Health Articles

Our understanding of cancer has evolved significantly over the past decade. Research indicates that diet and lifestyle play a much larger role in the development of cancer than previously thought. Leading health and medical experts have begun to focus more and more on prevention, with increasing focus on plant-based diets. To help prevent cancer, the American Cancer Society recommends maintaining a healthy weight throughout life, staying physically active on a regular basis, and adopting a healthy plant-based diet.¹

“Learn and Live.”

That’s the motto of the American Heart Association (AHA), which might strike you as innocuous at first, until you consider the alternative. Most of us are used to the age-old saying “Live and learn,” but when you’re providing care to people with preventable chronic disease, you realize very quickly that we don’t have that luxury indefinitely.

Long before the Pilgrims, native Hawaiians celebrated "Makahiki," the longest thanksgiving in the world, which lasted four months—approximately November through February. During this time, both work and war were forbidden.^{1, 2} As the most important holiday of the year, Makahiki is the traditional Hawaiian celebration of the harvest and time of personal rest and spiritual and cultural renewal.³ It was a humbling experience.

Obesity in America If health is wealth, America is going bankrupt. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of adults and one sixth of children in America are obese.¹ In the past twenty years, obesity rates doubled for adults and tripled for children. If these trends continue, by the time today’s children reach adulthood, obesity will be the norm and healthy weight the exception. Native Hawaiians disproportionately affected by obesity