Monday, August 29, 2011

Menopausal Hot Flashes and CNS neurotransmition linked

Could relief be as easy as simple amino acid supplementation?

Women around the world experience vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes) as they enter and complete the menopause transition. Hot flashes, are caused by a narrowing of the thermoneutral zone in the brain. This effect, once thought strictly related to to estrogen withdrawal, is most likely related to changes in central nervous system neurotransmitters.

The latest development in management of hot flashes indicates that selective serotonin and selective nor epinephrine reuptake inhibitors and gabapentin may influence some control over hot flashes. While estrogen replacement therapy has long been the protocol used to treat menopausal hot flashes this new research suggests to me that their may be a role for amino acid supplementation therapy to help reduce hot flashes! I am currently testing this on myself by using 5-HTP, and GABA before bedtime. The report states that - "Of the other interventions investigated, selective serotonin and selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors and gabapentin show efficacy greater than placebo. Objective monitoring of hot flushes indicates a robust improvement with hormone replacement therapy but little to no change with placebo"

Additionally, based on preliminary reports, women experiencing hot flashes have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and a reduced incidence of breast cancer.

You can read the abstract here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21848495?dopt=Abstract

Friday, August 26, 2011

Cancer is Curable Now!


Who among us has not been touched by the tragedy of cancer?

Cancer wards are teaming with cancer patients from every age, race, and walk of life. It has reached epidemic proportion. Conventional medical treatment presents three options, poison, burn or cut yet we know their are CURES that exist that are NOT being presented to us!

This new film is all about those cures and the money trail of the AMA and BIG PHARMA who does not really want to see you get cured unless they can make a buck off you. Ask anyone who's been through the "system' and they will tell you that is what it feels like to them.

Here's a quote from the film's producers:

"I don't know how long it's going to take but I think conventional medicine, as we know it, will be dead and gone within the next 20 years. M.D.'s will either be nonexistent or they'll have learned about supplements, good nutrition, hyperthermia, ozone therapy and all the rest of the treatments they now call quackery!"

Did you now that statistics show there's no proof that a mastectomy — removal of the whole breast — extends the life of breast cancer patients, yet doctors go right on doing it. The women are scarred for life. Does that kind of treatment deserve the term "Medieval"? I think so.

Another doctor, from Denmark, cites a German study of women over age 80 with breast cancer. Those who received no treatment lived eleven months longer on average than those who received conventional cancer treatments.

See the film - it might save your life or life of a loved one.

About the Movie | (Official Site) Wake Up Cancer is Curable Now

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Under the guise of consumer protection...

Or -is something more sinister at work with the FDA?

Under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) signed into law January 2011, the New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) notifications requirements to the FDA will force supplement manufactures to prove new methods of formulation are safe - sounds reasonable right? There is more. This new law will also remove many of the previously grandfathered in "safe" ingredients.

The FDA breaks down the nutritional components into ODI's and NDIs. Old dietary ingredients (ODIs) are nutritional ingredients(herbal extracts and nutrients), that were sold prior to 1994. NDI's are supposed to be completely new compounds.

NDI's are often hybrids of nutrients – never before seen in nature in exactly that form. FYI - many "safe nutrients" are often combined with other safe, natural substances that help the mineral or vitamin’s absorption. These benign compounds be considered “new” when compared to products of genetically engineered bacterial fermentation, for example.

This means that if a new manufacturing process, extraction method or plant part is used, then it will now be considered a new dietary ingredient and thus required for testing.

Why would this pose any problem you ask?

Because this added regulation point to the real intent of the FDA - to use these side-door and back-door routes to undermine and effectively dismantle DSHEA, the law that protects our right to safe and effective dietary supplements.

If FDA were allowed to interpret the law in this way, it would endanger thousands of products and scores of categories of supplements, extracts and tinctures. The ones that survived would be locked into pre-1994-era processing and manufacturing standards ( outdated, nferior and less safe in many instances. Future development of innovation would be almost totally blocked, since any new advances used with existing ingredients would require participation in the draconian NDI notification process.

What can you do? File a comment with the FDA telling them to withdraw this notification as it is an outrageous, and unacceptable, approach to re-classifying hundreds, if not thousands, of safe dietary supplement ingredients. If you agree, let the FDA know that you will not stand for this egregious attempt to roll back the clock on innovation by nearly 20 years, to grievously harm the health food industry and to set the stage for far less choice and for virtually no more cutting edge products going forward.

You can read the entire op-ed by By James Gormley, Senior Policy Advisor, Citizens for Health at this link:

What’s old is new again? The FDA takes aim at modern science and innovation

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Hypertension risk should be based on ratio of sodium to potassium and not sodium intake alone

Studies have shown that individuals with high sodium and low potassium intake have a higher risk for hypertension, and hypertension is related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and mortality.

An analysis of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III)looked at the effect of high sodium intake on the risks of cardiovascular disease mortality; including hypertension risk. Importantly the analysis also looked at the association of the ratio between sodium and potassium intake and the risks for cardiovascular disease mortality.

Functionally trained practitioners have been talking about this with their patients for some time. We know there is a correlation between eating a diet high in vegetables, fruits and legumes and having a lower incidence of hypertension vs. eating a diet of mostly processed foods which increases risk for hypertension. The 15-year follow-up study, done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA and published in the July 1011 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine confirmed that people with the highest ratio of sodium to potassium in their diet had a significantly increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease compared with those who had the lowest ratio of sodium to potassium intake.

"This is the first large, nationwide study where we followed a pretty big cohort of people and looked at sodium and potassium at the same time," coauthor Dr Elena V Kuklina (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) told heartwire .

"The major implications of our findings are that a diet balanced in both micronutrients is important. People should try to reduce sodium in particular by consuming less processed food, but also they should increase potassium intake, and this is easily done by eating more fruit and vegetables and dairy products, which are a good source of potassium and low in sodium. This is nothing new; a healthy diet is good for your health." (I say AMEN!)

Kuklina stresses that people must understand the massive impact that processing has on foods: for example, 100 g of unprocessed pork contains 61 mg of sodium and 340 mg of potassium, she notes, but turning this into ham alters that ratio significantly, to yield a whopping 921 mg of sodium and, to boot, reduces the potassium content to 240 mg. (Well duh!)

In an accompanying editorial [2], Drs Lynn D Silver and Thomas A Farley (New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, NY) agree: "It is crucial that we understand the interplay of sodium and potassium in the diet and how to optimize intake in an increasingly processed food supply without generating harm."

Sodium/Potassium Ratio of <1 Is Protective


Some of the findings "are not new," says Kuklina. "We know for sure the relationship between sodium and hypertension, although there is a little bit more inconsistency when it comes to sodium and CVD mortality. And we know that higher potassium is protective against hypertension, but much less is known about potassium intake and cardiovascular disease and mortality."

We found that potassium does matter.

The results show that sodium/potassium ratio of <1 is protective, she says: "We found that potassium does matter."

Here is just one more reason to eat your veggies!
You can read the full research here:
http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/746360?src=cmemp

Thursday, August 4, 2011

How about eggs?

Do you make an effort to buy humanely raised eggs? Think organic, free range are all humanely raised?
This research might surprise you - it did me! Egg cartons are covered in statements that are confusing and often misleading. If you are not able to buy farm direct, the Cornucopia Institute has developed an "Organic Egg Scorecard" that provides accurate information.

What quickly becomes obvious is that just because eggs are "organic" doesn't mean they are humanely raised. In fact, there are "organic" factory farm operations with more than 80,000 "organic" hens in a single building.

The second thing the Organic Egg Scorecard reveals is exactly which brands of eggs found in your local stores are produced using the best organic practices and with the most ethical regard for the hens.


The Cornucopia Institute

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Michigan Nutrition News!

Send Your Comments to Lansing!

The Office of Regulatory Reinvention has been set up to review all existing regulations in order to identify those that are unnecessary, burdensome, and counterproductive to promoting economic growth. They are soliciting comments from citizens like YOU. We know they are looking closely at PA333, the Dietetics/Nutrition Licensure Law, and public comment will play a significant role in it's future. Your voice really matters here, so please take 5 minutes and put your opinions in writing. Comment on the Dietetics/Nutritionist Licensure Law Note: The form asks for "Applicable rule or rule set; fill in "PA333 Dietetics Licensure Law"



If you can tie in your personal or opinions story about nutrition to any of these themes it will send a powerful message.



This regulation will put many hundreds of people out of work and make MIchigan hostile to those considering nutrition-related businesses.
Michigan needs more, not fewer nutrition care providers of varying backgrounds to implement stronger preventive health programs and reduce the costly burden of chronic disease to our state. This law reduces those resources.
Dietitians are employed primarily in hospitals, nursing homes and government programs and this law disproportionately affects the employment of those non-dietitian nutritionists who are entrepreneurs serving the community at large.
Citizens who are better educated about nutrition support other related businesses such as small farms, farmer's markets, artisan food makers, health food stores and food businesses, nutraceutical manufacturers. We need a business climate that promotes diverse entrepreneurship and strengthens our agricultural base.
Americans currently have free access to an unlimited amount of nutrition and supplement information in any number of forms. Consumers are protected by consumer protection and malpractice laws and should have the right to make their own decisions about the kind of practitioner they choose to see without government interference. People are harmed by bad nutrition not by learning how to eat well.
Health Care spending is a big part of our nation's current debt crisis; we need to focus on job creation is a sector that can really lower long-term spending on health care.
Please don't put this off, do it now! Comment on the Dietetics/Nutritionist Licensure Law
Again, where the form asks for applicable rule or rule set type in "PA333" or Dietetics Licensure Law

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/News-from-Michigan-Nutrition-Association.html?soid=1103531196550&aid=y3xzfjFtH-I

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Be kind to your liver!

Everybody knows you can't live with out a liver - right? But, I bet you didn't know the health of your liver is directly connected to ALL chronic health conditions. Did you know that poor liver health is the biggest reason so many people can't seem to lose weight?

The liver is an incredible workhorse for the body and it acts as the body's major filtration and detoxification system. The liver is truly amazing! The liver functions as part of our digestive system by breaking down fats, proteins and carbohydrates from food we eat. All hormones,chemicals (including medications),environmental toxins, bacteria, viruses, fungus and parasites must be filtered through the liver.

Many of us (if not most of us) were raised in a time before there was much awareness of environmental toxins or any real understanding of the health hazards of commercially produced food. Just thinking back on the toxic household cleaning products my mother used in our home when I was growing up makes me grimace!

Years of eating commercial raised produce and livestock and exposure to toxic household cleaning products,eventually over stress the liver and it can't do it's job as a part of the digestive system and this is a major contributor to difficulty in losing weight.

Toxic Overload-
All those years of toxic overload begin to damage the liver and the toxins that normally get filtered out start to re-circulate through the body. This re-exposes glands to damaging compounds. Just consider how many medications you have been given over the years that have been found to be harmful and have been pulled off the market! Plus our livers were never designed to process synthetic hormones like estrogen or bovine growth hormones, OTC medications like NSAID's,or artificial sweeteners derived from pesticides like aspartame.

Reduce your toxic load-
This means of course its vitally important to takes steps to reduce the burden of toxins your liver is exposed to though daily living. And, this is one reason the top health experts agree that eating naturally raised livestock and organically grown produce is so important to overall health. These foods are free from man made toxins, plus they are complete and nutrient dense "fuel" for the body.


The Weight and Liver Connection -
If you have ever seen anyone with a pot belly you know that person has a congested liver. This is called edema. This is because the area in the abdomen becomes filed with liquid from the liver that cannot process protein properly. The only way to address this problem is to change the quality of the protein you eat from commercially raised to naturally raised. If you have a protruding pot belly begin by switching to quality protein and eliminate high fat foods and gluten containing grains. This is an essential step in beginning to repair your liver. Next you need to add foods that sooth and support the liver so it can do it's job again. Green leafy vegetables are rich in minerals and help ease a congested liver. Healthy fats such as avocados, raw coconut oil and raw nuts are beneficial too. There are many other good foods to help repair a clogged liver these are only a few.

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/News-from-Nourish-Holistic-Nutrition-Therapy.html?soid=1103840564316&aid=JCSCJdmebqQ

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/News-from-Nourish-Holistic-Nutrition-Therapy.html?soid=1103840564316&aid=JCSCJdmebqQ

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