Chapter 11 – This Gland is Your Gland – reminds us of the role of the endocrine system. The comparison of the endocrine system to the systems that keep a house comfortable is probably one of the better metaphors I’ve seen in this book – a book that contains many, many metaphors. Basically, it says that hormones regulate everything from body temperature to how we handle stress.
If you’ve been reading the book or the weekly discussions, you know that the authors address many common myths within each topic. The myths in this chapter were the ones that I had definitely previously believed. For example, the first myth is that hormones control our emotions. In fact, emotions control hormones. If you are stressed about something, you produce stress hormones, not the other way around. The second myth – that there is no proven mind-body connection – leads into a discussion of how the pituitary gland signals to all glands to release different hormones and dictate feelings.
The Live Younger Action Plan for this chapter is fairly straight-forward:
-
Maintain Blood Pressure, since it helps control endocrine functions;
-
Follow medication guidance by your physician;
-
Eat healthy, including cruciferous vegetables, soy and foods rich in potassium and magnesium;
-
Tell your doctors about any changes, like feeling tired, as they could be related to your endocrine system.
The focus of Chapter 12 – Hell Cells: Cancer – is on understanding cancer and how people can prevent and detect it. We learn how cancer cells work, including how they are created and how they multiply. In fact, every person has had cancer cells in them at one time or another – after all, the body has 70 million cell duplications each day. However, with most cancer cells, the body finds them and kills them immediately. It’s the cells that are not killed that can become dangerous.
The Live Young Action Plan for this chapter is focused on prevention and detection only:
- Eat key nutrients, including vitamin D3, folate, tomatoes, selenium and cruciferous vegetables;
- Get tested, including screenings for skin, breast, prostate and colon cancer (all at recommended ages);
- Take aspirin.
(It’s important to note that the steps are in addition to not smoking, wearing sunblock with SPF 45 and a 4-star UVA protection, controlling weight and being physically active.)
Dr. Tony will elaborate on these chapters this Thursday. If you have any questions, please post a comment to his blog.
In addition, we'll be announcing the Live Chat on this book, hosted by Dr. Tony, in the next couple of days. Stay tuned to Ignite for more info.
Kerry
