Live Life to the Fullest

Budapest Travel—Visiting City Park

How to Live Life to the Fullest

Here is the list of inspiration quotes from Tiny Buddha:

• Live in the moment. Forget the past and don’t concern yourself with the future. —Tanner Christensen
• Fully embrace the now, no matter what the situation.—Patrick Flynn
• Do the things you love.—Diego Felipe Villa Serna
• Learn to forgive and embrace unconditional love.—Ann Glasgow
• Live every day as if it’s your last, embracing each experience as if it’s your first.—Jennifer Fertado
• Believe in “live and let live.”—Satyendra Pandey
• Use quiet reflection, honesty, and laughter.—Erin Rogers Kronman
• Be other-centered.—Tricia Mc
• Find calm in making art.—Z.r. Hill
• Focus on today and how you can do your best to live it to the fullest.—Amelia Krump
• Participate in life instead of just watching it pass you by.—Lindsey Wonderson
• Stay healthy, eat right, and most importantly, be kind to all.—Tho Nguyen
• Forgive yourself, appreciate others, listen to your gut, do things you enjoy, and remind yourself that we are all loved and connected.—Sandra Lumb
• Don’t sweat the small stuff.—Allison Gillam
• Question everything, keep it simple, and help whenever and however you can.—Lynda Corrigan Sutherland
• Try to enjoy every minute of every day.—Maria Ahlin
• Appreciate life’s every second. (Anna-Karin Boyaciyan-Demirciyan
• Step through new doors. The majority of the time there’s something fantastic on the other side.—Terri Mindock
• Remember that all is a gift, but the most precious of all gifts is life and love.—Debbie Teeuwen
• Keep your spirit free, be flexible, let go.—Leslie Brown
• “Do one thing every day that scares you.” ~Baz Luhrmann—Adam Raffel
• Don’t attach to outcomes.—Wp Ho
• Spend as much time with a two year old as possible.—Jackie Freeman
• Enjoy each and every moment of life. Every day is a new challenge and opportunity to discover something new.—Chirag Tripathi
• Budget travel. It is always an adventure! You get to enjoy what fate has to offer with limited means.—Ruby Baltazar
• Be honestly thankful for every breath you take.—Jonathan Carey
• Just be.—Catherine Halvorsson
• “Trust yourself. Trust your own strengths.” ~Gandalf the grey—Jonathan David Evan Fulton
• Pause momentarily before everything you do so that you notice everything you should or could notice.—Scott Hutchinson
• Follow your hopes and not your fears.—Jody Bower

Health Benefits of Heat Therapy

Fever—a Protective Mechanism

Getting a fever is no fun. You likely get chills, you sweat, and you’re just generally uncomfortable. You get tired easily and need to rest. But, fever isn’t the real problem. It’s a symptom of something else. You must treat whatever that is to relieve the fever.

We know scientifically that fever is a protective or defense mechanism.[10] When body temperature reaches 101.3^oF (38.5^oC), the immune system shifts into a state of alarm. At this temperature, the level of immune chemicals in the bloodstream doubles, and immune defenses throughout the body increase. Within 6 hours, almost every major defense within the immune system doubles its efforts.[9]

Heat by itself has an antiviral effect. When a container of human cells and rhinovirus was immersed in a 113^oF hot water bath, the heat suppressed the multiplication of the virus by 90%, but did not kill the human cells.[11]

Fever is usually triggered when monocytes meet pathogens and this results in an increase of IL-1,[12] which is what triggers the fever response since IL-1 is a pyrogen.[13] IL-1 is also involved in the activation of the cellular and humoral immune response against the pathogen.[12]

Fever promotes migration of leukocytes and neutrophils to the area where the pathogen is[10] and it activates T Cell function.[14] Genes involved in the activation of the interleukins have been identified. The most important pathway is the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB), which is responsible to activate IL-1, IL-6 and IL-8 and it has an effect on two other pathways—the p53 protein and the heat-shock factor protein 1 (HSF1).[15]

Traditional Heat Therapies

Historically, heat had been recognized for their beneficial effects. The following list shows how various cultures have used simple forms of heat as a way of both cleansing and healing.

• Ancient Greek medicine
• Roman hot sulfur baths
• Finnish saunas
• Japanese hot tubs
• Native American Indian sweat lodges
• Turkish hammam
• Bhutan's unique hot stone baths

Sauna is probably the most studied thermotherapy treatment.[16] The person sits in a wood room with a heater (electric or wood) with rocks on top that provides the heat. The Turkish bath tends to be humid while the Finnish sauna has high temperature and dry air.[17]

The usual duration of the sauna among adults is between 5 and 20 min followed by a quick cool-down to stop sweating, studies show that the cool down stage increases WBC count.[19]Children also take a sauna once a week with their parents, at which time the baths tend to be shorter in duration (5–10 min) and with lower temperature.[20]

Potential Health Benefits

Most people's perception, spas or hot tubs can help blood circulation, can beautify the skin, promote good health. In the below, we also list other potential benefits of thermotherapy:

Potential prevention and treatment of mild coronavirus 2 infections

SARS-CoV-2 is a dangerous virus that has caused a world-wide pandemic. This virus, however, is susceptible to elevated body heat and elevated body heat also enhances the immune system. In [6], the researchers thus hypothesize that frequent treatments of heat followed by cold could be the effective first line approach in the prevention and treatment of mild coronavirus 2 infections.

In Finland and Estonia, sauna is part of the culture in these countries and it is practiced at least once a week among the population. There were lower number of cases or deaths reported in both countries than the rest of Europe. For example,

The average reported deaths from COVID-19 per 100,000 population were 18.3 ±23.4 in Europe without Finland and Estonia, 5.9 in Finland, and 5.2 in Estonia.[6]

It would be hard to compare worldwide data with other countries due to limited testing and reporting in other countries.[8] Nevertheless, the community use of heat treatments is consistent with a lower prevalence and a lower death rate from COVID-19.[6]

Figure 1. 3 types of strokes in brain (photo credit: slideshare.net)

"May" reduce stroke risk

Based on an observational study, researchers found that compared with people who took saunas once a week, those who took them two to three times weekly were 12% less likely to have a stroke. People who took saunas four to seven times a week reduced their risk for stroke by 62%.[3]

There are plausible reasons saunas might be protective. “Temperature increases, even of 1 or 2 degrees Celsius, can limit inflammatory processes in the body and reduce arterial stiffness,” said the senior author, Dr. Jari A. Laukkanen, a professor of medicine at the University of Eastern Finland. “It’s possible that steam rooms or hot tubs could produce similar results.”

May be beneficial to heart failure patients

Although sauna bathing causes various acute, transient cardiovascular and hormonal changes, it is well tolerated by most healthy adults and children. Some studies have suggested that long-term sauna bathing may help lower blood pressure in patients with hypertension and improve left ventricular ejection fraction in patients with chronic congestive heart failure (CHF).[16]

It also seems that sauna treatment may help improve clinical symptoms and hemodynamic parameters secondary to an improvement in the endothelial function of patients with CHF whose endothelial function is impaired.[18]


"May help to treat cancer patients

The Gorter Model[9] is designed to restore and enhance cancer patient's immune function, enabling the immune system to aggressively and effectively combat cancer cells throughout the body. It is created by Dr. Gorter, who himself is a cancer survivor, and used to treat cancer patients at the Medical Center Cologne in Germany.

In its cancer treatment protocol, therapeutic fever is used in combination with immune therapies that include interleukin, interferon, and various other treatments.

To reactivate the immune system in these patients, the Gorter Model uses a process of controlled fever referred to in the scientific literature as fever-range, total-body hyperthermia—a form of treatment in which the entire body is heated to a moderate fever temperature of approximately 101.3^oF (38.5^oC).

Warnings

Japan has a high temperature at the hot spring area, after bath stroke is particularly high.

Studies have shown that bath water temperature exceeds 42 ℃, decomposing enzyme inhibitors increase blood clots (plasminogen activator inhibitor) content, thus reducing the activity of enzymes break down blood clots, likely at midnight three to six infarction accidents.

Contraindications to sauna bathing include unstable angina pectoris, recent myocardial infarction, and severe aortic stenosis.[16]

Sauna bathing is safe, however, for most people with coronary heart disease with stable angina pectoris or old myocardial infarction. Very few acute myocardial infarctions and sudden deaths occur in saunas, but alcohol consumption during sauna bathing increases the risk of hypotension, arrhythmia, and sudden death, and should be avoided.[16]

In a Finnish sauna study on children aged from 0 to 15 years, symptoms were rare and were not serious. One of the commonly found disorder is atopic dermatitis. In half of the cases of atopic dermatitis, it became worse in the sauna.

Photo Credit: 艾軒

References

1. 泡湯小常識
2. Cancer: The mysterious miracle cases inspiring doctors
3. Saunas May Reduce Stroke Risk
4. Sauna Therapy May Reduce Risk of Dementia and Boost Brain Health
5. 11 AMAZING ARIZONA HOT SPRINGS
6. Hydrothermotherapy in prevention and treatment of mild to moderate cases of COVID-19
• Coronaviruses are vulnerable to heat, basic pH and acid pH. The virus seems to like lower temperatures as it is more stable at 39.2◦F
  
7. COVID-19 situation update for the EU/EEA and the UK. European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
8. Del Rio C, Malani PN. COVID-19—new insights on a rapidly changing epidemic. JAMA 2020;323(14):1339–40.
9. Fighting Cancer — A Nontoxic Approach to Treatment by Robert Gorter, MD, PhD and Erik Peper, PhD.
10. Bartfai T, Ottoson D. Neuro-immunology of fever. Pergamon Press; 1992.
11. Conti C, De Marco A, Mastromarino P, Tomao P, Santoro MG. Antiviral effect of hyperthermic treatment in rhinovirus infection. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 1999;43(4):822–9.
12. Dinarello CA, Conti P, Mier JW. Effects of human interleukin-1 on natural killer cell activity: is fever a host defense mechanism for tumor killing? Yale J Biol Med 1986; 59(2):97.
13. Banet MA. Fever in mammals: is it beneficial? Yale J Biol Med 1986;59(2):117.
14. Hanson DF, Murphy PA, Silicano R, Shin HS. The effect of temperature on the activation of thymocytes by interleukins I and II. J Immunol 1983;130(1):216–21.
15. Perkins ND. Integrating cell-signaling pathways with NF-κB and IKK function. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 2007;8(1):49–62.
16. Hannuksela ML, Ellahham S. Benefits and risks of sauna bathing. Am J Med 2001; 110(2):118–26.
17. Tsonis J. Sauna studies as an academic field: a new agenda for international research. Literature Aesthetics. 2017;26(1).
18. Blum N, Blum A. Beneficial effects of sauna bathing for heart failure patients. Exp Clin Cardiol 2007;12(1):29.
19. Markkola L, Mattila KJ, Koivikko MJ. Sauna habits and related symptoms in Finnish children. Eur J Pediatr 1989;149(3):221–2.
• Symptoms were rare and were not serious. Transient symptoms (dizziness, nausea etc.) were the most common.
20. The Truth About Robert Gorter, MD - Jeannine Walston

Photo Credit: 艾軒

Optimal Serum 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D Concentrations for Various Health Outcomes

Vitamin D deficiency is endemic across the Middle East, including in Israel, where nearly four in five people are low on the vitamin, according to one study from 2011.^[3] By taking supplements before infection, though, the researchers in the new Israeli study found that patients could avoid the worst effects of the disease:^[4]

“We found it remarkable, and striking, to see the difference in the chances of becoming a severe patient when you are lacking in vitamin D compared to when you’re not,” said Dr. Amiel Dror, a Galilee Medical Center physician and Bar Ilan researcher who was part of the team behind the study.

He noted that his study was conducted pre-Omicron, but said that the coronavirus doesn’t change fundamentally enough between variants to negate vitamin D effectiveness.

“What we’re seeing when vitamin D helps people with COVID infections is a result of its effectiveness in bolstering the immune systems to deal with viral pathogens that attack the respiratory system,” he told The Times of Israel. “This is equally relevant for Omicron as it was for previous variants.”

Table 1.  Optimal 25(OH)D Concentrations for Various Health Outcome (Source: [1])

Health Effects of Sub-optimal 25(OH)D Concentrations

 

A new review study examines the evidence for the major causes of death including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and COVID-19 with regard to sub-optimal 25(OH)D concentrations.^[1]  The results are tabulated in Table 1.

References

1. A Narrative Review of the Evidence for Variations in Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentration Thresholds for Optimal Health
2. Pre-infection 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 levels and association with severity of COVID-19 illness
3. Vitamin D deficiency prevalence and cardiovascular risk in Israel 
4. Israeli study offers strongest proof yet of vitamin D’s power to fight COVID
5. Li, Y.; Tong, C.H.; Rowland, C.M.; Radcliff, J.; Bare, L.A.; McPhaul, M.J.; Devlin, J.J. Association of changes in lipid levels with changes in vitamin D levels in a real-world setting. Sci. Rep. 2021, 11, 21536.
6.  Jayedi, A.; Rashidy-Pour, A.; Shab-Bidar, S. Vitamin D status and risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease: A meta-analysis of dose-response (dagger). Nutr. Neurosci. 2019, 22, 750–759.
7. McDonnell, S.L.; Baggerly, C.A.; French, C.B.; Baggerly, L.L.; Garland, C.F.; Gorham, E.D.; Hollis, B.W.; Trump, D.L.; Lappe, J.M. Breast cancer risk markedly lower with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations >/=60 vs. <20 ng/mL (150 vs. 50 nmol/L): Pooled analysis of two randomized trials and a prospective cohort. PLoS ONE 2018, 13, e0199265.
8. McCullough, M.L.; Zoltick, E.S.; Weinstein, S.J.; Fedirko, V.; Wang, M.; Cook, N.R.; Eliassen, A.H.; Zeleniuch-Jacquotte, A.; Agnoli, C.; Albanes, D.; et al. Circulating Vitamin D and Colorectal Cancer Risk: An International Pooling Project of 17 Cohorts. J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 2019, 111, 158–169.
9. Dai, L.; Liu, M.; Chen, L. Association of Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations with All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among Adult Patients with Existing Cardiovascular Disease. Front. Nutr 2021, 8, 740855.
10. Kaufman, H.W.; Niles, J.K.; Kroll, M.H.; Bi, C.; Holick, M.F. SARS-CoV-2 positivity rates associated with circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. PLoS ONE 2020, 15, e0239252.
11. Seal, K.H.; Bertenthal, D.; Carey, E.; Grunfeld, C.; Bikle, D.D.; Lu, C.M. Association of Vitamin D Status and COVID-19-Related Hospitalization and Mortality. J. Gen. Intern. Med. 2022.
12. Dawson-Hughes, B.; Staten, M.A.; Knowler, W.C.; Nelson, J.; Vickery, E.M.; LeBlanc, E.S.; Neff, L.M.; Park, J.; Pittas, A.G.; Group, D.d.R. Intratrial Exposure to Vitamin D and New-Onset Diabetes Among Adults with Prediabetes: A Secondary Analysis From the Vitamin D and Type 2 Diabetes (D2d) Study. Diabetes Care 2020, 43, 2916–2922.
13.  Shirvani, A.; Kalajian, T.A.; Song, A.; Holick, M.F. Disassociation of Vitamin D’s Calcemic Activity and Non-calcemic Genomic Activity and Individual Responsiveness: A Randomized Controlled Double-Blind Clinical Trial. Sci. Rep. 2019, 9, 17685.
14. Mirhosseini, N.; Vatanparast, H.; Kimball, S.M. The Association between Serum 25(OH)D Status and Blood Pressure in Participants of a Community-Based Program Taking Vitamin D Supplements. Nutrients 2017, 9, 1244.
15. McDonnell, S.L.; Baggerly, K.A.; Baggerly, C.A.; Aliano, J.L.; French, C.B.; Baggerly, L.L.; Ebeling, M.D.; Rittenberg, C.S.; Goodier, C.G.; Mateus Nino, J.F.; et al. Maternal 25(OH)D concentrations >/=40 ng/mL associated with 60% lower preterm birth risk among general obstetrical patients at an urban medical center. PLoS ONE 2017, 12, e0180483.
16. Thyroid nodules and its association with vitamin D in centenarians
• Nearly 3/4 of centenarians had thyroid nodules
• Vitamin D deficiency was associated with probably malignant thyroid nodules in this population
  

Bladder Health—Knowing the Basics

Figure 1.  Dr. Eric Berg's cheat sheet on how to fix frequent urination

Your kidneys are part of your urinary tract – along with your bladder and the tubes that connect these organs (the urethra and ureter). The main purpose of your kidneys is to clean the waste from your blood. The good news is that kidney infections aren’t common. They’re essentially a much more serious urinary tract infection.^[1]

Video 1.  Frequent bladder infections are tied to breast cancer (YouTube link)

Bladder Infection vs Kidney Infection

Bladder infections very rarely progress to kidney infections.

You will be pretty sick if you have a kidney infection, and it’s important that you seek treatment right away.

Symptoms of a bladder infection are:

• Urgency and frequency in using the bathroom
• Burning with urination

while symptoms of a kidney infection are much more severe and include:^[1]

• Fever and flu-like symptoms
• Lower back or side pain
• This can be on the left or right side of your back depending on which kidney is infected. “It may feel like you were hit in the back with a baseball bat,” Dr. Vasavada says.
• Nausea and vomiting
• Urine that is cloudy, has blood in it and is foul smelling
• A general sense of malaise

Video 2.  How to Fix Urination Frequency at Night (Nocturia) for Good (YouTube link)

Overactive Bladder

Overactive bladder, also called OAB, causes a frequent and sudden urge to urinate that may be difficult to control. You may feel like you need to pass urine many times during the day and night, and may also experience unintentional loss of urine (urgency incontinence).^[3]

Medications are available for people with bladder control problems:

You can take a look at medications commonly prescribed to treat urinary incontinence and their possible side effects in [2]. 

Keep in mind that medication combined with behavioral treatment, healthy diets (watch video 1), and stop snacking at night (watch video 2) might be more effective than medication alone.  Also, noted that:^[4]

Drinking mass quantities of any liquid will inevitably send you to the bathroom, but beer, booze and wine amplify the effect. The reason? Alcohol is a diuretic, which – in the simplest of terms – increases the production of urine.

References

1. Urinary Tract Health, From Bladder to Kidney Infections
2. Bladder control: Medications for urinary problems
3. Overactive bladder - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic
4. Is ‘Breaking the Seal’ a Real Thing When Drinking Alcohol?
   

10 Hallmarks of Cancer

Figure 1.  Fighting 10 hallmarks of cancer with diet

10 Hallmarks of Cancer

1. Evading growth suppressors
2. Avoiding immune destruction
3. Enabling replicative immortality
4. Tumor-promoting inflammation
5. Activating invasion & metastasis
6. Inducing angiogenesis
• Suggested reading: Naturally-Occurring Antiangiogenic Substances
7. Genome instability & mutation
8. Resisting cell death
9. Deregulating cellular energetics
10. Sustaining proliferative signaling

Video 1.  Fighting the Ten Hallmarks of Cancer with Food (YouTube link)

References

1. Fighting the Ten Hallmarks of Cancer with Food

How Does Your Skin Age?

Even if you have great genes and look much younger than you are, age-related changes in our facial appearance are unavoidable. Those changes reflect our joys and challenges in life.

Over time, as stem cells decrease, our skin becomes thinner, which decreases its protection.  

How the Face Ages

As we age, number of stem cells are reduced.  Dozens of changes take place as the years add up, some of them obvious and familiar:^[1]

• Foreheads expand as hairlines retreat
• Ears often get a bit longer because the cartilage in them grows
• Tips of noses may droop because connective tissue supporting nasal cartilage weakens.

There are also:

• Skin wrinkles 
• Because two components of our skin — collagen and elastin — degenerate
• By your mid-20s, the collagen in your body starts to diminish, and by the time you reach your 80s, you have around 4 times less collagen
• Those deep ones in the forehead and between the eyebrows are called expression lines (or animation lines)
• They're the result of facial muscles continually tugging on, and eventually creasing, the skin. 
• Other folds may get deeper because of the way fat decreases and moves around. 
• Finer wrinkles are due to sun damage, smoking, and natural degeneration of elements of the skin that keep it thick and supple.
• Itchy skin (or alloknesis)
• Past studies have shown that Merkel cells in the skin are reduced in elderly people and people with dry skin conditions^[2]
• Bruise easily with age^[3]
• As we get older, several factors can contribute to easy bruising, including:
• Aging capillaries
• Thinning skin
• Structural rearrangements 
• When we're young, fat in the face is evenly distributed, with some pockets here and there that plump up the forehead, temples, cheeks, and areas around the eyes and mouth. 
• With age, that fat loses volume, clumps up, and shifts downward, so features that were formerly round may sink, and skin that was smooth and tight gets loose and sags.
• Meanwhile other parts of the face gain fat, particularly the lower half, so we tend to get baggy around the chin and jowly in the neck.

Video 1.  How Does The Skin Age and Why Do We Get Wrinkles (YouTube link)

References

1. Skin Care and Repair
2. Why getting old gives you itchy skin
3. Easy bruising: Common as you age
4. Creepy Skin? A Surprising Cause — and 4 Expert Fixes