Breast Cancer Doesn't End with the End of the Month

Welcome to another week of Dinner Supplements to the radio show, What Not to Talk About Over Dinner on KUCI Irvine 88.9FM and live on the web at kuci.org every Saturday 12-1pm!

This week, as October comes to a close, amidst Halloween fun, festivities and frights, Breast Cancer Awareness Month is also ending on the 31st. According to the American Cancer Society, about 40,170 women will die from breast cancer this coming year. Though heart disease continues to be the leading killer for women, breast cancer and other cancers are still taking their toll on many lives.

The campaigns for Breast Cancer have been numerous, widespread and exceedingly creative this past month. Although most of the campaigns around the country belonged to year-round organizations that are looking to get the word out about breast cancer and other types of cancer, this month provided a special push in several unexpected arenas.

As shown in the picture above, NFL players sponsored the month through wearing pink gloves, shoes, gear and putting a pink ribbon on every football. Cleverly named the "Crucial Catch Partnership" the campaign showed football fans that they could muse about more than the score - they could also pick their favorite player and buy his pink gear at the NFL auctions (hopefully they were washed before they were sold!).

As well, there are an increasing amount of humorous campaigns, which have witty names that will surely help one remember to donate - Save the TaTas and Feel Your Boobies being just two of the many. In addition, donating is easier than ever, Yoplait, Cartier, Clinique and K2 Snowboard are just a couple of the companies that are giving percentages of their revenues to breast cancer.

Want to donate? Giving free mammograms and other gifts are just a click away at The Breast Cancer Site.

For more info, listen to the show or the podcast this week at http://talkradio889.podbean.com. It's never too late to donate or volunteer.

Birthright Passage

Hey Everyone! Thanks once again to tuning in and reading up on the latest from What Not to Talk About Over Dinner from KUCI Irvine 88.9FM and kuci.org. If you'd like to listen to yesterday's show or any of our past shows, please visit http://talkradio889wnttod.podbean.com/.



This coming week's program is going to get an in-depth look at the Birthright Trip to Israel. These trips go out every year under the Taglight-Birthright Israel organization. Gaining its funding from interested investors and the Israeli government, this journey takes 18-26 year Jewish people from around the world to Israel. Although there is conflict in the region, the journey focuses on people learning about the region, visiting the areas they've heard and read about all their lives and finding ways to understand more about the Jewish experience.

If people who have gone on the birthright passage desire to return to the region again, there are many volunteer opportunities through Taglight to do so.

Although this focuses on a very specific type of experience, I encourage everyone who is interested in learning about their ancestorial history to always keep it within the context of foreign relations and what is going on in the world. Be proud of who you are, but also remember to take into account what is going on the world around you. Accept oneself and accept others. This is a difficult, yet necessary part of the human experience - to keep two conflicting ideas in your head while learning to understand both of them. Travel, learn and learn to love.

Integrating Two Worlds through Medicine

Welcome to another week of What Not to Talk About Over Dinner! Thank you for tuning in at http://kuci.org, KUCI Irvine 88.9FM on Saturday 12-1pm, and on the podcast everyday, and reading up on our topics each week.

This week, we will be discussing Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Research and ways in which Integrative Medicine is bringing that research to the university and public communities. Although we have an interview lined up with the Students for Integrative Medicine Club at UC Irvine and I will be discussing my research on the subject, I wanted to give some supplemental information here so that you can find out more about alternative medicine on your own.

Although it may sound a little illusory to most people who've grown up with Western medicine (taking over the counter medications for colds, headaches and coughs, visiting the doctor in your neighborhood for regular check-ups, etc), alternative medicine is being researched in the Western medical tradition at several schools and has a long history of patients. Both abroad and in the United States, alternative medicine, such as homeopathy, yoga, herbal remedies and acupuncture, have allowed many people to lengthen or improve their lifestyles.

As a little research project, I looked into two different societies in which complementary/alternative medicines and lifestyles have improved the lives of people over a long period of time.

The first is the Okinawans from Okinawa, Japan. With an average life expectancy of 81.25, the Japanese have one of the highest life expectancies in the world. Among the Japanese, Okinawans live the longest making them the top tier for youthful buoyancy among all human beings. According to the Japanese government, there are currently 457 Okinawans that are centenerians (100 years of age) with most living well into their 80s. What's their secret? Some of the local inhabitants claim that it's all about the special rice wine awamori, seasoned with mugwort and soporific. However, what is more likely is the way in which Okinawans live. They swim in the ocean, eat mainly grains and fish, and are especially enthusiastic about eating tofu with seaweed. As an article from USA Today reported, "Results are astounding: Compared with the USA, death rates are 82% lower for coronary heart disease, 86% lower for prostate cancer, 57% lower for ovarian cancer and 82% lower for breast cancer."

I know you're probably thinking, okay so they just eat healthy, that's not "alternative." Yet, the definition of "alternative" medicine is essentially anything that proves to prolong life and can be used as a means for preventing disease that does not require Western medicine. Hence, living a healthy lifestyle, free of toxins, low in fat and high in vitamins and exercise, can truly improve the way your health will progress.

Second, the yogis of India have been a fascination of the Western world for decades; yet in the past few years, they have piqued the interest of Hollywood, sending their ways into super stardom. Yet, why are their methods so conducive to living prosperously? There is not quite enough room on this blog to go into all the ways in which yoga changes the way your body heals, breathes and functions. However, one point that I think especially important (and easy to incorporate in your own life), is the power of breathing mindfully as yogis do. Yogis have figured out ways to use the breath that reduces stress, increases lung capacity and ease of blood flow, and allow the body's metabolism to work more effectively. Most gyms now offer some form of a yoga class or you could look to UCI's Students for Integrative Medicine for their free yoga classes each week - just email sim.ucirvine@gmail.com for more info.

Thanks and have a week!

The Olive Tree returns home...

Listen to kuci.org or KUCI Irvine 88.9FM Saturdays 12-1pm, or check out the podcast of the show if you want to hear the discussions this week.

This week's dinner supplements pithy around the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI), an organization for students and faculty started at UCI and now spreading to other campuses. At the end of September, OTI traveled to the Israel-Palestine region to meet with several religious and political leaders, journalists and citizens to gain a wider perspective on the long-winded, tortuous conflict that has demonstrated its effects in the US as well.

The UCI undergraduates, graduate students and faculty who attended the trip ranged from those of Israeli or Palestinian descent to interested, more self-proclaimed "neutral" students and even foreign-exchange students from Korea and India. The concrete exploration into a war-torn area attracted each person in a different way, yet, as a result of the groups collaboration and time together, all have come to a deeper understanding of the conflict and desire peace. Though none of the students or faculty members claim to know how that peace or at least allaying of suffering and conflict in the region would occur, most feel that by understanding its complexity little by little will help to reach such goals.

This past Saturday, OTI members met with the redoubtable, yet currently controversial due to a rise in student fees, UC president, Mark Yudof, and UCI's chancellor, Michael Drake, to discuss the trip and expand its message to all of the UC campuses.

Please visit OTI's website to make donations for future trips and find out more about the most recent trip. As well, if you would like to attend a live conversation with the group members and organizers, attend the Appreciating Narratives discussion on October 13th at UCI's campus.

More Olive Tree Initiatives are getting started on other UC campuses, so keep a look out for ways to get involved. Also, if you would like to start an OTI on your campus so students from your school can do this type of trip, please visit the Center for Peacebuilding website, OTI's website or contact Professor Paula Garb at pgarb@uci.edu for more information. Also, listen to the free podcast of the pre-trip and post-trip shows at my podcast site to hear the voices of OTI.