Edition # 47

SUMMARY: Studies have shown peppermint oil to be fairly effective at relieving irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a collection of symptoms that includes abdominal pain and cramping, bloating, constipation and diarrhea that affects 5 to 20 percent of the population.
continue reading….

Chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia are both destructive and disabling diseases that the medical community recognize as to be different manifestations of the same disease.

Chronic fatigue patients suffer severe fatigue but have more sore throats, swollen glands and fever; fibromyalgia patients suffer from severe fatigue and total body pain. They both share a common cause: oxidative stress.

The first time a victim of chronic fatigue visit a doctor, he usually recommend a comprehensive medical examination. On the next visit the doctor will listen to the patient’s complains again and review past, present and family health histories.

He will direct another physical examination and after valuation is complete, the doctor will carefully examine the results, occasionally he discovers evidence of diabetes, anemia, hypothyroidism or some other disease process that is the cause of these fatique symptoms.

But mostly he finds nothing wrong and the doctor may even suggest that it’s all in the patient’s head. The doctor may say: well, you are really in excellent health. Give it some time and see if you feel better. But the patient is certain that he has given it already plenty of time before he went to the doctor the first time.

The patient feels frustrated and starts to look for an alternative solution in a more natural way. He may visit a natural therapist who does a hair or eye analyses, blood and urine tests and usually recommend certain herbs, diet changes and nutritional supplements to correct the problem.

The patient has finally found someone who has diagnosed the problem and although it seems his health and sense of wellbeing may improve because of lifestyle changes,he is “not himself” and may even start feeling depressed.

Alternative practitioners are trying to find out which nutritional deficiencies the patient may have and than try to correct them. But they are not correcting the root of the problem, which is oxidative stress. He probably still feels frustrated and keep looking for help from other sources.

People who suffer from chronic fatigue are in the beginning stages of degeneration, because of oxidative stress. They should have a serious look at their lifestyle and enviremental factors that may develop oxidative stress.

When people are victims of oxidative stress, this not only creates fatique, but it also weaken their immune system. With the use of nutritional supplements, patients overcome oxidative stress and they start to function normally, which makes them feel much better.

The number of people suffering from fibromyalgia in the US alone are close to 8 million, more than 80% are women. Those people are usually living in total pain or extreme fatique and suffer from lack of sleep.

They may wake up stiff, experience mental confusion, irritable bowel and TMJ syndrome. Many develop fibromyalgia after a serious illness, a major injury or a stressful time in their lives.

As you could have read in my previous articles, all these situations increase the production of free radicals in our bodies. Once this disease starts, holding in seems impossible. Because this is a chronic, lifelong disease, it takes time , at least six months, to regain one’s health.

Starting with a nutritional supplement program, combined with a healthy diet, a moderate aerobic exercise program with a light-weight-resistance program.

When people are starting to improve, the first thing they notice is that they can think and concentrate better. Also they sleep better and finally the pain starts to leave.

Most doctors recognize the benefits of a healthy diet and a moderate exercise program. However, these doctors don’t fully understand the consequences of oxidative stress. Otherwise they would recommend strongly the use of nutritional supplements.

The result would be a significant improvement in their patient’s health and a decline in patients who are looking for alternative health care.

Except from the two things we can be certain of in life: death and taxes, there is a third most of us can count on, which is arthritis. It effects nearly 70% – 80% of the population over the age of fifty.

The most common type is called: osteoarthritis or degenerative arthritis, which is an inflammatory disease. Symptoms are:early morning stiffness, swollen joints and joint pain over the entire body. In an advanced state, it can cause significant pain, discomfort and even disability.

Osteoarthritis is caused by degeneration of the cartilage in the joints or the lining of the joints. The cartilage can worn out completely by mechanical stress, caused by excessive weight, trauma or activity.

The end of our bones is covered by articular cartilage. Our joints have additional cartilage that act like a shock absorber between the bones. Old cartilage breaks down, while new cartilage is formed. This process has to be kept in balance in order to keep healthy joints.

There are several causes of inflammation in our joints. The cytokins are among the leading causes. These are proteins who carry messages between cells and regulate immunity and inflamation. Two of the most important ones are: tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF- a) and interleukin one beta (IL-B). They are highly concentrated in the joints of people with osteoarthritis.

The second group are the proteases, enzymes that cause the breakdown of proteins. Proteases are under control of the cytokines. Some have anti-inflammatory qualities and some have pro- inflammatory qualities, which are in the majority with arthritis.

The third group are the phagocytes (or neutrophils), which are attracted to the inflamed joint while trying to clear this reaction and to prevent damage to the cartilage and lining of the joint. But this inflammatory response can actually cause more inflammation to the joint.

The pressure caused by our weight on our joints block the blood supply to the cartilage. This phenomenon is called Ischemia. When we take our weight of the joint, the pressure is reduced and blood returns back to the cartilage, this is called reperfusion.

This process causes excessive production of free radicals. These free radicals put heavy weight on the antioxidant defence system and cause oxidative stress and consequently damage to the cartilage and synovial lining of the joint. When the body can’t rebuild cartilage fast enough, deterioration occurs.

Rheumatoid arthritis is another form of arthritis. This is an autoimmune disease. When our immune system starts to attack the cartilage and the synovial lining of the joint, an inflammatory process starts to destroy healthy tissue.This not only create excessive free radicals, but also attracts TNF-a cytokines.

Production of free radicals is five times higher in patients with rheumatoid arthritis than in patients with osteoarthritis and causes greater oxidative stress and damage to the joints. This damaging effect can cause severe pain an deformity.

When considering traditional treatments, it is important to know the real causes of these diseases.

The traditional treatment of both types of arthritis, called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS) and aspirin, caused severe side effects, like stomach ulcers and upper – gastrointestinal bleeding (GI).

Because of this, pharmaceutical companies developed a group of new NSAIDS , called COX 2 inhibitors, which significally reduced GI. Unfortunately, these have side effects as well, like bowel perforation and upper GI bleeds, but less frequent.

These drugs mainly reduces the pain but do nothing about the basic cause of the disease, which is oxidative stress.

Apart from a well balanced, high quality mineral and antioxidant supplement patients suffering from arthritis should also take glucosamine sulfate, which is one of the basic nutrients for the synthesis of cartilage.

It is a simple amino sugar and gives the cartilage its elasticity. Unlike NSAIDS and aspirin, which only reduces the pain, glucosamine helps to rebuild the damaged cartilage.

In 1999 a large study revealed that glucosamine not only reduced the pain and inflammation of arthritis, but actually stopped the deterioration of the cartilage and even showed evidence of cartilage regrowth, without any side effects.

Another important advantage was that the pain didn’t return for weeks and even months!

Chondrotin sulfate is often combined with glucosamine in order to make the cartilage more pliable and spongy, as chondrotin attracts water into the cartilage. Without it, the cartilage becomes drier and more fragile.

Cellular nutrition is the key to prevent arthritis. This is another area in which nutritional supplements work together with your body to maintain or regain your health.

Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in our industrialized society. Approximately 16 million Americans are the victim of this disease and about half of them don’t even know that they are diabetic..

Apart from the disease itself, the side effects are also threatening. One-third of all new cases of kidney disease are caused by diabetes. As much as 80% of diabetics will die from cardiovascular disease and diabetes is the leading cause of amputations and blindness in the elderly.

Two Types of Diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes usually effects children and is caused by an attack of the immune system, which makes them insulin poor.

Type 2 diabetes is responsible for 90% of the cases. This type of diabetes is caused by insulin resistance.

Insulin Resistance.
Insulin resistance or Syndrome X is caused by our modern life style. Our diet has taken it’s toll. Far to many people eat a high-carbohydrate and high-fat diet and as a result, many have become less sensitive to their own insulin.

Insulin is a storage hormone that drives sugar into the cells to be utilized or stored as fat. Our body wants to control our blood sugar, but when our body becomes less sensitive to its own insulin, it compensates by making more insulin.

If our blood sugar rises, the pancreas are forced to produce more insulin in order to control our blood sugars. However, increase in insulin levels can cause some serious problems, called Syndrome X, like: – inflammation of the arteries, which can cause heart attack and stroke – high blood pressure (hypertension) – high level of triglycerides ( the other fat in the blood beside cholesterol) – low level of HDL (good cholesterol) – high level of LDL (bad cholesterol) – increased risk of blood clots formation – a significant development of “uncontrolled” weight gain, usually around the waist

A combination of these factors makes the risk of developing heart disease 20 times higher. We can’t ignore the growing risk of developing heart disease as the NUMBER ONE KILLER in our industrialized world!

Cause of Diabetes.
As we have seen, in order for our body to control our blood sugar levels, the pancreas have to produce more insulin. This elevated level of insulin is the cause of the destructive metabolic changes linked with Insulin Resistance or Syndrome X.

If we want to keep our blood sugar level low and constant, we need to consume carbohydrates which are slowly turned into simple sugar by our body. Many people consume food products that cause their blood sugar level to rise rapidly, like white bread, white flour, white rice, pasta and potatoes. These foods contain the wrong type of carbohydrates, which spike blood sugars. They have a high Glycemic Index. You can read more about the Glycemic Index in my special article.

Diabetes Test.
In order to test the development of Syndrome X, you can divide your triglyceride level by your HDL level. If the ratio is greater than 2, early signs of Syndrome X are present.

Cure for Syndrome X and Type 2 Diabetes.
Syndrome X or insulin resistance is totally reversible by life style changes, that means consuming a low GI diet, combined with a moderate exercise program and some basic nutritional supplements, in order to improve insulin sensitivity.

Diagnosis of Diabetes
In a review article for the Mayo Clinic, Dr. James O’Keefe stated: “Therapeutic efforts in patients with diabetes have focused predominantly on normalizing increased blood sugar levels, while often ignoring many of these other modifiable risks, which are caused by underlying insulin resistance.”

Doctors are mostly concerned about the fat content in people’s diet, instead of treating insulin resistance, which is a much better way to confront and control diabetes.

People with diabetes are deficient in the following micro nutrients: – Chromium: this is essential in the metabolism of glucose and the action of insulin. It improves insulin sensitivity. Diabetics need 300 mcg of chromium daily. – Vitamin E: apart from antioxidant defense, it also helps to solve the problem of insulin resistance. People with a low level of vitamin E have a five times higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. – Magnesium: deficiency can exist in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. It also increases the risk of retinopathy in diabetic patients. When this deficiency in older people is corrected, insulin function improves drastic. However, it is very difficult to diagnose magnesium deficiency. Cellular levels can only be tested in research labs, that’s why magnesium deficiency is under diagnosed. We all need at least 400 – 500 mg of magnesium in supplements every day. – Vanadium: This mineral is less known but can significantly increase insulin sensitivity when taken in supplements. Diabetics need 50 – 100 mcg in supplements daily.

The final question remains:If you struggle with diabetes, are you willing to make life style changes to make yourself independent of medication and live a healthier life?

To control your diabetes, you need a hemoglobin A1C of less than 6.5. This is hard to do with medication only. Watch your blood sugars closely. If it drops to much, your doctor has to adjust your medication.

Applying these principles will significantly improve your diabetic control.

   Edition #46

Overeating and depressed? There’s a connection,
and maybe a solution

Date:

December 21, 2015

Source:

Yale University

Summary:
Chronic overeating and stress are tied to an increased risk of depression and anxiety, and in a new study, researchers explain why that happens and suggest a possible solution. The researchers report that the anesthetic ketamine reverses depression-like symptoms in rats fed a high-fat diet in a similar way it combats depression and synaptic damage of chronic stress in people. continue reading.….

How to Build Muscle & Be Your Plant-Based Personal Best

If there is one common behavior I see over and over again in the health and fitness industries, it is the fear people have of trying something new. That’s precisely how I felt when I enrolled in the Center for Nutrition Studies Certificate Program in Plant-Based Nutrition through eCornell in the spring of 2012. continue reading….

 

Is your life out of balance?

Introducing the Asteron Life ‘Wheel of Balance’, a self assessment tool designed to help you identify the areas of your life that need some attention. Take the test today.
Find out more…

Recipe of the day – Brussels with hustle
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More Health & Nutrition form Nutrobalance
Health Breakfast Guidelines
Health Diet for Athletes
The Need for Supplementation

Most people who take vitamin and mineral supplements self-prescribe to what they think they should take, not even what is fashionable. As well as being a waste of money, this is likely to do more harm than good.

Why? Because taking an extra dose of one vitamin can lower levels of another. Falling short of a particular mineral can prevent the absorption of another, seemingly unrelated one.
A dose of an isolated vitamin or mineral that is too high can produce the same symptoms as a deficiency of another nutrient.

This is what nutritionists call synergy and it explains why taking extra calcium to build stronger bones may backfire on you. Too much calcium in the body can cause a deficiency in iron, zinc, magnesium and phosphorous by preventing their proper absorption.
All these minerals are vital for good bone health and their ongoing deficiency can lead to osteoporosis – the condition you were trying to prevent by taking calcium supplements.

Vitamin D, which is also known as the sunshine vitamin, since the body need exposure to sunlight to make it, enhances the absorption of calcium, but too much can cause a potassium deficiency.

Vitamin A is an antioxidant that is said to help to prevent premature aging. It does help to maintain the surfaces of the body,including the skin, but too much increases the body’s need for another antioxidant, vitamin E, which protect against heart disease.

Vitamin C remains the most popular of the self-prescribed supplements: an estimated ten million Britons take it every day. Research papers now prove that it has powerful antioxidant properties that protect against cancer and heart disease and show how it boosts the immune system to protect against infections and can even speed up wound healing. Yet not many people know that it works much better in the presence of vitamin A or that , to use it properly, the body needs calcium.

Ask any alternative cancer specialists what nutrients their patients should be eating and they will specify bioflavanoids. Though not a true vitamin, these are a group of biologically active substances found in plants that are sometimes called vitamin P.

As well as cancer-fighting properties, they also have an antibacterial effect in the body, where they promote healthy circulation, stimulate bile production for the breakdown of fats and lower blood cholesterol levels.

Foods that are rich in flavanoids include apples, beetroot, blackberries, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, cherries, dandelions, lentils,lettuce, oranges parsley, plums, peas, potatoes, rhubarb, rose hips,spinach, tomatoes, walnuts and watercress. But what you may not know is that they all work even better when taken with vitamin C, and vice versa.

Synergistic partners are rarely monogamous. To correct a deficiency in vitamin A, you also need six additional nutrients: choline, zinc, vitamin C, D and E, plus the essential fatty acids found in oily fish or evening primrose oil supplements.

To restore normal levels of vitamin C , you need the bioflavanoids, vitamin A, plus calcium and magnesium. Those last two minerals are so closely linked that if you plan to take a supplement, you need to follow a ratio of 2 : 1 in favour of the calcium. So if you are taking 800 mg of calcium, you need to take 400 mg of magnesium, too.

To correct a shortage of calcium in the hope of building stronger bones, you also need magnesium, boron, manganese, phosphorous, vitamins A, C, D and F, plus essential fatty acids.

To complicate the picture further, synergy may not affect the whole body but only specific cells, so the impact of what you are doing may be hidden. Smoking, for example, wipes out vitamin C in the body, but this deficiency may be confined to the cells of the lungs.

As you can see, when taking supplements you have to make sure that the vitamin and mineral balance in your body is maintained.

You may think that regular exercise , a positive mental attitude ,while applying the golden rule: ‘everything in moderation’ the key is to good health. However, if you understand the damage caused by processed foods,it will motivate you to change your diet, if you are aiming for a high level of health and freedom of degenerative diseases.

Acid-alkaline balance. We should consume acid- and alkaline-forming foods in the right ratio’s. This is not hard to realize, when we know that, generally speaking,fruits and vegetables are alkaline-forming and the rest is mostly acid-forming, with a few exceptions.You can read more about acid- and alkaline-forming foods in my article, by visiting my website.
The Australian diet contains nearly one-and-a-half times more acid-forming food as it does alkaline-forming food. This ratio should be the other way around.

The problem with eating too much acid-forming food is that it builds up toxic waste products,and is the cause of most of our health problems. A diet that contains insufficient fruit and vegetables is missing vital antioxidants ,beta-carotene, vitamins and minerals. They are most important to prevent oxidation, caused by free radicals, which are the main cause of heart disease,stroke, cancer and other diseases.

Excess Protein Australians consume two to three times as much protein as they need,mainly in the form of red and white meat, cheese and eggs. The amount that is sufficient for our body is approximately 85-120 gr per day. The ‘pure’ protein from this and other foods meets the international standard of half a gram of protein daily per kilogram of body weight.

Our body cannot store excess protein and has to be broken down and eliminated, putting much strain on our liver and kidneys. Large quantities of animal protein are highly acid-forming, contains a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol and forms uric acid, which may cause gout.

Excess Fat
A typical Australian diet contains 40% of total calories of fat, which is far too much and this amount of fat can be dangerous, as it is the major cause of heart disease, stroke, cancer and obesity.

Fat coats the intestines and blocks the assimilation of vital water-soluble minerals. Saturated fat stimulates the liver to produce large amounts of cholesterol. Together with rancid or oxidised fat they are doing the most damage to our health. Oxidation is caused by high temperature, exposure to air and light.

We only need small quantities of unsaturated fat, together with plenty of vitamin E in our diet to protect the fat against oxidation.

Refined Carbohydrates Refined sugar is highly acid forming, as it has lost alkaline minerals,which are needed to neutralise the carbonic acid formed during metabolism.

Because of the absence of vitamin B, which activate the enzymes to break sugar down to release energy it cannot be metabolised properly. The consumption of regular, large amounts of white, brown or raw sugar can cause high cholesterol,gout, hypoglycaemia, diabetes,obesity and depletion of minerals and vitamins.

The same is true for white flour (and its products: white bread,cakes,biscuits,pastries and pasta) and white rice. They have lost 50 – 75% of their vitamins and minerals and much of their fiber.

Lack of Fiber.
According to research, the major cause of bowel cancer is lack of fiber in the diet.
Fiber is required to create bulk in the digestive tract in order to stimulate peristalsis, the intestinal muscle action that pushes food matter along. If fiber is lacking, this stagnates partly digested food putrefies to produce ammonium and other nitrogenous compounds, which are highly toxic and may eventually lead to cancer.

Other symptoms of lack of fiber in the diet include appendicitis, diverticular disease of the bowel, varicose veins,piles(haemorrhoids)and hiatus hernia. It can also be the major cause of gallstones.

Fiber is found in vegetables, NOT in animal foods like red and white meat, cheese, yogurt, milk and eggs.

Stimulants A stimulant can be defined as an irritant, a mildly toxic substance,which the body cannot use and must be eliminated.

A stimulant works by producing an eliminative response and causes increased circulation in order to pass more blood through the liver to detoxify the stimulant. The increased circulation also sends more blood to the brain and muscles, which makes us feel more alert and more energetic. We get a temporary ‘lift’ – which is only temporary, because after the stimulation is over, the system slows down in order to recoup the energy that was squandered. This is a form of depression – which follows stimulation like night follows day.

The best known stimulants are: nicotine, caffeine, tannin, alcohol,salt, pepper, spices and pickles.

Smoking is one of the most destructive addictions and the harmful effects are widely known.

Coffee constrict the heart and arteries, increasing the risk of heart disease and various cancers and may make skin disease worse. High intake during pregnancy has been linked to deformed births and an increase risk of miscarriage.

The effects on the mind includes anxiety, sleeplessness, irritability, headache and racing of the heart. Drinking seven to eight cups per day has been reported to trigger terrifying panic attacks.

Alcohol.
Many studies have been conducted on the health effects of alcohol. The fact is that alcohol is a toxic substance and damage will result,unless the person is extremely healthy or the consumption is very low.

The risk of colon cancer is doubled by just 2 drinks per day. Brain damage can result from just three standard drinks per day. During pregnancy, only four drinks per day can cause the baby to be permanently and severely handicapped. Heavy drinking can cause damage to the liver, called cirrhsis, which may eventually be fatal.

If the alcohol is in the form of red wine,it contains a high level of antioxidants, and resveratrol, which reduces the risk of heart disease,stroke and possibly cancer as well. However, the same effects can be obtained by drinking dark grape juice without the possible risks on our health!

To conclude this overview on our modern diet, rest me to suggest that we need a diet that is essentially unprocessed,low in fat, high in fiber, free of salt, caffeine, etc, that contains lots of fresh vegetables and fruits.

   Edition #45

Cancer is not just ‘bad luck’ but down to environment, study suggests

Cancer is overwhelmingly a result of environmental factors and not largely down to bad luck, a study suggests.  continue reading

Exercise and Cardiovascular Health

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality in the U.S. Heart disease and cancer combined, account for almost 50% of all deaths each year and affects nearly 14 million  continue reading…

13 foods you should never eat

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Protecting yourself with antibiotics is impossible. Dr. Michael Colgan, Director of the Colgan Institute of Nutritional Science in San Diego, wrote: “Our out-of-control disease industry has created most of the new bugs that now plague us. Our physicians are unwittingly engaging in biological warfare against the American public, far worse than anything done by Saddam Hussein.”

Each prescription of an antibiotic that is unnecessary, kills off the weak members of any bacterial colony present, that include any beneficial bacteria in our intestines. It’s called selective breeding. Only the strongest bacteria survive.

Because there is no competition for space and food, these resistant bugs can multiply quickly. When different antibiotics are repeatedly misused against a particular bacterial strain, it quickly breeds bugs that are resistant to all of them.

Misuse of antibiotics against self-limiting infections will not allow your immune system to develop its own powerful resistance. Most children in America today compromise their immune system by wrongfully prescribed antibiotics. They have never been allowed to develop resistance against unnecessary use of drugs, causing ear, nose and throat infections.

Alexander Fleming, who discovered the penicillin, warned us against these problems. At the beginning of this crisis, the microbiologist Dr. Stuart Levy of Turfts University at the head of a group of 150 scientists stated:”Unless we apply antibiotics correctly, there may come a time when they are no longer useful against diseases.” We didn’t pay attention to Dr. Levy’s warning and as a result the crisis is now upon us.

In the year 1992, physicians wrote more than 4,000,000 useless antibiotic prescriptions against the common cold and ‘flu viruses. They continue this malpractice year in and year out, despite clear instructions in the Physicians Desk Reference that the drugs are only effective against bacteria.

The picture for hospitals is even worse. According to recent studies, up to half of all antibiotics used in hospitals in America is improper. This criminal malpractice has caused hundreds of man-made, antibiotic resistant bugs, including new strains of tuberculosis, pneumonia, Ecoli, salmonella and meningitis.
They make hospitals very dangerous places to be!