The folks at Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona told me all about the merits of flax seed. They told me to sprinkle it here, sprinkle it there, sprinkle it everywhere. While at this desert destination, I did just that. I dipped into the bowls of flax scattered at all dining locations, and I topped my bagels, cereals, salads, and more with this powerful substance. As soon as I got home from this little slice of paradise, I bought my own personal container of flax. I promptly placed it in my refrigerator, have used it a few times, and just recently realized I'd forgotten why exactly it's so good for me.

I've done some research, and now I know a little more about this thing called flax -- and I remember why it must become a part of my everyday life.

Flax, also known as Common Flax or Linseed, is an annual plant that grows to 120 cm tall, with slender stems. Native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India, its leaves are green, its flowers blue, its fruit round and containing glossy brown seeds. Grown for both its seeds and its fibers, parts of this plant are used to make fabric, dye, paper, medicines, fishing nets, and soap. The seeds, like what sit in my refrigerator, come in two forms -- brown and yellow or golden. The yellow, golden variety is the one most often consumed.

Because no one likes a group who misrepresents the truth to promote a private agenda, The National Breast Cancer Coalition, NBCC, announced they were hosting the first annual Golden Boob Awards to expose the biggest boobs in the fight to stop breast cancer. The nominees in this year's Golden Boob Awards were the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer (ABC) for threatening the integrity of serious efforts to find ways to prevent, treat, cure, and ultimately end breast cancer; and Mark For Life for trying to make money from a product with no impact in the fight against breast cancer.

By popular vote, the winner as this year's biggest boob is, as announced on the Golden Boobs Award website: "The Abortion/Breast Cancer Coalition (ABC) for asserting that abortion leads to an increased risk of breast cancer, despite lacking one shred of relevant proof to back up this claim. ABC's stock in trade - pseudo-science, fear mongering, and flat-out lies - has threatened the integrity of serious efforts to find ways to prevent, treat, cure, and ultimately end breast cancer."

In addition, NBCC is awarding a Dishonorable Mention Golden Boob Award to recent high-level presidential appointee as deputy assistant secretary for population affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Dr. Eric Keroack, who is currently the medical director of A Women's Concern, an organization that also states a connection between abortion and breast cancer.

The NBCC is a grassroots advocacy group that works for increased federal funding for breast cancer research and with the scientific community to implement new models of research. The NBCC seeks to improve access to high-quality health care and breast cancer clinical trials for all women. To learn more about the winners, or to nominate the next biggest boob in the fight against breast cancer, visit Golden Boob Awards.

Mid-October, we shared that actor John Forsythe, whose portrayal of Dynasty's Blake Carrington garnered him two Golden Globe Awards and several Emmy nominations, and who was the persuasive voice of Charlie on the television and film versions of Charlie's Angels, had entered Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles for colon cancer treatment.

More often than not, when we write a post concerning a celebrity, public figure or well-known blogger in the cancer community and cancer, it is in memorium, each one as painful to compose as the last.

Happily, this time, I am sharing more hopeful news. In mid-November, Forsythe, who is 88 years young, was released from the hospital and entered a rehab facility in Northern California. His family expects him home for Christmas.

According to reports, the Forsythe family has expressed gratitude for the outpouring of love and concern from the community. Charlie's Angel Cheryl Ladd, who replaced Farrah Fawcett in the television series -- is said to have sent her well wishes to Forsythe by saying, "He is my dear friend. I can't wait until he comes home so we can all gather around the dinner table. We have been praying for him."

About.com Colon Cancer Guide Donna Myers provides an address for anyone who wishes to send well wishes to John Forsythe and his family. You can write to:

John Forsythe
P.O. Box 1739
Santa Ynez, CA 93460

We send our best wishes to the family as well -- and a most Merry Christmas.

Knowing the skin damage that results from prolonged sun exposure needed to achieve the golden tan, many fair-skinned people are staying out of the sun and turning to spray on or sunless lotion tans. These fake tans are skin dyes that do not change or darken skin pigmentation the way the sun might, but do give a temporary look of a glowing tan complexion. Advances have been made to these products so that the olden days of orange palms and streaky uneven lotion marks from sunless lotions are a mere memory, but still, it's not a real tan.

What if you could achieve a real tan, a tan where the skin pigmentation actually changes and darkens the same as it would if you spent hours in the sun, without spending hours in the sun exposing yourself to the premature aging, wrinkling and increased skin cancer risk damages of ultraviolet (UV) radiation?

In addition, what if this product, in actually darkening the pigmentation of your skin, provided protection from UV sun damage?

Although still in the experimental stages, scientists are working on just such a lotion, using a plant extract called forskolin, that prompts the pigmentation of the skin to darken. While the efforts are said to be focused on the treatment of individuals with medical pigmentation disorders -- if forskolin proves safe -- could a commercial product using the same compounds that safely promote a darkening of skin pigmentation -- a real tan -- and skin cancer prevention -- be far behind?

The perfect tan. Hours of each day devoted to the sun. Visits to tanning salons on cloudy days. For many sun worshippers, a golden tan is the currency of beauty. Currently Miss Tidewater, aspiring to win the coveted title of Miss Maryland, Brittany Lietz is a young woman who once aspired to having the perfect tan in the belief it would win her more beauty pageants. At only 20 years of age, her perfect tan turned into a diagnosis of skin cancer.

Lietz has been using her celebrity position as a beauty pageant winner as a platform for raising awareness of the dangers associated with too much sun exposure. She is speaking to high school students at their schools and manning booths at health fairs to warn others her age that the cost of a golden glow is too high a price to pay when you put yourself in harm's way. She has a white scar running across the back of her right rib cage, and she has had 20 other moles removed since she was first diagnosed with melanoma. These days, she uses self-tanning sprays to achieve the look of a tan because a tan is still an asset when you compete in beauty pageants. A pump-spray tan is as close as she wants to be to the sun.

"To me, being tan is not worth losing my life over," she said. "I'm going to be pale and that's who I am."

In an earlier post, we told you about one of our favorite organizations, The National Breast Cancer Coalition, NBCC, hosting the first annual Golden Boob Awards. No one likes a group who misrepresents the truth to promote a private agenda, and this year's nominees more than qualify in that regard. When it comes to fighting breast cancer, hidden agendas are particularly heinous. The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is a nominee for threatening the integrity of serious efforts to find ways to prevent, treat, cure, and ultimately end breast cancer. Mark For Life is a nominee for trying to make money from a product with no real impact in the fight against breast cancer.

To date, The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer has received 86 percent of the vote as the biggest boob of the year. Voting ends July 4th, and if you haven't voted, you still have time. If you feel you know of an even bigger boob that deserves this award, the NBCC is also taking nominations at the Golden Boob Awards site. You can vote -- or submit your nomination -- here. Remember, July 4th is the deadline. If you have already voted, send a message, tell a friend.

Update 12.17.2006: The winner of the Golden Boob Awards as the biggest boobs is ....

Tiger, Auburn University Southeastern Raptor Center's 26-year-old golden eagle, has been diagnosed with skin cancer. According to veterinarians, the golden eagle's squamous cell carcinoma skin cancer tumor, located on her leg, has been removed several times and grows back just months after each operation. This type of cancer is rare in raptors making treatment and prognosis uncertain. If Tiger cannot make her pre-game flights this coming fall, there are other eagles who can fill in for her until she recovers. Tiger, also known as War Eagle VI, made her first pre-game flight in the fall of 2000. She has brought national attention to Auburn and wildlife conservation through those flights and her appearance at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The eagles are a part of the Raptor Center's wildlife conservation educational efforts, both in school classrooms and at the new Edgar B. Carter Amphitheater on the AU College of Veterinary Medicine campus.

Billy Bush, co-anchor of Access Hollywood, the daily entertainment newsmagazine that provides coverage of entertainment personalities on television, also keeps a blog. Yesterday, he blogged his recent visit to Padres Contra de Cancer, a children's hospital in Los Angeles. Eva Longoria had invited him to come with her as she is a long-time supporter and visits quite often.

Bush blogs, "I arrived early to walk through the hospital floor, meet the organizers and get acquainted with some of the families whose children were in the fight of their lives. I was a bit nervous and anxious, because above all else, I will never understand why some children have this disease.  It hurts to the core just trying to fathom this injustice."

During his visit, Bush met a little boy named Kevin, who is undergoing chemotherapy treatments and who has decided to set up a lemonade stand to raise money for video games he wants. Bush asked Kevin how much he was charging for a glass of lemonade and he said he was charging $100 dollars a glass. The next day, Bush received an email from Kevin's mother saying that Kevin had decided to slash the price of his lemonade by 90 percent to the incredible sale price of ten dollars a glass. So, if you are looking for a really good deal on a glass of lemonade, contact Padres Contra de Cancer -- they can hook you up.

The National Breast Cancer Coalition, NBCC, is exposing the biggest boobs in the fight to stop breast cancer. If you misrepresent the truth about breast cancer to push a private agenda with frivolous actions or initiatives that go against the progress being made in the fight against breast cancer; or seek to make a financial profit without benefit to the legitimate efforts being made in the fight against breast cancer -- then you qualify for the Golden Boob Award. The NBCC is a grassroots advocacy group that works for increased federal funding for breast cancer research and with the scientific community to implement new models of research. The NBCC seeks to improve access to high-quality health care and breast cancer clinical trials for all women. This year's nominees in the first annual Golden Boob Award are:

• Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer for threatening the integrity of serious efforts to find ways to prevent, treat, cure, and ultimately end breast cancer.
• Mark For Life for trying to make money from a product with no impact in the fight against breast cancer.
  

If you know boobs that deserve the award, you can nominate them at the Golden Boob Award site. You can vote for this year's biggest boob of all by going here.

Update 12.17.2006: The winner of the Golden Boob Awards as the biggest boob is ....

Six years ago, when Jane Tomlinson was diagnosed with advanced metastatic breast cancer, the doctors said she had six months to live. Instead of dying, she has gone on to compete in a number of triathlons --including a 2,500-mile bike ride, from Rome to Leeds and last year the New York Marathon -- all to raise money for breast cancer charity. At the end of the year, after raising £1.25m total for cancer charity, the mother of three took a break.

Tomlinson is back. On June 29, she will begin cycling 4,200 miles across America for cancer charity. Beginning at San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and ending in New York, Tomlinson's Ride Across America will bring her charity fundraising to a £2m total or better. Tomlinson is currently undergoing chemotherapy, but will have five weeks to recover from that before she begins her ride. Tomlinson, 42, will have the company of Leeds Metropolitan University lecturer Ryan Bowd, 27, of Calgary, Canada, and 40-year-old Martyn Hollingworth, of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire on her 62 day challenge. You can learn more about this inspiring breast cancer survivor, her remarkable adventures of accomplishments in living and upcoming progress at Jane's Appeal. Jane Tomlinson has also written a book called The Luxury of Time. I am on my way over to Amazon right now.