In a private interview with celebrity super-model, raw food expert and multi-bestselling wellness author, CAROL ALT shares her insights on what defines a lifestyle of health awareness and forward thinking. As a recognized public voice for health advocacy, Ms. Alt lives and promotes the very best advice from her favorite doctors, fitness gurus, dietitians, and health experts into all her venues (including her television show 'A Healthy You').
Viewing a world of ongoing health disorders and cancer cases, she started by supporting the need for raising quality standards of living against the many variables in our lifestyle that cause illness (especially cancers). According to the National Institutes of Health [1], 2018 showed an estimated 1,735,350 new cases of cancer diagnosed in the United States and 609,640 people were expected to die from the disease. Cancer is a preventable disease that requires major lifestyle changes- lifestyle factors that include cigarette smoking, diet (fried foods, red meat), alcohol, over-exposure to the sun and environmental pollutants, infections, stress, obesity, and physical inactivity. "Let's face it, having a healthy lifestyle is number one", starts Ms. Alt. "You have to start out with a good, healthy, strong base... but in this day and age, with all of this pollution and everything, if you don't get checked regularly, something that might be very minor in the beginning can become a real issue. People get frightened-- they don't want to go, and then their little issue becomes a really big one, and ...that to me is the sad part of all this. A lot more people could have been saved."
Historically, recorded spikes of cancer cases in a given geographic area have been attributed to specific man-made disasters. Tracking back to the Nevada nuclear testing sites in the 50's, the Three-Mile Island Nuclear Accident of '79, Flint Michigan's water disaster to 9/11, government organizations like the CDC illustrates a direct (and continued) correlation between environmental toxins and the elevated levels of cancer cases in that area.
In addition, certain lifestyles and professions are known to have a much higher risk and exposure to cancer. On the home front, Carol Alt's personal anti-cancer crusade started with the loss of her father Anthony Alt, a fire chief from the 18th Battalion (South Bronx). He passed away due to the NY Telephone Fire in Feb. 1975 where a large scale recovery and rescue effort exposed all 127 firefighters to the combustion of the highly toxic polyvinyl chloride (PVC). This was identified as a major reason for elevated rates of cancer cases from the scene- most (if not all) rescuers died from this. Adding to Ms. Alt's public voice for awareness was the lack of information given to victims like her father about the many hazards, risks and contaminants linked to cancer. "My father died because he did not know what he was exposed to ...nobody reached out to him about what was happening, and if he had our kind of scanning back then, it would have been so much better for him because he was really totally in the dark."
Among her many advocacy efforts for firefighters, Ms. Alt continues to reach out to first responders while staying current on the dangers that they continue to face healthwise. She is an avid supporter of the FIRST RESPONDERS CANCER RESOURCE (formerly 9/11 CancerScan) as well as their joint task force with the Male Breast Cancer Coalition. Through social media, her mission to save lives comes in the form of powerful posts such as "Don't Die Because You're Afraid to Die"- a wake up call to all male first responders about the rising tide of Male Breast Cancer. It starts with "It’s surprising how many people die from treatable disease because they’re afraid to tell the doctor they think they’re sick or they find a lump and they’re afraid to get it tested. It’s happening every day. Especially at risk are men who are too macho get tested for breast cancer." She not only targets the male-ego which she believes is one of the major setbacks from getting breast checkups, but she also provides a solution- her own diagnostician whom she feels is the ideal situation for private screening without the gender stigma.
TODAY'S LIFE-SAVING TECHNOLOGY
For over 18 years, Ms. Alt has been a patient and devout student of diagnostic analysis of Dr. Robert Bard (NYC). His 45+ years of clinical service includes countless published medical works on the advancement of tumor analysis and many direct advisory contributions leading to the advancement of today's digital imaging innovations. "He's very genuine and he loves to educate his patients... I've never seen somebody this passionate about what they're doing- and he wants us to understand and be smarter about what's happening with our bodies."
The 3D/4D Ultrasound has become Dr. Bard's benchmark 'weapon of choice' over all the existing scanning technology due to its accuracy and real-time (immediate) turnaround. It is this technical performance that Miss Alt attributes to the success of a diagnostic system. "He's got a very personalized place, and because of that, he's able to give you an answer right away. You don't have to hang on for 10 days waiting for a report... In fact, I don't even do MRI's because I don't want the contrast exposure. I go to Dr. Bard and I do a (3D) sonogram instead because he can see blood flow- It's really a lot easier mentally!"
EPILOGUE
To be vigilant is the significant core attitude of today's survivor lifestyle. Where "selfism" means making smarter decisions in an ocean of mis-information as far as about what's right for you. According to Dr. Jesse Stoff's publication "Staying in Remission", the battle to stay well is fought on many fronts- from the fight against 'ignorance' (about what can harm the body), the commercialized lures of toxic foods, a sedentary work life and identifying the many toxins in our surroundings. Where public messaging for clean, intelligent living from inspiring role models like Carol Alt could touch so many, "we all still need to do the actual heavy lifting which is turning great advice and research into reality by living the good fight!"
Copyright © 2019- Awareness for a Cure. All Rights Reserved.
Re-published in: Rejuvenate! Magazine (2019)
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References:
1) NIH: National Cancer Institute: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/statistics
2) CDC Cancer Clusters: https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/clusters/factsheet.htm
3) 10 Worst Man-Made Environmental Disasters:
https://www.pri.org/stories/2010-05-03/10-worst-man-made-environmental-disasters
4) Carol Alt Blog: https://www.carolalt.com/dont-die-because-youre-afraid-to-die/
5) Bard Cancer Diagnostics: https://bardcancercenter.com/
6) Staying In Remission- Dr. Jesse Stoff: http://stayinginremission.com/
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