By: Penny B. Block, Ph.D. Increasingly, science and medicine, as well as the general public, recognize the powerful role that stress plays in our physical health. For people dealing with cancer, this is a component of care that cannot be brushed aside. Recent research out of Ohio State University (Hai, et al.) published in the … Continued
Everyone has heard the adage “You are what you eat.” And few would argue about the negative impact of a junk food diet on our overall health. More recently, however, research is emerging that suggests that diet can affect not just our physical well-being, but our mental health and behavior as well! For example, one … Continued
We recently had several inquiries from people asking if matcha tea should be avoided during chemotherapy and thought it a good question to address on our blog. For those of you not familiar with matcha tea, it’s a type of finely ground green tea powder. The leaves used for this tea are usually covered as … Continued
Drs. Keith and Penny Block attended the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) earlier this month, a large meeting that took place this year in San Diego, and which was attended by 18,500 researchers. The Association is an organization for researchers interested in all aspects of cancer research. At this year’s … Continued
There actually is a low-fat diet that has been extensively tested for reduction of cardiovascular disease, and multiple studies have documented its efficacy for other conditions as well. This is the DASH diet – Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. DASH has been the highest-rated diet in US News and World Report for four years in … Continued
The PREDIMED trial is a randomized study conducted in Spain in which a Mediterranean diet, supplemented with either olive oil or mixed nuts, was compared with a low-fat diet, as described by the American Heart Association’s guidelines. Its results have been published over the last year or so, and have been truly impressive: a 28-30% … Continued
The use of high-dose intravenous vitamin C dates back to the work of Dr. Linus Pauling in the 1970s. After his seminal work on the nature of the chemical bond between molecules, which won him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954, Pauling turned to biochemistry, and eventually to the area of nutritional supplements, where … Continued
It’s been suspected for quite some time that minor weight gain over the holidays is one of the root causes of the obesity problem in the US, and may even be responsible for the slow increase in weight that most American adults experience as they grow older. Surveys of Americans find that most of us … Continued
One of the most important strategies for treating women with estrogen-positive breast cancer is to block the action of estrogen. In estrogen positive (ER+) breast cancers, the natural estrogen in the body attaches to the estrogen receptors on cancer cells and stimulates them to divide, which makes breast tumors grow. Once the initial treatment of … Continued
Qigong is a traditional Chinese exercise modality. It aligns breathing, mental focus (or awareness) and movement for purposes of exercise, meditation and balancing of the “qi,” or life energy, in healing. It emphasizes and cultivates a calm and relaxing state of mind. At the Block Center, qigong exercises are often integrated into the physical activity … Continued