I am just back from four days at Canyon Ranch in Tucson. They were exhilarating, empowering, renewing, healthy, healing days. They were just as I'd imagined they'd be. And more.

Founders Mel and Enid Zuckerman say their commitment -- Canyon Ranch has been serving guests for 25 years and features destinations all over the country -- has set the standard for what has become a very large spa and health and wellness industry. With a focus on nutrition, stress management, preventative care, fitness, and a whole lot of pampering, the Zuckermans have inspired thousands of guests. I'm one of them.

I am spilling over with insight and motivation and wisdom I gathered at the Ranch. I want everyone to know what I know -- and I can't wait to start sharing my lessons for healthy living.

So the professionals at Canyon Ranch get the credit they deserve for beginning to transform my life -- and maybe yours too -- I will call my Canyon Ranch posts Worthy Wisdom. When you see these two words, you'll know the information that follows flows from the Arizona desert. I will also name Canyon Ranch in each post and will link to canyonranch.com where a wealth of wellness resources await you.

"Canyon Ranch measures its value by what you do after you leave the Ranch -- what you take home in new awareness and a sense of control about issues in your life," writes Mel Zuckerman in The Canyon Ranch Story: A Passion for Healthy Living.

What am I going to do now that I'm home? I'm going to spread the word.

Vincent Rennich, veteran casino worker and non-smoker, is suing the Atlantic City Tropicana Casino and Resort because he claims a quarter-century of inhaling secondhand smoke gave him lung cancer. And if that's not enough to make this man upset, getting fired seals the deal.

"They threw me under the bus," Rennich said yesterday, the day after a supervisor told him he was terminated from his job. "How can you fire a guy with lung cancer who's suing you? Maybe they don't realize the ramifications. Or maybe they're heartless. Or maybe all of the above."

Tropicana officials say that Rennich was not singled out in any way, that he was just one of many let go due to a restructuring of the company. Since last January, more than 200 people have been laid off.

Rennich, 49 and a table games supervisor, has been a vocal advocate of a total smoking ban in Altantic City's 11 casinos. He has been speaking out on behalf of everyone working on the casino floors, and for himself personally.

Rennich had a third of his right lung removed in September 2005 and sees a doctor every three months to ensure his cancer does not reappear. Now that he's been fired, his health insurance will lapse in 30 days, leaving him with a monthly payment of $800 in medical bills.

Atlantic City was slated to ban all casino smoking this past January. But fierce opposition from the casino industry, predicting an estimated revenue loss of 20 percent and job losses of more than 3,400, led to a compromise. And now, effective April 15, smoking will be restricted to no more than 25 percent of the gambling floor.

Rennich is not happy about this -- or his cancer or his termination. And while he is not sure what his next step will be, he says he is definitely not backing down from his anti-smoking platform.

If clinical trials go well, a new drug simulating the effects of normal sunlight and increasing the life expectancy of prostate cancer patients, could be available in 2009.

The drug, Asentar, provided levels of vitamin D between 50 and 100 times higher than levels delivered by the sun and could double life expectancy from nine to 18 months for those taking the pills. Absent would be any of the consequences associated with such an overdose.

"An extension of nine months would be very significant in my view," said Nick James of the University of Birmingham. "If the results of the phase III trial are as good as those of the phase II trial, that would be significant."

Details about this study can be found in the journal Chemistry & Industry.

I have heard people say to me that they think there is currently a cure for cancer but the pharmaceutical companies do not want us to know about it because they make so much money treating cancer.

I think this is absolutely not true. If you think about it, everyone knows someone with cancer. I think the researchers, doctors, and those in the pharmaceutical industry would want a cure to be known to help their own families and those they know fighting the disease. It only makes sense.

The most important thing to remember is that cancer is not one single disease, but many diseases. It is possible to find a cure for one cancer but be no where near a cure for another.

Pharmaceutical companies do like to make money, so does every other business out there in the world. I like the fact that they are competing with one another. This makes it a challege for them to be the first one with the breakthroughs. Hopefully we will soon find THE breakthrough but until then I'm confident that there isn't a secret cure out there!

The local chapter of the New York City American Cancer Society is asking that candy-flavored cigarettes be banned from sale because they feel it is a tobacco industry marketing ploy to appeal to teens. During a City Council meeting, the bill introduced would prohibit the sale of cigarettes with fruity flavors, like Twista Lime, and Midnight Berry; candy flavors like Warm Winter Toffee; and any cigarettes with flavors resembling chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy, mint, cocoa, dessert, or an alcoholic beverage.

But is this the way to go? According to the Epoch Times, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, an anti-smoking advocate, who has not shown support of the ban, is concerned that banning fruit and candy-flavored cigarettes will make them more popular with kids they are trying to protect, and end up having a reverse effect of what the bill intends. Bloomberg has raised taxes on cigarettes, banned smoking in restaurants and bars, and donated $125 million of his own money in campaigns and programs to stop smoking. We have not contacted Bloomberg for a direct comment on the ban and are merely sharing what the Epoch Times has published about his position.

Forty states have addressed the issue of candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes after frustration that the federal government has not take a stand against R.J. Reynolds marketing of cigarettes to young people. R.J. Reynolds has agreed to a settlement with the attorney generals of 40 states to stop selling candy, fruit and alcohol-flavored cigarettes in the United States.

Along with the ban on Camel Exotic Blends including Mandarin Mint, Dark Mint, Crema, Izmir Stinger, Twist, Cinnzabar, Mandalay Lime, Aegean Spice, Bayou Blast, Beach Breezer, Margarita Mixer, Midnight Madness, Back Alley Blend, Kauai Kolada, Twista Lime, Winter MochaMint, Warm Winter Toffee, Blackjack Gin, Screwdriver Slots and SnakeEyes Scotch; Salem Silver including Dark Currents, Fire & Ice, Deep Freeze and Cool Myst; and Kool Smooth Fusions including Mintrigue, Mocha Taboo, Midnight Berry and Caribbean Chill, the tobacco company agreed to stop promotional materials that suggest candy, fruit or alcoholic beverages.

What do you think the best solution is to the problem of cigarettes that appear to be marketed to appeal to our youth? A ban? Increased taxing on cigarettes? Or do you have a more creative solution?

Glenn Close is the 2006 Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) ambassador to the Saks Fifth Avenue Key to the Cure campaign. Oscar de la Renta is the 2006 designer of the Key to the Cure t-shirt -- available now at Saks Fifth Avenue stores for the price of $35. For each t-shirt purchase, $31 will benefit EIF's Women's Cancer Research Fund. T-shirts are available on-line and in retails stores everywhere.

All Saks Fifth Avenue retail stores and Saks.com will contribute to Key to the Cure by donating 2 percent of all profits during October 12-15. Off Fifth stores will donate 1 percent of profits during the same time period to benefit local and national women's cancer charities.

Key to the Cure is a women's cancer initiative founded in partnership with EIF's Women's Cancer Research Fund. The program receives on-going support from Mercedes-Benz USA -- set to donate one million dollars to the cause. EIF is the entertainment industry's leading charitable organization and has shared hundreds of millions of dollars in support of critical issues facing our society. Like breast cancer.

Cate Blanchett is set to star as Marisa Acocella Marchetto in Cancer Vixen: A True Story, the cartoonist fashionista for Glamour and the New Yorker who discovered, while planning her wedding to celebrity restaurateur Silvano Marchetto, that she had breast cancer. Marchetto also realized she had let her health insurance lapse right before being diagnosed with cancer.

With stylish aplomb, she has become phenomenally popular for her colorful personality, and the telling of her breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and survivorship with a sense of humor and fashion flair that included wearing her favorite high heels to chemotherapy and noting that her hospital gown reminded her of Diane von Furstenberg designs.

Amazon features an exclusive cartoon on the Cancer Vixen: A True Story book page and portrays Marchetto as a "self-described shoe-crazy, lipstick-obsessed, wine-swilling, pasta-slurping, fashion-fanatic, single-forever, about-to-get-married big-city girl cartoonist with a fabulous life." Blanchett is reportedly in talks to produce the film as well, with her husband, Andrew Upton, through their company Dirty Films.

One of our bloggers and breast cancer survivor Jacki Donaldson, in a previous post featuring Marisa Acocella Marchetto, recommends Cancer Vixen: A True Story as a "must read." For all women facing breast cancer, I agree. Never underestimate the positive benefit of a spunky attitude -- sense of humor -- and a really sexy pair of high heels when it comes to facing the struggles with breast cancer.

At this time, there are 200 companies engaged in 600 clinical trials that involve 340 immunotherapy drugs -- all under study in an attempt to assist in the treatment of 40 different cancers. The top five targeted cancers are melanoma, breast, lung, prostate, and colorectal.

While antibody studies are the top headline-makers right now, cancer vaccines are following behind. With the recent approval of Gardasil -- the cervical cancer vaccine -- the push for more vaccine options will become strong. Future industry challenges also include discovering strong antigens, effective immunomodulators, and suitable delivery technologies.

Powerful drugs like Avastin, Erbitux, and Rituxan are just the precursors to what might lie ahead for cancer patients as a result of this widespread effort to knock cancer out of the ballpark.

While public and private groups, along with researchers and a few drug companies, have been making serious efforts to help smokers quit smoking cigarettes, the tobacco industry has been spiking the level of nicotine in cigarettes, according to a study by the Department of Public Health. Between the years 1998 to 2004, the amount of nicotine in cigarettes has risen by ten percent.

According to Lois Keithly , director of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program, "We in public health have tried to spend a lot of time figuring out why people don't stop smoking."

Full withdrawal will be felt after the first day of not smoking. But symptoms from nicotine withdrawal are felt within the first 30 minutes after the last cigarette, with smokers reporting cravings within the first hour after the last cigarette. In one hour, smokers reported anger. In three hours of smoking cessation, smokers reported heightened levels of anxiety, sadness and difficulty concentrating. Nicotine is what makes cigarettes so addictive.

The Boston Globe reports when contacted, representatives of the three major tobacco makers in the US declined to comment on the study and would not answer questions about the nicotine content of their products.

Saks Fifth Avenue will be joining Mercedes-Benz and the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) in the campaign to raise money for women's cancer research this October. Saks Fifth Avenue Key to the Cure and EIF has named award-winning actress Glenn Close as the celebrity ambassador as this year's representative who will appear in PSA fashion magazine print ads.

"When I was invited to be the Entertainment Industry Foundation's ambassador for Saks Fifth Avenue's Key to the Cure, I didn't hesitate for one second because I have so many friends who have died from cancer and my grandmother had breast cancer," said Close. "I think it's tremendously important to raise more awareness about the importance of early detection and support promising scientific research."

This is the seventh year Saks Fifth Avenue has participated in raising money for women's cancer research, and in seven years, the campaign has raised over $20 million dollars to benefit such organizations as EIF's Women's Cancer Research Fund; The Breast cancer Research Foundation; Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai; Houston's M.D. Anderson; Boston's Gillette Center; and the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Photographed by renowned photographer Timothy White, Close will appear in national PSAs wearing a limited edition T-shirt designed by Oscar de la Renta, which will be available exclusively through Saks Fifth Avenue.

Beginning in October, Mercedes-Benz will sell 1,000 of its special-edition E350 to benefit women's cancer research. The company will donate $1 million dollars through the sales of the special-edition E350 to support Saks Fifth Avenue's Key to the Cure. This is the fourth year Mercedes-Benz has released a special-edition vehicle to benefit cancer research for women.

"We've produced this special-edition of our most popular model to help combat one of the biggest threats to women's health in this country and help bring women's cancer treatment options and prevention one step closer," said Carol Goll, General Manager, Brand Experience Marketing, Mercedes-Benz USA. "Mercedes partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue and the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) offers us a unique opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to a cause that affects us all."

Funds raised for Key to the Cure will benefit programs including EIF's Women's Cancer Research Fund, the Cleveland Clinic, Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Nevada Cancer Institute.

In an interview with the Globe, We're on the way to making cancer a chronic but tolerable disease, one of the leading oncology experts in the US, John Hopkins Medical Institution cancer researcher David Sidransky, states that we are undergoing a profound change in the way cancer is thought of -- from a deadly disease to a chronic one that will be treated much the same as diabetes or heart disease is currently managed.

With individualized treatments and new drugs, Dr Sidransky predicts that chemotherapy dosages can be reduced and in some cases, not needed as a part of cancer treatment. When asked what he thought chemotherapy drug manufacturers reaction to this might be, he explained that patents on most chemotherapy drugs have already expired, and these companies are working on the next generation of cancer treatments -- such as drugs to manipulate the immune system.

Most of the interview focus is on business and the development of Israel's biotechnology industry, and it is a peek into the potential future of cancer treatments. The bottom line is cancer treatment is driven by the business of drug companies. Paying attention to what they are talking about and what direction they are headed gives us an idea what we can expect in new treatments.

Out of Las Vegas, urban fashion designer and Cock Blocker Clothing founder Mark James has started a company with major attitude. As the company states on its website, it offers an artistic sense of humor to an otherwise vicious and often times malicious environment of everyday life issues of politics, art, sex, relationships, love, race, religion, business, and war.

Cock Blocker Clothing is popular with celebrities, who have autographed many Cock Blocker Clothing apparel items for an auction to benefit the 3-Day walk for breast cancer charity.

Supporting breast cancer research is personal for James, whose mother is currently battling her own diagnosis of breast cancer. He wants to help other women who are going through the same struggles as his mother in contributing to something that can make a positive difference.

Cock Blocker Clothing might not be for everyone. If you enjoy a wicked sense of humor and off-the-grid attitude, then you might appreciate the business passion of a man who once worked -- or as he says slaved -- for seven years in the corporate world of entertainment in Los Angeles for Warner Bros. & Fox Studios and then escaped.

If you would like to be a sponsor, make donations or take part in auction bidding, check in at the Cock Blocker Clothing website where auction, fundraiser time, date, and venue information will be posted June 25. You can view photos of the autographed-by-celebrities Cock Blocker Clothing items at that time.

Thank You For Smoking is a satirical movie featuring a cast of tobacco industry characters including a mass murderer, pimp, profiteer, and bloodsucker. The Ulster Foundation, UCF, a cancer charity, would like everyone to go see this movie when it comes to town.

According to Ulster Cancer Foundation's Gerry McElwee, ''For over 30 years UCF has been lobbying for stronger tobacco control measures and informing people about the dangers of smoking. This film shows, in a very clever way, how the tobacco industry deals in ill health and death and is expertly skilled in spin and double talk.

The film works so well because it uses dark comedy to highlight the reality of the tobacco industry – the importance of making money. I think it's fair to say that few smokers realize the multi-billion dollar industry their habit is feeding. I wish Thank You for Smoking had been made years ago because it highlights the lengths that tobacco companies will go to, to promote their products.''

I must confess I haven't seen the movie starring Sam Elliott, Katie Holmes, Rob Lowe, William H. Macy and Robert Duvall yet, but I did find Thank You For Smoking director Jason Reitman's blog, the Thank You For Smoking website with movie trailer, and the Thank You For Smoking blogroll & spin contests.

The tricksters of tobacco are up to old and new tricks. Even with the global efforts to raise awareness about the life-threatening health risks of smoking, and outright bans on smoking, did anyone even slightly believe that the tobacco industry was going to fold its carnival tent, give up its magic act and go home. Selling nicotine-addicting cigarettes is a billion gazillion dollars in profit business. Joe Nocera, in Is it just smoke and mirrors? sums up one of the fundamental business practices for the tobacco industry by referencing a Warren Buffett statement, "You make a product for a penny, you sell it for a dollar and you sell it to addicts."

In a second excellent article I found published today about the tobacco industry, Tobacco industry: Smoking isn't bad for your health reveals the current focus shift of tobacco companies in gaining new markets in the continuing effort not to lose too much business due to smoking restrictions being implemented in much of the Western world and the resulting decline in the number of smokers. Eastern Europe, Africa and the Far East are the new frontiers. According to the article, tobacco companies are being accused of turning a blind eye to cigarette smuggling in order to flood new markets with their product. In addition, they face criticism for launching aggressive marketing campaigns, which would be banned in the West, linking tobacco with sex, youth and glamour.