What do you think is the most important quality of a successful entrepreneur?

Confidence?

Creativity?

Risk taking?

Would you believe that the most important trait is good health?

Not only must entrepreneurs work hard, often for long hours, but also they are usually self-employed, so they do not have an employer subsidized health insurance plan. Plus, every moment they are off work literally costs them income. So it actually makes a lot of sense that good health is key to success! These people can’t afford to take a sick day, much less develop chronic disease! This idea holds true for many other professions too, such as contract employees, performers, and other self-employed workers.

Naturopathic medicine can be a cost effective way for self-employed people to optimize their health today and stay healthy through prevention. In the short-term, it is far better to avoid coming down with every cold or flu going around, and in the long-term it is imperative to stay healthy and vital until retirement. Health is one of the most valuable assets we have and successful entrepreneurs recognize the value of investing in health rather than only treating disease.

Check out this list of common traits of successful entrepreneurs, based on research done by Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business for more details.

After 3 years of schooling during which I took 57 courses (and I don’t even want to try to count the number of tests and assignments I completed!), I will finally begin seeing patients in my school’s clinic on May 13th! I have a few thoughts:

Thought 1:
This was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I guess I knew it would be hard in terms of having to work hard, but I had no idea how physically, mentally, and emotionally draining these years would be (at times). Until you spend all day in class and then the rest of your time either eating, sleeping, working, or studying (at least that is what it feels like), you have no idea as to the true capacity and ability of your brain nor do you know your physical and emotional limits. I hope I now know and can back off from that cliff edge a bit.

Thought 2:
Naturopathic doctors (at least those educated at an accredited school over 4 years) are very knowledgeable. I knew that I would learn a lot but I still greatly underestimated how much information could be shoved into my brain in just a few years. I think if the general public knew just what naturopathic education meant, it would be impossible to claim that naturopathic doctors are “hippies” and that naturopathic medicine is unfounded.

Thought 3:
Embracing a holistic view of the world is the most important task facing humanity. I don’t think this is an understatement. Everything you do really does affect everyone else (and you too). Emotions, actions, purchases, chemicals (everywhere!), food, drugs, etc. This is overwhelming, but if everyone became just a little bit more aware of this reality, I don’t think it would be difficult to make major changes in the world. The good news is, if you as an individual want to embrace this view, you can make a difference without having to wait for everyone else to catch on.

Another piece of news is that I have created my own website using my current/future business name (Wavelength Wellness). There you will find some info about me, a blog (which will mostly parallel this one), information on how to book with me at the Robert Schad Naturopathic Clinic, and miscellaneous other info.

I’m recruiting for new patients as of now, so if you or anyone you know lives in the Toronto area and looking for a naturopathic doctor, please consider me!

As goes the tradition in my blog, I will share my New Year’s Resolutions. My overall resolution that covers all those below is to do things that I enjoy more often this year and to feel healthier. Last year was difficult stress-wise and I often felt sad that I have lost some of my enthusiasm for my life and spend too much time doing things (or thinking about things) that I don’t like. Since this is all up to me, really, this year I have decided to not only make more time for things I want to do but also put more energy into those things that I have to do and thus make them more enjoyable.

Diet
After living as a not-always-compliant Gatherer in 2008, I am starting 2009 as an Explorer! Based on my measurements and other info I come out close to either genotype, with the final decision resting on finger measurements! My fingers are so debatable, I’m just assuming they are equal lengths and that made me a Gatherer by the book. However, I also have many features of an Explorer (and some of Hunter, for that matter). Plugging all my info into SWAMI tells me I’m an Explorer, although the diet created for me is not the textbook Explorer diet since it is customized for my needs.

My first resolution is to get familiar with my food lists and improve my diet a bit. Meaning more vegetables and fruits and less sugar and caffeine. I’ve been getting sloppy, mostly because I am sometimes so tired and hungry at the end of the day that I eat whatever is closest to me!

Another dietary change I’ve already implemented that I plan to stick with is to be gluten-free. In October I went to a seminar on gluten sensitivity (will write a blog about it soon!) and since then have been nearly 100% gluten-free. I think I have accidentally eaten a few things with gluten, but I’m avoiding anything obvious and also cut out some gluten-contaminated foods such as oats. I think I do better gluten-free and I also think I have the least white lines in my fingerprints now than ever (comparing back to prints taken in 2005 and 2007). It will be interesting to see if this improves even further.

Exercise
This is a resolution every year! I would love to get to a point sometime in my life when I feel that I have enough time to exercise as much as I would like. I know this will not happen while I’m still in school, but hopefully soon after graduating I will have more control over my time…

Anyway, I would like to get to the gym twice per week on average. I love being there, I love how I feel after being there, and I have the ability to do this. So I will. Not every week will be perfect, but this should be doable most of the time. While there I will do what I feel like doing, as long as it is exercise. I would also like to get back into running semi-regularly. I ran a lot in the summer (sometimes 4-5 times per week) and loved it. I like being outside, I love the feeling of running, and it adds variety to my exercise routine. About once per week (or more) I’d like to get outside for a run (however short it may be). Finally, I would like to do some other exercise activities that are fun. One is to play squash with my boyfriend. I’ve never played (but want to learn) he wants to teach me, so this will be fun. I also want to maybe go swimming sometimes, do more yoga, go ice skating, etc.

The rest
The rest of my resolutions are more minor, mostly habits and health promotion stuff:
• Meditate daily before bed and hopefully other times in the day
• Body brushing
• Give advice only when asked
• Embrace silence
• Make time to do things I enjoy: read, talk to friends, see my boyfriend, cook, exercise, rest

Yes, this blog was a long time coming! I will plead the usual excuses of being overwhelmingly busy… Anyway, I wrote a research paper this semester looking the relationships between thyroid function, breast pathologies, and the role of iodine supplementation. This blog is a summary of what I learned. References are listed at the end and can be found on PubMed.

First, thyroid. There is an observed correlation between thyroid dysfunction and breast cancer (1,2,3), particularly hypothyroidism (3,4). Decreased function of the thyroid gland and rising TSH are also associated with a doubling in the risk of development of fibrocystic breast disease (5).

Next, iodine and breasts. Both breast tissue and thyroid tissue concentrate iodine (6) and deficiency of iodine causes “atypical tissue and physiologic changes in both” (7). One researcher noted that “geographic differences in the rates of breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancer appear to be inversely correlated with dietary iodine intake” (8). For example, in Japan seaweed (high in both iodine and selenium) is a major part of the diet and may play a role in the low incidence of both benign and malignant breast disease in that country (9).

A study on rats demonstrated a reduction in breast cancer incidence with iodine treatment (10). With regard to fibrocystic breast disease, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter clinical trials (the gold-standard of conventional medicine!) have demonstrated that supplementation with iodide/iodine significantly reduced breast pain, tenderness, and nodularity (11,12).

So how does this work? One theory is that iodine deficiency leads to a state of excess estrogen (13), increasing the risk of a whole host of cancers. Iodine is also believed to suppress tumour growth (14), induce tumour cell death (15), and regulate genes that influence hormone metabolism, cell cycle, growth, and differentiation (16).

So why is this useful information? Everything in the body is connected, particularly the endocrine system. So, when something is going wrong in one area, like thyroid function, there are likely also going to be issues either immediately or down the road with another area, particularly reproductive organs. The causal mechanisms are not clear yet, but it is prudent to assess breast health when patients present with thyroid dysfunction and vice versa. There is evidence to suggest that iodine is effective nutritional treatment for fibrocystic breast disease and it may also be useful in reproductive cancers. Molecular iodine, rather than iodide, was found to be most effective and have the least adverse effects on the thyroid (12).

There is lots of other interesting information that I was not able to get to, such as a deeper look at the interaction of sex hormones with thyroid function and other influences on hormonal balance, such as sleep. Maybe one day I’ll have time to do more research and I’ll post an update!

References:
1. Turken O, NarIn Y, DemIrbas S, Onde ME, Sayan O, KandemIr EG, YaylacI M, Ozturk A. Breast cancer in association with thyroid disorders. Breast Cancer Res. 2003;5(5):R110-3. Epub 2003 Jun 5.
2. Saraiva PP, Figueiredo NB, Padovani CR, Brentani MM, Nogueira CR. Profile of thyroid hormones in breast cancer patients. Braz J Med Biol Res. 2005 May;38(5):761-5. Epub 2005 May 25.
3. Giani C, Fierabracci P, Bonacci R, Gigliotti A, Campani D, De Negri F, Cecchetti D, Martino E, Pinchera A. Relationship between breast cancer and thyroid disease: relevance of autoimmune thyroid disorders in breast malignancy. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1996 Mar;81(3):990-4.
4. Kuijpens JL, Nyklíctek I, Louwman MW, Weetman TA, Pop VJ, Coebergh JW. Hypothyroidism might be related to breast cancer in post-menopausal women. Thyroid. 2005 Nov;15(11):1253-9.
5. Mardaleishvili KG, Nemsadze GG, Metreveli DS, Roinishvili TL. [About correlation of dysfunction of the thyroid gland with fibrocystic diseases in women] Georgian Med News. 2006 Nov;(140):30-2. Russian.
6. Patrick L. Iodine: deficiency and therapeutic considerations. Altern Med Rev. 2008 Jun;13(2):116-27. Review.
7. Eskin BA, Grotkowski CE, Connolly CP, Ghent WR. Different tissue responses for iodine and iodide in rat thyroid and mammary glands. Biol Trace Elem Res. 1995 Jul;49(1):9-19.
8. Stadel BV. Dietary iodine and risk of breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancer. Lancet. 1976 Apr 24;1(7965):890-1.
9. Cann SA, van Netten JP, van Netten C. Hypothesis: iodine, selenium and the development of breast cancer. Cancer Causes Control. 2000 Feb;11(2):121-7. Review.
10. García-Solís P, Alfaro Y, Anguiano B, Delgado G, Guzman RC, Nandi S, Díaz-Muñoz M, Vázquez-Martínez O, Aceves C. Inhibition of N-methyl-N-nitrosourea-induced mammary carcinogenesis by molecular iodine (I2) but not by iodide (I-) treatment Evidence that I2 prevents cancer promotion. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2005 May 31;236(1-2):49-57. Epub 2005 Apr 13.
11. Kessler JH. The effect of supraphysiologic levels of iodine on patients with cyclic mastalgia. Breast J. 2004 Jul-Aug;10(4):328-36.
12. Ghent WR, Eskin BA, Low DA, Hill LP. Iodine replacement in fibrocystic disease of the breast. Can J Surg. 1993 Oct;36(5):453-60.
13. Stadel BV. Dietary iodine and risk of breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancer. Lancet. 1976 Apr 24;1(7965):890-1.
14. Funahashi H, Imai T, Tanaka Y, Tobinaga J, Wada M, Morita T, Yamada F, Tsukamura K, Oiwa M, Kikumori T, Narita T, Takagi H. Suppressive effect of iodine on DMBA-induced breast tumor growth in the rat. J Surg Oncol. 1996 Mar;61(3):209-13.
15. Shrivastava A, Tiwari M, Sinha RA, Kumar A, Balapure AK, Bajpai VK, Sharma R, Mitra K, Tandon A, Godbole MM. Molecular iodine induces caspase-independent apoptosis in human breast carcinoma cells involving the mitochondria-mediated pathway. J Biol Chem. 2006 Jul 14;281(28):19762-71. Epub 2006 May 5.
16. Stoddard FR 2nd, Brooks AD, Eskin BA, Johannes GJ. Iodine alters gene expression in the MCF7 breast cancer cell line: evidence for an anti-estrogen effect of iodine. Int J Med Sci. 2008 Jul 8;5(4):189-96.

A quote from a few days ago, courtesy of iGoogle:

Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it. - Ellen Goodman

In other news, since I am generally constantly swamped with schoolwork, I am going to write some blogs on subjects I am learning in school or have written papers about (for school!) lately. Stay tuned! The first topic will be "Iodine, Thyroid, and Breast Health".