Are You Risking Cancer With This Fat?

By Shane "The People's Chemist" Ellison

You know by now that there are "good" fats and "bad" fats. And you've probably heard that small amounts of omega-6 fatty acids from seeds and plants are essential for your body. When combined with omega-3 fatty acids from fish, omega-6s appear to play an integral role in maintaining health. Together, these two fats can help regulate brain development, energy production, and immune function, and control inflammation.

However, large quantities of omega-6s promote oxidative stress by disabling the body's second defense against cancer: the antioxidant. Adding insult to injury, they increase inflammation within skin cells. And inflammation can be a driving force behind the growth of skin cancer and its ability to spread to nearby tissues and organs.

This omega-6 threat did not exist 100 years ago. Our ancestors consumed only small quantities of omega-6 in the form of whole corn, seeds, and legumes. Their ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 was about 1:1. Today, a large segment of the population consumes a ratio of at least 20:1.

The omega-6 overdose exists thanks to the advent of technology - chemical extraction methods, to be exact. Instead of getting omega-6 in its natural state - from plants and seeds - our primary sources are now plant and seed oils (corn, safflower, and sunflower). A single tablespoon of omega-6-laden corn oil is derived from a whopping 12 to 18 ears of corn.

The ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids has not yet been determined. One thing is certain, the overdose of omega-6 manifests into poor health as well as dry, brittle skin that predisposes us to skin cancer.

The best thing you can do to protect against skin cancer is rid your diet of omega-6-laden plant and seed oils while consuming more protective omega-3 fatty acids.

[Ed. Note: Shane Ellison is a two-time recipient of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant for his research in biochemistry and physiology and is a best-selling author. He holds a master's degree in organic chemistry and has firsthand experience in drug design. Get the benefit of his knowledge and insight with his no-BS practical guide to living young naturally without dangerous, prescription drugs.]

The Language Perfectionist: More Mispronunciations

By Don Hauptman

In an earlier installment of "The Language Perfectionist," I presented a list of the most commonly mispronounced words, courtesy of Charles Harrington Elster, a leading expert on pronunciation. In that column, I pointed out that if you don't pronounce words properly, your image and reputation could suffer.

That Top Ten list, however, hardly exhausted the roster of words that are frequently mangled. So I asked Charlie for a sequel. He emphasizes that the following list, like the previous one, isn't necessarily in order of offensiveness.

• Pronouncing the "t" in often. Say AWF-in, not AWF-tin.

• Rhyming assuage with massage. Correct: uh-SWAYJ (rhymes with "a sage"), not uh-SWAHZH.

• Putting a spurious "beast" in bestial. Say BES-chul, not BEES-chul or BEES-chee-ul. The word has two syllables, not three.

• Inserting an extraneous "moment" in memento. Pronounce it muh-MEN-toh, not moh-MEN-toh.

• Pronouncing height as if it were highth or height-th. The word rhymes with "right."

• Stressing the "par" instead of the "dis" in disparate. It's DIS-puh-rit, not dis-PAR-it.

• Putting a "he" or a "he nee" in heinous. Say HAY-nus, not HEE-nus or HEE-nee-us.

• Finally, two pronunciation crimes often committed in courtrooms: saying "or" at the end of juror and "ant" at the end of defendant. It's JOOR-ur, not JOOR-or and dih-FEN-dint, not dih-FEN-dant.

Charles Harrington Elster is the author of the quintessential guide, The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations. The current paperback second edition contains 200 new entries.

Thanks again, Charlie. You have our GRAT-uh-tood!

[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book recently published by AWAI that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]

It's Fun to Know: What's Cooler Than Cool?

By Suzanne Richardson

Driving through Montana on a recent visit to my family, my car's thermometer hit a number I haven't seen in years: 24 degrees... below zero.

As a Montana native, I'm no stranger to severe dips below freezing. But there are places where it gets even colder than my home state.

In the U.S., the coldest temperature recorded was minus 79.8 degrees Fahrenheit in the Endicott Mountains of northern Alaska. Worldwide, the coldest temperature recorded was in Vostok, Antarctica - minus 129 degrees Fahrenheit.

But that's nothing compared to what physicist Wolfgang Ketterle has cooked up. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Ketterle and his team "created" the lowest temperature ever recorded: 810 trillionths of a degree Fahrenheit above absolute zero. (Absolute zero is minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit.)

(Source: LiveScience, InfoPlease, and SmithsonianMag.com)

Word to the Wise: Horripilation

"Horripilation" (haw-rip-uh-LAY-shun) - from the Latin for "to bristle" + "hair" - is goose bumps.

Example (as used by the Washington Times in an article about Social Security): "There are a few things capable of sending an icy horripilation through even the bravest man."

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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2550, 12-27-08], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.