Archives for March 2018

Angiogenesis is the process through which new blood vessels form from pre-existing vessels, feeding cells with oxygen, nutrients and also removing waste products.

Under normal conditions, angiogenesis is fundamental to good cell health. But when it comes to cancer, angiogenesis becomes the villain, helping the growth and spread of cancer cells.

Numerous studies have found that you daily habits can contribute to the formation, growth and spread of cancer. In one such study, researchers at Mass General Hospital and The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health studied 130,000 patients and determined that 50% of all cancers are preventable – caused by unhealthy habits.

We pick up most of our habits from our parents, family and our environment, according to the latest research.

In a Brown University Study in which 50,000 families participated, the researchers found that most of your lifelong habits are forged by the age of 9.

In another study, Nicolas Christakis, head researcher at Yale University, found that habits spread like a virus thorough your social networks. Your social network includes your home, school, neighborhood, workplace, gym, etc.

Since we pick up many of our eating habits from our parents, family and our environment, our diet can either inhibit or stimulate angiogenesis, making cancer, in part, a habit-driven disease.

Thus, one of the keys to minimizing cancer is to forge healthy eating habits that inhibit angiogenesis or add antioxidants to your diet, which helps prevent cancer.

In general, processed foods stimulate angiogenesis. Processed foods are essentially most of the foods that you find up and down the aisles in supermarkets.

Healthy, organic, whole foods inhibit angiogenesis and are packed with antioxidants. These can be found in the perimeter of your supermarket, outside and around most of the aisles.

Specifically, which foods inhibit angiogenesis and help prevent cancer?

• Tomatoes contain Lycopene, a substance that inhibits angiogenesis. The concentration of lycopene increases by cooking tomatoes.
• Red Wine contains Resveratrol, an antioxidant that kills bacteria, viruses and fungi. It also increases energy production within each cell, preventing damage and stimulating repair functions within the cells. Pinot Noir and Bordeaux contain larger concentrations of resveratrol.
• Blueberries/Rasberries decrease oxidative stress within each cell, inhibiting angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, the lymphatic form of angiogenesis.
• Dark Chocolate contains polyphenols and flavanols, antioxidants which inhibit angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis.
• Coffee and Green Tea are loaded with antioxidants which help clean and maintain cell health.
• Other foods which act as inhibitors include: oranges, grapefruit, lemons; apples, pineapples, soy beans, kale and bok choy, garlic and olive oil.

Most people don’t think about their habits until they have to. Heart attacks, diabetes, strokes and diseases like cancer, force their victims to confront and change their habits. Don’t wait. Forge healthy eating habits now, before it’s too late.

According to a Columbia University study by lead investigator Renee Goodwin, cigarette smokers are seven times more likely to smoke pot than non-smokers.

Why?

A little-known phenomenon, known as The Transfer Effect, is to blame.

According to researchers at Indiana University, when you forge a habit that improves one area of your life, this automatically triggers a desire for improvements in other areas of your life.

What’s behind this Transfer Effect?

A unique breed of habits called Keystone Habits.

Keystone Habits are infectious habits that act like catalysts, giving birth to other related habits. Cigarette smoking and pot smoking are one example. Another is drinking alcohol and cigarette smoking. Still another is commuting in your car and listening to the radio.

While Keystone Habits like smoking, can be a bad thing and lead to other related bad habits, they can also be a good thing.

The Rich Habit of aerobic exercise, for example, is a good Keystone Habit. The Indiana researchers found in their study that those who exercised aerobically, by virtue of this Transfer Effect, also forged the habit of eating healthier food. This had the effect of improving overall health of the exercisers in their study.

The Poor Habit of sitting on the couch and watching TV can be a bad thing, leading you to other Poor Habits such as eating junk food.

The Rich Habit of saving 10% or more of your income can be a good thing, leading to other Rich Habits such as using coupons, buying your clothes at Goodwill stores, prudent investing, budgeting, etc.

The Poor Habit of spending more than you earn can be a bad thing, leading to other Poor Habits such as using credit cards or borrowing money from banks, family and friends. The stress associated with struggling to pay your bills can also lead to other Poor Habits such as eating unhealthy comfort junk food or drive you to drink alcohol or take drugs to relieve the stress.

The Rich Habit of pursuing a dream can be a good thing, leading to self-improvement reading, forging new skills, seeking mentors, etc.

The Poor Habit of staying in a job you hate, for security purposes, can lead to chronic stress and cause you to forge bad habits intended to relieve the stress, such as drinking or eating junk food.

This is why it is so important to forge good habits – good habits lead to more good habits. This is also why it is so important to eliminate bad habits – bad habits lead to more bad habits.

Habits are your transportation system in life. If your desired destination is a healthy, happy, successful life, good daily habits will push you along to that destination.

Open your eyes to your habits because the wrong habits could be pushing you along to a destination you won’t like very much..

Everything that exists today was built upon a foundation.

The life you have, rich or poor, is a reflection of the foundation you’ve built over your adult years.

If you’ve worked hard and sacrificed for many years in order to build a foundation that will pay dividends down the road, then you have a strong foundation. Your strong foundation means you will be financially sound and financially independent in your later years, once those dividends start paying off. It also means that you will not be a burden on the ones you love – your children, immediate family and close friends.

If you have done the bare minimum required of you in order to earn an income with very little sacrificing, your foundation will be weak and will not pay any future dividends. Your weak foundation means you will be a burden on your children, immediate family and close friends.

So, how do you go about building a foundation for financial success?

There are really four parts, or four steps, you must take in order to build a strong foundation for financial success:

Step #1 Become a Virtuoso

A virtuoso is someone who sits at the top, as an expert. When you are a virtuoso, the world pays you a premium for your knowledge or skills. It takes some effort and good daily habits to become a virtuoso:

• Purposeful Reading – Focusing your reading to books/articles that expand your knowledge in a specific field. Thirty to sixty minutes a day, every day, is enough to become a virtuoso.
• Purposeful Practice – Practicing specific techniques in various ways in an effort to master that technique. How much time you need to devote to Purposeful Practice depends entirely on what skills you are trying to perfect. For most skills, one to two hours a day will make you a virtuoso.
• Purposeful Study of Facts – Focusing your study to facts that are specific to a topic and focusing on that topic until every fact about it is known. This can be accomplished through Purposeful Reading.

Step #2 Live Below Your Means to Create Excess Income

Keeping your living expenses below your income means you will have excess income. How much excess income you have has a lot to do with how far below your means you are able to live. Those who are able to live off of 80% or less of their net income will have a great deal of excess income.

Step #3 Save and Invest Your Excess Income

Once you have forged the habit of living below your means, you can put your excess income to work by prudently investing it, so that it will grow. This growth compounds every year, meaning your invested savings grows and kicks off interest, dividends and appreciation, which also grows every year. Over time, this compound growth accelerates in later years and can be substantial, facilitating early retirement. Early retirement means freedom.

#4 Create Multiple Streams of Income

Another important brick to lay in building your strong foundation is to create multiple streams of income. The self-made millionaires that I write about in my books did this one revenue stream at a time, often devoting a decade or more to each revenue stream until it began to pay dividends. Once the revenue stream became self-sufficient, they moved on to building the next revenue stream, then the next one, etc. The cash flow generated from these multiple revenue streams can come to the rescue when other sources of income are negatively impacted by economic downturns. Plus, the cash flow generated from multiple revenue streams can be invested, like savings, leading to increased compound growth of your investments.

There are no shortcuts to building a strong foundation for financial success. Hard work, persistence, consistency, patience and good habits are all fundamental to building that foundation. It takes many years to build a strong foundation, but the longer it takes, the stronger the foundation will be.