Category Archives: Health & Nutrition

Guide to Nutritional Supplements and weight management.

NUTRITIONAL MEDICINE

Nutritional Medicine is unknown to most physicians as well as the public. The benefits of a good exercise program and a healthy diet are well known. Few however, especially physicians, have any knowledge of the health benefits of taking high quality nutritional supplements.

Vitamins are a hot issue within the medical field. But the verdict is in. What your doctor doesn’t know about nutritional medicine may be killing you. Only about 6% of the graduating physicians in America have received any training in nutrition.
Doctors believe that you don’t need supplements and that you get all the nutrients you need from a good diet. Doctor and patients alike must take a long hard look at how they approach health care to-day.

Numerous studies prove that a healthy diet, a good exercise program and high quality nutritional supplements is the absolute best way to maintain your health and to regain your health after you have lost it. There are records of amazing results by practising nutritional medicine.
Patients with multiple sclerosis, who have gone from wheelchair-bound to walking again.

Some cancer patients have gone into remission, patients with macular degeneration have found significant visual improvement and fibromyalgia patients have regained their lives.
Oxidative stress is the underlying cause of all chronic degenerative diseases, like coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and macular degeneration.

Heart disease is not caused by high cholesterol, but the inflammation of blood vessels, which can be reduced and even totally eliminated by taking nutritional supplements.

Antioxidants and there supporting nutrients have become our new weapon in the war against our number one killer: heart disease. Fruits and vegetables contain thousands of extremely potent bioflavanoids. They also have some anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory properties.

Red wine and grape juice contain polythenols, which has been proven to reduce the formation of oxidized LDL cholesterol. Grape seed extract is known as the best antioxidant to prevent chronic inflammatory disease.
Vitamin E is the best antioxidant for the cell wall, vitamin C for the plasma and glutathione is the best intra cellular antioxidant.
All of these antioxidants need the so-called antioxidant minerals and B-co factors to do their job. These ingredients work together in synergy as they accomplish the ultimate goal of defeating oxidative stress.

Doctors are content to let the pharmaceutical companies determine new therapies when they develop new drugs. But our natural antioxidant and immune system are the best defense against the development of chronic degenerative diseases.

There is some good news however, medical research is beginning to support the idea of supplementation with a mixture of antioxidants and supporting nutrients.
 This mix can enhance traditional chemo and radiation therapy and at the same time protecting normal cells from toxic effects. But you don’t have to be a physician to start practising nutritional medicine, you as a patient can become proactive about preserving the health you have.

Hydrotherapy

To promote Healing and Pain Relief

Hydrotherapy is a series of specialised water-based treatments developed to stimulate
general or local circulation in the blood vessels. This promote healing of injured or
diseased parts of the body, by allowing more metabolic wastes and other toxins to be
removed and more nutrients to flow into the area.

The treatment is applied in the form of an immersion bath or hot/cold compresses.
The water itself, while soothing, does not create the response in the tissues, but is due to
reaction by the nerves in the skin to the heat or cold applied to the area.

As a general rule we can say that heat expands vessels, increases blood flow and relaxes
nerves and tissues, while cold constricts vessels, reduces blood flow and stimulates nerves
and tissues.

Acute conditions, such as sprains and strains, require cold applications to reduce swelling
and therefore tissue damage. Chronic conditions, like stiff joints and aching back, require
heat to soothe and relax the area. Hot and cold can often be used alternately to stimulate
an area for more rapid recovery. The pattern to be used for alternating treatments is three
minutes hot and one minute cold, applied three times all together.

Hydrotherapy should not be regarded as a primary therapy, but rather as a supplement
to other forms of therapy.

Here follows a brief description of the more common techniques:

Hot and cold sitz baths
Produce a flushing effect in the pelvic region, which helps relieve chronic constipation
and pelvic pain. Sit for three minutes in a tub of warm water at approximately 40 degrees
Celsius with the feet in a bowl of cold water. Then for one minute, sit in another tub
containing cold water with the feet in hot water. Repeat this process three times in total –
being sure to finish sitting in the cold tub- then dry briskly with a towel and dress warmly.

Hot and cold leg baths.
These stimulates circulation in the legs and help fluid retention, cramps, restless legs,
chronic injuries and possibly varicose veins. A suitable leg bath is a clean garbage bin,
two of which are required. The procedure and water temperatures are similar to those
for sitz baths.

Hot and cold hand baths
Good for circulation, arthritis and chronic injuries in the hands. As with the above
procedures, using bowls of hot and cold water, bathe the hand for three minutes
and one minute respectively, and repeat the cycle twice more. Dry promptly.

Hot and cold foments
Used to stimulate circulation for healing and pain relief in parts of the body where baths
can’t be used. Wrap a hot water bottle in several layers of towel and place on the
effected part for three minutes. Then rinse another towel in cold (not freezing) water.
Wring gently so that it doesn’t drip, and place on the area for one minute.
Repeat the cycle twice more. Take care that the hot phases don’t burn the skin –
use more layers of towel if necessary.

Cold compresses
Apply to sprains, bruises, and insect bites.

Steam inhalations
These help clear nasal passages and ease respiratory conditions. Place four cups of
boiling water in a bowl. Sit with the head over it, and cover both head and bowl with
a towel. Inhale until there is no more steam. Be careful not to burn the airways.

Some general guidelines for hydrotherapy need to be kept in mind:
*  Sit or rest comfortable during the procedure.
*  Watch for any reactions indicating sensitivity to heat or cold.
*  Cease the treatment if pain increases
*  Do only one hydrotherapy treatment at a time
*  Limit treatments to two per day, because more than this could drain vitality.

The Cause of Heart Disease

When we consider that the classic risk factors for atherosclerosis are valid as lifestyle guidelines, they don’t explain the majority of heart deaths. But when we take into account the condition (he degree of oxidation) of dietary fat and cholesterol, as well as the antioxidant status within the body, the picture becomes clearer.

Still other influences are playing a roll, of which the most significant appears to be a high
blood level of the amino acid homocysteine. This is showing up as being as great a risk as
high cholesterol or smoking.

According to all three theory groups, the safest way to avoid heart disease, as far as diet is
concerned, is to ensure that dietary fat is low and unsaturated, that dietary fat and
cholesterol are fresh, that antioxidant intake is high, and comply with the requirements for
save levels of homocysteine.

These guidelines, however, prescribe a plant-based diet with an abundance of fresh fruits
and vegetables. The dairy products that many vegetarians include can better be avoided or kept to very small amounts. Protein can be obtained from small quantities of legumes, nuts and seeds. Eggs could be retained at low levels for their vitamin B12 content.

Smoking and coffee are in particular to be avoided, but moderate tea consumption is acceptable, preferably green tea for its additional anti-cancer benefits.

The heart disease paradox is now largely solved and demonstrates yet another way
in which an unrefined, essentially plant-based diet, high in fresh fruits and vegetables,
is vastly superior to a high meat – and high-refined-carbohydrate diet, that is low in fruits and vegetables.  

The Health Benefits of Garlic

Being a natural whole food, but much too concentrated to eat in large quantities,
garlic can be considered as a natural supplement because of its outstanding qualities.

Garlic has many benefits, mainly due to its high natural sulphur content.
It is considered to be nature’s antibiotic and helps prevent disease.

Dr. Earl Mindell in his book: ‘Garlic, The Miracle Nutrient’, lists the benefits of garlic as:
*  acts as an antiseptic
*  helps the body overcome infection
*  stimulates the immune system
* act as a decongestant and expectorant
* contains substances that help prevent cancer
* thins he blood, reducing he risk of dangerous blood clotting:
*  tends to dissolve blood clots: *  lowers blood pressure (at least partly the result of blood thinning):
*  reduces high cholesterol:
*  helps reduce high triglycerides (blood fats)

Dr Mindell quotes a professor of medicine as saying that garlic is the most powerful agent
for preventing blood from becoming sticky, even more powerful than low-dose aspirin.
This may be part of the reason why people in Italy and France have less heart disease.

The odorous compound in garlic is a sulphur compound called allicin, a highly effective
antibiotic. However, there is no allicin in raw garlic. Raw garlic contains alliin, which, when
garlic is crushed, converts to allicin.  This is garlic’s way of protecting itself from microbial
attack after injury.

Unfortunately, allicin tends to damage not only bacteria, but healthy cells as well.
When raw garlic is consumed in very large amounts, harmful effects can result, including
irritation to the mouth, throat and stomach: anaemia: destruction of friendly gut bacteria:
reduced absorption of nutrients, and impaired liver function.

How much garlic is excessive and how much is safe to consume on a regular basis?
The long held Natural Health view is a clove or wo a day. This is well below the amount
that produces outright medicinal effects and possibly also harmful effects, which is
around five gloves per day (approximately 25 grams) or more, on a regular basis.

The bottom line is that any strong substance like allicin has to be broken down by the liver.
Too much can significantly add to the load on the liver, which is already very high in a
world of chemicals, alcohol, high-fat diet etc. One clove a day seems to be tolerable
for most people.

Advantages of a Fruit Breakfast

Orthodox nutritionists recommend that breakfast should be the main meal of your day.
However, many people following the Natural Health Lifestyle have found that a fruit breakfast
offers better health. They feel ‘lighter’ and their head is clearer during the morning.

This is because elimination of waste products is enhanced, as fruits produce negligible wastes-
it burns clean- Also, metabolism is in its elimination phase between four o’clock in the morning
till noon. If a heavy meal is eaten during this phase, it diverts energy from the elimination process and actually impedes elimination, increasing toxemia in the long term.
Accordingly, fruit is the only food that is entirely suitable to be eaten during elimination phase.

Also, according to recent research at the University of Sydney, eating only two main meals in the day adjacent to each other greatly reduces the risk of cancer. This means main meals either for lunch and dinner or for breakfast and lunch.

The suggested daily meal plan is a light fruit breakfast followed by two mean meals.
This occupies the body with full-scale digestion and assimilation for only about nine hours a day, leaving 15 hours for the elimination of metabolic wastes and reducing their tendency to build up in the body. In contrast, two main meals a day leaves only around 10 hours a day for elimination and encourages toxemia.

A manual worker having a fruit only breakfast would probably need more fruit at mid-morning,
or ‘heavier’ carbohydrate, such as bread, rice crisps or other grain food.
People may say that in the old days farmers would always have a hearty breakfast in the morning. indeed they may have done, but it was after a 4.00 or 5.00 am start and a number of hours hard work in the fields.

Breaking a lifelong habit of heavy breakfasts needs to be done gradually for physiological reasons and may require several weeks. If it is not a successful change, gradually revert to the former pattern. A fruit only breakfast may not suit everybody. This is not a recommendation, simply an option to try.

Exercise program

Exercise is important to maintain our health.
Even a moderate walk as exercise starts a chain-reaction,
and as a start it causes the skeleton muscles to become more active.
As the muscles warms up, more heat is given off.
Body temperature remains almost the same, because the body’s automatic
air conditioning system starts to disperse the extra heat through the skin.
As more blood sugar is turned into energy, more carbon dioxide gas will
be expelled in the air we breath out, and blood will flow more rapidly
through the muscles. The breathing will become deeper, and the heart beat
and blood pressure will be changed.

In more strenuous exercises, these processes will be stepped up.
More heat will be generated, the heart beat will be faster, blood-pressure higher,
breather deeper and faster, and the circulation more rapid.
The limiting factor in strenuous exercises is the oxygen supply,
and when this limit is reached, oxygen fatigue is experienced and
the exercise has to stop.

Need for Exercise
Exercise has been recognized even in sickness.
Physicians are not permitting patients with organic ailments to stay in bed
as long as before. According to “The American Practitioner”,
’The evils of bed rest include the development of negative nitrogen balance and
calcium loss through the kidneys, with the possibility of developing kidney stones.’

The article also says:’nervous tension can be released at times by exercise,
either in the form of specific muscular exercise or through some form of athletics.’
Physio and occupational therapy are now standard procedures in medicine,
to restore the use of muscles and nerves that have been injured by disease or by accident.

Those who’s occupation involves standing a long time, like dentists, teachers,
shop assistants, etc., are likely to develop phlebitis, i.e. the formation
of a blood clot – usually in the calf of the leg.
These people are advised to walk more and in addition. to take vitamin E
and lecethin capsules to improve the circulation, dissolve the clot and
prevent the formation of further clots.
Sufferers from rheumatism and arthritis, also those who are overweight,
are prone to take too little exercise. When people are troubled with
rheumatic twinges it is usually a sign that more exercise is needed and
that their diet contains too many acid-forming foods.
It is well known to vets that pampered pet dogs, which receive little
exercise, are troubled by ailments of degeneration which never affect
hard working sheep and cattle dogs.

Forms of exercise
Forms of exercise is a matter of personal preference.
While exercise programs often vary from person to person based on fitness levels
and goals, each one should include aerobic exercise, and resistance and flexibility
training. Those components will help you improve your fitness level and help you
overcome obstacles that challenge your agility, balance, coordination, endurance
and strength in everyday life.
Skipping is an effective form of exercise, and one of the best exercises
for keeping fit and is very suitable for wet days, as it can be done indores.

Protein-Rich Foods

Every adult of average size needs 80 – 120 gram of protein daily. Rich protein sources are: legumes, nuts, seeds, eggs, cheese and flesh foods (flesh is not recommended).

Nutritionally, a vegetarian diet is superior above all else. However, if you have been eating
meat all your life, it may be hard to change your eating habits for physiological reasons. You will require some protein from animal sources.
People who do eat flesh may still do well provided they watch two requirements:
a) Be sure not to overeat protein from any source, by keeping within the right quantities of
total protein food.
b) compensate for the lack of fiber by having plenty of vegetables.

People who like to switch to vegetarian eating but are having difficulties adjusting to plant foods may benefit by including moderate amounts of deep-sea fish, or free range, organic white or red meat to their diet, once or twice a week.

A vegetarian diet may be strict vegetarian (or vegan) or one including small amounts of
unprocessed cheese and free-range eggs (lacto-ovo-vegetarian). These foods may provide some ‘nutritional assurance’ against vitamin B12 deficiency.

CARBOHYDRATES

Carbohydrates come in two forms: simple and complex.

Simple carbohydrates are sugars that don’t need to be broken down further, so the body can use them for quick boosts of energy. Honey, maple syrup, soda, cookies, candy, table sugar and cakes are all sources of simple sugars, but since they are also high in calories, they should only be eaten occasionally.

Instead, it is important to eat healthy sources of simple sugars, like fruit and fat-free or low-fat milk. These alternatives to sugary sweets offer vitamins, minerals and fiber as well.
Complex carbohydrates are larger, digest more slowly and provide longer-lasting energy. Foods like bread, pasta, rice, oatmeal, corn and starchy vegetables (like potatoes and carrots) contain the highest amounts. Sources you should choose most often are vegetables, beans and whole-grain, high-fiber breads and cereals. The right carbohydrates are either complex carbohydrate or fiber and generally
supply additional healthy trace elements and phytonutrients, as well as energy and should have a low-glycemic index.

Select unrefined carbohydrates – sugary and starchy foods – for energy (plus their minerals, vitamins and fibre).

Sugary Foods
Besides high-water content fresh fruits, natural sugar comes in concentrated form dried fruit or
sparing quantities of honey, pure maple syrup, rice syrup, etc. or black/brown sugar.
Limit concentrated sugary foods to around 60 grams per day for a person of average size –
or at least no more than this amount at any one time, so as not to upset blood sugar level.
For honey, etc. the amount would only be a small portion of this.

Starchy foods
Include vegetables like potatoes, sweet potato, pumpkin and sweet corn.
also grains like wheat, rye, oats, barley, rice, millet, buckwheat etc.
With a sedentary lifestyle, limit grain foods to about 120 grams/day in total,
which is equivalent to about four slices of bread. It is better on some days
to have starchy vegetables instead of grains. As the vegetables contain less starch
than the grains, they can be eaten in much larger quantities.

Starchy foods, being ‘heating’ foods, are more suitable for cold weather,
while sweet, succulent fruits are more compatible with hot weather.

FATS
While excess fat is dangerous, some fats are essential and are good for you.
Your body needs it for proper brain development, like 0mega-3 and omega-6,
to bring certain vitamins through the brain barrier.

There are two types of fat: saturated and unsaturated.
Beneficial fats are high in essential fatty acids and low in saturated fatty acids.
Unsaturated fats is found in fish like salmon, tuna, also in nuts, seeds, avocados,
and most vegetable oils and plant fats. These are fats in liquid form.
Saturated fat may increase your risk of heart disease.
We normally get all the fat we need from protein rich foods, provided they are mainly from
plant origin.

We don’t need butter, cream or other highly saturated animal fats. Coconut and palm oils
are also high in saturated fat and can be found in many store-bought baked foods.
However, for those who like to use them, a small amount should be tolerated, provided there is not a blood-triglyceride problem. Treed these concentrated fats (including any oil) only as a garnish and limit them to a total of around 30 grams a day for a person of average size.

Select cold pressed and unrefined oil if possible – for example ‘extra virgin, cold-pressed olive oil. Unsalted butter appears to be less harmful than margarine because of the damaging trans fatty acids in the hydrogenated oils in most margarines. In any case, butter is less processed than margarine. Watch for processed foods containing added fat, especially if he fat is saturated or hydrogenated.

The Foundation of Balanced Eating

The starting point is to maintain the correct acid/alkaline balance in the body.
This is the absolute foundation of sound nutrition. If we get this right and keep it right, most of our health falls into place. While the bloodstream is strongly buffered to be slightly alkaline at a pH close to 7.4 and works very hard to maintain the 7.4 level, tissue fluids can vary in their acidity, and if they are forced to depart far from the optimum (being close to neutral), we are in deep trouble.
A body that is very acidic – and therefore in a toxic state – is prone to inflammatory conditions like colds and eventually degenerative illnesses like arthritis and worse.

The acid/alkaline balance depends mainly on what we eat. Because foods are either acid –
or alkaline forming. Generally speaking, the foods that leave an alkaline residue in the body are the fresh, ripe fruits and green, yellow and red vegetables. But foods that increase acidity are almost all the rest, like meat, cheese, eggs, nuts, legumes, seeds, grains (such as bread, pasta, rice and cakes), refined sugar, coffee, tea and so on.

Because fruits and vegetables have a high-water content, we need much more of them to balance the concentrated foods. They need to comprise three-quarters to four-fifths of total food intake (by weight), with the concentrated foods that supply protein, carbohydrate and fat comprising only one-quarter to one-fifth.

Most Australians consume nowhere near this proportion of fruits and vegetables, paying the way for illnesses ranging from colds to arthritis or possibly cancer.

One of the greatest mistakes in nutrition is the assumption that acid fruits, including citrus,
pineapples and tomatoes, are acid forming. But they are not, they are alkaline forming.
During the metabolic process in the body, their weak organic acids are broken down to release energy, and the acidic end product, carbon dioxide, is breathed out, living a residue of alkaline minerals. We get rid of the acidic part and are left with the alkaline part. So acid fruits, like other fruits, are alkaline forming.

Toxemia, a Hidden Havoc

Understanding Toxemia
 Orthodox medicine tends to look for a germ as the cause of a particular disease (though not always for chronic or degenerative diseases). Where no germ can be found, the cause may be given as unknown. Natural health looks at a completely different picture. Realizing that almost all illnesses today are diseases of civilization – which means diseases of lifestyle- the underlying causes of our vast range of health problems, plus premature aging, become perfectly clear. We find the basic causes of illness in daily living: our modern diet, stress, lack of exercise, and man-made chemicals are the four key areas. The progression from modern lifestyle…to deterioration within the body… to disease is almost in- avoidable. When we understand this, it enables us to gain control of our physical and mental well being. This understanding is increased by three basic principles, which are considered natural laws that support human health and provide the key to the means of restoration and maintenance of our health. We can distinguish three Fundamental Natural Health Principles:

1. Good health is a normal state and should continue from birth until death. Illness and premature aging will not occur, unless we do something to cause them to occur.

2. Broadly speaking, disease is not an attack on the body by some foreign agent. Rather it is the body’s defenses at work attempting to preserve the status quo of good health.

3. The human body, given the right conditions, is an efficient, self-healing organism. We all know that a cut on the skin will heal, but damage to internal organs is another matter. They have just the same ability to heal. When we consider the phenomenal health of populations that were isolated from the Western world, it is easier to accept the first principle, which is fundamental. Arthritis, obesity, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, colds, flu, skin disease, etc. rarely occur because of defects in the human body: they occur because we unwittingly make them happen. Principle No. 2 depends on an understanding of the natural relationship between germs and humans. They are not the primary cause of disease. Principle No. 3 is explored in the following subject.

We will now have a look at what (according to Natural Health theory and experience),
is the cause of illness – or better still, what causes health – and look at how diet, stress, exercise and chemicals affect body and mind.

Toxemia from food and chemicals.
The typical modern way of eating is at the top of the list for most individuals.
It is usually too concentrated, containing excess fat, protein and refined carbohydrates.
It is lacking fiber, vitamins and minerals, and contains food additives, pesticides and
stimulants such as coffee, tea, salt, pepper and alcohol.

The unavoidable result of this type of eating is that toxic waste products of metabolism are
formed quicker than the body can eliminate them by the liver and kidneys, resulting in
a build-up in the body. This condition in Natural Health is called ‘toxemia’ or ‘acidosis’-
because the wastes are acidic and so tissue fluids become more acidic that they should be.

Synthetic chemicals, including air and water pollutants, pesticides, food additives and
drugs, are often toxic and contribute to toxemia.

Because of lack of exercise, circulation is sluggish and doesn’t get the r5egular boost that is
needed to flush waste products out of the tissues and for detoxification and elimination from the body.

Stress and inadequate sleep devour vital nerve energy and leave insufficient available for
normal activities that include digestion, assimilation of nutrients and elimination of waste.
As a result, waste products build up even more quickly and the toxemia increases further.

The effects of negative attitudes like anger, resentment, bitterness, intolerance, and greed
works like putting grit in the bearings of an engine: our system wear out sooner.
However, positive attitudes such as love, kindness, tolerance and generosity works like
oil on the bearings for smooth running. Negative attitudes indirectly contribute to toxemia.

While coping with the demands of everyday living – plus the toxins – overworked organs
and tissues become exhausted, or better still, enervated (depleted in nerve energy).
Enervation diminishes elimination, which further increases the toxemia.
So a vicious cycle is created. The combination of toxemia and enervation is the basic
cause underlying most diseases.

How do we know if we are toxic?
Toxemia comes in many shades of grey, ranging from a little to a lot.
And the first thing you want to know is – how toxic am I?
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to find out. In fact, it is possible to be in quite a ‘polluted’ state and be unaware of anything wrong. Probably the most reliable indication is provided by iridology (analysis of the iris of the eye), conducted by a skilled practitioner.

But there are signs you can look for to get an idea. Any of the following signs may be present:

*  Constantly feeling unwell, off color, a bit ‘crook’.
*  Always tired, like your batteries are flat. The extreme case is chronic fatigue syndrome.
*  Repeated minor ailments, like colds and headaches. You ‘pick up’ infections easily.
*  It’s an effort to drag yourself out of bed in the morning and you need coffee to get going.
*  The breath is off and it’s not due to problems with teeth.
*  There is body odor that returns soon after showering.
*  The tongue is coated, especially first thing in the morning.
*  Wound healing is poor; the smallest cuts become inflamed and remain so for days.
*  You feel persistent aches and pains, not due to physical injury or muscle or joint strain.
*  There is degenerative disease.  





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