Year: 2007

I always say, “YOU are the person most responsible for your personal health!” Well, you need to pay attention to what you are eating when these news stories come out!

Dirty jars suspected in peanut butter contamination

“Government scientists struggled Thursday to pinpoint the source of the first U.S. salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter. Nearly 300 people in 39 states including Missouri have fallen ill since August, and federal health investigators said they strongly suspect Peter Pan peanut butter and certain batches of Wal-Mart’s Great Value house brand — both manufactured by ConAgra Foods Inc. Shoppers across the country were warned to throw out jars with a product code on the lid beginning with ‘2111,’ which denotes the plant where it was made. Both Gerbes and Schnucks in Columbia have taken the suspect jars off their shelves.”

“An herb called danshen — traditionally used in China as a medicine for high blood pressure — has been shown to reduce hypertension in hamsters, according to a study published in the American Journal of Physiology. Researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey administered danshen’s active ingredient — the chemical tanshinone IIA — to hamsters with hypertension. The hamsters’ blood vessels dilated in response, and their blood pressure decreased as a result. Researchers hypothesize that danshen causes this effect by increasing the body’s production of nitric oxide. Danshen, known by the scientific name Salvia miltiorrhiza, is a variety of sage. David Kim, author of the study and assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, is a licensed acupuncturist who prescribes danshen to his own high-blood-pressure patients. ‘Traditionally, we knew this was working for high blood pressure,’ he said, ‘but we didn’t know what the mechanism was.’ Kim says he wants to further study how long danshen’s effects last after it is administered. ‘In Western medicine, [a treatment] works fast but doesn’t last long,’ he said. ‘In Oriental medicine, it works slowly, but it lasts.'”

Chinese herb lowers blood pressure, reduces hypertension

As it is with most Naturopathic and Natural Health remedies… it takes a while to see a difference, but the effects are long lasting, and have fewer, or no, side effects! So, patience, good, natural approaches… lead to better health!

And otherwise cut down on stress. That’s the message from a new study… at least three 30 minutes naps a week can cut the risk of dying from a heart attack by 37%!

Researchers find a nap is just what the heart needs

“People who take at least three daytime naps a week lasting 30 minutes or longer cut their risk of dying from a heart attack by 37 percent, according to a study by a team of U.S. and Greek researchers. Regular siestas apparently lower stress, which is frequently associated with heart disease, the scientists report in Monday’s edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine, a leading medical journal. ‘If you can take a midday nap, do so,’ advised co-author Dimitrios Trichopoulos, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. Trichopoulos and a colleague, Androniki Naska of the Athens Medical School, followed 23,681 originally healthy men and women in Greece for more than six years. Of these, 792 died, 133 of them from coronary heart disease. Slightly more than half the study group took regular midday naps — a mark of siestas’ popularity in Mediterranean societies. The nappers’ death rate was about two-thirds the rate among Greeks who stayed awake all day, the study found. The reasons for napping’s life-saving merits aren’t definitely known, but a number of studies have found links between heart troubles and physical or emotional stress.”

Yeah, right. So, you have tried to stop smoking and have been frustrated? No problem! Have a surgeon cut out a small portion of your brain, and BAM! You will forget that you even ever used to smoke! Great solution, huh? (I am being factitious!)

The brain zone that makes us smoke

“Scientists have discovered that some brain-damaged patients can give up smoking effortlessly, which could herald a major breakthrough in treating nicotine cravings. A region deep in the brain called the insula is intimately involved in smoking addiction, and damage to this structure can erase the body’s urge to light up a cigarette. Indeed, the structure, which is the size of a 50p piece, is being billed as possibly the ‘Achilles heel’ of addiction. The study published today in the journal Science was inspired by a patient who had smoked about 40 cigarettes a day before suffering a stroke. He quit immediately afterwards. ‘I forgot the urge to smoke,’ he told the team led by Dr. Antoine Bechara of the University of Southern California, who worked with colleagues at the University of Iowa. ‘This man had smoked since the age of 14 and had his stroke at age 28,’ Dr. Bechara told The Daily Telegraph. ‘He tried so many times before to quit but was never able to. ‘But he smoked his last cigarette on the evening before his stroke and has not lit up another in over 10 years now. His quitting was like a switch being turned off.’ The scientists concluded that insula damage reduced the patients’ actual urge to smoke rather than reducing the pleasurable experience. Prof. Paul Matthews, of the University of Oxford and Imperial College, and vice-president for GlaxoSmith Kline, said: ‘The most remarkable finding in this study is that damage to a particular brain area may block this urge. ‘Now we can ask: could a functional neurosurgeon implant stimulation electrodes to do the same thing? Could there be a surgical ‘cure’ for smoking?'”

OK… I am not the one to ask… but “Could there be a surgical “cure” for smoking?” I say, “You HAVE to be kidding!” (Sadly, they aren’t!)

“Krill oil is derived from the planktonic family of crustaceans and is rich in omega-3 fats, phospholipids and antioxidants. In the recently completed clinical trial on ADHD, researchers evaluated the cognitive effects of krill oil as measured by Barkley’s Executive Function score of behavior inhibition, daily functional capacity and social behavior. The study examined 30 adults with a confirmed diagnosis of ADHD. The study on ADHD found that patients improved their ability to concentrate and their working capacity by an average of 60.2 percent after taking a daily 500mg dose of krill oil for six months. Researchers also reported a 50 percent improvement in planning skills and a 48.8 percent improvement in social skills. ADHD strikes between 4 percent and 12 percent of children and 1 percent and 6 percent of adults in North America.”

Krill Oil: The Proven Natural Treatment Option for ADHD

Krill oil is a great source of Omega-3 fatty acids, and is of benefit to anyone… not just those that have ADHD. Brain health in general is improved by supplementing krill oil. Dr. Mercola goes on to point out: “This study also confirms my initial excitement with krill when I first became aware of it a bit more than a year ago. The phosphate bonding to the omega-3 fats allow for really outstanding penetration into the nervous tissue and tends to produce even better results than simple omega-3 fats.”

I, personally, take krill oil as a supplement, and I can attest to the benefits!

We have been covering the importance of Vitamin D and how we are facing a crisis of deficiency because “they” have been telling us for years to stay out of the sun. (We produce Vitamin D naturally when our skin is exposed to sunlight.) Now, in order to fight cancer, they have created a “mega-D” pill. Does anyone else see this as crazy!?

Vitamin pill for prostate cancer

“Exposure to Vitamin D from sunlight is known to improve the prognosis of certain cancers. US drug company Novacea has produced a pill which delivers a concentrated dose of the vitamin without running the risk of side-effects from an overdose. Chemistry and Industry magazine reports that if clinical trials of the drug – Asentar (DN-101) – are successful it could be available by 2009. The drug would be given to patients in the advanced stages of the disease, along with chemotherapy drugs. Professor Nick James, a cancer expert at the University of Birmingham, said the drug had produced impressive results in preliminary phase two trials. He said patients taking the drug lived for an average of an extra nine months longer than those taking another chemotherapy drug – taxotere – alone. Professor James said: ‘On average, patients in the advanced stage of the disease survive about 18 months, so an extension of nine months would be very significant in my view.’ Asentar provides levels of vitamin D 50 to 100 times higher than normal. Patients would be expected to take one tablet once a week with their weekly regime of taxotere for three weeks out of every four.”

So… now you can take your chemical poison (chemotherapy) with a strong dose of a vitamin. Weird.

We have already reported on this to some extent, but I thought it would be worth repeating this information. This is a BIG story… that is NOT getting enough “airtime” on the major news sources!

Study: Hot chili pepper compound kills cancer without side effects

Capsaicin — the compound that makes chili peppers spicy — can kill cancer cells without harming healthy cells, with no side effects, according to a new study by researchers at Nottingham University in the UK. The study, led by Dr. Timothy Bates, found that capsaicin killed laboratory-grown lung and pancreatic cancer cells by attacking tumor cells’ source of energy and triggering cell-suicide. ‘This is incredibly exciting and may explain why people living in countries like Mexico and India, who traditionally eat a diet which is very spicy, tend to have lower incidences of many cancers that are prevalent in the Western world,’ Bates said. ‘We appear to have discovered a fundamental weakness with all cancer cells. Capsaicin specifically targets cancerous cells, leading to the possibility that a drug based on it would kill tumors with few or no side effects for the patient,’ he said. Bates and his research team found that when cancer cells were treated with capsaicin, the chili pepper compound attacked the tumor cells’ mitochondria — which generate ATP, the chemical that creates energy within the body. Capsaicin also bound to certain proteins within the cancer cells and triggered apoptosis — natural cell death. Bates noted that his team’s capsaicin experiments resulted in cancer cell death without harming the healthy cells surrounding the tumors. The capsaicin compound also managed to kill both lung cancer cells — a standard test for new cancer treatments — and pancreatic cancer cells, which are exceptionally hard to kill.”

” Folic acid, the vitamin prescribed to pregnant women, could be a brain saver, a study has found. People who took high dose supplements of folic acid did significantly better in tests of memory and cognitive performance than those given a placebo, researchers report. The vitamin is found in green leafy vegetables, beans and liver but few people in the UK and northern Europe obtain high enough levels from diet alone. Average intake is around 200 micrograms a day, half the recommended amount. Folic acid plays a crucial role in the development of the embryo and some countries such as the US now fortify flour with the vitamin. As a result the incidence of spina bifida and similar birth defects has declined. Low folate levels have also been linked with poor cognitive performance, but research has failed to show a benefit among people given supplements. Now scientists from the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands have demonstrated with the use of more sensitive tests of cognitive performance that high dose folic acid supplements taken over a long period slow the effect of aging on the brain.”

Folic acid sets back effects of aging on the brain by five years, says study

It seems that natural foods and supplements are demonstrating more and more benefit for those that are aging! (As we all are!) So, consider increasing folic acid intake and keep that mind sharp!