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Thursday 29 September 2011

Sugar and Cancer Cell Growth

Is this Simple Sugar a Major Factor in the Failure of the War on Cancer?

 Posted By Dr. Mercola | September 29 2011 | 4,062views




fructose a factor in failure on war against cancer
Story at-a-glance
  • Fructose, found in virtually all processed foods, may be cancer cells' preferred source of fuel
  • While all forms of sugar feed cancer, fructose in particular is used for cell division, speeding up the growth and spread of the cancer
  • The vast majority of Americans consume far too much fructose
  • If you have cancer, or want to prevent it, limiting sugar in your diet, and particularly fructose, is essential


By Dr. Mercola
There's compelling evidence and agreement by many experts that excessive fructose is toxic to your body. Unlike fructose, nearly every cell in your body can directly use glucose. However fructose is primarily metabolized in your liver and can serve as a substrate for increasing cancer cell growth.

Fructose Helps Cancer Cells Thrive

ALL forms of sugar are detrimental to health in general and promote cancer, but in slightly different ways, and to a different extent, as I'll explain later. Fructose, however, clearly seems to be one of the most harmful sugars. A new article in Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets reviewed the relationship between increased dietary refined sugar and cancer risk, with specific emphasis on the monosaccharide fructose. The researchers noted:
"Recent observations indicate that cancer cells readily utilize fructose to support proliferation and preferentially use fructose for nucleic acid synthesis."
They named several ways in which dietary fructose can promote cancer growth, including:
  • Altered cellular metabolism
  • Increased reactive oxygen species (free radicals)
  • DNA damage
  • Inflammation
Research published in the journal Cancer Research also showed that the way the different sugars are metabolized (using different metabolic pathways) is of MAJOR consequence when it comes to feeding cancer and making it proliferate. According to the authors:
" Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different ... These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation."
In this case, the cancer cells used were pancreatic cancer, which is typically regarded as the most deadly and universally rapid-killing form of cancer. The study confirms the old adage that sugar feeds cancer because they found that tumor cells do thrive on sugar (glucose). However, the cells used fructose for cell division, speeding up the growth and spread of the cancer.

Why is This a MAJOR Threat to Public Health?

Whether you're simply interested in preventing cancer, or have cancer and want to live longer, you ignore these facts and listen to industry propaganda that fructose is safe and no different from other common sweeteners at your own risk. The truth of the matter is that fructose may very well be the most pernicious influence in the Standard American Diet, and is virtually guaranteed to cause chronic disease if consumed in excess.

The major problem is, the vast majority of Americans are consuming fructose at levels 3-600% of the upper limit!

Further, most people are seriously confused about fructose and still believe it is a "healthy" type of sugar because it is found naturally in fruits and touted as having a low glycemic index. But this is not a matter of eating an apple or a handful of raisins as a snack. Fructose, in one form or another, can be found in five of the 10 top sources of calories in America, and in some cases (particularly when processed or from a restaurant) may actually be in ALL of them:
1. Grain-based desserts (cakes, cookies, donuts, pies, crisps, cobblers, and granola bars) 139 calories a day 6. Alcoholic beverages
2. Yeast breads, 129 calories a day 7. Pasta and pasta dishes
3. Chicken and chicken-mixed dishes, 121 calories a day 8. Mexican mixed dishes
4. Soda, energy drinks, and sports drinks, 114 calories a day 9. Beef and beef-mixed dishes
5. Pizza, 98 calories a day 10. Dairy desserts

If you're interested in preventing cancer, my recommendation is to keep your total fructose intake below 25 grams of fructose per day, if you're in good health. Most people will also benefit from limiting your fructose from fruit to 15 grams a day, and, if you need to lose weight, you likely will need to limit your total fructose consumption to 15 grams a day total, including that from fruit.
If you have cancer, however, you'll want to reduce your total fructose consumption to below 10 grams per day from all sources, including fruit.
Fruit Serving SizeGrams of Fructose
Limes1 medium0
Lemons1 medium0.6
Cranberries1 cup0.7
Passion fruit1 medium0.9
Prune1 medium1.2
Apricot1 medium1.3
Guava2 medium2.2
Date (Deglet Noor style)1 medium2.6
Cantaloupe1/8 of med. melon2.8
Raspberries1 cup3.0
Clementine1 medium3.4
Kiwifruit1 medium3.4
Blackberries1 cup3.5
Star fruit1 medium3.6
Cherries, sweet103.8
Strawberries1 cup3.8
Cherries, sour1 cup4.0
Pineapple1 slice
(3.5" x .75")
4.0
Grapefruit, pink or red1/2 medium4.3
Fruit Serving SizeGrams of Fructose
Boysenberries1 cup4.6
Tangerine/mandarin orange1 medium4.8
Nectarine1 medium5.4
Peach1 medium5.9
Orange (navel) 1 medium6.1
Papaya1/2 medium6.3
Honeydew1/8 of med. melon6.7
Banana1 medium7.1
Blueberries1 cup7.4
Date (Medjool) 1 medium7.7
Apple (composite)1 medium9.5
Persimmon1 medium10.6
Watermelon1/16 med. melon11.3
Pear1 medium11.8
Raisins1/4 cup12.3
Grapes, seedless (green or red)1 cup12.4
Mango1/2 medium16.2
Apricots, dried1 cup16.4
Figs, dried1 cup23.0

 

What Makes Sugar so Appealing to Cancer Cells?

In 1931 the Nobel Prize was awarded to German researcher Dr. Otto Warburg, who first discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells. Malignant tumors tend to use a process where glucose is used as a fuel by the cancer cells, creating lactic acid as a byproduct. The large amount of lactic acid produced by this fermentation of glucose from cancer cells is then transported to your liver.

This conversion of glucose to lactic acid generates a lower, more acidic pH in cancerous tissues as well as overall physical fatigue from lactic acid buildup.
This is a very inefficient pathway for energy metabolism, which extracts only about 5 percent of the available energy in your food supply. In simplistic terms, the cancer is "wasting" energy, which leads you to become both tired and undernourished, and as the vicious cycle continues, will lead to the body wasting so many cancer patients experience.

Additionally, carbohydrates from glucose and sucrose significantly decreases the capacity of neutrophils to do their job. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that help cells to envelop and destroy invaders, such as cancer. Meanwhile, fructose appears to be preferred by cancer cells for cell division, which contributes to its growth and spreading throughout your body. Even though the theory that sugar feeds cancer was born nearly 80 years ago, most conventional cancer programs STILL do not adequately address diet and the need to avoid sugars and fructose if you have cancer.

As Patrick Quillin, PHD, RD, CNS wrote more than a decade ago:
"During the last 10 years I have worked with more than 500 cancer patients as director of nutrition for Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Tulsa, Okla. It puzzles me why the simple concept "sugar feeds cancer" can be so dramatically overlooked as part of a comprehensive cancer treatment plan. Of the million[s of] cancer patients being treated in America today, hardly any are offered any scientifically guided nutrition therapy beyond being told to "just eat good foods." Most patients I work with arrive with a complete lack of nutritional advice."

Artificial Sweeteners are NOT a Safe Sugar Alternative

You may be tempted to swap sugar for artificial sweeteners, but these can damage your health even more quickly than fructose. In fact, there are already hundreds of published studies linking artificial sweeteners like aspartame, which is widely used in diet soda and many other diet foods, to serious health complications. Cori Brackett's documentary film Sweet Misery is an excellent summary of the problems with aspartame.

You can also view my interview with Victoria Innes-Brown, who over a 2.5-year period performed a set of meticulous and detailed experiments, documenting the effects of using aspartame liquid comparable to diet soda on mice. This included not only large tumors but also neurological effects, paralysis, skin disorders and symptoms of cerebral palsy.

Recent research has also linked diet soda consumption to higher rates of strokes, heart attacks and other lethal vascular events as well as metabolic syndrome.
There is literally enough evidence showing the dangers of consuming artificial sweeteners to fill an entire book -- which is exactly why I wrote Sweet Deception. If you or your loved ones drink diet beverages or eat sugar free foods, this book will explain how you've been deceived about the truth behind artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose.
For times when you want to add a bit of sweetness to your food or beverages, try using the herb stevia instead. It’s a safe, natural plant that's has been around for over 1,500 years and is ideal if you're watching your weight, or if you're maintaining your health by avoiding sugar. It is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar and has virtually no calories.

Alternatively, you could use Lo Han or pure glucose (dextrose) as a sweetener. It costs about $1 a pound and does not cause many of the adverse biochemical disasters that fructose does.
It is only 70 percent as sweet as sucrose though, so you'll end up using a bit more of it for the same amount of sweetness, making it slightly more expensive than sucrose—but still well worth it for your health as it has ZERO grams of fructose. Glucose can be used directly by every cell in your body and as such is far safer than the metabolic poison fructose

Solid Nutrition is Paramount if You Want to Beat Cancer

You're probably well aware of the link between the foods you eat and your risk of cancer. But if you're not then please understand that virtually everything you put into (or onto) your body can either help or hinder your natural healing mechanisms, and thereby influence your risk of cancer and your ability to heal from it.

This is not an "alternative" view at all. Rather, even the conservative American Cancer Society states that one-third of cancer deaths are linked to poor diet, physical inactivity, and carrying excess weight.

However, cancer rates are escalating because modern medicine is in no way, shape or form addressing these underlying causes of most cancers. If ever there was an area in which an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure it is cancer. I strongly believe that if you are able to work your way up to the advanced health plan, you will virtually eliminate the risk of most cancers. What is often overlooked, though, is that if you already have cancer it is also crucial that you use nutritious foods to help boost your immune system and heal, and this includes avoiding fructose and other sugars.

The Gerson Research Organization maintains a collection of reports documenting the research behind one nutritional approach, the Gerson Therapy, as well as the role of diet on cancer, and you can hear anecdotes from patients who have improved using this nutritional therapy here.

Many of the success stories include people whose conventional doctors gave no hope for recovery, who were able to overcome their disease against all odds using not toxic cancer drugs but natural fruits and vegetables. The system is not a miracle cure for everyone, and even the Gerson Institute states that "No treatment works for everyone, every time" … but most conventional physicians offer only ONE route for cancer treatment -- drugs, radiation and surgery -- while ignoring or discounting alternative options such as the power of dietary modifications using healthy foods.

What Else Can You do to Prevent and Fight Cancer?

Along with limiting your intake of sugar and fructose, there are several other things you can do for yourself, right now, not only to prevent cancer, but to make sure you have the best chance of recovery if you do get it. Because cancer is almost wholly a man-made disease, it's especially important to recognize that you do have power over many factors that could cause you to get cancer. Taking control of your health will put you in a position to make the best health decisions possible if you do get cancer.
Here's a list to get you started on a cancer prevention plan:
  1. Radically reduce your sugar consumption. Normalizing your insulin levels is one of the most powerful physical actions you can take to lower your risk of cancer, and in order to do so, cutting sugars and grains out of your diet is a must. Eliminating fructose is one of the most important sugars to initially concentrate on. Again, if you have cancer, you'll want to reduce that to below 10 grams per day from all sources.
  2. Optimize your vitamin D levels. There's overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that vitamin D deficiency plays a crucial role in cancer development. Researchers within this field have estimated that about 30 percent of cancer deaths might be prevented each year simply by optimizing the vitamin D levels in the general population. On a personal level, you can decrease your risk of cancer by MORE THAN HALF simply by getting optimal sun exposure year-round.

    Alternatively, you could use a safe tanning bed, or, as a last resort, an oral vitamin D3 supplement. Remember the BEST way to raise your vitamin D level is by sun exposure. If you are being treated for cancer it is likely that higher blood levels—probably around 80-90 ng/ml—would be beneficial. To learn the details on how to use vitamin D therapeutically, please review my previous article, Test Values and Treatment for Vitamin D Deficiency.
  3. Exercise regularly. There's compelling evidence indicating that exercise can slash your risk of cancer, primarily by reducing elevated insulin levels and normalizing estrogen. For example, women who exercise regularly can reduce their breast cancer risk by 20 to 30 percent compared to those who are inactive. I prefer to view exercise like a drug that needs to be carefully prescribed and performed at a high enough intensity to achieve its maximum benefit.

    It's important to include a large variety of techniques in your exercise routine. Additionally it is likely that integrating exercise with intermittent fasting will greatly catalyze the potential of exercise to reduce your risk of cancer and stimulate widespread healing and rejuvenation. 
  4. Get appropriate amounts of high-quality animal-based omega-3 fats.
  5. Eat as many vegetables as you are comfortable with. Ideally, they should be fresh and organic. Cruciferous vegetables in particular have been identified as having potent anti-cancer properties. Seriously consider vegetable, not fruit, juicing.
  6. Use a variety of relaxing tools such as meditation, yoga and social support to manage and relieve emotional stress in your life. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed.
  7. Maintain an ideal body weight.
  8. Get enough high-quality sleep.
  9. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners, air pollution, and plastic toxins like BPA.
  10. Reduce your use of cell phones and other wireless technologies, and implement as many safety strategies as possible if/when you cannot avoid their use.
  11. Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them.
  12. Avoid artificial sweeteners, which are actually worse for your health than sugar, and have been linked to brain tumors.

 Source: Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets September 2011; 15(9): 1049-1059

Related Links:



 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/09/29/is-this-simple-sugar-a-major-factor-in-the-failure-of-the-war-on-cancer.aspx?e_cid=20110929_DNL_art_2

Bright yellow urine...the result of

.....if you’re taking a multivitamin containing B vitamins, or a B vitamin complex. Vitamin B2 (riboflavin), specifically, tends to turn your urine a bright, fluorescent yellow....

from:

A Kidney Stone's #1 Natural Enemy
http://healthticket.blogspot.com/2011/09/a-kidney-stones-1-natural-enemy.html

A Kidney Stone's #1 Natural Enemy

Posted By Dr. Mercola | July 25 2009 | 268,531views



Kidney Stones are among the most painful conditions you can have. Here’s what you need to know in order to treat and prevent them.


Dr. Mercola's Comments: 
Before I delve into the topic of kidney stones, I want to remind you that the intent and purpose of this video and article is to provide you with information based on my own experience as a practicing physician for more than 20 years.

Then, using the forum below, called Vital Votes, you can add your own experience, so that collectively, as a community, we can compile a large variety of great strategies to address common health challenges such as kidney stones.

If you’re not already registered, take a moment to join the community now – it’s completely free.
 
What Causes Kidney Stones?
In the U.S., about 10-15 percent of adults will be diagnosed with a kidney stone in their lifetime. Roughly 1 million Americans develop kidney stones each year.

Once you have had one kidney stone attack, your chance of recurrence is about 70 to 80 percent, and the younger you are when you have your first attack, the greater your risk of recurrence.

Typically, a kidney stone is the result of a super-saturation of minerals and acid salts in your urine, such as calcium and uric acid, which then crystallize and form solid masses. This can happen if you don’t drink enough fluids, and if your urine is highly acidic or highly alkaline.

Certain drugs can also promote kidney stones, such as Lasix (furosemide), Topomax (topiramate), and Xenical, among others.

Most kidney stones contain crystals of various types, with calcium as the key ingredient. However, usually one type of crystals predominates, and determining the type helps you identify the underlying cause.

The most common type is calcium oxalate stones, comprising about 75 percent of all cases. Oxalate is found in some fruits and vegetables, but your liver actually produces most of your oxalate.

You’d think one of the solutions for avoiding kidney stones would be to eliminate or radically reduce your intake of calcium, because calcium is part of the stone, but that is actually NOT a wise strategy.

This is because, normally, the calcium in your diet binds to the oxalate, and helps you excrete it in other ways than through your urine.

Other types of stones, and their underlying causes, include:
    • Struvite stones: Found more often in women, these are almost always the result of urinary tract infections.
    • Uric acid stones: These are a byproduct of protein metabolism. They’re commonly seen with gout, and may result from certain genetic factors and disorders of your blood-producing tissues.
    • Cystine stones: Represent a very small percentage of kidney stones. These are the result of a hereditary disorder that causes your kidneys to excrete massive amounts of certain amino acids (cystinuria).
Two risk factors that elevate your chances of developing kidney stones include high blood pressure and digestive problems.
 
Signs and Symptoms of Kidney Stones
Most likely you’ll never know you have a stone until it moves into your ureter—the tube connecting your kidney to your bladder. At that point, common symptoms include:
  • Pain in your side and back, below your ribs
  • Episodes of pain lasting 20 to 60 minutes, of varying intensity
  • Pain “waves” radiating from your side and back, to your lower abdomen and groin
  • Bloody, cloudy or foul-smelling urine
  • Pain with urination
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • “Urgency” (persistent urge to urinate)
  • Fever and chills (indicates an infection is also present)
The pain you feel is a result of distention of the tissues above the stone, since it is blocking the passage of urine, rather than from the pressure of the stone itself.

To diagnose a kidney stone you can collect the kidney stone and have it analyzed for a definitive answer, or you can do a 24-hour urine test. This is a useful strategy to ascertain any imbalances in your urine that contribute and predispose you to develop stones.
 
Watch What You Eat if You Have Kidney Stones
There are a number of strategies you can use to treat this condition. If you suffer mainly from calcium oxalate stones, you’ll want to minimize the amount of oxalates in your body (as opposed to reducing your calcium intake).

Two foods in particular contribute to creating oxalates, namely soy, and beer. If you’ve read my newsletter for any amount of time, you already know I warn against unfermented soy products for a number of reasons, but preventing the formation of kidney stones is yet another.

Other foods that contain high levels of oxalate that you’ll want to avoid include:
  • Spinach
  • Rhubarb
  • Chocolate
  • Parsley
  • Beetroot
  • Strawberries
  • Wheat flour
  • Pepper
  • Nuts

A diet high in sugar can also set you up for stones, since sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body by interfering with calcium and magnesium absorption.

Diets high in processed salt are also bad news as salt increases the amount of calcium and oxalate in your urine. Processed foods have notoriously high salt content and should therefore be avoided as much as possible.

Keep in mind that the salt referenced here is processed salt, like your regular table salt, not high quality, unprocessed salts that contain numerous essential minerals that your body actually needs for optimal health.

Naturally, eating fresh, whole foods according to your nutritional type is the best way to ensure you’re eating what your body needs for optimal performance, regardless of what health conditions you seek to avoid or improve.
 
Prevent and Treat Kidney Stones with Plain Water
Probably the single most effective way to prevent and treat kidney stones is to make sure you’re drinking enough water.

Actually, the number one risk factor for kidney stones is not staying hydrated enough, as it prevents your urine from dissolving minerals and acid salts.

One of the ways you’ll know if you’re drinking enough is to look at the color of your urine. Ideally, you’ll want your urine to be a light yellow. If it’s dark yellow or even orange, it may be a clue that you’re not drinking enough.

Every person’s water requirement is different, depending on your particular system and activity level, but simply keeping your urine light yellow will go a long way toward preventing kidney stones.

Remember to increase your water intake whenever you increase your activity, and during summer months when you’re likely to sweat more. Also know that once you’re thirsty it’s usually too late. Thirst is usually a sign of dehydration.

The only condition that will interfere with that analysis is if you’re taking a multivitamin containing B vitamins, or a B vitamin complex. Vitamin B2 (riboflavin), specifically, tends to turn your urine a bright, fluorescent yellow, which will prevent you from using the color of your urine as a guide.
 
Are You Still Drinking Soda?
With respect to your fluids, you also want to stay away from soda as it is loaded with phosphorous.

Sadly, the number one source of calories in the U.S. is from soda, and is in many cases the main source of fluids. The average American drinks a staggering 56 gallons of soda a year, which is a surefire way to ensure health problems, including an increased risk of kidney stones.

In fact, children as young as five years old are now starting to struggle with kidney stones, and soda consumption is a major contributor to this disturbing trend.

Also, diet soda is probably worse for your health than regular soda, so please don’t think switching to a “lighter” variety will make a positive difference.

Quitting soda is one of the fastest and easiest ways to improve your health, and can reduce your risk of developing kidney stones. If you’re struggling to quit drinking soda, a very effective technique called Turbo Tapping may help reduce your cravings.
 
Other Approaches That Can Help Prevent and Treat Kidney Stones
Kidney stones can range in size from a grain of sand to a golf ball. If you do get a large kidney stone, naturally you will not be able to pass it without some type of intervention.

In the past they had to do surgery to physically remove these larger stones, but now there are some more advanced options such as extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy. This treatment entails being submerged in a tub of water where sound waves traveling through the liquid shatter the stones. They then pass as gravel through your urine in a few days or weeks.

Lastly, it may surprise you, but exercise is a very important aspect of kidney stone prevention. If you live a sedentary lifestyle, you definitely raise your risk of developing stones, so implementing a regular exercise regimen can go a long way to keep kidney stones at bay.

Hopefully, by applying the principles above you will prevent it from ever getting to that stage, because kidney stones are no laughing matter, painful as they are.

So if you know someone who suffers with kidney stones on a regular basis, hopefully you’ll pass this article along to them, because this is the type of information you, and your friends and family, can use to take control of your health.

Related Links:


http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/07/25/information-you-need-to-know-about-kidney-stones.aspx

Kidney Stones - Six Ways to Keep them at Bay

Six Ways to Keep Kidney Stones at Bay



Posted By Dr. Mercola | September 29 2011 | 2,347views

Story at-a-glance
  • The incidence of kidney stones is increasing in the United States
  • Dietary factors, including avoiding sugar, non-fermented soy and soda, increasing your intake of magnesium, and keeping sufficiently hydrated with clean water can help you prevent most kidney stones
  • The number one risk factor for kidney stones is not drinking enough water, so staying hydrated will help you avoid kidney stones

Records of kidney stones, which are mineral crystallizations that form from imbalanced mineral ions in your urine, can be found since the beginning of civilization. Lithotomy, a surgical procedure for removing stones, is one of the earliest known surgical procedures. In fact, a caution about the dangers of surgically removing stones is found in the text of the Hippocratic Oath, and there is even evidence of kidney stones in a 7,000-year-old Egyptian mummy.

In just the past three decades, however, the number of people with kidney stones in the United States has been on the rise -- most likely as a result of modern diets -- and the condition is now incredibly common. Nearly 3 million people visit a health care provider and more than half a million go to the emergency room each year due to problems with kidney stones, according to the National Kidney & Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NKUDIC).

Just recently, someone in my family had a mild case of kidney stones. I also treated my brother-in-law 20 years ago for recurrent stones and he underwent several rounds of extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy. Eventually I had to refer him to the University of Chicago Center where they were able to develop a dietary program that essentially eliminated them.

In all, an estimated 1 million Americans develop kidney stones each year. Unfortunately, this makes the chance of getting another one very high, as once you have had one kidney stone attack, your chance of recurrence is about 70 to 80 percent. So, as with most health conditions, prevention is the best route of attack for kidney stones.

What are Kidney Stones?

Kidney stones form when minerals in your urine crystallize, forming a "stone." Typically, compounds in your urine inhibit these crystals from forming. Some people form stones when their urine contains more crystal-forming substances, such as calcium and uric acid, than the available fluid can dilute. This can happen when urine is highly acid or highly alkaline.

The conditions allowing kidney stones to form are created by problems in the way your body absorbs and eliminates calcium and other substances. Sometimes the underlying cause is a metabolic disorder or kidney disease, although certain drugs, such as Lasix (furosemide), Topomax (topiramate), and Xenical, can also promote kidney stones. Many times, it is a combination of factors that creates an environment favorable to stone formation.

As such, most kidney stones contain crystals of multiple types, but determining the predominate type helps you identify the underlying cause:
  1. Calcium stones: The most common type (four out of five cases) is usually in the form of calcium oxalate. Oxalate is found in some fruits and vegetables, but your liver produces most of your oxalate. If you are found to have oxalate stones, your physician may recommend avoiding foods rich in oxalates, such as dark green vegetables, nuts and chocolate.
  2. Struvite stones: Found more often in women, these are almost always the result of urinary tract infections.
  3. Uric acid stones: These are a byproduct of protein metabolism. They're commonly seen with gout,and may result from certain genetic factors and disorders of your blood-producing tissues. However, fructose also elevates uric acid, and there is evidence that fructose consumption is helping to drive up rates of kidney disease.
  4. Cystine stones: Representing only a very small percentage of kidney stones, these are the result of a hereditary disorder that causes your kidneys to excrete massive amounts of certain amino acids (cystinuria).

Do Kidney Stones Require Medical Help?

If the stone remains small, it will pass through your urinary tract unnoticed, but if it is large it can be one of the most excruciatingly painful conditions you can experience. Kidney stones can range in size from a grain of sand to larger than a golf ball, and if a stone fails to pass, permanent damage to your urinary tract can result.

So this is not something to ignore -- not that you could easily ignore such a painful episode -- but in most cases the best solution is letting the stone pass on its own. This might take days, or weeks in some cases, but the key is to drink enough pure water -- NOT soda or fruit juice -- to decrease the concentration of solids in your urine to the point that the stone will be dissolved.

Most kidney stones will pass on their own without medical intervention, but in some cases, such as if a stone blocks the flow of urine, damages kidney tissues, or is simply too large to pass on its own, you may need more aggressive treatment. There are several medical procedures and surgical techniques that can be used to treat kidney stones, but the risks are high enough that physicians typically shy away from them, unless there's no other choice.

Fortunately, there are now some more advanced options other than surgery, such as extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy. This treatment entails being submerged in a tub of water where sound waves traveling through the liquid shatter the stones. They then pass as gravel through your urine in a few days or weeks.

You Can Prevent Kidney Stones with Lifestyle Changes

Many people mistakenly believe that there's nothing you can do to prevent kidney stones. In reality, many risk factors are under your control, and many are remarkably simple.
1. Drink Plenty of Water

The number one risk factor for kidney stones is not drinking enough water. If you aren't drinking enough, your urine will simply have higher concentrations of substances that can form stones. NKUDIC recommends drinking enough water to produce at least 2 quarts of urine in every 24-hour period, but a simpler way to know if you are drinking enough water is to check the color of your urine; you want your urine to be a very light yellow.
Every person's water requirement is different, depending on your particular system and activity level, but simply keeping your urine light yellow will go a long way toward preventing kidney stones. Remember to increase your water intake whenever you increase your activity, and when you're in a warmer climate.

If you happen to be taking any multivitamins or B supplements that contain vitamin B2 (riboflavin), the color of your urine will be a very bright nearly fluorescent yellow and this will not allow you to use the color of your urine as a guide to how well you are hydrated.

2. Make Sure You Get Adequate Magnesium

Magnesium is responsible for more than 300 biochemical reactions in your body, and deficiency of this mineral has been linked to kidney stones. It also plays an important role in your body's absorption and assimilation of calcium, as if you consume too much calcium without adequate magnesium, the excess calcium can actually become toxic and contribute to health conditions like kidney stones.

Magnesium helps prevent calcium from combining with oxalate, which is the most common type of kidney stone.

Green leafy vegetables like spinach and Swiss chard are excellent sources of magnesium, and one of the simplest ways to make sure you're consuming enough of these is by juicing your vegetables. Vegetable juice is an excellent source of magnesium, as are some beans, nuts and seeds, like almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds. Avocadoes are also a good source. However, surveys suggest that many Americans are not getting enough magnesium in their diets.

It's been estimated that up to 80 percent of the U.S. population is deficient in this important mineral, according to Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, author of The Miracle of Magnesium.

If you decide to supplement with magnesium it is important to understand that its complementary partner is calcium. So you should use both. Typically you would use twice as much elemental magnesium relative to the elemental calcium. That ratio works out quite well for most.

3. Avoid Sugar, Including Fructose and Soda

A diet high in sugar can set you up for kidney stones, since sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body by interfering with calcium and magnesium absorption. The consumption of unhealthy sugars and soda by children is a large factor in why children as young as age 5 or 6 are now developing kidney stones.

One South African study found that drinking soda exacerbates conditions in your urine that lead to formation of calcium oxalate kidney stone problems. Sugar can also increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in your kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.

4. Exercise

You're more prone to kidney stones if you're bedridden or very sedentary for a long period of time, partly because limited activity can cause your bones to release more calcium. Exercise will also help you to resolve high blood pressure, a condition that doubles your risk for kidney stones. You can find my comprehensive exercise recommendations, including how to perform highly recommended Peak Fitness exercises, here.

5. Eat Calcium-Rich Foods (but be careful with supplements)

In the past, kidney stone sufferers have been warned to avoid foods high in calcium, as calcium is a major component of the majority of kidney stones. However, there is now evidence that avoiding calcium may do more harm than good. The Harvard School of Public Health conducted a study of more than 45,000 men, and the men who had diets rich in calcium had a one-third lower risk of kidney stones than those with lower calcium diets.

It turns out that a diet rich in calcium actually blocks a chemical action that causes the formation of the stones. It binds with oxalates (from foods) in your intestine, which then prevents both from being absorbed into your blood and later transferred to your kidneys.

So, urinary oxalates may be more important to formation of calcium-oxalate kidney stone crystals than is urinary calcium. It is important to note that it is the calcium from foods that is beneficial -- not calcium supplements, which have actually been found to increase your risk of kidney stones by 20 percent.

Check out my nutrition plan for a simple, step-by-step guide for what types of foods to eat to reduce your risk of kidney stones and other chronic and acute health conditions.

6. Avoid Non-Fermented Soy

Soybeans and soy-based foods may promote kidney stones in those prone to them, as they may contain high levels of oxalates, which can bind with calcium in your kidney to form kidney stones.

This is just one reason why unfermented soy -- the type found in soy milk, soy burgers, soy ice cream and even tofu -- is not a health food. If you were to carefully review the thousands of studies published on soy, I strongly believe you would reach the same conclusion as I have -- which is, the risks of consuming unfermented soy products FAR outweigh any possible benefits.

If you're interested in enjoying the health benefits of soy, choose fermented soy, as after a long fermentation process, the phytate (which blocks your body's uptake of essential minerals) and anti-nutrient levels of soybeans (including oxalates) are reduced, and their beneficial properties become available to your digestive system.
As you can see, the best and most natural ways to prevent kidney stones are some of the easiest, if you're willing to make some lifestyle alterations.

Related Links:


 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/09/29/six-ways-to-keep-kidney-stones-at-bay-from-the-harvard-health-letter.aspx

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    Wednesday 28 September 2011

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    Tuesday 27 September 2011

    Chromium and diabetes - Trace Mineral that Could Wipe Out the Diabetes Epidemic

    Our bodies are designed to utilize a very large number of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients; however, some nutrients can play such important roles in good health that they should perhaps be recognized as the "master nutrients."

    In the first of what will be a continuing series of articles, we will take a look at a vital, yet largely overlooked, mineral nutrient and how it could almost single-handedly wipe out the epidemic of diabetes plaguing our country: GTF Chromium.

    A healthy diet and regular physical activity have been rightly identified as keys to preventing and controlling diabetes. However, what has not been recognized is that regular consumption of a key form of chromium could virtually eliminate diabetes along with sensible eating and being even modestly active. Thanks to our unhealthy SADS diet and mineral depleting soils, each decade is bringing us more chromium deficiency. The deficiency has now reached a crisis state, with 90 percent of us estimated to be deficient in chromium.

    More than 50 years ago the trace element chromium was identified as an essential nutrient at the National Institutes of Health by Dr. Klaus Schwartz due to its role in blood sugar metabolism. A molecule named Glucose Tolerance Factor (GTF) was found to be primarily composed of chromium.  Dr. Walter Mertz, an assistant to Dr. Schwartz at the time, noted in 1959 "Type II diabetes is not a disease. It is the lack of a natural ingredient, known as GTF chromium."

    More than 30 years ago, Columbia and Yale graduate and Dartmouth University medical school professor Dr. Henry Alfred Schroeder wrote that "the typical American diet, with about 60 percent of its calories from refined sugar, refined flour and fat . . . was apparently designed not only to provide as little chromium as feasible, but to cause depletion of body stores of chromium."

    Chromium works together with insulin in providing sugar to the cells for energy. If chromium levels decrease there is a corresponding decrease in sugar delivery from insulin. Modern medical terms such as "insulin resistance" and "insulin sensitivity" should be more accurately replaced with "gross chromium deficiency".

    As health historian Christopher C. Barr explained, insulin is a transport mechanism. It is like a truck that transports glucose to be unloaded at the cells insulin receptors. Chromium rich GTF molecules are like dock workers, which assist getting the sugar (glucose) to the insulin receptors. If there are less and less GTF "dock workers" then the work of providing sugar to the cells becomes unproductive. A traffic jam of insulin "trucks" in the blood stream results in higher and higher blood sugar levels as the problems of chromium deficiency increases over time.

    Although we do see chromium supplement promoted for various health areas, we hear very little about GTF chromium. A major reason is likely because the vast majority of medical research is oriented towards finding new, patented medicines. Another might be due to the US government owning a patent on a different, much less effective but more highly promoted, form of chromium - chromium picolinate.

    The right form of chromium is whole foods grown GTF chromium, and the right daily amount is about 100 micrograms taken three times daily. If every American took 100 per cent whole food GTF chromium, ate reasonably healthily and got modest regular physical activity, it would virtually wipe out diabetes. In addition, at a time when the Obama administration is asking agencies to find $100 billion in health care savings, universal use of GTF chromium would save at least $100 billion annually from the $218 billion annual costs of treating diabetes.