Month: April 2012

I have said before that have been consequences to the media’s “war on the sun” – trying to keep everyone out of the sun is leading to Vitamin D deficiency! Here’s another great reason to increase Vitamin D in your system! (I would argue that a natural source of lowering hypertension is BETTER than a drug… not “as good as” one!)

Vitamin D ‘as good as drugs’ at reducing high blood pressure

“The once a day tablets, available from chemists, produced reductions in high blood pressure ‘as powerful’ as medicines, a Danish study has found.

A group to 112 patients with high blood pressure were given the supplements for 20 weeks and showed significant improvements in their condition.

The findings were presented at the European Society of Hypertension conference in London.
High blood pressure affects 16m adults in Britain and accounts for 62,000 deaths mostly by causing strokes and heart attacks.

Vitamin D can be obtained from food but most is made in the skin from sunlight, however in Britain this can only happen in stronger light in the summer months.

They were treated at Holstebro Hospital in Denmark which is on a similar latitude to Glasgow and Moscow.

Of the 112 participants 92 were found to have low levels of vitamin D at the start of the study.

The researchers found that those patients taking the vitamin D supplement showed a significant reduction in central systolic blood pressure, measured at the aorta, near the heart, when compared to the placebo group.”

The herb thyme is shown to be a tremendous benefit in fighting bacteria caused acne!

Thyme may be a good treatment for acne

“Acne as defined by PubMed Health is a skin condition that causes pimples or ‘zits.’ This encompasses whiteheads, blackheads, and red, inflammed patches of skin such as cysts. Although acne is most common in teenagers, anyone can get acne. Many acne sufferers in Syracuse share a desire for natural treatments for this condition instead of drugs with their potential side effects. Thyme has surfaced as a natural remedy with promise for the treatment of acne.

A news release from the Society for General Microbiology states that ‘Thyme may be better for acne than prescription creams.’ According to new research herbal preparations of thyme could be more effective at treating skin acne than prescription creams. Researchers from Leeds Metropolitan University tested the effect of thyme, marigold and myrrh tinctures on Propionibacterium acnes, which is the bacterium that causes acne.

The researchers found that while all the preparations were able to kill the bacterium after five minutes exposure, thyme was the most effective of the three. They also discovered that thyme tincture had a greater antibacterial effect than standard concentrations of benzoyl peroxide, which is the active ingredient in most anti-acne creams or washes.

Dr Margarita Gomez-Escalada, the lead researcher, has said ‘While thyme, marigold and myrrh are common herbal alternatives to standard antibacterial skin washes, this is the first study to demonstrate the effect they have on the bacterium that causes the infection leading to acne.’ These initial findings open the way for more research into the use of tinctures as a treatment for acne.

Dr Gomez-Escalada has said ‘We now need to carry out further tests in conditions that mimic more closely the skin environment and work out at the molecular level how these tinctures are working. If thyme tincture is proven to be as clinically effective as our findings suggest, it may be a natural alternative to current treatments.’ An herbal treatment for acne would be great news for people suffering from acne, particularly those who have skin sensitivity to drug treatments.”