The Journal of Plant Based Health & Wellness Issue #4,October, 2019 Message from the Editor ʺWelcome to The Journal of Plant Based Health & Wellness! We are so pleased that you have decided to join us on this exciting health journey!ʺ Rick McKeon Our goal is to provide interesting and inspiring articles that ordinary people can easily understand and put to use in their daily lives. You donʹt need to be a medical professional or a trained scientist to benefit from the articles you find in this journal. Hereʹs what you will find in this monthʹs issue: 1. Feature Article: Understanding Urinalysis. Donʹt let all those complicated numbers and fancy medical terms confuse you. If you are interested in how your diet and lifestyle affect your health, you need to know what they do after you pee in the cup. 2. Success Story: My Bumpy Road Back To Health by Rick McKeon. If a weak-willed, obese alcoholic like me can turn his life around, you can too! 3. Foods with Anti-Cancer Properties: Your immune system is your main defense against cancer. We all have cancer cells in our bodies, 1 but the immune system usually keeps them in check. Eat these foods to bolster your immune system. 4. Recipe: Vegetable Bake. These vegetable bake recipes are so simple and delicious! 5. Spices for Flavor and Health: Cinnamon. This flavorful spice is versatile and amazingly healthful. 6. Experts to Follow: Pam Popper, M.D. Doctor Popper is a brilliant health care professional and an inspiring teacher. This month you will learn about her practice, her influence in the medical community, and her educational programs. She always brings me back to reality when she says, ʺPeople like to hear good things about their bad habits.ʺ 7. Book Review: Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. M.D. This is a groundbreaking work by a true health and wellness pioneer! 8. Video Documentary Review: Hungry for Change. This interesting and informative video exposes some of the tactics that the junk food industry uses to get you hooked on unhealthy foods. 9. Health & Wellness Retreats: The Food Revolution Network Retreat with John and Ocean Robbins. This retreat will be informative, inspiring, and life changing! 10. Reliable Health & Wellness Websites: The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: Dr. Neal Barnard is a powerful force for changing the current medical system from an expensive pharmaceutically based system of treating symptoms, to an approach that gets at the root cause of disease and promotes health with diet and lifestyle changes. This organization is also working to eliminate the cruel and inhumane treatment of animals. After all, these lovely creatures who share the planet with us deserve to be treated with love and care. What an amazing and compassionate group of healthcare professionals! Check out the Physicianʹs Committee! 11. For Further Study and Certification: Food Over Medicine Certified Instructor and The Wellness Forum Institute for Health Studies. 2 Dr. Pam Popper offers both a short certification course and an extended program. Mission Statement This monthly newsletter is provided absolutely free as a public service to help stem the rising tide of preventable chronic diseases. We are in the midst of a worldwide epidemic of diabetes, obesity, hypertension, dementia, heart disease and cancer. These dreadful illnesses can be prevented and even reversed by making a few simple diet and lifestyle changes! Our mission is to spread the word that the human body is an amazing self- healing machine! The conventional pharmaceutical paradigm of treating symptoms with drugs will soon give way to a new approach that promotes health by understanding the root causes of disease and curing people through diet and lifestyle changes. This may seem like an uphill battle against the entrenched industrial food producers and powerful pharmaceutical companies, but we really have no other choice. Current trends will not only result in massive human suffering; they will completely bankrupt the American medical system! Thatʹs what this journal is all about. If you remove the toxins and provide your body with healthy nutrients, it will naturally start to heal itself. By living a plant-based lifestyle combined with moderate exercise, stress reduction and detoxification, you will start to reverse all chronic illnesses and live an amazing pain free life. This has been demonstrated over and over again. ʺHeal yourself and heal the planetʺ 3 We would love to feature YOUR personal story! Send your story together with a thumbnail image of yourself to [email protected] Note: By making this submission you are granting us permission to publish your image and your story. FREE OFFER! To start receiving this free monthly newsletter just sign up on our mailing list at http://eepurl.com/gt1nv9 Disclaimer I am not a medical doctor, and I am not offering medical advice. In this journal I am just honestly sharing my personal experience and some of the things I have learned from those who are experts. Before making any changes in your diet or exercise program, Consult with your healthcare professional. My hope is that you will be inspired and motivated by Something you read here. I know thatʹs a high aspiration, But that is what I hope for you! 4 Feature Article: Understanding Urinalysis ʺAs with blood test results, urinalysis numbers can be a little confusing, but letʹs try and make some sense out of them.ʺ Urinalysis (UA) is a contraction of the terms ʺurineʺ and ʺanalysis.ʺ It is the physical, chemical, and microscopic analysis of a urine sample. It can be used to evaluate several different medical problems including: 1. Kidney failure 2. Urinary tract infections (UTIs) 3. Kidney and ureteral stones 4. GU malignancy 5. Acid-based disorders 6. Abnormalities of volume status 7. Rhabdomyolysis 8. Response to alkalization therapy UA results can be divided into three broad categories; 1. Gross Inspection 2. Dipstick 3. Microscopy In each case I give a typical test result. 5 Part 1: Gross Inspection Gross inspection includes color and turbidity (how clear the urine is). 1.1 Color Your urine will change color under different circumstances. If you are well hydrated it will be a light color, but if you are dehydrated it will be darker. Thatʹs why it will typically be darker first thing in the morning. Also, urine color can be influenced by several other factors including medical conditions, medications, and even foods. Table 1-1 smmarizes potential causes for different colors of urine. Color Potential Causes Medical Conditions: bleeding, porphyria, factitious disorder Red Meds: rifampin, phenytoin, phenazopyridine Foods: beets Medical Conditions: hyperbilirubinemia Orange Meds: rifampin Foods: excessive vitamin A or vitamin B complex Brown Medical Conditions: Any condition causing red or orange urine if or severe enough Black Meds: metronidazole, nitrofurantpin, senna, sorbitol Medical Conditions: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) Meds: methylene blue, propofol, amitriptyline, promethazine, Green metoclopramide, indomethacin Foods: asparagus, blue food dyes (blue mixed with yellow results in green) Table 1-1: Potential Causes for Various Colors in the Urine 6 Test Name: URINE COLOR Result: YELLOW 1.2 Turbidity Turbidity means how clear or cloudy the urine looks. Turbid urine may indicate: urinary tract infection (UTI) or precipitated crystals. Test Name: APPEARANCE Result: CLEAR Units: -- Part 2: Dipstick The dipstick is a reagent strip that is dipped into the urine. This will trigger a series of color changes along its length that indicate the presence and concentration of various substances in the urine. Specific properties tested for include: 1. Specific gravity 2. pH 3. Glucose 4. Heme 7 5. Protein 6. Leukocyte 7. Nitrites 8. Ketones and 9. Bilirubin 2.1 Specific Gravity Specific gravity is a measure of density. It is the density of urine divided by the density of water as follows: Specific Gravity = Density of urine/Density of water Urine is mostly composed of water, but it does contain a few other compounds like electrolytes and urea that make it slightly denser than water. Significant amounts of protein or glucose in the urine will increase its density. If the urine has a specific gravity close to 1.001 it is very dilute. This condition can be caused by excessive hydration, diabetes, or acute tubular necrosis (ATN) where the kidneys have lost the ability to concentrate urine. A specific gravity of 1.035 implies the opposite. This condition can be caused by dehydration, SIADH (syndrome of inappropriate anti-diuretic hormone), CHF, cirrhosis, too much glucose (glycosuria), or too much protein in the urine (proteinuria), or recent administration of IV contrast. A specific gravity that is consistently around 1.010 is an indication of kidney failure. 8 Test Name: SPECIFIC GRAVITY Result: 1.009 Units: -- Reference Range: (1.009-1.025) 2.2 pH ʺYou probably already know this, but hereʹs a reminder. Hypo means low, and hyper means high. How cool is that!ʺ The pH of a solution is a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions. The pH scale goes from 0 to 14. Solutions with a pH between 0 and 7 are acidic, and solutions with a pH between 7 and 14 are basic. Just to give you a feel for pH values, Table 2-1 gives the typical pH for several common items. The pH of urine should be between 5.0 and 9.0. 9 BASE Liquid drain cleaner (pH=14) Bleach, oven cleaner, lye (pH=13.5) Ammonia solution (pH=10.5-11.5) Baking soda (pH=9.5) Seawater (pH=8) Blood (pH=7.4) Milk, urine, saliva (pH=6.3-6.6) Black coffee (pH=5) Grapefruit juice, soda, tomato juice (pH=2.5-3.5) Lemon juice, vinegar (pH=2) Battery acid, hydrochloric acid (pH=0) ACID Table 2-1 pH for several common substances Checking urine pH can be helpful in: 1.