HOW TO SHRINK YOUR FIBROIDS NATURALLY

I get asked a lot to advice women on how to shrink their fibroids without surgery. So here're my top tips. But first, a bit of background on the issue.


WHAT IS A FIBROID?
A fibroid is a benign (non-deadly) tumour of the smooth muscle cells of your uterus (womb). A woman can have just one or multiple fibroids as you can see in the image below:

Fibroids in multiple locations in the womb...

However the point of this article is not to tell you all about what a fibroid is - the focus is to tell you how to get rid of it without getting rid of your womb!


Symptoms of fibroid include these main ones: (if you have any of these symptoms, see your doctor to make sure there's no other cause for them)
- Heavy periods
- Painful periods
- Pelvic pain
- If large and pressing on your urinary bladder you may experience the feeling of going to pee often, and not emptying your bladder completely


NATURAL WAYS TO SHRINK FIBROIDS
The basis for this is controlling oestrogen levels in your body because one major factor in fibroids is excess oestrogens and oestrogen-like effects. This is why fibroids naturally shrink when a woman reaches the menopause.

Note that the reasons for fibroids in your case may be different for the reasons in another woman, as you will see below from the lists of causes of increased oestrogens. So you'd need to have a discussion with a Healthy Lifestyle Medicine practitioner to ascertain what is the cause in your case, if it's not clear to you after reading this post:


Causes of increased oestrogens
- Stress
- Overweight/obesity
- Contraceptive pills
- Pregnancy

Causes of increased oestrogen effect
- Substances that mimic oestrogens in your body, such as pesticides used in non-organic foods,
- hormones used in non organic beef, poultry, etc.


HOW TO SHRINK YOUR FIBROIDS NATURALLY...
(First make sure your doctor has assessed you to confirm there is no other gynaecological condition you're suffering from, apart from the fibroids).


The 8 Pillars of A Healthy Life (www.doctorkem.com) will guarantee you to be free from symptoms of fibroid, because it takes care of these components:

a) Healthy Liver
This includes avoiding things which not only contain oestrogens, but also things which mimic oestrogens, such as certain toxins (such as the pesticides used in non-organic foods) and pollutants (which is why a healthy liver is essential to your total health: it helps your body get rid of these toxins, thus contributes to shrinking your fibroids if this is the cause in your case.)

Practising the 8 Pillars keeps your liver detoxified. In addition, if you suffer from fibroids, I would recommend that you take a high quality supplement that contains nutrients that support your liver function.


b) Healthy Weight
Excess oestrogens are stored in fat cells. Fibroids have been shown to occur more often in overweight women. If this is the cause for your fibroids, then when you lose weight, your fibroids will shrink.

An overweight body is an unhealthy body. The whole point of The 8 Pillars of a Healthy Life is to empower you to transform your body into a healthy body: weight loss is a 'side effect' of this process.


c) Anti inflammatory state
If your fibroids are due to your being in a hyperinflammatory state (which can be the case if you're, among other things, eating the wrong types of food)…eating naturally anti-inflammatory foods may help, eg purified fish oil capsules, cumin, rosemary, hops, oat.

Certain lifestyle habits keep your body in a hyperinflammatory state. For instance eating a lot of processed foods, eg refined carbohydrates, processed meats, etc contribute to this. Lack of physical activity also contributes to this because then your body is unable to produce the substances that protect you from this effect.


d) Healthy Nutrition
The 4th Pillar.
In addition to the basic healthy nutrition guidelines you follow in The 8 Pillars of A Healthy Life, you need to :Avoid food that has been injected with hormones eg meat, poultry. Eat only organic foods as these are free from pesticides. Include non GM soy isoflavones (about 80mg/day) in your diet. Take complete, balanced, bioavailable, comprehensive, high quality nutritional supplements daily.


e) Stress Management
This is part of the 1st Pillar of A Healthy Life.Stress leads to release of cortisol. Cortisol increases fatty tissues and fat cells. Fat cells store excess oestrogens. Stress management is a way to manage your weight also.


f) Sunshine!
The 6th Pillar of A Healthy Life. Vitamin D has been shown to halt the growth of fibroid cells, which could explain why fibroids are commoner in black women - dark skinned people make less vitamin D and thus have insufficient levels in their bodies for it to do its protective work.

Vitamin D helps your immune system suppress tumour activity. Fibroids are tumours (benign ones)

So take a blood test with your doctor (ask for 'Serum (25,OH) Vitamin D levels) and if your levels are below normal, take a good vitamin D3 supplement at a dose of 2000IU per day.


g) Miscellaneous
Needless to say you must stop smoking and other such unhealthy habits, and keep your alcohol intake to the barest minimum, as these contribute to your worsening fibroids.


You CAN beat this, ladies!
You CAN shrink your fibroid!
You CAN avoid needless surgery!


Give your body a chance to do what it does best: heal and restore itself. However, it can't do this if it is receiving less than optimal treatment from you.


That's why I've written this overview on The 8 Pillars of a Healthy Life to stir you up to treating your body the right way - when you do, your body will reward you with health. No more fibroids!


Here's to your Total Health!


Dr Kem
www.doctorkem.com
www.thehealthylifestyleproject.com

GIVING AND RECEIVING: A UNIVERSAL LAW OF SUCCESS

Life is governed by principles or Laws. Act in accordance with these laws and you can only benefit.

Violate these laws and death in some form or other, results (and manifests as disease, poverty, lack, misery, relationship breakdown, etc,  or actual, physical, death).

Ignorance is not ever a virtue, friends.

Discover these Laws and act on them. One of my works in progress deals with 7 of such Laws (watch this space...)

Take the Law of Sowing and Reaping for instance:

- This could also be called the Law of Giving and Receiving.


- You exist because a sperm was given and was received by an egg. You are the harvest of that process. GIVING preceded RECEIVING. Sowing and reaping, giving and receiving.

- The moment you were born, you had to FIRST GIVE out a breath before you could receive your first breath of life. You FIRST gave out a yelp (probably with the assitance of the midwife or doctor smacking your bottom!), and THEN you received air to fully inflate your little lungs. Sowing and reaping started right the instant you were born, and you really were meant to apply this principle in all areas of your life from then on...if you had not FIRST GIVEN out a breath, you'd be dead before you knew it...


- All the food you eat exists because someone planted a seed into something. Your food is the harvest. But FIRST someone had to give seed to something.

- When you have an exam to take, you FIRST GIVE time and effort into the work before you RECEIVE your harvest of success.

- When you want to enjoy electric light, you have to GIVE the switch a flick. This sets in motion the FLOW of current through the cables that cause you to RECEIVE light.

There are many other examples of this law which I'm sure you can think of but without belabouring the point, here's what I want you to know:

There's nothing you can do to change the fact that Law is Law. God put Law in place not to bind or restrict you, but rather to free you to enjoy your stay here on planet Earth in fullness and abundance.

So you've gotta acknowlege the Laws that govern our Universe, because whether or not you believe they exist, they do exist and are affecting you right now.

Gravity for instance, is in operation right now regardless of who believes it or not. Some folks have tried to defy it but have not lived to narrate their experience.

Sowing and Reaping is a Law.
Sowing ALWAYS COMES FIRST before Reaping.

Giving ALWAYS COMES FIRST before Receiving.

Sowing and Giving trigger the FLOW of your harvest to you.

It is not your responsibility to understand how a seed becomes a harvest.
The HOW is not your problem - it's God's job so let Him figure it out, cos He's the only one Who can - it's futile for you to stay up late at night trying to figure out how your harvest will come so don't do it!


How To Act In Accordance To This Law:
Learn from the farmer
- Determine your desired harvest: Be specific now. Farmer doesn't say 'I want a tree'. He says 'I want an Apple Tree'. Then he goes and plants apple seed. Until you are clear on your desired harvest, you cant plant the right seed.

- Acknowledge and BELIEVE that God is the Source of ALL your harvest. This way, when you've for instance, sown a financial seed by giving to someone in need, you don't expect your harvest from that person, rather you fully expect it from God - let Him decide the channel He'll use to bring it to pass, while you happily and expectantly go about your normal business.

- Plant a seed that matches your desired harvest

- Do all things with GRATITUDE that your harvest is here. RECEIVE it with gratitude, BY FAITH, in your heart, NOW, and express daily gratitude for it until it manifests physically. The farmer doesn't plant a seed one day and spend the rest of the days agitating over when it's going to bring him his harvest.  He rather works to ensure that weeds are out of the soil, and that the soil is in perfect condition for the seed to grow, which brings me to the next step:

- TAKE ACTION! Sometimes planting the seed IS taking action, but on other occasions you plant your seed then you start taking action, but do this with FAITH AND GRATITUDE that your harvest is here now (because it is, only not in tangible form. But as surely as The Law of Perpertual Transmutation of Energy is real, your harvest is BEING transmuted from intangible to tangible...your action, taken with faith and gratitude, hasten this process though.)

- EXPECT your harvest. Speak of it only in terms that express your faith and expectation. Don't negate your efforts by speaking negative or contrary words about this.

- RECEIVE your harvest. With thanksgiving.

- SOW from your harvest: keeps the cycle of life going. When you receive breath, you give out breath also, then you receive another one and give out another one. The nature of life and its cycles, teach us that giving and receiving should continue throughout life - as long as you have breath in you.  In blessing others you also shall be blessed.



"He who waters shall himself be watered; There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty" King Solomon the Wise


He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

FLU SEASON IS UPON US! HERE'S A SAFER WAY TO BEAT THE FLU!!

The flu season is fast approaching, and it's on everyone's mind how to fight the bug that seems to be so rampant today.

Today's post is about a nutrient which is gaining more prominence as it's numerous roles in keeping you healthy emerge. It's my favourite preventive and possibly curative 'secret' weapon for beating the flu:

Meet the humble vitamin, the sunshine vitamin, Vitamin D. Vitamin D is the 6th Pillar of A Healthy Life. All 8 Pillars must be solid in your life for you to enjoy true health and success in every area of life.





This vitamin is well known for its role in healthy bone development and calcium metabolism. However, for the past 30 years, other roles for Vitamin D have been emerging and some recent, well-conducted studies are coming to the fore now and we now know that:

There is a vitamin D deficiency epidemic worldwide.

This deficiency is worse in the winter months because there's not enough sunlight for our skin to make enough of its own vitamin D.

Vitamin D boosts your immune system and helps it work better.

Most of your cells need adequate levels of Vitamin D to function optimally.

Vitamin D has been shown to be protective against colds and flu when taken in adequate amounts, therefore in winter months, when vitamin D levels are particularly low, colds and flu are more common.

Vitamin D in appropriate levels, is also protective against several forms of cancer: one of its functions is to arrest the multiplication of these abnormal cells in the body.

Vitamin D insufficiency symptoms include, among other things, depression, joint pain, tiredness (which has often been 'diagnosed' as chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia or 'psychological'), muscle ache, diabetes (Vit D helps regulate insulin activity), osteoporosis, heart disease, some cases of high blood pressure (Vitamin D plays a role in regulating the Renin-Angiotensin pathway). Deficiency causes osteomalacia in adults, rickets in children, and heart failure if severe.

The current recommended daily allowance of 400IU/day is not nearly enough to protect you from the major illnesses and symptoms mentioned above.

The level of Vit D in your blood should be in a range between 75-150nmol/l. (Get your Dr to test your level asap, to know if you need more vit. D).

You need to make sure you are well stocked up on Vitamin D, especially in the winter months. It's been suggested that the reason colds and flu occur more frequently in winter months, is lack of Vitamin D (less sunlight).




Those at most risk of suffering from dangerous Vit D deficiency are:

• Dark skinned people, or people whose clothing covers most of their skin most of the time
• obese people, 
• people suffering from malabsorption syndromes eg coeliac, inflammatory bowel disease,
• the elderly, 
• housebound, 
• excess use of sunscreen.
• Babies of mothers with insufficient levels of vitamin D.

How To Get Enough Vitamin D:
1) Stay out in the sun (sunbathe) for 30 mins each day (this makes your body produce 20,000IU of vitamin D per day.) Clearly not practical though. However, do get as much sun as you can manage. Early morning sunlight is best as that contains mostly the UVB rays which protect you from getting skin cancer, while helping you make Vitamin D.

2) Eat loads of foods containing Vit D. Foods like Oily fish, cod liver oil, egg yolk. The amount in these foods is really minimal. Still won't give you enough per day, but these things all add up and every little counts, so do this as well.


3) Take a high quality Vitamin D3 supplement (there's a cheaper counterpart, Vitamin D2, but this form is less effective so you want to avoid it if possible. Certainly you wish to avoid any Vitamin D plus calcium only combination unless blood tests show your calcium levels to be lower than normal).

This is the most practical way to ensure you are getting the right amount of D3.

But first get your doctor to test your Vitamin D levels by requesting the test called 'Serum (25, OH) Vitamin D).

If blood tests show you have insufficient levels of Vitamin D, you need to take between 2000IU and 5000IU of Vitamin D3 daily and remain on a maintainance of 2000IU when your levels normalise. So you'd need a repeat blood test when you've been on the supplements for at least a month.

If blood tests show you to be Vitamin D deficient, you need to take at least 10,000IU of Vitamin D3 per day, and maintain on 2000IU per day when your levels normalise. So here also you need a repeat blood test after a month on supps.

This may sound like a lot of Vitamin D to be taking, but remember your body can easily make twice that amount just by you sitting out in the sun for 30 minutes.

During flu season, you may, if you were originally insufficient or deficient, need to increase your daily intake to 5000IU per day, then go back down to maintainance doses afterwards. Read on to discover the supplements I trust, use and recommend (highly).

Take home tips:

If you want to win the fight against flu this year, optimise your vitamin D levels.

Get your Dr to request Vitamin D levels for you. Ask for the 'serum 25-OH Vitamin D' blood test. Optimise your intake such that you're well within healthy levels of Vit D. Give your body a fighting chance this flu season! The supplements I use and recommend to friends and family are the ones made by USANA Health Sciences: they're of the highest quality, contain the right amounts in the right proportions and have been independently shown to not only contain what they say they contain in the amount it says on the 'tin', but also that they are bioavailable (available to your cells after you've taken them, which is where they're needed!)

Every adult should be on their Essentials multivitamins, multimineral and antioxidant pack. Their HealthPak contains 'The Essentials' including 2000IU of Vitamin D3 per serving, as well as additional antioxidants. If you are vitamin D insufficient then this is all you need.

They also make Essentials for children and for teenagers so your young ones have the chance to optimise their levels too. Every child should be on the Usanimals (Essentials multivitamin, mineral and antioxidants for children aged 1-12 years old) and every teenager should be on BodyRox (Essentials for teens)

If you are vitamin D deficient then you ALSO need to take their Vitamin D3 tablets (each little tablet contains 2000IU of vitamin D3), to optimise your levels.

Take control of your health! Continue eating your veg and fruit (ratio of 3 veg to 2 fruit, mind you), exercising regularly and applying all the other components of The 8 Pillars of A Healthy Lifestyle (TM).

6 simple strength training exercises

Do these exercises every other day (check with your doctor first before you start any new exercise program).

This series of exercises workout every major muscle group and if you do them consistently, they will help you shed your excess fat FOREVER.


Recommended Reading for men and women:
Strong Women Stay Slim, by Dr Miriam Nelson.





For each exercise below:
- Do 2 sets
- Each set should consist of 8-12 reps.
- Maintain good posture throughout
- Breathe out on exertion
- Move slowly and deliberately to a count of 1-2-3-up, 3-2-1-down.
- Re: dumb bells, start with say a 1kg pair then gradually increase.
Target to aim for depends on your age range, and the specific exercise in question.
You could get a Personal Trainer in the gym to show you or advice you on your specific target.
- If you don't have dumb bells, be creative. A friend of mine used 1.5L bottles of water in each arm (roughly 1.5kg) to start with. Or cans of food. Be creative. Where there's a will there's a way.



1. The Chair Squat

- Aim to just about sit on the chair - without actually sitting on it. This forces your core muscles to hold you steady.
- Slowly 1-2-3-up, 3-2-1-down!
- You will feel the effort in your thighs, buttocks and trunks.



2. The Biceps Curl

- Start with dumb bell weights that are comfortable but challenging for you to use.
- Do this with both arms at the same time.
- You will feel the effort  in your upper arms.
- Slowly now: 1-2-3-up, 3-2-1-down!



3. Overhead Press

- Slowly do it: 1-2-3-up, 3-2-1-down!
- You will feel the effort in your upper arms, shoulders and upper back.



4. Calf Raise

- To make this more challenging for yourself, take your hands off the chair!
- You will feel the effort in your ankles, feet and calves.
-Slowly: 1-2-3-up, 3-2-1-down!


5. Seated Reverse Fly

...or variations of this.
- Slowly: 1-2-3- up!, 3-2-1-down!
- To make it even more challenging, bend your elbows slightly.
- Assuming you're doing aerobics to aid in the fat burning process, this exercise helps strengthen your shoulder muscles, making them also look lovely and shapely.
- You will feel the effort in your shoulders and upper arms.



6. Bent-over Row

- If you can't do this standing up, sit on a chair: sit close to the edge of the chair, bending slightly forwards at the waist, with your back straight, until your chest is just above your thighs.
- Slowly 1-2-3-up, 3-2-1-down!
- You will feel the effort in your upper back, upper arms, shoulders, lower back, abdomen, thights.



ALWAYS MAINTAIN GOOD POSTURE THROUGHOUT.

Strength training will also help you develop good posture as your muscles become stronger and more toned.

Your Daily Action Steps...

Discipline: Your Daily Discipline

Today I want you to focus on ACTION STEPS.


The reason Discipline bridges your goals and their accomplishments is that you use it to take ACTION, to do the things you have to do, to make things happen for you.


I want to introduce you to the concept of 'Daily Disciplines'. You may be familiar with this concept already.


A 'daily discipline' is a non-negotiable contract you make with yourself to do regularly, whether you feel like it or not. Note that even though it's called a 'daily' discipline, the key thing here is that you do it regularly.


For instance, a daily discipline could be to exercise every day, or to attend a networking meeting every week.


Whatever the action is, it's got to have these qualities:

a) It's got to be something that pulls or draws you closer to your goal
b) You've got to do it when you're supposed to - leave no room for negotiation either with yourself or with someone else. (negotiation here means discussing whether you feel like doing it or not, etc). Just do it!


It's been said that it takes just half a dozen daily disciplines, done regularly, for breakthrough type of success to happen in any endeavour.


Don't know how accurate that figure is, but the principle is solid.


There's just no other option, if you're consistently doing the right thing relevant to your goal, but to achieve it.


When you remember this, you ought to be inspired, and motivated from within, to keep on keeping on, until you reach your goal.


As Og Mandino said in the great little book 'the greatest salesman in the world', you've got to form good habits and then become a slave to them. That's what your daily disciplines are about: a set of good habits that you've become a 'slave' to, whose end result can only be good for you.


So my question for you this week is this:
- Name 3 things which, if you consistently did them, would greatly improve your outcomes, your life.
- How regularly should you be doing these things, in order to bring you closer to your goals? Write this down beside each one.


These things should be things which have a global positive impact on your life in general, not necessarily specific to any one goal, but should positively impact your goals anyway.


Decide what these 3 things are.
Write them down.
Start doing them NOW!


Develop other daily disciplines based on your individual goals but don't have so many that you're overwhelmed into doing nothing. A good range to work with is 6-10.


Keep track of what you're doing so that you're encouraged when you see the results you're achieving along the way.


This habit of daily disciplines is one of the most important ones you can form so start NOW.