Category: Health Tips

John Leake from Focal Points (Courageous Discourse) writes:

A few years ago I interviewed Dr. Paul Marik about Simple Ways to Reduce Cancer Risk https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/simple-ways-to-reduce-cancer-risk. As I noted back then, Dr. Marik is an enormously curious man with a boundless capacity for inquiry and study. After he came to the startling conclusion that the official pandemic response really was driven almost entirely by commercial motives (instead of taking care of patients) he wondered if there were other elements of conventional medical care that were equally corrupt.

Five years ago he embarked on an intense study of cancer—the nature of the disease, its complex causes, and how to treat it. To his surprise, he discovered that simple lifestyle and dietary habits can significantly reduce the risk of cancer. He also learned that deficiencies in natural compounds such as Vitamin D significantly increase the risk of cancer.

I was therefore delighted to hear that Dr. Marik has just started publishing his own Substack newsletter, which I have found to be a wealth of information about cancer.

Scarcely a week goes by without the news of another person in my extended social circle—many of whom are still relatively young—getting a cancer diagnosis. As I recently discussed in my interview with British oncologist Angus Dalgleish, we suspect that the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are oncogenic. (Tom: In fact the COVID jabs are oncogenic via three different mechanisms I have previously reported.)

Dr. Marik’s newsletter provides a wealth of information and hope for cancer patients and for all of us who want to get serious about reducing our cancer risk. Please click on the icon below to read his recent post about cancer and diet, share it with your friends, and Subscribe to Paul’s newsletter. I have known him for almost five years and I am convinced that he is one of the great intellectual and moral authorities of our era.

Five thousand years before Tylenol. Three thousand years before aspirin. Four thousand years before penicillin. The ancient Egyptians already had a medicine that killed bacteria, blocked pain, healed wounds, and reduced inflammation. They used it so much and valued it so highly that they stockpiled it in their royal tombs. Archaeologists have found myrrh resin in Egyptian burial chambers dated to 3,000 BC, still fragrant after five millennia.

The Ebers Papyrus, written around 1,550 BC and considered one of the oldest medical texts in existence, lists myrrh in over 50 separate prescriptions. For infected wounds. For tooth pain. For mouth ulcers. For joint aches. For stomach problems.

The Babylonians traded it across the entire ancient world. The ancient Chinese documented it in their medical texts over 2,000 years ago. King Solomon wrote about it in the Song of Solomon. Jesus was offered myrrh mixed with wine as a painkiller before the crucifixion, an act so well-known to people of that era that it needed no explanation in the text. Every major ancient civilization on Earth, without any contact with each other, arrived independently at the same conclusion: myrrh is one of the most powerful healing substances in nature.

Here is what they knew by observation and what science now explains in detail.

Myrrh comes from the Commiphora tree, a thorny desert shrub that grows across East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and India. When you wound the bark, the tree bleeds a thick amber resin that hardens into small, irregular lumps that smell like warm, earthy spice. That resin is packed with sesquiterpene compounds, specifically curzerene, furanodiene, and elemol, that have three distinct mechanisms modern medicine has now confirmed.

First, pain blocking. The sesquiterpenes from myrrh are potent inhibitors of the TRPV1 receptor, the exact channel that carries pain signals from damaged tissue up the nerve toward the brain. A 2024 study (PMC10768035) confirmed that Commiphora myrrha extract reduced established nerve pain and prevented its development by blocking TRPV1 channels peripherally and restoring normal TRPV1 protein expression in the spinal cord. The ancient Egyptians rubbing myrrh on sore joints were, without knowing it, performing targeted TRPV1 blockade.

Second, bacteria killing. A 2025 study in Nature Scientific Reports (PMID from ) confirmed that myrrh resin extract showed strong antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Candida albicans, all major modern pathogens including antibiotic-resistant strains. The mechanism is direct disruption of bacterial cell membranes from outside, the same mechanism that makes it impossible for bacteria to develop resistance to it the way they do to antibiotics.

Third, wound healing. The same 2025 study documented that myrrh extract accelerated fibroblast migration and collagen production in wound tissue, the two processes that physically close a wound and rebuild skin. The ancient practice of packing wounds with myrrh resin was, in precise biological terms, applying a simultaneous antimicrobial and wound-healing accelerant.

Five thousand years of use across every major civilization on Earth. Not coincidence. Evidence.

THE ANCIENT PHARMACY

For Mouth Pain, Gum Infections & Ulcers (the most documented traditional use): Myrrh tincture (liquid resin extract in alcohol), available in most health food stores. Apply 2 to 3 drops directly on the affected gum, tooth, or ulcer with a cotton swab. Leave for 2 minutes. The numbing and antimicrobial effects start within minutes. This is the original dental antiseptic before dentistry existed.

For Internal Use (joint pain and inflammation): Myrrh resin capsules, 400 to 500 mg daily with food. Look for standardized Commiphora myrrha or Commiphora molmol on the label.

For Wound Care (the Egyptian method modernized): Mix 2 drops of myrrh essential oil in a teaspoon of raw honey. Apply to clean minor wounds, cuts or skin infections. The myrrh kills bacteria on contact. The honey creates a moist healing environment and adds its own antimicrobial properties. Together they replicate what the Egyptians used for 3,000 years.

For Aromatherapy: Combine myrrh oil with frankincense in a diffuser (3 drops frankincense, 2 drops myrrh). This is the exact combination burned in the Temple of Jerusalem for over a thousand years, and in Christian churches for 2,000 years after that.

Sources: Myrrh extract blocks TRPV1 pain channels, reduces neuropathic pain (PMC10768035, 2024). Myrrh kills MRSA, Staph aureus, Candida and accelerates wound healing, 2025 (Nature Scientific Reports). Comprehensive pharmacological review of Commiphora myrrha: antimicrobial, analgesic, anti-inflammatory (PMC9672555, 2022).

It’s unmatched for emergencies and acute trauma care, but outside of that, it provides little to no benefit for your health.

The endless cycle of appointments, prescriptions, and procedures? That’s all in service to their profit model. They don’t work to truly heal you—they want to keep you inside the system, ensuring you remain their patient.

Most people don’t know how to heal themselves, so they turn to the allopathic model by default. But there’s a better way—a way that gives you the best provider, the most honest guidance, and the freedom to take control of your own health.

That way is simple: be your own health authority.

When you step outside the medical system, you gain the freedom to explore treatments without being tied to profit. You gain the power to unlearn what you’ve been taught, to truly understand the human body, and to approach healing on a level that’s honest and effective.

A peer reviewed laboratory study found that bromelain, a proteolytic enzyme complex derived from pineapple, caused dramatic death of gastric cancer cells and chemotherapy resistant colon cancer cells in vitro, reducing viability by roughly 90 to 99 percent while activating multiple apoptosis pathways such as caspase activation, PARP cleavage, cytochrome c release, and suppression of survival signals including the Akt pathway and Bcl2 and MUC1 oncoproteins, findings that highlight bromelain’s mechanistic anti tumor potential but still require human clinical trials before any treatment claims can be made.

You have unexplained skin breakouts that no dermatologist can pin to food or hormones. Or chronic lower right abdominal discomfort. Or you detox — juice cleanses, fasting — and feel worse instead of better. You feel like your body is holding onto toxins it can’t process.

This happens because the lymphatic system — the waste-removal network that runs parallel to your circulatory system — has no pump. Unlike blood, which the heart pumps automatically, lymph fluid moves only through muscle contractions and breathing. When lymph flow becomes sluggish from sedentary living, chronic inflammation, or hormonal disruption, cellular waste, hormones, and immune complexes accumulate in the tissue rather than being filtered through the lymph nodes and liver.

Ancient Egyptians applied warm castor bean oil compresses to the abdomen for “liver and bowel cleansing.” Ayurvedic texts from 1500 BC describe “Eranda” (castor oil) as the supreme liver and lymphatic detoxifier. In America, the sleeping prophet Edgar Cayce prescribed castor oil packs in over 1,000 documented readings between 1900-1945. The medical establishment ignored it for 80 years. In 2023, a randomized trial at McMaster University measured what Cayce claimed: castor oil packs placed over the liver area significantly increased secretory IgA — the primary immune antibody produced in the gut lining — within 24 hours.

The Lymphatic Pump Activator
Castor oil’s active compound — Ricinoleic acid (90% of its fatty acid composition) — is unique in nature. When absorbed transdermally through the thin skin of the abdomen, Ricinoleic acid binds to EP3 prostanoid receptors in the smooth muscle of lymphatic vessels and the intestinal wall. This binding triggers rhythmic contractions of the lymphatic vessel walls — essentially creating a mechanical pump where none existed. The liver, which sits directly under the application area, increases bile production in response to the ricinoleic acid signal, accelerating the export of fat-soluble toxins, estrogen metabolites, and inflammatory byproducts.

The McMaster study specifically measured secretory IgA — an increase indicates the gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) is being stimulated, improving immune surveillance of the intestinal tract.

Protocol:
• Get 100% pure cold-pressed castor oil (hexane-free) and a piece of unbleached flannel or cotton cloth.
• Saturate the cloth with castor oil — enough to be moist but not dripping.
• Place directly on the upper right abdomen (liver area)
• Cover with plastic wrap, then place a heating pad or hot water bottle on top.
• Lie down for 45-60 minutes before bed — deep breathing accelerates lymph drainage.

Do this 3-4 nights per week for 30 days

Day 1: warmth and relaxation.
Week 2: skin clarity improves.
Day 30: hormonal acne reduced, digestion improved.

Source: Journal of Naturopathic Medicine — “Castor oil packs and secretory IgA: randomized pilot study.”

Noah’s dove came back carrying an olive branch. Ancient Greeks crowned their champions with olive wreaths. The Bible mentions the olive tree more than any other plant — over 100 times across the Old and New Testaments. And in December 2025, researchers published a study showing that olive leaf extract kills human leukemia and lymphoma cells in controlled laboratory conditions. The tree humanity has considered sacred for 6,000 years keeps giving science reasons to agree.

The olive tree (Olea europaea) has been a symbol of peace, victory, and divine blessing across virtually every Mediterranean and Middle Eastern civilization. But the leaves — the part almost no one eats — contain one of the most pharmacologically active polyphenols in the plant kingdom: oleuropein.

The December 2025 Discovery
A study published in Frontiers in Oncology (December 2025) investigated the anti-tumor effects of Olive Leaf Extract (OLE) against human acute leukemia and lymphoma cells in vitro. The results were striking: OLE significantly reduced cancer cell viability, induced apoptosis (programmed death), and downregulated four cancer-protective proteins simultaneously — HSP-60, HSP-70, SOD2, and Thioredoxin-1.

These heat shock proteins (HSP-60, HSP-70) are abundantly expressed in cancer cells and act as survival shields — they suppress apoptosis, promote angiogenesis, support metastasis, and help cancer cells escape immune detection. By downregulating them, OLE removes the armor cancer cells hide behind.

What oleuropein does that nobody expected
Earlier studies established that oleuropein induces apoptosis in breast cancer cells — including triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), the most aggressive and treatment-resistant subtype, with virtually no effective targeted therapies available. A 2025 study confirmed oleuropein’s dual action: not only does it kill TNBC cells, it inhibits cell motility — meaning it interferes with the cancer’s ability to migrate and metastasize to other organs. This anti-metastatic effect was observed at low concentrations, making it particularly significant for functional food-based prevention strategies.

The full tumor spectrum documented
Comprehensive reviews confirm oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol (another olive polyphenol) have documented anti-tumor activity against: breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, skin cancer, melanoma, glioblastoma (brain tumor), neuroblastoma, prostate cancer, and now acute leukemias and lymphomas. Across all these cancer types, the same selective mechanism was observed: oleuropein kills cancer cells while sparing healthy cells — the holy grail of oncological pharmacology that synthetic chemotherapy still struggles to achieve.

What makes the olive leaf different from olive oil
Olive oil contains minimal oleuropein — it’s mostly converted to other compounds during pressing. The highest concentration of oleuropein is in the leaves — the part discarded in olive oil production. The Mediterranean populations who lived longest and had the lowest cancer rates weren’t just eating olive oil. They were also drinking olive leaf tea — a practice documented in Greek, Italian, and North African traditional medicine for over 3,000 years.

VITALSHOTS PROTOCOL:
Olive leaf extract standardized to 20-25% oleuropein: 500-1,000mg daily with food. For cardiovascular and antiviral effects, lower doses (250-500mg) are documented effective. For anti-inflammatory and immune support: olive leaf tea (3-4 dried leaves per cup, steep 10 minutes) — the original form used across Mediterranean civilizations for millennia. Look for extracts from Olea europaea leaves specifically — not fruit, not oil — with certified oleuropein percentage on the label.

Sources:
PMID: 41515132 | OLE Anti-Tumor Hematologic Leukemia Lymphoma In Vitro December 2025
PMC: 12787448 | Olive Leaf Extract Cancer HSP SOD2 Thioredoxin Downregulation Full Study
PMC: 9409738 | Oleuropein Anti-Cancer Comprehensive Review — Apoptosis, Anti-Proliferative, Anti-Angiogenic
FFHDJ (March 2025) | Oleuropein Apoptosis Triple-Negative Breast Cancer TNBC Cell Motility Inhibition

There are a few inventions that quietly change the trajectory of how people actually live, not in some abstract, technological sense, but in the very practical question of whether you are going to eat well in February. The plow is one. Indoor plumbing ranks pretty high, especially if you have ever hauled water in the cold and had an existential conversation with yourself about your life choices. And then there is the lowly Mason jar, which looks so simple it almost feels like it should not count, except that once you have lived with a collection of Mason jars, you realize that you may not be able to function without them.

Before 1858, preserving food was less a system and more an act of faith. People used wax, corks, cloth, and a fair amount of optimism. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it very much did not. You could do everything right and still open a jar months later to discover that nature had taken a different view of your plans. When your winter food supply depends on that jar, this is not a minor inconvenience. This is the difference between comfort and scarcity, between a full pantry and the anxious recalculation of how long the remaining potatoes will last.

Into that world stepped John Landis Mason, a New Jersey tinsmith who, in 1858, patented what now seems almost embarrassingly obvious. A threaded glass jar with a screw-on lid that could actually seal. That was it. No grand industrial system, no complicated mechanism, just a better way to keep air out and food preserved. It is the kind of idea that makes you wonder why it took so long to arrive, which is usually a good sign that it is both simple and transformative. Once that seal became reliable, everything else followed. Food could be stored with confidence. Households could plan ahead.

As the country expanded and refrigeration was still a distant luxury, the Mason jar moved from clever invention to absolute necessity. Homesteaders, farmers, and anyone living even slightly removed from regular markets depended on it. This was not about aesthetics or hobby canning. This was about taking a seasonal glut and turning it into a year-round food supply. The jar became a kind of multiplier. It allowed you to grow more than you could immediately eat and trust that the excess would not be wasted. On a working farm, that is the difference between abundance and loss.

By the late nineteenth century, companies began to recognize what Mason had started, and none more effectively than the Ball Corporation. They did not invent the jar, but they scaled it, standardized it, and put it into the hands of ordinary households across the country. They refined the design, moved away from zinc lids and unreliable gaskets, and eventually settled on the two-piece lid system we still use today. It is one of those rare cases where a design reaches a point of near-perfection and then simply stays there. If you have ever stood in a quiet kitchen listening for that small metallic ping as a lid seals, you know that this is not just a sound. It is a signal that the work you just did will hold, that the food you put up will be there when you need it.

Pressure canning (using jars under pressure) really took off in the 1910s–1940s, but the idea of routinely putting mason jars inside pressure cookers became more widespread among home users in the mid-20th century, especially in the 1930s–1960s, when home pressure canners became common.

The importance of the Mason jar became even more obvious during the World Wars, when households were encouraged to plant Victory Gardens and preserve what they grew. This was not framed as a quaint domestic activity. It was positioned by the US government as a national resilience strategy. They even had programs to teach America how to can, and pressure cookers became a mainstay. Millions of families participated, producing and storing a meaningful portion of their own food. Shelves filled with jars were not decorative. They were a distributed, decentralized food system that reduced pressure on supply chains and increased stability at the household level. It is a lesson that tends to get rediscovered every time systems become strained.

There is another benefit to the simple mason jar. The home canning and drying of food generally misses some of the “greatest hits” of the industrialized chemical food world listed below:

Sodium benzoate
Potassium sorbate
Calcium propionate
Sodium nitrite
BHT / BHA / TBHQ
EDTA

Fast forward to the present, and despite all of our modern conveniences, the basic design has not changed. We have larger refrigerators, global logistics networks, and more ways to outsource our food than at any point in history, and yet the same glass jar with a simple lid still does its job better than almost anything else.

On our farm, jars are not a novelty. They are part of the operating system. Tomatoes line up on shelves in late summer; berries and apples are freeze-dried and air-dried; cucumbers become pickles; chopped vegetables and berries are placed in mason jars and frozen; dry goods are transferred into mason jars to keep microplastics away, and raw milk and iced tea are stored in half-gallon jars, which take up the refrigerator shelves. There is a rhythm to it that does not change much from year to year. Plant, grow, harvest, preserve, repeat.

What no one really explains at the beginning is that jars have a way of multiplying. You start with a reasonable number, which feels entirely under control. Then you realize that “a reasonable number” is not actually enough. Then you begin acquiring them in cases, then in whatever quantity happens to be available when you find them.

Every glass jar that enters the house becomes a candidate for reuse. Store-bought pasta sauce suddenly looks less like dinner and more like future infrastructure. And if someone offers you a box of old blue Ball jars from a relative’s basement, you will accept them with a level of enthusiasm that might concern people who do not understand what they are looking at.

There is also the matter of labeling; if you are not careful, it will begin with admirable discipline and end in something closer to educated guesswork. Early in the season, everything is clearly marked, dated, and organized. By mid-summer, you are writing notes on lids in whatever marker happens to be nearby. By winter, you are opening jars with a mixture of curiosity and caution, trying to remember whether this particular batch of something was from last year or the year before. It is a small reminder that even the most well-intentioned systems have a way of drifting.

A few years back, I discovered chalkboard labels, and those have worked well for me. They are reusable, although not if exposed to the rigors of a dishwasher.

Food Preservation

More than anything, jars force a certain relationship with time. You cannot rush the process. You cannot decide that preserving food would be more convenient next week. The work happens when the food is ready, which is often when it is hot, busy, and you would rather be doing almost anything else. And yet, months later, standing in a cold kitchen in the middle of winter, opening a jar that you filled yourself, there is a clarity to the system that makes perfect sense. This is what it looks like to move effort forward in time. This is what it looks like to turn a moment of abundance into a period of stability.

So yes, at one level, it is just a jar. But it is also a tool that quietly shifts the balance of control back toward the household. It allows you to step slightly outside the system’s constant churn and build a small buffer of your own. A shelf full of jars is not just visually satisfying. It is a record of work done, of planning carried through, of a season captured and held for later use. It is a jar of saved resources, both grown and store-bought. It says, in a very understated way, that you are just a little bit independent of the outside world.

Glass, a lid, and a seal. It is hard to imagine anything simpler. It is even harder to overstate how much difference that simplicity has made.

(Tom: I saw this ad and thought I would pass it on in case you need it.)

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