Back pain can be one of the most frustrating and painful experiences. It’s also one of the most commonly misdiagnosed problems. That’s because back pain often isn’t caused by your back. It’s often an issue with your muscles or ligaments.
Your body is filled with tendons that attach your muscles to your bones. There are also ligaments that attach bones to bones. As you age, your flexibility decreases. Muscles in your body shorten, and your joints lose their range of motion. These shortened muscles then pull your bones out of alignment. This causes undue pressure on nerves and tissues, resulting in back problems.
There are three things that mainstream medicine prescribes for back pain – and all three of them are wrong.
First, they promote unnecessary surgery. Second, they give you drugs. Finally, the more thoughtful back doctors may promote stretching exercises. But the exercises I’ve often seen that come from orthopedics’ offices are just plain wrong. A lot of them wind up stretching the ligaments, which ends up stressing them and weakening them more. So, not only do they not work, they often wind up making the problem worse.
What’s worse, some doctors may even advise surgery before exploring alternative methods. In most cases surgery should be a last option. I’ve had many patients come into my office after having back surgery, complaining of the same symptoms and pain they had before the surgery. They wind up trading one problem for another.
Even some personal trainers and physical therapists are way off the mark. Many don’t know that you don’t want loose joints. Tighter joints mean stronger joints. Tighter joints mean you’re less likely to suffer an injury.
The good news is you don’t have to spend hours a day doing boring stretching exercises to deal with your back pain. There’s a correct and simple way to do them. It involves expansion of the spine. And it takes only a couple minutes a day:
They’re called hip flexors…
Most people don’t realize it, but between sitting at their desk, in their car, or watching television, they often spend 6 to 8 hours a day sitting down.
But your body wasn’t designed to spend so much time sitting down. And all this sitting can put enormous pressure on your hip flexor muscles.
This is a major cause of minor low back pain. Stretching your hip flexor muscles several times a week can prevent this kind of lower back pain.
Here’s how to do this stretch:
1. Stand up straight with your right foot forward and left foot back. Keep both feel flat on floor.
2. Put your hands on your hips and keep your back and hips in straight alignment.
3. Push forward with your hips, while maintaining your erect posture. Slowly, push your hips forward only until you feel a comfortable level of tension.
4. Hold for 10 seconds.
5. Then switch sides by reversing your leg stance and repeat.
Asyik memikirkan kemewahan hidup sahaja sehingga kita hampir terlupa kita hanya sementara di dunia, akhiratlah yang kekal abadi.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Drinking soda harms your sperm
(NaturalNews) Men who drink a liter of cola or more every day have lower sperm counts than men who do not drink cola, according to a new study conducted by researchers from Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The effect did not appear to come from caffeine.
Researchers have previously speculated that high consumption of caffeine may produce lower sperm counts. Most studies into the connection have been conducted in specific groups, such as infertile men, rather than the general population, however, and no scientific consensus has emerged.
In the current study, researchers took sperm samples from 2,554 men aged approximately 18. All the men were undergoing physical exams to determine their fitness for military duty between the years of 2001 and 2005. They also collected beverage intake data on all participants.
The researchers found that men who never drank cola had an average sperm count of 50 million sperm per milliliter of semen. Men who drank a liter or more a day, in contrast, had only 35 million sperm per milliliter. While this difference is not drastic enough to qualify as a problem by World Health Organization standards, lower sperm counts have been well established to correlate with lower fertility.
A much smaller effect on sperm levels was seen in men who drank large amounts of tea or coffee, ruling out caffeine as a likely cause. The researchers are unsure whether the lower sperm counts were caused by the cola itself, or by other unhealthy lifestyle habits associated with soda consumption.
"It's important to note that the men who drank a lot of cola were also different in many other ways," researcher Tina Kold Jensen said.
Men who drank large amounts of cola also tended to eat more fast food and less fruits and vegetables.
"I imagine it's the lifestyle," said Fabio Pasqualotto, of the University of Caxias do Sul in Brazil, who was not involved in the study.
Sources for this story include: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h... http://www.cphpost.dk/news/scitech/....
Researchers have previously speculated that high consumption of caffeine may produce lower sperm counts. Most studies into the connection have been conducted in specific groups, such as infertile men, rather than the general population, however, and no scientific consensus has emerged.
In the current study, researchers took sperm samples from 2,554 men aged approximately 18. All the men were undergoing physical exams to determine their fitness for military duty between the years of 2001 and 2005. They also collected beverage intake data on all participants.
The researchers found that men who never drank cola had an average sperm count of 50 million sperm per milliliter of semen. Men who drank a liter or more a day, in contrast, had only 35 million sperm per milliliter. While this difference is not drastic enough to qualify as a problem by World Health Organization standards, lower sperm counts have been well established to correlate with lower fertility.
A much smaller effect on sperm levels was seen in men who drank large amounts of tea or coffee, ruling out caffeine as a likely cause. The researchers are unsure whether the lower sperm counts were caused by the cola itself, or by other unhealthy lifestyle habits associated with soda consumption.
"It's important to note that the men who drank a lot of cola were also different in many other ways," researcher Tina Kold Jensen said.
Men who drank large amounts of cola also tended to eat more fast food and less fruits and vegetables.
"I imagine it's the lifestyle," said Fabio Pasqualotto, of the University of Caxias do Sul in Brazil, who was not involved in the study.
Sources for this story include: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h... http://www.cphpost.dk/news/scitech/....
berries keep brains young, protect from memory loss
NaturalNews) As NaturalNews has reported over the past several years, researchers have found that berries are loaded with health-protective properties. For example, these super foods appear to fight cancer, heart disease, infections and more. Now, for the first time, there's remarkable evidence that people who eat blueberries, strawberries, and acai berries may protect their brains from the effects of aging, too.
A new study, just presented in Boston at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), concluded these berries -- and possibly walnuts -- preserve memory and other mental faculties in a crucial but previously unknown way. They turn on the brain's natural "housekeeper" mechanism. The result? The body cleans up and recycles toxic proteins linked to age-related memory loss, dementia and other mental deterioration.
Shibu Poulose, Ph.D., a scientist with the U. S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston who presented the report, pointed out that earlier studies have suggested that as most people age, there is a decline in the body's ability to protect itself against inflammation which, in turn, causes oxidative damage. Bottom line: inflammation may be the initial trigger behind degenerative brain diseases, heart disease, cancer, and other age-related disorders.
"The good news is that natural compounds called polyphenolics found in fruits, vegetables and nuts have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect that may protect against age-associated decline," Dr. Poulose said in a statement to the media. Dr. Poulose conducted the groundbreaking nutrition research with James Joseph, Ph.D., who passed away on June 1. Dr. Joseph, who headed the laboratory, was a pioneer in the study of how antioxidants in fruits and nuts prevent age-related cognitive decline.
Previous studies by Dr. Joseph and Dr. Poulose showed that elderly laboratory rats fed diets containing an added two percent mixture of high-antioxidant strawberry, blueberry, or blackberry extract for two months became "younger" mentally. The animals' brains showed that age-related deficits in nerve function and behavior that involve earning and remembering were actually reversed after eating berries regularly.
For the new research, Dr. Poulose and Dr. Joseph investigated why nerve function declines with aging. They found it involves a reduction in what they described as the brain's natural house-cleaning process. In a process termed autophagy, cells called microglia function as housekeepers, removing and recycling biochemical debris that otherwise would interfere with brain function. "But in aging, microglia fail to do their work, and debris builds up. In addition, the microglia become over-activated and actually begin to damage healthy cells in the brain," Dr. Poulose stated.
Using cultures of mouse brain cells, the scientists discovered that extracts of berries inhibited the action of a protein that shuts down the autophagy process. "Our research suggests that the polyphenolics in berries have a rescuing effect. They seem to restore the normal housekeeping function. These findings are the first to show these effects of berries," said Dr. Poulose.
He added that the study shows it is important to eat foods rich in phytochemicals known as polyphenolics. Dr. Poulose also pointed out that it is best to consume whole fruit, which contain the full range of hundreds of healthful phytochemicals, when possible.
For more information:
http://www.naturalnews.com/berries.html
A new study, just presented in Boston at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), concluded these berries -- and possibly walnuts -- preserve memory and other mental faculties in a crucial but previously unknown way. They turn on the brain's natural "housekeeper" mechanism. The result? The body cleans up and recycles toxic proteins linked to age-related memory loss, dementia and other mental deterioration.
Shibu Poulose, Ph.D., a scientist with the U. S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston who presented the report, pointed out that earlier studies have suggested that as most people age, there is a decline in the body's ability to protect itself against inflammation which, in turn, causes oxidative damage. Bottom line: inflammation may be the initial trigger behind degenerative brain diseases, heart disease, cancer, and other age-related disorders.
"The good news is that natural compounds called polyphenolics found in fruits, vegetables and nuts have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect that may protect against age-associated decline," Dr. Poulose said in a statement to the media. Dr. Poulose conducted the groundbreaking nutrition research with James Joseph, Ph.D., who passed away on June 1. Dr. Joseph, who headed the laboratory, was a pioneer in the study of how antioxidants in fruits and nuts prevent age-related cognitive decline.
Previous studies by Dr. Joseph and Dr. Poulose showed that elderly laboratory rats fed diets containing an added two percent mixture of high-antioxidant strawberry, blueberry, or blackberry extract for two months became "younger" mentally. The animals' brains showed that age-related deficits in nerve function and behavior that involve earning and remembering were actually reversed after eating berries regularly.
For the new research, Dr. Poulose and Dr. Joseph investigated why nerve function declines with aging. They found it involves a reduction in what they described as the brain's natural house-cleaning process. In a process termed autophagy, cells called microglia function as housekeepers, removing and recycling biochemical debris that otherwise would interfere with brain function. "But in aging, microglia fail to do their work, and debris builds up. In addition, the microglia become over-activated and actually begin to damage healthy cells in the brain," Dr. Poulose stated.
Using cultures of mouse brain cells, the scientists discovered that extracts of berries inhibited the action of a protein that shuts down the autophagy process. "Our research suggests that the polyphenolics in berries have a rescuing effect. They seem to restore the normal housekeeping function. These findings are the first to show these effects of berries," said Dr. Poulose.
He added that the study shows it is important to eat foods rich in phytochemicals known as polyphenolics. Dr. Poulose also pointed out that it is best to consume whole fruit, which contain the full range of hundreds of healthful phytochemicals, when possible.
For more information:
http://www.naturalnews.com/berries.html
Sunday, August 22, 2010
(NaturalNews) For years, natural health proponents have been sounding the alarm about the dangers of new drugs being pushed on consumers. But is that a one-sided, inaccurate view? Not at all. In fact, new research now shows the problems with Big Pharma's hugely hyped medications are far worse than most people have even dreamed. Independent reviewers found that about 85 percent of new drugs offer few if any new benefits -- but they carry the risk of causing serious harm to users.
According to Donald Light, Ph.D., a professor of comparative health policy at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey who authored the study, the pharmaceutical industry is a "market for lemons" and Big Pharma spends a fortune to sell those lemons to the public.
"Sometimes drug companies hide or downplay information about serious side effects of new drugs and overstate the drugs' benefits," Dr. Light, who presented his findings on August 17 in Atlanta at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, said in a press statement. "Then, they spend two to three times more on marketing than on research to persuade doctors to prescribe these new drugs. Doctors may get misleading information and then misinform patients about the risks of a new drug. It's really a two-tier market for lemons."
Dr. Light's paper, Pharmaceuticals: A Two-Tier Market for Producing 'Lemons' and Serious Harm, is an institutional analysis of the pharmaceutical industry and how it works. He based his conclusions on a wide range of data from independent sources and studies, including the Canadian Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, the Food and Drug Administration, and Prescrire International (a French language journal which publishes extensive research on pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics ). Much of research for the study was conducted for a forthcoming book Dr. Light edited, The Risk of Prescription Drugs, which is slated for publication this fall by Columbia University Press.
In both his paper and his book, Dr. Light emphasizes what he dubs the "Risk Proliferation Syndrome", which refers to the way Big Pharma has grossly maximized the number of people exposed to new drugs with relatively low effectiveness but a heightened risk of adverse and often severe side effects. The pharmaceutical giants have accomplished this by failing to put each new medication on the market using a controlled, limited launch which would allow evidence to be gathered about the drug's effects, positive and negative. Instead, Big Pharma builds hugely hyped drug launches based on clinical trials that were designed in the first place to minimize evidence of harm and are published in the medical literature to only emphasize a drug's advantages.
Pharmaceutical companies spend millions of dollars on massive campaigns to sell a new prescription med, recruiting leading doctors to use the drug for conditions other than those for which it is approved, Dr. Light revealed. By promoting such off-label or unapproved uses, Big Pharma goes after even more sales and physicians inadvertently become what Dr. Light calls "double agents" -- they work to push sales of the new drug while they are supposed to be stewards of their patients' well-being.
And what happens when patients complain that the drug is making them sicker and/or producing side effects? Studies show their doctors usually just discount or dismiss these complaints, Dr. Light said.
According to the new study, the big drug companies are successful in getting away with selling their "lemon" drugs because of three main reasons: Big Pharma is in charge of testing their own new drugs; the pharmaceutical companies have invested millions in building "firewalls" of legal protection to hide information about a drug's dangers or lack of effectiveness; and the bar for drug efficacy is set fairly low to make it easier for Big Pharma to get a new drug approved.
Dr. Light pointed out that despite the extensive requirements for testing the efficacy and safety of each new medication, drug companies use a strategy of "swamping the regulator" with large numbers of incomplete, partial, and substandard clinical trials. For instance, in one study of 111 final applications for approval, 42% lacked adequately randomized trials, 40% had flawed testing of dosages, 39% lacked evidence of clinical efficacy, and 49% raised concerns about serious adverse side effects.
"The result is that drugs get approved without anyone being able to know how effective they really are or how much serious harm they will cause," he said. "The companies control the making of scientific knowledge and then control which findings will go to the FDA or be published."
As Mike Adams recently reported in NaturalNews, statin drugs are a prime example of the Big Pharma push to market drugs as safe and effective while glossing over the fact they often harm far more people than they help -- in the case of statins, causing everything from liver damage, acute kidney failure, and extreme muscle weakness to cataracts (http://www.naturalnews.com/028988_s...).
For more information:
http://www.asanet.org/meetings/2010...
http://www.naturalnews.com/Big_Phar...
According to Donald Light, Ph.D., a professor of comparative health policy at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey who authored the study, the pharmaceutical industry is a "market for lemons" and Big Pharma spends a fortune to sell those lemons to the public.
"Sometimes drug companies hide or downplay information about serious side effects of new drugs and overstate the drugs' benefits," Dr. Light, who presented his findings on August 17 in Atlanta at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, said in a press statement. "Then, they spend two to three times more on marketing than on research to persuade doctors to prescribe these new drugs. Doctors may get misleading information and then misinform patients about the risks of a new drug. It's really a two-tier market for lemons."
Dr. Light's paper, Pharmaceuticals: A Two-Tier Market for Producing 'Lemons' and Serious Harm, is an institutional analysis of the pharmaceutical industry and how it works. He based his conclusions on a wide range of data from independent sources and studies, including the Canadian Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, the Food and Drug Administration, and Prescrire International (a French language journal which publishes extensive research on pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics ). Much of research for the study was conducted for a forthcoming book Dr. Light edited, The Risk of Prescription Drugs, which is slated for publication this fall by Columbia University Press.
In both his paper and his book, Dr. Light emphasizes what he dubs the "Risk Proliferation Syndrome", which refers to the way Big Pharma has grossly maximized the number of people exposed to new drugs with relatively low effectiveness but a heightened risk of adverse and often severe side effects. The pharmaceutical giants have accomplished this by failing to put each new medication on the market using a controlled, limited launch which would allow evidence to be gathered about the drug's effects, positive and negative. Instead, Big Pharma builds hugely hyped drug launches based on clinical trials that were designed in the first place to minimize evidence of harm and are published in the medical literature to only emphasize a drug's advantages.
Pharmaceutical companies spend millions of dollars on massive campaigns to sell a new prescription med, recruiting leading doctors to use the drug for conditions other than those for which it is approved, Dr. Light revealed. By promoting such off-label or unapproved uses, Big Pharma goes after even more sales and physicians inadvertently become what Dr. Light calls "double agents" -- they work to push sales of the new drug while they are supposed to be stewards of their patients' well-being.
And what happens when patients complain that the drug is making them sicker and/or producing side effects? Studies show their doctors usually just discount or dismiss these complaints, Dr. Light said.
According to the new study, the big drug companies are successful in getting away with selling their "lemon" drugs because of three main reasons: Big Pharma is in charge of testing their own new drugs; the pharmaceutical companies have invested millions in building "firewalls" of legal protection to hide information about a drug's dangers or lack of effectiveness; and the bar for drug efficacy is set fairly low to make it easier for Big Pharma to get a new drug approved.
Dr. Light pointed out that despite the extensive requirements for testing the efficacy and safety of each new medication, drug companies use a strategy of "swamping the regulator" with large numbers of incomplete, partial, and substandard clinical trials. For instance, in one study of 111 final applications for approval, 42% lacked adequately randomized trials, 40% had flawed testing of dosages, 39% lacked evidence of clinical efficacy, and 49% raised concerns about serious adverse side effects.
"The result is that drugs get approved without anyone being able to know how effective they really are or how much serious harm they will cause," he said. "The companies control the making of scientific knowledge and then control which findings will go to the FDA or be published."
As Mike Adams recently reported in NaturalNews, statin drugs are a prime example of the Big Pharma push to market drugs as safe and effective while glossing over the fact they often harm far more people than they help -- in the case of statins, causing everything from liver damage, acute kidney failure, and extreme muscle weakness to cataracts (http://www.naturalnews.com/028988_s...).
For more information:
http://www.asanet.org/meetings/2010...
http://www.naturalnews.com/Big_Phar...
Friday, August 20, 2010
Veg patch from scratch: Part Two
With your bit of garden cleared and ready for a mini vegetable patch, it's time to lay out your plot and create a structure that looks good and produces delicious food.
Even a small patch should be divided into four areas, ideally four quadrants with a cross of paths, with a small, round central bed if you have the space in which you could grow a tepee of sweet peas. The four beds are then allocated to different plant groups: one for roots, subdivided between new potatoes, beetroot and carrots (the three most rewarding and delicious roots); one for things like beans and peas (which gardeners call legumes); one for salad and herbs, including the brassicas (which means cabbage relatives), rocket, mizuna, mustard and radishes; one for a hotchpotch of things such as courgettes, sweetcorn and leafy greens, chard, kale and spinach.
You can then rotate your productive plants from one year and one area to another, avoiding putting the same plant into the same soil again for four years and hence preventing a build-up of pests and diseases.
Make the beds as big as possible and the paths can be temporary trodden earth or shingle, or permanent brick or stone. They should be a minimum of 30in wide. Anything narrower will be obliterated as plants grow. If you have the space, the wider the paths the better. Perennial plants such as mint, horseradish, rhubarb and tarragon, and the shrubs rosemary, sage and bay, go permanently into any edge beds if you have space there. Beware, mint and horseradish are very invasive and their roots quickly romp away, so enclose them in a deep, submerged pot. Tomatoes and cucumbers can be grown in pots, or in the ground against a sunny, sheltered south or west-facing wall, or in a greenhouse if you have one.
The more space overall you can give to your veg patch, the more variety and abundance you'll produce. It's rare for someone to think their patch is too big, but be realistic in terms of time and maintenance. You'll need a couple of hours a week from March until August – the busiest months – to keep a 10ft x 13ft patch sown, planted up, picked and looking pristine. One final thing on the design – draw out the basic plan on a sheet of paper with a thick black pen. Then attach a sheet of tracing paper over the design so that you can record exactly what goes where each season.
In the late summer, you'll be doing another planting and need to record that on another sheet of tracing paper which can be attached over the top of the last – it's a good idea to do this every year as a belt and braces way of avoiding planting anything in the same spot in under four years.
Raised beds or not?
Once you have a layout planned that suits your garden, you need to work on your soil, so find out what raw material you have before you start. For a perfect patch the soil should be freely drained, with plenty of organic material mixed in and a topsoil depth of about 1ft. Some edible plants do fine without much fertility – carrots, for example, grow well in almost pure sand – but most do best in well-fed, rich soil that is well drained.
If you have no idea what your soil is, dig a 17in-wide, 17in-deep soil profile pit – a smart name for a straight-sided hole. This tells you a huge amount. Look at the sides and the colour change as the pit goes deeper. Is there lots of rich black stuff and then a change to something different? Measure how much of the darker stuff you have. This is your topsoil depth. On chalk or sand, and often on clay, this can be very thin.
If your topsoil is thin, this may mean building raised beds, a decision best made before you start your soil improvement programme. We need these on seriously vile and heavy clay at Perch Hill to help with topsoil depth and drainage; raised beds are also invaluable for deepening thin topsoil on sand and chalk. We've also found slugs and snails are less of a problem in our raised areas than they are on flat ground and the beds look ornamental. You can raise the bed with railway sleepers to make a horizontal frame, or use woven panels of chunky hazel or willow as we do. They don't last as long as solid wood (about five years) but look good.
Get the edges in place and then dig out the topsoil from paths and place it on your beds. This may be enough to fill them, but if not you'll need to import some soil. Try to use a different soil type to your own, a hybrid is ideal.
Know your soil type
You may already know what your soil type is – if you can see chalk lumps, then clearly it's chalk – but if not, you need to work this out. Pick up a handful and feel it. If it's slimy and you can make it into a ball without it collapsing, it's clay. If at the other extreme, it feels gritty and won't stick together, its basis is sand.
Pour a bucket of water into the soil profile pit. Does it drain away almost immediately? If it does, you have freely drained sand or chalk. If the water sits there, it's almost certainly clay. Also do a pH test with a kit from the garden centre or send off a soil sample to the RHS for analysis. This will help establish your soil base line.
Soil preparation
Once you've got that clear, you can start your soil improvement. Tempting though it is, don't just whack your seeds straight in. If you haven't cultivated your plot before, the soil will need a bit of work. Veg need a loving environment: light, airy and full of goodness. Rather than sowing or planting into lumps like boulders, a small soil-lump-size is crucial for happy and abundant plant growth.
For clay without a decent topsoil depth, dig in lots of grit and organic matter. This is likely to mean large quantities, rather than one or two bags from the garden centre. The grit I use is 9mm pea shingle from a builder's yard (rather than the more expensive horticultural grit). This is the smallest stuff for putting on a drive and it does the job well. For organic matter, I use municipal compost (widely available from local councils composting kitchen waste). Cover the whole soil surface with 2½in of grit and 2½in of organic matter before you dig (or rotavate) it in. You can hire a rotavator for a morning. This will convert a ropey topsoil into something instantly good.
If you garden on light sandy or chalky soil, dig in lots of organic matter to help the plants grow well, but leave out any extra grit. On chalk, try to avoid disturbing the subsoil – or endless flints will rise to the surface and you'll have to spend hours getting rid of them. You may be better off importing almost all the soil so you can get cracking.
The ornamental patch
If you're short of space, you'll have to concentrate on the easy and highly productive plants (more about this next week), and won't have the luxury of being able to make the garden look beautiful as well as produce food, but if you have more room, you can.
Create a high point at the middle of each bed. Put up a tepee made from eight bamboo canes or twiggy sticks and plant two sweet pea seedlings at the foot of each stick, or just create a tall central patch of some beautiful rich-coloured dahlias, such as the dark crimson, 'Rip City', 'Chat Noir' or 'Bishop of Auckland'. If you keep picking the flowers for the house, these will look good for months.
If you have plenty of space, you can also edge your paths with flowers, selecting plants that have a beneficial effect on your productive garden. Any yellow or orange flower – the poached egg plant (Limnanthes douglasii) and marigolds (Calendula 'Indian Prince') in particular – attract beneficial insects, lacewings and lady birds. If you draw a good population in, they will lay their eggs within the patch which then hatch into larvae. These love aphids and should keep your patch free of green and whitefly.
How to plan your garden vegetable patch
1. Soil matters
A garden that has been mostly lawn, flowers and shrubs will probably have soil that is fairly low in organic matter.
One of the first tasks of edible landscaping is to work in as much bulky organic matter as possible.
It must be well rotted - animal manure, bird feathers, sheep wool, shredded bark, wood, straw, cardboard, thick newspaper or compost are all ideal.
Where there is organic matter, there will be earthworms, and where there are worms all is right with the world.
2. Start with easy plants
Rhubarb and courgettes, with their big foliage, are quite easy to work into a design and they’re both very low-maintenance and productive.
3. Grow plants in modules
Plants grown in modules are easier to place and they allow you to make attractive patterns from an early stage. Plus you can replace any gaps.
Try violas together with lettuces and pretty little mangetout peas that trail and twine - they look attractive and are also productive.
4. Plan the layout
You need to be able to move in and out of your garden and you need spaces to pick and harvest from, preferably without compacting the soil.
A successful solution is to have stepping stones or keyhole paths where you can reach into a space and replant or harvest the latest crop. I use square pavers that I had kicking around as stepping stones.
I like them because they are not too heavy, so if I want to change positions they are easy to pick up and move elsewhere.
5. Celebrate the beautiful
You can get colour into a vegetable garden by simply planting flowers around the vegetables, either edible flowers, flowers for cutting or just flowers that you love.
Another way is to celebrate the flowers of vegetables.
The girlie pinks in my garden come in part from potato flowers of 'Red Duke of York’ and 'Maris Peer’, the dusky pastels include the blues and pinks ofmangetout pea flowers.
6. Consider spacing
All vegetables and flowers have an optimal spacing distance from their neighbours to allow them to grow big, fast. Sweetcorn is relatively thin and tall and the space around its feet is wasted if nothing is planted there.
Courgettes, pumpkins and lower growing vegetables can all be used as living mulch to keep the soil moist (which is how corn likes it) and to make the most of available space.
7. Drifts, not lines
A drift is a group of five or more plants of the same variety planted together, generally in a teardrop shape that is thicker in the middle and further apart on the outsides.
Using drifts of vegetables in an edible garden means creating a band of, say, lettuce around a courgette, or a drift of radishes along the edge of large, slower-growing vegetables.
You can give the majority the spacing they require, making a few compromises around the margins.
8. Use microclimates
You can’t grow kiwi or peaches in the middle of most gardens, but if you have a sheltered, sunny (south or south-west facing) wall or fence it’s a perfect microclimate for tender fruit.
Brick walls are particularly good as bricks absorb heat through the day and release it slowly overnight, keeping the plant that bit warmer.
9. Shop wisely
It is worth buying greenhouse-raised plants if you don’t have suitable space to raise seeds and want to grow heat-loving seedlings such as cucumbers, chillies, tomatoes and peppers.
To get ahead of the season, I quite often buy young chilli plants.
The best way to get lots of fruit is to raise a chilli plant in a greenhouse and bring it out into the garden for July, so you’ll get a better crop if you buy a young, greenhouse-raised plant and grow it on. This also works for tomatoes and sweet peppers (bring them outside in June).
10. Weed control
Once a polyculture system gets established there should be few weeds, as there is little bare ground.
The more you mulch with a thick covering of organic matter (homemade compost, bark, straw, newspaper) the less weeding you have to do.
Once your seedlings are established in the garden, weed carefully and mulch around them with compost and the best part of the job is done.
You’ll need a good 3-4in to smother weed seeds, so mulch as thickly as possible without smothering your young plants.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
You Can Get Healthy Skin Naturally
Skip the big commercial skin care junk across the board and focus on natural, healthy
ways to promote skin health.
Antioxidants represent your first and best line of defense against all forms of skin
damage, from age-related wrinkles, sunspots, and cancer to a clear and radiant
complexion. They neutralize the action of “free radicals,” rogue molecules that bind to
healthy cells, mutate DNA, and accelerate cell death.
These are your skin’s most potent allies against free radical damage. You’ll find all of
them in supplement form in health food stores or on line:
Vitamin C: In addition to fighting the action of free radicals, vitamin C reduces
inflammation and boosts immune response. Take 500 milligrams twice per day with food.
Carotenoids: Key antioxidants that not only promote skin health, they’re great for your
eyesight and also lower your risk of lung and breast cancer. Be sure to look for “mixed
carotenoids” when you buy. Take 2,500 IU daily.
Vitamin A: This is another fat-soluble vitamin in the carotenoid family. Take 2,500 IU
per day.
Vitamin D: In addition to all the health benefits I outlined before, this is a powerful
antioxidant. Take 1,000-2,000 IEUs per day.
Vitamin E: A major ally in skin health. I use 400 IU per day in my patients. Look for
“vitamin E as mixed tocopherols” on the label. These are the organic compounds most
readily absorbed by your body.
Alpha Lipoic Acid: “The universal antioxidant,” ALA fights free radicals in both the
fatty and watery tissues of the body. It also recycles and extends the life of other
antioxidants like vitamins A, C, and E. Take 100 mg per day from the alpha lipoic family.
CoQ10: A critical antioxidant every cell in your body needs to convert fuel into energy.
Take 30 mg per day, 60 mg if you’re over 60.
Look for skin care containing natural ingredients like plant-based oils (palm, coconut,
and jojoba are all great for your skin). These are rich in “phyto-nutrients,” antioxidants,
and amino acids – the basic building blocks your skin needs to regenerate, heal, and
grow.
Extract from the Aloe Vera plant soothes skin and protects against sunburn.
And, mango butter acts as an effective sun blocker without poisoning your skin.
ways to promote skin health.
Antioxidants represent your first and best line of defense against all forms of skin
damage, from age-related wrinkles, sunspots, and cancer to a clear and radiant
complexion. They neutralize the action of “free radicals,” rogue molecules that bind to
healthy cells, mutate DNA, and accelerate cell death.
These are your skin’s most potent allies against free radical damage. You’ll find all of
them in supplement form in health food stores or on line:
Vitamin C: In addition to fighting the action of free radicals, vitamin C reduces
inflammation and boosts immune response. Take 500 milligrams twice per day with food.
Carotenoids: Key antioxidants that not only promote skin health, they’re great for your
eyesight and also lower your risk of lung and breast cancer. Be sure to look for “mixed
carotenoids” when you buy. Take 2,500 IU daily.
Vitamin A: This is another fat-soluble vitamin in the carotenoid family. Take 2,500 IU
per day.
Vitamin D: In addition to all the health benefits I outlined before, this is a powerful
antioxidant. Take 1,000-2,000 IEUs per day.
Vitamin E: A major ally in skin health. I use 400 IU per day in my patients. Look for
“vitamin E as mixed tocopherols” on the label. These are the organic compounds most
readily absorbed by your body.
Alpha Lipoic Acid: “The universal antioxidant,” ALA fights free radicals in both the
fatty and watery tissues of the body. It also recycles and extends the life of other
antioxidants like vitamins A, C, and E. Take 100 mg per day from the alpha lipoic family.
CoQ10: A critical antioxidant every cell in your body needs to convert fuel into energy.
Take 30 mg per day, 60 mg if you’re over 60.
Look for skin care containing natural ingredients like plant-based oils (palm, coconut,
and jojoba are all great for your skin). These are rich in “phyto-nutrients,” antioxidants,
and amino acids – the basic building blocks your skin needs to regenerate, heal, and
grow.
Extract from the Aloe Vera plant soothes skin and protects against sunburn.
And, mango butter acts as an effective sun blocker without poisoning your skin.
The Skin Care Industry’s Billion Dollar Lie
Both My Wellness Clinic and my non-profit research center are headquartered in Florida,
the Sunshine State. Plentiful sunlight’s one of the main reasons people come here. Yet
many of them – including a lot of my patients – avoid the sun like the plague. They live
in constant fear of skin cancer. They hide out from the sun. And if they have to be in the
sun, they think their only option is to cover themselves with chemical sunscreens.
This is somewhat understandable. The multi-billion dollar skin care industry, with the
help of the mainstream medical establishment and the media, has everyone convinced
that the sun is Enemy Number One when it comes to skin health.
Here’s what you won’t hear: sunlight’s good for your skin and critical to your overall
health and well-being. Get enough of it, and you’ll actually reduce your risk for a wide
range of cancers.
What sunscreens are very good at is blocking UVA rays. Yet even that presents a
problem, because your skin needs exposure to UVA rays to make vitamin D.
That’s a huge problem, because vitamin D is a vitally important nutrient that insures
healthy function in just about every system in your body. Vitamin D’s also the most
potent cancer fighter in the world.
A report came out of a Nebraska university showing that vitamin D has the potential to
lower the risk of all cancers in women over 50 by 77 percent.1 And in a study published
in the journal Anticancer Research last October researchers found that sunlight – about
20 minutes a day for fair-skinned people, and two to four times that much for those with
dark skin – can reduce the risk of death from 16 types of cancer, in both men and
women.2
Sunscreens rob you of all these health benefits. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Here
are a few more important functions sun lotions deny your body when they prevent sun
from activating your skin’s vitamin D factory
Treating hypertension with water
Mike: For the pharmaceutical industry, the existence of disease is a business question, because let's face it, the pharmaceutical industry is a for-profit industry. Profits are always first, and at least it's my belief, and it seems that you share it, that any therapy that competes with those profits is minimized, marginalized or outright attacked.
Dr. B: Yes, recently there was an ad on the television. It was very interesting -- I didn't realize it at the beginning, but I now realize that the ad was speaking to me. In other words, it was an ad against my statements. Because I've said that the heartburn is a sign of dehydration in the human body and you should drink water. And this guy comes and sits at the counter and asks, “Give me a glass of water, my heartburn is killing me.” Or something like that. And the lady behind the counter says, “Water doesn't cure heartburn -- this medication does.” So see, this is how the pharmaceutical industry fights the information that I put out. But nonetheless, people who did discover that water could cure their heartburn are wiser than those who buy into that advertising stunt.
Mike: It seems like there are almost two different groups of people in the United States. There are those who are now dependent on multiple pharmaceuticals to treat everything, every symptom that they have, and who alter their body chemistry and their brain chemistry through drugs, and then there are those who are educating themselves about the true causes of health. They're drinking water, they're avoiding food additives, they're engaging in exercise -- it seems like there's a chasm that's widening between these two groups.
Dr. B: Absolutely. That's why alternative medicine has picked up and you're getting more people going to alternative medicine than conventional medicine. You see, I've sold at least over 600,000 copies of my book Your Body's Many Cries for Water over the past 10 years. And so I've had over several thousand radio interviews in the past 10 years. Information is getting out into the hands of the public, so the pharmaceutical industry has to naturally increase its advertising to nullify this information that I have put out. That is why they have produced this ad -- one of many, actually.
Anyway, we were talking about drought management programs in the body. Hypertension is another one of these problems. When there isn't enough water in the body, or the body becomes dehydrated, 66% of the water loss is from the interior of the cells. 26% is from the environment around the cells, and only 8% is lost from the vascular system. But the vascular system is an elastic system -- it tightens up and takes up the slack so you don't see the problem that is going on inside the cells of your body by testing your blood that is being tested in so many conditions. If people drank water on a regular basis and took enough salt and minerals to expand the capillary beds, hypertension would disappear completely.
And there are 60 million Americans who don't realize that actually hypertension is one of the manifestations of drought management programs of the body when the body begins to operate a reverse osmosis process, to deliver water into the interior of those cells which are 66% water deficient. Now the pharmaceutical industry and the medical doctors arrogantly and ignorantly are treating hypertension with diuretics.
Mike: Let's get rid of the water!
Dr. B: They are getting rid of the water in the body, at a lot of, how shall I say, effort.
Mike: Isn't this an example of the arrogance of modern medicine in believing that it knows more than nature, it knows more than the body?
Dr. B: We, as doctors, are really 007 agents of the pharmaceutical industry. We are totally blind and ignorant and the pharmaceutical industry has hijacked medicine. We learn a couple of years of physiology, and soon as we go on the clinical side we are asked to forget those and begin to learn pharmacology in order to treat symptoms rather than understand the primary cause of the health problem.
Mike: But you were trained in classic, conventional way...
Dr. B: I had to educate myself.
Dr. B: Yes, recently there was an ad on the television. It was very interesting -- I didn't realize it at the beginning, but I now realize that the ad was speaking to me. In other words, it was an ad against my statements. Because I've said that the heartburn is a sign of dehydration in the human body and you should drink water. And this guy comes and sits at the counter and asks, “Give me a glass of water, my heartburn is killing me.” Or something like that. And the lady behind the counter says, “Water doesn't cure heartburn -- this medication does.” So see, this is how the pharmaceutical industry fights the information that I put out. But nonetheless, people who did discover that water could cure their heartburn are wiser than those who buy into that advertising stunt.
Mike: It seems like there are almost two different groups of people in the United States. There are those who are now dependent on multiple pharmaceuticals to treat everything, every symptom that they have, and who alter their body chemistry and their brain chemistry through drugs, and then there are those who are educating themselves about the true causes of health. They're drinking water, they're avoiding food additives, they're engaging in exercise -- it seems like there's a chasm that's widening between these two groups.
Dr. B: Absolutely. That's why alternative medicine has picked up and you're getting more people going to alternative medicine than conventional medicine. You see, I've sold at least over 600,000 copies of my book Your Body's Many Cries for Water over the past 10 years. And so I've had over several thousand radio interviews in the past 10 years. Information is getting out into the hands of the public, so the pharmaceutical industry has to naturally increase its advertising to nullify this information that I have put out. That is why they have produced this ad -- one of many, actually.
Anyway, we were talking about drought management programs in the body. Hypertension is another one of these problems. When there isn't enough water in the body, or the body becomes dehydrated, 66% of the water loss is from the interior of the cells. 26% is from the environment around the cells, and only 8% is lost from the vascular system. But the vascular system is an elastic system -- it tightens up and takes up the slack so you don't see the problem that is going on inside the cells of your body by testing your blood that is being tested in so many conditions. If people drank water on a regular basis and took enough salt and minerals to expand the capillary beds, hypertension would disappear completely.
And there are 60 million Americans who don't realize that actually hypertension is one of the manifestations of drought management programs of the body when the body begins to operate a reverse osmosis process, to deliver water into the interior of those cells which are 66% water deficient. Now the pharmaceutical industry and the medical doctors arrogantly and ignorantly are treating hypertension with diuretics.
Mike: Let's get rid of the water!
Dr. B: They are getting rid of the water in the body, at a lot of, how shall I say, effort.
Mike: Isn't this an example of the arrogance of modern medicine in believing that it knows more than nature, it knows more than the body?
Dr. B: We, as doctors, are really 007 agents of the pharmaceutical industry. We are totally blind and ignorant and the pharmaceutical industry has hijacked medicine. We learn a couple of years of physiology, and soon as we go on the clinical side we are asked to forget those and begin to learn pharmacology in order to treat symptoms rather than understand the primary cause of the health problem.
Mike: But you were trained in classic, conventional way...
Dr. B: I had to educate myself.
The Wonders of Water: Amazing Secrets for Health and Wellness
Water prevents and helps to cure heartburn.
Heartburn is a signal of water shortage in the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract. It is a major thirst signal of the human body. The use of antacids or tablet medications in the treatment of this pain does not correct dehydration, and the body continues to suffer as a result of its water shortage.
Not recognizing heartburn as a sign of dehydration and treating it with antacids and pill medications will, in time, produce inflammation of the stomach and duodenum, hiatal hernia, ulceration, and eventually cancers in the gastrointestinal tract, including the liver and pancreas.
Water prevents and helps to cure arthritis.
Rheumatoid joint pain - arthritis - is a signal of water shortage in the painful joint. It can affect the young as well as the old. The use of pain-killers does not cure the problem, but exposes the person to further damage from pain medications. Intake of water and small amounts of salt will cure this problem.
Water prevents and helps to cure back pain.
Low back pain and ankylosing arthritis of the spine are signs of water shortage in the spinal column and discs - the water cushions that support the weight of the body. These conditions should be treated with increased water intake - not a commercial treatment, but a very effective one.
Not recognizing arthritis and low back pain as signs of dehydration in the joint cavities and treating them with pain-killers, manipulation, acupuncture, and eventually surgery will, in time, produce osteoarthritis when the cartilage cells in the joints have eventually all died. It will produce deformity of the spine. It will produce crippling deformities of the limbs. Pain medications have their own life-threatening complications.
Water prevents and helps to cure angina.
Heart pain - angina - is a sign of water shortage in the heart/lung axis. It should be treated with increased water intake until the patient is free of pain and independent of medications. Medical supervision is prudent. However, increased water intake is angina's cure.
Water prevents and helps to cure migraines.
Migraine headache is a sign of water need by the brain and the eyes. It will totally clear up if dehydration is prevented from establishing in the body. The type of dehydration that causes migraine might eventually cause inflammation of the back of the eye and possibly loss of eye sight.
Water prevents and helps to cure colitis.
Colitis pain is a signal of water shortage in the large gut. It is associated with constipation because the large intestine constricts to squeeze the last drop of water from the excrements - thus the lack of water lubrication.
Not recognizing colitis pain as a sign of dehydration will cause persistent constipation. Later in life, it will cause fecal impacting: it can cause diverticulitis, hemorrhoids and polyps, and appreciably increases the possibility of developing cancer of the colon and rectum.
Water and salt prevent and helps to cure asthma.
Asthma, which also affects 14 million children and kills several thousand of them every year, is a complication of dehydration in the body. It is caused by the drought management programs of the body. In asthma free passage of air is obstructed so that water does not leave the body in the form of vapor - the winter steam. Increased water intake will prevent asthma attacks. Asthmatics need also to take more salt to break the mucus plugs in the lungs that obstruct the free flow of air in and out of the air sacs.
Not recognizing asthma as the indicator of dehydration in the body of a growing child not only will sentence many thousands of children to die every year, but will permit irreversible genetic damage to establish in the remaining 14 million asthmatic children.
Water prevents and helps to cure high blood pressure.
Hypertension is a state of adaptation of the body to a generalized drought, when there is not enough water to fill all the blood vessels that diffuse water into vital cells. As part of the mechanism of reverse osmosis, when water from the blood serum is filtered and injected into important cells through minute holes in their membranes, extra pressure is needed for the "injection process." Just as we inject I.V. "water" in hospitals, so the body injects water into tens of trillions of cells all at the same time. Water and some salt intake will bring blood pressure back to normal!
Not recognizing hypertension as one of the major indicators of dehydration in the human body, and treating it with diuretics that further dehydrate the body will, in time, cause blockage by cholesterol of the heart arteries and the arteries that go to the brain. It will cause heart attacks and small or massive strokes that paralyze. It will eventually cause kidney disease. It will cause brain damage and neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease.
Water prevents and helps to cure early adult-onset diabetes.
Adult-onset diabetes is another adaptive state to severe dehydration of the human body. To have adequate water in circulation and for the brain's priority water needs, the release of insulin is inhibited to prevent insulin from pushing water into all body cells. In diabetes, only some cells get survival rations of water. Water and some salt will reverse adult-onset diabetes in its early stages.
Not recognizing adult-onset diabetes as a complication of dehydration will, in time, cause massive damage to the blood vessels all over the body. It will cause eventual loss of the toes, feet and legs from gangrene. It will cause eye damage, even blindness.
Water lowers blood cholesterol.
High cholesterol levels are an indicator of early drought management by the body. Cholesterol is a clay-like material that is poured in the gaps of some cell membranes to safeguard them against losing their vital water content to the osmotically more powerful blood circulating in their vicinity. Cholesterol, apart from being used to manufacture nerve cell membranes and hormones, is also used as a "shield" against water taxation of other vital cells that would normally exchange water through their cell membranes.
Green Tea Protects the Heart
(NaturalNews) Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) views the heart as the master of the body and the emperor of the organ networks. It generates chi, the vital energy of the body, and thus is the root of all life1. Without a healthy heart, the body is fragile and stale. While many of us know that heart disease is rampant in the United States, we remain largely unaware of a powerful tool in its prevention: green tea. The heart protective effects of green tea can be attributed mainly to its antioxidant and anti-obesity properties, while other mechanisms play supporting roles. Each of these mechanisms will be discussed below in terms of TCM as well as Western medicine.
First, the antioxidant properties of green tea can be traced to its polyphenols, defined simply as groups of chemical substances in a plant. These polyphenols act as little superheros, taking the place of cells in danger of becoming oxidized and facing the oxidation themselves. In this way, they prevent the formation of free radicals - highly reactive atoms that can damage heart cells and, in TCM, leave cells incapable of generating chi2. Research at the Graduate School of Medicine in Kyoto, Japan confirmed that green tea polyphenols can protect a heart from oxidative stress, as well as maintain good left ventricular function after ischemic arrest (restriction in the heart's blood supply) and reperfusion (tissue damage caused when the blood supply returns)3. A study at Aichi Medical University in Japan similarly concluded that green tea is useful to ischemia-reperfusion hearts due to its ability to fight free radicals,4 and research at the University of Padova in Italy found that green tea extract prevented hypertension and targeted organ damage induced in rats, likely by scavenging free radicals.5
There are four primary polyphenols in green tea and they are often collectively referred to as catechins, the most publicized of which is Epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG. At Chungbuk National University in Cheongju, Korea, research suggests that EGCG prevents the development of left ventricular concentric hypertrophy (pathological thickening of the ventricle walls) due to high blood pressure and may be useful in preventing cardiac remodeling (changes in size, shape or function of the heart) in patients with diseases that strain the heart muscle.6 Furthermore, a 2004 review study at Complutense University of Madrid in Spain confirmed that catechins consumption decreases cholesterol absorption and plasma levels, scavenges free-radicals thereby inhibiting LDL oxidation, decreases systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and decreases body weight by interfering with fatty acid synthesis.7
This ability of green tea to aid weight loss has been well-documented, and maintaining a healthy weight is intimately related to heart vigor. The tea's anti-obesity properties can be attributed to its effects on lipid metabolism as well as its thermogenic (heat-producing) activity. A 2006 study at the University of Madras in Chennai, India found that the administration of green tea extract decreased cholesterol, triglyceride, free fatty acid levels and lipoprotein lipase activity in the heart of diabetic rats.8 Lipase is an enzyme that allows fat to be broken down - if its activity is decreased, cholesterol and triglycerides are removed rather than stored. A 2003 study at Roche Vitamins in Basel, Switzerland,9 a 2006 study at the University of Hawaii10 and a 2007 study at the University of Connecticut11 further confirm green tea's lipid-lowering capabilities. In addition, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study at the University of Medicine in Berlin confirmed that EGCG alone has the potential to increase fat oxidation in men and may thereby contribute to the anti-obesity effects of green tea.12 In relation to thermogenesis (heat production that leads to increased metabolism), green tea, by containing both catechins and caffeine, may promote thermogenesis through inhibition of certain enzymes (catechol O-methyl-transferase and phosphodiesterase). In addition, tea catechins have anti-angiogenic (enlarging of blood vessels) properties that may prevent the development of excess weight.13 In TCM, weight loss involves limiting salty and sweet foods and increasing bitter and pungent foods. Green tea, a bitter food, is recommended.14
These two health-giving properties of green tea -- antioxidant activity and weight loss promotion -- combine to additionally protect the heart in those with diabetes, as hyperglycemia-induced oxidative stress has been proposed as a cause of many complications of diabetes including cardiac dysfunction. Research at the University of Madras found that green tea extract ameliorates oxidative stress in the aorta and the heart of diabetic rats given streptozotocin (a chemical that is toxic to the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas). This suggests that green tea may be useful in the reversal of oxidative stress-induced cardiac dysfunction in diabetics.15 Another study at the University of Madras found that green tea improves the quality of heart collagen, also possibly therapeutic in the treatment of cardiovascular complications of diabetes.16
Another mechanism by which green tea protects the heart is quelling inflammation. Research at the Children's Hospital Research Foundation in Cincinnati, Ohio found that ECGC inhibits the expression of the interleukin-8 gene--a key gene involved in the inflammatory response.17 In TCM, inflammation is a result of consuming too many heating foods, such as meat, cooked oils, and processed sugar. The treatment involves consuming cooling foods, of which green tea, although often served hot, is a superstar due to its alkaloid content.18
To conclude, green tea is an excellent guard of the emperor, protecting the heart through a wide range of mechanisms. In this way, green tea is highly effective in ensuring a strong, healthy body pulsing vibrantly with chi, the energy of life.
First, the antioxidant properties of green tea can be traced to its polyphenols, defined simply as groups of chemical substances in a plant. These polyphenols act as little superheros, taking the place of cells in danger of becoming oxidized and facing the oxidation themselves. In this way, they prevent the formation of free radicals - highly reactive atoms that can damage heart cells and, in TCM, leave cells incapable of generating chi2. Research at the Graduate School of Medicine in Kyoto, Japan confirmed that green tea polyphenols can protect a heart from oxidative stress, as well as maintain good left ventricular function after ischemic arrest (restriction in the heart's blood supply) and reperfusion (tissue damage caused when the blood supply returns)3. A study at Aichi Medical University in Japan similarly concluded that green tea is useful to ischemia-reperfusion hearts due to its ability to fight free radicals,4 and research at the University of Padova in Italy found that green tea extract prevented hypertension and targeted organ damage induced in rats, likely by scavenging free radicals.5
There are four primary polyphenols in green tea and they are often collectively referred to as catechins, the most publicized of which is Epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG. At Chungbuk National University in Cheongju, Korea, research suggests that EGCG prevents the development of left ventricular concentric hypertrophy (pathological thickening of the ventricle walls) due to high blood pressure and may be useful in preventing cardiac remodeling (changes in size, shape or function of the heart) in patients with diseases that strain the heart muscle.6 Furthermore, a 2004 review study at Complutense University of Madrid in Spain confirmed that catechins consumption decreases cholesterol absorption and plasma levels, scavenges free-radicals thereby inhibiting LDL oxidation, decreases systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and decreases body weight by interfering with fatty acid synthesis.7
This ability of green tea to aid weight loss has been well-documented, and maintaining a healthy weight is intimately related to heart vigor. The tea's anti-obesity properties can be attributed to its effects on lipid metabolism as well as its thermogenic (heat-producing) activity. A 2006 study at the University of Madras in Chennai, India found that the administration of green tea extract decreased cholesterol, triglyceride, free fatty acid levels and lipoprotein lipase activity in the heart of diabetic rats.8 Lipase is an enzyme that allows fat to be broken down - if its activity is decreased, cholesterol and triglycerides are removed rather than stored. A 2003 study at Roche Vitamins in Basel, Switzerland,9 a 2006 study at the University of Hawaii10 and a 2007 study at the University of Connecticut11 further confirm green tea's lipid-lowering capabilities. In addition, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study at the University of Medicine in Berlin confirmed that EGCG alone has the potential to increase fat oxidation in men and may thereby contribute to the anti-obesity effects of green tea.12 In relation to thermogenesis (heat production that leads to increased metabolism), green tea, by containing both catechins and caffeine, may promote thermogenesis through inhibition of certain enzymes (catechol O-methyl-transferase and phosphodiesterase). In addition, tea catechins have anti-angiogenic (enlarging of blood vessels) properties that may prevent the development of excess weight.13 In TCM, weight loss involves limiting salty and sweet foods and increasing bitter and pungent foods. Green tea, a bitter food, is recommended.14
These two health-giving properties of green tea -- antioxidant activity and weight loss promotion -- combine to additionally protect the heart in those with diabetes, as hyperglycemia-induced oxidative stress has been proposed as a cause of many complications of diabetes including cardiac dysfunction. Research at the University of Madras found that green tea extract ameliorates oxidative stress in the aorta and the heart of diabetic rats given streptozotocin (a chemical that is toxic to the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas). This suggests that green tea may be useful in the reversal of oxidative stress-induced cardiac dysfunction in diabetics.15 Another study at the University of Madras found that green tea improves the quality of heart collagen, also possibly therapeutic in the treatment of cardiovascular complications of diabetes.16
Another mechanism by which green tea protects the heart is quelling inflammation. Research at the Children's Hospital Research Foundation in Cincinnati, Ohio found that ECGC inhibits the expression of the interleukin-8 gene--a key gene involved in the inflammatory response.17 In TCM, inflammation is a result of consuming too many heating foods, such as meat, cooked oils, and processed sugar. The treatment involves consuming cooling foods, of which green tea, although often served hot, is a superstar due to its alkaloid content.18
To conclude, green tea is an excellent guard of the emperor, protecting the heart through a wide range of mechanisms. In this way, green tea is highly effective in ensuring a strong, healthy body pulsing vibrantly with chi, the energy of life.
Green Tea Shown to Fight Colds, Flu and Even Cancer
(NaturalNews) Various health benefits have been discovered in relation to drinking green tea and taking green tea extracts. These benefits include such things as decreasing the severity of cold and flu symptoms and decreasing the risk and growth of cancer.
Green tea is made from the leaves of the plant Camellia sinensis which is a type of evergreen. Green tea has many active ingredients including polyphnolic compounds known as catechins which act as antioxidants.
A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition looked at the effect of green tea on health during the flu season. The study followed 118 healthy adults for three months during flu season; the participants ingested a capsule twice per day. The capsule was either decaffeinated green tea extract, which contained a standardized amount of the two immune-activating plant components found in green tea - L-theanine and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG); or a placebo.
The green tea group when compared with the placebo group experienced 32.1% fewer cold and flu symptoms. The green tea group reported 22.9% fewer illnesses which lasted two or more days. Of the green tea group that did experience illness only 5.7% of them became ill enough that they sought medical care, in comparison to 12.7% in the placebo group. Other studies have also shown that gargling with green tea can aid in the prevention of cold and flu. The Japanese study showed that the virus which causes the flu can become non-infectious by having 5 seconds of contact with green tea.
In animal studies the antioxidants called catechins found in green tea have been shown to help inhibit cancer in three major ways. The first is by scavenging free radicals and possibly helping to repair any damage caused by the free radicals to the DNA. The second is by reducing the incidence and size of tumors. The third is by inhibiting tumor cell growth. Another study published in a recent issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology has shown that the antioxidant EGCG found in green tea is involved in slowing tumor growth by binding to a protein on tumor cells. The effect of EGCG on tumor cells appears to be most beneficial with lung, breast, and prostate cancers.
Green tea is a very powerful natural food. As more studies are conducted more health benefits are found in relation to the active ingredients in green tea.
http://bastyrcenter.org/content/vie...
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle...
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/2004...
Green tea is made from the leaves of the plant Camellia sinensis which is a type of evergreen. Green tea has many active ingredients including polyphnolic compounds known as catechins which act as antioxidants.
A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition looked at the effect of green tea on health during the flu season. The study followed 118 healthy adults for three months during flu season; the participants ingested a capsule twice per day. The capsule was either decaffeinated green tea extract, which contained a standardized amount of the two immune-activating plant components found in green tea - L-theanine and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG); or a placebo.
The green tea group when compared with the placebo group experienced 32.1% fewer cold and flu symptoms. The green tea group reported 22.9% fewer illnesses which lasted two or more days. Of the green tea group that did experience illness only 5.7% of them became ill enough that they sought medical care, in comparison to 12.7% in the placebo group. Other studies have also shown that gargling with green tea can aid in the prevention of cold and flu. The Japanese study showed that the virus which causes the flu can become non-infectious by having 5 seconds of contact with green tea.
In animal studies the antioxidants called catechins found in green tea have been shown to help inhibit cancer in three major ways. The first is by scavenging free radicals and possibly helping to repair any damage caused by the free radicals to the DNA. The second is by reducing the incidence and size of tumors. The third is by inhibiting tumor cell growth. Another study published in a recent issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology has shown that the antioxidant EGCG found in green tea is involved in slowing tumor growth by binding to a protein on tumor cells. The effect of EGCG on tumor cells appears to be most beneficial with lung, breast, and prostate cancers.
Green tea is a very powerful natural food. As more studies are conducted more health benefits are found in relation to the active ingredients in green tea.
http://bastyrcenter.org/content/vie...
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle...
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/2004...
polyphenols in green tea may protect health of diabetics
(NaturalNews) Having a cup of tea involves a lot more than meets the eye -- and the taste buds. It turns out that many varieties of teas contain phytochemicals loaded with a host of health benefits. For example, as NaturalNews has previously reported, green tea in particular may help prevent and treat osteoporosis (http://www.naturalnews.com/027194_g...) and research has shown it could fight lung cancer, too (http://www.naturalnews.com/028877_l...). Now scientists have documented how a catechin (a polyphenol plant compound) in green tea known as epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) may protect people with high-glucose conditions such as diabetes and the pre-diabetic metabolic syndrome from heart disease and other medical ills.
Polyphenols, including EGCG, comprise around 30% of the dry leaf weight of green tea and researchers think EGCG is one of the most beneficial types of all the natural phytochemicals. In fact, recent studies have shown EGCG has a positive impact on arthritis, mental health problems, oral health, heart disease and even weight loss.
Researchers have also noted a link between consuming green tea and the risk of developing diabetes. In a new study just published in the journal Food Chemistry, a team of researchers from the Department of Food Science and Biotechnology at National Chung-Hsing University and the National Institute of Cancer Research in Taiwan have determined that under high-glucose conditions, EGCG may trigger beneficial processes in the body. This suggests the green tea component can protect diabetics and those with pre-diabetic conditions from serious complications.
In lab experiments, the scientists found that EGCG appears to play a role in controlling low-density lipoprotein (LDL or the "bad" cholesterol) and, perhaps most importantly, it protects from a reaction called glycation that can produce an array of health problems. Glycation (sometimes called non-enzymatic glycosylation) occurs when simple sugar molecules, such as fructose or glucose, become attached to proteins or fats without the moderation of an enzyme. This results in rogue molecules known as advanced glycation end products that can produce health risks by impairing the function of various biomolecules.
For their new study, the Taiwanese researchers set out to determine the antioxidant and antiglycation effects of EGCG under high-glucose conditions that mimicked high blood sugar conditions in diabetics and pre-diabetics. Working in lab experiments, they used human plasma that was treated with EGCG. Then LDL was removed from the plasma and challenged to oxidation testing. The results showed the treatment with the green tea EGCC made the "bad" type of blood fat resistant to oxidation, suggesting it helps fight heart disease. In addition, the EGCG was bound to the LDL and that inhibited glycation.
Bottom line: these finding suggest that the green tea extract protects from the harmful cascade of detrimental effects that are known to be triggered by high glucose levels.
"This study suggests that loading plasma with EGCG is an efficient way to increase the content of this phytochemical in LDL, which may imply favorable in vivo activity of EGCG in diabetes," the researchers wrote. They added that the green tea component seemed to possess a "rather specific and somewhat different degree of antiglycative action and lipoprotein-binding activity" than has been noted with other polyphenols. In other words, it may be a particularly powerful natural way to help prevent the harms associated with high blood sugar levels.
Polyphenols, including EGCG, comprise around 30% of the dry leaf weight of green tea and researchers think EGCG is one of the most beneficial types of all the natural phytochemicals. In fact, recent studies have shown EGCG has a positive impact on arthritis, mental health problems, oral health, heart disease and even weight loss.
Researchers have also noted a link between consuming green tea and the risk of developing diabetes. In a new study just published in the journal Food Chemistry, a team of researchers from the Department of Food Science and Biotechnology at National Chung-Hsing University and the National Institute of Cancer Research in Taiwan have determined that under high-glucose conditions, EGCG may trigger beneficial processes in the body. This suggests the green tea component can protect diabetics and those with pre-diabetic conditions from serious complications.
In lab experiments, the scientists found that EGCG appears to play a role in controlling low-density lipoprotein (LDL or the "bad" cholesterol) and, perhaps most importantly, it protects from a reaction called glycation that can produce an array of health problems. Glycation (sometimes called non-enzymatic glycosylation) occurs when simple sugar molecules, such as fructose or glucose, become attached to proteins or fats without the moderation of an enzyme. This results in rogue molecules known as advanced glycation end products that can produce health risks by impairing the function of various biomolecules.
For their new study, the Taiwanese researchers set out to determine the antioxidant and antiglycation effects of EGCG under high-glucose conditions that mimicked high blood sugar conditions in diabetics and pre-diabetics. Working in lab experiments, they used human plasma that was treated with EGCG. Then LDL was removed from the plasma and challenged to oxidation testing. The results showed the treatment with the green tea EGCC made the "bad" type of blood fat resistant to oxidation, suggesting it helps fight heart disease. In addition, the EGCG was bound to the LDL and that inhibited glycation.
Bottom line: these finding suggest that the green tea extract protects from the harmful cascade of detrimental effects that are known to be triggered by high glucose levels.
"This study suggests that loading plasma with EGCG is an efficient way to increase the content of this phytochemical in LDL, which may imply favorable in vivo activity of EGCG in diabetes," the researchers wrote. They added that the green tea component seemed to possess a "rather specific and somewhat different degree of antiglycative action and lipoprotein-binding activity" than has been noted with other polyphenols. In other words, it may be a particularly powerful natural way to help prevent the harms associated with high blood sugar levels.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
SAUNA HEALTH BENEFITS
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| Note: You should always check with your doctor or physician first. Your physician will notify you of any restrictions related to the sauna. |
Monday, August 16, 2010
MENU DIET 13 DAYS WITHOUT SALT
13 DAY DIET MENU
Taboo: SALT
REQUIREMENTS:
1. One day drink 8 glasses of plain water (not ice water), approximately 2 liters of water
2. Fried beefsteak in Danish Butter / Coconut Oil / Butter unsalted (fresh)
3. Vegetables are usually 1 bunch spinach, do not be boiled too long (without salt), and lettuce eaten raw
4. Last supper pk. 18:00
5. Drinkable water every hour
6. Should stay at home because we pee a day to reach 8x
7. Bowel rarely because almost all the food is absorbed by the body
8. This diet only remove fat, do not be afraid no side effects
ADVANTAGES:
1. This diet, if followed completely (do not deviate at all), will lower your weight 7-8 kg
2. This diet has been investigated that the chemical conditions in the body the better, so there is no possibility to become fat again
3. Provided that after the 14th day, eat normally again (no exaggeration)
4. This diet is done once a year
TO NOTE:
If forgotten,or suddenly eating something that deviates from the diet, this diet must be started again from the first day. For the future though our weight down, but likely to be fat again will happen with the existence of these irregularities.
detox diet
This is a sample menu for a day on the detox diet.
Upon rising- 1/2 lemon squeezed into a glass of warm water
- 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds in a glass of water
- breakfast smoothie made with pear, rice milk and rice protein powder
- supplements: vitamin C
- apple juice diluted with water
- water
- vegetable broth
- celery sticks and hummus
- chunky vegetable soup made with vegetable stock and your choice of vegetables
- steamed broccoli with sesame seeds and beets sprinkled with lemon juice on brown rice
- apple sauce
- supplements: multivitamin
- carrot sticks with hummus dip
- water
- supplements: milk thistle
- curried lentils on quinoa
- salad with mixed greens, red peppers, artichokes and sprouts drizzled with salad dressing of garlic, lemon juice and olive oil
- vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds in a glass of water
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