TriVita Article: Colorectal Cancer – It’s Common and Very Curable In Its Early Stages

Should you be screened?
By Dr. Samuel N. Grief

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States and the second most common cause of cancer-related death. Leading healthcare professionals realize the importance of educating the public about this deadly disease and that is why March has been designated National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

Understandably, the colon and rectum are neither glamorous nor easy topics to discuss with your healthcare provider. Nonetheless, it is extremely important that you or your provider bring this topic up during one of your next medical visits to ensure you will be properly
assessed and screened for any colorectal disease.

Why should I be screened for colorectal cancer?
Most colorectal cancers arise from pre-existing polyps. These polyps occur in approximately 30% of adults age 50 years and older and occur more commonly as we age. The goal of colorectal cancer screening is to identify early cancers and polyps in order to limit the spread of disease and save lives.

How often should I be screened?
Routine screening should occur on the following basis and by one or more of the following methods:

• Annual testing of your stool for hidden blood [also known as fecal occult blood test (FOBT)
• Flexible sigmoidoscopy every five years
• Colonoscopy every ten years

FOBT is the easiest to perform and can be done in the privacy of your own home. Application of a stool specimen to special testing cards on three consecutive days is the most common way of performing this test.

Flexible sigmoidoscopy is done at your doctor’s office and requires brief preparation with a stool cleanser or laxative. The instrument, a sigmoidoscope, is a short, flexible tube that uses a fiber optic light to see up to about 60 cm (about 2 feet) inside your rectum and colon. This procedure will not detect any disease within the colon above this distance. Most medical societies recommend combining flexible sigmoidoscopy with FOBT every five years to enhance screening.

Colonoscopy is the best test for identifying colon polyps. Medical authorities recognize this procedure as inherently the most risky, too.
While perforation of the colon may occur, it is quite rare. Also, most physicians performing this procedure place their patients under conscious sedation, meaning you will be awake but not truly alert. This may place you at increased risk for lung and heart complications if you have underlying lung and heart disease.

What can I do to prevent colorectal cancer?
There are several things that may lessen your risk for developing disease of the colon and rectum:

• Keep the weight off – many scientific studies confirm the association between obesity and risk for colorectal cancer.
• Lower your fat intake – less fat in one’s diet may decrease the risk for developing colon polyps, the precursor to cancer.
• Eat less red meat – there is some controversy here, but red meat has very little fiber and slows up the bowel function, allowing toxins to fester within your bowels. Additionally, one scientific study confirmed an association between red meat consumption and increased colon cancer in women.
• Increase your dietary fiber – fiber is great for your overall health and improves bowel function. However, it has not been scientifically-proven to lower your risk for colorectal cancer.
• Vitamin and mineral supplements – Vitamin D and calcium have been scientifically shown to help reduce the development of colon polyps. Calcium seems to be the strong partner here, but Vitamin D assists calcium absorption within the intestines. That’s why I recommend a calcium supplement for bone health and general well-being, especially as we age.
• Other medicines, such as aspirin or its cousins, are potentially useful to lower the risk for colorectal disease, but their side effects of bleeding and kidney and liver problems make them unsuitable for most people. Lastly, cholesterol-lowering medicines known as statins have also been found in several studies to have a link to lower risk for colorectal disease.

Call a Wellness Consultant at 1-800-991-7116 to make sure you are taking a quality Vitamin D supplement. TriVita offers two excellent choices: VitaCal-Mag D and Bone Builder.

Source: TriVita VitaJournal March 2009 pg 14.

Why Vitamin D Stands For “illness-fighter”

By Dr. Tammy Pon

Practically every day another benefit of Vitamin D is revealed. Vitamin D is created when our skin is exposed to sunshine. It is also present in our diet, mainly in cold-water fish and dark green vegetables.

A recent newspaper headline read, “Vitamin D Linked to Parkinson’s disease.” At first glance, it may not be clear if Vitamin D is a culprit or an “illness-fighter.” Well, in fact, just as Vitamin D helps build bones, Vitamin D plays a role in building our brains – it is an “illness-fighter.”

Vitamin D and Parkinson’s
Previous studies have shown that the part of the brain affected most by Parkinson’s, the substantia nigra, has high levels of the Vitamin D receptor, which suggests Vitamin D may be important for normal functions of these cells.

If we look at other Vitamin D research, low levels of Vitamin D have been found to be associated with:

• Many neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s
• Autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis
• Metabolic disorders such as diabetes.

Vitamin D is formed when sunlight strikes the skin and interacts with cholesterol. Its main to the bones.

Vitamin D – a messenger
Information is carried by a number of messengers inside your body, including proteins and fats. Vitamin D can also act like a messenger, telling the cells how much work to do.

Think of this like building a house. Proteins give specific instructions in the same way a carpenter may decide how best to connect walls and windows and doors. Fats may serve as the building materials for the entire house. Vitamin D serves as the general contractor to determine how much building should be done at any specific time.

We certainly need proteins and protein complexes of Vitamin B-12 to create the structures making up our brain. We also need the fats found in such products as OmegaPrime® to serve as raw materials and general information on brain repair. We need Vitamin D to tell us how much brain to build when we are young and how much repair work to do as we age.

Why winter is the time for more Vitamin D
We get Vitamin D from sunlight, foods and supplements. Because we are exposed to less sunshine in the winter than in the summer, we need to be more vigilant about supplementing with Vitamin D and exposing our skin to sunshine whenever practical. Most doctors who recommend Vitamin D explain that winter cold and flu outbreaks are directly related to Vitamin D deficiency.

If you take supplements to ensure you’re getting enough Vitamin D, make sure they’re the type that your body can really use. It’s best to take supplements formulated for maximum absorption, such as TriVita’s VitaCal-Mag D™ or TriVita Bone Builder. This way, you can help ensure that you’re getting the full benefits of Vitamin D to meet the serious challenges of daily life.

Source: TriVita VitaJournal January 2009 pg 25.

TriVita Article: Is The Sun Our Enemy?

Summary of Article Is The Sun Our Enemy?
by Dr Brazos Minshew

Humans have existed on earth for many thousands of years. Until recently, we spent our days in the sun. Now, physicians and scientists say that sun exposure is “bad” for us. Is that true? When did the sun become our enemy? How much is enough and what is the best way to maintain balance when it comes to sun exposure?

Sunlight: crucial for life, health and happiness!

• Life – It is crucial for life because all life on earth as we know it depends (to a greater or lesser extent) on photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the way plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen through chlorophyll and sunlight.
• Health – It is crucial for health because sunlight creates Vitamin D as it interacts with our skin.
• Happiness – It is crucial for happiness because sunlight activates hormones in the brain that create a sense of euphoria.

Humans are diurnal: we are awake in the daytime and asleep at night. We are designed to live in sunlight. Our skin interacts with sunlight to create Vitamin D, an essential part of our metabolism.

Overexposure to the sun creates oxidative stress similar to radiation burns from a nuclear bomb. And why not? The sun itself is a huge nuclear furnace. This radiation burn will start a chain reaction in the melanocyte and other cells. This may lead to cancer in a year or two or in a decade or two. Oxidative stress from sunburn is insidious and relentless.

Where’s the balance?
The skyrocketing incidence of diabetes, osteoporosis and certain cancers definitely says that we are not getting enough Vitamin D. The increase in insomnia and seasonal depression tells us that we are not getting enough early morning sun.

We need more sunlight.

Now, how do we make it safe?

Safe sun exposure
First, recognize the need for sun and the need for caution. Plan your sun exposure so that you maximize the benefits while minimizing the risks. For instance, get your sunlight early in the day. Early morning sunlight does not have the high ultraviolet rays that midday sun does. So, take a 20-minute walk in the early part of the day with your skin exposed to sunlight. This will give you the benefits without the risks of overexposure.

Never expose your skin to midday sun for long periods of time. Wear clothing that covers most of your skin and wear a hat that provides shade for your face and ears.

Nutrients for healthy skin
Antioxidants, such as green tea and those found in berries, prevent DNA damage from radiation. All these are excellent strategies for dealing with the stress of too much sun.

So, is the sun our enemy? It can be if we are not careful! For most of us, however, sunlight may be the difference between vitality and poor health; even between life and death! Get your sunlight, but be careful: too much of a good thing can always turn out bad.

Source: TriVita Weekly Wellness Report April 14, 2008