What Is MOHS?
Dear Gentle Reader,
This morning I received e-mail from a girl who was a classmate in school when we grew up in Iowa. Okay, technically, she may no longer be a girl, but I haven’t seen her for decades and in my mind’s eye, she still has dark brown hair and the figure of a 17-year-old.
Unfortunately, her skin has aged, like mine, and she recently underwent MOHS surgery to remove a basal carcinoma. Using the MOHS approach, the surgeon keeps scraping off layers of affected skin and sending them to the lab until the result comes back that there is no more carcinoma. Those terms were familiar to me because I’d undergone the same procedure in 1992. At that time the dermatologist who had removed what I initially thought was a harmless growth, opined that basal cell epitheliomas are an inherited trait.
But an article I read after the surgery suggested that a cancer anywhere in one’s body should be a red flag regarding the condition of one’s health. So I started doing a lot of reading on nutrition and discovered that my diet was considered by many to be inadequate, termed "S.A.D." (Standard American Diet) that would result in premature aging and degeneration of one’s body, leading to high blood pressure, arthritis, and other ills.
To put it bluntly, I was eating way too many processed foods. In other words, anything that comes in a container should be avoided to the extent possible. (Yes, even water. Scientists suspect that plastic from the water bottles migrates into the water.) Not only are many of the food additives of questionable influence on the body, but the mere acts of baking, microwaving, adding sugar, etc. contributes to the acidity of the foods.
You can ascertain the level of your own body’s acidity by using little tabs of paper called pH testers which turn color, reflecting the acidity/alkalinity of your bodily fluids. (Ask your pharmacist.) Or you could invest in a book called Alkalize or Die by Dr. Theodore A. Baroody, which provides information on the foods which are acid-forming and those which are alkaline-forming.
The easiest way to alkalize one’s body is to eat fruits and vegetables the way they came from the garden, au naturel. But this calls for an entirely different mind-set about eating, and a completely new set of recipes! Unless you live by yourself, you may find yourself making two different menus, one for yourself and one for your housemate. I’ve done this for years, and it makes life a little more complicated. Fortunately, eating raw requires very little preparation. One settles into a routine. I almost always eat raw fruits and vegetables for breakfast and lunch, and at dinner/supper I add some cooked foods, e.g. a black bean burrito. We have salmon once a week (not canned, but that would work, too), along with Italian bread and a green salad.
I should mention that, although my husband has decided to adopt some of my natural diet, I have had absolutely no influence on the rest of our family, who think I’m a bit kooky where food is concerned. And yes, when I’m in Rome, I do as the Romans do. In Milwaukee, I’ll be eating lots of cooked foods and indulging in eggnog!
To your health...
This morning I received e-mail from a girl who was a classmate in school when we grew up in Iowa. Okay, technically, she may no longer be a girl, but I haven’t seen her for decades and in my mind’s eye, she still has dark brown hair and the figure of a 17-year-old.
Unfortunately, her skin has aged, like mine, and she recently underwent MOHS surgery to remove a basal carcinoma. Using the MOHS approach, the surgeon keeps scraping off layers of affected skin and sending them to the lab until the result comes back that there is no more carcinoma. Those terms were familiar to me because I’d undergone the same procedure in 1992. At that time the dermatologist who had removed what I initially thought was a harmless growth, opined that basal cell epitheliomas are an inherited trait.
But an article I read after the surgery suggested that a cancer anywhere in one’s body should be a red flag regarding the condition of one’s health. So I started doing a lot of reading on nutrition and discovered that my diet was considered by many to be inadequate, termed "S.A.D." (Standard American Diet) that would result in premature aging and degeneration of one’s body, leading to high blood pressure, arthritis, and other ills.
To put it bluntly, I was eating way too many processed foods. In other words, anything that comes in a container should be avoided to the extent possible. (Yes, even water. Scientists suspect that plastic from the water bottles migrates into the water.) Not only are many of the food additives of questionable influence on the body, but the mere acts of baking, microwaving, adding sugar, etc. contributes to the acidity of the foods.
You can ascertain the level of your own body’s acidity by using little tabs of paper called pH testers which turn color, reflecting the acidity/alkalinity of your bodily fluids. (Ask your pharmacist.) Or you could invest in a book called Alkalize or Die by Dr. Theodore A. Baroody, which provides information on the foods which are acid-forming and those which are alkaline-forming.
The easiest way to alkalize one’s body is to eat fruits and vegetables the way they came from the garden, au naturel. But this calls for an entirely different mind-set about eating, and a completely new set of recipes! Unless you live by yourself, you may find yourself making two different menus, one for yourself and one for your housemate. I’ve done this for years, and it makes life a little more complicated. Fortunately, eating raw requires very little preparation. One settles into a routine. I almost always eat raw fruits and vegetables for breakfast and lunch, and at dinner/supper I add some cooked foods, e.g. a black bean burrito. We have salmon once a week (not canned, but that would work, too), along with Italian bread and a green salad.
I should mention that, although my husband has decided to adopt some of my natural diet, I have had absolutely no influence on the rest of our family, who think I’m a bit kooky where food is concerned. And yes, when I’m in Rome, I do as the Romans do. In Milwaukee, I’ll be eating lots of cooked foods and indulging in eggnog!
To your health...
posted by Patty G. | 4:55 PM
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