June 2010 | Natural Health with Merrilyn Hope

Easy Gluten Free Recipes

Gluten Free Diet:

Many thanks to Lok for this awesome pic of gluten free food: Stuffed Red Capsicums With Rice.

Here are a few of my most favourite easy gluten free recipes for you to try.

You also might like to look at merrilyn’s post entitled ‘Complete List of Gluten Free Foods’ and the cookie site Gluten Free Cookies.info

This collection of gluten free recipes has to begin with the ‘humble-pie’ cornmeal polenta porridge. Cornmeal, and brown rice, are the two grains which you will use a lot in your gluten free cooking. These are very nutritious, and, with the added help of a bit of soy, or chick pea flour, or arrowroot, you can learn to cook delicious wheat-free dishes: your visitors will never know the difference.

Polenta Porridge is a great way to start the day. You can add a grated apple to the serving of polenta, some olive oil, a dash of butter, or cream, or your favorite sort of milk, and you have a good, nourishing, high fiber, gluten free breakfast.

To make Polenta Porridge

Take a cup of yellow cornmeal groats. OR you can use fine, yellow cornmeal instead.
Add a 1/4 tsp of sea salt.
If you wish, add 1/2 cup of dates, or sultanas or raisins, to sweeten.
Add two cups and a half of water. Groats are best if you can soak them for an hour, as this quickens the cooking time and results in a softer porridge. If you are using fine yellow cornmeal, then mix the water in slowly as you stir, to get all the lumps out before you begin cooking.
Stir the polenta as you cook it over the stove. Once it is bubbling, turn the heat down to low and cook for a further five minutes on gentle heat. Remember to stir frequently.
If you can digest butter, then stir a tablespoon or two of butter nto the cooked polenta, just before you serve it. Butter renders the polenta ‘delicious’. If you do not wish to use butter, then add a tablespoon of olive oil or grapeseed oil to the plate of polenta. Butter or oils add nourishment to the polenta, and help digestion and assimilation of vitamins and minerals.
You can add sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and chopped almonds to give the polenta great flavor, texture, and added nourishment.

Flours for Gluten Free Pancakes

You can use any combination of these flours to make gluten free pancakes:
Arrowroot
Chick pea flour, or ‘Besan’ flour
Fine yellow cornmeal
Potato flour
Rice flour
Soy flour
Tapioca flour

Here is a combination for Gluten Free Pancakes which works well. These gluten free pancakes are great rolled up as a sweet, with maple syrup and whipped cream, or simply lemon juice and heavy brown sugar. Or they can be used with your favorite savory filling.

Get your measuring cup. Put in two tablespoons of chickpea flour, and two tablespoons of fine yellow cornmeal.
Top up the cup with arrowroot flour, or soy flour.
Break two large eggs in a bowl. Beat slightly.
Add half a cup of your favorite milk to the eggs, and beat again.
Add two tablespoons of olive oil, or grapeseed oil to the egg and milk mixture.
Add the cup of flour and a pinch of salt. Beat until smooth.
Add two more cups of milk. Beat.
Finally, add the juice of half a lemon.

Let the mixture stand for an hour before cooking.

Heat your heavy fry pan up. Add a teaspoon of butter, and spread it over the pan. Make sure the pan is hot, and then add a good half cup of batter to the pan. Tilt the pan so that the batter covers the base of the pan. Cook until small bubbles begin to appear in the batter, and it has firmed nicely, then flip and cook the other side.

Fill with your favorite filling.

Delicious Gluten Free Lemon Pudding

This pudding really is delicious, with a firm custard underneath it, and a light foamy sponge on top. It can be made with dairy milk, or with soy milk if you prefer. I have used coconut milk to make this pudding, and this has also been delicious, and a great hit with the family.

First, preheat your oven to 180C.

Two tablespoons of butter
200 gm of sugar
Juice of two lemons
Two teaspoons of finely grated lemon rind. Make sure you do not get any of the white flesh included, as this gives a bitter taste.
Four eggs.
One tablespoon of chickpea flour
One tablespoon of rice flour
One tablespoon of arrowroot or tapioca flour.
250 mls of milk
Optional – 2 tablespoons of coconut can be added for variety.

Grease your oven proof dish with a smear of butter, or olive oil.

Cream together the butter, sugar and lemon rind. Add the egg YOLKS. Mix in well, then add the flours, milk and lemon juice. Beat again.

In another clean bowl, beat up the egg whites with a pinch of salt. When peaks have formed, fold this beaten egg white gently into the first mixture.

Pour into your greased baking dish, and bake for about 25 minutes, or until the pudding is set and browned slightly.

Serve with cream, or stewed fruit.

Yoga Exercise for Varicose Veins

Yoga exercise is beneficial for everyone, as we all know. Here are a few very simple yoga exercises which will benefit people with varicose veins.
The first category of yoga exercise for varicose veins is the one which improves circulation. Improved circulation will help those sore veins.
The second category is the inverted posture: Inverted postures help drain old blood out of the legs, enabling new blood to nourish the veins. This exercise has the effect of relieving those tired and aching legs. The inverted posture also benefits the brain and the thyroid, as it causes more blood to reach the head area.

We will begin our exercise programme with some very simple yoga exercises which almost anyone can do.

Day One: The first exercise which you will learn, ‘the simple leg raising exercise’, will help your cicirculation, and give your legs a small opportunity to rest, as well.
The Simple Leg Raising Exercise: This exercise, believe it or not, has the combined effects of stimulating the circulation AND draining old blood from the legs. It is great for preventing constipation. It can be done at any time during the day, but it is a good one to do just before you go to bed, followed by the next listed here, the ‘simple inverted posture’. For preventing constipation, try to do the leg raising exercise as soon as you get up. These take so little time – the benefits are so great for the little time spent in doing them.
Just lie on the floor, hands beside the body on the floor. Breathe in a long, slow, deep breath. Hold the breath, and as you do, lift the legs up slowly until they are perpendicular to the body, upright, with the toes pointing towards the ceiling.
Hold the legs in this upright position, while you breath out slowly. Slowly take another breath in and out while you keep the legs up with the toes pointing towards the ceiling.
Take another slow breath in, filling the lungs completely. Hold the breath as you slowly lower the legs to the floor.
Breathe out again while your legs are lying relaxed on the floor. Take another breath in and out. Then take a deep breath in again, and hold the breath while you repeat the precedure of lifting the legs slowly up until the toes point to the sky.
Release the breath again, while you hold the legs in this position. Another breath in, and out. Then another breath in which you hold while the legs move down slowly to the floor again.
Repeat a third time. Then relax on the floor, breathing normally. Watch the breath as you lie relaxed on the floor, and feel the effect of having done this exercise.

Simple Leg Clasping Exercise: This is another good one to prevent constipation, as it massages the stomach area. This also aids digestion. The legs benefit too, as they are drawn up with the knees getting applied pressure as you do so. Lie on the floor. Draw the knees up towards the chest. Clasp the hands around the knees. Breathe in a deep breath. As you breathe out, pull the knees towards the chest, tugging the legs towards you. Release the pressure on the knees as you breathe in again, relaxing the pose a little, but keeping the hands clasped around the knees. Breathing out, pull the legs inward towards the chest again. Hold for a second, then breathe in as you let the knees move outward again. Repeat for up to five rounds.

Rest.

Easy Knee Massage: After you have done the above exercise, whilst you are still lying on the floor, or on your bed, you can give some gentle massage to the knees, using only the legs. Draw the knees upward off the floor. Just gently rub the inside of one knee against the other for half a minute. Put the legs down. Repeat. Then stop. This simple exercise will benefit your legs if you perform it at least once a day. You can do it even while you are in bed before sleeping, if you haven’t already done your exercises..

Simple Inverted Posture for Varicose Veins:
Lie close to a wall, close enough to touch the wall with your feet, with your knees bent.
Now place your legs up the wall. About two or three feet up the wall is a good height. Simply rest there, with your feet touching the wall. The wall holds the weight of your feet. Lie there for ten to twenty minutes, doing your yoga breathing. Imagine the tummy rising and falling with each breath, even if it is not moving much in this position. This exercise is also good for chest ailments, and asthma. Stop doing the exercise when it becomes uncomfortable, or if you are short of breath.

YOGA NIDRA , or the ‘Yoga of Sleep’ is beneficial for treating varicose veins. It is also excellent for destressing the body, and ridding feelings of anxiety, so these are very good reasons to do this exercise. People with varicose veins often have high blood pressure and high levels of stress which contribute to health problems. This is the very exercise to relieve these symptoms. This exercise could follow the inverted posture above. For instructions on how to do yoga nidra, see merrilyn’s post entitled: ‘yoga nidra’. Also see merrilyn’s post entitled ‘Yoga Breath and Sleeping Well’

Day Two: So – now you have done two simple yoga exercises, and maybe you have even done Yoga Nidra.Stimulating Circulation – Churning the Mill: This exercise most definitely belongs to the stimulating category. Churning the Mill is also great for massaging the intestines, which helps prevent constipation. Constipation is one of the main causes of varicose veins, and must be avoided if you are to improve those veins and prevent the condition from worsening. Perform Churning the Mill as soon as you get up, before the above two exercises, if you are able. It can be done at any time really, but it should always be done before the gentle exercises of your routine. Always perform Churning the Mill before Yoga Nidra.

Sit on the floor with your legs spread apart. Clasp the hands together. Breathe out, as you stretch out as far as you can over your left leg, without straining. Now, holding the clasped hands together, move the hands across to the right leg, reaching towards the foot. Breathing in, bring the clasped hands up along the leg, top the top of the thigh. Lean the body back back as you do so. Keep the arms straight if you can, for the whole of the exercise. The idea is that you bend backwards slightly as you draw the clasped hands up the legs, so that you keep the arms straight. Breathe out as you take the clasped hands back down the left leg towards the left foot. Breathe in as you bring the hands along the right leg, upwards towards the right thigh.

The lean backwards is important, as this brings the stomach muscles into play. This stimulates circulation whilst it massages the stomach area.

Continue the exercise. Begin with five rounds, or do only one or two if you find it difficult. Change the direction to perform the same amount of rounds going the opposite way. Build up your practice slowly so that you can do ten rounds each way.

Causes of Varicose Veins

The Main Causes of Varicose Veins

Lack of exercise, being over-weight, high cholesterol, poor nutrition which leads to constipation, lack of Vitamin C, E, Calcium and Magnesium, and alcohol and tobacco use are some of the main causes of varicose veins.

Lack of exercise causes poor circulation, which can lead to varicose veins. Constipation puts pressure on the veins, especially those in the legs and in the groin area.

Sometimes, an injury can predispose a person to getting varicose veins.

Prevent Varicose Veins By Getting Enough Exercise. Walking, swimming, dancing, cycling, are all good for the legs and improve the circulaton. Such simple exercises as the sit-up, or yoga ‘churning the mill’ exercises are often all it takes to cure the body of constipation. (merrilyn will put a post up on yoga esercises for constipation following this article)

Yoga head stands, and slant-board exercises, are helpful to the veins in the legs. It is a good idea to do, say, 10 minutes, of an upsidedown pose if you have been on your feet, or in your chair for much of the day.

Prevent Varicose Veins by eating High Fiber Foods.

Prevent Constipation: High fiber foods will ensure that you do not suffer from constipation. High fiber foods also help to protect you against high cholesterol, which is another contributing factor in people getting varicose veins.

Vitamin C and Bioflavanoids are excellent preventers of varicose veins. High fiber diets, especially where fruit and vegetables are eaten raw, will provide high amounts of vitamin C and Bioflavanoids. A supplement of Vitamin C can be taken daily to help treat varicose veins.

Vitamin C : A non-acidic form such as Ester C, or Calcium Ascorbate can be used – Take 1000 mg three times daily if your condition is severe. Take 1000 mg a day as a preventative, especially if you have a sedentary job.

Vitamin C, like Vitamin E, helps to dissolve deposits in the veins, so it is extremely important in treating varicose veins. It also aids healing, like Vitamin E. Vitamin C helps to keep the body alkaline, which is very important in preventing and treating varicose veins. It also helps to reduce toxins in the blood.

A supplement of Vitamin E – 1200 IU daily- can be taken to treat severe cases of varicose veins, according to Dr Wagner/Goldfarb. He recommends that you build up to this dose SLOWLY.

Vitamin E helps to reduce swelling, aids healing, and keeps the blood platelets from sticking together. It helps circulation. It is also an antioxidant and aids healing of the veins.

Note: Whereas Vitamin C is safe to take in anything up to 3000 mg a day, Vitamin E needs to be introduced carefully, and in small doses: Some people may react to such a large does as the one above which Dr Wagner recommends, so ask your health practitioner before you start Vitamion E treatment for varicose veins. Because Vitamin E thins the blood quite dramatically, it must not be taken with other blood thinning medications such as WARFARIN.

Calcium and Magnesium are often deficient in the diets of people with varicose veins. Calcium is important in building healthy, strong tissues, so your veins need a good amount of it in order to remain healthy. Calcium helps you process your food properly, and helps in elimination of waste products. You need vitamin C and vitamin D and magnesium for calcium to be assimilated properly. Take a supplement such as calcium citrate for easy absorption, or read merrilyn’s recipe in the post entitled ‘Best Calcium Supplement’.

Diet to Prevent and Help Varicose Veins: The diet should be high in protein, and lower in processed carbohydrates such as wheat flour and sugar. You should include plenty of high fiber in every meal: alkaline green vegetables such as broccoli, brussels sprouts, lettuce, and mung bean sprouts; brown rice with most meals to replace wheat products; oat-bran porroidge for breakfast, taken with a grated apple.

Eat plenty of root vegetables such as beetroot, carrots, parsnips and swedes. Include nuts and seeds in the daily diet, especially almonds and sunflower seeds.

Eat plenty of raw fruit, especially apples with the skins left on. Apples are very alkaline, and are very high in fiber. Bananas, pears, and stone fruits such as peaches, nectarines and apricots are all very good.

Whole grains such as brown rice and oatmeal bran will help you prevent varicose veins, and also help you to remedy the condition to some extent.

Lay Off: Sugar, wheat flour, dairy products and alcohol.

Avoid Foods Cooked in Fats. You need fats, but avoid the cooked ones. Cooked fats encourage the thickening up of the blood, which is what you want to avoid in preventing and treating varicose veins.

Eat Vitamin E Rich Oils to Prevent and Treat Varicose Veins. Opt for the health-giving oils which are high in Vitamin E, which thins the blood: olive oil, avocado oil, grapeseed oil, peanut oil and wheatgerm oil are all rich in nutrients which promote health. Use these on your salads to get your daily requirements of fat.

Cleanse the Bowels Regularly: Some sort of Detox Diet should start your programme to repair those veins. You could take a day or two on apples only, and use the castor oil treatment on a morning when you do not have to go to work. Try to do a detox once a week.

Castor oil taken internally helps mend broken veins and heal the vein walls. It also cleans your insides out. Take two tablespoons in the morning followed by a cup of black coffee. Do this once a week, or every second day if you are totally committed to repairing your state of health.

Some sort of Detox diet should start your programme to repair those veins.

Avoid Sitting Or Standing for Long Periods, and also avoid crossing the legs. Circulation is inhibited when you cross your legs. Circulaton is impaired if you have a job where you are stationed in the one spot for long, either sitting or standing, or are bed-ridden. In these situations you must remember to exercise your limbs every 30 minutes or so. Stretch, bend, go for a walk to the bathroom. If you are in bed, then simply flex the leg muscles and move and stretch the feet: this will help increase circulation.

Massage the legs briefly every 30 minutes or so to keep the blood and lymph moving from the legs. This must be done gently if you already have painful varicose veins. You can massage the legs from the knee down even while you sit at your computer, or your piano. It doesn’t take much – even a minute of massage will remind the leg veins to do their work.

Painful Varicose Veins can be helped by gently massaging castor oil into the legs at night. This has a soothing effect, and will help towards healing those affected veins.

Apple Cider Vinegar can be patted on after a shower. This helps improve the circulation. Potassium in the cider vinegar is helpful to the veins. The vinegar also has an astringent effect, and helps shrink the veins to a certain extent if it is used regularly in combination with an appropriate diet.

Anti-Inflammatory Herbs which will help you to shrink those varicose veins are:

Borage Oil. This can be massaged into the affected areas to help with shrinkage. Borage tea could be drunk freely during the day.

Comfrey. Comfrey, like borage, is high in silica and has healing properties which are unsurpassed by other herbs. See if you can get a supply of comfrey to make herbal teas from. Comfrey can be cooked into a pulp, left to cool, and used as a poultice on the sore veins. This is very effective for reducing swollen veins and alleviating pain.

Bromelin. This is another anti-inflammatory. Take 500 mg twice a day, between meals. You could include pineapple in the evening meal as a desert, as this also contains anti-inflammatory properties.

White Oak Bark is another excellent anti-inflammatory. Aspirin is actually a synthetic form of white oak bark properties. White oak bark helps soothe the tissues and the nerves as well, so it is a good anti-stress herb.

Herbs Which Improve Circulation should be used daily. Choose one or two out of either:

Cayenne Pepper, Capsicum, Prickly Ash, Horseradish, Ginger, Cloves or Cinnamon. Ginger/cinnamon tea could be drunk after each meal.

The Lemon Diet, or the Lemonade Diet for a day would be helpful in reducing swelling in the legs, removing toxins, and facilitating healing.
Simply take the juice of a lemon, add a teaspoon of honey. Fill your cup with medium to hot water. Add a pinch of cayenne, or ginger.
Repeat every hour, for every hour of the day that you can sustain it.
If you must break the diet, then try to eat only raw foods such as grapes, or apples, for the rest of the day.
See merrilyn’s post entitle Yoga Exercise for Varicose Veins

Best Calcium Supplement

Home Made Calcium/Magnesium Tonic is a rich source of natural calcium and magnesium.

Two teaspoons a day of our natural home made calcium supplement will provide you with the equivalent amount of calcioum in a glass of milk, or a handful of sesame seeds.

A handful of sesame seeds has about 1200mg of calcium and magnesium. whichis thought to be a reasonable dose for healthy people. If you have celiac disease, then you really need twice this amount.

This is where an extra dose of something like the home made calcium tonic comes in useful, as you can easily obtain the rest of your calcium requirements from taking a teaspoon or two of this each day. A teaspoon of dolomite powder gives you double the quantity of calcium and magnesium.

Calcium Protects against Cancer: Calcium is an essential component in the diet. Deficiencies of calcium can lead to cancers developing. Research has shown that diets rich in calcium foods help protect against cancers, especially cancer of the colon, which is an extremely common type of cancer.

Calcium Builds Stong Bones and Teeth, Hair and Nails. Calcium is, of course, essential for the building of strong bones and teeth, hair and nails, and is important for the functioning of the central nervous system. Good calcium absorption in the body helps build a strong immune system, which protects you against disease and sickness.

Home Made Calcium/Magnesium Tonic: The best calcium/magnesium supplement is one which you can make yourself, at home, with the most basic of ingredients. These ingredients are:

Apple cider vinegar
Egg shells from organic, free-range eggs.

All you do is take your egg shells, after your family have eaten that great egg omelette, and put them into a screw top jar. Crumble them up a bit, so that they break down more easily.

Cover the crumbled egg shells with pure, organic apple cider vinegar. Put the lid on the jar, and wait for your home-made calcium/magnesium tonic to mature.

You can begin to use the mixture after a day or so, when the apple cider vinegar will have dissolved much of the calcium and magnesium from the egg shells.

Take a couple of teaspoons night and morning, or more if you have a condition such as osteoporosis, where calcium has already begun to leach out of the bones.

The egg shell calcium tonic with cider vinegar is the best liquid calcium supplement. It is the perfect way to take extra calcium, as it is easily assimilated, and is rich also in magnesium, which helps your body to assimilate calcium properly. It also contains traces of zinc and other trace elements which are essential for good health.

Keep the mixture in the fridge for up to a week, and then make up some fresh calcium/magnesium tonic.

Causes of Breast Cancer

Causes of Breast Cancer

Many articles will tell you that the causes of breast cancer are unknown. Some doctors will tell you that breast cancer is hereditary. However, there are some chemicals and some factors which are known to contribute towards people succumbing to breast cancer.

Radiation

X Ray radiation of the chest area in childhood, or during youth, can cause breast cancer to develop later in a woman’s life.

The women who were exposed to the Hiroshima bomb succumbed more easily to breast cancer, and other cancers, than women of the same generation who were not irradiated.

Your health can suffer, and your immune system beomome damaged, because of living, or working, too close to electricity transformers, meter boxes, cell phone towers, overhead power lines, sleeping next to power sources, and over use of cell phones.

Toxic Chemicals Contaminate Environment

For most people, the main risk factors in getting breast cancer lie in the fact that so many toxic chemicals are widely used in our environments and our homes.

Petro-chemicals can cause breast cancer, and other cancers, to develop.

Organo-chlorides which are found in many herbicides, and pesticides, are known to have a carcinogen effect, especially in the forming of breast, ovarian and uterine cancers.

Herbicides, widely used by councils in spraying whole areas at a time, which they will call a spraying ‘programme’, are a real threat to adults, and even more to children who often walk these sprayed areas to get to and from school, or to the school bus. Even if we are not actively walking in these areas, the spray drift is affecting all those who live in the area.

Herbicide use in public areas should definitely be banned, for the sake of all. The risk is just too great. Our children may be in fairly good health now, but these poisons will affect the health of many children in later life, and predispose them to cancer and other disease related to immune disfunction.

Toxins such as Propylene Glycol, Dioxin, which is found in 245T, or Agent Orange, DDT, 24D, Roundup, and many other herbicides and insecticides are all thought to increase cancer risk. Some of these chemicals are now banned, such as DDT. However, DDT still remains in the soils where it was used, and these residues still find their way into our food chain.

245T, which is now banned, was known to affect the genetic structure of humans. This has resulted in deformities of children, who may be at risk of having deformed children themselves, since 245T affects the genes.

We who protested against the use of 245T, or ‘agent orange’ in the 1970’s were told by government authorities in New Zealand that it was not proven that this chemical caused cancer, or deformities, or anything else, and so its use would be continued here.

Actually, the effects of 2,4,5,T and 2,4,D, WERE known – the effects of using ‘Agent Orange’ , a combination of the two chemicals, in Viet Nam proved how harmful it was. It was banned in all other western countries long before New Zealand banned it, because Dow chemicals (Ivan Watkins Dow) were making the stuff here, at New Plymouth, New Zealand.

After aerial spraying over our house and stream which was our water source, I became very ill. I was around six months pregnant at the time. Friends advised to go and see the local doctor in the Hokianga, so that my case should be recorded as being caused by 2,4,5,T. Hopefully, we thought, a register of all ill-health related to 2,4,5,T was being kept.

But, instead of recording my ill-health as the after-math of aerial 2,4,5,T spraying, the doctor told me I was imagining I was ill. I was a hypochondriac, he said, because there was no proof that 2,4,5,T caused any harm to human beings. He failed to record my case of 2,4,5,T related symptoms – breathing difficulties, asthma-like symptoms, feeling nauseous all the time, bone pains, and having literally no energy to do the simplest task.

Six months later, my baby had died. And around four or five years later, I had a breast lump which my doctor advised to have biopsied.

Instead of trusting any more medical people, or scientists, I decided to cure the thing myself. This was when I discovered, first, Walter Last, the Whangarei healer, and then the Dr Gerson therapy for cancer. Both these healers, in their own way, helped me recover.

Common sense must prevail. Don’t wait for chemicals to be banned after they have wreaked havoc in the environment, and killed people. Avoid them NOW, and protect your children’s health, as well as your own.

Harmful Chemicals in Personal Care Products

Many harmful chemicals are used in cosmetics and personal care products, and even baby products. Dioxin is one chemical which is still to be found in some under-arm deodorants, among other cosmetic products.

The chemical list of carcenogens is extensive and lengthy. The simple message is that you should avoid ALL the chemicals that you can. Learn how to live without them. Learn how to manage weeds and insects by natural means. If you can’t, then learn how to live with the weeds instead, as they will most likely benefit your health, whereas toxic herbicides won’t.

Toxic Chemicals are in Our Clothing Fabrics

These days, much of our clothing, including our underwear, is made cheaply in China, and this means that very often, the fabrics are synthetic, petroleum-based products. These synthetic fabrics contain many chemicals which adversely affect the health. Often, cheap dyes are used in clothing made in China: Many of the dyes used to dye fabric and leather contain excessive amounts of formaldehyde, which is a carcenogen. These chemicals are readily absorbed through the pores of your skin, and into your body, where they can be stored. These stored chemicals are a potential risk in getting cancer.

The Bra Restricts Blood and Lymph

The Wearing of the bra in order to keep a perfect shape might contribute towards some women developing breast cancer. It is thought that the wearing of a tight bra around the whole of the chest and breast area could contribute to cancerous conditions setting in, because the bra restricts the blood and energy flow. The bra stops the lymph from travelling freely about the body, locking it in around the breast area. This means that drainage of waste products from the chest area will be blocked, because the lymph cannot carry them away efficiently.

The Contraceptive Pill or Injection

Contraceptives interfere with your body’s hormone production and regulation, which is why the contraceptive is a risk factor in getting cancer. It also robs the body of certain nutrients, which is another negative factor. There are many other medications which can contribute towards cancer and other degenerative disease, but the contraceptive pill or injection probably poses the biggest threat, as it is taken long term, and this means that your hormonal system is continually being interfered with, long term.

Innoculations Lower Your Immunity:

Innoculations for diseases like influenza, whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria and the like, actually reduce your immunity. They might protect you against one outbreak of flu, or some other disease, but at the risk of getting more severe diseases in later life. Children who have had the range of injections for various diseases in childhood will have an immune system which is severly weakened, which will predispose them to immune function diseases like cancer, including breast cancer, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis, in later years.

Personally, after my eldest child was affected adversely by a series of injections in childhood, I refused to take part in this innoculation charade. There are other options, like homeopathy, vitamin therapy, acupuncture, and herbal medecine which prevent diseases and work cures. However, there is a place for everything: get advice from your doctor or homeopath before you decide NOT to go for that innoculation which everybody is racing to get.

Alcohol, Marijuana, and Cigarettes

Women who drink more than two glasses of alcohol per day are twice as likely to get breast cancer, or some other form of cancer, than women who rarely drink. Marijuana smokers, and cigarette smokers, also double their chances of getting breast cancer, and other cancers, including lung cancer.

Nutritional Deficiencies Can Cause Cancer

Give yourself and your family a diet which is high in all the necessary nutrients. Ensure that you eat plenty of foods which are rich in Iodine and Calcium. These are both essential to good health and to preventing cancer. Make sure that every meal contains plenty of Roughage . Roughage is the other essential factor in preventing cancer.

Remember the three cancer preventers – Roughage – Iodine – Calcium.

Avoid Processed Foods which have Chemical Additives

Processed foods contain many chemicals which are hazardous to the health, especially if you eat a lot of this food. These chemicals build up in the body, until one day – boomph – some disease ‘hits’ you, like breast cancer. Detoxifying diets, or the castor oil treatment taken once a week, are ways in which you can reduce the toxins in your body, to help prevent cancer.

Other Things to Do to Prevent Breast Cancer

Give up smoking. Limit, or give up alcohol. Give up all drugs unless it is a medication which your life depends on.

You can remove your bra when you get home from work. You can make sure that it is made of cotton, rather than a synthetic material, and that it is not too tight.

Well wash that new bra before beginning to wear it.

Try to wear cotton fabrics rather than anything synthetic. This is especially important for fabrics which touch the skin. Again, well wash any new item of clothing before you begin to wear it.

You can take measures to detoxify the body, so that any toxic residues which have built up in your body get eliminated over time. Days on the apple diet, or the castor oil cleanse used once a week, will help your body to detoxify. You can help your children’s health by giving them mainly apples to eat on certain days of the week, as this will help them to detoxify as well.

You can throw out all the chemicals – all the herbicides and insecticides which you have about your house. You can check your make-up. Throw out all dubious products. Give up hair dye and nail polish – these contribute to cancer.

Read merrilyn’s article on ‘household chemical reactions’ for more information on chemicals which cause cancer and other disease.