Be Well Blog

Sweet News About Chocolate

If you love chocolate, and who doesn’t, go for the dark.  Studies have shown that dark chocolate is actually good for us.  One heroic element in dark chocolate is cocoa phenols which helps lower high blood pressure.  Chocolates made in Europe are generally richer in cocoa phenols than those made in the U.S.  Another is flavanols, antioxidants that help repair damage done by free radicals, and help prevent arteries from becoming blocked by blood platelets.
Milk added to chocolate negates the helpful nature of the cocoa bean and white chocolate really isn’t chocolate at all.
All dark chocolates are not created equal.  Cocoa contents can vary from 10 percent to as high as 94 percent per bar.  Processing methods can lower flavanol levels so aim for a minimum of 60 percent cocoa.  The higher the cocoa levels the deeper the flavor is as well.  Quality chocolate is made with cocoa butter and milk fat.  If vegetable oil or hydrogenated oil is included, skip it.  Also check the label for zero trans-fats.  And remember, even though it has healthy elements, dark chocolate is still high in calories, on average 250 calories per 1.5 ounces – about the size of a 1/3 inch of business cards.  (OK, not the whole bar, but I’ll take it!) 
All this label reading can feel like a drag, but it’s so worth it.  You not only get to eat chocolate guilt -free, but your health benefits as well.  Plus, if you give your Valentine the “good” chocolate, you may receive hugs rather than a whack on the head with the box.  

THIS IS YOUR AIR... Clean It Out of Your Body With Dr. Whyte's Super Detox Program

A major cause of our national “Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired” Syndrome is this: the world we live in is a toxic place.

That fact may not come as much of a surprise, but this one may.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission has identified 150 chemicals in the home linked to allergies, birth defects, cancer, and psychological abnormalities, the most dangerous coming from common cleaning products that are three times more likely to cause cancer than air pollution.  Ironically, we use most of these products to kill germs in order to keep us and our families well. 

Our bodies are constantly bombarded by pollutants present in our air, water, soil, food, clothing, furniture, carpeting, paints, and the list goes on.  Add to this a fast-paced, stressful lifestyle, a less than optimal diet, and the overuse of many medications and you will find your well-being is also being compromised from the inside and out. 

Meet My Bone Marrow Donor

And Maybe You Can Save A Life Too!

by Michele Russell

As many of you already know, I was diagnosed with late-stage non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1993.  At the time there was no cure and little they could do but give me high dose chemotherapy with the hope of buying me some time.  In 1995 I received a transplant using my own stem cells with the same goal.  It was grueling, but it granted me 18 months of remission.  After that came many more treatments, but the remissions grew shorter in duration and the treatments became more frequent.

In 2001 the brilliant doctors at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center told me of a new treatment they said was "potentially curable."  It was another transplant, this time using donor bone marrow.  I quickly said, "Sign me up!"  For the following months we searched for a donor within my family.  I was devastated to discover no one matched me.  But soon, the best news I could ever hope for arrived.  A near perfect match was found when searching the international database of those who had signed up to be bone marrow donors. 

Late September that same year I had my second transplant.  It was an immediate success.  My donor's marrow became my new immune system that saw the cancer as an unwelcome foreign substance and destroyed it.  Amazing.