Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Hot tub probe over Legionnaires'

31 July 2012 Last updated at 09:56

Stoke-on-Trent Legionnaires' source 'could be hot tub'

A hot tub is the "probable" source of an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Staffordshire, health officials have said.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said investigations were taking place at JTF Warehouse in Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, and the company was co-operating.

A statement from the firm said: "JTF is extremely concerned and the product has been withdrawn from all stores."

The HPA said there had been 18 cases in the outbreak. One patient has died.

Seven people diagnosed with the disease are in hospital in Stoke-on-Trent and another is in a stable condition in hospital in Leicester, the agency said.

'Unusual strain'

Details of the patient who died on Saturday have not been released.

All those affected by the disease, which infects the lungs, are aged between their late 40s and mid-70s.

The HPA said samples from the hot tub at JTF Warehouse were confirmed at a specialist laboratory in Colindale on Monday as being an unusual strain of legionella bacteria and matched those taken from patients.

What is Legionnaires' disease?

A disease that can lead to lung infection or pneumonia, it is caused by a bacteria which is found widely in rivers and ponds but can thrive in artificially heated water such as that in hot tubs

Find out more about Legionnaires' disease on BBC Health

How is Legionnaires' disease spread?

Legionnaires' disease is mainly spread through exposure to systems where water is kept at a temperature of between 20-45C which encourages bacteria growth. Systems that do this include cooling towers, spa pools and hot water systems. The risk is increased if the system creates and spreads tiny droplets of water which are easily inhaled.

Source: Health and Safety Executive

Dr Sue Ibbotson, from the HPA, said: "We know that 17 of the 18 confirmed cases visited this warehouse in the two weeks before they fell ill.

"We know that spa pools are known to be effective mechanisms for spreading the legionella infection and it can take up to two weeks following exposure for people to develop symptoms of Legionnaires' disease.

"We may still expect to see new cases related to this outbreak."

A statement from JTF Warehouse said: "We have worked closely with the Health and Safety Executive in recent days to identify the cause and eliminate any further risk."

Dr Zafar Iqbal, director of public health, NHS in Stoke, said: "It's good news that we have a probable source, especially as we know it has been dealt with through precautionary measures.

"If people are displaying symptoms of Legionnaires' disease, such as aching muscles, fever, tiredness, headaches and a dry cough, they should see their doctor or contact NHS Direct on 0845 46 47."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-19055073

Two thirds of obese children show early signs of heart disease: study

Obese children already have high blood pressure and cholesterol by the age of 12

Two thirds of very obese children are at risk of developing heart disease by age 12, a study has found.

By Daily Telegraph Reporter

7:45AM BST 24 Jul 2012

1 Comment

A study has found two out of every three severely obese children already have at least one health problem that increases the risk of heart disease.

By age 12 they had high blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose, according to the study in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

The study was carried out in the Netherlands with data on 500 children collected between 2005 and 2007 with 307 classed as severely obese.

The figures could mean that thousands of British children are also affected after experts here warned children as young as seven were being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity.

Just over half of these 307 children were boys. They tended to be more severely obese at the younger end of the age spectrum; the reverse was true of girls.

Two out of three had at least one cardiovascular risk factor. Over half had high blood pressure; a similar proportion had high levels of low density ‘bad’ cholesterol; one in seven had high fasting blood glucose; and just under one per cent already had type 2 diabetes.

Only one child’s obesity was attributable to medical rather than lifestyle factors.

Nearly one in three severely obese children came from one parent families.

Dr Joana Kist-van Holthe, Department of Public and Occupational Health, at the University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, wrote: "The prevalence of impaired fasting glucose in [these children] is worrying, considering the increasing prevalence worldwide of type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents.

“Likewise, the high prevalence of hypertension and abnormal lipids may lead to cardiovascular disease in young adulthood."

In England, official figures show that among boys aged two to 15, the proportion who were obese increased overall between 1995 and 2004 from 11.1 per cent to 19.4 per cent, but has steadily fallen between then and 2010 to 17.1 per cent.

Among girls in the same age group, the proportion who were obese increased from 12.2 per cent to 18.8 per cent between the years of 1995 and 2005 but since then has steadily decreased to 14.8 per cent in 2010.

In England, the figures do not separate obese from severely obese as in the Dutch study.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9420727/Two-thirds-of-obese-children-show-early-signs-of-heart-disease-study.html

FDA Bans BPA From Baby Bottles

July 25 2012 |110,280views|

Story at-a-glance

Most doctor visits result in drug and surgical “solutions” that only treat your symptoms and often cause other side effects and problems
Examples of when you may be better of avoiding your doctor include screenings like mammograms and PSA tests, health conditions like high cholesterol, colds and the flu, and when seeking sound nutritional advice
Ultimately, the more you take responsibility for your own health -- in the form of nurturing your body to prevent disease -- the less you need to rely on the "disease care" that passes for health care in the United States

By Dr. Mercola

I've long said that the best strategy for achieving health is avoiding a visit to your doctor in the first place. Why? Because in many cases you will simply leave the office with a prescription or two, which will rarely solve your health problem. Most doctor visits result in "solutions" that only suppress your symptoms, often causing other side effects and problems.

Rather than advise patients about the true underlying conditions and real solutions that lead to health, they are left putting toxic Band-Aids on gaping wounds. As shown in the slideshow above, and as I detail in depth below, there are actually many reasons why avoiding your doctor may be in the best interest of your health …

1. Annual Pap Smears

Many physicians still advise women to receive yearly pap smears, but the newest guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force specifically recommend against this. The new recommendations call for women to undergo PAP screening only once every three years, beginning at age 21 and ending around age 65.

When testing is more frequent, or started before age 21, there's a chance of detecting human papillomavirus (HPV), and associatedlesions, more frequently. If a physician detects such lesions, they will assume they are "pre-cancerous" and treat them accordingly. However, most HPV infections and associated low grade squamous intra-epithelial lesions clear up on their own without treatment,¹while the treatment itself can lead to cervical incompetence and/or miscarriage in the future. Since most cases of HPV clear up on their own, this is a case where the treatment may do more harm than good.
That said, PAP smears (which screen for cervical cancer typically associated with HPV) are one of the best tools for preventing cervical cancer deaths – but getting one every year is likely unnecessary.

Evidence shows that screening women for cervical cancer more frequently than every three years does not detect more cancer. Women who have not been exposed to HPV are not at risk for cervical cancer. Further, even if you are exposed and the infection does not clear up on its own (which is not common), it can take 10 years before it progresses to cancer. Cervical cancers are very slow growing, which is why less frequent PAP screens are still effective.

Despite the new PAP screen guidelines, most physicians continue to recommend annual PAP screening to their patients, mostly because they (and their patients) are in the habit of doing so. Some physicians also fear their patients will not come in for annual exams and other screening if the PAP is not required every year.

There is also a good deal of evidence that the revised PAP guidelines are part of a plan to rescue Gardasil (HPV) vaccine sales, which are embarrassingly low. The HPV vaccine is a heavily promoted and very expensive vaccine, but it has been a flop, with less than 27 percent of women opting to receive it, and reports of serious adverse effects continuing to pour in.

2. Mammograms

Only about 1 in 8 women whose breast cancer was identified during a routine mammogram actually had their lives "saved" by the screening, a recent analysis estimated²– and this does not accurately account for how many women will fall victim to mammogram-induced breast cancer.

Using breast cancer data from The National Cancer Institute and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers calculated a 50-year-old woman's likelihood of developing breast cancer in the next 10 years, the odds the cancer would be detected by mammography, and her risk of dying from the cancer over 20 years.

They found that a mammogram has, at best, only a 13 percent probability of saving her life, and that the probability may actually be as low as 3 percent. No matter what analyses they used, including considering women of different ages, the probability of a mammogram saving a life remained below 25 percent. Researchers concluded:
"Most women with screen-detected breast cancer have not had their life saved by screening. They are instead either diagnosed early (with no effect on their mortality) or overdiagnosed."

This bears repeating:

Mammograms often diagnose lesions or tumors that may never threaten a woman's life. They also often result in false positives that lead to over-treatment, i.e. misdiagnosed women often undergo unnecessary mastectomies, lumpectomies, radiation treatments and chemotherapy, which can have a devastating effect on both the quality and length of their lives. Plus, a mammogram uses ionizing radiation, which in and of itself can either induce or contribute to the development of breast cancer.

3. Cold and Flu

Think it's wise to go to a conventional physician for these? Think again. Thanks to routine over-prescription of antibiotics, and the prescription of inappropriate antibiotics, you're likely to walk away after being told to take a drug you don't actually need.

Antibiotics do NOT work against viruses, hence they are useless against colds and flu's. Unfortunately antibiotics are vastly over-prescribed for this purpose. If you have a cold or flu, remember that unless you have a serious secondary bacterial pneumonia, an antibiotic will likely do far more harm than good, because whenever you use an antibiotic, you're increasing your susceptibility to developing infections with resistance to that antibiotic -- and you can become the carrier of this resistant bug, and can spread it to others.

The first thing you want to do when you feel yourself coming down with a cold or flu is to avoid ALL sugars, artificial sweeteners, and processed foods. Sugar is particularly damaging to your immune system -- which needs to be ramped up, not suppressed, in order to combat an emerging infection. This includes fructose from fruit juice, and all types of grains (as they break down into sugar (glucose) in your body).

Ideally, you must address nutrition, sleep, exercise and stress issues the moment you first feel yourself getting a bug. Getting plenty of high quality sleep will be crucial to your recovery. This is when immune-enhancing strategies will be most effective. In addition, the research is quite clear that the higher your vitamin D level, the lower your risk of contracting colds, flu, and other respiratory tract infections. I strongly believe you could avoid colds and influenza entirely by maintaining your vitamin D level in the optimal range.

4. Cholesterol

Many doctors are unaware that a high-fat diet is NOT the cause of heart disease. They are fooled into believing that total cholesterol is an accurate predictor of heart disease. If you visit your physician and you have high cholesterol, you're likely to be told two things:

Take a statin cholesterol-lowering drug and

Don't eat saturated fat.

While statin drugs do lower cholesterol very effectively, cholesterol is not the culprit in heart disease. Plus a report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claims that no study has ever proven that statins improve all-cause mortality³-- in other words, they don't prolong your life any longer than if you'd not taken them at all. And rather than improving your life, they actually contribute to a deterioration in the quality of your life, destroying muscles and endangering liver, kidney and even heart function. The best ways to optimize your cholesterol levels and your heart health have to do with lifestyle measures, including eating healthy minimally processed fats and avoid highly processed vegetable fats and oils that are loaded with toxic omega-6 fats.

5. Depression

Once again, you're more likely to leave the doctor's office with a prescription for a drug that could be more dangerous than the problem itself. Every year, 230 million prescriptions for antidepressants are filled, making them one of the most prescribed drugs in the United States. The psychiatric industry itself is a $330 billion industry—not bad for an enterprise that offers little in the way of cures.

Despite all of these prescriptions, more than one in 20 Americans are depressed.⁴Of those depressed Americans, 80 percent say they have some level of functional impairment, and 27 percent say their condition makes it extremely difficult to do everyday tasks like work, activities of daily living, and getting along with others.
The use of antidepressant drugs—medicine's answer for depression—doubled in just one decade, from 13.3 million in 1996 to 27 million in 2005.

If these drugs are so extensively prescribed, then why are so many people feeling so low?
Because they don't work at addressing the cause.

Research has confirmed that antidepressant drugs are no more effective than sugar pills. Some studies have even found that sugar pills may produce BETTER results than antidepressants! Personally, I believe the reason for this astounding finding is that both pills work via the placebo effect, but the sugar pills produce far fewer adverse effects.

Many people forget that antidepressants come with a slew of side effects, some of which are deadly. Approximately 750,000 people attempt suicide each year in the US, and about 30,000 of those succeed. Taking a drug that is unlikely to relieve your symptoms and may actually increase your risk of killing yourself certainly does not seem like a good choice. In addition, since most of the treatment focus is on drugs, many safe and natural treatment options that DO work -- like exercise, the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), vitamin D, and proper nutrition -- are completely ignored.

6. High Blood Pressure

The definition of what constitutes high blood pressure expanded greatly in 2003, so that drug companies could sell drugs loaded with side effects to 45 million extra people.

Because the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (rife with drug industry conflicts of interest) decided that what were in actuality relatively low blood pressure readings were a risk for heart disease, millions more over the years, were suddenly labeled abnormal, and in need of "treatment" for a condition that didn't exist in medical literature until that panel met.

Uncontrolled high blood pressure is a very serious health concern that can lead to heart disease and increase your risk of having a stroke. The good news though is that following a healthy nutrition plan, along with exercising and implementing effective stress reduction techniques will normalize blood pressure in most people.

7. PSA Tests for Prostate Cancer

These tests actually reveal very little, and an irrelevant positive result will likely lead to a biopsy that comes with infection risk. The prostate-specific antigen test (PSA test), analyzes your blood for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a substance produced by your prostate gland. When higher-than-normal levels of PSA are detected, it is believed that cancer is present. However, PSA screening barely has any impact on mortality rates from prostate cancer. As a result, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force will soon recommend that men not get screened for prostate cancer.

Today, many experts agree that PSA testing is unreliable at best and useless at worst for accurately diagnosing prostate cancer. Many also agree that routine PSA blood tests often lead to over-diagnosis of prostate cancer, resulting in unnecessary treatments.

Similar to mammograms, the PSA screen has become little more than an up-sell technique. The false positive rate is high, and the bulk of the harm is a result of subsequent unnecessary treatments.

Diet is actually a factor that can greatly impact your prostate health and help prevent enlarged prostate and prostate cancer, but many physicians fail to address this.

You'll want to eat as much organic (preferably raw) food as possible, and liberally include fresh herbs and spices, such as ginger. Make sure to limit carbohydrates like sugar/fructose and grains as much as possible to maintain optimal insulin levels, which will help reduce your cancer risk in general. Highly processed or charcoaled meats, pasteurized dairy products, and synthetic trans fats correlate with an increased risk for prostate cancer and should also be avoided.

8. Inappropriate and Unwise Dietary Advice

Most doctors are clueless about what constitutes a healthy diet. As such, they will recommend health catastrophes like artificial sweeteners, vegetable oils in lieu of butter, and fat-free pasteurized dairy products. Most will also neglect to tell you about the foods you could be eating more of to optimize your health, like fermented vegetables, raw dairy products, healthy fats (like saturated and animal-based omega-3s), grass-fed beef and more.

In addition, most are ignorant about the importance of how to cook your food – most foods are best consumed when raw or only lightly cooked, and this includes animal proteins like eggs and meat. A discussion about food quality is essential to health (i.e. getting your meat from a small local farmer instead of a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO)) but you will almost never hear this from your family physician. Wondering how to truly eat healthy? See my nutrition plan for a comprehensive (and free) guide.

9. Prescription Drugs Might Kill You and They Don't Address the Cause of the Problem

A drug prescription is usually a Band-Aid that gets nowhere near the root cause of illness. And many drugs are dangerous. Last year an analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control CDC) revealed that deaths from properly prescribed drugs now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States! And when you add in deaths attributable to other medical care modalities, like hospital admissions and surgery, the modern medical system becomes the leading cause of death and injury in the United States.

Authored in two parts by Gary Null, PhD, Carolyn Dean, MD ND, Martin Feldman, MD, Debora Rasio, MD, and Dorothy Smith, PhD, the comprehensive Death by Medicine article described in excruciating detail how everything from medical errors to adverse drug reactions to unnecessary procedures caused more harm than good. That was in 2003. In 2010, an analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine found that, despite efforts to improve patient safety in the past few years, the health care system hasn't changed much at all.⁵

For one of many examples, the birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin, which have been endorsed by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee, contain a drug called drospirenone that makes women who take it nearly seven times more likely to develop thromboembolism. This is an obstruction of a blood vessel that can lead to deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, stroke, heart attack and death.

Why did the FDA approve this dangerous drug? It turns out that at least four members of the advisory committee have either done work for the drugs' manufacturers or licensees, or received research funding from them. According to the Alliance for Natural Health:

"Each of those four panelists who received money from the pill's manufacturer voted in favor of the pill. Interestingly, the committee's ruling that the drug's benefit outweighs the risks was decided by a four-vote margin. Ironically, while the FDA allowed voting by advisors with business connections to drospirenone, the agency barred ... Sidney M. Wolfe, on the grounds that he ... had advised his readers not to take Yaz based on several years of data."

10. Your Doctor Might Not Even Tell You the Truth

A U.S. telephone survey found that 79 percent of Americans trust their doctor.⁶But a recent survey of 1,900 physicians revealed that some are not always open or honest with their patients The results were less than impressive, to put it mildly:

One-third of physicians did not completely agree with disclosing serious medical errors to patients

One-fifth did not completely agree that physicians should never tell a patient something untrue

Amazingly 40% believed that they should hide their financial relationships with drug and device companies to patients

Ten percent said they had told patients something untrue in the previous year

When making health care decisions, you should certainly get your physicians' advice -- that's what you're paying them for, after all. Hopefully you have chosen a health care provider who has similar philosophies about health as you do, and whose expertise you can trust. But remember that when making health care decisions, you must be your own advocate; it's important to ask questions before opting for tests, procedures or treatments, and it's your decision if you'd rather opt for less medical intervention while choosing a more natural way of healing your body.

Ultimately, the more you take responsibility for your own health -- in the form of nurturing your body to prevent disease -- the less you need to rely on the "disease care" that passes for health care in the United States. If you carefully follow some basic health principles -- simple things like exercising, eating whole foods, sleeping enough, getting sun exposure, reducing stress in your life, and nurturing personal relationships -- you will drastically reduce your need for conventional medical care, which in and of itself will reduce your chances of suffering ill side effects.

But in the event you do need medical care, seek a health care practitioner who will help you move toward complete wellness by helping you discover and understand the hidden causes of your health challenges ... and create a customized and comprehensive -- i.e. holistic -- treatment plan for you.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/07/25/ten-reasons-to-avoid-doctors.aspx

For Better Looks And Health, Make That The Last Straw

Easy Health Options News

Sam Rolley | Jul 25, 2012 | Comments 1

Do you sip beverages through a straw? Bad idea.
Straws can add pucker to your cheeks, create wrinkles around your mouth, inspire intestinal gas and help dissolve your teeth.

It is a common myth that drinking sugary and acidic beverages through a straw can help preserve your pearly whites by lessening tooth exposure to staining liquids and acids. It works only if you place the straw in the back of your mouth, causing you to miss much of the taste of the beverage. Then, what’s the point in even drinking a tasty treat?

Expert Warning

A growing number of dental experts say it is a much better idea to chase sugary and staining beverages with a bit of water to neutralize acid and minimize stains. An even better option is to opt for water as your drink of choice.

So if straws aren’t really protecting your teeth, what are they doing for you? They’re giving you wrinkles and could be causing digestive issues.

When you enjoy refreshment through a drinking straw, you make the same puckered-lip motion that smokers do as they puff away at their cigarettes. Though you may not be inhaling a multitude of poisonous chemicals, drinking a beverage through a straw may give you a wrinkly smoker’s mouth.

If you notice that you tend to be gassy or bloated after enjoying a meal or beverage, there could be many culprits. But one you may not expect is the plastic tube from which you sip your drinks. With every slurp, you may also gulp a tiny amount of air. This air builds up in your gut and can cause painful bloating and uncomfortable gassiness.

http://easyhealthoptions.com/skin-care/for-better-looks-and-health-make-that-the-last-straw/

Monday, 30 July 2012

New Statin Risks Come to Light

Even though we often can lower our cholesterol naturally (“I’ll pass on the mac and cheese”), many of us—25% of Americans, in fact—get extra help from statin drugs, such as Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor and Vytorin, because those meds can lower LDL “bad” cholesterol by 30% or more. Some people really need the prescriptive help, while others simply take them so that they can indulge in that mac and cheese.

I think almost everyone is aware of the already-long list of side effects associated with statins (which includes digestive problems and rashes, among others). But there’s a new pile of reports on statins, and these reports show that there are even more side effects to add to the list. The side effects are not so awful that you necessarily need to stop using your statin—but since there are so many now, you might want to take a hard look at what side effects it may be causing.

These reports were enough to provoke the FDA to add four new safety warnings to statins this year. I called Amy G. Egan, MD, MPH, deputy director for safety in the FDA’s division of metabolism and endocrinology products in Silver Spring, Maryland, to break down the most important new findings.

WHAT ARE THE NEWEST RISKS?

Dr. Egan told me that the FDA did a comprehensive review of statin safety based on the latest data. Since this was an analysis of lots of different data, it’s impossible to say exactly how much certain doses of certain statins will raise your risk for each of the following problems. But here’s a general overview of the major findings…

Increased risk for cognition problems: Forgetfulness, confusion and memory loss have been reported by some statin users.
Elevated blood sugar and diabetes risk: Statin users have a higher risk for high blood sugar and developing type 2 diabetes. Those most at risk for blood sugar spikes are those who are already insulin resistant (or prediabetic). Ask your doctor whether it’s a good idea to get your blood sugar checked regularly.
Higher risk for muscle damage: Some medications can interact with lovastatin (Mevacor) and increase the risk for muscle damage. These drugs run the gamut from HIV protease inhibitors to the macrolide antibiotics erythromycin and clarithromycin and the ketolid antibiotic telithromycin, the antidepressant nefazodone and certain antifungal and hepatitis drugs (a full list is available at www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/ucm295611.htm).

In addition, according to the FDA routine blood tests to monitor liver enzymes are no longer needed for those on statins because such tests haven’t effectively predicted who will suffer from rare instances of liver damage associated with statin use. Instead, the FDA is now recommending that a liver enzyme test should be done just once before statin treatment begins and again only if a patient experiences symptoms of liver damage (such as upper right abdominal discomfort, dark urine or yellowing of the skin or eyes) and a doctor feels that a follow-up test is necessary.

SCARED OFF STATINS?

Dr. Egan doesn’t recommend that anyone stop taking a statin only because of these risks. However, she said, if you keep taking your statin, stay alert. Be on the lookout for symptoms of the risks listed above. Have you been more forgetful or confused recently? Are you experiencing early diabetes symptoms such as excessive thirst or urination? Are muscle aches or weakness slowing you down?

Are you experiencing the liver damage symptoms listed above? If you notice any red flags, another talk with your physician is in order.

Source: Amy G. Egan, MD, MPH, deputy director for safety, division of metabolism and endocrinology products, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland.

Listing Details

Publication Daily Health News

Original publication date July 26, 2012

http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/content/article/health-a-healing/new-statin-risks-come-to-light?utm_campaign=_BQETeWB8rbr$Ic&DHN

Seven Easy Ways To Detox Your Way To More Energy

Dr. Isaac Eliaz | Feb 24, 2012 | Comments 7

A personal detox program can be simple, yet impressively effective. The healthy benefits include less anxiety, reduced stress, diminished inflammation and more personal energy. And the best part about it is that you can start cleansing your body of toxins today.

Gradual Beginnings

A healthy detoxification program should always begin gradually.

With so many methods available, it can be difficult to find a simple starting point. As an integrative medical doctor and detoxification expert, I’d like to share some of my top recommended steps for safe and effective detoxification that can provide lasting energy, vitality and overall wellness.

1. Reduce Your Exposure To Toxins

Every day, we are exposed to harmful health-robbing toxins such as bisphenol-A (BPA), phthalates, PFOA, formaldehyde, PDBEs, heavy metals, etc. from cleaning and beauty products, cookware, the environment and other sources. We are also bombarded with toxins from processed, fried or non-organic foods, alcohol, stimulants, medications and more. These toxins accumulate in the body over time and damage DNA, create inflammation and impair critical biological functions. You can reduce exposure by choosing all-natural foods and non-toxic products whenever possible, and make sure your home and work environments are properly ventilated. Have yourself tested for food allergies if you feel you may be sensitive to gluten, dairy, eggs or other allergenic foods. Allergens can increase the permeability of your digestive tract, allowing toxins to easily enter your circulation.

2. Alkalize Your Diet

Increase your intake of fruits and vegetables high in alkalizing minerals — such as potassium, magnesium and calcium — by eating foods like red potatoes, avocado and Brussels sprouts. Green leafy vegetables are rich in magnesium, while broccoli, sea vegetables, collards, chard and other greens are rich in calcium. An alkalizing mineral broth can be easily made by combining potatoes, celery, parsley, green beans, zucchini, beet tops, kale, onions and seaweed in a full pot of water; simmering for an hour or two; and pouring off the liquid for use. This method makes a highly nutritious, mineral-rich liquid suitable for a seasonal cleanse.

Other alkalizing food sources include liquid chlorophyll and powdered green supplements, as well as the highly alkaline umeboshi plum paste, which is a sour plum commonly used in Japanese cuisine. An alkaline diet can aid in the removal of toxins, reduce inflammation and boost overall health and energy.

3. Pre-Cleanse With Gentle Supplements

Gentle detox supplementation begins with natural ingredients that help to clear toxins from the circulation and digestive systems, while providing overall health support. Start with an organic 10-mushroom formula, which helps remove toxins and provides powerful benefits to every major body system, including the immune system. Modified citrus pectin is another key supplement that safely removes heavy metals and environmental toxins from circulation and digestion, reduces inflammation, boosts immunity, and protects against cancer and chronic illness by blocking harmful galectin-3 molecules.

4. Detoxify Organs And Tissues With Nutrients And Botanicals

After gently detoxifying circulation and digestion, you can gradually advance to more thorough detoxification of organs and tissues where toxins are often stored over time. For deeper, in-depth detoxification, I recommend incorporating compounds, herbs and nutrients such as n-acetyl cysteine, selenium, MSM, alpha-lipoic acid, milk thistle, cilantro, goldenrod, garlic and dandelion leaf. These natural detoxifying agents have their own affinities for specific organs and systems of the body, and work to successfully eliminate toxins without side effects. They also boost vital energy and provide a wide array of antioxidant support to combat the oxidative stress caused during toxin removal.

5. Hydrate

Dehydration can lead to inflammation and oxidative stress, thus increasing toxicity. Drink plenty of pure water and herbal tea to help assist the flushing of toxins from your body and keep your natural detox functions running smoothly. Proper hydration promotes better functioning of all your body’s systems.

6. Get Moving

Simple, moderate exercise on a regular basis helps keep the lymphatic system moving, release stored toxins, increase circulation and improve immune response. Movement also aids in releasing physical, emotional and psychological energies that may have you feeling “stuck.” Even just 15 minutes of walking, especially in a natural setting, can offer powerful benefits for detoxification and overall health.

7. Let Go With Simple Meditation

In today’s modern environment, we are often bombarded by stress, anxiety and negative thoughts and emotions. Stress affects us physically by degrading immune function and increasing stress hormones, which promote blood sugar imbalances, inflammation and oxidative stress. You can help clear this toxic burden on your mental, emotional and physical health through the process of letting go. Regular meditation practice is a proactive and well-researched method for easing these burdens, even if you meditate for only 10 minutes a day. Simply sit quietly and focus your attention, as well as your breathing, on a particular object such as a small stone. As thoughts and emotions arise, acknowledge and release them, bringing your attention back to your breath.

Numerous published studies show meditation can improve psychological/emotional well-being and help with issues ranging from cardiovascular disease, inflammation and immune activity to pain, anxiety, depression and more.

Following these relatively easy, yet important, tips for a successful cleanse allows you to quickly feel the benefits of reduced stress and anxiety, decreased inflammation and increased energy as well as improved health and vitality. They are rewards you won’t want to miss.

http://easyhealthoptions.com/alternative-medicine/nutrition/seven-easy-ways-to-detox-your-way-to-more-energy/

Defend Your Health In A Toxic World

Dr. Isaac Eliaz | Jan 20, 2012 | Comments 11

Today’s modern world bristles with health-robbing toxins. These harmful substances lurk in our food, water, air, household products and the environment.
Luckily, a few simple measures can save your health by helping you avoid these undesirables and boost your body’s natural detoxification defenses.

Toxic Burden

Studies over the past several years reveal that many people’s bodies are burdened with alarmingly high levels of many common, yet dangerous, toxins which are closely linked to numerous chronic illnesses, developmental conditions and behavioral problems. Some of the most prevalent toxins and pollutants found within and around us today include: bisphenol-A (BPA), phthalates, PFOA, formaldehyde, PDBEs, dioxins and heavy metals. By avoiding exposure to these all-too-common health menaces and taking regular measures to safely detoxify your body, home and surroundings, you can help protect your long-term health and possibly reduce environmental harm:

Bisphenol-A (BPA): A chemical found in plastic that may mimic estrogen in the body, disrupting endocrine system functions. Each year in the United States, nearly 90 million plastic bottles are produced and purchased, burdening both the environment and your health. BPA from these containers seeps into your beverages at high temperatures, especially in hot weather. To minimize damage to both the planet and your health, try glass or stainless steel bottles and containers, which can be safely re-used by everyone in the family.

Phthalates: Chemicals that bind other chemicals together and soften plastics. Sources include shampoo, perfumes, soaps, shower curtains and vinyl flooring. Phthalates also may harmfully disturb the endocrine system. Try to avoid using personal care products that contain fragrances which frequently contain phthalates.

Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA): Substance applied to the surfaces of non-stick products. It’s believed that heating non-stick pans and cookware releases PFOA vapors that you may inhale. PFOA has also been found in drinking water sources. Avoid non-stick cookware and opt for stainless steel or cast iron instead.

Formaldehyde: A glue resin found heavily in constructed wood products, such as particle board, plywood and fiberboard. This chemical is released in vapor through a process known as “off-gassing.” To reduce exposure, purchase exterior-grade pressed-wood products, which release much lower amounts of formaldehyde. Increasing ventilation in your home can also help reduce indoor air levels.

Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs): Flame retardants. Although they are in many different products, they get into our bodies primarily from the dust in our homes. Items like televisions and computers contain these chemicals and gradually expel them, letting them concentrate in dust. Breathing in or touching this dust is indeed dangerous, so make sure you regularly clean and dust your house.

Dioxins: Chemicals produced during combustion, in industrial settings as well as in common incineration and burn processes such as wood fires, backyard waste, diesel exhaust and others. Dioxins also form during bleach processes like paper pulp bleaching, as well as in the manufacture of chemical pesticide/herbicides. Your main route of exposure to dioxins is probably from dioxin-contaminated food. Dioxin accumulates in fat tissues and can increase the risk of cancer, autoimmune disease, cardiovascular illness, reproductive/developmental problems and other degenerative conditions.

Harmful Heavy Metals: Lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, nickel and other metals are industrial byproducts. These are alarmingly present in a large number of everyday sources including food (especially mercury in seafood), medicines, water, bath and household products. Unlike beneficial metals such as copper, zinc and iron, harmful heavy metals are not processed by the body. They accumulate in soft tissues, where they eventually wreak havoc by damaging DNA and disrupting critical biological functions.

Detoxify

Safely detoxifying heavy metals and environmental toxins is critical for long-term health and wellness. As an integrative practitioner, I have witnessed many people improve their clinical symptoms and regain their health with a comprehensive, gentle and long-term detoxification program. My top recommendations for the safe removal of toxins and heavy metals have been well researched and shown to reduce toxic body burden without affecting essential minerals:

Modified Citrus Pectin: First used in Chernobyl to remove heavy metals and radioactive particles, modified citrus pectin is a gentle yet effective chelator of heavy metals and dangerous toxins from the circulation and digestive tract. It also provides a wide range of additional cellular health benefits.

Modified Alginates: These seaweed-derived alginates help to bind with heavy metals and environmental toxins and allow the body to safely excrete them.

Medicinal mushrooms: Medicinal mushrooms, in particular reishi and Cordyceps, can help protect against and repair some toxin-induced damages in the body, boost immunity, detoxify tissues, regulate healthy cell replication and boost overall health.

Antioxidants for Detoxification and Cellular Protection: High-powered antioxidants are crucial for protecting against toxin-related damage. Antioxidants protect DNA integrity, soothe inflammation from toxins, boost immunity, detoxify the body and promote overall health. Glutathione, one of nature’s most potent antioxidants, is produced by the body and is known to detoxify and protect against heavy metals and radioactive toxins. The best way to supplement glutathione is to take nutrients and herbs which act as precursors to glutathione. These include cilantro, garlic, milk thistle, dandelion, lipoic acid, N-Acetyl cysteine (NAC) and whey powder. I recommend taking a synergistic blend of glutathione precursors and other botanicals and nutrients specifically shown to remove heavy metals and toxins from deep within the body.

However you plan to detoxify from harmful pollutants, a fresh, healthy diet with a focus on organic fruits and vegetables and plenty of pure water and hydration should be your foundation. Don’t neglect this aspect of health. Otherwise, you leave your body virtually defenseless against a world saturated with toxic substances.

http://easyhealthoptions.com/cancer/defend-your-health-in-a-toxic-world/

Sunday, 29 July 2012

Drinking fizzy pop for a month 'can lead to lifelong health problems’

Sugary drinks can cause weight gain and long-term health problems if drunk regularly for as little as a month, according to scientists.

Dr Kubis said that, when in need of refreshment, people should drink water instead. Photo: ALAMY

7:30AM BST 21 Jul 2012

Too much fizzy pop or sweetened fruit juice alters the body’s metabolism, so that the muscles use sugar for energy, instead of burning fat, a study found.

The effect is long-term, making the pounds harder to shift and raising blood sugar levels, which increases the risk of conditions such as type 2 diabetes, it was claimed.

Dr Hans-Peter Kubis, who led the research at Bangor University, said: “Our results give a stark warning against regularly drinking sugar-sweetened drinks.”

He added: “Not only can regular sugar intake acutely change our body metabolism; in fact it seems that our muscles are able to sense the sugars and make our metabolism more inefficient, not only in the present but in the future as well.

“This will lead a reduced ability to burn fat and to fat gain. Moreover, it will make it more difficult for our body to cope with rises in blood sugar.”

Dr Kubis said that, when in need of refreshment, people should drink water instead.

His researchers found that the muscle cells of volunteers both identified and responded to a sugary diet, switching how they used the fuel. This created an inefficient metabolism in lightly active men and women who drank fizzy beverages on a regular basis for four weeks.

Dr Kubis added: “What is clear is our body adjusts to regular soft drink consumption and prepares itself for the future diet by changing muscle metabolism via altered gene activity, encouraging unhealthy adaptations similar to those seen in people with obesity problems and type 2 diabetes.”

In the study, 11 people in their twenties supplemented their diets with sugary soft drinks for a month. Before and after the study they had their blood and muscle tissue, as well as their whole body metabolism and composition, tested.

Genes and proteins important for fat and sugar metabolism were analysed and blood sugar and fats assessed.

Dr Kubis said: “What we found is that it is not the sugar in itself that puts on weight but the way it gets the body to store more.

“This would relate to all kinds of soft drinks with a high sugar content, including fruit juices.

“It was a small study because it is difficult to find young people who have not previously been exposed to a lot of soft drinks and who are willing to undergo muscle biopsies.

“But we are now hoping to carry out a bigger study with more participants over a longer period of time.”

Dr Kubis has been campaigning for the Government to take action to encourage the public to cut down on sugary drinks.

He added: “Clearly taxation on sugary drinks is overdue. This money could be invested in the NHS where it is urgently needed to treat people with obesity problems and diabetes.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9415339/Drinking-fizzy-pop-for-a-month-can-lead-to-lifelong-health-problems.html

For Staying Healthy, The Royal Liver Rules

Dr. Mark Wiley | Nov 02, 2011 | Comments 10

You may think that your brain rules your body, but you can make a strong philosophical argument that the liver really rules your physiology. Yes, the brain is the prime minister that administers the nervous system and many important bodily processes, but the liver is the royal organ that loyally maintains the body’s inner workings. So you’d be wise to keep your liver happy if you want to be healthy.

The liver is plenty powerful in its role of ruling the kingdom of Bodyland. It removes toxins from the blood, plays a role in protein and hormone synthesis, stores glycogen, and yields bile along with other chemicals that help break down fats and aid in digestion. The liver helps decompose red blood cells, stores blood and regulates how much blood circulates. In other words, the Liver King supervises your inner kingdom, ensures its byways are well-kept and keeps the supply lines of water and food operational.

But there’s a problem in centering so many bodily purposes in one organ. When the liver becomes toxic, running in a depressed state or otherwise succumbing to a state of dysfunction, many things become unbalanced. With a domino effect, when the liver slips below par, the body begins experiencing the signs and symptoms of ill health. A poor-functioning liver impacts a frightening number of other organs.

Multiple Difficulties

A list of symptoms reflecting a dysfunctional liver includes gastritis, nervous stomach, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), gastric ulcer, dyspepsia, hepatitis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s disease, colitis, premenstrual syndrome, dysmenorrhea, mastitis, fibrocystic breast disease, ovarian cysts, genital pain, tension headache, migraine headache, TMJ dysfunction, chronic hepatitis, chronic cholecystitis, hepatomegaly, costochondritis, post herpetic neuralgia, intercostal neuralgia, hypertension and poor peripheral circulation.

I find it interesting that Western scientific medicine conceives the liver totally in terms of its direct functions. Yet, in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the liver is viewed also in terms of indirect effects linked to its dysfunction. In other words, when the liver becomes too hot from excessive alcohol, drug or coffee consumption, it begins to “overact on the spleen and stomach and depress the functions of the heart and kidneys.”

In TCM, the liver is recognized as being responsible for storing and regulating blood, for maintaining the free flow of qi (energy) in the body, for controlling the tendons and manifesting signs of its problems in the nails and in the eyes.

Storing And Regulating Blood

The primary function of the liver is to store up to 55 percent of your total blood volume when the body is at rest. It also regulates how much blood circulates when the body is physically active. In times of emergency, the liver can provide up to 2,000 ml of blood to the heart, giving you greater strength, stamina and mental clarity.

Maintaining The Free Flow Of Qi

The liver is responsible for maintaining the easygoing, free-flowing and harmonious functional activities of the body’s organs. At peak capacity, the liver effectively manages the constant movement of energy in the body. When the liver becomes depressed (slow-acting, sluggish), it suffers qi (energetic) stagnation, which can lead to tiredness, fatigue, cloudy thinking, depression and anger.

Emotional shifts and attitudes such as psychological depression, moodiness, loneliness and anger are the root causes of the syndrome known in TCM as “liver qi stagnation.” When the liver qi (energy) stagnates, it can cause complications in the spleen and stomach or in the heart and kidneys, leading to vomiting, nausea, heart palpitations, insomnia, restlessness, dream-disturbed sleep, cloudy thinking, poor digestion, hypochondriac pain, irritable bowel syndrome, dysmenorrhea and PMS issues as well as soft and brittle nails, blurry vision, red eyes, headache, bilirubinemia (buildup of blood-breakdown byproducts) and erectile dysfunction.

The Liver Controls The Tendons And Manifests In Nails

The liver nourishes the tendons as an aspect of its blood-controlling function. Since the tendons attach muscles to bones, this part of its role reflects its control of the normal physiological activities of the body. So when the liver lacks blood and/or is low in energy (qi), those activities deteriorate. The tendons receive insufficient nourishment to stay flexible, and they grow stiff, inflamed and painful.

It is important to note that TCM defines three types of blood: heart blood, liver blood and spleen blood. Each has its own function in the creation, promotion, distribution, cleansing and storage of blood. The state of liver blood is reflected in the health of the nails. When there is ample healthy liver blood, both tendons and nails stay strong. But when there is restriction (stagnation) or deficiency of liver blood, then the nails become soft, thin and brittle.

The Liver Opens Into The Eyes

According to TCM theory, each yin (nurturing) organ has a body part to which it opens. In this system, the liver opens into the eyes. Therefore, the nourishment of liver blood is responsible for the proper functioning of the eyes. Indeed, the liver meridian (an energetic line through the body) travels upward through the eye system. Consequently, liver deficiency can lead to blurry vision. Liver heat rising upward can lead to red and dry eyes. Liver dampness can lead to bilirubinemia.

There is much more to the “Chinese liver” than Western medicine recognizes. However, when considering not only its physiological function, but also its meridian route and energetic function, one can begin to understand the vast importance of this organ to overall health and well-being.

From both a scientific, reductive Western perspective and a traditional Eastern viewpoint, the causes of liver dysfunctions are the same. Poor diet along with the excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs (legal and illegal) stress the liver and impair its ability to function properly. Knowing this, it becomes obvious that indulging in poor lifestyle habits that negatively affect the liver leads to a host of problems that are preventable.

You can usually restore the health of the liver by sticking to a liver-friendly routine: Reduce stress, eat nutrient-dense foods and curtail drug and alcohol consumption. A liver-detox program is also a good way to jump-start the liver’s rejuvenation process.

Your body needs a healthy liver to function properly. Pamper your liver and your unimpaired liver will offer you unparalleled well-being.

http://easyhealthoptions.com/alternative-medicine/nutrition/for-staying-healthy-the-royal-liver-rules/

The Activity That Kills Somebody Every Six Seconds

Carl Lowe | Jul 24, 2012 | Comments 0

I admit it: I have an addiction I’ve endured for decades and I’ll never get over it. It still runs much of my life. And now I learn, according to research on millions of people worldwide, that every six seconds someone dies from their relationship to this addiction.

My addiction is exercise. And while many of my friends believe that I exercise too much, worldwide, researchers maintain, millions of people are dying each year from not enough exercise.

A study published in The Lancet shows that every day an estimated 14,520 people die early deaths because they don’t get enough exercise. Some of those people, of course, never get any exercise at all.

Epidemic Of Inactivity

These scientists state: “Worldwide, we (estimate) that physical inactivity causes 6—10% of the major non-communicable diseases of coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and breast and colon cancers. Furthermore, this unhealthy behavior causes 9% of premature mortality, or more than 5.3 of the 57 million deaths in 2008.” (That’s the latest year for which these kinds of numbers are available.)

In other words, we are couch potatoing ourselves to death. And while North America and Europe may be leading the way in demonstrating how you can vegetate yourself to an early grave, the rest of the world is catching up to this deadly practice.

Sensitivity

Maybe I’m oversensitive to the effects of exercise, but I don’t really understand how you can’t love to work out. My addiction to exercise used to entail running 40 to 50 miles per week. In recent years, I’ve cut back. I don’t jog anymore. I restrict my activity to the occasional spin class, soccer, basketball, weight lifting, calisthenics and yard work.

I’ve always loved to exercise until I’m sweaty and exhausted. Nowadays, when the Alabama sun hits high noon on a summer weekend, you’ll find me at the soccer field or out back of the house mowing the grass (and dodging fire ants). I’ve got a riding mower, but that’s no fun. I’d rather push-mow and get my arms and legs working.

For me, the benefits of sweating and giving your muscles something to think about are immediate: My mood usually goes sky high, stress evaporates and I generally feel great. Even eating afterwards, when you’re really hungry, is more enjoyable than the usual meal.

As the researchers in The Lancet point out, the benefits of exercise include reducing your chances of:

Early death from any cause
Heart disease
Hypertension
Stroke
Metabolic syndrome
Depression
Colon cancer
Breast cancer
Falling and breaking bones

Exercise generally improves:

Muscle strength
Brain function
Bone health
Ability to do everyday tasks
Weight loss
Fitness of your cardiovascular system

More than one commentator has pointed out that if exercise were a drug, it would be a miracle drug that would be prescribed to everyone. Instead, so few people are exercising that experts are calling global inactivity a pandemic that now contributes to one in 10 deaths.

Recommendations

How much exercise should you be doing? The researchers in The Lancet recommend performing at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week. That can include walking around the block, gardening, walking up stairs, riding a bicycle, swimming or anything else that gets you moving.

The research on our lack of exercise shows that as countries grow richer, their citizens move around less and less. But the studies also demonstrate that if we could merely reduce inactivity by 10 percent, we could save about 10,000 lives a week.

According to figures in The Lancet, at least 30 percent of people over the age of 15 (about 1.5 billion people) don’t move around enough. And the younger generation may be even more sedentary than their parents. Studies of adolescent activity shows that 80 percent of those 13 to 15 years old are not getting sufficient exercise.

Getting Older And Better

Of course, fighting off the effects of aging represents one of exercise’s most wonderful benefits. As researcher Dr. I-Min Lee of the Harvard Medical School told the BBC, “Everything that gets worse when we get older gets better when we exercise.”

http://easyhealthoptions.com/uncategorized/the-activity-that-kills-somebody-every-six-seconds/

Saturday, 28 July 2012

Two apples a day keeps the cardiologist away

10:12AM BST 26 Jul 2012

Just two apples a day could help protect women against heart disease by cutting their cholesterol levels, according to new research.

Eating two apples a day for six months cut cholesterol by almost a quarter Photo: ALAMY

Scientists found apples significantly lowered blood fat levels in postmenopausal women, the group most at risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Snacking on the fruit every day for six months slashed cholesterol by almost a quarter.

The biggest reduction was seen in low-density lipoprotein, the so-called 'bad' cholesterol that furs up arteries and raises the risk of a life-threatening clot forming near the heart or brain.

The findings, by a team of researchers at Florida State University in the US, support previous evidence that apples could be good for the heart.

But the latest study suggests they could benefit one of the highest-risk groups.

Around 45 per cent of British women will suffer from heart disease or a stroke and it is the biggest single cause of death among post-menopausal women.

Up to the menopause, women appear to have a natural immunity to heart disease and the rate of illness is only a third of that seen in men.

But from the age of around 50 onwards, the incidence increases sharply.

Researchers wanted to see if eating the equivalent of two apples every day could have a significant effect on heart disease risk.

They recruited 160 women who had been through the menopause and got half to eat 75 grammes a day of dried apple - the equivalent of two medium-sized fresh apples.

As a comparison, the other half were told to eat the same quantity of prunes to see if they had a similar effect. Each volunteer underwent blood tests every three months for one year.

The results, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, showed that after three months total cholesterol levels in the apple-eating group had dropped by nine per cent and LDL cholesterol by 16 per cent.

After six months, levels were even lower, with total cholesterol down 13 per cent and LDL levels dropping by 24 per cent. There was no further decline in the remaining six months of the experiment.

Prunes lowered cholesterol levels slightly but not to the same extent as the dried apple.

In a report on their findings the researchers said: 'Consumption of about two medium-sized apples can significantly lower cholesterol levels as early as three months.'

British consumers munch their way through nearly 500,000 tons of apples a year.

In 2009, a Polish study revealed two apples a day also halved the risk of bowel cancer in adults.

And research by scientists at St. George's Hospital Medical School in London shows lung function is boosted in middle-aged men if they eat at least one apple every day.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9428831/Two-apples-a-day-keeps-the-cardiologist-away.html

Vitamin E May Reduce Risk Of Liver Cancer

Kellye Copas | Jul 24, 2012 | Comments 0

Vitamin E is a potent antioxidant that supports the health of the nervous system, can help protect the digestive tract and stands guard over cell membranes. It may also lower your risk of cancer.

According to two studies jointly conducted by the Shanghai Cancer Institute and Vanderbilt University and published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, vitamin E may lower the risk of liver cancer. The investigators compared liver cancer risk among participants who had high intake of vitamin E with those who had low intake.

“Overall, the take home message is that high intake of vitamin E either from diet or supplements was related to lower risk of liver cancer in middle-aged or older people from China,” says researcher Xiao Ou Shu, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center.

Liver cancer is the third most common cause of cancer mortality in the world, the fifth most common cancer found in men and the seventh most common in women.

Most Americans are deficient in vitamin E. Dietary sources include nuts, especially almonds and vegetable oils like sunflower or safflower oil. Avocados, green olives, and leafy green and orange vegetables also have vitamin E.

http://easyhealthoptions.com/cancer/vitamin-e-may-reduce-risk-of-liver-cancer/

Treatment For Insulin Resistance And Metabolic Syndrome

Dr. Michael Cutler | Jul 23, 2012 | Comments 6

If you’ve gained weight, your blood pressure is elevated and your cells start resisting the effects of insulin, you are in serious danger of developing diabetes and heart problems. But the right supplements and lifestyle changes can help you lower the risk for metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance while fending off these health dangers.

In my previous article I discussed the usual causes behind insulin resistance. The treatment is to first address these causes and implement a lifestyle that redirects your trajectory of health. Remember that it isn’t the insulin resistance you care so much about, but what follows (heart disease, diabetes, other chronic inflammatory diseases and early death) if you continue your same lifestyle and don’t alter your risk factors.

In this article I’ll cover specific nutrient supplements that are part of the treatment for insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.

Micronutrient Supplements To Help Reverse Insulin Resistance

Like icing on the cake, you can use micronutrients to significantly help prevent and reverse (treat) insulin resistance. They are not all needed together, but many of these will already be found in a good multi-vitamin, multi-phytonutrient supplement.

Digestive enzyme blend: Take with meals to improve food nutrient absorption.
Omega 3 fatty acids 1,000 to 3,000 mg daily (DHA to EPA ratio 2:1): From fish oil, krill oil, primrose oil; omega 6 fatty acids 500-1,000 mg daily in borage seed oil, evening primrose oil and black currant seed oil.
CLA (conjugated linolenic acid): Improves insulin sensitivity. Dose is usually 1,000-3,000 mg daily, but better if 2,000-6,000 mg daily.
Alpha-lipoic acid: Improves insulin sensitivity and improves neuropathy at doses of 400-600 mg daily, up to 600 mg twice daily.
CoQ10: Provides energy in the form of ATP for metabolic pathways. Dose is usually 100-300 mg daily, especially if you have high blood pressure.
Biotin (a B vitamin): Increases insulin sensitivity. Dose is usually 4-8 mg daily.
Vitamin B complex: Aids in glucose metabolism and decreases sugar cravings. Usual dose is 100 mg daily.
Vitamin B6: Inhibits the glycosylation of proteins known to cause tissue damage from excessive blood glucose levels. Usual dose is 150 mg daily.
Vitamin B12: Helpful to prevent and slow the progression of diabetic retinopathy.
Vitamin C: Aids in glucose metabolism. Dose is usually 1,000-3,000 mg daily.
Vitamin D: Helps pancreas release insulin. Get a blood test for 25-hydroxy vitamin D level and supplement 2,000-10,000 IU/daily as needed.
Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols): Helps balance hormonal function. Dose is usually 600-800 IU daily.
Chromium: Decreases blood sugar and increases insulin sensitivity. Dose is usually 500 to 3,000 mcg daily if insulin resistant. Good forms are chromium nicotinate, chromium histidinate, chromium picolinate and glucose tolerance factor chromium (GTF).
Magnesium: Improves glucose uptake. Dose is usually 200-400 mg daily.
Zinc: Helps balance blood sugar levels. Dose is usually 25-50 mg daily.
Selenium: Works with glutathione peroxidase and vitamin E to prevent oxidative damage. Dose is usually 200-400 mcg daily.
Manganese: Aids carbohydrate metabolism. Dose is usually 10 mg daily for adults. Consult a knowledgeable healthcare provider before giving manganese to children.
Vanadium: Improves insulin sensitivity. Dose is usually 20-50 mg daily.
Taurine: An amino acid that increases insulin receptor activity and sensitivity. With stress the body becomes depleted in taurine. Dose is usually 1,000-3,000 mg daily.
Niacin: High doses of niacin can worsen insulin sensitivity, so be careful with this.

Herbal Remedies

Another category of nutrient supplements include the herbal remedies. They have been studied and found to be extremely safe and effective.

Green tea in the mornings: Increases metabolism, reduces appetite, lowers body weight and improves cholesterol/triglyceride levels.
Fenugreek: Slows absorption of sugar in the small intestine.
Gymnema sylvestre leaf: Interferes with the taste and absorption of sugar; improves insulin sensitivity. Usual dose is 250-500 mg before meals.
Garcinia Cambogia: Helps to reduce appetite and inhibit fat production without mental hyperactivity.
Cinnamon: Improves sugar (glucose) utilization by cells and improves insulin receptor sensitivity. Dose is usually 125-250 mg one to three times a day.
Fructooligosacharides (FOS): Used as an alternate (lower-glycemic) sweetener; also improves intestinal health and pH to help prevent yeast infections.

Healthy Sweeteners

There are many natural sweeteners to buy along with micronutrient supplements and herbs. These sweeteners include fruits, stevia, pure (grade B) maple syrup, raw honey, fruit extract flavorings, xylitol, etc. These provide sweetness without the high glycemic processed sugar effect that is inflammatory to your body. Refined sugar abnormally uses up essential nutrients such as chromium, magnesium and some of the B vitamins that are known to prevent and reverse diabetes.

To your best health and to feeling good for life,

Michael Cutler, M.D.
Easy Health Options

http://easyhealthoptions.com/alternative-medicine/treatment-for-insulin-resistance-and-metabolic-syndrome/

Friday, 27 July 2012

Top Ten Reasons to Avoid Your Doctor

July 25 2012 |110,280views|

Story at-a-glance

Most doctor visits result in drug and surgical “solutions” that only treat your symptoms and often cause other side effects and problems
Examples of when you may be better of avoiding your doctor include screenings like mammograms and PSA tests, health conditions like high cholesterol, colds and the flu, and when seeking sound nutritional advice
Ultimately, the more you take responsibility for your own health -- in the form of nurturing your body to prevent disease -- the less you need to rely on the "disease care" that passes for health care in the United States

By Dr. Mercola

I've long said that the best strategy for achieving health is avoiding a visit to your doctor in the first place. Why? Because in many cases you will simply leave the office with a prescription or two, which will rarely solve your health problem. Most doctor visits result in "solutions" that only suppress your symptoms, often causing other side effects and problems.

Rather than advise patients about the true underlying conditions and real solutions that lead to health, they are left putting toxic Band-Aids on gaping wounds. As shown in the slideshow above, and as I detail in depth below, there are actually many reasons why avoiding your doctor may be in the best interest of your health …

1. Annual Pap Smears

Many physicians still advise women to receive yearly pap smears, but the newest guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force specifically recommend against this. The new recommendations call for women to undergo PAP screening only once every three years, beginning at age 21 and ending around age 65.

When testing is more frequent, or started before age 21, there's a chance of detecting human papillomavirus (HPV), and associatedlesions, more frequently. If a physician detects such lesions, they will assume they are "pre-cancerous" and treat them accordingly. However, most HPV infections and associated low grade squamous intra-epithelial lesions clear up on their own without treatment,¹while the treatment itself can lead to cervical incompetence and/or miscarriage in the future. Since most cases of HPV clear up on their own, this is a case where the treatment may do more harm than good.
That said, PAP smears (which screen for cervical cancer typically associated with HPV) are one of the best tools for preventing cervical cancer deaths – but getting one every year is likely unnecessary.

Evidence shows that screening women for cervical cancer more frequently than every three years does not detect more cancer. Women who have not been exposed to HPV are not at risk for cervical cancer. Further, even if you are exposed and the infection does not clear up on its own (which is not common), it can take 10 years before it progresses to cancer. Cervical cancers are very slow growing, which is why less frequent PAP screens are still effective.

Despite the new PAP screen guidelines, most physicians continue to recommend annual PAP screening to their patients, mostly because they (and their patients) are in the habit of doing so. Some physicians also fear their patients will not come in for annual exams and other screening if the PAP is not required every year.

There is also a good deal of evidence that the revised PAP guidelines are part of a plan to rescue Gardasil (HPV) vaccine sales, which are embarrassingly low. The HPV vaccine is a heavily promoted and very expensive vaccine, but it has been a flop, with less than 27 percent of women opting to receive it, and reports of serious adverse effects continuing to pour in.

2. Mammograms

Only about 1 in 8 women whose breast cancer was identified during a routine mammogram actually had their lives "saved" by the screening, a recent analysis estimated²– and this does not accurately account for how many women will fall victim to mammogram-induced breast cancer.

Using breast cancer data from The National Cancer Institute and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers calculated a 50-year-old woman's likelihood of developing breast cancer in the next 10 years, the odds the cancer would be detected by mammography, and her risk of dying from the cancer over 20 years.

They found that a mammogram has, at best, only a 13 percent probability of saving her life, and that the probability may actually be as low as 3 percent. No matter what analyses they used, including considering women of different ages, the probability of a mammogram saving a life remained below 25 percent. Researchers concluded:
"Most women with screen-detected breast cancer have not had their life saved by screening. They are instead either diagnosed early (with no effect on their mortality) or overdiagnosed."

This bears repeating:

Mammograms often diagnose lesions or tumors that may never threaten a woman's life. They also often result in false positives that lead to over-treatment, i.e. misdiagnosed women often undergo unnecessary mastectomies, lumpectomies, radiation treatments and chemotherapy, which can have a devastating effect on both the quality and length of their lives. Plus, a mammogram uses ionizing radiation, which in and of itself can either induce or contribute to the development of breast cancer.

3. Cold and Flu

Think it's wise to go to a conventional physician for these? Think again. Thanks to routine over-prescription of antibiotics, and the prescription of inappropriate antibiotics, you're likely to walk away after being told to take a drug you don't actually need.

Antibiotics do NOT work against viruses, hence they are useless against colds and flu's. Unfortunately antibiotics are vastly over-prescribed for this purpose. If you have a cold or flu, remember that unless you have a serious secondary bacterial pneumonia, an antibiotic will likely do far more harm than good, because whenever you use an antibiotic, you're increasing your susceptibility to developing infections with resistance to that antibiotic -- and you can become the carrier of this resistant bug, and can spread it to others.

The first thing you want to do when you feel yourself coming down with a cold or flu is to avoid ALL sugars, artificial sweeteners, and processed foods. Sugar is particularly damaging to your immune system -- which needs to be ramped up, not suppressed, in order to combat an emerging infection. This includes fructose from fruit juice, and all types of grains (as they break down into sugar (glucose) in your body).

Ideally, you must address nutrition, sleep, exercise and stress issues the moment you first feel yourself getting a bug. Getting plenty of high quality sleep will be crucial to your recovery. This is when immune-enhancing strategies will be most effective. In addition, the research is quite clear that the higher your vitamin D level, the lower your risk of contracting colds, flu, and other respiratory tract infections. I strongly believe you could avoid colds and influenza entirely by maintaining your vitamin D level in the optimal range.

4. Cholesterol

Many doctors are unaware that a high-fat diet is NOT the cause of heart disease. They are fooled into believing that total cholesterol is an accurate predictor of heart disease. If you visit your physician and you have high cholesterol, you're likely to be told two things:

Take a statin cholesterol-lowering drug and

Don't eat saturated fat.

While statin drugs do lower cholesterol very effectively, cholesterol is not the culprit in heart disease. Plus a report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claims that no study has ever proven that statins improve all-cause mortality³-- in other words, they don't prolong your life any longer than if you'd not taken them at all. And rather than improving your life, they actually contribute to a deterioration in the quality of your life, destroying muscles and endangering liver, kidney and even heart function. The best ways to optimize your cholesterol levels and your heart health have to do with lifestyle measures, including eating healthy minimally processed fats and avoid highly processed vegetable fats and oils that are loaded with toxic omega-6 fats.

5. Depression

Once again, you're more likely to leave the doctor's office with a prescription for a drug that could be more dangerous than the problem itself. Every year, 230 million prescriptions for antidepressants are filled, making them one of the most prescribed drugs in the United States. The psychiatric industry itself is a $330 billion industry—not bad for an enterprise that offers little in the way of cures.

Despite all of these prescriptions, more than one in 20 Americans are depressed.⁴Of those depressed Americans, 80 percent say they have some level of functional impairment, and 27 percent say their condition makes it extremely difficult to do everyday tasks like work, activities of daily living, and getting along with others.
The use of antidepressant drugs—medicine's answer for depression—doubled in just one decade, from 13.3 million in 1996 to 27 million in 2005.

If these drugs are so extensively prescribed, then why are so many people feeling so low?
Because they don't work at addressing the cause.

Research has confirmed that antidepressant drugs are no more effective than sugar pills. Some studies have even found that sugar pills may produce BETTER results than antidepressants! Personally, I believe the reason for this astounding finding is that both pills work via the placebo effect, but the sugar pills produce far fewer adverse effects.

Many people forget that antidepressants come with a slew of side effects, some of which are deadly. Approximately 750,000 people attempt suicide each year in the US, and about 30,000 of those succeed. Taking a drug that is unlikely to relieve your symptoms and may actually increase your risk of killing yourself certainly does not seem like a good choice. In addition, since most of the treatment focus is on drugs, many safe and natural treatment options that DO work -- like exercise, the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), vitamin D, and proper nutrition -- are completely ignored.

6. High Blood Pressure

The definition of what constitutes high blood pressure expanded greatly in 2003, so that drug companies could sell drugs loaded with side effects to 45 million extra people.

Because the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (rife with drug industry conflicts of interest) decided that what were in actuality relatively low blood pressure readings were a risk for heart disease, millions more over the years, were suddenly labeled abnormal, and in need of "treatment" for a condition that didn't exist in medical literature until that panel met.

Uncontrolled high blood pressure is a very serious health concern that can lead to heart disease and increase your risk of having a stroke. The good news though is that following a healthy nutrition plan, along with exercising and implementing effective stress reduction techniques will normalize blood pressure in most people.

7. PSA Tests for Prostate Cancer

These tests actually reveal very little, and an irrelevant positive result will likely lead to a biopsy that comes with infection risk. The prostate-specific antigen test (PSA test), analyzes your blood for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a substance produced by your prostate gland. When higher-than-normal levels of PSA are detected, it is believed that cancer is present. However, PSA screening barely has any impact on mortality rates from prostate cancer. As a result, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force will soon recommend that men not get screened for prostate cancer.

Today, many experts agree that PSA testing is unreliable at best and useless at worst for accurately diagnosing prostate cancer. Many also agree that routine PSA blood tests often lead to over-diagnosis of prostate cancer, resulting in unnecessary treatments.

Similar to mammograms, the PSA screen has become little more than an up-sell technique. The false positive rate is high, and the bulk of the harm is a result of subsequent unnecessary treatments.

Diet is actually a factor that can greatly impact your prostate health and help prevent enlarged prostate and prostate cancer, but many physicians fail to address this.

You'll want to eat as much organic (preferably raw) food as possible, and liberally include fresh herbs and spices, such as ginger. Make sure to limit carbohydrates like sugar/fructose and grains as much as possible to maintain optimal insulin levels, which will help reduce your cancer risk in general. Highly processed or charcoaled meats, pasteurized dairy products, and synthetic trans fats correlate with an increased risk for prostate cancer and should also be avoided.

8. Inappropriate and Unwise Dietary Advice

Most doctors are clueless about what constitutes a healthy diet. As such, they will recommend health catastrophes like artificial sweeteners, vegetable oils in lieu of butter, and fat-free pasteurized dairy products. Most will also neglect to tell you about the foods you could be eating more of to optimize your health, like fermented vegetables, raw dairy products, healthy fats (like saturated and animal-based omega-3s), grass-fed beef and more.

In addition, most are ignorant about the importance of how to cook your food – most foods are best consumed when raw or only lightly cooked, and this includes animal proteins like eggs and meat. A discussion about food quality is essential to health (i.e. getting your meat from a small local farmer instead of a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO)) but you will almost never hear this from your family physician. Wondering how to truly eat healthy? See my nutrition plan for a comprehensive (and free) guide.

9. Prescription Drugs Might Kill You and They Don't Address the Cause of the Problem

A drug prescription is usually a Band-Aid that gets nowhere near the root cause of illness. And many drugs are dangerous. Last year an analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control CDC) revealed that deaths from properly prescribed drugs now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States! And when you add in deaths attributable to other medical care modalities, like hospital admissions and surgery, the modern medical system becomes the leading cause of death and injury in the United States.

Authored in two parts by Gary Null, PhD, Carolyn Dean, MD ND, Martin Feldman, MD, Debora Rasio, MD, and Dorothy Smith, PhD, the comprehensive Death by Medicine article described in excruciating detail how everything from medical errors to adverse drug reactions to unnecessary procedures caused more harm than good. That was in 2003. In 2010, an analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine found that, despite efforts to improve patient safety in the past few years, the health care system hasn't changed much at all.⁵

For one of many examples, the birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin, which have been endorsed by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee, contain a drug called drospirenone that makes women who take it nearly seven times more likely to develop thromboembolism. This is an obstruction of a blood vessel that can lead to deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, stroke, heart attack and death.

Why did the FDA approve this dangerous drug? It turns out that at least four members of the advisory committee have either done work for the drugs' manufacturers or licensees, or received research funding from them. According to the Alliance for Natural Health:

"Each of those four panelists who received money from the pill's manufacturer voted in favor of the pill. Interestingly, the committee's ruling that the drug's benefit outweighs the risks was decided by a four-vote margin. Ironically, while the FDA allowed voting by advisors with business connections to drospirenone, the agency barred ... Sidney M. Wolfe, on the grounds that he ... had advised his readers not to take Yaz based on several years of data."

10. Your Doctor Might Not Even Tell You the Truth

A U.S. telephone survey found that 79 percent of Americans trust their doctor.⁶But a recent survey of 1,900 physicians revealed that some are not always open or honest with their patients The results were less than impressive, to put it mildly:

One-third of physicians did not completely agree with disclosing serious medical errors to patients

One-fifth did not completely agree that physicians should never tell a patient something untrue

Amazingly 40% believed that they should hide their financial relationships with drug and device companies to patients

Ten percent said they had told patients something untrue in the previous year

When making health care decisions, you should certainly get your physicians' advice -- that's what you're paying them for, after all. Hopefully you have chosen a health care provider who has similar philosophies about health as you do, and whose expertise you can trust. But remember that when making health care decisions, you must be your own advocate; it's important to ask questions before opting for tests, procedures or treatments, and it's your decision if you'd rather opt for less medical intervention while choosing a more natural way of healing your body.

Ultimately, the more you take responsibility for your own health -- in the form of nurturing your body to prevent disease -- the less you need to rely on the "disease care" that passes for health care in the United States. If you carefully follow some basic health principles -- simple things like exercising, eating whole foods, sleeping enough, getting sun exposure, reducing stress in your life, and nurturing personal relationships -- you will drastically reduce your need for conventional medical care, which in and of itself will reduce your chances of suffering ill side effects.

But in the event you do need medical care, seek a health care practitioner who will help you move toward complete wellness by helping you discover and understand the hidden causes of your health challenges ... and create a customized and comprehensive -- i.e. holistic -- treatment plan for you.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/07/25/ten-reasons-to-avoid-doctors.aspx

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Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Stoke-on-Trent Legionnaires' source 'could be hot tub'

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Story at-a-glance

1. Annual Pap Smears

2. Mammograms

3. Cold and Flu

4. Cholesterol

5. Depression

6. High Blood Pressure

7. PSA Tests for Prostate Cancer

8. Inappropriate and Unwise Dietary Advice

9. Prescription Drugs Might Kill You and They Don't Address the Cause of the Problem

10. Your Doctor Might Not Even Tell You the Truth

Monday, 30 July 2012

WHAT ARE THE NEWEST RISKS?

SCARED OFF STATINS?

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Sunday, 29 July 2012

Sugary drinks can cause weight gain and long-term health problems if drunk regularly for as little as a month, according to scientists.

Saturday, 28 July 2012

Friday, 27 July 2012

Story at-a-glance

1. Annual Pap Smears

2. Mammograms

3. Cold and Flu

4. Cholesterol

5. Depression

6. High Blood Pressure

7. PSA Tests for Prostate Cancer

8. Inappropriate and Unwise Dietary Advice

9. Prescription Drugs Might Kill You and They Don't Address the Cause of the Problem

10. Your Doctor Might Not Even Tell You the Truth