Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Pistachios
Pistachios are high in a form of vitamin E called gamma-tocopherol that has been shown to be protective against certain types of cancer, including lung.  Participants of a recent study who ate roughly two ounces of pistachios a day for four weeks showed a significant increase in gamma-tocopherol.  Your best bet is to try to have a few handfuls daily.

Onions
When researchers compared the 10 vegetables that are most frequently consumed in the US, onions had the 3rd highest level of phenolic compounds, which are thought to be among the most potent anticancer substances in foods.  A Finnish study of men who frequently ate onions and other foods high in phenolic compounds showed that they were 60% less likely than those who ate smaller amounts.

Pumpkin
All varieties of winter squash are extremely high in beta-carotene.  A long running Japanese study of over 57,000 people found that the participants who ate the most pumpkin had the lowest rates of gastric, breast, lung, and colorectal cancers.  Alternatives to pumpkin are carrots, broccoli, and all winter squashes, including butternut, acorn, and spaghetti squash.

Tea
A recent study showed that people who drank two or more cups of either black or green tea daily reduced their risk for squamous cell carcinoma by 30%.  This effect seems to grow over time, as some study participants who had drank tea daily for up to 47 years reduced their risk by 51%.  It is believed that anti-oxidants in tea can counter free radicals that are triggered by sun exposure.

Your Weight
Being overweight is the most well known risk for developing diabetes.  The more excess weight you carry increases the insulin resistance of cells, and that raises levels of blood glucose.  What may be surprising is that unexplained weight loss can be just as big an indicator for diabetes.  This can occur due to lack of glucose energy supplied to the body’s cells, and loss of calories related to glucose due to excessive urination.

Dehydration
Excess blood glucose draws water from the tissues of the body.  This can cause dry and itchy skin that is prone to flaking or cracking, especially in the legs, feet and elbows.  Fluids can also be drawn from the lenses of the eyes, blurring vision and making it more difficult to focus.  Typically, people will feel thirsty a large amount of the time when they’re affected like this.  This thirst is rarely ever quenched, which causes the person to drink more, and thusly urinate more.

Slowed Immune Response
A high level of blood glucose interferes with the body’s ability to heal itself and fight off infection.  This can result in slow healing cuts, sores, or bruises and frequent infections.  Because this healing ability is compromised, people who suffer from diabetes or pre-diabetes are more prone to poor oral health conditions as well.  Symptoms such as gum inflammation with red, swollen, tender, and even bleeding gums can and often does occur.

Sleepiness After Eating
Within an hour of eating, your body converts food into glucose.  In cases of diabetes or pre-diabetes the process is greatly exacerbated.  Levels of blood glucose spike, and the body releases a large amount of insulin to attempt to regulate it.  This surge is usually ineffective, and can cause drowsiness.

Drink Coffee
Though many will say to avoid coffee for a healthy liver, some recent studies have shown otherwise.  A study among people who had already developed liver disease, those who drank 1-3 cups of coffee a day were 40% less likely to develop cirrhosis than those who did not drink coffee.  People who drank 4 or more cups a day decreased their risk by roughly 80%.

Load Up On Antioxidants
Green vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, kale, and brussel sprouts are chock full of antioxidants, which help the liver and its natural detoxification functions.  They’re also loaded with nutrients that support the immune system like vitamin C, vitamin, E, B vitamins, zinc, and magnesium.  Load up on these mean greens to help stop tissue damage from free radicals.

Don’t Use Antacids
Your stomach is full of beneficial bacteria that help to eliminate toxins.  This decreases the work load of your liver by a great deal, and will help it perform more efficiently.  The natural acidity of the stomach is necessary for proper and complete digestion as well, so let it do its job whenever possible. Skip the chalky tablets unless you have serious issues with heartburn and indigestion, in which case you should consult with your doctor.

Cancer Fighter
Lab studies of human cells show that rosemary may help prevent certain types of cancer! The rate at which human leukemia and brest cancer cells multiplied was reduced when researchers exposed the cells to rosemary extract. Here's the catch though, as with all spices, the active ingredients deteriorate with storage and processing. After 3 months of storage, paprika's levels of antioxidants dropped 75%. Lesson? Eat fresh rosemary for best results

Trouble Sleeping?
Getting older in age brings on sleeping problems. One thing you may want to think about is taking Valerian. Its a natural tranquilizing herb that helps reduce insomnia and possibly anxiety. It triggers the same receptors as Valium…but no big drug company to pay.

Hearts On Fire
Is your heart always on fire? We're not talking about fiery love, but heartburn. STOP drinking sodas. It resonates in your system and irritates your heart (especially in a laying down position). Soda also will cause night time acid reflux over time. So stop drinking soda, but if you're addicted keep from drinking it 3 hours before bedtime.

Hangover Help
If you drink excess alcohol you're bound to experience a hangover. Hangovers are determined by the amount of alcohol in a given time, your body's enzymic capacity, and your age. Drinking Gatorade, a dose of Maalox and bananas can quickly act upon the excess chemicals alcohol leaves behind which causes the hangover. Depending on the severity you can be hangover free in just 30 minutes.

In 2005, Brad Gursky was going through the final stages of kidney failure.  After years of intravenous dialysis treatments, it appeared that the end was nigh for the then 51 year-old.  Then it got weird.  In mid June, he finally received the call he was waiting for.  Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York had a perfect match for him to receive a transplant, until 24 hours later when they discovered that there had been a mistake by the donor network.  Their apology letter referred to it as an "unfortunate situation".  It seemed that all hope was lost, so as a last ditch effort Gursky placed a newspaper ad looking for a kidney donor.  Did I mention it was an Israeli newspaper?

Enter Nick Rosen. 35 year-old movie/video editor/director.  Born in New York and moved to Israel as a child, he once offered to donate a kidney to a playwright friend who was actually writing a play about dialysis at the time.  Nick responded to Gursky's ad by calling the phone number attached to it, and the ball never stopped rolling after that.  Whirlwinds of medical tests were performed to guarantee matching status and before you could blink, Rosen was off to "visit a friend" in New York.  A story was concocted that the two men were cousins, and all of the hospitals panels and screening processes were passed with flying colors.  A few months after the ad was placed, Nick Rosen awoke in his hospital bed after donating his kidney to Brad Gursky.  He awoke next to an envelope containing $20,000.

Black markets for human organs have existed for ages, but are usually in lesser populated, more desolate areas of the world.  It's no wonder that it's a profitable market for those interested in such seedy transactions.  Last year alone over 4,500 Americans died while waiting for kidneys.  Perhaps donors aren't as abundant becase as Americans, we always have to pose the question "what's in it for me?".  In the case of organ donation, the answer is usually little more than knowing you did a good deed.  The call for some kind of compensation for donors isn't that outlandish when you consider the time lost due to testing, the procedure itself, and the healing/adjusting phase afterwards.  This compensation question is one of the main reasons Rosen "donated" in this instance.  The entire process was documented on video, and was even available online for quite some time.  He also claims that he did it because he "knew it was right".  That may be a little harder to believe if you've seen the clip of him lying on his bed, money all around him, saying "this is what $20,000 looks like".

Right or wrong status aside, it's hard to imagine that in the current state of US health care things could get much worse.  However, it's looking like if you're savvy enough you can manipulate the system to look less like a black market organ deal and more like a high priced call girl.  Like the song says, "ain't that America?".

Back on June 16 we posted an article about how a small consumer group called Consumers For Dental Choice had sued the FDA to make a ruling about mercury levels in silver amalgam dental fillings.  They were given until July 28 to make an official statement regarding the safety of these fillings, here's what they said.

The FDA's dental products director, Dr. Susan Runner said that "The best available scientific evidence supports the conclusion that patients with dental amalgam fillings are not at risk for mercury-associated adverse health effects."  They concluded that the only people who should be concerned about mercury, are those who are allergic to it.  One fact that wasn't addressed is that mercury is a poison, so everyone is allergic to it.

This decision actually comes as quite a surprise, as a separate lawsuit settlement from a year ago prompted the FDA to post on it's website that there were still questions as to whether the amount of mercury in fillings was enough to harm developing fetuses or small children.  The least expectation was to have a warning against using silver fillings in pregnant women or young children, as the USA is the only country that doesn't do so.

For more information about the dangers of mercury fillings, visit Dr. Tom McGuire at www.dentalwellness4u.com

As a  natural sweetener, xylitol has been used in chewing gum and mints for years upon years.  Recent studies from the University of Washington have shown more positive benefits to the sugar compound than previously imagined.  Many people have believed in the propoganda of fluoride for years in cavity prevention, even though studies have also shown it to weaken enamel.  This new study shows that the use of pure xylitol can be just as, if not more effective in the prevention of dental caries.

Especially in low income, low educational areas xylitol may very well be a cheaper alternative to preventing tooth decay, which plagues these areas more so than others.  Dr. Peter Milgrom has conducted a small test using xylitol syrup with babies which has shown a significant reduction in the number of babies developing cavities.  A concentrated dose, multiple times daily is the key to success with this, and it may very well become a part of standard dental care and preventative dentistry.

First off, I'd like to make note that this post has absolutely nothing to do with natural health or natural health news.  However, this is a blog, and blogs are typically current and somewhat raw if you will.  These are the musings of a concerned mind, and the words that mind feels the need to vocalize.

On March 20, 2003 The United States invaded Iraq and began the second gulf war.  Since then over 4,300 American soldiers have lost, or rather given their lives in defense of the principals of freedom.  4,100 of those have come since we declared "mission accomplished" on May 1, 2003.  With the July 4 holiday coming up a week from now, I feel that it's more important than ever to acknowledge those who have fallen in the name of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  I believe it's important to remember those who have served not only in the military, but our police, fire fighters, doctors, and anyone else who has truly made a difference in this world.

It's convenient that these thoughts surround me at such a patriotic time, because truth be told, the 4th of July wasn't my main inspiration for sharing these thoughts and numbers.  On June 25 a pair of American entertainment icons were also lost.  Of course I mean Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.  These celebrity deaths coming just on the heels of David Carradine and Ed McMahon have sent the mass media into a whirlwind frenzy of reports and debates.  Now don't get me wrong here, because I don't want to take anything away from the lives that those people lived or the lives they touched.  However, when is the last time you flipped through the channels and saw people calling in and bawling their eyes out, filling the streets in mourning, or holding candle light vigils when reports came in of soldiers deaths.  It seems that the only equal treatment they will receive will be from the forked tongues of the Westboro Baptist Church, as I'm sure they're equal opportunity funeral protesters.

I know it's a little premature, but I also think that every day is a good day to be a patriot.  As Americans, I think we really need to take a step back and look at our priorities.  A wise person once said "be who you are, and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter".  We seem to connect more with entertainment itself than those who make it possible to be entertained in peace.

Happy Birthday America

On Wednesday May 6, 19 year old Tamika White was arrested in Palmetto, FL and charged with felony neglect.  Why would this matter to a natural health based blog, you ask?  The neglect charge stems from avoiding dental care for her young child (who's age has not been released) for more than a year.  The childs grandmother stated in an interview that there had been complaints of tooth pain for well over a year, and when the pleading finally did result with a visit to the dentist it was determined that the child suffered from a form of tooth decay common among infants.  Tamika's Medicaid wouldn't cover the treatment recommended by this dentist, so instead of seeking a second opinion for an alternate treatment or another facility that would accept her coverage, Tamika just went with the "ostrich, head in the sand" method.  She didn't even so much as seek the overdue child support from the childs father to cover treatment.  Instead, she just let her baby's teeth rot out.  Thankfully, by Thursday she was locked up with no bail.

This should be in the national spotlight, as it's a real example of the tragedy that can occur when oral hygiene and care are neglected.  It's not the childs fault, but this mother should be made an example of.  It honestly makes me sick to my stomach to know that there are people out there who could care so little about their own child.  This is a dark day as far as I'm concerned.  I don't even want to begin to speculate what White was doing with her money that she couldn't take her child to the dentist.  I blame her,unlike many who have blamed the government and health care systems, which while at fault to some extent do not overshadow the neglect of this mother.  I'm sure there are dozens more cases just like this out there that are never reported.

You can read the official story here.