Natural Remedies: Share Your Favorite Here! [Archive] - The Saucy Vegan - Vegan Forums <p> We're not the biggest vegan forum, just the best!

Brandy

01-30-2007, 12:39 AM

I've just watched a video which, if what is said is true, is alarming. I believe that it is true. If certain legislation comes in there will be no more natural remedies. It's presented by Rina Laibow, MD. and it's about the Codex Alimentarius, which is a UN trade commission to control the international trade of food.
Gliondrach, this is a transcript of an article published in the July 2005 edition of Universal Mind – the same magazine that published my articles. Sorry it’s so long, but I thought it might be of interest. And sorry about the lousy formatting.:o

Transcript of article from Universal Mind magazine [July 05 Ed.]

Proposed CODEX ALIMENTARIUS (the FOOD RULES).

I am running a massive awareness campaign against this from today. My intention is to notify all MP’s, all GP’s, all alternative practitioners, the National Farmers Union, the Soil Association, all consultants, all national newspapers, all major TV stations and so on. I ask people to copy the information they have in front of them and send it to their own GP’s, MP’s etc. Everyone they can think of in their own areas. Take copies and hand then out to people in the street (asking them to do the same). Hand copies of this to your supermarkets, demand answers about what they intend to do about it …
We need a grassroots campaign here and we need it very fast. Please alert anyone you think can help.
This affects the whole world – UK, Europe, USA, Australia … some of the clauses are WORLDWIDE.
Thanks to everyone, Stephanie Rudd (Scotland).
Email: stephanie.rudd@virgin.net

CODEX ALIMENTARIUS (Latin for “Food Rules”) (Condensed version)
Letter from Rima E. Laidbow, MD
Let me ask you if you know anyone who has actually read all 15,000+ pages of the working documents of the Codex Alimentarius Commission? Well, I have. As such, allow me to attempt to put an end to any confusion you may have about Codex Alimentarius by sharing what I have learned and what I believe to be a reasonable and appropriate level of concern. Following is a summary of what Dr. Laidbow found in reading all 15,000+ pages.
The World Trade Association (WTO) is very close to taking away our right to buy, sell or use almost all nutritional supplements. In addition, the ability of physicians to legally practice environmental or natural medicine and the rights of patients to choose these treatments are about to be criminalized here in the United States.
Currently in the U.S., nutrients are classified as foods [under the 1994 Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA)] and any substance not explicitly forbidden is permitted as a nutrient.
Under CODEX, any substance not explicitly permitted as a nutrient by CODEX policy is banned as a nutrient. The CODEX preamble specifies that supplements and nutrients “may not be used to prevent, treat or cure any disorder.”
Natural health options will become illegal if either of the following occurs:
1) The United States is “harmonized” with the WTO this spring while compliance with CODEX is still “voluntary”.
2) Total compliance becomes mandatory, as it will be after the next CODEX Commission meeting in Rome July 4 – 9 2005.

Once CODEX is implemented, either through “harmonization” or mandatory compliance, we will be forced to follow the European CODEX model in which it will be illegal to manufacture, buy, sell, recommend, or use any but 28 ultra-low dose nutrients whether you are a consumer or a licensed health professional. Only synthetic versions of that short list will be allowed and other natural supplements, herbs, enzymes and other non-pharmaceutical treatments will be banned. The only legal health option will be the pharmaceutical one.
Codex regulations have been “harmonized” (i.e. approved in the EU, Canada and Australia. The United States is next unless we act decisively and act now!
On August 1, 2005, 75 percent of the natural substances currently available in Europe will become illegal as a direct result of CODEX.
Once implemented, CODEX ALIMENTARIUS does the following:

VITAMINS, MINERAL, NUTRIENTS AND PHYSIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE SUBSTANCES.
The European Supplements Directive is the model administrative agency for CODEX and permits a total of 28 ultra-low dose nutrients. All other nutrients, e.g. alpha lipoic acid, CoQ10, fish oil, and curcumin are banned. Vitamin C, for example at any dosage higher than 200mg per day will be illegal. CoQ10 will be totally forbidden at any dose.
Only synthetic forms of permitted nutrients will be available. All natural versions will be illegal substances. Only synthetic nutrients (at ultra-low dosages) manufactured by pharmaceutical companies will meet the molecular standards for use in humans or animals.
HERBS AND HERBAL TREATMENTS.
The European Supplements Directive has produced a very short list of herbs which may be used and the conditions for which they may be used (another short and very trivial list). All other applications of herbs and any other herbs besides those listed are strictly forbidden.
TRADITIONAL HEALING ARTS.
CODEX stipulates which conditions may be treated using herbs and allows only minor, self-limited conditions. Treating any other condition with herbal remedies will constitute a crime.
Ayurvedic, Tibetan, tribal and other traditional medicines which use herbs and natural substances will be forbidden world-wide.
Herbal, shamanic, energy based (e.g. Reiki and acupuncture) medicine are forbidden forms of treatment.
GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS (GMO’s)
CODEX makes unlabeled use of GMO’s legal in all foods under all circumstances. Farmers in Iraq, for example, must purchase their seeds from Monsanto and are forbidden from retaining seed crops under the new Iraqi constitution. Similar laws exist in other places.
TOXIC RESIDUES.
CODEX sets permissible upper limits for pesticide residues, toxic chemicals, hormones in food and other environmental contaminants that are many times higher than levels advocated by chemical and pesticide lobbying groups.
ANTIBIOTICS, GROWTH STIMULANTS AND OTHER HORMONES IN FOOD.
CODEX mandates that all animal feed must be treated with anti-biotics, hormones and growth stimulants world-wide. Organic, free-range and bio-dynamic farming will become illegal.
IRRADIATION OF FOOD
CODEX mandates irradiation of food under circumstances now hotly contested by food safety advocates.
The standards which comprise CODEX are virtually complete: final ratification of the entire package is expected at the Codex Alimentarius Committee meeting in Rome July 4 – 9 2005.

Email from Stephanie Rudd to Codex

Subject: Codex alimentarius

I understand ratification is due 4-9th July in Rome. Please could you confirm this. Also, could you let me know where and how I may obtain the document to read please.
Stephanie Rudd stephanie.rudd@virgin.net

Subject: Very good site on Codex links with Monsanto and industry:
http://www.foei.org/trade/activistguide/codex.htm#intro

Codex reply to Stephanie Rudd

Dear Madam,
In reply to your request, you will find the “PROVISIONAL LIST OF DOCUMENTS for the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION, Twenty-eighth Session, FAO Headquarters, Rome 4 – 9 July 2005” for downloading on the front page of the Codex website, also as follows:
ftp://ftp.fao.org/codex/cac/cac28/al2801ae.pdf
There is the publication, (under ABOUT CODEX) for downloading: “UNDERSTANDING THE CODEX ALIMENTARIUS”
http://www.fao.org/docrep/w9114e/w9114e00ae.htm
With regards, for Secretariat, Codex Alimentarius Commission Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, c/- FAO, Rome
Website: http://www.codexalimentarius.net/

EDITORS NOTE: It is of the utmost importance that we stand united and put a halt to this ludicrous control over our right of choice of natural therapies and health products. United we stand!

© Universal Mind magazine July 2005.

Gliondrach

01-30-2007, 10:44 AM

Thanks, Brandy. We are slowly becoming controlled and manipulated by the enemies of freedom and free choice.

More information from the Alliance for Natural Health:

alliance-natural-health.org/

You'll have to add a www. and then copy and paste into a search engine.

Half-way down the page you'll see '27/10/06 Codex - an exclusive!' You can click on a link there to take you to that article/document.

Charmagne

01-30-2007, 09:04 PM

Outlaw natural remedies? Do you think the powerful drug companies are behind all of this?

Fauxmage

01-30-2007, 11:42 PM

Oh yes Charmagne. And its not new. The drug companies have the FDA bought and paid for, and they have been trying to outlaw (and have been partially successful) natural remedies for as long as I've been interested in studying natural, drug-free health care. Which is even longer than I've been vegan!

Pat Sommer

02-12-2007, 01:55 PM

Arnika gel. rub it in when you go bump and no bruise will appear. I swear by it -sceptic that I am. A.Vogel is a good Swiss brand

Charmagne

02-20-2007, 04:58 AM

Anyone know anything for aches and pains - especially back pain. For some reason I've been on a cleaning spree (I think I'm confused that it's spring). I've been up and down ladders - cleaning things I haven't touched in the last year.:o I had back surgery about 3 years ago where they fused 3 discs - but usually frequent rests helps the pain. They have recommended pain management but I'm not taking some who knows what pain drug daily. I have been through physical therapy twice and learn stretches that help but not last night. I've been awake almost all night - any suggestions?

thevegantwins

02-20-2007, 06:47 AM

Traumed Gel, available in a health food store. That's what I've been using on Sarah's ankle and I use on my foot when it hurts. If you can't find it, try arnica gel

Gliondrach

02-20-2007, 08:41 AM

What about heat?

Fauxmage

02-20-2007, 10:37 AM

It depends on whether you know what the source of the pain is, Charmagne. Heat is good for tight muscles which need relaxation, but it is not good if you are inflamed. Cold is better for inflammation, and it also helps damaged ligaments to heal.

Charmagne

02-20-2007, 11:40 AM

I'll see if we have the Traumed Gel in our health food store. I used heat all night - that was probably a mistake but I was DYING.:crying: I have a feel I should of alternated cold and heat.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Oracl

02-20-2007, 09:21 PM

Ouch, that sounds very painful, Charmagne. :sorry:

Fauxmage

02-20-2007, 11:18 PM

Ointments with extracts of cayenne pepper are also good for pain. I know when I have a sore throat having soup loaded with hot peppers always makes it feel better.

Gliondrach

02-21-2007, 06:33 AM

I have only glanced at the following site but it seems to be very interesting. I only looked at arthritis and its mention of ginger caught my eye. They are correct in saying that it is effective in the treatment of osteoarthritis. Those articles are on the left of the page.

homemademedicine.com/
You'll have to add a http:// and www. and then copy and paste into a search engine.

It shares pharmacological properties with NSAIDs, and an extract from ginger and Alpina galanga, a similar plant, can reduce the actions of genes involved in inflammation.

No doubt, there will be a 'scientific' study somewhere that says ginger is no better than placebo. But there are other scientific studies which show that it is at least as good as manufactured drugs and without the same degree of side effects.

Other study results have been used to try to cast doubt on the effectiveness of non-drug company remedies. There was one study last year which compared celebrex, glucosamine with chrondoitin, and placebo in the treatment of arthritis. After it was published some newspapers had articles which said that it proved that glucosamine was not much better than placebo. True - but only in cases of mild arthritis. And celebrex was not much better than placebo, either. But, for moderate to severe arthritis, celebrex was better than placebo and glucosamine with chrondoitin were better than celebrex. And the glucosamine/chrondoitin was much cheaper than the drug.

Or, as the New England Journal of Medicine puts it: 'Exploratory analyses suggest that the combination of glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate may be effective in the subgroup of patients with moderate-to-severe knee pain.'

content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/354/8/795

You'll have to add http:// and then copy and paste into a search engine.

For moderate to severe arthritis
A-Placebo - 54% improved at no cost per patient over 1 year
B-GlucosamineSulphate/Chondroitin (Natural)-79% improved at a cost of $160/patient over 1 year
C-Celebrex - 69% improved at a cost of $1092/patient over 1 year

For mild arthritis
A-Placebo - 62% improved at no cost per patient over 1 year
B-Chondroitin - 66.5% improved at a cost of $160/patient over 1 year
C-Celebrex/COX2 - 70% improved at a cost of $1092/patient over 1 year

I wonder who thought of trying to rubbish the effects of the non-drug remedy? Could it have been someone employed by the drug industry? The results clearly showed that the drug was not much better than placebo. So, to draw attention away from this, they highlighted the result for mild arthritis which showed that the natural remedy wasn't much better than placebo either - and not as good as the drug. Conveniently keeping silent about the natural remedy's much better result with moderate to severe arthritis.

my3labs

03-28-2007, 08:59 PM

Does anyone know of a good herbal/natural remedy for seasonal allergies (ie: hay fever, pollen, etc).

I have been sneezing all day long.

Fauxmage

03-29-2007, 09:51 AM

I can't think of any, since I don't suffer from seasonal allergies. I believe a Neti pot (http://www.jalanetipot.com/method.html) helps wash the pollen and other crap out of your sinuses, and used regularly should reduce your suffering. It looks awkward at first, but its a skill worth learning. You can add soothing herbs like licorice root or mullein to the salty water, as these are mucilaginous, and will sooth irritated membranes.

Gliondrach

03-29-2007, 04:30 PM

There might be some ideas here:

healthy.net/scr/Article.asp?Id=918

healthy.net/scr/condition.asp?ConditionId=10

For both of these you'll have to add a www. and then copy and paste into a search engine.

Gliondrach

04-22-2007, 06:29 AM

I'm thinking of getting this:

Medical Herbalism: The Science Principles and Practices Of Herbal Medicine by David Hoffmann.

In the US it used to cost $60 on Amazon. but has been reduced to $37. Hardback.

In the UK it is on sale at Amazon but is £45. However, some of their partners have new copies for £25. There are also used copies for about the same price from some partners. At the top of the page it says that it is hardback but some of the partner businesses have names with the word 'paperback' in them. I would have to check.

If you want to have a look at it and read the reviews, use amazon .com as it has reviews. .co.uk doesn't.

thevegantwins

04-22-2007, 08:51 AM

If it's cheaper in the US, I can order and mail it to you, Martin.

Gliondrach

04-23-2007, 08:11 AM

Thanks, but I don't think it will be cheaper after postage is added. I think I could get free postage here. Oh, at the most, it will be about £3. That's if I do buy it. The most I've ever paid for a book was £27. That was about 9 years ago.

Gliondrach

05-16-2007, 08:55 AM

I see that there is an 'Organic Vegan Naturopath and Herbalist' practising in Worthing, Sussex. I don't know anything about her. I just saw her advertisement in an issue of a vegan magazine. If anyone from the Worthing area wants her contact details to learn more about her, let me know.

Fauxmage

05-16-2007, 10:25 PM

That's what Tiggerwoos wants to be!
I wonder where she's been lately.

Bowwowmeow

06-02-2007, 08:25 PM

Study: Gingseng May Help Fight Cancer

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE (AP Medical Writer)
From Associated Press
June 02, 2007 1:05 PM EDT

CHICAGO - The first scientific tests of some popular alternative medicine products hint that American ginseng might lessen cancer fatigue and that flaxseed might slow the growth of prostate tumors.

The research was reported Saturday at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference.

The ginseng studies are small and preliminary, and specialists warned against making too much of them because the substances tested are not the same as what consumers find on store shelves.

But the results suggest that some herbal remedies eventually may find niches for treating specific cancers, symptoms or side effects. Americans spend millions on these products, which are not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration, even though no good studies confirm the benefits they tout.

"One of the most common things patients ask me is about these things they have snookered away in their purses" and medicine chests, said Dr. Bruce Cheson, a cancer specialist at Georgetown University Hospital. "They'll come in with big bags of this stuff."

Some "natural" remedies such as laetrile or high doses vitamin C proved not helpful and even harmful for cancer patients once they were scientifically studied, he noted. Some keep chemotherapy from working as it should.

"Just because it is a vitamin or a leafy green does not ensure it does not have some harmful effects," Cheson said.

Herbal products vary widely in their purity and the amount and type of active ingredients. These three federally funded studies used standardized compounds so they could say with some certainty whether they have any effect.

Debra Barton, a research nurse at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., tested powdered, four-year-old Wisconsin ginseng root, which is different from Asian ginseng and other varieties commonly sold, to treat the extreme tiredness that most people suffer from cancer or its treatment.

She randomly assigned 282 people with breast, lung, colon and other forms of cancer to take either 750, 1,000 or 2,000 milligrams of ginseng or dummy capsules daily for eight weeks. Neither the participants nor the researchers knew who received what.

One-fourth of those on the two highest doses said their fatigue was moderately or much better, compared with only 10 percent of those on the low dose or dummy pills.

Results are promising, but it is too soon to recommend that people use ginseng, Barton said. A better idea is exercise - the one treatment already shown to help cancer fatigue, she said.

---
On the Net:
Cancer meeting: http://www.asco.org
Cancer society: http://www.cancer.org
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: http://www.nccam.nih.gov
Ginseng Board of Wisconsin: http://www.ginsengboard.com

thevegantwins

06-03-2007, 05:04 PM

Speaking of natural remedies, Sarah had a heat rash on her butt the other day. She told me her butt hurts. I had a free sample of vegan calendula moisturzing cream so I put that on her butt. The heat rash was gone within a couple of hours. I bet if I put some horrible Johnson and Johnson toxic, animal-tested crap on her butt, she'd still have the rash.

Tiggerwoos

06-03-2007, 10:33 PM

Gliondrach

06-20-2007, 04:08 AM

I've only just seen your post, Tiggs. Yes, I still have the details. Should I post it here? I don't know if BWM would want me to post someone's 'phone number, as it is part of the woman's advertising. If I post it here it could be of benefit to other people in the area who might happen upon this thread.

Gliondrach

06-20-2007, 04:29 AM

I heard an interesting radio programme yesterday about micro-organisms in soil. It said that we wouldn't exist if they weren't doing their job because many plants rely on them. Then today, as I was looking for info about a particular drug that I am denouncing, I looked in a blog. This had a link to another blog. This lead me to yet another blog where I found the article below.

by Vreni Gurd | Thu, 06/14/2007 - 4:26pm

Completing this mini-series on digestion by looking at the symbiotic relationship between bacteria and our health.

Bacteria get a really bad rap. Most of us associate bacteria with sickness, and we often go out of our way to kill bacteria by using antibacterial soaps and cleaners. When we are sick, we often look to antibiotics which kill bacteria in order to become healthy again. Notwithstanding the very real problem of super bugs plaguing our hospitals, it is important to realize that only about 5% of bacteria are actually pathogenic, and the other 95% are beneficial.

What do you think would happen if all the bacteria in the world died? It would not be long before all life on earth ceased to exist, as bacteria are fundamental to the birth, life and death of every living thing on this planet. Bacteria are part of the planet's garbage disposal system that breaks down dead plant and animal tissue returning it to soil in the form of humus, so life can begin again. Each gram of healthy soil has 600 million microorganisms containing thousands of species of bacteria and fungi, so healthy soil is fully alive. And the humus that the bacteria make is the nutritious food that plants require in order to grow healthy and robust. So in summary, bacteria ensure the health of the plant by providing it with food and nitrogen, and bacteria break down the plant if it is sick or after it has died, so that only the healthiest plants survive, and cycle of life can continue. According to the late Sir Albert Howard, one of the most well known experts on organic farming, pests, diseases and parasites are "nature's professors of good husbandry", meaning that diseased plants indicate a problem in farming, and provide an opportunity to look for mistakes and correct them.

So, what happens when farmers spray their fields with pesticides, herbicides and fungicides? They kill the army of microorganisms that support plant life, rendering the soil dead. Plants cannot grow in dead soil without the aid of chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers do not make for healthy plants, just as taking a multivitamin does not make up for a poor diet in humans. Unhealthy plants do not make for healthy people. So our health rests on the health of the bacteria in the soil.

In times before chemical agriculture, we would consume live bacteria along with the food we ate. In healthy people there are thousands of species of bacteria that live in our digestive tract from the mouth, throughout the intestines and colon, that help us digest our food, synthesize vitamins like folic acid, vitamin K and biotin, and that are vital to the function of our immune system. Bacteria break down our food into a useable form that can be absorbed through our intestines and utilized by the body. Bacteria clean the walls of the intestine and colon so that waste can be excreted easily and are therefore key to the body's ability to detoxify itself. Exposure to bacteria is critical to building a strong immune system, as the body needs something to fight against in order to build its army. Overuse of antibacterial soaps, pasteurized products and antibiotics has lead to a sicker and more allergic population, as the body has not had the opportunity to build its antibodies.

So, the question becomes - do you have enough bugs in your gut, and are they the right kind? Were you ever on antibiotics? If so, they killed all the bacteria in your gut, so if you did not actively replace them, probably not. In today's world of processed, denatured, sugar and chemically laden food that came from dead soil, most people have a bacteria population in their gut that is 85% "bad" bacteria and only 15% "good" bacteria, and the ratio should be the other way around. Good bacteria are killed off by the chlorine and fluoride in the water we drink, caffeine, birth control pills and other drugs, stress, food additives, and too many bad bacteria that compete in the gut for food and a place to live. No wonder so many people have irritable bowel syndrome or other problems that stem from an inability to detoxify themselves. Many people are carrying around with them several pounds of dead, rotting fecal matter in their intestinal tract, which creates a potential for self-poisoning and disease. Symptoms of poor quality bacteria in the gut is an inability to lose weight, carbohydrate cravings, recurrent candida or yeast problems, frequent constipation or diarrhea, digestion or acid reflux problems, joint pain and stiffness, frequent colds or flu, skin problems like acne or eczema for example.

So, how do we re-establish good-quality bacteria in our gut? We can start by eating living, whole organic food grown in live soil, eating more high quality fermented foods, and by filtering our water so we are not drinking chlorine. Most importantly, take a quality probiotic supplement daily in order to repopulate the gut quickly with good bacteria. I like Primal Defense by Garden of Life, and I have just been made aware of InLiven by MiVitality which also looks really good, although I have not yet personally tried that one. A good probiotic is a detox program, so start slowly in case you have detoxification reactions like not feeling well, headaches, or a need to be close to the bathroom. If you are reacting, cut your dosage or skip a day until you feel better. Most people don't react negatively at all however. Build up your dosage to the recommended levels over time as your body cleans itself out and you feel better and better.

Related Posts:
The Hygiene Hypothesis
It's not what you eat but what you digest that counts
Worm composting to eat your garbage and feed your garden

trusted.md/blog/vreni_gurd/2007/06/14/bacteria_the_soil_the_gut_and_detoxification
You'll have to add a http:// and then copy and paste into goo gle. It doesn't work in ya hoo.

----------------------------------------------

Following the article are links to medical studies such as;

Ikeda Y et al. Intake of fermented soybeans, natto, is associated with reduced bone loss in post-menopausal women: Japanese Population-Based Osteoporosis (JPOS)Study J Nutr 2006 May 136(5): 1323-8.

Brown Amy C. et al. Probiotics and Medical Nutrition Therapy Nutr Clin Care 2004 7(2): 56-68.

Rizzello CG et al. Highly efficient gluten degradation by lactobacilli and fungal proteases during food processing: new perspectives for celiac disease Appl Environ Microbiol 2007 May 18 (epub ahead of print)

And others.

And there's a link to her blog. I saw an article there called 'Maintain bone mass by preparing grains, nuts and seeds properly'. It begins with:

'Soaking or fermenting grains, nuts and seeds before eating them increases their nutrition and decreases the nutrient inhibitors.

'All grains, nuts, seeds and legumes have phytic acid in the outer or bran layer, as well as enzyme inhibitors to prevent them from sprouting when conditions are not suitable.'

I haven't read the article yet but have mentioned it here for your convenience. That's the sort of thoughtful person I am.

She also has an iteresting article about hygiene and illness.

thevegantwins

06-20-2007, 06:45 AM

That's an interesting article, Martin. I read something similar yesterday but can't find it now about how in this country, there is a great rise in the number of asthmatic children and research has shown that there is a strong correlation between antibiotic cleaners and asthma especially when used in homes with newborns and under 1-year old. The researchers say that a child needs exposure to bacteria during their first year in order to build their immune system and lungs and without that exposure, the children are more likely to develop asthma.

Gliondrach

06-20-2007, 07:49 AM

Some cases of childhood leukaemia might be triggered by a lack of exposure to infection. One theory is that the most common form could be caused or triggered by a lack of exposure to infection and an impairment of the immune system resulting from this. And a later immune response to a common bacterial infection could trigger an underlying genetic predisposition to the disease.

Bowwowmeow

06-20-2007, 10:30 AM

I've read that people sprout colonies of the bacteria that produces B12 in their intestines by consuming traces of soil as small children. These bacteria are destroyed by drinking chlorinated water and taking antibiotics.

Oracl

06-20-2007, 11:28 PM

Very interesting article, thanks Gliondrach. :)

Gliondrach

06-21-2007, 02:57 AM

Should I post the organic vegan naturopath/herbalist 'phone number and/or e-mail address here or should I send it in a PM to Tiggs?

Gliondrach

06-21-2007, 07:38 AM

Some more interesting articles from Vreni Gurd.

Back and neck pain relief through posture correction:

trusted.md/blog/vreni_gurd/2007/05/05/back_and_neck_pain_posture_and_tensegrity
You'll have to add a http:// and then copy and paste into a search engine. Probably goo gle. Might not work in yah oo.

At the bottom of this article is a link to: Exercise - STRETCH and feel better

Exercise, fat loss and the autonomic nervous system:

trusted.md/blog/vreni_gurd/2007/05/12/how_to_exercise_for_fat_loss_and_actually_be_succe ssful
You'll have to add a http:// and then copy and paste into a search engine. Probably goo gle. It might not work in yah oo.

At the bottom of the above one are links to two other articles:

Sleep - Is going to bed too late making you fat?
Want fat loss? Aerobic exercise alone is not the answer

I saw another article by her which I haven't read yet. I don't think I'll be impressed by it. I only glanced at it yesterday but I think it is critical of soya. Soya is not perfect but I think it will be one of those hatchet jobs based on wrong data.

Charmagne

06-21-2007, 05:55 PM

Interesting articles Gliondrach - I am very guilty of slouching.

Gliondrach

06-22-2007, 07:07 AM

I can't get page 5. It says that there's a page five but when I click on it, it goes to page 4.

This site has some excellent advice about exercising. Being a vegan, I am interested in health. As I was looking for something else I came upon this. It's called: 'Damn, That Pain In My Ass!' and it's the second articel down the page. It leads to a link for another site, where they want you to buy their video, but their information there does seem useful.

And the article I was looking for, about one-arm rows, seems like very good advice. I will try it on Saturday when I intend to do some weight training. Such a simple thing. But I would never have thought of it.

fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue27.htm
You'll have to add a www. and then copy and paste into a search engine.

Gliondrach

06-23-2007, 08:40 AM

This is interesting, especially if you want to lose weight:

What Do You Mean Low-Intensity Training Isn't The Best For Fat Burning?

fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue7.htm
You'll have to add a www. and then copy and paste into a search engine.

Gliondrach

07-12-2007, 03:29 AM

This herbal medicine internet resource list might have something of value or interest for you. But be careful - don't accept something just because it is written on a website.

This article from there is good:

Debunking the Debunkers (Short, but good article.)

If you are going to quote anything from it, make sure it is correct. For example, it says:
----------------------------------
'British Medical Journal Editor Richard Smith recently stated that "only 1% of the articles in medical journals are scientifically sound."[3] Yet another doctor from the School of Medicine at the University of California has stated that, "[M]uch, if not most, of contemporary medical practice still lacks a scientific foundation."[4]'

--------------------------------

I believe those statements are correct but I would want to read them in the study that is referred to before quoting them as evidence.

I know for sure that other things are correct. Herbs have been inappropriately used in clinical trials. The wrong dosage has been used or the wrong condition was treated. And then they declared that the herb was useless.

holisticmed.com/www/herbalism.html
You'll have to add a www. and then copy and paste into a search engine.

The next article, 'Herbal Medicine and Hysterical Phytophobia', just below the above one, is also interesting. But it says:

'For example, the worst estimates of "dangerous herbs" estimates they may kill 50
Americans a year, while pharmaceuticals routinely kill 140,000 Americans a
year (according to JAMA 1997), making herbs approximately 2,800 times safer
than pharmaceuticals.'

Yes, pharmaceuticals are very dangerous. But I would want to know how many pharma drugs are taken compared with how many herbs. There will be many more pharma drugs. So more chance of danger. If 2,800 drugs are taken for every herbal product, the incidence of death for each one will be the same. I very much doubt it so many more drugs are taken. Not if Americans spend $6 thousand million a year on 'alternative' treatments. But I would still like to know before I would use that paragraph as evidence in a debate. That figure for deaths from pharmaceuticals is only from reported adverse effects. The FDA has admitted that only a small percentage of even serious adverse effects is reported. The figure will most likely be much higher. Of course, to be fair, the same could be said about the herbal deaths. But it will be no where near as high. Not even if one herbal tablet was taken for every pharmaceutical one. I'd bet my shirt on that.

thevegantwins

07-17-2007, 07:24 AM

Background:

This past Saturday, Sarah, who has been wonderful with the toilet training, was sitting on the couch and announced, "Sarah had an accident." I told her to go use the toilet and I cleaned the couch. When she came back, I went to clean her up and she cried a bit and said her vagina hurt (we don't have cute names for sexual organs, they know what they are). After a bit of investigation and a chat with the pediatrician, we figured she most likely has a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) which is somewhat common in girls while toilet-training. The doctor said that as long as she didn't have a fever, it could wait until Monday when she'd have to be catherized for a urine sample and then begin antibiotics. :( I was not looking forward to this. The pediatrician said if she developed a fever, she needed to be taken to the ER.

Treatment:

I read my Natural Healing for Children book and decided to try a more natural approach first. I gave her a blueberry soy yogurt (blueberries and cranberries are recongized treatments for UTI's and acidopholus helps eliminate the bacterial imbalance). I kept giving her water and rice milk to drink. She doesn't really eat anything with refined sugar anyway but I was a bit more diligient in keeping her diet very low in sugar since sugar encourages the growth of bacteria. On Sunday morning, she and Ben were taking a bath in just plain tap water and I added 2 capfuls of tea tree oil to the bath water. Tea tree oil is a natural anti-bacterial and anti-viral.

Outcome:

Sarah was fine by Sunday afternoon, no evidence of infection. She went swimming in the pool for 3 hours Sunday afternoon and was a happy, active, healthy vegan toddler. :)

Bowwowmeow

07-17-2007, 11:26 AM

That's good! Poor baby. :comfort:

Charmagne

07-17-2007, 01:33 PM

It's amazing and so new to me. I have read the whole natural remedies thread and have started using them as the need comes up. I used to think (like most humans) that every little ailment required a "doctor" and come to find out they can do more harm than good:agree: .

I'm glad that Sarah:colors: is feeling better and thanks TVT for the additional natural remedies.

Gliondrach

07-17-2007, 03:54 PM

Background:

Outcome:

Sarah was fine by Sunday afternoon, no evidence of infection. She went swimming in the pool for 3 hours Sunday afternoon and was a happy, active, healthy vegan toddler. :)

:yea:

my3labs

07-17-2007, 09:37 PM

I love to hear stories like this TVT. So glad to hear that Sarah is doing better...especially without the trauma of a catheter and drugs.

Does anyone have any ideas for dry, cracked heels? I scrub my feet with a pumice stone and lather them with lotion but unless I do it every day, my heels are pretty dry and scaly.

Gliondrach

07-18-2007, 03:38 AM

Try jojoba oil. It's supposed to have a chemical structure similar to human sebum. I get cracked heels in the Winter. Sometimes they bleed. I intend to put cream or oil on my heels every year as Winter approaches but I never do. I might this year.

Apparently, it can also be used on cats and dogs for dry and sore skin. And, one formulation with aloe vera is used, diluted in water, as a flea and tick repellent.

thevegantwins

07-18-2007, 06:37 AM

Try jojoba oil.
Or Shea butter. That stuff is phenomenal on dry skin. Coconut butter is a great preventitive moisturizer.

my3labs

07-18-2007, 09:35 PM

Good ideas.

My soap has shea butter in it...handmade (not by me, but not tested on animals, and locally produced).
Where in the world would one get their hands on jojoba oil or shea butter?

Bowwowmeow

07-18-2007, 10:42 PM

My feet get like that every summer my3labs, on account of going barefoot and wearing sandals all the time. I find that when I make sure to drink plenty of water its not as bad, but I still need to take a "cheesegrater" to them once a month. The Pacifica line of bodybutters is doing a good job of keeping them smooth.

I got a jar of pure shea butter from one of my customers last Christmas. She ran a shop called Gaia Tree in SF. She has moved to New Hampshire now, but I think she had plans to go online at gaiatree.com. She carries lots of stuff that isn't vegan, though, but if she still carries the same shea butter, it was 100% pure, with nothing else in it. Its stiff like cocoa butter, but its good stuff.

Gliondrach

07-19-2007, 01:05 PM

You can get jojoba oil in health food-type shops. Probably other places, too.

thevegantwins

07-19-2007, 02:07 PM

My local health food store sells pure shea butter. You can find it in African markets as well.

Gliondrach

08-19-2007, 03:00 PM

Some good info in these for those of you who have various aches and pains. Add an h t tp://w w w. to the front of the addresses.

This site gives info about various injuries. Look on the left for the list.

sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/back/buttocks/sacroiliac.htm

This one has lots of info. Clickable links take you to different parts.

easyvigour.net.nz/fitness/h_Chair_Sit3.htm

This has 3 pages of info about core muscle training.

naturalphysiques.com/cms/index.php?itemid=103&page=1

Gliondrach

08-21-2007, 12:17 PM

Strength training reversed aging in muscle tissue
By Toronto Globe and Mail

Published: Monday, May 28, 2007

A new Canadian study that shows that resistance training actually reverses aging — at least in muscle tissue.

“With a little weight training we managed, to a certain extent, to turn back the hands of time,” Mark Tarnopolsky, director of the neuromuscular and neurometabolic clinic at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and co-author of the study, said in an interview. “Resistance training reversed the effects of aging in skeletal muscles,” he said.

Improved muscle strength. Participants in the research project, who lifted light weights for a mere two hours a week, were able to improve their muscle strength by 50 percent during the six-month study period.

Researchers, however, did not merely measure muscle strength in the traditional sense of the term. Rather, they measured the gene expression of muscles — more specifically, how many mitochondria they produce.

Mitochondria are tiny biochemical power plants in cells that convert food into energy, and tiny changes in mitochondrial DNA have been pegged as the key component of aging.

“The reason we get weaker, thinner and have less endurance as we age is that there are fewer genes making mitochondria,” Tarnopolsky said.
Focus group. To conduct the study, which is published in the latest edition of the online medical journal Public Library of Science, researchers recruited 25 healthy seniors (average age 70) and an equal number of college students (average age 26). They all had muscle biopsies and 24,000 genes were compared in each participant; 600 genes were markedly different between the older and younger participants.

At the outset, both groups had similar activity levels but the young people were, not surprisingly, much stronger.

Initially, the seniors were 59 percent weaker than the young adults. But after six months of twice-weekly weight training, they were 38 percent weaker.
Change in genetic fingerprint. More important, the gene-expression profile (or genetic fingerprint) of the seniors changed noticeably, looking a lot more like that of the younger folks.

“We were surprised by the results,” said Simon Melov, director of genomics at the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, Calif., and co-author of the study.
“We expected to see gene expressions that stayed fairly steady in older adults. The fact that their genetic fingerprints so dramatically reversed course gives credence to the value of exercise not only as a means of improving health, but of reversing the aging process itself.”

naturalstrength.com/research/detail.asp?ArticleID=1341

Gliondrach

08-23-2007, 02:52 PM

A Little Walking Cuts Blood Pressure

Study Shows Even Short Walks Can Improve Your Health
By Jennifer Warner

WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 15, 2007 -- Thirty minutes of walking three times a week may be enough to help lower blood pressure and start you on the path to better health.

A new study shows that even a little bit of weekly exercise is enough to lower blood pressure and improve overall fitness. The results showed that 30 minutes of walking three times a week -- even if it was broken into 10-minute walks throughout the day -- was enough to have a healthy effect on blood pressure as well as measurements around the waist and hip.

National guidelines recommend that people exercise at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week to maintain optimum health. But few people achieve that goal, citing lack of time as the biggest obstacle.

Researchers say these results may help motivate people to fit in even a little exercise here and there to benefit their health.

Even a Little Exercise Helps
In the study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, researchers invited 106 healthy but sedentary civil servants to take part in an exercise program for 12 weeks. About a third were told to briskly walk for 30 minutes, five days a week. Another third were told to briskly walk for 30 minutes a day, three days a week; the remaining third were told not to change their sedentary lifestyle at all.

The participants wore pedometers to monitor their walking, and researchers measured their blood pressure, blood cholesterol, weight, hip and waist size, and overall fitness before and after the study.

The results showed systolic (the top number) blood pressure dropped -- and waist and hip measurements shrunk significantly -- in both the three-day-a-week and five-day-a-week exercise groups.

Systolic blood pressure dropped by 5 points among those who exercised three days a week and by 6 points among those who exercised five days a week.

Waist and hip measurements fell by 2.6 centimeters and 2.4 centimeters respectively among the three-day-a-week exercisers and by 2.5 centimeters and 2.2 centimeters among the five-day-a-week exercise group.

No changes were found in the sedentary group.

Researcher Mark A. Tully of Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, says a decrease of a few points in blood pressure and a few centimeters in the waist and hips is enough to significantly reduce the risk of death due to heart disease. They say the study shows even moderate exercise below the recommended levels can still have benefits.

SOURCES: Tully, M. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Aug. 13, 2007; vol 61: pp 778-783. News release, BMJ.

.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/news/20070815/a-little-walking-cuts-blood-pressure

Oracl

08-24-2007, 12:59 AM

That's encouraging news. :) Mr Cal and I walk for at least 30 minutes every day. :thumbsup:

Gliondrach

08-24-2007, 10:38 AM

Strength training is also useful in cases of depression, insomnia, coronary artery disease and diabetes - as it says in the article.
----------------------------
Strength training can alter effects of muscle loss

By JOHN FAUBER / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

You may not have heard of the disease sarcopenia, but if you are a man over age 40 or a woman over age 50, you are in the throes of it.

Sarcopenia -- age-related loss of muscle -- can be a scourge of mid-life and beyond for those who don't fight it.

It's one of the main reasons why a person's metabolism slows down with age, resulting in much of the traditional middle age weight gain. More importantly, sarcopenia can be debilitating, zapping people of strength and endurance until they are too weak to lift a bag of groceries or walk around the block.

Until recently, it was accepted as inevitable.

But a bulging body of research since 1990 has shown that strength training can dramatically alter the effects of sarcopenia.

In fact, strength training is emerging as a prescription for 21st century living. And it may be as simple as lifting weights for a half- hour, two to three times a week.

Between their 30s and 70s, most people will lose as much as 40 percent of their muscle and strength. During middle age, there is an accelerated decline in the actual number of muscle fibers in the body.

By not exercising your major muscle groups, you lose more than just your strength. A pound of muscle can be a very demanding mass of tissue when it comes to gobbling up the thousands of calories a person consumes each week.

In general, a pound of muscle needs about 35 more calories a day just to maintain itself, compared to only about two calories for a pound of fat.

Without intervention, a person's metabolism slows as much as 5 percent in each decade of adult life because of muscle loss, amounting to about five to seven pounds of muscle tissue per decade, says Wayne Wescott, an exercise scientist and co-author of "Strength Training Past 50," published by Human Kinetics.

So by adding muscle, a person can burn calories much more efficiently even when not exercising. Conversely, by losing muscle, a person will not burn as many calories and, instead, may convert them to fat. That is one of the main reasons why people begin to gain weight starting with middle age.

Worse yet, by not putting lifting stresses on their muscles, especially earlier in life, people also put less stress on their bones, robbing themselves of the opportunity to slow the process of osteoporosis.

Like muscles, bones respond to unaccustomed loads by adding mineral, mostly in the form of calcium. When bone is not stressed, over time it will lose density.

As a result, after age 74, 28 percent of men can't lift 10 pounds. Women, who genetically have less muscle, fare even worse. After age 74, 66 percent of women can't lift 10 pounds or do normal housework.

"As far as we know, you can't do much about the number of muscle fibers, but you can do something about the muscle fiber size," says Greg Cartee, an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on aging and strength.

In other words, muscle fibers that are retained as people age enlarge through exercise to compensate for the lost fibers. The way to do it is strength training.

But the type of weight training a person does is crucial.

Robert Fitts, a professor of biology at Marquette University and a NASA consultant, says the best program is one that exercises all of the major muscle groups: lower and upper legs, the back, chest, shoulders, arms and abdominal muscles.

Strength training can help control several age-related conditions, including diabetes, insomnia, depression, arthritis and coronary artery disease, says geriatrician Maria Fiatarone, one of the country's leading researchers in strength training and the aging. "The list is growing month by month. If you weight lift a couple times a week, you will see changes that are quite dramatic."

Earlier this year, geriatrician Fiatarone and other researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston found that pumping iron can significantly improve the moods of older people.

For the study, 16 people, ages 61 to 82, with minor and major depression, were put on a high-intensity, 10-week weight-lifting program (45 minutes, three times a week). Among the seven subjects who had minor depression, six had no symptoms after the weight-lifting regimen. Among the nine with major depression, eight no longer showed signs of depression.

And even the frailest of the frail can benefit from weight training.

In a 1994 New England Journal of Medicine study, 100 nursing home residents in their 80s and 90s were put on a high-intensity weight-training program. On average, their strength increased 113 percent, their walking speed increased 12 percent and they had a 28 percent improvement in stair-climbing power. After the 10-week training period, some of the test subjects were able to switch from a walker to a cane.

Strength and balance are two of the biggest allies of seniors who want to get through their golden years without suffering a debilitating bone fracture from a fall, especially among those whose bones already have been weakened by osteoporosis. One of the best ways to prevent hip and other fractures may be through a program that combines strength training with weight-bearing aerobic exercise such as walking, stair-climbing or jogging, according to new research from Washington University.

://texnews.com/ads97/primelife/strength.html

Gliondrach

09-24-2007, 07:43 AM

I'm putting this here rather than creating another thread for tips on improving health by adusting posture and stretching, etc.

This gives tips on simple things you can do to relieve back pain. I haven't copied the text here because it has instuctional photographs.

You can copy and past the address below into ya hoo or Good Search. But you have to add the h ttp wwwww bit if you use go ogle. Use Good Search and nominate NJARA or some other good cause to receive some money.

t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1444035&cr=

Gliondrach

10-18-2007, 03:24 PM

There are dozens and dozens and scores and scores of home made cosmetics here. Many use milk or honey but you could probably substitute other things.

makeyourcosmetics.com/index.asp

The top few from the 'N' section:

Natural Dark Circle Remover
Natural Bug Spray
Natural Face Powder
Natural Window Cleaner
Neroli Rose Face Cream
Nothing Fancy Sugar Hand Scrub
Nourishing Lip Salve
Nutritious Clay Scrub & Mask
Nutty Scrub For Dry Skin
Oatmeal Bath Soak
Oatmeal Honey Face Mask
Oh! No! It's A Zit Attack Mask
Olivia Cream For Dry & Sensitive Skin
Orange Geranium French Clay Body Mask
Orange Glass Shiner
Orange Mint Body Therapy Oil
Orange Nail Gloss

I found the above site on:

sacredearth.com/ethnobotany/useful/cosmetics.php

my3labs

10-18-2007, 08:41 PM

Awesome! Thanks Martin.

Gliondrach

10-19-2007, 08:39 AM

My pleasure.

Oracl

10-20-2007, 12:55 AM

Very useful site! :agree:

goodeone

11-13-2007, 02:00 AM

I suffer with anxiety my favorite Remedies are The Bach Flower Remedies

The ones I use mostly are:-

Larch for confidence
I had some very good results with this one confidence is improving

Mimulus for fears i can name
fear is less but still there

Walnut to help me move on
some inprovement only started to use recently

Rock Water becaus I am hard on myself and suffer with negative thoughts
good result with this one too

Olive for physical and mental exshaustion
some improvement only recently started to use

Aspen for fears that cannot be named
fear is reduced but still there

I also use Rose Aromatherapy oil to relax me and Neroli to uplift me

Gliondrach

11-13-2007, 03:09 AM

It's good that they are helping you, Goodone. Have a think about what some of the posts higher up say - concerning exercise and how it affects the mind.

Gliondrach

11-14-2007, 08:42 AM

Good food for vegans.

This is interesting concerning women and type-2 diabetes:

JAMA Vol. 288 No. 20, November 27, 2002

There have been concerns that frequent nut consumption may result in weight gain and increased risk of coronary heart disease because of the high fat content. However, in our cohort, we did not find an appreciable association between nut consumption and weight change. Also, several large prospective studies have consistently found an inverse association between nut consumption and the risk of coronary heart disease. The epidemiological findings are supported by several clinical studies, in which diets high in nuts had beneficial effects on blood lipids. These results contradict the conventional wisdom that intake of high-fat foods leads to obesity and heart disease (OF COURSE, THIS DOESN'T APPLY TO ANIMAL FATS - WHICH ARE KILLERS. MY COMMENT). Given the observed inverse association between nuts and risk of coronary heart disease as well as type 2 diabetes, it is advisable to recommend regular nut consumption as a replacement for refined grain products or red or processed meats, which would avoid increasing caloric intake.

In conclusion, higher consumption of nuts and peanut butter was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes in this large cohort study of women. Our data, combined with other clinical and epidemiological data, support potential benefits of increasing nut consumption in reducing type 2 diabetes risk.

ht tp://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/288/20/2554

Close the gap in the ht tp and paste into a browser.

thevegantwins

11-14-2007, 10:15 AM

Thanks, G. I eat a bit of nuts or nut butter pretty much daily.

Gliondrach

11-14-2007, 03:55 PM

You eat a lot of nuts? Don't people say 'you are what you eat'?

thevegantwins

11-14-2007, 05:12 PM

You eat a lot of nuts? Don't people say 'you are what you eat'?

Haha. I believe I said I eat a bit of nuts which would make me only slightly nutty. :crazy 2:

Oracl

11-14-2007, 10:04 PM

Haha. I believe I said I eat a bit of nuts which would make me only slightly nutty. :crazy 2:
I guess I'm slightly nutty too! :crazy:

Gliondrach

11-15-2007, 03:57 AM

I eat a lot of nuts.

thevegantwins

11-15-2007, 06:07 AM

I eat a lot of nuts.

I'm not surprised. :rolleyes:

Oracl

11-15-2007, 11:05 PM

I eat a lot of nuts.

I'm not surprised. :rolleyes:
:agree: It does explain a lot! :whistle:

Gliondrach

01-21-2008, 05:44 PM

Not about natural remedies, but it's a link to the glossary on the Holistic Health Encyclopaedia. I had it on the Favourites that were lost and then were found. Stupid a ol.

h ttp://ww w.findhealer.com/glossary/A.php3

my3labs

01-21-2008, 07:32 PM

Cool. Thanks, Martin.

Tails4wagging

01-21-2008, 10:05 PM

Warm diluted fruit vinagar soothing for a sore throat and vinagar has healing properties.

I make my own fruit vinagar using either blackberries, raspberries or redcurrents.

Gliondrach

01-24-2008, 12:30 PM

I saw this on the PCRM site:

h ttp://ww w.nutritionmd.org/about_us.html

ht tp://ww w.nutritionmd.org/nutrition_tips/index.html

Gliondrach

03-13-2008, 11:33 AM

Vitamin D 'may cut child diabetes'
Last updated: Thursday, 13 March 2008, 09:31 GMT

Giving children extra vitamin D may cut their risk of developing Type 1 diabetes by 29%.

Around 250,000 people in the UK have Type 1 diabetes, which usually develops in childhood or adolescence and is unconnected to lifestyle factors such as obesity.

Of these people, at least 20,000 are currently school age.

A review of five studies, published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, found children given vitamin D supplements were almost a third less likely to develop the disease than those not given any.

The higher and the more regular the dose, the lower was the likelihood of developing the disease, it found.

However, it was unclear from the studies how old many of the children were or what the exact dose was.

The authors said levels of vitamin D and sunlight, from which the body manufactures the vitamin, have been implicated in the risks of developing other autoimmune disorders, including multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

They warned that the incidence of Type 1 diabetes is expected to rise worldwide, by 40% in 2010 based on 2000 figures.

Dr Victoria King, research manager of the charity, Diabetes UK, said: "This study suggests that taking vitamin D in childhood has the potential to prevent the development of Type 1 diabetes.

"However, much more research, in particular controlled trials which compares the results when one group of people are given vitamin D supplements and one group is not, are needed before we can confirm a concrete association between vitamin D and Type 1 diabetes."

ht tp://lifestyle.aol.co.uk/health/vitamin-d-may-cut-child-diabetes/article/20080312201309990003

Gliondrach

03-30-2008, 11:04 AM

Anyone with low back pain just might find help in one of these links:

h ttp://w ww.jaxmed.com/massage/pirformis_stretches.htm

ht tp://w ww.easyvigour.net.nz/fitness/h_PsoasStretch.htm

ht tp://w ww.easyvigour.net.nz/backpain/h_BackRepairIntroduction.htm

ht tp://ww w.easyvigour.net.nz/fitness/hpilatesintro1_2.htm

ht tp://ww w.easyvigour.net.nz/fitness/h_Chair_Sit3.htm

h ttp://w ww.somatics.com/psoas.htm

Gliondrach

04-16-2008, 05:53 AM

Chronic Joint Pain - Arthritis - Uncovering The Truth

The $65 Billion Dollar Disease

Since most of us suffer from some degree of osteoarthritis, let’s take a look at the current medical treatment as well as alternate treatment protocols of America’s $65 billion dollar disease. The number of us diagnosed with arthritis continues to rise as does the number of those becoming disabled by the disease (11 million Americans by 2020).(1) In fact, a recent study reported by the CDC (Centers For Disease Control) indicated that the number of people with arthritis has increased by 750,000 each year and that by 2020 they estimate that the US is on track to have 60 million sufferers!

Now Bear With Me
Before we can understand what the best treatment is we have to understand the process better. Please bear with me through this part, I promise it will be worth it. Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis – about 70% of people over the age of 40 have at least x-ray evidence of OA somewhere in their body.(2)
Osteoarthritis typically attacks two types of joints; those that bear weight (such as the low back, hips and knees), and those involved with repetitive motions (such as hands, wrist and shoulders). Osteoarthritis can also develop in injured joints, for example in the vertebrae of the neck after a whiplash or in a football players’ knees.
Although “osteo” means bone, and “itis” means inflammation, osteoarthritis is actually a disease originating in the cartilage, not the bone. This is why the more recent and accurate name for osteoarthritis is degenerative joint disease or DJD.

Anatomy Of A Joint
A joint is made of two bones connected by a capsule or envelope made of ligaments. At the end of each bone is a thin, smooth layer of cartilage. This cartilage layer acts as a protective cushion between bones to absorb the stress on joints during movement.(3)

Although cartilage is very strong, it can be damaged when a joint is injured. Cartilage is made of protein strands called collagen that form a tough, mesh-like framework. The mesh is filled with substances that hold water, called proteoglycans, that act much like a sponge. When weight is placed on cartilage, water is squeezed out of the mesh. When weight is removed, the water returns. Cartilage does not contain blood vessels, which makes healing more difficult. It also does not contain nerves, which means problems may go undetected until significant degeneration has occurred.

Similar to our skin, there is a normal balance between the wearing down (known as catabolic activity) and building up (known as anabolic activity) of cartilage cells (chondrocytes). This is a delicate and extremely important balance and anything that alters this balance will ultimately affect the health of our joints.

This cartilage balance in our joints is the key to understanding a costly mistake in the typical medical treatment of osteoarthritis. Here’s why. In osteoarthritis the cartilage breaks down faster than it is rebuilt and therefore it gradually wears away. So it is reasonable to say that anything that promotes the building up of the cartilage cells would be a benefit to the joint, whereas anything that promotes the breakdown of the cartilage cells would be destructive to the joint.

Now let’s see what treatment builds up and which breaks down the joint.

The Osteoarthritis Epidemic
Do today’s over-the-counter and prescription drugs contribute to the progression of osteoarthritis? I’ll let you decide. The typical treatment of osteoarthritis is NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). Treatment begins with over-the-counter medicine, such as ibuprofen and aspirin. If symptoms persist, treatment progresses to prescription drugs like Naproxen, or the newer COX-2 inhibitors such as Vioxx and Celebrex. NSAIDs come with well-known side effects like stomach irritation and ulcers, but also have some not-so-well-known side effects like swelling and increased blood pressure and the potential for liver and kidney damage (this is why your doctor may require periodic blood tests to check for liver damage).(4)

Safety of Arthritis Drugs in Question
A new study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that the newer NSAIDs may actually double the risk of heart attacks! (Since coming on the market in 1999, Advil, Aleve, Celebrex and Vioxx have been huge moneymakers for their manufacturers, with annual sales of over 6 billion). The New England Journal Of Medicine acknowledges that NSADs inhibit prostaglandins which are involved with the healing mechanism of the digestive system and therefore increase the risk of abdominal bleeding. According to the American Journal of Medicine, “Conservative calculations estimate that approximately 107,000 patients are hospitalized annually for (NSAID)-related gastrointestinal (GI) complications and at least 16,500 NSAID-related deaths occur each year among arthritis patients alone. The figures of all NSAID users would be overwhelming, yet the scope of this problem is generally under-appreciated.”

These conservative figures are equivalent to 293 hospitalizations and 45 deaths each day. The New England Journal of Medicine also stated “If deaths from gastrointestinal toxic effects from NSAIDs were tabulated separately in the National Vital Statistics reports, these effects would constitute the 15th most common cause of death in the United States. Yet these toxic effects remain a ‘silent epidemic,’ with many physicians and most patients unaware of the magnitude of the problem. Furthermore the mortality statistics do not include deaths ascribed to the use of over-the-counter NSAIDS only those prescribed.”

NSAIDs Affect Cartilage Production
This is the most important part of the story. Research reveals that there is another little known side-effect that NSAIDs have on cartilage, which may promote the progression of osteoarthritis.

Studies have shown that over-the-counter and prescription NSAIDs can lead to the degeneration of joint cartilage! In fact several NSAIDs inhibit chondrocyte (cartilage cells) production and accelerate degeneration of joint cartilage!(5)

Can Somebody Please Explain This to Me?
The fact is that Americans are spending upwards of $10 billion dollars per year on drugs that actually contribute to the condition they are suppose to help!(6)
As we said before, these drugs

1. Can lead to bleeding of the stomach and gastrointestinal tract causing ulcers and gastritis
2. Can lead to increased risk of liver and kidney damage(7)
3. Can lead to swelling and increased blood pressure(8)
4. May cause a rise in the risk for heart attacks(9)
5. AND promotes the breakdown of our joints!

What Should I Do?
Most of us take these medications because when it comes to pain, we want relief NOW. This is where the appeal of these medications comes from. You absolutely do get quick relief, which is fine for acute flair-ups. But with the serious side effects of long term use, you had better get a game plan for your long term care. So knowing now what you do about joint health and cartilage, what would make sense to take for arthritis? Something that builds cartilage! If you are one of the millions that suffer from osteoarthritis, you’ve probably heard about the supplement called glucosamine and chondroitin. These supplements have been used for years in Europe as an effective alternative to drugs for the treatment of osteoarthritis.

Glucosamine/chondroitin – Hype or Help?
In 2005 the prestigious British medical journal, Lancet, published a ground-breaking study regarding the long-term effects of glucosamine sulfate. This was a clinical trial, in which 212 patients with OA of the knee were randomly assigned to take 1500mg of oral glucosamine sulfate or a placebo (a pill with no active ingredients) once daily for 3 years. The study revealed the following:(10)

Pain Levels. The patients taking glucosamine sulfate had decreased pain compared to the group not taking glucosamine.
Cartilage Balance. The glucosamine group experienced no significant loss of cartilage, and in fact some patients actually experienced a growth in cartilage. This effect was reported as due to glucosamine’s stimulus of building up cartilage while depressing the tearing down of cartilage.
Safety. There were no differences in safety between the glucosamine and placebo groups which means they found no side effects what-so-ever.
Conclusion. The long-term combined joint structure-modifying and symptom-modifying effects of glucosamine sulfate suggest that it could be a disease modifying agent in osteoarthritis. In plain English, glucosamine is safe and effective in preventing the progression of osteoarthritis!

In the long run, patience and consistency with safe and effective products like glucosamine-chondroitin, combined with commitment to proper nutrition and exercise for treatment of osteoarthritis beats short-term relief with medication that will eventually make your condition worse.

References:
1. Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 158 June 8, 1998
2. Gleberzon BJ Chiropractic care of the older patient. 1st edition. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann 2001
3. Guyton, WB Textbook of medical physiology 10th edition. Aaunders Company, Philadelphia
4. Fored, CM. Onoarcotic analgesic use tied to development of chronic renal failure. New England Journal of Medicine, 2001; 345; 1801-1808
5. Brandt, KD. The effects of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on chondrocyte metabolism. University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN.
6. Buffum, JC. Nonsteroidal anti-inflamatory drugs in the elderly. The American Society of Pain Management Nurses, June 2000, 2(1).
7. M. Michael Wolfe, MD. COX-2-Selective NSAIDs, New and improved? Boston Medical Center, Section of Gastroenterology, 650 Albany St. Boston, MA.
8. Frishman, W.H. Effects of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug therapy on blood pressure and peripheral edema. Am J Cardiology. 2002; 89(6A); 18D-25D
9. Journal of the American Medical Association, August 22, 2001
10. Lancet 2001; 357: 251-56
11. Journal of Arthritis and Rheumatism, July 2002

ht tp://w ww.vihealth.com/rehab/articles/truth.htm

Gliondrach

04-16-2008, 05:55 AM

Olive Oil Eases Ride For Bypass Patients
Standard Component Of Mediterranean Diet Protects Against Heart Surgery Complications

April 3, 2008

(WebMD) If you or a family member are scheduled for heart bypass surgery, stock up on the olive oil.

That's the advice of Greek researchers who found that an olive-oil-rich diet may lower the risk of having a heart attack or stroke or dying from cardiovascular disease in the month after heart surgery.

"There's a lot of research showing that olive oil may help protect healthy people from developing heart disease, but very few studies looking at the role of olive oil in people who already have cardiovascular disease," says Dennis Cokkinos, MD, professor of cardiology at the University of Athens.

Olive oil is a cornerstone of the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet that's also rich in veggies, legumes, and nuts, says American Heart Association spokesman Russell Luepker, MD, of the University of Minnesota.

"From a nutritional point of view, olive oil is good for you - and your heart," he tells WebMD.

Cokkinos says that olive oil is rich in antioxidants and "good" monounsaturated fatty acids, both of which pack a punch against heart disease.

More Olive Oil, Fewer Risks

The new study involved 163 men and 53 women undergoing scheduled, non-urgent open-heart surgery. The vast majority were having operations to bypass plaque-clogged arteries that were cutting off the blood supply to the heart.

Participants were asked how much olive oil they generally consumed in daily cooking as well as about consumption of other vegetable oils, butter, and margarine.

A total of 15% of the men and 9% of the women had a heart attack or stroke or, in rare cases, died from heart disease in the 30 days after surgery.

Results showed that patients who consumed less than 1 tablespoon a day of oil in daily cooking were four times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke or die from cardiac disease compared with those who consumed more than 3 tablespoons a day.

Using olive oil to the exclusion of other vegetable oils, butter, and margarine also significantly slashed heart disease risks , Cokkinos says.

The link between olive oil and fewer heart problems remained true even after the researchers took into account other heart risk factors such as age, high blood pressure,
high cholesterol, smoking, obesity, and diabetes.

Cokkinos notes that cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have proven benefits in reducing the risk of future cardiovascular woes in people with heart disease.

"This is a more gentle way to do it," he says.

ht tp://ww w.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/02/health/webmd/main3989150.shtml

thevegantwins

06-16-2008, 08:45 AM

Anyone ever use colloidal silver? Mr TVT took his first dose yesterday to try to knock out this horrible upper respiratory infection he and the kids have had for a few weeks. I told him to give the kids 1/4 teaspoon today as well. The instructions say it is safe for children.

Gliondrach

06-17-2008, 09:46 AM

Have they tried echinacea and elderberry extract?

thevegantwins

06-17-2008, 09:54 AM

Yes. They've been taking elderberry for a few weeks now. The kids are now coughing up wads of clear phlegm. I'm assuming that is a good thing but Mr TVT is calling the pediatrician today just to check.

Gliondrach

06-17-2008, 09:58 AM

Best to check. I still think there could be some environmental thing about it.

thevegantwins

07-12-2008, 02:24 PM

At the organic farm today, I was telling Farmer Sue how my carpal tunnel is flaring up again and I was at the chiropractor on Thursday night getting treatment (ultrasound and wrist alignment). She told me I should try her stinging nettle patch which many of her friends swear by. I stuck my hands and elbow into the patch and......OWWWWWW! It is still stinging, 5 hours later but it does feel better. I'll see how it is in a few days since I have another chiropractor appointment on Tuesday night. I might do this every week if it helps.

Gliondrach

07-12-2008, 05:11 PM

Do you do any of these exercises for carpal tunnel?

http://www.eatonhand.com/hw/ctexercise.htm

Gliondrach

07-29-2008, 08:43 AM

High folate intake is associated with lower breast cancer incidence in postmenopausal women in the Malmo Diet and Cancer cohort

Ericson U, Sonestedt E, Gullberg B, et al. Am J Clin Nutr 2007;86:434-443.

BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic studies of associations between folate intake and breast cancer are inconclusive, but folate and other plant food nutrients appear protective in women at elevated risk. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to examine the association between folate intake and the incidence of postmenopausal breast cancer. DESIGN: This prospective study included all women aged >or=50 y (n = 11699) from the Malmo Diet and Cancer cohort. The mean follow-up time was 9.5 y. We used a modified diet-history method to collect nutrient intake data. At the end of follow-up, 392 incident invasive breast cancer cases were verified. We used proportional hazard regression to calculate hazard ratios (HRs). RESULTS: Compared with the lowest quintile, the incidence of invasive breast cancer was reduced in the highest quintile of dietary folate intake (HR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.35, 0.90; P for trend = 0.02); total folate intake, including supplements (HR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.34, 0.91; P for trend = 0.006); and dietary folate equivalents (HR: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.36, 0.97; P for trend = 0.01). CONCLUSION: A high folate intake was associated with a lower incidence of postmenopausal breast cancer in this cohort.

by Mario Roxas, ND

ht tp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FDN

thevegantwins

07-30-2008, 07:27 AM

Folate is found in dark leafy greens, citrus fruits and other tasty vegan fruit and veg! :yea:

Gliondrach

09-24-2008, 04:24 PM

She told me I should try her stinging nettle patch which many of her friends swear by. I stuck my hands and elbow into the patch and......OWWWWWW! It is still stinging, 5 hours later but it does feel better.

Arthritis, Neuralgia, and Related
Conditions

Topical application of fresh nettle leaves has a long history as a counter-irritant for patients with various pain syndromes. Weiss mentions using topical nettle for lumbalgia, sciatica, chronic tendonitis, sprains, and osteoarthritis.26This approach is safe if individuals
are not allergic to nettle.

Two case studies suggest topically applied Urtica reduces osteoarthritis pain.27 In a double-blind study, topical applications of Urtica and Lamium album (white nettle; a plant that has evolved to look like nettle but does not have stinging hairs) were compared.28 Only
Urtica was associated with relief of arthritic symptoms.

Oral dosing of nettle leaf preparations has also been investigated for rheumatic conditions. In one open trial, a leaf extract was associated with symptom reduction comparable to that achieved with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).29 In another open study, nettle leaf (50 g of stewed leaves daily with food) was shown to potentiate the efficacy of sub-therapeutic doses of the NSAID diclofenac.30
http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/.fulltext/12/3/280.pdf

---------------

And this is one of the studies referred to above:

Nettle sting effective for treatment of osteoarthritis pain

Nettle sting as a treatment for osteoarthritis pain has a long history of traditional use, but few clinical studies have investigated the effectiveness of this practice. This small, placebo-controlled study showed that daily application of fresh stinging nettle leaf (Urtica dioica) was significantly more effective than placebo in relieving osteoarthritis pain at the base of the thumb. For the study, 27 people applied stinging nettle leaf to the painful area once daily for one week. After a five-week washout period, the treatment was repeated using placebo (Lamium album, or white deadnettle, which looks similar to stinging nettle but does not sting). Patients and physicians were both unaware of the treatment order; patients were told that the researchers were investigating two different types of nettle and that they might experience a harmless stinging sensation. According to the results, reductions in pain and disability scores were significantly greater with nettle treatment than with placebo. The investigators concluded, "The stinging nettle is a freely available plant and its sting seems a safe treatment for musculoskeletal pain." Randall C, Randall H, Dobbs F, et al. Randomized controlled trial of nettle sting for treatment of base-of thumb pain. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 2000; 93:305-309.

Gliondrach

10-10-2008, 06:54 AM

This is good. Well, the first 2/3 that I have watched are. The writing on the illustrastions is not very clear - in even full screem mode. But they are just the same as what he is talking about. It lasts for 50 minutes but you can switch it off and go back to it later by sliding the slider at the bottom to the point where you switched off.

http://vsh.voip-info.org/Blake.html

Gliondrach

10-10-2008, 12:49 PM

You might find something useful here. Or you might already know it.

http://www.diethealthclub.com/health-issues-and-diet/hiatus-hernia/diet.html

Gliondrach

10-10-2008, 02:51 PM

My pleasure.

Gliondrach

10-25-2008, 05:30 AM

I have a spare copy of this book. It is paperback, 505 pages. Unread, as I already have a copy. I'd be willing to send it to someone. But what if more than one person wants it?

The Green Pharmacy,

Herbal remedies for common diseases and conditions from the world's foremost authority on healing herbs.

by James A. Duke.

He used to be the chief of the Medicinal Plant Resources Laboratory, of the US Department of Agriculture.

A couple of excerpts:

Liver-protecting salad.

Salads are a great place for liver-protecting ingredients. When you make a salad, try adding young milk thistle leaves, carrots and dandelion flowers. Use ginger and turmeric in the dressing.

Anti-Alzheimer's soup. Or, as he calls it: Biblical Brainfood Soup.

This soup, made entirely from plants mentioned in the bible, is a good bet for anyone with Alzheimer's disease. Many of the ingredients are rich in choline, a compound that many researchers believe is helpful for people with this condition.

The ingredients to use in the soup are barley, bottle gourd, dandelion flowers and greens, broad beans, flaxseeds, lentils, poppy seeds, stinging nettle, ground walnuts and cracked wheat. (You'll need to wear gloves when harvesting stinging nettle leaves, but the Fuzzy stingers lose their sting when the leaves are cooked. That Fuzzy is everywhere!) Season the soup with balm, rosemary, sage and savoury. These help the brain hold on to its acetylcholine, another compound that researchers believe to be helpful. You'll have to experiment with these ingredients to create a soup that you can enjoy. Not all the ingredients have to be used at once. In fact, you probably won't have access to them all at once. You could simply keep the list handy and add as many of these ingredients as possible to other soups you might be making.

-------------------

One reviewer on Am azon said about one of his other books:

Since I began making and using herbal remedies in 1980 I have been very concerned at the lack of reliable information. Pop and self-help books on herbalism suffer from excessive vagueness (if they are conservative and the author is trying hard to avoid lawsuits) or irresponsible promulgation of superstition (if the author is clumsy, credulous, or ignorant). On the other hand, publications dealing with formal studies of bioactive compounds of plants tend to be inaccessible to the public. There have been very few books that I (as a Ph.D. student in botany as well as a bit of an herbalist) feel comfortable in recommending. This one is at the top of the list.
Nobody can beat James Duke at comfortable pop-level communication combined with solid, informed good judgement. In this book he gives practical preparation and dosage suggestions -- something the too-careful books don't do. He also provides clear, definite cautions on drug interactions and side-effects.

My only criticism of Duke's book is that he may be a bit too confident when he suggests combining several herbs at once to treat some conditions. Folklore and formal studies may provide reasonable dosage guides for individual herbs. But no single folklore or ancient system encompasses, at once, medicinal plants of South America, China, and Europe. Combining herbs that have not been traditonally used, nor clinically tested, in such combination, is not something I would advise to a general audience.

Nevertheless I rate this book very highly. I don't know how many copies of the previous edition I bought to give to people: teenagers, undergraduate college students, my old hippy friends, my father, doctors, and various people who ask me about medical botany.

We all owe Duke a great deal for his tremendous work and his true desire to help others. EVERYONE, without exception, who is interested in medical botany from a practical standpoint, should have this book.

-----------------------

Books by David Hoffmann, member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists, are also very good.

Gliondrach

02-07-2009, 08:52 AM

Vegan diet alleviates fibromyalgia symptoms.

Scandanavian Journal of Rheumatology. 2000;29(5):308-1

Kaartinen K, Lammi K, Hypen M, Nenonen M, Hanninen O, Rauma AL.
Department of Physiology, University of Kuopio, Finland.

The effect of a strict, low-salt, uncooked vegan diet rich in lactobacteria on symptoms in 18 fibromyalgia patients during and after a 3-month intervention period in an open, non-randomized controlled study was evaluated. As control 15 patients continued their omnivorous diet. The groups did not differ significantly from each other in the beginning of the study in any other parameters except in pain and urine sodium. The results revealed significant improvements in Visual analogue scale of pain (VAS) (p=0.005), joint stiffness (p=0.001), quality of sleep (p=0.0001), Health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) (p=0.031), General health questionnaire (GHQ) (p=0.021), and a rheumatologist's own questionnaire (p=0.038). The majority of patients were overweight to some extent at the beginning of the study and shifting to a vegan food caused a significant reduction in body mass index (BMI) (p=0.0001). Total serum cholesterol showed a statistically significant lowering (p=0.003). Urine sodium dropped to 1/3 of the beginning values (p=0.0001) indicating good diet compliance. It can be concluded that vegan diet had beneficial effects on fibromyalgia symptoms at least in the short run.

PMID: 11093597 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

--------------------

Vegan diet in physiological health promotion.

Acta Physiologica Hungarica. 1999;86(3-4):171-80.

Hänninen O, Rauma AL, Kaartinen K, Nenonen M.
Department of Physiology, University of Kuopio, Finland.

We have performed a number of studies including dietary interventions and cross-sectional studies on subjects consuming uncooked vegan food called living food (LF) and clarified the changes in several parameters related to health risk factors. LF consists of germinated seeds, cereals, sprouts, vegetables, fruits, berries and nuts. Some items are fermented and contain a lot of lactobacilli. The diet is rich in fiber. It has very little sodium, and it contains no cholesterol. Food items like berries and wheat grass juice are rich in antioxidants such as carotenoids and flavonoids. The subjects eating living food show increased levels of carotenoids and vitamins C and E and lowered cholesterol concentration in their sera. Urinary excretion of sodium is only a fraction of the omnivorous controls. Also urinary output of phenol and p-cresol is lowered as are several fecal enzyme levels which are considered harmful. The rheumatoid arthritis patients eating the LF diet reported amelioration of their pain, swelling of joints and morning stiffness which all got worse after finishing LF diet. The composite indices of objective measures showed also improvement of the rheumatoid arthritis patients during the intervention. The fibromyalgic subjects eating LF lost weight compared to their omnivorous controls. The results on their joint stiffness and pain (visual analogue scale), on their quality of sleep, on health assessment questionnaire and on general health questionnaire all improved. It appears that the adoption of vegan diet exemplified by the living food leads to a lessening of several health risk factors to cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Rheumatoid patients subjectively benefited from the vegan diet which was also seen in serum parameters and fecal analyses.

PMID: 10943644 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

And see:
http://thenakedvegan.net/showthread.php?t=947&highlight=arthritis

thevegantwins

02-09-2009, 11:00 AM

I'm not feeling too well. I've had a sinus issue for the last 3 days and can't sleep well. I'm at work today but I'm now drinking a cup of hot water with slices of fresh ginger root. I know I've read before that it is great for sinus conditions. I'm also taking Umcka, a homeopathic remedy and Guaifenesin which is a natural decongestant. :crossfingers: I hope I can get rid of this cold by Friday, we're going away for the weekend.

Gliondrach

02-09-2009, 03:12 PM

What about neti pots?

thevegantwins

02-10-2009, 08:32 AM

I have netiphobia. :o

Gliondrach

02-10-2009, 08:43 AM

Inhale some steam with eucalyptus in the water. That might help. Or it might not. Also, try lying in different positions, with your head dangling at different angles. This can let the nasty stuff drain away. But not if a particular position is painful by increasing pressure in the sinuses.

Gliondrach

03-03-2009, 10:09 AM

Cutting Through Pharmaceutical Media Spin: Don't Believe All the Nasty Things You Read

About Supplements

Published on Wednesday, March 01, 2006
by Healthy News Service

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, MARCH 1, 2006 - Looking at the headlines, you'd think the entire supplement industry was going south. Recent stories reveal that Echinacea, Saw Palmetto,
Vitamin E, D and Calcium, St. John's Wort, and now Glucosamine and Chondroitin lack the medicinal efficacy that numerous studies and millions of consumers and clinicians previously
found they provided.

In reality, there is a considerable amount of good science showing that natural remedies can be highly effective, often as effective or more so than medications - but much safer and less
expensive. "However, the big money that drug companies charge for medications and pay for marketing controls the way study results are presented to the public," observes board certified internist Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, a renowned pain specialist who incorporates both prescription drugs and natural remedies in his clinical practice. Dr. Teitelbaum is author of the best-seller From Fatigued to Fantastic! (Avery Penguin Putnam) and newly released Pain Free 1-2-3 (McGraw-Hill, Feb 2006).

"Following the publication of the recent study on Glucosamine and Chondroitin in the New England Journal of Medicine (354:795-808:8, Feb 23, 2006), news headlines screamed,
'Natural Therapies Ineffective,'" says Teitelbaum. "But the study actually revealed something quite different. First, natural remedies were far more effective than Celebrex for moderate to
severe arthritis. Second, for mild arthritis, the difference between placebo, Celebrex and the natural remedies was minimal." According to Dr. Teitelbaum, the data showed the following breakdown, and with price-tags omitted:

For moderate to severe arthritis
A-Placebo - 54% improved at no cost per patient over 1 year
B-GS/Chondroitin (Natural)-79% improved at a cost of $160/patient over 1 year
C-Celebrex - 69% improved at a cost of $1092/patient over 1 year

For mild arthritis
A-Placebo - 62% improved at no cost per patient over 1 year
B-Chondroitin - 66.5% improved at a cost of $160/patient over 1 year
C-Celebrex/COX2 - 70% improved at a cost of $1092/patient over 1 year

More accurate headlines would read: 'Placebo almost as effective as Celebrex and natural remedies - Natural remedies best for severe arthritis,' and 'Celebrex nearly 700% more costly
than natural remedies,' comments Dr. Teitelbaum. If pharmaceuticals and natural remedies were almost equally effective, why not use the meds? Two reasons come to mind, says Teitelbaum: "First, we are bankrupting the medical system because doctors are trained to use the most expensive medications (don't forget that drug companies underwrite most of our conferences!). Second, deaths from medications are astronomical. Motrin family medications NSAIDs) for arthritis kill 16,500 Americans yearly, and Celebrex/Vioxx, many more."

"If you actually look at the scientific data, natural remedies are a safe and inexpensive Godsend," Teitelbaum concludes. "As the old saying goes, Buyer Beware! If you don't scrutinize the study yourself, the truth is likely to be colored by spin. In the Glucosamine research, eleven of the authors had financial ties to companies manufacturing pain medications. And natural
remedies are competition."

Dr. Teitelbaum, Director of the Center for Effective CFIDS/Fibromyalgia Therapies, does not accept money from pharmaceutical or supplement companies.
healthy.net/scr/news.asp?Id=8242

Gliondrach

03-05-2009, 11:25 AM

Chamomile Tea May Fight Colds, Menstrual Cramps

The Popular Herbal Tea Contains Chemicals That Relieve Many Ailments

WebMD Health NewsJan. 7, 2005 -- Things you need in your medical cabinet: aspirin, Band-Aids, antacids, and ... chamomile tea?

SOURCES: News release, American Chemical Society. Wang, Y. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, January 26, 2004.

For thousands of years, the herbal tea has been heralded as a natural cure for many conditions. The fragrant tea has been used as a sedative to calm nerves and has been touted to have anti-inflammatory properties.

Now new research adds credence to the theory that this herbal tea has medicinal benefits. A study published in the Jan. 26 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has found that chamomile tea contains compounds that may help fight infections due to colds and relieve menstrual cramps.

"This is one of a growing number of studies that provide evidence that commonly used natural products really do contain chemicals that may be of medicinal value," study author Elaine Holmes, PhD, a chemist with the Imperial College of London, says in a news release.

For the small study, 14 volunteers drank five cups of tea made from the German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) plant daily for two weeks. Daily urine samples were collected from each participant at the start of the study, during the tea-drinking phase, and then for two weeks after the tea-drinking phase ended.

Drinking chamomile tea resulted in significantly higher levels of two compounds in the urine, hippurate and glycine.

Hippurate, a breakdown product of tea flavonoids, has been linked to antibacterial activity. Researchers say elevated hippurate levels after tea drinking may explain tea's infection-fighting ability.

Glycine is a chemical that relieves muscle spasms and can act as a nerve relaxant. Holmes and colleagues say higher glycine levels may relax the uterus, explaining why the tea appears to relieve menstrual cramps.

Hippurate and glycine levels remained elevated for up to two weeks after the volunteers stopped drinking the tea, suggesting that drinking chamomile tea leads to prolonged medicinal effects.

Oxford Natural Products help fund the study.

webmd.com/diet/news/20050107/chamomile-tea-may-fight-colds-menstrual-cramps

Gliondrach

03-06-2009, 05:30 AM

Damn! :whistle:

Gliondrach

03-06-2009, 05:32 AM

BPT - Bio Photonic Therapy is the use of UV light to CURE !!

What is Bio Photonic Therapy ?

UV light was first discovered by Johann Wilhelm Ritter in 1801. In the late 1800s, physicians began to explore the connection between sunlight and health. Just over one hundred years after the Ritter's discovery, in 1903, Niels Ryberg Finsen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Physiology of Medicine for his work with UV light and disease. He treated some 300 people suffering from a disfiguring skin disease called lupus vulgaris. His work was based upon previous research showing that light could kill bacteria.

The first use of Photoluminescence Therapy (also called Biophotonic Therapy), once called Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation (UBI), was in 1922 by Kurt Naswitis. Naswitis irradiated the blood directly through a shunt. In an attempt to irradiate the blood outside the body using a system that would circulate the patient's blood through an irradiation chamber and then back to the patient, Emmet Knott developed in the 1920s a precursor to the machinery we use today. He received his patent on September 11, 1928.

In that same year, Knott irradiated blood from the first human subject; a case of sepsis, or blood borne bacterial infection. The patient recovered within 24 hours of the treatment. By the summer of 1942, over 6,500 patients had been treated with Photoluminescence Therapy with a greater than 95% success rate, and no harmful side effects.

In cases of viral pneumonia, in 1943 they reported a complete disappearance of symptoms in 24 to 76 hours following a single treatment; a disappearance of coughing in 3 to 7 days; and lung clearing in 24 to 96 hours (as evident in subsequent X-rays).

At this time, in a paper presented by Dr Virgil Hancock, et.al., was listed the following reactions occurring after Photoluminescence Therapy is administered:

Inactivation of toxins.
Destruction and inhibition of growth of bacteria.
Increase in the oxygen combining power of the blood and oxygen transportation to organs.
Immunostimulation of cellular and humoral (relating to bodily fluids) immunity (humoral immunity was a catchall phrase in a time before the complexities of the human immune system were understood)
Activation of steroid hormones.
Vasodilatation.
Activation of white blood cells.
Decreased platelet aggregation
Stimulation of fibrinolysis (the breakdown of blood clots)
Decreased viscosity of blood
Stimulation of corticosteroid production
Improved microcirculation
An interesting observation here is that all this was done before there was any great understanding of the immune system; suddenly we had a wonderful breakthrough in therapeutics without any understanding of the mechanism or mechanisms involved. (See below for How Photoluminescence Therapy Works)

In the forties, Knott made changes in his machinery and the FDA grandfathered in his device.

In over fifty years of testing, physicians performed over 300,000 clinical tests proving the validity of photoluminescence therapy and its curative potential. Most important: not one patient was lost in all these studies.

Medical historians tell us that the advent of antibiotics put an end to interest in photoluminescence therapy. This is not entirely true. It was money interests that put an end to it.

If you've read our article Health Care for Dummies, which outlines how conventional medicine grew into a powerful monopoly, you'll know that in the late thirties the monopoly was well underway: “the only acceptable medicine practiced (licensed, controlled) is based upon the use of morbid drugs, surgery, and, newly discovered, 'radiation.'” Photoluminescence therapy was still in use and it was being studied, but the advent of the new miracle drug, antibiotics, put a quick end to PT, even though PT was successful against viruses that antibiotics can't even touch. Medicine's bottom line was the buck.

Soon PT was no longer taught in medical schools; hospitals no longer used it; only a few holdouts still practiced it. All the research coming out of Russia and Europe was ignored like a mutt at an AKC dog show. Special interests controlled the medical monopoly and the public slowly forgot that PT had ever existed.

While only a few individuals practiced PT through the fifties, sixties, and onward, PT was kept relatively inexpensive. The initial purchase of the machine wasn't that great a setback. The electricity to run the machine has always been minimal. The largest cost of the entire process was the sterile tubes and needles that were used on one patient then thrown away, and this the patient paid for.

In the seventies, Yale University created a new form of PT that used just a little UV light to trigger a chemotherapeutic agent. The cost of the therapy? $2,000.00 per treatment. It seems that within a very short time the Russians duplicated this method using low-intensity laser beams. Their version was much less costly.

Recently the FDA has approved a new PT machine that the inventors, Johnson & Johnson along with a Dr Eldeson who had developed the therapy used at Yale (above). The machine is called an Extracorporeal Photopheresis Blood Irradiator. The FDA approval allowed clinical trials on people with HIV and Graft-Versus-Host disease. The trials were extremely successful for HIV/AIDS related Complex, as over half the patients remained HIV negative for 14 to 16 months after the termination of the study. The drawback? Each treatment cost $5,000.00 and lasted four to five hours.

William Campbell Douglass, MD, a favorite author of mine who treats his patient using only alternatives, wrote a book called Into the Light, where he recommends Photoluminescence Therapy for the following conditions:

Immune deficiency problems
Viral Infections (hepatitis, respiratory, etc.)
Pneumonia
Non-healing wounds and wound infections
Emphysema
Inflammatory Processes: fibrositis (inflammation of, mainly, the muscle sheath), bursitis, iritis (inflammation of the iris), pancreatitis, etc
Autoimmune diseases: rheumatoid arthritis, AIDS, etc.
Osteomyelitis (bacterial infection of the bone marrow)
Septicemia (virulent infection of the blood)
Cancer (experimental at present)
Peripheral vascular disease
Most vascular disease
Thrombophlebitis (inflammation of a blood vessel that results in blood clots)
He goes on to state that Photoluminescence Therapy is performed using FDA approved equipment; it is safe and effective; it is relatively inexpensive; is covered by some insurance companies; and is easy to do. The hard thing is finding a practitioner, so see our list below.

How Photoluminescence Therapy Works

One would naturally think (as I actually did) after learning about UV Light and how it kills bacteria and viruses, that Photoluminescence Therapy consists of taking a patient's arteries, hooking them up to a machine, and transporting the patient's blood through a circular system that would irradiate all of the patient's blood and return it to the patient cleaned of all pathogens.

Wrong.

PT is one of the Oxidative Therapies; therapies that proved themselves for decades but have not been taught in medical schools since the thirties and forties. You see, one of the most startling side effects of PT is that it increases oxygen levels in the blood. I don't know how this works, only that it works.

First, a small about of blood, from 60cc to 250cc is drawn from the body, passed through a chamber where it is treated with UV light (wavelength C, which is the same wavelength as the light from the sun with healing properties) and the blood is returned to the body. Some say that healthy cells are unaffected, but this is not true. Some say that pathogenic microorganisms are directly destroyed. This too is not true.

PT transmits energy to the blood. The effect of the UV light on the blood affects the chemical energies in the blood creating a strong response in the body. White blood cells, if they are out of control, begin to stabilize. The blood itself, if out of balance, will come into balance. If the body is anemic, PT tends to build red blood cells. PT also helps the liver rid itself of fats. PT increases a cells permeability which enhances the body's ability to produce antibodies.

PT indirectly attacks pathogenic microorganisms by causing a chemical reaction in which the cell membranes (remember, they're more permeable) are pierced thereby marking them for destruction by the immune system. The debris from dead pathogens adds to the excitement initially created by PT that further stimulates the immune system. It is this condition that allows the body's natural immune system to burst into action against even the most stubborn (antibiotic resistant) bacteria or virus (which are not affected by antibiotics in the first place).

However, it is the increase in oxygen to the blood that truly is the magic of Photoluminescence Therapy which was discovered in the 1920s. In fact, one of the side effects to PT is that the patient often gets a “flush” in the face, and possibly a slight rise in temperature. Oxygen in the blood has a powerful effect, helping to eradicate not only pathogens, but it creates an environment in which yeasts, fungi, and cancer cells cannot exist. Cancer requires an anaerobic (oxygen free) environment to grow.

The immunostimulating effects of PT last for hours, even days. How often a person requires PT depends on many factors, such as how sick the person is, how long the person has been ill, and the virulence of the disorder.

I recall a story of a woman who, after giving birth, caught a nosocomial infection (an infection picked up in the hospital). The infection was virulent and antibiotic resistant. Eventually she had to have her arms and legs amputated to stop the infection from killing her. The story showed pictures of her at home playing with her baby, sans arms and legs.

Stories like these are truly horror stories. The simple fact that Photoluminescence Therapy would have cleared up her infection but cannot be used by physicians who don't know it even exists is the real horror.

bio-photonictherapy.info/Home_Page.html#Photoluminescence_Therapy

More here:
scientiapress.com/findings/biophotonictherapy.htm

And, half-way down the next link are some interesting-looking articles:

scientiapress.com/index.html
In the 'Medicine' section.

Also see:
There's a clinic in Dublin - drummartinclinic.ie/Ultraviolet_Blood_Irradiation.html
Which has a link to:
doctorrowen.com/docs/ubi.pdf

sal

03-13-2009, 08:56 AM

Not sure if this is the right sort of stuff for this thread but...

Smushed up aspirin with a bit of water to make a paste makes a good deep exfoliator - good for acne prone skin and also areas prone to ingrown hairs. (You can buy a very expensive ingrown hair remover that is just salisylic (sp?) acid - basically aspirin. Man was I peed off when I read the back of it).

I think mine are more beauty stuff than curing ailments!! I wrote a long post on it on my blog (http://alienontoast.blogspot.com/2008/10/vegan-mofo-foodz-on-your-face.html) during Vegan MoFo last year

Gliondrach

03-13-2009, 12:59 PM

Yes, I've heard of that. It's supposed to be good for whiteheads, too.

Gliondrach

03-18-2009, 03:25 AM

A study has found that Chinese women who ate a third of an ounce or more of fresh mushrooms or a seventh of an ounce or more of dried mushrooms daily were less likely to get breast cancer than those who didn't regularly eat mushrooms. This was found in both pre- and post-menopausal women. Drinking green tea reduced the risk further. This study was done using women in China and there may be other factors at work. But it looks good.

Dietary intakes of mushrooms and green tea combine to reduce the risk of breast cancer in Chinese women
Min Zhang, Jian Huang, Xing Xie, C. D'Arcy J. Holman

International Journal of Cancer
Volume 124 Issue 6, Pages 1404 - 1408

To investigate effects of dietary mushrooms and joint effects of mushrooms and green tea on breast cancer, a case-control study was conducted in southeast China in 2004-2005. The incident cases were 1,009 female patients aged 20-87 years with histologically confirmed breast cancer. The 1,009 age-matched controls were healthy women randomly recruited from outpatient breast clinics. Information on frequency and quantity of dietary intake of mushrooms and tea consumption, usual diet, and lifestyle were collected by face-to-face interview using a validated and reliable questionnaire. Compared with nonconsumers, the Odds ratios (Ors) were 0.36 (95% CI = 0.25-0.51) and 0.53 (0.38-0.73) for daily intake of 10 g fresh mushrooms and 4 g dried mushrooms, based on multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusting for established and potential confounders. There were dose-response relationships with significant tests for trend (p < 0.001). The inverse association was found in both pre- and postmenopausal women. Compared with those who consumed neither mushrooms nor green tea, the ORs were 0.11 (0.06-0.20) and 0.18 (0.11-0.29) for daily high intake of fresh and dried mushrooms combined with consuming beverages made from 1.05 g dried green tea leaves per day. The corresponding linear trends were statistically significant for joint effect (p < 0.001). We conclude that higher dietary intake of mushrooms decreased breast cancer risk in pre- and postmenopausal Chinese women and an additional decreased risk of breast cancer from joint effect of mushrooms and green tea was observed. More research is warranted to examine the effects of dietary mushrooms and mechanism of joint effects of phytochemicals on breast cancer.
interscience.wiley.com/journal/121428129/

Gliondrach

03-28-2009, 11:29 AM

To test the the effectiveness of high intensity interval training the researchers instructed 16 men to do a few minutes of sprinting on stationary bikes. Each session consisted of between 4 and 6 sets of 30 seconds of sprinting. This went on for 2 weeks. So, during the sessions, the men were actually sprinting for only 2 or 3 minutes in total. The rest of the time they would have been cycling slowly.

They had 4 minutes 'rest' between sprints, during which they either rested on the bike or cycled slowly. They started off in the first 2 sessions with 4 sprints and gradually increased it to 6 sprints. Total time commitment was started at 17 minutes and went up to 26 minutes when they were doing 6 sprints. But still only actually 2 or 3 minutes of total sprinting time in each session.

Extremely short duration high intensity interval training substantially improves insulin action in young healthy males

John A Babraj et al
BMC Endocrine Disorders 2009, 9:3

Background
Traditional high volume aerobic exercise training reduces cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk but involves a substantial time commitment. Extremely low volume high-intensity interval training (HIT) has recently been demonstrated to produce improvements to aerobic function, but it is unknown whether HIT has the capacity to improve insulin action and hence glycemic control.

Methods
Sixteen young men (age: 21 ± 2 y; BMI: 23.7 ± 3.1 kg·m-2; VO2peak: 48 ± 9 ml·kg-1·min-1) performed 2 weeks of supervised HIT comprising of a total of 15 min of exercise (6 sessions; 4–6 × 30-s cycle sprints per session). Aerobic performance (250-kJ self-paced cycling time trial), and glucose, insulin and NEFA responses to a 75-g oral glucose load (oral glucose tolerance test; OGTT) were determined before and after training.

Results
Following 2 weeks of HIT, the area under the plasma glucose, insulin and NEFA concentration-time curves were all reduced (12%, 37%, 26% respectively, all P < 0.001). Fasting plasma insulin and glucose concentrations remained unchanged, but there was a tendency for reduced fasting plasma NEFA concentrations post-training (pre: 350 ± 36 v post: 290 ± 39 μmol·l-1, P = 0.058). Insulin sensitivity, as measured by the Cederholm index, was improved by 23% (P < 0.01), while aerobic cycling performance improved by ~6% (P < 0.01).

Conclusion
The efficacy of a high intensity exercise protocol, involving only ~250 kcal of work each week, to substantially improve insulin action in young sedentary subjects is remarkable. This novel time-efficient training paradigm can be used as a strategy to reduce metabolic risk factors in young and middle aged sedentary populations who otherwise would not adhere to time consuming traditional aerobic exercise regimes.

Sprint interval training
The sprint training protocol was similar to that used previously by Burgomaster et al. [4,14]. Six sessions of sprint interval exercise were spread over 14 days, with 1 or 2 days of rest between each session. Each training session consisted of 4–6 repeated 30-s all-out cycling efforts against a resistance equivalent to 7.5% of body weight (Wingate tests), with 4 min of recovery between sprints. During recovery, subjects remained on the bike and either rested or cycled at a low cadence without resistance. The number of sprints increased from 4 during the first two sessions, to 5 in the third and fourth sessions, and 6 in the last two sessions. Total time commitment was 17–26 min per session, involving only 2–3 minutes sprint exercise.

Discussion
While regular exercise training represents one of the most powerful strategies to reduce the development of metabolic disease in healthy adults [17], most adults fail to meet current guidelines for participation [18]. These guidelines largely focus on the time spent carrying out moderately intense activity (or total energy expenditure), typically require many hours of exercise each week and can fail to modify risk factors relevant for disease prevention [19]. In addition, as time commitment is perceived as a major barrier, driving or contributing to low compliance, then these guidelines may not be the most logical approach for improving public health. In the present study we demonstrate for the first time that only a few minutes of high intensity interval exercise performed over two weeks is required to substantially improve both insulin action and glucose homeostasis in sedentary young males. This is both a physiologically important observation and potentially useful as it highlights a preventative intervention that could logically be implemented as an early strategy to prevent age related development of cardiovascular disease.
biomedcentral.com/1472-6823/9/3

Gliondrach

04-05-2009, 05:29 AM

Here's a simple remedy to reduce your chances of heart disease and diabetes - and to help you lose weight: Stand up!

Stand Up for Your Health

You're probably sitting down right now. Well, by the time you're done reading this, you may see sitting in a whole new way!

"Chair time is an insidious hazard because people haven't been told it's a hazard," Marc Hamilton, Ph.D., a professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Missouri in Columbia, told Ivanhoe.

That's right -- the time you sit in your chair could be keeping your body's fat burning in park! More than 47 million adults in the United States have metabolic syndrome, which causes obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Biomedical researchers from the say the reason so many of us have the condition is because we sit too much!

"The existing data, by numerous studies, are starting to show that the rates of heart disease and diabetes and obesity are doubled or sometimes even tripled in people who sit a lot," Dr. Hamilton explains. One reason, he says, is an enzyme called lipase. When it's on, fat is absorbed into the muscles, but when we sit down, lipase virtually shuts off.

"Instead, the fat will recirculate in the blood stream and go and be stored as body fat or it can clog arteries and cause diseases," Dr. Hamilton says. And it's not a small amount of fat. Plasma samples were taken from the same person after eating the same meal. When they ate sitting down, the sample was cloudy, but when they ate while standing up, it was clear.

"If you can perform a behavior while sitting or standing, I would choose standing," Dr. Hamilton says. That's why he swapped his desk chair for a treadmill. Not ready for that step? "You can have just as much fun watching your kids play if you're standing by the fence, next to a friend who pulls out that aluminum lawn chair and is sitting there," Dr. Hamilton advises.

You can also limit chair time by taking frequent breaks at work to stand and walk around. Stand up while talking on the phone or even while watching TV.

Standing also helps shrink your waistline! The average person can burn an extra 60 calories an hour just by standing! "But just avoid the chair is the simple recommendation, as much as you can," Dr. Hamilton says. That's advice worth a standing ovation!

Another benefit to standing -- it improves your HDL or good cholesterol levels. People who sat reduced their good cholesterol levels by 22 percent!
aip.org/dbis/stories/2008/18067_full.html

Gliondrach

04-10-2009, 09:50 AM

This was in only a small sample of people but it looks good. I wonder what would have happened if they'd substituted the milk with soya milk? I think they would have obtained even better results. And what happens when people eat meat, with its saturated fat? It can't do their HDL much good.

Saturated fat impedes "good" cholesterol activity

Posted on: Monday, 7 August 2006, 16:59 CDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A study shows that eating one meal high in saturated fat can impair the ability of high-density lipoproteins (HDLs), the "good" cholesterol, to ward off inflammation of the blood vessels, which is thought to be a key event in vascular disease. It can also impair the ability of blood vessels to react normally to stress.

By contrast, consumption of a meal high in polyunsaturated fat "does not perturb these measures of vascular health," Dr. David S. Celermajer from The Heart Research Institute in Sydney, Australia told Reuters Health.

The findings highlight new ways in which different dietary fatty acids may influence key processes in the development of arthrosclerosis, Dr. Celermajer and colleagues note in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

They tested the effect of consuming a single high-fat meal, differing in fatty acid composition, on the ability of HDLs to inhibit molecules associated with inflammation in large and small blood vessels.

On two separate occasions, 14 adult volunteers ate a meal with 75 percent polyunsaturated fat and an identical meal, except it contained 89.6 percent saturated fat.

They found that HDL collected six hours after the saturated fat meal was less effective in blocking expression of molecules associated with inflammation than HDL collected six hours after the polyunsaturated meal.

What's more, HDL collected six hours after the polyunsaturated meal was more effective in inhibiting inflammation-related molecules than HDL collected during a period of fasting.

"Consuming a polyunsaturated fat enhanced, and a saturated fat meal reduced, the anti-inflammatory properties of HDL," Celermajer and colleagues point out.

He acknowledged his team was "a little surprised" by the study results.

"Most everyone concentrates on the amount of 'good' cholesterol. This study shows that its quality may be very important too, in determining its protective ability," he explained.

"Most people also measure cholesterol and its fractions with people fasting -- but it seems that its quality after a meal (and most of us spend a lot of time in the post-absorptive state) may be important to consider too," Celermajer added.

SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Cardiology, August 15, 2006.
redorbit.com/news/health/605870/saturated_fat_impedes_good_cholesterol_activity/index.html

AND, AS IT SAYS IN ANOTHER ARTICLE:
The team from the Heart Research Institute in Sydney conducted a study on a small group of people consisting in 14 volunteers aged 18-40. They had to eat two meals consisting in carrot cake and a milkshake - one meal a month, one meal the next month. The first meal was high in saturated fats, as it was cooked with coconut oil, while the other meal was overloaded with polyunsaturated fats, as it was cooked with safflower oil.

Results showed that the coconut oil, laden with saturated fats, decreased the beneficial effects of good cholesterol in our bodies. On the contrary, the safflower oil rich in polyunsaturated fats had no such negative effect, but it proved to help enhancing the anti-inflammatory effects of friendly cholesterol.
news.softpedia.com/news/One-Meal-Rich-in-Saturated-Fats-Kills-Good-Cholesterol-Levels-32280.shtml

Gliondrach

04-10-2009, 04:14 PM

Other foods are also fortified with vitamin D.

Vitamin D Deficiency Related to Increased Inflammation in Healthy Women, MU Study Finds

April 6, 2009

COLUMBIA, Mo. - According to a recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 75 percent of Americans do not get enough Vitamin D. Researchers have found that the deficiency may negatively impact immune function and cardiovascular health and increase cancer risk. Now, a University of Missouri nutritional sciences researcher has found that vitamin D deficiency is associated with inflammation, a negative response of the immune system, in healthy women.

Increased concentrations of serum TNF-α, an inflammatory marker, were found in women who had insufficient vitamin D levels. This study is the first to find an inverse relationship between vitamin D levels and concentrations of TNF-α in a healthy, non-diseased population. This may explain the vitamin's role in the prevention and treatment of inflammatory diseases, including heart disease, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

"The findings reveal that low vitamin D levels negatively impact inflammation and immune response, even in healthy women," said Catherine Peterson, assistant professor in the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences. "Increased inflammation normally is found in people with obesity or chronic diseases; a small decrease in vitamin D levels may aggravate symptoms in people who are sick."

The results support the need to re-examine the biological basis for determining the dietary reference intake (DRI) of vitamin D, Peterson said. The Institute of Medicine's DRI for vitamin D is 200 IU for people age 50 and younger and 400 IU for people 50 to 70 years old. The guidelines, created in 1997, are being revised to reflect new research, and Peterson is confident the DRI will be increased.

"Adequate vitamin D levels identified in this study are consistent with recent research that suggests the DRI should be increased," Peterson said. "To improve vitamin D status and achieve its related health benefits, most people should get at least 1000 IU of vitamin D per day. Sunlight is a readily-available, free source of vitamin D. Exposing 25 percent of the skin's surface area to 10 minutes of sunlight three days per week will maintain adequate levels in the majority of people; however, people with darkly-pigmented skin need more. Only a few foods contain vitamin D naturally, such as fatty fish; other sources are dietary supplements and vitamin-D-fortified foods, including milk and orange juice."

In future studies, Peterson will determine the effectiveness of Vitamin D in reducing disease symptoms and reducing blood glucose levels in diabetics. The study, "Serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha concentrations are negatively correlated with serum 25(OH) D concentrations in healthy women," was published in the July, 2008 issue of the Journal of Inflammation.
munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2009/0406-peterson-vitamin-d.php

Gliondrach

04-26-2009, 05:49 AM

Bean Consumption Is Associated with Greater Nutrient Intake, Reduced Systolic Blood Pressure, Lower Body Weight, and a Smaller Waist Circumference in Adults: Results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2002

Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 27, No. 5, 569-576 (2008)

Yanni Papanikolaou, MHSc and Victor L. Fulgoni, III, PhD
Nutritional Strategies, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA (Y.P.)
Nutrition Impact, Battle Creek, Michigan (V.L.F.)

Address correspondence to: Victor L. Fulgoni, 9725 D Drive North, Battle Creek, MI, 49014. E-mail: vic3rd at aol.com

Background: Epidemiological studies have shown positive findings associated with legume consumption and measures of cardiovascular disease and obesity. However, few observational trials have examined beans as a separate food variable when determining associations with health parameters.

Objective: To determine the association of consuming beans on nutrient intakes and physiological parameters using the National Health and Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2002.

Methods: Using data from NHANES 1999-2002, a secondary analysis was completed with a reliable 24-hour dietary recall where three groups of bean consumers were identified (N = 1,475). We determined mean nutrient intakes and physiological values between bean consumers and non-consumers. Least square means, standard errors and ANOVA were calculated using appropriate sample weights following adjustment for age, gender, ethnicity and energy.

Results: Relative to non-consumers, bean consumers had higher intakes of dietary fiber, potassium, magnesium, iron, and copper (p's < 0.05). Those consuming beans had a lower body weight (p = 0.008) and a smaller waist size (p = 0.043) relative to non-consumers. Additionally, consumers of beans had a 23% reduced risk of increased waist size (p = 0.018) and a 22% reduced risk of being obese (p = 0.026). Also, baked bean consumption was associated with a lower systolic blood pressure.

Conclusions: Bean consumers had better overall nutrient intake levels, better body weights and waist circumferences, and lower systolic blood pressure in comparison to non-consumers. These data support the benefits of bean consumption on improving nutrient intake and health parameters
jacn.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/5/569

Bowwowmeow

06-19-2009, 10:14 AM

Yesterday as I stood on the banks of the Merced to take these pictures

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/lauralb/Yosemite/Yosemite014.jpg
Pale Swallowtail

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/lauralb/Yosemite/Yosemite018.jpg
Yosemite Falls
(yes I know, any excuse to plaster the forum with pictures of Yosemite :shy: )

I looked down at my feet and found them swarming with squitas!!! I could see the tiny pinprick marks they made while biting me, so I went straight to the Village Store and bought a lemon, which I peeled, separated into segments, broke them open, and rubbed the juice all over my feet, ankles, and arms, anywhere I thought I might have been bitten. (Didn't have a knife, or I would have sliced the lemon.) :lemon2:

This morning I don't have a single bump, and no itch. :excited:I can still see the tiny red points where they bit me though.

I have sworn by this remedy for mosquito bites for years, and I have had people I've shared it with come back and say things like "You know, I didn't believe you, but I tried it, and it worked." It really does, but you have to do it as soon as possible after you've been bitten, in order for the bumps and itch to be prevented.

I've no clue whether this would help in the case of a virus introduced by the squita bite, but strong acid is an effective anitbiotic. Its probably the acidic juice, and some enzymes, that stop whatever it is that causes the bumps to form and itch.

I don't think this would work for a bee sting though. You need meat tenderizer for those. Which is actually vegan. Weird huh? :dizzy:

Gliondrach

06-19-2009, 03:08 PM

perhaps the bites leave some alkali behind and the acid neutralises it. Or perhaps not.

Gliondrach

06-28-2009, 08:01 AM

Here's a simple remedy to reduce your chances of heart disease and diabetes - and to help you lose weight: Stand up!

Here's something that follows on from the above quoted post:

Too much sitting: a novel and important predictor of chronic disease risk?

An interesting article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine 2009:43;81-83, by Neville Owen, A. Bauman and W. Brown:

In the article the boffins say that even in people who exercise for 30 minutes on most days of the week there is a risk of developing ill health if they spend a lot of time sitting down each day.

When I wrote 'they' I meant the people who sit down, not the boffins.

The researchers quote a study which found that most people spend more than half their waking hours sitting down. And only 4% - 5% of their time in moderate to vigorous physical activity - which is about 30 minutes a day of their waking time.

So, the message is clear: get up and move around if you have been sitting for more than an hour. Do some squats, walk up some stairs, do a dance, try to touch your nose with your foot, but do something.

You could get up to change channels on the telly instead of using the remote control, you could get off the bus one stop earlier, you could walk up the stairs instead of using the lift.

This is interesting:

'In this context, the metabolic equivalent (MET) is used to define body mass neutral energy expenditure of activities, as the ratio of the metabolic rate of the activity and resting metabolic rate, which is defined as 1 MET.9 Running has a MET value of at least 8 METS, moderate-pace walking has a value of about 3–4 METs and sedentary behaviours are in the range of 1–1.5 METs.'

And this:

'A recently published prospective study showed that self-reported sitting time (as a marker of sedentary behaviour) was a predictor of weight gain in Australian women, even after adjustment for energy intake and leisure time physical activity.11 This was followed by observational studies using objective measurement of sedentary time, which showed that not only is total sedentary time important for blood glucose control but also that a larger number of breaks in sedentary time are associated with more favourable metabolic profiles.4 12 Additionally, these relationships have been found to be consistently stronger for women than for men.'

And:

'Recent findings also suggest that leisure time MVPA (moderate to vigorous activity), in the context of otherwise sedentary lifestyles (fig 1),4 is unlikely to be sufficient to prevent increasing population levels of overweight, obesity and chronic disease.'
bjsm.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/43/2/81

As stated above, doing the odd 30 minutes of vigorous exercise can still leave you at risk if you spend too much time sitting. The article is much longer and I have a copy of it in case it disappears from public access.

Gliondrach

07-19-2009, 04:13 PM

Baking soda 'could slow kidney disease'

Humble baking soda could ease the suffering of patients with failing kidneys, a new study suggests.

By Kate Devlin, Medical Corresopndent
Published: 10:01PM BST 16 Jul 2009

Sodium bicarbonate can dramatically slow down the progression of the disease in some patients, researchers found.

Every year around 400 people with kidney failure die languishing on transplant waiting lists because of a shortage of donors.

A total of around three million people in Britain suffer from chronic kidney disease, which may have a number of causes and can leave them needing dialysis or a replacement organ.

Doctors have long wondered about using baking soda for kidney disease patients who commonly suffer from low bicarbonate levels, a condition called metabolic acidosis.

Researchers at the Royal London Hospital studied 134 patients with the condition, giving them a small daily dose of sodium bicarbonate in a tablet on top of their usual care.

Over one year their kidney function declined significantly more slowly than patients not given the baking soda.

In fact, their rate of decline was little more than would be expected with normal ageing.

Patients taking sodium bicarbonate tablets were also less likely to develop end-stage renal disease requiring dialysis, according to the findings published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Magdi Yaqoob, Professor of Renal Medicine at the Royal London Hospital, who led the study, said: "It's amazing.

"A simple remedy like sodium bicarbonate when used appropriately can be very effective.

"This study shows baking soda can be useful for people with kidney failure.

"That is, as long as the dose is regulated and under supervision."

telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5844540/Baking-soda-could-slow-kidney-disease.html

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology
2009 American Society of Nephrology
doi: 10.1681/ASN.2008111205 This Article

Bicarbonate Supplementation Slows Progression of CKD and Improves Nutritional Status
Ione de Brito-Ashurst , Mira Varagunam , Martin J. Raftery , and Muhammad M. Yaqoob

Gliondrach

09-07-2009, 05:27 AM

People are often encouraged to eat more fibre for digestive problems but insoluble fibre, such as bran, may not be the right type. Soluble fibre was found to be more useful in this study.

Soluble or insoluble fibre in irritable bowel syndrome in primary care? Randomised placebo controlled trial

British Medical Journal 2009;339:b3154

Objective To determine the effectiveness of increasing the dietary content of soluble fibre (psyllium) or insoluble fibre (bran) in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

Participants 275 patients aged 18-65 years with irritable bowel syndrome.

Interventions 12 weeks of treatment with 10 g psyllium (85 participants), 10 g bran (97 participants), or 10 g placebo (rice flour) (93 participants).

Main outcome measures The primary end point was adequate symptom relief during at least two weeks in the previous month, analysed after one, two, and three months of treatment to assess both short term and sustained effectiveness. Secondary end points included irritable bowel syndrome symptom severity score, severity of abdominal pain, and irritable bowel syndrome quality of life scale.

Extracts from the study.

Irritable bowel syndrome is a common functional gastrointestinal disorder characterised by recurrent episodes of abdominal pain or discomfort associated with an altered bowel habit, not explained by any structural or biochemical changes in the gut. The prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome in the population is in the order of 10%, and approximately a quarter of people with irritable bowel syndrome symptoms seek medical advice.

Forty per cent of the patients in this study stopped participation before the final visit. The main reason was that they felt worse when taking the fibre supplement. Although this dropout rate is considerable, it is comparable to that in other trials of this nature. The motivation of patients to participate rapidly drops when an intervention is cumbersome or time consuming, especially when it does not lead to any immediate effect or is difficult to tolerate. Obviously, a high dropout rate is going to contribute negatively to the overall result of the study, especially when these patients are classified as treatment failures. Although this "worst case scenario" is the most appropriate way of analysing the effectiveness of treatment, it may underestimate the true effectiveness of fibre treatment.

The dropout rate was highest among those patients randomised to bran, and this mainly occurred during the first month of treatment. This was mainly attributed to worsening of symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. This has also been reported in secondary care, and it is supported by the finding that the number of patients stopping treatment because of intolerance was twice as high in the bran group as in the psyllium or placebo group. Probably, those left in the trial taking bran were a small subset of patients who responded well to this supplement, as is also indicated by the comparable adverse event rates reported in the three groups.

In the management of irritable bowel syndrome, dietary advice is often given. Most general practitioners recommend an increase in the fibre content of the daily diet, through the addition of insoluble fibre in the form of bran. Furthermore, approximately half of patients with irritable bowel syndrome receive drug treatment, often including psyllium based supplements. However, pooled analyses show limited evidence that fibre actually alleviates symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, and insoluble fibre may even worsen the symptoms. Most available studies on fibre treatment have severe methodological limitations, such as inadequate outcome assessment and lack of placebo control, and all trials were done in secondary care. In contrast, most patients with irritable bowel syndrome are treated in primary care, and this patient group may benefit more from fibre treatment than do those in secondary care.

After three months of treatment, symptom severity in the psyllium group was reduced by 90 points, compared with 49 points in the placebo group and 58 points in the bran group.

Implications of findings
The results of this large scale trial in primary care support the addition of soluble fibre, such as psyllium, but not bran as an effective first treatment approach in the clinical management of patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

Psyllium contains dietary soluble fibre and comes from the seed husks of the Plantago group of plants. It's been found to be useful in cases of constipation and diarrhoea.

Psyllium has caused some cases of anaphylaxis but so have peanuts and most people can safely eat peanuts.

As it says on Medline Plus, which is connected to the US National Institutes of Health:

Allergies
Serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis, difficulty breathing/wheezing, skin rash, and hives have been reported after ingestion of psyllium products. Less severe hypersensitivity reactions have also been noted. Cross-sensitivity may occur in people with allergy to English plantain pollen ( Plantago lanceolata ), grass pollen, or melon.

Side Effects and Warnings
Psyllium-containing laxatives, cereals, and other products are generally believed to be safe. Important exceptions include those with repeated psyllium exposure (such as healthcare workers frequently handling bulk laxatives who are at risk for hypersensitivity reactions) and patients with significant pre-existing bowel abnormalities (such as gastrointestinal strictures or impaired motility) or prior bowel surgery.

Obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract has been noted in numerous case reports of patients taking psyllium-containing laxatives, particularly in individuals with previous bowel surgery or problems and/or when the laxatives are mixed with inadequate amounts of water. Psyllium should be avoided by people who have throat problems or difficulty swallowing.

Gastrointestinal side effects are generally mild and have not prompted discontinuation of psyllium in most clinical trials. Esophageal obstruction has been reported in a patient with Parkinson's disease.

Due to potential reductions in blood sugar levels caused by psyllium, blood glucose levels in diabetic patients should be closely monitored.

Immediate medical attention should be sought if any of these symptoms appear after taking psyllium: chest pain, vomiting, or difficulty swallowing or breathing.

Gliondrach

09-13-2009, 03:35 PM

Comfrey Root Eases Back Pain

Ointment With Comfrey Root Extract Helped Reduce Acute Back Pain in Study

By Caroline Wilbert
WebMD Health News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MDMay 21, 2009 --

People who suffer from acute back pain may find relief in the form of comfrey root, a plant long thought to have medicinal value.

A new study, funded by the drug company Merck and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, showed that people with acute back pain who used an ointment containing comfrey root extract had significant reductions in pain, compared to their peers who used a placebo ointment.

The researchers note that in previous studies comfrey root extract has been effective in the treatment of ankle sprains and arthritic knee pain.

The study included 120 participants between the ages of 18 and 60, all suffering from either upper or lower back pain not caused by an identifiable source like a slipped disc or trauma. They all rubbed 4 grams of ointment on their backs three times a day for five days. Half of the participants used ointment containing comfrey root extract and half did not. Neither the participants nor the researchers knew which participants were getting comfrey root ointment and which participants were getting the placebo.

Participants were asked to assess their back pain and how much it interfered with normal movement, plus their back pain at rest.

The placebo users saw their pain intensity drop 38% during the study period, while comfrey root ointment users had a 95% reduction in pain. Back pain at rest was reduced 97% in the comfrey root group and 40% in the placebo group. The comfrey root ointment seemed to take effect in less than an hour.

The researchers report that there were few side effects. They included nausea, cold, eczema, and runny nose in four participants given the comfrey root ointment, and headache and itchiness in the three participants given placebo.

“The results of this clinical trial are clear-cut and consistent across all primary and secondary efficacy variables,” the authors write in their conclusion. “Comfrey root extract shows a remarkably potent and clinically relevant effect in reducing acute back pain.”

The comfrey root ointment used in the study is sold in Germany under the name Kytta-Salbe but is not available in the U.S.

webmd.com/back-pain/news/20090521/comfrey-root-eases-back-pain

Abstract of above study at:
British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2009 May 21. [Epub ahead of print]

Efficacy and safety of a Comfrey root extract ointment in the treatment of acute upper or low back pain: results of a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, multi-centre trial.

PMID: 19460762 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

---------------------------
AND:

Phytomedicine. 2004 Sep;11(6):470-7.

Efficacy and tolerance of a comfrey root extract (Extr. Rad. Symphyti) in the treatment of ankle distorsions: results of a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study.

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale L.) is a medicinal plant with anti-inflammatory, analgesic and tissue regenerating properties. In a double-blind, multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, group comparison study on patients suffering from unilateral acute ankle sprains (n = 142, mean age 31.8 years, 78.9% male), the percutaneous efficacy of an ointment of comfrey extract (Kytta-Salbe f, four treatments per day for 8 days) was confirmed decisively. Compared to placebo, the active treatment was clearly superior regarding the reduction of pain (tonometric measurement, p<0.0001, as the primary efficacy variable) and ankle edema (figure-of-eight method, p = 0.0001). Statistically significant differences between active treatment and placebo could also be shown for ankle mobility (neutral zero method), and global efficacy. Under active treatment, no adverse drug reactions were reported. The good local and global tolerance of the trial medication could also be confirmed. The study results are consistent with the known pre-clinical and clinical data concerning comfrey.

PMID: 15500257 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

--------------
AND:

Phytomedicine. 2005 Nov;12(10):707-14.

Efficacy of a comfrey root extract ointment in comparison to a diclofenac gel in the treatment of ankle distortions: results of an observer-blind, randomized, multicenter study.

In the treatment of minor blunt injuries several topical drugs are known to have anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. They represent, however, two fundamentally different major pharmacological therapy approaches: the "chemical-synthetical" and the "phytotherapeutical" approach. The main objective of this trial (CODEC_2004) was to compare the efficacy and tolerability of an ointment of Comfrey extract (Extr. Rad. Symphyti) with that of a Diclofenac gel in the treatment of acute unilateral ankle sprain (distortion). In a single-blind, controlled, randomized, parallel-group, multicenter and confirmatory clinical trial outpatients with acute unilateral ankle sprains (n=164, mean age 29.0 years, 47.6% female) received either a 6 cm long ointment layer of Kytta-Salbe f (Comfrey extract) (n=82) or of Diclofenac gel containing 1.16 g of diclofenac diethylamine salt (n=82) for 7 +/- 1 days, four times a day. Primary variable was the area-under-the-curve (AUC) of the pain reaction to pressure on the injured area measured by a calibrated caliper (tonometer). Secondary variables were the circumference of the joint (swelling; figure-of-eight method), the individual spontaneous pain sensation at rest and at movement according to a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), the judgment of impaired movements of the injured joint by the method of "neutral-zero", consumption of rescue medication (paracetamol), as well as the global efficacy evaluation and the global assessment of tolerability (both by physician and patient, 4 ranks). In this study the primary variable was also to be validated prospectively. It was confirmatorily shown that Comfrey extract is non-inferior to diclofenac. The 95% confidence interval for the AUC (Comfrey extract minus Diclofenac gel) was 19.01-103.09h*N/cm2 and was completely above the margin of non-inferiority. Moreover, the results of the primary and secondary variables indicate that Comfrey extract may be superior to Diclofenac gel.
PMID: 16323288 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

---------------------

AND:

Phytomedicine. 2007 Jan;14(1):2-10. Epub 2006 Dec 13.

Efficacy of a comfrey root (Symphyti offic. radix) extract ointment in the treatment of patients with painful osteoarthritis of the knee: results of a double-blind, randomised, bicenter, placebo-controlled trial.

The results suggest that the comfrey root extract ointment is well suited for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee. Pain is reduced, mobility of the knee improved and quality of life increased.

PMID: 17169543 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Bowwowmeow

09-13-2009, 09:37 PM

I resorted to a bit of reflexology for a headache I started to get not long ago. I pressed very hard all around my thumb pads and thumbnail, searching for tender spots. I don't know too much about it, having only read one book about it. So I don't know if I am doing it correctly. However, the headache was gone by morning, Usually when I get headaches late at night they stay around for two days. So maybe it helped.

Gliondrach

09-25-2009, 03:59 PM

Exercise can extend survival even in 'oldest old'
By Lindsey Tanner, AP Medical Writer – Mon Sep 14, 4:03 pm ET

CHICAGO – Even in the "oldest old," a little physical activity goes a long way, extending life by at least a few years for people in their mid- to late 80s, Israeli researchers found.

The three-year survival rate was about three times higher for active 85-year-olds compared with those who were inactive. Getting less than four hours of exercise weekly was considered inactive; more than that was active.

The results "clearly support the continued encouragement of physical activity, even among the oldest old. Indeed, it seems that it is never too late to start," the researchers wrote in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, which published the study.

They noted that exercise reaped benefits even for previously sedentary 85-year-olds; their three-year survival rate was double that of inactive 85-year-olds.

Oldsters didn't have to be super-athletes to live longer; walking at least four hours weekly counted, even if it was just in 15-minute strolls a few times daily.

"As little as four hours a week was as beneficial as more vigorous or prolonged activity," said study author Dr. Jeremy Jacobs, a geriatric specialist at Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Active octogenarians also reported less depression and loneliness and a greater ability to perform daily tasks.

Similar benefits have been shown in people in their 60s and 70s, but there has been little research about exercise benefits in people in their 80s.

The study involved 1,861 Jerusalem residents who were 70 years old in 1990. Participants filled in questionnaires about their health and activity levels through 2008.

At age 85, 64 percent were physically active, a relatively high percentage that reflects the Israeli lifestyle, Jacobs said. But he said similar benefits from exercise likely would be seen among the very old in other countries.

There were 512 deaths. Slightly fewer than 7 percent of the active 85-year-olds died by age 88, versus about 24 percent of those who were inactive.

Jacobs said the researchers took into account factors that also affect survival, including participants' overall health and whether they smoked, and still found that activity levels were strongly related to longevity.

Dr. James Webster, a professor of geriatric medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said the study can't completely rule out that participants who were able to exercise were already healthier than the others, and thus likely to live longer.

Still, Webster said the link between octogenarian exercise and longevity appears valid. He was not involved in the study.

Laura Thorp, a researcher at Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, said very old patients who want to increase their activity should do so under a doctor's supervision. Still, Thorp said, "Even those who are not exercisers or athletes can start and still see substantial benefits."

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090914/ap_on_he_me/us_med_octogenarian_exercise;_y

From:
Archives of Internal Medicine. 2009;169(16):1476-1483.

Physical Activity, Function, and Longevity Among the Very Old

Gliondrach

10-08-2009, 04:45 AM

An apple a day keeps kidney stones away

More fruits and veggies, less salt prevents stones from forming

Researchers have found another reason to eat well: a healthy diet helps prevent kidney stones. Loading up on fruits, vegetables, nuts, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains, while limiting salt, red and processed meats, and sweetened beverages is an effective way to ward off kidney stones, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). Because kidney stones are linked to higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, increased body weight, and other risk factors for heart disease, the findings have considerable health implications.

Eric Taylor, MD (Maine Medical Center) and his colleagues at Brigham and Women's Hospital conducted a large study to determine the effects of healthy eating habits on the formation of kidney stones. The investigators collected information from individuals enrolled in three clinical studies: the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (45,821 men followed for 18 years), the Nurses' Health Study I (94,108 older women followed for 18 years), and the Nurses' Health Study II (101,837 younger women followed for 14 years).

Dr. Taylor's team assigned a score to each participant based on eight components of a DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) style diet: high intake of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains and low intake of salt, sweetened beverages, and red and processed meats. Individuals with higher DASH scores consumed diets that were higher in calcium, potassium, magnesium, oxalate, and vitamin C and lower in sodium.

A total of 5,645 incident kidney stones developed in the participants in the three studies. In each study, participants with the highest DASH scores were between 40% and 45% less likely to develop kidney stones than participants with the lowest DASH scores. The reductions in kidney stone risk were independent of age, body size, fluid intake, and other factors.

Because a DASH-style diet may affect the development of hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic diseases associated with kidney stones, the researchers also performed an analysis limited to study participants without hypertension or diabetes. Even among those individuals the DASH diet reduced the risk of kidney stones.

Many of the medications used to treat kidney stones have unpleasant side effects. This study indicates that adopting a DASH-style diet may be an effective alternative.

eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/ason-aaa081009.php

See post 145 in this thread http://www.thesaucyvegan.com/showthread.php?p=65589&highlight=kidney#post65589

============
And the abstract from the journal:

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology 20: 2253-2259, 2009

DASH-Style Diet Associates with Reduced Risk for Kidney Stones

The impact of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet on kidney stone formation is unknown. We prospectively examined the relation between a DASH-style diet and incident kidney stones in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (n = 45,821 men; 18 yr of follow-up), Nurses' Health Study I (n = 94,108 older women; 18 yr of follow-up), and Nurses' Health Study II (n = 101,837 younger women; 14 yr of follow-up). We constructed a DASH score based on eight components: high intake of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains and low intake of sodium, sweetened beverages, and red and processed meats. We used Cox hazards regression to adjust for factors that included age, BMI, and fluid intake. Over a combined 50 yr of follow-up, we documented 5645 incident kidney stones. Participants with higher DASH scores had higher intakes of calcium, potassium, magnesium, oxalate, and vitamin C and had lower intakes of sodium. For participants in the highest compared with the lowest quintile of DASH score, the multivariate relative risks for kidney stones were 0.55 (95% CI, 0.46 to 0.65) for men, 0.58 (95% CI, 0.49 to 0.68) for older women, and 0.60 (95% CI, 0.52 to 0.70) for younger women. Higher DASH scores were associated with reduced risk even in participants with lower calcium intake. Exclusion of participants with hypertension did not change the results. In conclusion, consumption of a DASH-style diet is associated with a marked decrease in kidney stone risk.

Gliondrach

10-09-2009, 04:46 AM

Superfood soy linked to reduction in smoker's lung damage risk

People who eat lots of soy products have better lung function and are less likely to develop the smoking-associated lung disease COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). A study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Respiratory Research has shown that consumption of a wide variety of soy products can be associated with a reduction in the risk of COPD and other respiratory symptoms.

Dr. Fumi Hirayama and Professor Andy Lee from Curtin University of Technology, Australia, worked with a team of respiratory physicians to poll 300 patients with COPD from six Japanese hospitals and 340 age-matched control subjects from the same areas as the patients about their soy intake. Dr. Hirayama said, "Soy consumption was found to be positively correlated with lung function and inversely associated with the risk of COPD. It has been suggested that flavonoids from soy foods act as an anti-inflammatory agent in the lung, and can protect against tobacco carcinogens for smokers. However, further research is needed to understand the underlying biological mechanism".

Soy is a constituent of many Japanese foods, including tofu (soybean curd), natto (fermented soybeans), miso soup (fermented soybean paste), bean sprouts and soy milk. It has been claimed that soy foods reduce cholesterol and can alleviate menopause symptoms. This is the first study to demonstrate the association between consumption of the superfood and a reduction in the risk of developing COPD.

COPD is characterized by progressive decline in lung function, and encompasses chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Long-term cigarette smoking causes almost 90% of COPD. This research only shows an association between soy intake and a reduced risk of developing the condition; the best preventive measure is still to abstain from tobacco entirely.

From:
Soy consumption and risk of COPD and respiratory symptoms: a case-control study in Japan.

BioMed Central (2009, June 28). Superfood Soy Linked To Reduction In Smoker's Lung Damage Risk

eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/bc-ssl062409.php

Fauxmage

10-09-2009, 10:39 AM

I never used to eat soy regularly, as there are so many other things to eat too. But several months ago I read online that soy can help dissolve gallstones. I have been drinking 8 ounces of soymilk every day since I read that, and have not had anywhere near the number of gall bladder attacks I used to, and the few I have had have been incredibly mild.

Soy seems to be a wonder food for many different human ailments. :)

Gliondrach

10-09-2009, 11:38 AM

Good to know it's helped you. I drink just under a pint a day in my tea. Not a pint of milk in each cup - a total of a pint a day.

Gliondrach

10-20-2009, 10:47 AM

Longer life linked to specific foods in Mediterranean diet

Public release date: 23-Jun-2009

Research: Anatomy of the health effects of the Mediterranean diet, the Greek EPIC prospective cohort study, BMJ online

Some food groups in the Mediterranean diet are more important than others in promoting health and longer life according to new research published on bmj.com today.

Eating more vegetables, fruits, nuts, pulses and olive oil, and drinking moderate amounts of alcohol, while not consuming a lot of meat or excessive amounts of alcohol is linked to people living longer.

However, the study also claims, that following a Mediterranean diet high in fish, seafood and cereals and low in dairy products were not indicators of longevity.

While several studies have concluded that the Mediterranean diet improves chances of living longer, this is the first to investigate the importance of individual components of the diet.

Professor Dimitrios Trichopoulos at the Harvard School of Public Health explains that they have surveyed over 23,000 men and women who were participants in the Greek segment of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).

Participants were given dietary and lifestyle questionnaires when they enrolled onto the study and they were subsequently followed up for around 8.5 years with interviews. Their diets were rated from 0 to 10 based on the level of conformity to a traditional Mediterranean diet.

As part of the interview process, participants were also asked about their smoking status, levels of physical activity and whether they had ever been diagnosed with cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

The authors maintain that when high intake of vegetables, low intake of meat or moderate alcohol intake were excluded from the rating system, the benefits of following a Mediterranean diet were substantially reduced. They also note that there are clear benefits in combining several of the key components, for example high consumption of vegetables and olive oil.

Professor Trichopoulou, lead author of the study, concludes that the main reasons why the Mediterranean diet can lead to living longer are moderate consumption of ethanol (mostly in the form of wine during meals, as traditionally done in the Mediterranean countries), low consumption of meat and meat products, and high consumption of vegetables, fruits and nuts, olive oil and legumes.

eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/bmj-lll062309.php

Gliondrach

11-13-2009, 05:21 AM

New evidence that dark chocolate helps ease emotional stress

11 November, 2009

The “chocolate cure” for emotional stress is getting new support from a clinical trial published online in ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research: Gut Microbiota, and Stress-Related Metabolism in Free-Living Subjects. It found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed. Everyone’s favorite treat also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances.

Sunil Kochhar and colleagues note growing scientific evidence that antioxidants and other beneficial substances in dark chocolate may reduce risk factors for heart disease and other physical conditions. Studies also suggest that chocolate may ease emotional stress. Until now, however, there was little evidence from research in humans on exactly how chocolate might have those stress-busting effects.

In the study, scientists identified reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed and ate dark chocolate for two weeks. “The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams [1.4 ounces] during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers,” the scientists say.

Journal of Proteome Research Publication Date (Web): October 7, 2009
Metabolic Effects of Dark Chocolate Consumption on Energy, Gut Microbiota, and Stress-Related Metabolism in Free-Living Subjects

Material supplied by the American Chemical Society.

pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/pr900607v?cookieSet=1

Vinnie

11-16-2009, 03:02 AM

The Aztecs used it as a medicine.

Fauxmage

11-16-2009, 08:02 PM

The Aztecs used it as a medicine.
And as currency.

gabbles

11-17-2009, 06:37 AM

Did the Aztecs use chocolate money to pay for the chocolate medicine? :beanie:

Bowwowmeow

11-18-2009, 10:04 PM

I think it is safe to say that my gallbladder troubles are well on the run. I have a twinge every now and then, but haven't had an attack in a long time now. I am even eating some foods that used to trigger them, and I am not experiencing any more pain. :)

Gliondrach

11-19-2009, 03:37 AM

:yea: :cheer:

Gliondrach

11-28-2009, 04:46 PM

Arthritis Research & Therapy. 2008; 10(2): R34.

Gluten-free vegan diet induces decreased LDL and oxidized LDL levels and raised atheroprotective natural antibodies against phosphorylcholine in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized study

Introduction
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of vegan diet in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on blood lipids oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) and natural atheroprotective antibodies against phosphorylcholine (anti-PCs).

Methods
Sixty-six patients with active RA were randomly assigned to either a vegan diet free of gluten (38 patients) or a well-balanced non-vegan diet (28 patients) for 1 year. Thirty patients in the vegan group completed more than 3 months on the diet regimen. Blood lipids were analyzed by routine methods, and oxLDL and anti-PCs were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Data and serum samples were obtained at baseline and after 3 and 12 months.

Results
Mean ages were 50.0 years for the vegan group and 50.8 years for controls. Gluten-free vegan diet induced lower body mass index (BMI) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and higher anti-PC IgM than control diet (p < 0.005). In the vegan group, BMI, LDL, and cholesterol decreased after both 3 and 12 months (p < 0.01) and oxLDL after 3 months (p = 0.021) and trendwise after 12 months (p = 0.090). Triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein did not change. IgA anti-PC levels increased after 3 months (p = 0.027) and IgM anti-PC levels increased trendwise after 12 months (p = 0.057). There was no difference in IgG anti-PC levels. In the control diet group, IgM anti-PC levels decreased both after 3 and 12 months (p < 0.01). When separating vegan patients into clinical responders and non-responders at 12 months, the effects on oxLDL and anti-PC IgA were seen only in responders (p < 0.05).

Conclusion
A gluten-free vegan diet in RA induces changes that are potentially atheroprotective and anti-inflammatory, including decreased LDL and oxLDL levels and raised anti-PC IgM and IgA levels.

YOU CAN READ THE FULL STUDY IF YOU GO TO PUBMED AND TYPE IN 18348715 IN THE SEARCH BOX. THEN CLICK ON 'FREE FULL TEXT ARTICLE' AT THE TOP RIGHT CORNER.

Gliondrach

12-08-2009, 08:03 AM

Only done with cells in a dish, and with much more than would be found in the diet. But frequent meals with them might be protective.

Spices halt growth of breast stem cells, University of Michingan study finds

Curcumin, piperine could play role in preventing breast cancer

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A new study finds that compounds derived from the spices turmeric and pepper could help prevent breast cancer by limiting the growth of stem cells, the small number of cells that fuel a tumor’s growth.

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that when the dietary compounds curcumin, which is derived from the Indian spice turmeric, and piperine, derived from black peppers, were applied to breast cells in culture, they decreased the number of stem cells while having no effect on normal differentiated cells.

“If we can limit the number of stem cells, we can limit the number of cells with potential to form tumors,” says lead author Madhuri Kakarala, M.D., Ph.D., R.D., clinical lecturer in internal medicine at the U-M Medical School and a research investigator at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.

Cancer stem cells are the small number of cells within a tumor that fuel the tumor’s growth. Current chemotherapies do not work against these cells, which is why cancer recurs and spreads. Researchers believe that eliminating the cancer stem cells is key to controlling cancer. In addition, decreasing the number of normal stem cells – unspecialized cells that can give rise to any type of cell in that organ – can decrease the risk of cancer.

In this study, a solution of curcumin and piperine was applied to the cell cultures at the equivalent of about 20 times the potency of what could be consumed through diet. The compounds are available at this potency in a capsule form that could be taken by mouth. (Note: This work has not been tested in patients, and patients are not encouraged to add curcumin or piperine supplements to their diet at this time.)

The researchers applied a series of tests to the cells, looking at markers for breast stem cells and the effects of curcumin and piperine, both alone and combined, on the stem cell levels. They found that piperine enhanced the effects of curcumin, and that the compounds interrupted the self-renewal process that is the hallmark of cancer-initiating stem cells. At the same time, the compounds had no affect on cell differentiation, which is the normal process of cell development.

“This shows that these compounds are not toxic to normal breast tissue,” Kakarala says. “Women at high risk of breast cancer right now can choose to take the drugs tamoxifen or raloxifene for prevention, but most women won’t take these drugs because there is too much toxicity. The concept that dietary compounds can help is attractive, and curcumin and piperine appear to have very low toxicity.”

Curcumin and piperine have been explored by other researchers as a potential cancer treatment. But this paper, published online in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, is the first to suggest these dietary compounds could prevent cancer by targeting stem cells.

In addition, tamoxifen or raloxifene are designed to affect estrogen, which is a factor in most, but not all breast cancers. In fact, the aggressive tumors that tend to occur more often in women with a family history or genetic susceptibility are typically not affected by estrogen. Because curcumin and piperine limit the self renewal of stem cells, they would impact cancers that are not estrogen sensitive as well as those that are.

Researchers are planning an initial Phase I clinical trial to determine what dose of curcumin or piperine can be tolerated in people. The trial is not expected to begin accruing participants until spring.

Breast cancer statistics: 194,280 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and 40,610 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society

Additional authors: Dean Brenner, Hasan Korkaya, Connie Cheng, Karim Tazi, Christophe Ginestier, Suling Liu, Gabriel Dontu and Max Wicha, all from U-M

Funding: National Institutes of Health; curcumin and piperine were donated by Sabinsa Co.

Reference: Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, DOI: 10.1007/s10549-009-0612-x

med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=1401

ChenLi

12-08-2009, 11:37 AM

What's good for colds and sore throats?

Gliondrach

12-08-2009, 04:29 PM

Elderberry extract, although it's mainly used for flu. And echinacea can help the immune system.

Studies have shown that Eleutherococcus Senticosus, formerly known as Siberian Ginseng can improve the immune system.

Yun Zhi (Coriolus versicolor), a type of mushroom, and Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza) capsules were shown to enhance the immune system at a cellular level.

I have the scientific references somewhere if you want me to dig them out.

ChenLi

12-08-2009, 06:33 PM

Hmm, is elderberry extract available in tablet form? I might try that.

Gliondrach

12-09-2009, 03:25 AM

I don't know if they come in tablet form. The one that is usually used in clinical trials is sambucol but this has honey in it. Solgar has an elderberry extract suitable for vegans. It's called Elderberry Berry Extract Vegicaps.

ChenLi

12-09-2009, 06:50 AM

Well I'll have a look about.

Gliondrach

12-09-2009, 08:03 AM

Lots of drinks are good for colds. And sniffing steam from a bowl of water. The heat from the steam can kill the germs in the nose and back of the throat. Make sure it's not too hot. The old remedies are the best. Except when they aren't.

ChenLi

12-09-2009, 12:56 PM

Well couldn't find a suitable priced elderberry tablet pack so I've just gone with 'zubes' which my nan recommended...and they seem to be easing my throat a bit.

Gliondrach

12-09-2009, 03:32 PM

I hope you feel much better tomorrow.

Gliondrach

12-09-2009, 03:47 PM

If you develop a cough, you could try chocolate. According to a study published in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, theombromine suppresses coughs. Theobromine is found in chocolate. The study participants were given a placebo, codeine or 1000mg of theobromine - which is more than you'll get in a typical serving of chocolate, but the odd cup of cocoa won't do you any harm and might alleviate a cough. A 1.5 ounce (about 42 gm) piece of dark chocolate can contain about 190 mg of theobromine. Their cocoa - 1 tablespoon (5gm) contains 108 mg. This is based on Hershey's info.

Gliondrach

12-14-2009, 09:18 AM

This study found that women who had more soya than the women who had the least, had a much lower risk of hip fractures. No protection from soya and hip fractures was found in men. But both sexes had more risk if they smoked. And less risk if they had a high body mass index - presumably either because this, er, high extra mass would cushion them in falls :D or the effort of carrying it strengthened their bones like exercise does.

American Journal of Epidemiology. 2009 Oct 1;170(7):901-9.

Gender-specific associations between soy and risk of hip fracture in the Singapore Chinese Health Study.

Koh WP, Wu AH, Wang R, Ang LW, Heng D, Yuan JM, Yu MC.

Although there is some epidemiologic evidence that soy may reduce risk of osteoporotic fracture in women, it is not known whether this risk reduction also occurs for men. The authors examined gender-specific associations between soy intake and hip fracture risk in the Singapore Chinese Health Study, a prospective cohort of 63,257 Chinese living in Singapore. At recruitment between 1993 and 1998, each subject was administered a food frequency questionnaire and questions on medical history and lifestyle factors. As of December 31, 2006, 276 incident cases of hip fracture in men and 692 cases in women were identified via linkage with hospital discharge databases. For both genders, hip fracture risk was positively associated with cigarette smoking and was inversely associated with body mass index. There was a statistically significant association of tofu equivalents, soy protein, and isoflavones with hip fracture risk among women but not among men. Compared with women in the lowest quartile of intakes for tofu equivalents (<49.4 g/day), soy protein (<2.7 g/day), and isoflavones (<5.8 mg/1,000 kcal/day), those in the second-fourth quartiles exhibited 21%-36% reductions in risk (all P < 0.036). Risk levels were comparable across the second, third, and fourth quartiles of soy intake categories
PMID: 19720865

Gliondrach

12-24-2009, 03:04 AM

Every Winter the skin on my heels gets hard and cracks. Sometimes they bleed. I started rubbing in jobjoba oil a couple of weeks ago and my heels have no cracks. The skin isn't so hard. Although I have a couple of slight chilblaines on a my toes. I had them last Winter for the first time. I think it was then that I was wearing sandals in the house. So I've gone back to wearing canvas beach shoes until the warmer weather comes back. It is very cold in here and my feet are like blocks of ice. The chilblaines have reduced a lot in the two days I've been wearing shoes.

The skin on my fingers usually cracks in the cold but I have been putting jobjoba oil on them. I only have cracks on two fingers which developed before I started with the oil.

When I said that I have cracks on two fingers which developed before I started with the oil, I mean that the cracks developed before starting to use the oil. I don't mean the fingers developed before I started to use the oil. Although, that would be a true statement because they did develop before I started to use the oil but did so many years ago before I was even born.

I like to explain things so that people aren't confused.

Gliondrach

01-02-2010, 05:56 PM

Move your eyes for more creativity and better use of your memory.

You know that game where you are asked to find unusual uses for some object - such as a paper clip or a piece of paper? A study found that people who were more ambidextrous were better at the game than people who strongly favoured one of their hands. It is known that people who ambidextrous have a better communication between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. After the first test, half the people were instructed to move their eyes from side to side for 30 seconds, and the other half were told to stare straight ahead for 30 seconds. The second time they tested them, the people who weren't ambidextrous and had moved their eyes were more original in their creativity. The ambidextrous people who had moved their eyes didn't increase their creativity. Probably because they were already have better communications between the brain hemispheres and are therefore more creative. The effects only lasted a few minutes. And they might not be useful for other activities.
Brain and Cognition. 2009 Dec;71(3):204-14.
Influence of handedness and bilateral eye movements on creativity.

Another study found that people who are strongly right-handed can increase their word recall in a memory test if they move their eyes from side to side for 30 seconds after learning the words and before trying to recall them. People who are not strongly right-handed ( who are ambidextrous or left-handed) showed no difference in recall but did worse in terms of false recall - recalling words that weren't in the test.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 2008, 15 (3), 515-520.
Eye movements enhance memory for individuals who are strongly right-handed and harm it for individuals who are not.

It is known that people who learnt to play musical instruments as children have part of their corpus callosum thicker than normal. The corpus callosum is the connective tissue between the left and right parts of the brain. I wonder if doing the eye exercise a few times every day could have lasting effects - by permanently increasing the communication between the two sides of the brain? The London taxi drivers who do the Knowledge increase the size or density of part of their brains. So do people who practise juggling.

I used to be very strongly right-handed but many years ago I decided to do more things with my left. I now instinctively hold a teacup in my left hand, turn taps on and off with my left and wring out cloths with my left. I also clean my teeth with both hands. Actually, I use a brush but I hold it in my right hand to clean the teeth on the right and my left hand to clean the teeth on the left. I usually hold it in my right to clean the front teeth. But, even before I started doing those things, I was a bit mixed up. I have always held a rifle to my left shoulder and, when I use a rake or spade, I hold it the left-handed way. I was also made aware of my strange way of digging with a spade. Someone said that I hold it left-handed but use my right foot to push it into the ground. And when I use a telescope, I put it to my left eye. Always have.

Bowwowmeow

01-03-2010, 12:59 AM

I am ambidextrous. I learned to use my right hand to write with with no trouble as a child, but oddly enough, I discovered while doing lab work that I could write almost as well with my left, without ever having practiced. It was just easier, on account of the way the equipment was set up, for me to do the work with my right hand and record the data with my left. I can also use tools equally well with both hands, which is nice, because I don't need to stop doing a tiring job when one hand and arm get worn out, and my left hand is definitely dominant when I drive.

I did learn to play the flute as a child. I should try sketching with my left hand sometime. I haven't written with my left hand in a while, but then, I don't write much by hand any more anyway. I did it the last time I visited my nieces though, and it is actually more legible than my right-handed writing, probably because I do it a little more slowly.

I don't think I will try those eye exercises though! I probably get enough of that sort of eye movement just from reading. :reading:

Gliondrach

01-03-2010, 05:28 AM

The eye movements in one of the studies required the people to follow a dot on a computer screen. It moved at the same speed - once every half a second. And required them to move their eyes about 72 degrees, which is quite a wide distance if they are about 2 feet from the screen. When you are reading, you move your eyes in little jumps from left to right and then quickly move them back to the left to start a new line.

I remember reading something years ago about training both sides of the brain to work more closely together. One exercise was to imagine a ball of light moving about inside your head, going from one side to the other. I think it was in the same book that they said you should draw things with your left hand to give the right side of the brain some creative work to do.

A change in brain structure were seen in adults who practised juggling for 3 months. They even found changes after just 7 days. The changes were in the grey matter. The changes don't last if the people give up the practice.
PLoS (Public Library of Science) One. 2008 Jul 23;3(7):e2669.
Changes in gray matter induced by learning--revisited.

Changes were seen in more elderly people when they practised juggling. Three months after they stopped practising, their brains had returned to how they were before.
Journal of Neuroscience. 2008 Jul 9;28(28):7031-5.
Training-induced brain structure changes in the elderly.

Changes in the brain cortex were seen in girls aged between 12 and 15 when they played a computer game that challenged their abilities at rapid visual-spatial puzzle solving.
BioMed Central Research Notes. 2009 Sep 1;2:174.
MRI assessment of cortical thickness and functional activity changes in adolescent girls following three months of practice on a visual-spatial task.

Use it or lose it! Use it and grow it! We should exercise everything that can be exercised. That is part of my secret. :rock:

Gliondrach

03-23-2010, 12:31 PM

Anti-migraine spread.

From the Radio Times page about Grow Your Own Drugs.

3 tsp fresh feverfew leaves (approx 20 leaves)
2 tsp fresh tarragon
2 tsp flat leaf parsley
1 heaped tsp lemon zest
2 tsp powdered ginger
4 oz margarine (although he says butter - perhaps margarine will be a bit soft)
salt and pepper to taste

1. On a wooden board, finely chop the feverfew leaves, tarragon and parsley. Add the lemon zest and ginger. Mix in the margarine and salt and pepper to taste. Work until the herbs are evenly distributed throughout the margarine.

2. Plave the herb margarine on greaseproof paper and form into a sausage shape. Mark lightly into 7 equal portions (just over half an ounce each), enough for a week's supply. Roll up the paper and seal at both ends.

Eat one portion a day on bread or toast.

Will keep in the fridge for a week or the freezer for up to six months.

Don't use if pregnant, breastfeeding or under 18, or if you have a stomach or mouth ulcer. If on medication, check with your medic. Stop using if you feel nauseous. As with other painkillers, you might have 'rebound' symptoms, such as headache if you stop using it after long-term use. If so, consult your medic.

----------

Some people just eat feverfew leaves in a sandwich. Eating the leaves by themselves can cause mouth ulcers.

Gliondrach

03-23-2010, 12:37 PM

Damn! I've just seen the recipe and others on the website.

This week's recipes

Anti-Dandruff Hair Oil
Herb Butter to Help Prevent Migraine
Wormwood & Sage Moth Repellent Sachets
Angelica & Mint Cocktail for Indigestion

ht tp://ww w.bbc.co.uk/tv/features/growyourowndrugs/s2_episode1.shtml

Gliondrach

06-08-2010, 10:21 AM

A study showed that aerobic exercise can make the brain grow. Well, it can make part of the brain grow. This was found in both healthy men and men with schizophrenia.

Archives of General Psychiatry. 2010 Feb;67(2):133-43.

Hippocampal plasticity in response to exercise in schizophrenia.

Pajonk FG, Wobrock T, Gruber O, Scherk H, Berner D, Kaizl I, Kierer A, Müller S, Oest M, Meyer T, Backens M, Schneider-Axmann T, Thornton AE, Honer WG, Falkai P.

Department of Psychiatry, The Saarland University Hospital, Homburg, Germany. pajon(at)klinik-dr-fontheim.de

Abstract
CONTEXT: Hippocampal volume is lower than expected in patients with schizophrenia; however, whether this represents a fixed deficit is uncertain. Exercise is a stimulus to hippocampal plasticity. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether hippocampal volume would increase with exercise in humans and whether this effect would be related to improved aerobic fitness. DESIGN: Randomized controlled study. SETTING: Patients attending a day hospital program or an outpatient clinic. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Male patients with chronic schizophrenia and matched healthy subjects. INTERVENTIONS: Aerobic exercise training (cycling) and playing table football (control group) for a period of 3 months. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Magnetic resonance imaging of the hippocampus. Secondary outcome measures were magnetic resonance spectroscopy, neuropsychological (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Corsi block-tapping test), and clinical (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) features. RESULTS: Following exercise training, relative hippocampal volume increased significantly in patients (12%) and healthy subjects (16%), with no change in the nonexercise group of patients (-1%). Changes in hippocampal volume in the exercise group were correlated with improvements in aerobic fitness measured by change in maximum oxygen consumption (r = 0.71; P = .003). In the schizophrenia exercise group (but not the controls), change in hippocampal volume was associated with a 35% increase in the N-acetylaspartate to creatine ratio in the hippocampus. Finally, improvement in test scores for short-term memory in the combined exercise and nonexercise schizophrenia group was correlated with change in hippocampal volume (r = 0.51; P < .05). CONCLUSION: These results indicate that in both healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia hippocampal volume is plastic in response to aerobic exercise.

PMID: 20124113

And various other studies have found that exercise can help to improve brain function, including in those who are at risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease.

A study found that the women participants, aged 55-85, who had amnestic mild cognitive impairment, improved after 6 months of fairly high intensity aerobic exercise 4 days a week for 45-60 minutes a session. Improvements in various cognitive functions including story recall, verbal fluency, list learning and task switching. The men taking part only showed improvement in on of the tests.

Archives of Neurology. 2010 Jan;67(1):71-9.

Effects of aerobic exercise on mild cognitive impairment: a controlled trial.

PMID: 20065132

Bowwowmeow

06-09-2010, 06:00 PM

If the schizophrenic brain gets bigger does the schizophrenia get worse?

Gliondrach

06-10-2010, 04:34 AM

It's thought it will get better. Some of the participants in that study had improved lives.

Although I can’t prove it right now, I’m positive that exercise is doing good in the treatment of schizophrenia,” said Dr. Pajonk. “Many of the schizophrenia patients from the sporting groups were able to go on and develop a life of their own, moving to a new apartment, taking up a job again, etc. It’s a bit early and we just had a small sample size, but with this small number of patients, we were really surprised and amazed at what has happened to them.
ht-tp://mindsparke.com/brain-training-blog/tags/neurogenesis/

A confirmatory study which will focus on neurobiological markers which mediate hippocampal growth and looking at methods which might improve cognitive functioning and functional outcome is forthcoming.
Clinical Updates in Neuropsychiatry April 2010 page 214.
ht-tp://mbldownloads.com/0410CNS_News.pdf

Gliondrach

07-15-2010, 04:14 PM

A new series started today on BBC2. The Victorian Pharmacy. They stocked a shop in the Blists Hill Victorian Town open air museum with Victorian medicines as they would have been in 1837. One of the remedies was called an everlasting pill. It was a piece of antimony. They would swallow it and some of it would be absorbed. It caused diarrhoea and vomitting but they thought that was good for them. The pill then came out - with the diarrhoea. They would wash it and put it on the shelf for the next member of the family who needed it. It could be passed on down the generations.

Someone was talking about hydrotherapy. He said that he took part in a study in the 1990s which tested the effects of cold baths. He said his white blood cell count went up after a cold bath. White blood cells are part of the immune system. I have a cold bath every day. Probably one of the secrets of my almost supernatural good health. I had a look for information about cold baths and found this:

Other benefits
A study conducted at The Thrombosis Research Institute at London's Brompton Hospital found that exposure to cold bath had some dramatic benefits. These include :-

A boost to sex hormone production which helps regulate both potency in men and fertility in women.

Renewed energy and sufferers from chronic fatigue syndrome were found to improve dramatically.

Reduces cases of heart attack and stroke because it improved blood circulation.

Increase level of white blood cells.

Some volunteers in the study found that their nails became harder and their hair growth improved.

ht---tp://ww---w.oohoi.com/physical_therapy/water_therapy/effectiveness.htm

Gliondrach

08-05-2010, 09:29 AM

Arthritis patients 'may benefit from weight training'

Lifting weights can help to boost your metabolism and build bone strength – and new research suggests that it may help to treat rheumatoid arthritis, too.

A study of 28 patients at Bangor and Gwynedd Hospital, which was funded by Arthritis Research UK, found that those who practised weight training saw improvements in physical function, such as walking.

Experts now believe that this type of exercise could play an important role alongside drug treatment, although it would not be appropriate for all patients.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease affecting the joints, but it also seriously reduces muscle mass and strength, even in patients whose disease is well managed.

Sufferers are often given mild home exercises to do to stop their joints stiffening and becoming painful.

The new study showed that physical function could be improved by 20 - 30 per cent due to weight training – and strength increased by nearly 120 per cent.

Study leader Dr Andrew Lemmey said the patients, who were mainly women in their 50s who had had the disease for up to a decade, responded well to the training.

A spokesman for Arthritis Research UK said: "Weight training, especially at this level, is not for everyone with rheumatoid arthritis, but for those who are very well-motivated and physically able, we have proved that it can dramatically improve muscle strength and tone."

ht--tp://ww--w.thatsfit.co.uk/2010/08/05/arthritis-patients-may-benefit-from-weight-training/?icid=main|uk-ws-bb|dl3|link4|http%3A%2F%2F

gabbles

08-23-2010, 09:46 AM

Curry

Ten (nine) good reasons to chow down on the nation’s favourite food

Nutritionist and curry lover Rachael Anne Hill explains how the much maligned curry can actually be good for your health.…

Think of a healthy meal and a curry might be the last thing that springs to mind, but recent research shows that many of the ingredients used within a typical curry can do you the power of good.

1. Reduced risk of Alzheimer’s

Turmeric, one of the spicy ingredients of almost every curry from korma to vindaloo may be an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s. According to researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, a chemical found in the spice called curcumin can reduce the build up of knots in the brain that can cause Alzeihmer’s by as much as 50%. This may help to explain why Alzheimer's affects just 1% of people over the age of 65 living in some Indian villages. Turmeric has also been found to improve memory, aid digestion, reduce inflammation, fight infection and guard against heart attacks.

2. Fewer colds

Paprika, chilli and many other spices commonly found in curries can ward off colds by triggering the body's natural defences to produce extra mucus which traps viruses and soothes inflamed passages. Eating spicy dishes also clears the nostrils and gets rid of that 'bunged-up' feeling, enabling a speedier recovery for sufferers.

3. Better moods

(This was about meat and its B vitamins :mad:)

4. Less risk of cancer

Tomato based curries are a great source of lycopene. This extremely powerful antioxidant is far more prevalent in cooked tomatoes than raw ones. Research shows that eating cooked tomatoes three or more times a week can lower the risk of prostate, lung, stomach, pancreas, bowel and breast cancers.

5. Reduced risk of heart disease

Regular consumption of cooked tomatoes also prevents the formation of blood clots, lowering the risk of heart attacks and strokes by as much as 48%. Many spices, such as curry powder, hot paprika and thyme may also help to cut the risk of heart disease as they contain salicylic acid, a compound that scientists believe may work to stem inflammation in the blood vessels that could otherwise lead to hardening of the arteries.

6. Improved circulation and reduced pain

Ginger, an ingredient commonly used in curries, contains an antioxidant that reacts with free radicals that can cause tissue damage and joint inflammation and so helps to reduce the pain of arthritis. Chilli has also been shown to be a powerful painkiller.

7. Increased metabolic rate

Several clinical research studies have found that an ingredient known as capsaicin found in spices, particularly chilli, can raise the metabolic rate for as long as three hours after a curry.

8. Reduced blood pressure

Coriander, another common ingredient of both Indian and Thai curries, contains high levels of antioxidants that help to lower high blood pressure and prevent the formation of cancer causing free radicals.

9. Increased energy

Lack of energy can be caused by an iron deficiency. This is particularly common in women, with research suggesting that one in four has well below the recommended iron intake. (The article mentions the iron in curries containing meat :mad:) Baltis can be particularly high in iron as, during the cooking process, some of the iron from the pans they are cooked in transfers into the food. Other common ingredients of curries such as lentils and spinach are also good sources of iron.

10. A stronger immune system

No curry would be complete without a generous helping of garlic. Research shows that garlic contains allicin which is antibiotic, antifungal and may even be antiviral.

Despite all these wonderful health benefits many curries can contain extremely high fat levels. Here’s how to reduce the fat in your curry whether you’re eating in or out.

Eating in

Use a non-stick pan or fry ingredients in a small amount of water instead of oil.

If you do use oil, measure it with a tablespoon and gradually cut down to half – or even less!

Use tomatoes as bases for sauces instead of cream or coconut. If you do want a creamy tasting curry try using yoghurt instead. To prevent the yoghurt from curdling simply mix in a tablespoon of cornflour.

Add dahls (lentils) to as many dishes as you can. They are filling, rich in protein and fibre, and help keep your blood sugar and cholesterol low.

Increase your fibre intake and cut the fat by using boiled wholegrain rice instead of pilau rice or naan.

Boost your vitamin and mineral intake by using a wide variety of vegetables and fruits such as apple, pineapple and sultanas.

A curry always tastes better the next day so make a day in advance and then let it sit in the fridge.

Eating out

Cut calories by up to 50% by asking for your poppadoms to be grilled or microwaved instead of deep fat fried.

Ask for naan breads to be served without butter on top or have a chapatti instead as they are usually lower in fat. A naan can have double the calories and up to 16 times more fat than a chapatti.

Opt for dahl and vegetable dishes whenever possible as they tend to be lower in fat and higher in fibre.

Choose boiled rice instead of pilau rice which is fried.

Go for tandoori (dry, oven cooked) curries or ones with tomato based sauces instead of high fat cream or coconut varieties such as massalas, passandas or kormas.

Keep snack type foods such as bhajis and samosas to a minimum.

Avoid drinking alcohol before ordering. Even a small glass of wine or beer can lower inhibitions, increase appetite and result in over ordering and over eating.

uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/food-drink/10-good-reasons-to-chow-down-on-the-nations-favourite-food-blog-9-rachael-anne-hill.html

Vinnie

08-24-2010, 02:49 PM

Good to know cos I'm a curry nut.

Gliondrach

11-03-2010, 05:57 PM

Eating Whole Grains, Fewer Refined Grains, May Help Heart

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 27 (HealthDay News) -- People who regularly eat whole grains rather than refined grains pack on less of the type of fat linked to a higher risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.

In high amounts, visceral adipose tissue (VAT) -- the fat that surrounds the intra-abdominal organs -- is associated with the onset of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and insulin resistance, health risk factors collectively known as the "metabolic syndrome."

"VAT volume was approximately 10 percent lower in adults who reported eating three or more daily servings of whole grains and who limited their intake of refined grains to less than one serving per day," said study co-author Nicola McKeown, a scientist with Tufts University's nutritional epidemiology program at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging.

"For example, a slice of 100 percent whole-wheat bread or a half-cup of oatmeal constituted one serving of whole grains and a slice of white bread or a half-cup of white rice represented a serving of refined grains," she noted in a Tufts news release.

The findings, recently published online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, stem from an analysis of dietary surveys and body-fat scans conducted among more than 2,800 men and women between the ages of 32 and 83.

Even after accounting for additional lifestyle factors including smoking history, alcohol consumption, fruit and vegetable intake, percentage of calories comprised of fat, and physical activity routines, the authors found that consuming several servings a day of whole grains is associated with lower amounts of VAT.

However, those who consumed three servings a day of whole grains and several daily servings of refined grains did not appear to benefit from the whole grain-lower VAT connection.

"Whole grain consumption did not appear to improve VAT volume if refined grain intake exceeded four or more servings per day," noted McKeown.

"This result implies that it is important to make substitutions in the diet, rather than simply adding whole grain foods," she advised. "For example, choosing to cook with brown rice instead of white, or making a sandwich with whole-grain bread instead of white bread."

SOURCE: Tufts University, news release, Oct. 20, 2010

ht--tp://ww--w.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/alphanews_h.html

Blueshark

11-20-2010, 11:39 AM

I bought some medicine from a Chinese shop today for a sore throat.

I just swallowed one now.

Then I read the packet - they lozengers. I hope I don't puke or die or something.:cheeky:

Gliondrach

12-13-2010, 04:01 PM

How going for a swim (or drinking herbal tea) could ruin your smile.

Always brush and floss twice a day? Modern life can still play unexpected havoc with your teeth

By Lucy Elkins

30th November 2010

So you brush your teeth after every meal, choose herbal tea over fizzy drinks, and snack on fruit not sweets.

It might sound like the ideal formula for perfect teeth, but, actually, it’s not. In fact, any one of those habits could increase your risk of dental erosion or decay.

Here, we reveal some of the other surprising things that could ruin your smile:
Enough to wipe the smile off your face: Beware the drinks, snacks and activities that could damage your teeth

HERBAL TEA
Fruit-flavoured tea can be three times more damaging than orange juice, a study *carried out by the University of Bristol Dental School found. Many fruit teas are acidic and eat away at tooth enamel, with lemon and blackcurrant among the most damaging.

REDUCE THE RISK: Stick to black or green tea. Compounds in black tea can attack the bacteria that form plaque and prevent the plaque from sticking to teeth, U.S. researchers found.
More recently, a study at the University of Tohoku in Japan found that drinking one or more cups of green tea a day reduces the risk of cavities. It is thought antioxidants, called catechins, in the tea stop bacteria in the mouth from producing acid.

HEALTHY SNACKS
Even if you’re snacking on healthy fruit, seeds and nuts, it’s eating little and often that can do your teeth harm.

‘A tooth can withstand five acid attacks a day,’ says Karen Coates. ‘Saliva takes about an hour to *neutralise the acid created by a food or drink. So if you have a can of fizzy drink and sip it all day long, then the acid in your mouth will be under *constant attack.’

REDUCE THE RISK: Stick to three meals a day and avoid snacking. If you must snack, eat it all at once, rather than picking at it, so that the saliva can quickly neutralise the acid generated in the mouth. After food, rinse your mouth out with water or chew sugar-free gum to encourage saliva, which neutralises the acid.

EYE DROPS
I sounds unlikely, but anti-inflammatory eye drops can contribute to tooth decay. They are one of a number of drugs — including antidepressants, ibuprofen, antihistamines and blood pressure medications — that cause dry mouth, which means they reduce the production of saliva.

Saliva acts as a barrier, protecting the teeth by neutralising acidic foods such as oranges, and the acid produced by bacteria as they break down foods.

Karen Coates, dental adviser to the British Dental Health Foundation, says: ‘If you are *having the odd painkiller here and there, then you will probably be fine. But if you take a daily medication, such as antihistamines throughout the summer, your production of saliva will be reduced and your teeth will be more vulnerable.’

REDUCE THE RISK: ‘There are gums, lozenges and gels available over the counter specifically for dry mouth that help encourage the production of saliva,’ says Karen. ‘You could also suck sugar-free sweets for the same effect.’

PREGNANCY
Many dismiss it as just an old wives’ tale, but motherhood really can ruin your teeth. About 50 per cent of *pregnant women will develop gingivitis — inflamed gums that bleed *during brushing.
Gingivitis is usually caused by food that gets trapped between the teeth and gums, producing bacteria that lead to inflammation.

The raised levels of oestrogen and progesterone circulating in a pregnant woman’s body causes increased blood flow to all parts of the body, including the gums, which can become puffy and inflamed so they bleed easily when brushed.

Gingivitis can, in time, lead to *periodontal disease, when a severe infection gets into the gums and bones. This can lead to tooth loss and premature birth, as the bacteria in the mouth release prostaglandins, chemicals that can induce labour.

REDUCE THE RISK: ‘If you’re pregnant, brush twice a day for two minutes each time, floss after meals and do not reduce your brushing just because you see blood,’ says Louise Childlow, of the British Dental Health Foundation.

SWIMMING
A study of 500 swimmers found 66 per cent of them had damaged teeth as a result of chlorine.
‘Chlorine affects the pH of the water and makes it acidic, so swallowing it can lead to tooth *erosion,’ says Louise Chidlow.

‘This can result in yellowing teeth – because the acid strips the enamel and starts to reveal darker-coloured dentine underneath. It is not a *common problem, but may be an issue for regular swimmers who spend a long time in the pool each day.’

REDUCE THE RISK: Try to keep your mouth closed while swimming. Don’t brush your teeth straight after your dip because at this time the surface of the teeth could be softened by the acidic chlorine and could be more easily brushed away.

TOOTH WHITENING
Investigations have found that some DIY home whitening kits don’t just lighten the tooth, but erode it.

The kits involve putting a bleach — hydrogen peroxide — into a tray that fits around the teeth like a gum shield. A study by the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry warned that in some home kits the mould did not fit correctly, so the bleaching agent could leak out and damage gums.
Others have been found to contain levels of hydrogen peroxide that exceed legal limits and also have acids that could dissolve the teeth.

REDUCE THE RISK: ‘If you want to whiten your teeth, get a dentist to do it, as they will use a made-to-measure tray around the teeth that will reduce the risk of leakage,’ says Dr Keith Cohen, a dentist specialising in restorative work.

‘If you want to use a home kit, then get one from a chemist — not from unknown sites on the internet.’

VIDEO GAMES
People who play a lot of computer or video games have twice as much tooth decay as those with more *athletic interests, according to a study from the University of Iowa.
The researchers said that when you are absorbed in a game or TV *programme, you’re more likely to binge on sugary snacks and lose focus of how much you are popping into your mouth.

REDUCE THE RISK: Fill your kitchen cupboards with savoury rather then sweet snacks, such as raw vegetables with hummus.

BITING OPEN PACKETS OF CRISPS
Can't open that packet of crisps or unscrew a plastic bottle lid? Don’t use your teeth, as many people do, as this can lead to bits of tooth chipping or breaking.

‘The edges of the teeth are, unfortunately, the thinnest bit, and when you use them as tools it is this part that takes the strain,’ says *Louise Chidlow.

REDUCE THE RISK: ‘I don’t use my teeth for anything other than eating,’ says Louise. Save your pearly whites and use bottle openers and scissors instead.

WHITE WINE
You probably thought red wine was worse for teeth, because it stains. Yet studies have shown that it’s white wine that’s more likely to cause your teeth to rot, because it is more acidic.

Other research has found that white wine can make other drinks stain the teeth more. One study found that immersing a tooth in white wine and then tea led to ‘significantly more’ staining than immersing a tooth in water, then tea.

‘White wine is definitely more *erosive than red,’ says Dr Paul Ashley, of the Eastman Dental Institute, University College Hospitals.

REDUCE THE RISK: Drink during a meal rather than sipping wine or *alcohol all through the evening, which effectively gives the teeth a constant bath of acid. Alternatively, you could eat a piece of cheese straight after drinking wine to help neutralise the acid, or swill with water.

BRUSHING AFTER EATING SWEETS
If you chomp on chocolate or sweets, don’t be tempted to undo the damage by brushing straight away.

After eating sugary foods, the environment in your mouth becomes acidic, which makes the tooth enamel soften slightly. If you then brush your teeth straight away, you will brush away some of the enamel, leading to tooth erosion and sensitivity.

REDUCE THE RISK: Wait at least half an hour after eating before you brush your teeth. Teeth should be cleaned twice a day — ideally before breakfast (though you can eat straight after brushing) to get rid of the bacteria that have grown overnight and which will flourish once you eat.
Don’t rinse your mouth after the evening clean, as the fluoride in the toothpaste will help protect teeth through the night, when saliva production drops, making them more liable to decay.

DIABETES
Unmanaged diabetes can lead to higher than normal levels of glucose in the fluids in the mouth, which can lead directly to decay. The condition can also affect the blood vessels and blood flow to the gums, which can weaken and leave them prone to infections, resulting in gum disease — and, ultimately, the loss of a tooth.

‘Many people with diabetes don’t realise the risks to their teeth,’ says Dr Keith Cohen. ‘If they did, it might prompt them to take better care generally, as no one wants to lose teeth.’

REDUCE THE RISK: Keep a close eye on your blood sugar levels.

EXCESSIVE BRUSHING
‘Some people think that giving their teeth a really good scrub four times a day will keep them really clean, but, in fact, they could be doing more harm than good because this can cause *erosion,’ says Dr Cohen.

Scrubbing back and forth can also wear away the tooth surface at the gum.

REDUCE THE RISK: Stick to using a soft or medium brush. Keep it at a 45-degree angle to your teeth, and use a gentle, circular motion.

SALAD DRESSING
‘Vinegar is so acidic that a *generous amount of highly vinegary dressing eaten once or twice a day every day could be capable of causing a lot of erosion,’ says Dr Keith Cohen.

REDUCE THE RISK: Avoid having vinaigrette-style dressing every day. Instead, have a less acidic version, such as mayonnaise or even just plain olive oil.

To minimise the effects of acidic dressings, you could use *fluoride mouthwash after eating to help strengthen the teeth against the acid attack.

SPORTS DRINKS
Designed to replace energy and salts lost through exercise, sport drinks are often packed with sugar and acids.

One study at the University of Birmingham found that sports drinks are 30 times more corrosive than water.

To compound the problem, most people will drink sports drinks when their mouths are dry and do not contain much saliva to neutralise acids.

REDUCE THE RISK: Drink water or swill with water straight after a sports drink and chew sugar-free gum to buffer the effects of acid with saliva.

ht--tp://ww--w.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1334266/How-going-swim-drinking-herbal-tea-ruin-smile.html#ixzz16lcXJSZK

Bowwowmeow

12-13-2010, 04:54 PM

Hmm, I've always used an infant's toothbrush, as they are softest. I did think it was the natural fluoride found in tea that helped protect them though.

Blueshark

12-19-2010, 03:31 AM

I am going to try using a Miswak. I need to find a new dental regime to try and help my gums (which have receeded) grow back.

Gliondrach

12-19-2010, 07:29 AM

Never heard the word before but I knew about twigs.

The miswak (miswaak, siwak, sewak) is a teeth cleaning twig made from a twig of the Salvadora persica tree, also known as the arak tree or the peelu tree and features in Islamic hygienical jurisprudence.

A 2003 scientific study comparing the use of miswak with ordinary toothbrushes concluded that the results clearly were in favor of the users who had been using the miswaak, provided they had been given proper instruction in how to brush using it.[1] The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended the use of the miswaak in 1986 and in 2000 an international consensus report on oral hygiene concluded that further research was needed to document the effect of the miswak.[2]

wikiwotsit.

Have you thought about oil pulling? It's supposed to be good for gum and teeth health. Information on this site if you do a search. Probably in this thread.

Blueshark

12-19-2010, 12:04 PM

I tried using the miswak today...its pretty good.. I am going to leave it in the kitchen and brush with it after every meal.

I keep the tip soaked in rose water..to keep it clean.

I will see how long this lasts!

Bowwowmeow

12-19-2010, 03:34 PM

Have you thought about oil pulling? It's supposed to be good for gum and teeth health. Information on this site if you do a search. Probably in this thread.
A certain ogre we know has taken up oil pulling, says it's working wonders.

Gliondrach

12-20-2010, 03:10 AM

Ogres need to look after their teeth.

Gliondrach

01-02-2011, 04:25 PM

Serum alpha-Carotene Concentrations and Risk of Death Among US Adults

The Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Follow-up Study

Chaoyang Li, MD, PhD; Earl S. Ford, MD, MPH; Guixiang Zhao, MD, PhD; Lina S. Balluz, MPH, ScD; Wayne H. Giles, MD, MS; Simin Liu, MD, ScD

Archives of Internal Medicine. Published online November 22, 2010. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2010.440

Background Much research has been conducted relating total carotenoids—and beta-carotene in particular—to risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Limited data are emerging to implicate the important role of alpha-carotene in the development of CVD or cancer.

Methods We assessed the direct relationship between alpha-carotene concentrations and risk of death among 15 318 US adults 20 years and older who participated in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Follow-up Study. We used Cox proportional hazard regression analyses to estimate the relative risk for death from all causes and selected causes associated with serum alpha-carotene concentrations.

Results Compared with participants with serum alpha-carotene concentrations of 0 to 1 µg/dL (to convert to micromoles per liter, multiply by 0.01863), those with higher serum levels had a lower risk of death from all causes (P < .001 for linear trend): the relative risk for death was 0.77 (95% confidence interval, 0.68-0.87) among those with alpha-carotene concentrations of 2 to 3 µg/dL, 0.73 (0.65-0.83) among those with concentrations of 4 to 5 µg/dL, 0.66 (0.55-0.79) among those with concentrations of 6 to 8 µg/dL, and 0.61 (0.51-0.73) among those with concentrations of 9 µg/dL or higher after adjustment for potential confounding variables. We also found significant associations between serum alpha-carotene concentrations and risk of death from CVD (P = .007), cancer (P = .02), and all other causes (P < .001). The association between serum alpha-carotene concentrations and risk of death from all causes was significant in most subgroups stratified by demographic characteristics, lifestyle habits, and health risk factors.

Conclusions Serum alpha-carotene concentrations were inversely associated with risk of death from all causes, CVD, cancer, and all other causes. These findings support increasing fruit and vegetable consumption as a means of preventing premature death.

ht--tp://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/archinternmed.2010.440

More about it here:
ht--tp://w--ww.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/208965.php

According to the above site:

The following vegetables are rich in alpha-carotene:
Yellow-orange vegetables
- Carrots
- Sweet potatoes
- Pumpkin
- Winter squash
Dark-green vegetables
- Broccoli
- Green beans
- Green peas
- Spinach
- Turnips greens
- Collards
- Leaf lettuce

:eat:

Gliondrach

01-16-2011, 04:03 PM

I'm not sure but I think the studies have been done using only isolated cells. But it still seems promising.

A Little Dab of Horseradish Could Help Resist Cancer

Published: Mar. 9, 2005 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Source: Mosbah Kushad, 217-244-5691, kushad at uiuc.edu

URBANA - A new study from the University of Illinois shows that horseradish has substantial quantities of glucosinolates, compounds that has been shown to increase human resistance to cancer.

"Glucosinolates increase the liver's ability to detoxify carcinogens and they may actually suppress the growth of existing cancerous tumors," said Mosbah Kushad, U of I associate professor of food-crop systems. "And our analysis of various horseradish varieties shows they are a rich source of these compounds."

Kushad has also been involved in studies of broccoli, Brussels sprouts and other cruciferous vegetables known to contain glucosinolates. His work shows that horseradish has relatively higher levels.

"Horseradish contains more than 10-fold higher glucosinolates than broccoli, so you don?t need much horseradish to benefit. In fact, a little dab on your steak will go a long way to providing the same health benefits as broccoli."

An effective dose of broccoli may be as little as 10 grams a day, so an effective dose of horseradish could be as little as 1 gram or less than a teaspoon.

Kushad has tested more than 27 accessions of horseradish and detected eight different glucosinolates in both the root and leaf tissue. He noted that the health benefit of horseradish is improved by processing.

"Horseradish also contains an enzyme that breaks down glucosinolates into the compounds that produce the anti-cancer benefits. So processing horseradish actually helps. It releases this enzyme and, when it comes into contact with the glucosinolates, they break down into the compounds that are nutritionally beneficial," he said.

There are four popular, commercial varieties grown in Illinois. Two have about 50 percent more glucosinolates than the other two.

The most widely accepted hypothesis for the physiological function of glucosinolates in horseradish plants is that they somehow help the plant defend itself against several pests. So breeding studies that accentuate glucosinolate levels could enhance pest resistance as well as create human health benefits.

Horseradish is an important crop in Illinois. Sixty percent of all horseradish produced in the United States is grown in Illinois. Most of the crop is crushed and mixed into relishes and sauces.

The University of Illinois maintains a germplasm collection totaling 130 horseradish accessions with geographic origins from Eastern Europe and North America.

This research was published in the October, 2004 Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry and was funded, in part, by the Illinois Horseradish Grower's Association.

ht--tp://w--ww.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news3066.html

Bowwowmeow

01-16-2011, 06:48 PM

I used to grow horseradish at my old house. Seems to me though that if people wouldn't eat carcinogenic food they wouldn't need to worry about finding stuff in plants that fights cancer.

Gliondrach

02-20-2011, 07:20 AM

A very wise person has just posted the following advice on another forum in answer to a question about the best way to maintain health. I thought it was so good that I'd post it here.

Practise some form of relaxation technique every day.

Do vigorous exercise 5 days a week, including strength training 2 or 3 times a week.

Laugh and smile frequently - force yourself to smile at odd moments during the day. If you do it properly (with a real Duchenne-style smile), you will activate the same neural pathways that are used when we spontaneously smile, with the same happy feelings resulting.

Keep learning and stretching your mind.

Get out in the countryside as often as you can.

Think beautiful thoughts and have love in your heart.

Adopt a good, well-balanced, vegan diet.

snaffler

03-07-2011, 02:23 AM

I am not sure how natural it is to tell the truth but it has no chemicals, I have always curred a sore throat in hours by garggling Ionic Silver ever 4 hours.

Bowwowmeow

03-08-2011, 09:04 PM

I've read about that. Seems it has applications in burn treatments too. I think I've read that it is called colloidal silver though. I wonder if they still drop silver nitrate in babies' eyes after they are born.

Gliondrach

04-17-2011, 05:18 PM

Keeping fit can keep us young. Here is 75-year-old Austrian gymnast Horst David. He's not a veggie of any sort.

cB8_j1pHgWs

Gliondrach

08-22-2011, 04:17 PM

I don't know how accurate these are. They are about treating Autism with raw vegan diets.

rKi7JPhLJMM

XdB7DRVl5og

Gliondrach

10-19-2011, 04:18 AM

The role of copper in cancer.

One possible method by which soya can fight cancer, although it was only done in isolated cells:

Molecular Nutrition & Food Research. 2011 Apr;55(4):553-9.

Soy isoflavone genistein induces cell death in breast cancer cells through mobilization of endogenous copper ions and generation of reactive oxygen species.

Ullah MF, Ahmad A, Zubair H, Khan HY, Wang Z, Sarkar FH, Hadi SM.
SourceDepartment of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, AMU, Aligarh, India.

Abstract
SCOPE: Worldwide geographical variation in cancer incidence indicates a correlation between dietary habits and cancer risk. Epidemiological studies have suggested that populations with high isoflavone intake through soy consumption have lower rates of breast, prostate, and colon cancer. Isoflavone genistein in soybean is considered a potent chemopreventive agent against cancer. Although several mechanisms have been proposed, a clear anticancer action mechanism of genistein is still not known.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Here, we show that the cytotoxic action of genistein against breast cancer cells involves mobilization of endogenous copper. Further, whereas the copper specific chelator neocuproine is able to inhibit the apoptotic potential of genistein, the molecules which specifically bind iron (desferroxamine mesylate) and zinc (histidine) are relatively ineffective in causing such inhibition. Also, genistein-induced apoptosis in these cells is inhibited by scavengers of reactive oxygen species (ROS) implicating ROS as effector elements leading to cell death.

CONCLUSIONS: As copper levels are known to be considerably elevated in almost all types of cancers, in this proof-of-concept study we show that genistein is able to target endogenous copper leading to prooxidant signaling and consequent cell death. We believe that such a mechanism explains the anticancer effect of genistein as also its preferential cytotoxicity towards cancer cells.

PMID: 21462322

Tumours need copper to form new blood vessels. If they are deprived of copper, it's likely they'll be unable to grow.

There have been some medical trials where an ammonium salt compound (tetrathiomolybdate) was used to lower copper levels in cancer patients. In one, with 18 subjects who between them had 11 types of advanced cancer (metastatic cancer of the breast, kidney, colon, lung, skin, pancreas, prostate, throat, cartilage, blood vessels or endothelium), about a third of the patients' tumours stopped growing for more than a year after their copper levels were kept at about 20% of normal for 90 days. The other patients couldn't achieve the low levels of copper or couldn't stay that low because of disease progression.

Copper reduction didn't get rid of the tumours, it just stopped them growing.

Clinical Cancer Researc. 2000 Jan;6(1):1-10.
Treatment of metastatic cancer with tetrathiomolybdate, an anticopper, antiangiogenic agent: Phase I study.
PMID: 10656425

European Journal of Gynaecological Oncology. 2011;32(3):307-8.

Copper and zinc concentrations in Nigerian women with breast cancer.

Ajayi GO.
SourceDepartment of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Prenatal Diagnosis and Therapy Centre, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria. prenataldiagnosiscentreAThotmail.com

Abstract
Trace elements are accepted to be involved directly or indirectly in the process of cancer formation. In this study, serum selenium, copper and zinc were measured in three groups of patients using atomic absorption spectrometer. A total of 29 Nigerian women were included: group I consisted of nine age-matched healthy controls without breast problems; group 2 included nine women with benign breast disease; and group 3 was comprised of women with breast cancer. The serum concentration of copper (Cu) was significantly higher in patients with cancer when compared to the control group (1.43 +/- 0.31 microg/ml vs 0.91 +/- 0.18 microg/ul/0.94 +/- 0.10 microg/ml). The zinc (Zn) concentration was significantly lower in the breast cancer group than in the other two groups (0.74 +/- 0.21 microg/ml vs 1.14 +/- 0.31 ug/ml/1.11 +/- 0.29 microg/ml; p < 0.05). The study shows alteration in the concentration of copper and zinc in serum of patients with breast cancer, which may indicate abnormal copper and zinc metabolism in Nigerian females with breast cancer.

PMID: 21797123

But it's not a good idea to try to avoid copper, especially if you are taking large doses of vitamin C as this can deplete copper. Just avoid liver and shellfish, which contain very high amounts of copper.

Gliondrach

10-20-2011, 09:04 AM

The previous post, previous page, shows the links of copper to cancer. Below are extracts from a review of copper and Alzheimer's Disease. The author blames copper in drinking water and supplements but also points out that meat contains quite large amounts of copper.

My multi-vitamin and mineral tablets don't contain copper. I always run off some water each morning and collect it in a bucket to use for other things. And I filter tap water. The same author also points out the potential dangers of too much iron in the second study. Meat contains lots of copper and iron.

Journal of the American College of Nutrition. 2009 Jun;28(3):238-42.

The risks of copper toxicity contributing to cognitive decline in the aging population and to Alzheimer's disease.

In this brief review I advance the hypothesis that copper toxicity is the major cause of the epidemic of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease engulfing our aging population. This epidemic is recent, exploding in the last 50-60 years. The disease was virtually unknown 100 years ago. And it involves only developed countries that use copper plumbing. Something in our environment associated with development is poisoning the minds of our aged. The epidemic is associated with the use of copper plumbing, and the taking of copper in multi-mineral supplements. Food copper (organic copper) is processed by the liver and is transported and sequestered in a safe manner. Inorganic copper, such as that in drinking water and copper supplements, largely bypasses the liver and enters the free copper pool of the blood directly. This copper is potentially toxic because it may penetrate the blood/brain barrier.

Alzheimer's Disease (AD), a type of dementia, is epidemic in the U.S. and other developed countries. It is estimated 10% of people in their 60s, 20% in their 70s, and 30% in their 80s have AD in the U.S. Some say our population is growing older, so naturally we have more AD, a disease of aging. But the facts are different and they are indeed startling. A careful review by Waldman and Lamb (1), shows that almost all populations have had some aged people, and that prior to about 100 years ago, none developed clinical AD, or AD pathology in the brain. Further, the epidemic of AD has occurred only in developed countries. The aged of India, African countries, etc. are spared this disease.

Waldman and Lamb [1], to their credit, came up with a theory of environmental causation. They think it is beef eating, which has of course developed considerably in the last 100 years in affluent (developed) societies. They believe the disease is a prion disease obtained from eating beef. I believe there is little evidence that AD is a prion disease and that the real cause is something else in our developed environment, namely copper toxicity. Interestingly, Waldman and Lamb [1] may be partly right, because meat eating may contribute to copper toxicity. Below I briefly review the evidence for the copper hypothesis.

It turns out, as reported by Squitti and colleagues [10] in Italy, that AD patients have elevated free copper levels. We have recently confirmed these findings (unpublished observations). Further, the Squitti group have shown that measures of cognition in AD patients correlate negatively with free copper levels [11], and free copper levels are predictors of the rate of decline in cognition [12].

Finally, a study by Morris and colleagues [15] provides dramatic evidence of the damage copper can do to cognition in people. In this large study, dietary intake of a large range of substances was studied to evaluate correlation with cognitive decline over a six year period. The study found that those in the highest fifth of copper intake, if they also ate a high fat diet, lost 19 years of cognition over the six year study. In other words, they lost cognition at over three times the normal rate! How did people end up in the highest fifth of copper intake? Most of them because of taking copper supplements in the multi-vitamin mineral pill that so many people take.

After these first two steps, the action plan becomes more interventional, and it is up to the individual as to whether they wish to go further. The next step involves a change in lifestyle, and that is to reduce meat intake. Copper is much better absorbed from meat compared to vegetables foods. Thus the hypothesis of Waldman and Lamb [1] that the epidemic of AD is caused by excessive beef eating, may be at least partially right, except we believe the damaging agent in meat is copper rather than a prion.

There are no data on how much one has to reduce meat ingestion in order to affect free copper levels. However, a large study conducted by NIH and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) may be relevant [18,19]. This study found that those that ate about five ounces of red meat per day had a 30% higher mortality than those who averaged 2/3 of an ounce of red meat per day. Processed meats, such as hot dogs, also had an affect. Those who averaged one hot dog or its equivalent per day (two ounces per day), had 20% higher mortality than those who averaged one or two hot dogs per week. This effect of meat eating on mortality may be due to high absorption of both copper and iron, both of which are transition elements and contribute to increasing oxidative stress. The above information provides some guidelines on how much meat eating might be reduced for optimal health, as well as almost certainly an impact on reducing free copper levels.

htt--p://w--ww.jacn.org/content/28/3/238.long

Chemical Research in Toxicology. 2010 Feb 15;23(2):319-26.

Risks of copper and iron toxicity during aging in humans.

Brewer GJ.
SourceDepartments of Human Genetics and Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. gjbrewerATumich.edu

Abstract
Copper and iron are essential but also toxic metals. Their essentiality is known, but their toxicity, except for the genetic overload diseases, Wilson's disease and hemochromatosis, is not so well known. Yet, their toxicities are so general in the population that they are a looming public health problem in diseases of aging and in the aging process itself. Both metals are transition elements, and their resulting redox properties have been used during evolution in the development of oxidative energy generation. But both contribute to the production of excess damaging oxidant radicals. Evolution has kept stores of copper and iron in excess during the reproductive years because they are so vital to life. But the oxidant damage from these excess stores of metals builds up as we age, and natural selection ceases to act after about age 50 since diseases after that do not contribute to reproductive fitness. Diseases of aging such as Alzheimer's disease, other neurodegenerative diseases, arteriosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, and others may all be contributed to by excess copper and iron. A very disturbing study has found that in the general population those in the highest fifth of copper intake, if they are also eating a relatively high fat diet, lose cognition at over three times the normal rate. Inorganic copper in drinking water and in supplements is handled differently than food copper and is therefore more toxic. Trace amounts of copper in drinking water, less than one-tenth of that allowed in human drinking water by the Environmental Protection Agency, greatly enhanced an Alzheimer's-like disease in an animal model. In the last part of this review, I will provide advice on how to lower risks from copper and iron toxicity.

PMID: 19968254

Gliondrach

11-24-2011, 04:48 PM

If you want to slow down ageing, cereals and legumes can help.

A number of clinical trials of food restriction in healthy adult human subjects running over 2–15 years show significant reductions in body weight, blood cholesterol, blood glucose, and blood pressure, which are risk factors for the development of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Lifestyle interventions that lower energy balance by reducing body weight such as physical exercise can also delay the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In general, clinical trials are suggesting that diets high in calories or fat along with overweight are associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and dementia. There is a growing literature indicating that specific dietary constituents are able to influence the development of age-related diseases, including certain fats (trans fatty acids, saturated, and polyunsaturated fats) and cholesterol for cardiovascular disease, glycemic index and fiber for diabetes, fruits and vegetables for cardiovascular disease, and calcium and vitamin D for osteoporosis and bone fracture. In addition, there are dietary compounds from different functional foods, herbs, and neutraceuticals such as ginseng, nuts, grains, and polyphenols that may affect the development of age-related diseases. Long-term prospective clinical trials will be needed to confirm these diet—disease relationships. On the basis of current research, the best diet to delay age-related disease onset is one low in calories and saturated fat and high in wholegrain cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables, and which maintains a lean body weight. Such a diet should become a key component of healthy aging, delaying age-related diseases and perhaps intervening in the aging process itself. Furthermore, there are studies suggesting that nutrition in childhood and even in the fetus may influence the later development of aging diseases and lifespan.

A delayed onset of aging diseases may best be achieved by establishing a healthy lifestyle in early life as in childhood or in the young adult. A healthy lifestyle includes regular physical exercise, not smoking, a happy relaxed mind, and a nutrient-rich low-calorie diet to maintain a moderately lean body weight. Such a diet would include wholegrain cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables, with a low intake of saturated fat and trans fatty acids. Energy intake, which in excess leads to overweight, appears to be the major dietary factor determining the onset of age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and dementia, and therefore lifespan. The composition of the diet is also important, since there is good evidence that a vegetarian diet (rich in antioxidants), the Mediterranean diet (high in olive oil with monounsaturated fatty acids), and the Okinawan diet (high in fruits and vegetables plus omega-3 fatty acids in fish) are beneficial by delaying age-associated diseases. Lowering fat intake to less than 10% of caloric intake, appears to be important for reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The development of osteoporotic fractures may be prevented by increasing the intake of calcium, vitamin D, and probably folate.
Clinical Interventions in Aging. 2006;1(1):11-31.
Dietary approaches that delay age-related diseases.

The omega-3 fatty acids in fish are better sourced from algae - to avoid the mercury and dioxin in fish.

Gliondrach

12-13-2011, 04:27 AM

Not sure if any of these work. But they look interesting.

1. If your throat tickles, scratch your ear.
When you were 9, playing your armpit was a cool trick. Now, as an adult, you can still appreciate a good body-based feat, but you’re more discriminating. Take that tickle in your throat; it’s not worth gagging over. Here’s a better way to scratch your itch: “When the nerves in the ear are stimulated, it creates a reflex in the throat that can cause a muscle spasm,” says Scott Schaffer, M.D., president of an ear, nose and throat specialty center in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. “This spasm relieves the tickle.”

2. Experience supersonic hearing!
If you’re stuck chatting up a mumbler at a cocktail party, lean in with your right ear. It’s better than your left at following the rapid rhythms of speech, according to researchers at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. If, on the other hand, you’re trying to identify that song playing softly in the elevator, turn your left ear toward the sound. The left ear is better at picking up music tones.

3. Feel no pain!
German researchers have discovered that coughing during an injection can lessen the pain of the needle stick. According to Taras Usichenko, author of a study on the phenomenon, the trick causes a sudden, temporary rise in pressure in the chest and spinal canal, inhibiting the pain-conducting structures of the spinal cord.

5. Fight fire without water!
Worried those wings will repeat on you tonight? “Sleep on your left side,” says Anthony A. Starpoli, M.D., a New York City gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at New York Medical College. Studies have shown that patients who sleep on their left sides are less likely to suffer from acid reflux. The esophagus and stomach connect at an angle. When you sleep on your right, the stomach is higher than the esophagus, allowing food and stomach acid to slide up your throat. When you’re on your left, the stomach is lower than the esophagus, so gravity’s in your favor.

6. Cure your toothache without opening your mouth!
Just rub ice on the back of your hand, on the V-shaped webbed area between your thumb and index finger. A Canadian study found that this technique reduces toothache pain by as much as 50 percent compared with using no ice. The nerve pathways at the base of that V stimulate an area of the brain that blocks pain signals from the face and hands.

11. Make your heart stand still!
Trying to quell first-date jitters? Blow on your thumb. The vagus nerve, which governs heart rate, can be controlled through breathing, says Ben Abo, an emergency medical-services specialist at the University of Pittsburgh. It’ll get your heart rate back to normal.

13. Prevent near-sightedness!
Poor distance vision is rarely caused by genetics, says Anne Barber, O.D., an optometrist in Tacoma, Washington. “It’s usually caused by near-point stress.” In other words, staring at your computer screen for too long. So flex your way to 20/20 vision. Every few hours during the day, close your eyes, tense your body, take a deep breath, and, after a few seconds, release your breath and muscles at the same time. Tightening and releasing muscles such as the biceps and glutes can trick involuntary muscles—like the eyes—into relaxing as well.

15. Impress your friends!
Next time you’re at a party, try this trick: Have a person hold one arm straight out to the side, palm down, and instruct him to maintain this position. Then place two fingers on his wrist and push down. He’ll resist. Now have him put one foot on a surface that’s a half inch higher (a few magazines) and repeat. This time his arm will fold like a house of cards. By misaligning his hips, you’ve offset his spine, says Rachel Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., co-owner of Results Fitness, in Santa Clarita, California. Your brain senses that the spine is vulnerable, so it shuts down the body’s ability to resist.

16. Breathe underwater!
If you’re dying to retrieve that quarter from the bottom of the pool, take several short breaths first—essentially, hyperventilate. When you’re underwater, it’s not a lack of oxygen that makes you desperate for a breath; it’s the buildup of carbon dioxide, which makes your blood acidic, which signals your brain that somethin’ ain’t right. “When you hyperventilate, the influx of oxygen lowers blood acidity,” says Jonathan Armbruster, Ph.D., an associate professor of biology at Auburn University. “This tricks your brain into thinking it has more oxygen.” It’ll buy you up to 10 seconds.

17. Read minds!
Your own! “If you’re giving a speech the next day, review it before falling asleep,” says Candi Heimgartner, an instructor of biological sciences at the University of Idaho. Since most memory consolidation happens during sleep, anything you read right before bed is more likely to be encoded as long-term memory.
ht--tp://w--ww.stumbleupon.com/su/2zzFjl/rockforhealth.org/news%253Fp%253D131