There was both good and bad news in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) monumental “Third National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals.”

Good news first. The study, which CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding says is the “largest and most comprehensive report of its kind ever released anywhere by anyone,” found that secondhand smoke exposure among Americans has gone down significantly, as have lead blood levels in children.

Specifically, from 1999 to 2002, exposure to secondhand smoke, as measured by median levels of cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine, decreased (compared to levels from 1988-1991):

• 68 percent in children
• 69 percent in adolescents
• 75 percent in adults

And, only 1.6 percent of children between the ages of 1 and 5 had elevated blood lead levels, compared to 4.4 percent in the early 1990s.

Cadmium Levels Raise Concern

Now for the bad news.

About 5 percent of people aged 20 and over had urinary cadmium levels at or near levels that may cause health problems. Studies have found that urine levels of cadmium as low as 1 microgram per gram of creatinine may be linked to kidney injury and an increased risk for low bone mineral density.

Click here to read more.

For 40 million Americans, waking up feeling rested is as elusive as the proverbial white rabbit. These people suffer from chronic sleep disorders such as insomnia that prevent them from getting the sleep they need to feel refreshed.

And they are not alone. Another 70 million Americans are affected by non-chronic sleep problems, while 20 million to 30 million have intermittent sleep-related problems. It’s quite ironic, really, that so many of us have trouble with an activity that’s supposed to take up about one-third of our lives!

So why are we all not sleep “experts,” laying down at night only to fall asleep, sound asleep, as soon as our head hits the pillow?

Click here to read more.

Your circadian rhythm, or your body’s internal clock, regulates numerous biological processes that take place in your body throughout the day and night.

Your biological clock regulates what time you go to sleep and wake up, and it also has profound impacts on other areas of your physical and mental health, such as your metabolism, sleep, weight, and risk of diseases and mood disorders.

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Nearly 21 percent of U.S. adults smoke cigarettes, and countless others have smoked at some point in their life. This habit continues to be the leading cause of preventable death in the country, causing about one out of every five deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A top health concern for smokers is lung cancer, of which smoking causes about 90 percent of cases. Your risk of dying from lung cancer is 23 times higher for men who smoke cigarettes and 13 times higher for women compared to non-smokers. Aside from lung cancer, smoking can lead to other forms of cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive lung disease.

The best way to prevent these illnesses, of course, is to quit smoking. But for those who are current or past smokers, there may be a way to reduce some of the harm cigarettes do to your body: make wise food choices.

Which Foods May be Best for Smokers?

New research has emerged that suggests certain compounds in fruits and vegetables can help to counteract some of the damage of smoking.

One study, published in the journal Cancer, found that certain flavonoid compounds including epicatechin, catechin, quercetin, and kaempferol helped to prevent lung cancer in tobacco smokers.

Click here to read more.

Your spine, sometimes called your backbone, has an important job to do every day: it supports your entire body.

The spine itself is a series of bones (vertebrae) held together by fibrous bands (ligaments). Specifically, it consists of seven neck vertebrae, 12 middle back vertebrae, and five lower back vertebrae. Below that is the sacrum, which contains five fused vertebrae, and then three small fused vertebrae, known as the tailbone. You may not realize it, but this bony column actually takes up about half of the volume of your torso, from front to back!

What is the Purpose of Your Spine?

Well, it does much more than simply hold you up. Your spine is the structure that your muscles, shoulders and pelvis are attached to, and the muscles are what move the spine through its full range of motion. Your spine also supports your head (all 10-12 pounds of it).

Beyond its supportive role, your spine protects your spinal cord, which is housed in the vertebrae. Millions of messages from your brain are carried through your spinal cord and the nerves that branch off from it, communicating with all of the organs and parts of your body.

Your spine is actually uniquely formed with interlocking joint structures and flexible discs between the vertebrae so that you can have flexibility and mobility without having to worry about damaging your spinal cord (and potentially interfering with your brain’s ability to communicate with your entire body).

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About 10 million people in the United States suffer from fibromyalgia, a syndrome characterized by chronic widespread pain, sleep disturbances, fatigue and, often, psychological distress as a result. Of them, about 75-90 percent are women, according to the National Fibromyalgia Association (NFA).
Because people with fibromyalgia often “test” healthy according to typical medical diagnostic procedures, it takes an average of five years for a person to be correctly diagnosed. There are currently no laboratory tests that can detect it, so doctors rely on patient symptoms, medical histories and a “manual tender point” examination.

If a person experiences widespread pain in the body’s four quadrants for three months or more, along with tenderness or pain in 11 of 18 specific “tender” points upon pressure, a diagnosis of fibromyalgia is typically given. There is also a new set of criteria — a “widespread pain index” that also measures symptom severity — that the American College of Rheumatology recently approved as an effective new diagnostic tool.

For many years, people were told by their doctors that fibromyalgia was all in their heads, but with recent advances the medical community is beginning to accept the syndrome as a real medical condition … one that demands safe and effective treatment.

Click here to read more.

Take a simple 3-part test to see if your pain is caused by something that may have in the past even fooled one or more of your doctors!

Why is Wrist Pain so Prevalent?

Millions of Americans suffer from chronic wrist pain that can range from tingling, to throbbing, to sharp and piercing. The incidence of wrist pain (and hand pain) has been the most common complaint involving the upper extremities ever since we all started spending so much time using computers (and therefore keyboards and mice), according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Computers, of course, are not the only things to blame for Americans’ painful wrists. It may simply be that our wrists (all nine tendons, six bones, two nerves, tissue and more) are just not cut out for the rigors of daily life.

Click here to read more.

Americans spend nearly eight hours a day sitting (and another four hours watching TV and playing computer games) according to a Harris poll conducted by the America On the Move Foundation. Now consider your own day. How many hours per day do you spend sitting at a desk, either in your office or at home?
Chances are it’s a pretty substantial amount of time. Between work and the endless number of things people now use computers for, you may easily be spending more time at your desk than anywhere else, which is why learning how to sit at a desk and still be healthy is so important.

The Downfalls of Sitting Too Much

In general, sitting (whether at a desk, in the car or elsewhere) for too long is not a health-promoting thing to do. For one thing, it can cause you to gain weight. A study in the International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders found that those who had high daily levels of sitting (7.4 hours or more) were significantly more likely to be overweight or obese than those who reported low daily sitting levels (less than 4.7 hours a day).

Click here to read more.

Many breast cancer patients come to me for immune and wellness support while they are getting treatment for their breast cancer.

After surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, breast cancer patients are normally followed at approximately three month intervals by their oncologists for possible recurrence.

The patients who stay with me after the completion of their formal traditional therapy for breast cancer, realize that ongoing immune and well-being support is necessary to keep their body as healthy as possible.

One of the things we discus often is diet. The recommended diet for breast cancer survivors spreads on the spectrum from Paleo with a heavy meat diet, to an all vegan diet. Everybody has their own perspective on this.

For years, one of the things that breast cancer survivors have been the most fearful of is soybeans and soy products. Somehow many years ago there came the belief that soy because it contains “phytoestrogens”, could stimulate the recurrence of breast cancer. The word estrogen has scared everybody, and breast cancer survivors as well as healthy people who want to protect themselves from breast cancer avoid soy products for that reason.

But with the latest information, we realize that this has all been a myth!

Fortunately my longtime colleague Michael Greger, M.D. has done a wonderful review of the soy and breast cancer literature which was actually published three years ago. And now he has a recent update with even more information about soy and breast health.

With the latest knowledge we have come to learn there are two estrogen receptors, and that is why soy can be so helpful, not only for breast cancer protection but also for bone density.

As Dr Greger points out “How can soy foods have it both ways, pro-estrogenic effects in some organs (protecting bones and reducing hot flash symptoms) but anti-estrogenic effects in others (protecting against breast and endometrial cancer)?”

In these two videos he reviews all the studies on soy and breast cancer, and clearly shows that women who ate the HIGHEST amount of soy after breast cancer had the LONGEST survival! So soy actually protects against future breast cancer!

This is the opposite of what women have been told for years and what women today are still being told by their oncologists.

I urge you to watch these videos and eat soy to stay healthy!

And here is the second one:

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Here is a list of references to bring to your oncologist:

1. W.-C. Chang, M. L. Wahlqvist, H.-Y. Chang, C.-C. Hsu, M.-S. Lee, W.-S. Wang, C. A. Hsiung. A bean-free diet increases the risk of all-cause mortality among Taiwanese women: The role of the metabolic syndrome. Public Health Nutr. 2012 15(4):663 – 672.
2. S. J. Nechuta, B. J. Caan, W. Y. Chen, W. Lu, Z. Chen, M. L. Kwan, S. W. Flatt, Y. Zheng, W. Zheng, J. P. Pierce, X. O. Shu. Soy food intake after diagnosis of breast cancer and survival: An in-depth analysis of combined evidence from cohort studies of US and Chinese women. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2012 96(1):123 – 132.
3. Y.-F. Zhang, H.-B. Kang, B.-L. Li, R.-M. Zhang. Positive effects of soy isoflavone food on survival of breast cancer patients in China. Asian Pac. J. Cancer Prev. 2012 13(2):479 – 482.
4. M. Zanovec, C. E. O’Neil, T. A. Nicklas. Comparison of Nutrient Density and Nutrient-to-Cost between Cooked and Canned Beans. Food Nutr Sci. 2011 2(2):66–73.
5. S. M. Krebs-Smith, P. M. Guenther, A. F. Subar, S. I. Kirkpatrick, K. W. Dodd. Americans do not meet federal dietary recommendations. J. Nutr. 2010 140(10):1832 – 1838.
6. I. Darmadi-Blackberry, M. L. Wahlqvist, A. Kouris-Blazos, B. Steen, W. Lukito, Y. Horie, K. Horie. Legumes: The most important dietary predictor of survival in older people of different ethnicities. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2004 13(2):217 – 220.
7. D. M. Winham, A. M. Hutchins. Perceptions of flatulence from bean consumption among adults in 3 feeding studies. Nutr J. 2011 10:128.
8. H. M. Spiro. Fat, foreboding, and flatulence. Ann. Intern. Med. 1999 130(4 Pt 1):320 – 322.
9. R. S. Sandler, N. L. Zorich, T. G. Filloon, H. B. Wiseman, D. J. Lietz, M. H. Brock, M. G. Royer, R. K. Miday. Gastrointestinal symptoms in 3181 volunteers ingesting snack foods containing olestra or triglycerides. A 6-week randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Ann Intern Med. 1999 130(4 Pt 1):253–261.
10. S. E. Fleming, A. U. O’Donnell, J. A. Perman. Influence of frequent and long-term bean consumption on colonic function and fermentation. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1985 41(5):909 – 918.
11. N. Desrochers, P. M. Brauer. Legume promotion in counselling: an e-mail survey of dietitians. Can J Diet Pract Res. 62(4):193–198.
12. R. Bosviel, E. Dumollard, P. Déchelotte, Y. J. Bignon, D. Bernard-Gallon. Can soy phytoestrogens decrease DNA methylation in BRCA1 and BRCA2 oncosuppressor genes in breast cancer? OMICS. 16(5):235–244.
13. A. H Wu, D. V. Spicer, M. C. Pike. Soy isoflavones for breast cancer risk reduction. Cancer Prev Res. 2012 5(7):984–985.
14. P. Magee, I. Rowland. Soy products in the management of breast cancer. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2012 15(6):586–591.
15. H. B. Kang, Y. F. Zhang, J. D. Yang, K. L. Lu. Study on soy isoflavone consumption and risk of breast cancer and survival. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2012 13(3):995–998.
16. R. Swann, K. A. Perkins, L. S. Velentzis, C. Ciria, S. J. Dutton, A. A. Mulligan, J. V. Woodside, M. M. Cantwell, A. J. Leathem, C. E. Robertson, M. V. Dwek. The DietCompLyf study: a prospective cohort study of breast cancer survival and phytoestrogen consumption. Maturitas. 2013 75(3):232–240.
17. S. N. Vasilatos, G. Broadwater, W. T. Barry, J. C. Jr Baker, S. Lem, E. C. Dietze, G. R. Bean, A. D. Bryson, P. G. Pilie, V. Goldenberg, D. Skaar, C. Paisie, A. Torres-Hernandez, T. L. Grant, L. G. Wilke, C. Ibarra-Drendall, J. H. Ostrander, N. C. D’Amato, C. Zalles, R. Jirtle, V. M. Weaver, V. L. Seewaldt. CpG island tumor suppressor promoter methylation in non-BRCA-associated early mammary carcinogenesis. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009 18(3):901–914.
18. A. Bal, S. Verma, K. Joshi, A. Singla, R. Thakur, S. Arora, G. Singh. BRCA1-methylated sporadic breast cancers are BRCA-like in showing a basal phenotype and absence of ER expression. Virchows Arch. 2012 461(3):305–312.
19. M. A. Arnold, M. Goggins. BRCA2 and predisposition to pancreatic and other cancers. Expert Rev Mol Med. 2001 2001:1–10.

And here is an additional list with many more articles:

1. McCarty MF. Isoflavones made simple – genistein’s agonist activity for the beta-type estrogen receptor mediates their health benefits. Med Hypotheses. 2006;66(6):1093–114.
2. Oseni T, Patel R, Pyle J, Jordan VC. Selective estrogen receptor modulators and phytoestrogens. Planta Med. 2008 Oct;74(13):1656–65.
3. Mueller SO, Simon S, Chae K, Metzler M, Korach KS. Phytoestrogens and their human metabolites show distinct agonistic and antagonistic properties on estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) and ERbeta in human cells. Toxicol Sci. 2004 Jul;80(1):14–25.
4. Kuiper GG, Gustafsson JA. The novel estrogen receptor-beta subtype: potential role in the cell- and promoter-specific actions of estrogens and anti-estrogens. FEBS Lett. 1997 Jun 23;410(1):87–90.
5. Lapcík O, Hampl R, Hill M, Wähälä K, Maharik NA, Adlercreutz H. Radioimmunoassay of free genistein in human serum. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 1998 Mar;64(5–6):261–8.
6. Taylor AH, Al-Azzawi F. Immunolocalisation of oestrogen receptor beta in human tissues. J Mol Endocrinol. 2000 Feb;24(1):145–55.
7. Rossouw JE, Anderson GL, Prentice RL, LaCroix AZ, Kooperberg C, Stefanick ML, Jackson RD, Beresford SA, Howard BV, Johnson KC, Kotchen JM, Ockene J; Writing Group for the Women’s Health Initiative Investigators. Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women: principal results From the Women’s Health Initiative randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2002 Jul 17;288(3):321–33.
8. Fugh-Berman A, Pearson C. The overselling of hormone replacement therapy. Pharmacotherapy. 2002 Sep;22(9):1205–8.
9. Fioravanti L, Cappelletti V, Miodini P, Ronchi E, Brivio M, Di Fronzo G. Genistein in the control of breast cancer cell growth: insights into the mechanism of action in vitro. Cancer Lett. 1998 Aug 14;130(1–2):143–52.
10. So FV, Guthrie N, Chambers AF, Carroll KK. Inhibition of proliferation of estrogen receptor-positive MCF–7 human breast cancer cells by flavonoids in the presence and absence of excess estrogen. Cancer Lett. 1997 Jan 30;112(2):127–33.
11. Nagel SC, vom Saal FS, Welshons WV. The effective free fraction of estradiol and xenoestrogens in human serum measured by whole cell uptake assays: physiology of delivery modifies estrogenic activity. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1998 Mar;217(3):300–9.
12. Grady D, Gebretsadik T, Kerlikowske K, Ernster V, Petitti D. Hormone replacement therapy and endometrial cancer risk: a meta-analysis. Obstet Gynecol. 1995 Feb;85(2):304–13.
13. Sammartino A, Di Carlo C, Mandato VD, Bifulco G, Di Stefano M, Nappi C. Effects of genistein on the endometrium: ultrasonographic evaluation. Gynecol Endocrinol. 2003 Feb;17(1):45–9.
14. Ollberding NJ, Lim U, Wilkens LR, Setiawan VW, Shvetsov YB, Henderson BE, Kolonel LN, Goodman MT. Legume, soy, tofu, and isoflavone intake and endometrial cancer risk in postmenopausal women in the multiethnic cohort study. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2012 Jan 4;104(1):67–76.
15. Myung SK, Ju W, Choi HJ, Kim SC; Korean Meta-Analysis (KORMA) Study Group. Soy intake and risk of endocrine-related gynaecological cancer: a meta-analysis. BJOG. 2009 Dec;116(13):1697–705.
16. Somekawa Y, Chiguchi M, Ishibashi T, Aso T. Soy intake related to menopausal symptoms, serum lipids, and bone mineral density in postmenopausal Japanese women. Obstet Gynecol. 2001 Jan;97(1):109–15.
17. Wei P, Liu M, Chen Y, Chen DC. Systematic review of soy isoflavone supplements on osteoporosis in women. Asian Pac J Trop Med. 2012 Mar;5(3):243–8.
18. Lydeking-Olsen E, Beck-Jensen JE, Setchell KD, Holm-Jensen T. Soymilk or progesterone for prevention of bone loss–a 2 year randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Eur J Nutr. 2004 Aug;43(4):246–57.
19. Morabito N, Crisafulli A, Vergara C, Gaudio A, Lasco A, Frisina N, D’Anna R, Corrado F, Pizzoleo MA, Cincotta M, Altavilla D, Ientile R, Squadrito F. Effects of genistein and hormone-replacement therapy on bone loss in early postmenopausal women: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study. J Bone Miner Res. 2002 Oct;17(10):1904–12.
20. Vidal O, Kindblom LG, Ohlsson C. Expression and localization of estrogen receptor-beta in murine and human bone. J Bone Miner Res. 1999 Jun;14(6):923–9.
21. Zhang X, Shu XO, Li H, Yang G, Li Q, Gao YT, Zheng W. Prospective cohort study of soy food consumption and risk of bone fracture among postmenopausal women. Arch Intern Med. 2005 Sep 12;165(16):1890–5.
22. Reinwald S, Weaver CM. Soy components vs. whole soy: are we betting our bones on a long shot? J Nutr. 2010 Dec;140(12):2312S–2317S.
23. Labrie F. All sex steroids are made intracellularly in peripheral tissues by the mechanisms of intracrinology after menopause. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2015 Jan;145:133–8.
24. Vierk KA, Koehler KM, Fein SB, Street DA. Prevalence of self-reported food allergy in American adults and use of food labels. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2007 Jun;119(6):1504–10.