The number of people writing to me with questions is phenomenal - I could fill a book with them. So I decided it maybe beneficial to show some of the more commonly asked questions and my responses to them. However, some of the recommendations may not be appropriate in all situations and are not intended as a substitute for treatment or services ordinarily provided by health care professionals for physiological or psychological complaints. Always review any information that you receive on-line with your personal medical care provider. Because of the complexity of medical situations, medical questions will not be addressed.
I've also selective resources relative to healing that I want to tell you about. FAQ Archives.
December 2001
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1: I am trying to locate
the Leslie Kenton who wrote "Getting the Hang of Inversion Therapy." 1. Were you ever the beauty editor for Harper's and Queen magazine? I am trying to locate the Leslie Kenton who wrote "Getting the Hang of Inversion Therapy." If you are, I would like to get in touch with you regarding research you've done on this topic. If you are not, please let me know so that I can pursue other options. My name is Kim Grotzke, I work for Teeter Hang Ups Inversion Products (you can visit our web site at www.teeterhangups.com and my email address is kimgr@teetrhangups.com). Your response would be GREATLY appreciated! 1. I was indeed Health and Beauty Editor for Harpers and Queen for 14 years and you’re quite right, I did write about inversion therapy (which, by the way, I still use myself frequently). I am afraid I can’t help you by redirecting you towards extensive research done on the subject of inversion therapy. It’s been many years since I looked at it in depth from a theoretical point of view. What I can tell you is that for most people, spending a certain amount of time a day as little as five minutes in fact can be remarkably invigorating, for improving the circulation, and strengthening the body as a whole. 2. I heard a rumour (probably that's what it is) saying Vit C causes cancer? Also that the new anti-ageing creams with C,E and Retinol actually thin the skin, making it more sensitive and in fact actually causes MORE wrinkles! What do you think? Someone has also (a while back)written a book claiming that the best beauty treatment ever is a thin layer of Vaseline - against pollution and loss of moisture of the skin! That would be nice and simple, don't you think Leslie? It's all so confusing, when we are trying to do what's best for women. Hope you don't find the questions too dumb. 2. Vitamin C most certainly does not cause cancer. The media every now and then pick up on some small and usually badly put together piece of research which blows everything out of proportion in relation to the use of a particular vitamin or natural substance. I think that’s where you got the idea that vitamin C causes cancer. Far from it. One early study tested Vitamin C in 1,100 terminally ill cancer patients. One hundred of the patients received 10,000 mg daily (10g) Vitamin C, while 1,000 patients in the control group received no treatment. Those given the Vitamin C survived more than four times longer on average (210 days) than those in the control group. A follow up study of over 1,800 subjects carried out by the same researchers, found a nearly doubled survival rate in Vitamin C treated patients whose cancers had been deemed "incurable" as compared to untreated controls. Other studies have shown no particular benefits of large doses of Vitamin C in the treatment of cancer but it certainly is not going to cause cancer. As far as the treatment of skin with Vitamin C and Vitamin E and other antioxidants, anti-aging creams based on these antioxidants are excellent for the skin. Retinol - an artificial form of Vitamin A on the other hand, although it strengthens the skin in the long run, does indeed make it highly sensitive to the sun and should only be used under medical supervision, but if you’re speaking of the creams that you can buy over the counter that contain very small doses of retinol, they should be no problem. As far as Vaseline is concerned, quite frankly I would not want to put it on my skin. It’s petroleum jelly and it is by no means highly compatible with good skin care. These days there are so many good cosmetics on the market in all price ranges that there is no reason not to take advantage of them. Take a look at L’Oreal Plentitude or any of the Vichy products available only from pharmacies they are inexpensive and excellent. 3. My friend has been diagnosed with breast cancer.She is about to start chemotherapy.What could you suggest she do help her through this hard time ie;diet etc 3. There are two things that can be particularly helpful when undergoing chemotherapy. One is the Chinese herb, Astragalus (Astragalus membranaceus), principally used to strengthen immunity against colds, flu and other illnesses for instance. It has also been used successfully to counter arthrosclerosis, high blood pressure, insomnia, diabetes, chronic active hepatitis, genital herpes, aids and chemotherapy side effects. The dried root of the Astragalus plant is a common component of traditional Chinese herbal formulas. According to Chinese medicine, Astragalus "strengthens the spleen, blood and Qi, raises the yang Qi of the spleen and stomach and stabilizes the exterior". The expression "stabilizes the exterior" means helping to create a defensive shield against infection. Extracted Astragalus has been shown to stimulate parts of the immune system, both in human and animal studies, and to increase the survival time of mice infected with various diseases. A typical daily dosage of Astragalus involves boiling 9 30g of the dried root to make tea. It is also available, however, in capsule form. It appears to be relatively nontoxic. No high doses have shown themselves to be harmful and side effects are rare. The other supplements that can be particularly useful in chemotherapy are the branched-chain amino acids. The BCAAs include leucine, isoleucine and valine. These are naturally occurring molecules that your body uses to build proteins. "Branched-chain" refers to the miraculous structure of these particular amino acids. Taken on an empty stomach during chemotherapy, BCAAs can improve the appetite in cancer patients and have shown to slow the progression of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - a terrible condition that leads to degeneration of nerves, atrophy of muscles and eventual death. BCAAs are also used to enhance athletic performance. A double blind study tested BCAAs on 28 people with cancer who had lost their appetites, either as a result of the disease itself or the treatment they were receiving. Researchers discovered that their appetites improved in 55% of those taking BCAAs at the level of 4.8g a day, compared to only 16% of those who took placebos. BCAAs appear to be safe even when taken in excess, as they are simply turned into other amino acids. BCAAs are not to be taken together with medications for Parkinson’s Disease. 4. I have been trying to lose weight for the longest time. I have started exercising after reading "The True Joy Of Beauty" and am seeing results! However, I still can't quit my bad eating habits. And I think my eating habits are slowing down my weight loss. I love eating at night, usually after 10pm or midnite, as long as I am staying up to do work or study (I am a university student). And I eat when I am stressed out. I also have a love-hate relationship with food. I hate my appetite for food, but find myself thinking of food quite a lot. Would you give me some advice on how I can kick my bad eating habits or have less of a passion for food? Thanks Leslie ! 4. Your experience of trying to lose weight is not an unusual one. I suspect it has both physiological and emotional components. You don’t mention whether or not you have a craving for carbohydrates and sugars. I strongly suspect you have, as do most people who have lived on the Western diet of convenience foods for some time. The body appears to be unable to handle high density carbohydrates such as breads, pastas, cereals, sugar, honey etc. in very large quantities. This is simply because genetically, we have not been programmed to thrive on such foods. Our ancestors going back 2.3 million years were hunter gatherers who lived primarily on low density carbohydrates such as green vegetables, herbs, a few seeds, and plenty of protein from small animals, large animals (when they could catch them and not be caught by them) and fish. The changes that we’ve made in our diet over the last 10,000 years, since the coming of the agricultural revolution, have created severe imbalances, made much worse by the 20th century appearance of processed foods, all of which are based on high density carbohydrates. I suggest you buy a copy of THE X FACTOR DIET which is coming out in January. It covers these issues very thoroughly. It also gives clear practical ways and means to deal with them. The craving that you have for foods at night is not uncommon and is usually a sign that your biochemistry has become screwed up as a result of blood sugar imbalances and relatively high insulin levels that makes it impossible for your body’s cells to take in the blood sugar that they need, in order to create energy for you to use. This leads to a situation where you eat in order to gain energy, only to find that you’re more tired after eating than you were before. It’s pretty easy to break this pattern, using THE X FACTOR DIET However, the approach is so different from the standard high carbs, low fat diet that is still being forced upon the public by uninformed governments, it is something you need to read about and understand before embarking on dietary and lifestyle shifts that will clear this problem for you for ever. In the meantime, stop feeling guilty. There is nothing wrong with your willpower and there is no point in accusing yourself of being somehow morally or emotionally deficient. That is simply not the case and beating yourself up about the problem at the moment, is not doing you any good. Read THE X FACTOR – I think it will change your life. 5. During the 10-day detox program, my husband and I are both wondering where and how all those toxins are retained in the body, and why they don't get flushed out naturally with the other waste? 5. Detoxification is a process by which the body is cleansed, nourished and rested from the inside out. It works, simply because it deals with the needs of individual cells, to eliminate themselves of whatever is inappropriate to optimal cellular function. When cellular function is disturbed, this is the basis of disease, lowered physical and mental performance and poor health. The body has a natural ability to cleanse itself of wastes, provided it is living in a clean environment, eating foods that are not riddled with herbicides and pesticides, drinking genuinely clean water, eating the kind of food that we have been genetically programmed to thrive on low glycaemic vegetables and fruit, seeds and animal-based proteins, such as those our Palaeolithic ancestors ate. However, we now are forced to cope with many new sources of toxins which we, as human beings, have never had to deal with before. Since the Industrial Revolution, thousands of chemical compounds never seen before have become part of our environment. We are continually exposed to multiple toxins in foods, medicines, water, medications, and air. Our lifestyle tends to be sedentary and stressful stress itself creates physical poisons in the body in the form of excessive adrenalin for instance, which need to be cleared. Each one of these things can pose serious health risks and so far, very little is known about the way in which two or more toxins interact. You may have mercury fillings in your teeth, anaerobic bacteria in a root canal, abnormal bacteria (flora) in the intestines from having being given antibiotics, lead in your bones from years when leaded petrol fueled our cars and drugs in the bloodstream that screw up liver metabolism. At the same time our environment is riddled with xenoestrogens petrochemically derived herbicides and pesticides which behave as the female hormone in the body and are believed now to be responsible for the lion’s share of the widespread reproductive problems we are facing in both men and women.. All of these things get stored in the body. The processes of digestion alone, produce wastes which, when the body becomes overloaded, it has trouble getting rid of. These are some of the major reasons why detoxification is so important. Any good detoxification therapy should include changes in diet to eliminate the processed carbohydrates, sugar, junk fats, and alcohol, coffee and other stimulants. When this takes place, the body is quite literally renewed, as its internal environment becomes cleansed. The condition of our internal environment has a direct relationship to our susceptibility to disease, both prevention and treatment depend on your body’s capacity to detoxify. Detoxification protects the nervous, cardiovascular, and immune systems. Uneliminated toxicity in the body affects the way we think and feel, and thoughts and feelings further affect the ways in which we process environmental toxins. For instance, negative mental states such as depression, anxiety, pain, self-deprecation, self-destructive feelings and tendencies or a weak will to live, are often triggered by conditions of toxicity. They can interfere with the ideal functioning of your built-in detoxification system. Meanwhile, the brain produces hormones and substances in response to stressors that we are subjected to. These substances also disrupt the body’s delicate biochemical balance and change the way in which organs and systems operate. For instance, stress hormones tend to slow down the activity of detoxification enzymes in the liver, mental and emotional strain contributes to almost every known disease, infectious disease from bacteria and viruses, autoimmune diseases, cancer, even skin diseases. All of these things contribute to the toxicity in the body which needs to be cleared, both in an ongoing way, and periodically by basically giving the body a rest on every level, which is part of the detoxification process. |
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Do you have a question for Leslie? Why not become a friend of Leslie's and you can submit a question. If you 'become a friend' Leslie will answer non-medical questions regarding health, spirituality, authentic power, relationships and achieving success and happiness in your life. Because of the complexity of medical situations, medical questions will not be addressed. |