Money Can’t Buy You Love

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As the old adage goes, money can’t buy you love, but it can buy you time with the ones you love when you need it most. We all hope to have a long healthy life with plenty of time with family and friends. Sometimes however, life has different plans and a little planning can ease the financial burden at a time when the last thing you should be thinking about is money. Critical illness insurance is one option to account for the unforeseen future.

A long term client found themselves in this exact situation. While they were diligently working on their retirement plans, one of them was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer only to pass 37 days later.

Fortunately during the financial planning sessions, we discussed and included critical illness coverage to their suite of group and insurance options. This allowed the family to spend their limited time together as well as have the proper time to grieve the loss of a father and husband without worrying about finances.

Critical illness insurance pays a lump sum benefit if you are diagnosed with a dreaded disease such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, cancer or Parkinson’s disease. Other conditions covered may include coma, stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure. Benefits are paid for the first occurrence and may be used to pay medical expenses, modify your home or even take a vacation.

There are many versions of critical illness insurance available and different insurance carriers offer different coverage. Be sure not to let premiums be your guide when choosing the right coverage for you and your family. Speaking with a financial planner can help you navigate the tricky waters of ensuring your future needs are met based on your family history and future goals.

Due to the aforementioned situation, the children of this couple have now been meeting with their financial planner on a regular basis to develop their own financial plans and to ensure that their inheritance and financial affairs are well looked after. Firsthand experience has shown them a little planning goes a long way.

Cell Phone Radiation – Top 10 Least Radiation-Emitting Cell Phones of 2009

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All cell phones, once powered on, emit certain amounts of electromagnetic radiation in the microwave radio frequency range. During the past 15 years or so, when mobile phone use has become phenomenally prevalent worldwide, the effects of this radiation on human health has come under intense study and has been the subject of numerous heated debates. These past years, we’ve seen report after report that associated prolonged mobile phone use and exposure to differing amounts of cellular phone radiation to brain tumors, cancer, stress, headaches, cognitive problems, and sleep disorders.

Most of these studies, however, have either been disputed by other scientists or deemed as biased by other groups who also produced evidence to the contrary. As such, there’s no definitive, undisputed conclusion, as of yet, about cell phone dangers. Scientists warn, correctly, that there’s so much that we don’t know about the effects of mobile phone radiation, and that the full impact may actually be known years from now when it is too late to reverse any damage.

“The latency between exposure and brain cancer could be 20 or 30 years,” observes Professor Devra Davis, at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. By using cellular devices without any clear understanding of the dangers, “we are basically treating ourselves like lab rats in an experiment without any controls”

To mitigate potential cell phone dangers, experts recommend certain safe practices in using wireless devices. Some of the most common recommendations are: Keep your cellular phone away from your body, text more and talk less, use headset or speakerphone function, use your land line, turn off your mobile phone while charging, keep cell phones away from children, and purchase or use phones that have been certified or tested to emit the least amount of radiation.

It is with the intention of educating the public about the dangers of mobile phone radiation that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has conducted an exhaustive study, covering over a thousand cell phone models in the market, detailing the amount of radiation that each mobile phone emits. The EWG is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded in 1993 by Ken Cook and Richard Wiles, that aims to “use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment.”

Here are the 10 least radiation-emitting cell phones, according to the EWG report:

1. Samsung Impression (SGH-a877) [AT&T]

2. Motorola RAZR V8 [CellularONE]

3. Samsung SGH-t229 [T-Mobile]

4. Samsung Rugby (SGH-a837) [AT&T]

5. Samsung Propel Pro (SGH-i627) [AT&T]

6. Samsung Gravity (SGH-t459) [CellularONE, T-Mobile]

7. T-Mobile Sidekick [T-Mobile]

8. LG Xenon (GR500) [AT&T]

9. Motorola Karma QA1 [AT&T]

10.Sanyo Katana II [Kajeet]

Please visit ewg.org/cellphone-radiation/ to view the report and see the entire list.

As pointed out by the CTIA, the wireless industry’s lobbying group, there is yet no conclusive and fully substantiated study about cell phone dangers. However, it is no secret that government agencies in some countries have started to post warnings and direct cell phone manufacturers to clearly indicate the amount of radiation that each model they sell to the public actually emits.

Until we’re finally able to bridge that gap in our knowledge on the dangers of cell phone radiation, we can only take precautionary measures to protect ourselves. One important way to protect our health, is by buying or purchasing mobile phone models that have the least amount of radiation.

Think of Cancer As a Virus to Our Cellular HTML – Nurture Your Cellular Anti Virus Software

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Take a look at a beautiful website. Behind every beautiful site is HTML HyperText Markup Language, the “mother tongue” of our web browsers. Behind our being, is genetic code that dictates every cell of who we are. If we have one wrong little character in the HTML of our website it can completely destroy the function of that website. Well, the same is true for our genetic code.

Cancer is thought to be 8-10% genetics – now that is the genetics we are born with. That does not mean the other 90% is “our fault”. The truth is we have a number of exposures in our environment – some more in our control than others – that are mutagens – have the ability to alter the HTML – reprogram our cells into cancer cells. If the body is unable to destroy these mutated cells – this is cancer.

Notice I specified before the “genetics we are born with”. Now let’s talk about epigenetics – and this is where we can all get more actively involved in cancer prevention. Epigenetics is the study, in the field of genetics, of cellular and physiological phenotypic trait variations that are caused by external or environmental factors that switch genes on and off and affect how cells read genes.

I am a firm believer that knowledge is power – by knowing that only a very small part of cancer is hereditary genetics and the vast majority is epigenetic – this gives us far more control to prevent cancer for ourselves… and our offspring! – The trick is we have to know what these potentially mutating menaces are, and minimize our exposure.

Some of the causes of epigenetic and development epigenetic changes include:

Food choices: High saturated fat, sugar, lack of certain vital nutrients including certain B vitamins, antioxidants, folate. Please don’t randomly start popping supplements. If there already is a presence of cancer cells or with chemotherapy & radiation, certain supplemental vitamins and antioxidants are completely contraindicated. An “Its about time” the World health Organization just last week finally announced bacon and other nitrites foods to be just as deadly as cigarette smoke,

Cigarette Smoke: Yes First, Second and Third hand smoke.

Alcohol: Yes the resverstrol in red wine has anti tutor properties – better to get it through eating red grapes. Alcohol feeds cancer cells and cramps liver function, brain function – yes just about all functioning.

Chemicals: We have a very long list of these – the problem is the amount of years it takes to classify these chemicals as carcinogens, we have to lose thousands of people. Many chemicals such as the infamous BPA found in plastic water bottles are endocrine disruptors. And speaking of endocrine disruptors – read the research on soy – it might modify your choice of eating soy.

We run a risk of being exposed to carcinogenic chemicals depending on our proximity to certain industrial pollutants – by products. Especially those living in proximity to mining and chemical plants… know what the potential exposure is.

How bout this one. Dryer sheets: You know all those ads softer than a baby’s bum… fabric softeners and dryer sheets have 7-10 chemicals which are known to be neuro toxic and carcinogenic. No, we don’t have to electrocute ourselves getting our sheets and towels out of the dryer. Just sprinkle some lavender oil on some socks or towels in the load – no more static cling.

Electromagnetic Radiation: Xrays – I made a choice to limit the amount of dental X-rays when my kids were young, and now dental X-rays are being linked to thyroid cancer, although many will still try to rebuke that claim. Another “It’s about time” the American Cancer Society has advised us to cut back on the number of mammograms we have due to radiation and over diagnoses. And here is one nobody wants to hear… cell phones. Simply put we have more primary brain cancers than ever before. We have cancer of the ear, we have women getting breast cancer in the same area they wore their cell phone in their bra. Men should not wear their cell phone on their belt. No, data is not conclusive – but how many more cancers do we have to have waiting for another 20 years of research?

Wireless networks are being banned in schools with younger children around the world and certain states are trying the same.

Accumulation: We all have a threshold – how much bombardment can our cells take before cancer wins? There are many other mutagenic agents (thousands) than listed here and not realistic we can prevent exposure to all. The more we can minimize the mutagenesis and carcinogenesis- and optimize our body’s defences – the more we can prevent cancer. The best cure for cancer is cancer prevention.

Cellular fitness is fitness from the inside out. Most fitness programs focus on appearances, our mirror image, which is why they are short lived at best. A cellular fitness program satisfies the wish list on the outside, but has greater sustainability because it offers far more physiological reward – which beckons adherence.

Living a life to prevent cancer is the healthiest lifestyle of all.