of an overall healthy lifestyle, so in addition toexercise, these additional strategies can further help you stay young and vibrant,longer:

Optimize your insulin and leptin levels Of all the healthy lifestylestrategies I know of that can have a significant impact on your longevity,normalizing your insulin and leptin levels is probably the most important.

There is no question that this is an absolute necessity if you want to slowdown your aging process, and that means modifying your diet to avoid

excessive amounts of fructose and other sugars, grains, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients like synthetic trans fats. Aside from avoiding grainsand sugars, exercise is one of the most effective ways to regain insulinsensitivity.

Learn how to effectively cope with stress Stress has a direct impact oninflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill
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people prematurely every day, so developing effective coping mechanisms isa major longevity-promoting factor.

Meditation, prayer, physical activity and exercise are all viable options thatcan help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium. I also stronglybelieve in using energy psychology tools such as the Emotional Freedom

Technique (EFT) to address deeper, oftentimes hidden emotional problems.

Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels to between 60 and 80 ng/ml using safe sunexposure, a safe tanning bed, or a vitamin D3 supplement.

Animal based omega-3 fats Correcting the ratio of omega-3 to healthfulomega-6 fats is an essential component in helping people live longer. Thistypically means increasing your intake of animal-based omega-3 fats, such askrill oil, while decreasing your intake of damaged omega-6 fats (thinkhydrogenated oils and rancid vegetable oils).

Get most of your antioxidants from foods Good sources includeblueberries, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries,beans, and artichokes.

Get your resveratrol naturally Because resveratrol appears to be soeffective at warding off many diseases associated with aging, it is oftenreferred to as a "fountain of youth" that can extend lifespan. Good sources ofnaturally occurring resveratrol include whole grape skins and seeds,raspberries and mulberries.

Use coconut oil Another excellent anti-aging food is coconut oil, known toboost heart-protective HDL cholesterol and stimulate brain metabolism in away that may protect against Alzheimer's disease, among other things.

Avoid as many chemicals, toxins, and pollutants as possible Thisincludes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygieneproducts, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to

name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives. Avoid unnecessary prescription drugs Pharmaceutical drugs killthousands of people prematurely every year. And, if you adhere to a healthylifestyle, you most likely will never need any of them in the first place.

Burn Away Fat Cells With ThisSimple Eating Trick

By Dr. Mercola

If you're already off to a good start on a healthy fitness plan, and you're looking forways to take it to the next level, then you might want to consider a form of fastingcalled Scheduled Eating, or intermittent fasting.
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In essence this fitness-enhancing strategy looks at the timing of meals, as well aswhen NOT to eat. This isn't one of those fad plans, where you eat just one or twothings for several days in a row.

In fact, the longest time you'll ever abstain from food is 36 hours, although 14-18hours is more common. You can also opt to simply delay eating. For example,

skipping breakfast may be just the thing to kick-start you off a plateau in yourfitness routine.

But hypoglycemics and diabetics bewarethere is a proper way to implementfasting, and hypoglycemic and/or diabetics need to be particularly careful in orderto not worsen their health.Ditto for pregnant or breastfeeding women.

The plan is supported by a growing body of evidence showing that certain forms offasting are good for you, and Mark Sisson's excellent series on this topic on his blogon marksdailyapple.com, delve into this topic at some depth.

For me, the issue of fasting is a major shift from my typical recommendations.

I've not been a major advocate for it in the past, but as many of you who have beenreading this site for years know, I am always learning. Life is a journey, and no onehas all the answers.

I seek to explore the best concepts out there to maximize learning.

To that end, I've been playing around with various forms of fasting for about a yearand a half, and I now feel I'm ready to make some suggestions based on myexperience.

First of all, I believe that fasting is not something you should undertake willy-nilly.You need to pay careful attention to your body, your energy levels, and how itmakes you feel in generalespecially if you're diabetic, hypoglycemic, or pregnant.I'll share some precautionary notes in a moment.

Furthermore, remember that the type of diet and/or form of fasting that might bebest for you will vary depending on your weight, health, and fitness goals. Is yourgoal to live a longer, healthier life? Or are you a competitive or elite athlete? It maysurprise many to learn that you cannot achieve maximum fitness and maximumlongevity and fertility at the same time.

Each goal requires a different strategy, and will not provide you with equal end

results. For example, elite female athletes typically have a difficult time gettingpregnanttheir fitness has been maximized at the expense of their fertility, asfemale hormones depend on sufficient amounts of body fat.

While most people need to address the foods they DO eat, before consideringskipping meals, fasting can provide you with many benefits, and is another tool youcan experiment with to help you reach your goals. However, please keep in mindthat proper nutrition becomes even MORE important when fasting, so addressing


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your diet really should be your first step. Common sense will tell you that fastingcombined with a denatured, highly processed, toxin-rich diet is likely to do moreharm than good, as you're not giving your body proper fuel to thrive when you DOeat.

Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss

In part 1, Mark Sisson discusses the merits of using fastingin whatever formtoachieve weight loss. Overall, the research is very favorable for this goal. He liststhree studies from recent years into fasting for weight loss, all of which showedpositive results:

1. Non-obese patients lost an average of four percent of their total fat withalternate-day fasting for 22 days. Their fasting insulin also decreased.i

2. Alternate-day fasting was also effective for obese patients in a 2009 study.On fasting days, participants consumed 25 percent of their daily calorieneeds. On average, they lost just over 5.5 pounds in eight weeks, and about

three percent of their total body fat. Total cholesterol and LDL ("bad")cholesterol decreased, while HDL ("good") cholesterol remained unchanged.Systolic blood pressure also decreased.ii

3. In young, overweight women, alternate-day fasting was just as effective ascalorie restriction for promoting weight loss and improving metabolicmarkers.iii

One of the mechanisms that makes fasting so effective for weight loss is the factthat it provokes the secretion of human growth hormone (HGH), which is a fat-burning hormone. It also plays an important role in muscle building. Fasting alsoincreases catecholamines, which increases resting energy expenditure, whiledecreasing insulin levels, which allows stored fat to be burned for fuel. Together,

these and other factors will turn you into an effective fat-burning machine.

Hence, if like many tens of millions of people, your goal is to shed excess fat, fastingcan be both effective and beneficial for improving many disease markers. The typeof fast you choose appears to be less important, so pick whichever one fits yourlifestyle, schedule, and temperament the best.

I'll summarize the four different types of intermittent fasting programs that arecovered very well in Mark Sisson's excellent series on this subject (see Sourcesbelow for links to his blog). Mark is particularly well qualified to report on this topicas he's a leading blogger in the Paleo community, and a former elite Olympic Trialsathlete.

Intermittent Fasting for Athletes

One 2008 study that evaluated the effect of fasting during the Muslim observanceof Ramadan found it had a positive effect on body mass and other health markers intrained athletesiv.
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While athletes are certainly concerned with shedding excess fat, another overridingconcern is the optimization of muscle growth. For this, you need protein. As ageneral guideline, you'll want to consume a high quality protein 30-60 minutes afterfinishing your workoutwhey being one of the most ideal for this purpose, as ithelps your body build muscle and lose fat simultaneously. Research has also shownthat high quality protein from meat and wheyhas a positive effect on blood sugar,

muscle building, changing body composition, and sparing muscle while losing fat.

Many find it works out well to break their fast after working out, which would allowyou to get the best of both worlds: the benefits of working out in a fasted state, andprotein-loading about half-an-hour to an hour afterward. This is my new strategy. Iwill typically delay my breakfast until 11 or 12 and workout around 9 AM. Since mylast meal is typically around 7 PM, I will fast for about 14-17 hours before I eat myfirst meal. The fact that you are sleeping during most of this time makes it relativelypainless and easy to do.

Avoid grain carbs, however. Although popular with many, "carb loading" is amistake, particularly for people engaged in intense strength training, as you willburn carb fuel very quickly and then "hit the wall." The same goes for most peoplewho start their day with muffins, bagels, or pancakes for example. This type ofbreakfast typically ignites a vicious cycle of hunger and snacking on even morecarbs. And the more you continue eating these carb snacks, the more insulinresistant you become.

Part of what makes working out in a fasted state so effective is that your bodyactually has a preservation mechanism that protects your active muscle fromwasting itself. So if you don't have sufficient fuel in your system when you exercise,you're going to break down other tissues but not the active muscle, i.e. the musclebeing exercised. According to Ori Hofmekler, author of The Warrior Diet, you can

quite literally re-design your physique using a combination of under-eating andexercise. However this really only works well once your metabolism has becomeproficient at burning fat. Mark discusses this in his series.

What about competitive sports athletes who may be exerting themselves incompetitions several times a weekshould they fast, and if so, when? Mark Sissonoffers the following advicev:

"Personally, I would eat on game days. It might be fun to try out a few fastedgames, just to see how you perform, but the likely optimal way to integrate fastinginto competition is to save the fasting days for your training days. By doing this,

you'll be "training low, playing high," which should result in some beneficial

adaptations after training and improved performance in the game (when you're"high" or fully replete with nutrients and calories)."

If you're an athlete, keep in mind that fasting can be contraindicated withovertraining, so be cautious if you're more or less in constant training.
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Intermittent Fasting for General Health and Longevity

Fasting is historically common-place as it has been a part of spiritual practice formillennia. But modern science has confirmed there are many good reasons forfasting, including:

Normalizing your insulin sensitivity, which is key for optimal health as insulinresistance (which is what you get when your insulin sensitivity plummets) is aprimary contributing factor to nearly all chronic disease, from diabetes toheart disease and even cancer

Normalizing ghrelin levels, also known as "the hunger hormone" Promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production, which plays an

important part in health, fitness and slowing the aging process Lowering triglyceride levels Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage

There's also plenty of research showing that fasting has a beneficial impact on

longevity in animals. There are a number of mechanisms contributing to this effect.Normalizing insulin sensitivity is a major one, but fasting also inhibits the mTORpathway, which plays an important part in driving the aging process. The fact that itimproves a number of potent disease markers also contributes to fasting's overallbeneficial effects on general health.

Interestingly, one recent study that included more than 200 individuals, found thatfasting increased the participants' low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL or "bad"cholesterol) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL, the "good" cholesterol)by 14 percent and 6 percent, respectivelyvi. Why would fasting raise totalcholesterol? Dr. Benjamin D. Horne, PhD, MPH, director of cardiovascular andgenetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, and the

study's lead author, offers the following explanation:

"Fasting causes hunger or stress. In response, the body releases more cholesterol,allowing it to utilize fat as a source of fuel, instead of glucose. This decreases thenumber of fat cells in the body... This is important because the fewer fat cells abody has, the less likely it will experience insulin resistance, or diabetes."

Even more remarkable, the study also found that fasting triggered a dramatic rise inHGH1,300 percent in women, and an astounding 2,000 percent in men!

HGH, commonly referred to as "the fitness hormone" plays an important role inmaintaining health, fitness and longevity, including promotion of muscle growth,

and boosting fat loss by revving up your metabolism. The fact that it helps buildmuscle while simultaneously promoting fat loss explains why HGH helps you loseweight without sacrificing muscle mass, and why even athletes can benefit from thepractice (as long as they don't overtrain and are careful about their nutrition).

The only other thing that can compete in terms of dramatically boosting HGH levelsis high-intensity interval training. If you're over the age of 30, especially if you leadan increasingly sedentary lifestyle, you've likely entered a phase known as
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somatopause (age-related growth hormone deficiency). As your HGH levelsdecrease, your levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) also decrease, and this isyet another important part of what drives your body's aging process.

Variations of Fasting

In his blog on marksdailyapple.com, Mark Sisson delves into four different variationsof fasting, and how to implement them. The variations he includes are:

1. LeanGains (a fasting protocol by Martin Berkhanvii )A daily 14-16 hour fast,during which time you consume nothing, with the exception of non-caloricfluids. Sleeping time is included in this time-frame, leaving an 8-10 hourwindow during the day when you're allowed to eat.

This protocol is designed with regular exercise in mind, with specific nutrientratios for workout days and rest days, and is geared for those who want toshed excess fat and gain muscle mass. Hence, it's best suited for those who

are actually exercising and lifting weights each week and can tolerateworking out in a fasted state.

2. Eat Stop Eat(created by Brad Pilonviii)In this protocol, you fast for a full 24hours once or twice a week. Your fast should be broken with a regular-sizedmeal (i.e. avoid gorging when coming off your fast), and you can maintain aregular exercise program without any special diet recommendations forworkout days.

Fasting for 24 hours can be tough for some people, but I would agree withMark's advice that eating a high-fat, low-carb diet can make 24-hour fastingeasier, as a higher fat diet will tend to normalize your hunger hormones and

provide improved satiety for longer periods of time.

3. The Warrior Diet(by Ori Hofmekler)This is another protocol designed toimprove your fitness by exercising in a fasted state. I've interviewed Ori andposted detailed articles on this in the past. His plan calls for 20 hours offasting, and four hours of "feasting." You exercise during the day in a fastedstate. Raw vegetables are allowed during your fast, but no protein, which isreserved for "feasting" or post-exercise recovery meals.

To learn more about the Warrior Diet, please see this previous interview withOri.

4. Alternate Day FastingThis fasting protocol is exactly as it sounds: oneday off, one day on. When you include sleeping time, the fast can end upbeing as long as 32-36 hours.

As Mark notes, this may be the most difficult of all types of fasting, as it willrequire you to go to bed with an empty stomach a few times a week. It'sdefinitely not for everyone.
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Mark rounds off his list with one last suggestion: to simply let your hunger guide youand skip meals if you're not hungry. While this should work really well for those whoare otherwise healthy and are not struggling with food cravings, it may not work ifyou're constantly craving food. Food cravings is a sign that you're not providingyour body with proper nutrients in the appropriate ratios, so following your hungerin this case could be staggeringly counterproductive.

Who Should Use Extra Caution when Fasting, or Avoid it Altogether?

As I mentioned earlier, if you're hypoglycemic, diabetic, or pregnant (and/orbreastfeeding), you need to be extra cautious with fasting, and may be best servedto avoid it entirely, until you've normalized your blood glucose and insulin levels, orweaned the baby.

Hypoglycemia is a condition characterized by an abnormally low level of bloodsugar. It's commonly associated with diabetes, but you can be hypoglycemic even ifyou're not diabetic. Common symptoms of a hypoglycemic crash include:

Headache Weakness Tremors Irritability Hunger

As your blood glucose levels continue to plummet, more severe symptoms can setin, such as:

Confusion and/or abnormal behavior Visual disturbances, such as double vision and blurred vision

Seizures Loss of consciousness

One of the keys to eliminating hypoglycemia is to eliminate sugars, especiallyfructose from your diet. It will also be helpful to eliminate grains, and replace themwith higher amounts of quality proteins and healthful fats, However it will take sometime for your blood sugar to normalize. You'll want to pay careful attention tohypoglycemic signs and symptoms, and if you suspect that you're crashing, makesure to eat something. Ideally, you should avoid fasting if you're hypoglycemic, andwork on your overall diet to normalize your blood sugar levels first.Then try out oneof the less rigid versions of fasting and work your way up to a full 24-hour fast.

As for pregnant and/or lactating women, I don't think fasting would be a wisechoice. Your baby needs plenty of nutrients, during and after birth, and there's noresearch supporting fasting during this important time. Sisson lists three studies onfasting during pregnancy, and all three suggested it might be contraindicated, as itcan alter fetal breathing patterns, heartbeat, and increase gestational diabetes. Itmay even induce premature labor.


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My recommendation would be to really focus on improving your nutrition during thiscrucial time. A diet with plenty of raw organic, biodynamic foods, and foods high inhealthful fats, coupled with high quality proteins will give your baby a head start ongood health. You'll also want to be sure to include plenty of cultured and fermentedfoods to optimize yourand consequently your baby'sgut flora. For moreinformation, please see this previous article that includes specific dietary

recommendations for a healthy pregnancy, as well as my interview with Dr. NatashaCampbell-McBride.

Others categories of people that would be best served to avoid fasting include thoseliving with chronic stress, and those with cortisol dysregulation.

FastingIs it Right for You?

I understand it can get confusing at times, trying to determine when and what toeat in order to optimize your health. Unfortunately, besides a few basic principlesthat will apply to virtually everyone, such as strictly limiting consumption of sugars

(particularly fructose) and grains, the rest is really a matter of figuring out whatworks for your individual biochemistry. This requires some trial and error.

For example, there is good evidence supporting the recommendation to eat aprotein-heavy breakfast if you want to lose weight, and even more so if youexercise first thing in the morning to optimize muscle growth and recovery. Butthere may be times when you feel like you've hit a plateau, and while your diet andexercise routine may be good, the simple act of skipping breakfast and exercisingon an empty stomach could be just the thing that will kick start you onto that nextlevel.

Personally, I skip breakfast and exercise in a fasting state whenever I've gained a

few pounds and want to get them off. I find this works well for me. While I'm noteating breakfast, I don't really eliminate that meal entirely; rather I'm simplydelaying it until noon or later, in order to reap the metabolic rewards of exercisecombined with calorie restriction.

While I have not widely promoted calorie restriction in the past (as I believe mostpeople need to address the foods they DO eat, before considering skipping meals),it is an important piece of the puzzle, and intermittent fasting may be helpful formany, especially if you've already mastered a nutritious diet, which really should beyour first step. Fasting combined with a highly processed, toxin-rich diet is not goingto do your health any favors. In fact, you may be making things worse, since you'renot giving your body proper fuel when you DO eat.

Also remember that fasting does not mean abstaining from ALL food for extendedperiods of time, but rather a dramatic reduction of calorie intake at regular intervalswhether you opt for a 16, 20, or 24 hour fast once or twice a week, or fastingevery other day, or simply delaying certain meals, such as skipping breakfast andexercising on an empty stomach. As always, listen to your body, and go slow; workyour way up to full day fasts if your normal schedule has included multiple meals aday. Also be sure to address any hypoglycemic tendencies, as it can get
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increasingly dangerous the longer you go without eating to level out your bloodsugar.

Bottom Line

I will finish off with Mark Sisson's "bottom line," practical, and soundrecommendations, as he sums it up nicelyix:

"... [T]here is no concrete, objective law regarding the suitability of intermittentfasting for a particular person.

If you're truly hungry, eat. Failing to do so will add stress.

If you're stressed, don't IF (intermittent fast). You don't need another stressor.

If you're training six days a week, don't IF. Unless you're genetically blessed, you'llneed lots of fuel to prevent overtraining.

If you're not hungry, don't eat. If coffee's enough, skip breakfast.

If life is good, try fasting.

In the end, the prudent path is to simply listen to your body. Don't let CW grazingpropaganda drive you to eat when you aren't hungry; don't let the IF dogma makeyou feel guilty about grabbing a handful of macadamia nuts and jerky in betweenmeals when you are fasting. Try it out, skip a meal, go fourteen hours or so (youalready do eight every night) without eating, get a workout in, go for a walk, goabout your day and see how you feel. A quick trial is not going to kill you...

Are you lightheaded?

Are you weak?

Did your workout suffer?

Then maybe it's not for you. Maybe you need to fix a few things (Primal eating,sleep, chronic stress) and then try again..."

Exercise Helps Your Immune

System Protect Against FutureCancers

By Dr. Mercola
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If you are like most people, when you think of reducing your risk ofcancer, exerciseprobably isn't at the top of your list. However, there is compelling evidence thatexercise can not only help slash your risk of cancer, but can also help cancerpatients get well sooner, and help prevent cancer recurrence.

Research has also shown it may help minimize the side effects of conventional

cancer treatment.

A preliminary study presented at The Integrative Biology of Exercise VI meeting inmid-October1 helps shed light on why exercise is so effective for decreasing the riskof secondary cancers in survivors, or why it can decrease your risk of getting cancerin the first place.

Exercise Improves Your Immune System's "Cancer Surveillance"

Sixteen cancer survivors who had just completed chemotherapy participated in thethree-month long study. The fitness program, which was tailored to each individual,

included:

Strength training Endurance training Cardiovascular exercise Exercises for flexibility, balance and posture

The researchers examined the immune cells in the participants' blood before andafter completion of the 12-week program, and the analysis showed that a largeportion of the T cells were altered into a more effective disease-fighting form, called"nave" T cells. As reported by Medical News Today:2

"[Lead researcher] Bilek explained, 'What we're suggesting is that with exercise,you might be getting rid of T cells that aren't helpful and making room for T cellsthat might be helpful.'

This research is important because it not only emphasizes the advantages ofexercise for cancer patients and cancer survivors, but it also demonstrates how itcan benefit healthy individuals. However, the increased 'cancer surveillance,' or the

power of the immune system to stop emerging cancers, is particularly beneficial forthose struggling with cancer, or who have just survived it.

Bilek concluded: 'There's a litany of positive benefits from exercise. If exerciseindeed strengthens the immune system and potentially improves cancer

surveillance, it's one more thing we should educate patients about as a reason theyshould schedule regular activity throughout their day and make it a priority in theirlives.'"

Viewing Exercise as a Drug

Besides altering your immune cells into a more potent disease-fighting form andimproving circulation of those immune cells in your blood, another primary way
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exercise lowers your risk for cancer is by reducing elevated insulin levels. Thiscreates a low sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancercells. It's also been suggested that apoptosis (programmed cell death) is triggeredby exercise, causing cancer cells to die.

The trick though, is understanding how to use exercise as a precise tool. I like to

suggest viewing it as a "drug" that needs to be carefully prescribed to achieve itsmaximum benefit. This ensures you're getting enough to achieve the benefit, nottoo much to cause injury, and the right variety to balance your entire physicalstructure and maintain strength, flexibility, and aerobic and anaerobic fitness levels.

Ideally, doctors would prescribe exercise in specific "doses" and intervals. To do thisproperly, oncologists would be wise to develop relationships with personal trainers,and prescribe training sessions for their patients. If you have cancer, I would highlyrecommend discussing exercise with your oncologist, and/or work with a trainedfitness professional who can help you devise a safe and effective regimen.

Unfortunately, many public health guidelines still focus only on the aerobic aspectsof exercise, and this exclusive focus can lead to imbalances that may actuallypreventoptimal health.

It's important to include a large variety of techniques in your exercise routine, suchas strength training, aerobics, core-building activities, and stretching. Mostimportant of all, however, is to make sure you include high-intensity, burst-typeexercise, once or twice a week, in which you raise your heart rate up to youranaerobic threshold for 20 to 30 seconds, and then you recover for 90 seconds.

These exercises can increase your body's natural production of human growthhormone.

Compelling Evidence in Support of Exercise as Cancer Prophylactic

In the 1980s the notion that exercise may help prevent cancer started getting itsdue attention. According to a study published 12 years ago in the British Medical

Journal,3 which explored the relationship between exercise and cancer, exerciseaffects several biological functions that may directly influence your cancer risk.

These effects include changes in:

Cardiovascularcapacity

Energy balance

Pulmonary capacity Immune function

Bowel motility Antioxidant defense

Hormone levels DNA repair
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In 2003, a paper in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise4 reportedthat "more than a hundred epidemiologic studies on the role of physical activity andcancer prevention have been published." The authors noted that:

"The data are clear in showing that physically active men and women have about a30-40 percent reduction in the risk of developing colon cancer, compared with

inactive persons With regard to breast cancer, there is reasonably clear evidencethat physically active women have about a 20-30 percent reduction in risk,compared with inactive women. It also appears that 30-60 mind-1 of moderate- tovigorous-intensity physical activity is needed to decrease the risk of breast cancer,and that there is likely a dose-response relation."

Cancer Groups Recommend Making Exercise Part of Standard Care

In recent years, a number of cancer groups have started taking exercise seriously.For example, a recent report issued by the British organization Macmillan CancerSupport5 argues that exercise really should be part of standard cancer care. It

recommends that all patients getting cancer treatment should be told to engage inmoderate-intensity exercise for two and a half hours every week, stating that theadvice to rest and take it easy after treatment is an outdated view.

The organization offers loads of helpful information about the benefits of exercisefor cancer patients on their website, and also has a number of videos on thesubject, available on their YouTube channel.6

Professor Robert Thomas discusses the benefits of physical activity during aftercancer treatment.

According to Ciaran Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support:7

"Cancer patients would be shocked if they knew just how much of a benefit physicalactivity could have on their recovery and long term health, in some cases reducingtheir chances of having to go through the grueling ordeal of treatment all overagain..."

Indeed, the reduction in risk for recurrence is quite impressive. Previous researchhas shown that breast and colon cancer patients who exercise regularly have halfthe recurrence rate than non-exercisers.8 Macmillan Cancer Support also notes thatexercise can help you to mitigate some of the common side effects of conventionalcancer treatment, including:

Reduce fatigueand improveyour energylevels

Manage stress,anxiety, lowmood ordepression

Improve bonehealth

Improve hearthealth (somechemotherapy

Build musclestrength, relievepain and improve

Maintain ahealthy weight
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drugs andradiotherapycan causeheart problemslater in life)

range of movement

Sleep better Improve yourappetite

Preventconstipation

Exercise Tips for Cancer Patients

I would strongly recommend you read up on my Peak Fitness program, whichincludes high-intensity exercises that can reduce your exercise time while actuallyimproving your benefits.

Now, if you have cancer or any other chronic disease, you will of course need totailor your exercise routine to your individual circumstances, taking into account

your fitness level and current health. Often, you will be able to take part in a regularexercise program -- one that involves a variety of exercises like strength training,core-building, stretching, aerobic and anaerobic -- with very little changesnecessary. However, at times you may find you need to exercise at a lowerintensity, or for shorter durations.

Always listen to your body and if you feel you need a break, take time to rest.

Just remember that exercising for just a few minutes a day is better than notexercising at all, and you'll likely find that your stamina increases and you're able tocomplete more challenging workouts with each passing day. In the event you aresuffering from a very weakened immune system, you may want to exercise at home

instead of visiting a public gym. But remember that exercise will ultimately help toboost your immune system, so it's very important to continue with your program,even if you suffer from chronic illness or cancer.

That said, if your body will not allow you to exercise, either due to pain or worseningof your underlying condition, then you have no practical option but to honor yourbody's signals and exercise less. Even though your body desperately needs theexercise to improve, you will only get worse if you violate your current limitations.

Protein Intake Also Crucial for Cancers

I recently interviewed Dr. Ron Rosedale for nearly fifteen hours and i hope to beable to start posting those articles very soon. He is one of the first physicians in theU.S. that started measuring leptin levels clinically and was far ahead of the curve onthis one. In our interview, he helped me understand the major importance thatexcessive protein intake can have on cancer growth.

The mTOR pathway is short for mammalian target of rapamycin. This pathway isancient but relatively recently appreciated and has only been known for less than20 years. Odds are very high your doctor was never taught this is medical school
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and isn't even aware of it. Many new cancer drugs are actually being targeted touse this pathway. Drugs using this pathway have also been given to animals toradically extend their lifespan. But you don't have to use drugs to get this pathwayto work for you.

You can biohack your body and merely restrict your protein intake and replace the

decreased protein with healthy fats as this will provide virtually identical benefits asthese dangerous and expensive drugs.

Eating excessive protein can be an additional synergistically powerful mechanism.Dr. Rosedale believes that when you consume protein in levels higher than onegram of protein per kilogram of LEAN body mass you can activate the mTORpathway, which will radically increase your risk of cancers. It is very easy toconsume excess protein and my guess is that most people reading this are. I know Iwas, and as a result of this new insight I have reduced my protein intake by abouthalf.

To determine your lean body mass find out your percent body fat and subtract from100. So if you are 20% body fat you would have 80% lean body mass. Just multiplythat times your current weight to get lean body mass. For most people this meansrestricting protein intake from 35 to 75 grams. Pregnant women and those workingout extensively need about 25% more protein though.

Of course when you reduce protein you need to replace it with other calories, so thekey is to replace the lost calories with high-quality fats such as avocados, butter,coconut oil, olives, olive oil, nuts and eggs. It is also very helpful to avoid eatinganything for three hours before going to bed as this allows you to have relativelylow blood sugars while you are sleeping. This is another good trick to move yourbody to fat burning mode.

Nearly everyone is primarily in carb burning mode because of the amount ofcarbohydrate content that they consume. The beauty of shifting over to fat burningmode is that it virtually eliminates hunger. Intermittent fasting is one way to helpachieve this, but radically cutting back on non-vegetable carbs is also veryimportant. Coconut oil is particularly useful to use in making the transition to fatburning mode as it is primarily short and medium chain fats which break down veryquickly and can be used as an energy source which is important for countering thedecreased energy and other physical challenges that many encounter in the severalweeks it typically takes to make the transition to fat burning mode .

Cancer Prevention Begins with Your Lifestyle Choices

While exercise is an important facet of cancer prevention and treatment, it'scertainly not the only one. I believe the vast majority of all cancers could beprevented by strictly applying the healthy lifestyle recommendations below:

Avoid sugar, especially fructose. All forms of sugar are detrimental tohealth in general and promote cancer. Fructose, however, is clearly one ofthe most harmful and should be avoided as much as possible.
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Optimize your vitamin D. Vitamin D influences virtually every cell in yourbody and is one of nature's most potent cancer fighters. Vitamin D is actuallyable to enter cancer cells and trigger apoptosis (cell death). If you havecancer, your vitamin D level should be between 70 and 100 ng/ml. Vitamin Dworks synergistically with every cancer treatment I'm aware of, with noadverse effects. I suggest you try watching my one-hour free lecture on

vitamin D to learn more. Limit your protein. Newer research has emphasized the importance of the

mTOR pathways. When these are active, cancer growth is accelerated. Thebest way to quiet this pathway is by limiting your protein to one gram ofprotein per kilogram of lean body weight, or roughly a bit less than half agram of protein per every pound of lean body weight. For most people thisranges between 40 and 70 grams of protein a day, which is about 2/3 to halfof what they are currently eating.

Avoid unfermented soy products. Unfermented soy is high in plantestrogens, or phytoestrogens, also known as isoflavones. In some studies,soy appears to work in concert with human estrogen to increase breast cellproliferation, which increases the chances for mutations and cancerous cells.

Improve your insulin and leptin receptor sensitivity. The best way todo this is by avoiding sugar and grains and restricting carbs to mostly fibervegetables. Also making sure you are exercising, especially with PeakFitness.

Maintain a healthy body weight. This will come naturally when you begineating right for your nutritional type and exercising. It's important to loseexcess body fat because fat produces estrogen.

Drink a pint to a quart of organic green vegetable juice daily. Pleasereview my juicing instructions for more detailed information.

Get plenty of high quality animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krilloil. Omega-3 deficiency is a common underlying factor for cancer.

Curcumin. This is the active ingredient in turmeric and in highconcentrations can be very useful adjunct in the treatment of cancer. Forexample, it has demonstrated major therapeutic potential in preventingbreast cancer metastasis.9 It's important to know that curcumin is generallynot absorbed that well, so I've provided several absorption tips here.

Avoid drinking alcohol, or at least limit your alcoholic drinks to one perday.

Avoid electromagnetic fields as much as possible. Even electricblankets can increase your cancer risk.

Avoid synthetic hormone replacement therapy, especially if you haverisk factors for breast cancer. Breast cancer is an estrogen-relatedcancer, and according to a study published in the Journal of the NationalCancer Institute, breast cancer rates for women dropped in tandem withdecreased use ofhormone replacement therapy. (There are similar risks foryounger women who use oral contraceptives. Birth control pills, which arealso comprised of synthetic hormones, have been linked to cervical andbreast cancers.)

If you are experiencing excessive menopausal symptoms, you may want toconsider bioidentical hormone replacement therapy instead, which uses
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hormones that are molecularly identical to the ones your body produces anddo not wreak havoc on your system. This is a much safer alternative.

Avoid BPA, phthalates and other xenoestrogens. These are estrogen-like compounds that have been linked to increased breast cancer risk

Make sure you're not iodine deficient, as there's compelling evidence

linking iodine deficiency with certain forms of cancer. Dr. David Brownstein10,author of the book Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It, isa proponent of iodine for breast cancer. It actually has potent anticancerproperties and has been shown to cause cell death in breast and thyroidcancer cells.

For more information, I recommend reading Dr. Brownstein's book. I havebeen researching iodine for some time ever since I interviewed Dr.Brownstein as I do believe that the bulk of what he states is spot on.However, I am not at all convinced that his dosage recommendations arecorrect. I believe they are too high.

Avoid charring your meats. Charcoal or flame broiled meat is linked withincreased breast cancer risk. Acrylamidea carcinogen created when starchyfoods are baked, roasted or friedhas been found to increase cancer risk aswell.
http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/11/30/exercise-protects-immune-system.aspx?e_cid=20121130_DNL_art_1#_edn10http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/03/25/how-to-protect-yourself-from-nuclear-radiation.aspxhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/03/25/how-to-protect-yourself-from-nuclear-radiation.aspxhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/02/05/yet-another-lurking-link-between-foods-and-cancer.aspxhttp://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/11/30/exercise-protects-immune-system.aspx?e_cid=20121130_DNL_art_1#_edn10http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/03/25/how-to-protect-yourself-from-nuclear-radiation.aspxhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/03/25/how-to-protect-yourself-from-nuclear-radiation.aspxhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/02/05/yet-another-lurking-link-between-foods-and-cancer.aspx

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