tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23096075536848657542024-03-05T12:43:11.972-06:00Holistic Health HoustonWe are passionate about helping the world understand and utilize the wonderful gifts that Nature has to offer you, your family and your pets! We are committed to bringing you the finest products available at affordable prices. We also believe that it is necessary to focus on your life as a whole, not just vitamins and supplements. Which is why we offer many other products and services to help enhance your way of living.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-90727153572955157162015-10-22T15:18:00.001-05:002015-10-22T15:18:14.922-05:00Foods for Detoxing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When it comes to detoxing your body, there are many techniques you can follow and supplements you can take. But, the best way, is to eat lots of foods that detox the body.</div>
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Below is a <b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">list of detox foods</b> that I thought would be an great addition to everybody’s diet.</div>
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1. Fruits</h4>
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<img alt="Detox Foods Apple" src="http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/images/apple_raw.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;" title="Detox Foods Apple" /></div>
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Fruits are extremely high in liquid-content, helping the body wash out toxins. They are also very easy to digest and are high in antioxidants, nutrients, fiber and many important vitamins like vitamin C.</div>
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2. Green Foods</h4>
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<img alt="Detox Foods Spinach" src="http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/images/brain_food_spinach.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;" title="Detox Foods Spinach" /></div>
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When you are ready to detox your body, fill your refrigerator with blue green algae, barley, wheatgrass, kale, spinach, spirulina, alfalfa, chard, arugula or other organic leafy greens. These plants will help give a chlorophyll-boost to your digestive tract.</div>
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Chlorophyll rids the body of harmful environmental toxins from smog, Heavy metals, herbicides, cleaning products and pesticides. They also aid the liver in detoxification.</div>
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3. Lemons, Oranges & Limes</h4>
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<img alt="Detox Foods Lemon" src="http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/images/blog/lemons.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;" title="Detox Foods Lemon" /></div>
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These citrus-wonders aid the body in flushing out toxins, as well as jump-start the digestive tract with enzymatic processes. They also aid the liver in its cleansing processes. To increase detoxification, start each morning with a warm glass of lemon water.</div>
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Remember, vitamin C is one of the best detox vitamins around, as it transforms toxins into digestible material. Eat <a href="http://http//www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=vitamin+c" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">vitamin c foods</a> often to help get more of these benefits.</div>
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<img alt="Detox Foods Garlic" src="http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/images/blog/garlic.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;" title="Detox Foods Garlic" /></div>
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4. Garlic</h4>
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This pungent little bulb is one of the best detox foods out there. It helps stimulate the liver into producing important detoxification enzymes that will help filter out toxic residues in the digestive system. We recommend adding sliced or cooked garlic to any dish, as this will help aid any detox diet.</div>
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<img alt="Broccoli" src="http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/images/blog/broccoli.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;" title="Broccoli" /></div>
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5. Broccoli Sprouts</h4>
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Extremely high in antioxidants, broccoli sprouts can help stimulate the detoxification enzymes in the digestive tract like none-other. The sprouts are actually more effective than the fully-grown vegetable, despite the picture on the right.</div>
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<img alt="Green Tea Detox" src="http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/images/blog/green_tea.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;" title="Green Tea Detox" /></div>
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6. Green Tea</h4>
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Packed full of antioxidants, <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=tea" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;" title="Green Tea Benefits">green tea</a> not only washes toxins out of the system through its liquid content, but also contains a special type of antioxidant called catechins, known to increase liver function.</div>
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7. Mung Beans</h4>
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The mighty mung bean has been used by Ayurvedic doctors for thousands of years. It is incredibly easy to digest, and absorbs toxic residue on the sides of the intestinal walls.</div>
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8. Raw Vegetables</h4>
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<img alt="Detox Foods" src="http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/images/blog/cabbage.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;" title="Detox Foods" /></div>
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Best for juicing detox regimens or eaten raw: Onions, carrots, artichoke, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, kale, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, garlic, beet, turmeric, and oregano. The combination of these foods will help your liver purge toxins during the cleansing process. These are high in naturally occurring sulphur and glutathione. Sulphur helps the liver detoxify harmful chemicals.</div>
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9. Seeds & Nuts</h4>
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<img alt="Walnuts" src="http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/images/blog/walnuts.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;" title="Walnuts" /></div>
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Incorporate more of the easily digestible<a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=chia+seeds" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"> </a><a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=chia+seeds" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;" title="List of Healthy Seeds">seeds</a> and nuts into your diet. This include <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=flax+seeds" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">flaxseed</a>, pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, Siberian cedar nuts and sunflower seeds. While detoxing, avoid nut butters.</div>
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<img alt="Avocados" src="http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/images/blog/avocado_02.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;" title="Avocados" /></div>
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10. Omega-3 Oils</h4>
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Use hemp, avocado, olive oils or <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=flax+seed+oil" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">flax seed oil</a> while detoxing. This will help lubricate the intestinal walls, allowing the toxins to be absorbed by the oil, and eliminated by the body.</div>
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- Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN, DCBCN, DABFM</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-19931384098828415212015-10-22T15:16:00.003-05:002015-10-22T15:16:49.186-05:00Getting Lean to Maintain Better Health. Are You Sending Your Body Mixed Signals?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A healthy body composition (favorable ratio of lean tissues to fat) is associated with overall health. You truly are what you eat... and that starts with how food and other natural substances that complement the diet affect your cells and influence your health.</div>
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In the past the main focus was on the nutrients we might be missing. That’s still important. However, now scientists realize that there’s a lot more to consider when planning our daily diets than just avoiding a deficiency. Healthy eating, nutrition, and other modifiable lifestyle factors can help you reverse the disease process and improve health.</div>
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Armed with the basic nutritional knowledge we’ve provided here, you and your health care provider can work together to develop the dietary and lifestyle prescription that’s exactly right for you.</div>
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How Lifestyles Affect Your Body’s Nutritional Intake</h2>
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Despite a wide variety of foods, people today generally eat more but actually get fewer nutrients. Many common aspects of daily life can deplete the body of the nutrients it needs to function properly:</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Drinking—alcohol, coffee/sodas (caffeine)</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Smoking—nicotine</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Medications—statin drugs, corticosteroids, diuretics</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Eating—junk food, refined carbohydrates</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Stress—work, family</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">State of Health—illness, injury, intestinal issues, pregnancy</li>
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These things can rob you of nutrients by:</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Increasing your need for certain nutrients</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Causing accelerated nutrient loss</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Impairing the absorption of nutrients from food</li>
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What You Eat Affects How You Feel</h2>
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Processed foods and other unhealthy dietary habits can interfere with the dietary signals sent to cells throughout the body, which can lead to premature aging and disease. Addressing unhealthy eating patterns allows you to manage symptoms and even halt or reverse the progression of illness. Eating plans can also be tailored to specific conditions to maximize healthy signals—to help regulate blood sugar or reduce inflammation, for example.</div>
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Eating to Send a Healthy Message</h2>
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Are 3 balanced meals a day enough to keep you healthy? Food is the preferred source of nutrients to supply you foundational nutrition needs for basic health maintenance. Knowing how to eat to maximize these nutrients will help you stay on a path of reduced disease risk.</div>
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As you probably know, the foods you eat can be broken down into 3 categories: fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. They’re all essential to health—but not every food supplies them in a “good” way. And too much of anything—even a good thing—is still too much. Work with your health care provider for suggestions on daily calorie intake and serving size suggestions to match your individual needs and activity level.</div>
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Some Fat is Good for You</h2>
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Fat is a vital nutrient that your body needs for a wide range of biological processes, including growth, healthy skin, and absorption of nutrients. It’s also an important fuel source. Eating the right fats, in moderation, will help you feel full faster, and in turn, decrease your appetite. They can even help <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">lower</em> your risk of heart disease by reducing your levels of total and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Good.</strong> Mono- and poly-unsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids (from coldwater fish, nuts, flaxseed oil) are healthy.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Bad.</strong> Saturated fat and trans fat (from animal products and processed foods) can be harmful.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Disease alert.</strong> Saturated and trans fats can <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">increase</em> your risk of heart disease by increasing your total and LDL cholesterol.</li>
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Protein is More Than Just Meat</h2>
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Protein is a key component of practically every tissue in your body, including muscle, skin, hair, and other tissues. Proteins manufacture the enzymes and hormones that power digestion, metabolism, and tissue growth and repair.</div>
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Protein can be found in all meats and vegetables. Some are “complete” proteins (typically from animals) because they contain all the essential amino acids your body needs to build more protein. Others are “incomplete” proteins (vegetables, nuts) because they lack one or more essential amino acids.</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Good.</strong> Lean cuts of meat, white poultry meat, whey protein, soy protein, nuts (in moderation), beans, reduced fat dairy products (or dairy substitutes).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Bad. </strong>Fatty cuts of meat, dark poultry meat, excess cheese or “whole” dairy product consumption, poultry skins.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Caution.</strong> Even lean protein sources can be prepared in unhealthy ways—battered, deep fried, or covered in fatty sauces or cheeses.</li>
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Carbohydrates: the Key to Healthy Eating</h2>
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Carbohydrates are important sources of energy and can be found in most foods. Not all carbohydrates are beneficial, so choosing the right carbohydrates is essential.</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Good. </strong>Better sources of carbohydrates are whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans. These foods are a good source of energy and provide fiber, vitamins, and minerals—as well as phytonutrients that are essential for good health.</li>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Bad.</strong> Refined carbohydrates or sugars (white bread, white rice, pastries, sugary sodas) provide little or no nutritional value.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Caution.</strong> Even the best carbs can be prepared in bad ways. Overcooking can deplete nutrients, or they can be covered in cheese, butter, and fatty/sugary sauces that counteract their benefits.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Disease Alert.</strong> Over time, a steady intake of refined carbohydrates can lead to insulin resistance, a harmful condition in which the body can’t properly convert blood sugar into energy. Insulin resistance, in turn, can result in weight gain, low energy levels, diabetes, heart disease, and other health conditions.</li>
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Fiber and Water: Filling You Up and Cleaning You Out</h2>
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Good sources of fiber include bran, beans, brown rice and nuts, and green vegetables (broccoli, asparagus, spinach). Your health care provider may also recommend a fiber supplement. Dietary fiber helps:</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Promote healthy insulin and blood sugar response by slowing digestion, which helps to prevent a surge of blood sugar.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Create a feeling of fullness, helping you control the amount of food you eat.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Increase bowel motility, helping you empty what your body doesn’t need more regularly.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Disease alert.</strong> Low fiber diets can increase the risk to insulin resistance, digestive discomfort, and more serious intestinal concerns.</li>
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Water helps to transport vital nutrients to, and export waste from, our cells. It’s also necessary to moisten the lungs and respiratory tract, lubricate joint surfaces and internal organs, and ensure proper digestion. Like fiber, it can increase the feeling of fullness and aid in toxin removal. So it’s important to make sure you’re getting enough water every day.</div>
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Targeted Nutrients—Extra Help for Improving Health</h2>
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The growing field of research in nutritional genomics—or nutrigenomics—has demonstrated the effects that nutrients and plant substances can have on modifying the expression of genes in favor of good health. This has led to the development of research-based nutraceuticals and medical foods that complement dietary approaches to address today’s top health concerns.</div>
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“Boosting” Your Healthy Message with Nutritional Supplements</h2>
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Even if you eat a nutritious diet, you might benefit from <a href="http://www.diversifiedhealth.ca/products/" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="Are You Sending Your Body Mixed Signals for Health?">nutritional supplementation</a>. Nutritional supplementation not only helps you maintain adequate nutrient levels. It can also help improve your health or manage chronic health conditions.</div>
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The following are key areas for targeted support along with some recommended nutrients:</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Health maintenance</strong>—multivitamin/mineral, essential fatty acids (EPA/DHA), calcium, vitamins B, C, D & E, other antioxidants, phytonutrient complex, fiber, probiotics</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Body composition</strong>—protein, conjugated linoleic acid, chromium, L-carnitine</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Bone health</strong>—MCHC, calcium, vitamin D, boron, magnesium, ipriflavone, berberine, hops, phosphorus</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Brain function (cognition, memory)</strong>—ginkgo biloba, prolie-rich polypeptides, huperzine A, folate, N-acetylcysteine, EPA/DHA</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Detoxification & liver/kidney function</strong>—silymarin, epigallocatechin gallate, watercress, cordyceps, folate, chlorophyllin, andrographis, hops, methionine, artichoke</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Digestion</strong>—lipase, proteases, amla fruit, betaine, pepsin, zinc carnosine, chamomile, peppermint, certain raw organ concentrates, probiotics</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Immune, sinus & lung health</strong>—vitamins A, C, D & E, andrographis, hops, zinc, amla fruit, selenium, Chinese botanicals, Ayurvedic botanicals, homeopathic remedies, perilla, garlic, select mushrooms, probiotics, whey protein, echinacea, ginger, licorice,</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Intestinal health</strong>—probiotics, glutamine, plantain fruit, coptis root, oregano, red thyme, sage, ginger, fiber</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Joints, tendons & muscles</strong>—hops, magnesium, glucosamine, MSM, chondroitin, antioxidants, EPA/DHA, calcium</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Men’s health</strong>—arginine, tribulus, zinc, saw palmetto, soy, plant sterols, epigallocatechin gallate, ashwaghanda, DHEA</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Minor pain relief</strong>—ginger, turmeric, reduced iso-alpha acids from hops, boswellia</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mood</strong>—St. John’s wort, DHEA, folate, inositol, EPA/DHA</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Relaxation & sleep</strong>—lemon balm, passionflower, valerian, L-theanine, casein tryptic hydrolysate, epigallocatechin gallate, N-acetylcysteine, Chinese botanicals, L-5-hydroxytryptophan, L-theanine</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sports nutrition</strong>—whey protein, electrolytes, magnesium, long-chain glucose-polymers</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Stress management</strong>—licorice, ashwagandha, rehmannia, ginseng, cordyceps, Chinese botanicals, homeopathic remedies</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Women’s health</strong>—indole-3-carbinole, isoflavones (soy, kudzu, red clover), Chinese botanical blends, chasteberry, choline, calcium, ashwaghanda, black cohosh, folate</li>
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Be sure to discuss nutritional supplementation with your <a href="http://www.diversifiedhealth.ca/our-team/" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;" title="Are You Sending Your Body Mixed Signals for Health?">health care provider</a>, especially if you have a health condition or are currently taking medication.</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-11803038928968731612015-10-22T15:15:00.003-05:002015-10-22T15:15:43.890-05:00Get Tested! The Hidden Truth About Weight Gain<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Not everyone knows that hormones are key players in regulating weight, metabolism, blood sugar, insulin, and when and where the body stores fat. A simple, at home test can now identify whether weight management efforts are silently being sabotaged.</div>
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Many know that maintaining an ideal weight is difficult despite the best efforts with diet and exercise. What most don’t know is that an undetected hormone imbalance can be the missing link – sabotaging your hard work to stay slim.</div>
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What’s the connection?</h3>
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Hormones are key players in regulating weight, metabolism, blood sugar, insulin, and when and where the body stores fat. As we age, shifting hormones trigger numerous symptoms of imbalance – including unexplained weight gain.</div>
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The good news is that there is a simple, at-home test that can identify whether you’re one of the thousands affected.</div>
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Can’t lose weight? It could be your hormones.</h3>
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Do the following symptoms sound familiar?</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Women:</strong></div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">weight gain in hips, thighs</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">belly fat</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">water retention</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">increased appetite</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">sugar cravings</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">low thyroid symptoms – slow weight loss, regularly feeling cold</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">mood swings / PMS</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">heavy / painful or irregular cycles</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">hot flashes / night sweats</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">foggy thinking / fatigue</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">difficulty sleeping</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">unexplained stress</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">irritability</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">low libido</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">anxiety / depression</li>
</ul>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Men:</strong></div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">weight gain in hips, thighs, breast tissue</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">belly fat</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">low lean muscle mass</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">decreased strength and stamina</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">prostate problems</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">foggy thinking / fatigue</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">difficulty sleeping</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">burnout</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">irritability</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">low libido</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">anxiety / depression</li>
</ul>
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Are you one of the thousands affected?</h3>
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If you have:</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Weight gain with belly fat</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Weight gain in the hips and thighs</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">High Body Mass Index (BMI)</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Loss of lean muscle</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Increased appetite</li>
</ul>
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Simple testing can reveal whether hormones are secretly sabotaging your weight management efforts.</div>
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Hormones 101</h2>
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Most hormones are produced by a group of glands known collectively as the endocrine system. Even though these glands are located in various parts of the body, they are considered one system because of their similar functions and relationship to each other.</div>
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Hormones are extremely potent substances. It takes only a minute amount to initiate an action. Hormones are secreted into the bloodstream by the glands. From there, they travel to all parts of the body. But only the cells sensitive to that hormone—called the target tissue--will respond to the chemical signal the hormone carries. Traveling through the blood, hormones enter cells through “receptor” sites, much as a key unlocks a door. Once inside, they get to work, flipping the switches that govern growth, development, and mental and physical functions throughout life. All that changes when your hormones become unbalanced due to physical and emotional stress or the effects of aging. Signals do not reach the right place at the right time. Sometimes cell functions shut down completely. In other cases, cells are over stimulated. All this chaos causes unpleasant symptoms, at the very least. In severe situations, these imbalances can lead to chronic disorders or disease.</div>
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Most hormones cannot be stored in the cells of the body. Therefore, they must be made and released into the blood at the precise time they are needed. To maintain the intricate systems in which hormones operate, the body must constantly fine-tune hormone release to keep levels within proper limits. This balance is accomplished through an intricate series of positive and negative feedback mechanisms. For example, an overproduction of one hormone usually prompts the release of one or more complementary hormones in an effort to restore balance. Because of the complexity of these interactions, a hormonal issue rarely stems from only one type of hormone. More often, the problem involves a series of hormones. In addition, a disruption in the balance of hormones produced by one gland or set of glands can cause other gland systems to malfunction.</div>
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Hormone Balance: The Key to Health</h2>
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You've probably heard more about hormones and hormonal imbalances recently - as researchers have become more aware of evidence showing this may be the root cause of many chronic health issues you could be experiencing.</div>
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Your hormones should exist in harmony with each other. When levels of each hormone are in the right proportions, body systems are stable. When balance is lost, hormone deficiencies and excesses can cause chronic symptoms and disorders, and raise risks for disease.</div>
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A whole host of symptoms may signify an imbalance:</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Fatigue</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Headaches</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Weight Gain</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Irritability</li>
</ul>
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<ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Infertiliy</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mood swings</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Loss of libido (sex drive)</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Depression</li>
</ul>
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The symptoms of hormonal shifts occuring in our bodies can be very strong and can even make you feel out of control at times.</div>
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If you have tried to figure out what is happening or perhaps treated your symptoms in ways that don't seem to work, testing your hormones may be the first step to feeling better.</div>
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Saliva and blood spot testing reliably identify hormone imbalances. Hormones exist in harmony with each other – partners in a delicate balancing act. When levels of each hormone are in the right proportions, body systems are stable. When balance is lost, hormone deficiencies and excesses can become toxic to the body causing unwanted symptoms, disorders and disease.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-60091998354803172022015-10-22T15:14:00.003-05:002015-10-22T15:14:50.460-05:00A Natural Approach to Erectile Dysfunction that Improves Vascular Health<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="wwwMagTitleSubHeading" style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By Robert Haas, MS</span></div>
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Aging individuals become very enthusiastic when they discover something that produces an immediate result.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Life Extension®</strong> members often send us samples of dietary supplements they claim have enhanced their <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">sexual performance.</strong></em> These members are elated that a purported “natural” product produces such striking <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">erection-inducing</strong> benefits and want us to inform other members.</div>
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When we try these products, we find most of them do indeed work! After we assay these products, we disappointingly find out <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">why</strong></em> they are so effective.</div>
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It turns out that unscrupulous supplement makers are spiking herbal preparations with <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">prescription drug</strong></em> ingredients found in Viagra®, Levitra®, or Cialis®.</div>
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So when we started getting calls about another “natural” male sex product, we were skeptical. We were impressed that five different <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">clinical studies</strong> documented the efficacy of the nutrient combination, but we wondered, is this just another drug-spiked product <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">pretending</strong></em> to be a dietary supplement?</div>
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As expected, we observed the same remarkable benefits reported in the clinical studies. What amazed us, however, was that our assays did not detect any prescription drug residue in this supplement.</div>
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Based on its underlying mechanisms of action—backed by solid scientific data—it would appear that this nutrient combination not only produces a rapid <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">improvement</strong></em> in male sexual function, but may also confer significant benefit to the <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">vascular system</strong> as well.</div>
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Erectile dysfunction is often associated with coronary artery disease.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">1</span></div>
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A nutrient formula that improves male <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">erectile capability</strong> may very well protect against heart attack and stroke as well. This article describes the science behind this <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">drug-free</strong></em> male sex enhancer.</div>
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Erectile Dysfunction Associated with Vascular Disease</h2>
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Mainstream doctors generally resort to one of three FDA-approved prescription drugs (Viagra®, Cialis®, or Levitra®) to treat patients suffering from mild erectile dysfunction (ED)—with mixed results. As Mayo Clinic professor of urology Dr. Ajay Nehra recently told the <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">New York Times,</em> “the medications do not work for about half of the men with ED.”<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">2</span></div>
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Although these drugs may help some men with ED to achieve <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">temporary</em> erections sufficient for sexual activity, they do nothing to treat <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">chronic endothelial dysfunction,</strong> one of ED’s stealth causes.</div>
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The unfortunate reality is that <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">many aging men remain unaware of the link between ED and vascular disease.</strong> They go to their doctors seeking help for <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=sex" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">sexual dysfunction</a>, get a prescription, and leave with no idea of the creeping health dangers that may lie in store for them.</div>
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These dangers are real. “Erectile problems may show up about three years before a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke,” Dr. Ira Sharlip reported in the same <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">New York Times</em> article.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">2</span></div>
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Prescription drugs for ED can cost as much as <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">$15 per pill.</strong><span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">2</span> They are often accompanied by an array of side effects ranging from indigestion,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">3</span> flushing,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">4</span> blurred vision,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">5-7</span> hearing loss,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">8,9</span> congestion,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">10</span> and headache11 to more serious health problems, from neurologic disorders<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">12</span> to heart attacks.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">3,13</span></div>
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These drugs provide short-term relief to ED sufferers by relaxing the smooth muscles that line the arteries, thus increasing blood flow into arteries that supply the penis. In those instances when ED is the result of <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">plaque buildup</strong></em> in penile arteries, these drugs offer no <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">long-term</em> benefit.</div>
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For men interested in achieving optimal health—including <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=erectile+dysfunction" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">dynamic sexual health</a>—a better option is now available.</div>
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A Unique Strategy to Support Endothelial Health—and Restore Potency</h2>
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Researchers have developed a unique natural strategy for management of erectile dysfunction that includes a blend of <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/pycnogenolbylifeextensions.aspx" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pycnogenol®</strong></em></a> (French maritime pine bark extract) and <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">L-arginine aspartate,</strong></em> an amino acid chelate; combined with <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">icariin,</em></strong> a flavonoid compound used in Chinese herbal medicine.</div>
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The interaction of these three ingredients creates a <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">unique strategy</strong></em> that promises to tackle erectile dysfunction from multiple angles.</div>
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The nutrients’ <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">underlying mechanisms of action</em> are innovative yet elegantly simple. Here’s how it works: to get an erection, you need adequate blood flow. This requires the relaxation of the smooth muscle in the arteries of the penis. The chemical compound <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">nitric oxide</strong></em> triggers this process of relaxation, increasing the blood flow to the penis required for an erection.</div>
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Endothelial cells are responsible for <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">nitric oxide</strong></em> production. They release <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">nitric oxide synthase,</em> an enzyme that catalyzes the production of <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">nitric oxide</strong> from L-arginine. This process is essential to maintaining an erection. Dysfunctional endothelial cells, disabled by plaque buildup, can no longer produce enough of this enzyme.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">30</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/pycnogenolbylifeextensions.aspx" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pycnogenol®</strong></a> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">stimulates</em> endothelial <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">nitric oxide synthase</em> to produce nitric oxide in the artery linings from the amino acid <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">L-arginine,</strong> yielding sufficient bioactive nitric oxide to maintain an erection.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">31</span> At the same time, <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">icariin</strong> acts to <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">block</em> the enzyme responsible for causing erections to subside, known as phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5).<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">32</span></div>
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Interestingly, these nutrients not only promote erections, but also <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">enhance</em> male fertility and endo-thelial health. In other words, <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">numerous</strong></em> distinct modes of action work together to produce a broad array of clinically proven health benefits. Meanwhile, prescription erectile dysfunction drugs such as</div>
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Viagra® support penile erection primarily by blocking the action of PDE5, without delivering any other benefit.</div>
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Pycnogenol® and L-arginine Aspartate: A Clinically Proven, Long-Term Alternative to ED Drugs</h2>
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The efficacy of Pycnogenol® and L-arginine aspartate has been tested in <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">five independent clinical studies.</strong></em> All of these studies showed that male sexual function was restored during supplementation with these ingredients.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">33-37</span> Patients also reported an increase in sexual dreams and fantasies and more frequent morning erections. Their partners noted higher sexual interest and enhanced sexual performance.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">38</span></div>
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The first clinical trial to report successful treatment of erectile dysfunction with Pycnogenol® and L-arginine aspartate involved 40 men between 25 and 45 years of age suffering from mild ED. After treatment with arginyl aspartate (which provided the equivalent of 1.7 g L-arginine per day) for one month, only 2 patients (5% of all patients) experienced normal erections. <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">During a second month of treatment, 80 mg Pycnogenol® per day was added to the arginine regimen and yielded a significant improvement, with 32 patients (80%) enjoying normal erections.</strong> A third month’s treatment with L-arginine, together with an increased amount of Pycnogenol® (120 mg per day), further increased the number of patients with restored normal erectile function. At the end of the trial, 37 patients, equivalent to <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">92.5%</strong> of all participants, achieved normal erectile function.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">35</span></div>
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: A NATURAL APPROACH TO ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION</h6>
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A blend of Pycnogenol® and L-arginine aspartate, combined with icariin, work together to restore healthy endothelial function and promote optimal sexual performance.</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">This nutrient combination promotes healthy erections <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">without</em> the adverse side effects associated with drugs prescribed to treat erectile dysfunction.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Prescription drugs can temporarily restore erectile function for some individuals, but they do <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">not</em> treat chronic endothelial dysfunction, an underlying cause of heart disease, peripheral artery disease, diabetes, and erectile dysfunction.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Five clinical studies</strong> have found that Pycnogenol® and L-arginine aspartate work together to restore sexual function, enable erections, boost libido, performance, and sperm motility, viability, and quantity.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pycnogenol®, L-arginine aspartate, and icariin promote the synthesis of nitric oxide, which is essential for healthy vascular function, providing body-wide benefits.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Icariin herbal extract act as a PDE5-inhibitor, the same mode of action as Viagra®, Cialis®, and Levitra®. Icariin has been shown to enhance the production of nitric oxide in human endothelial cell culture and in animal models, and exhibits testosterone-like activity.</li>
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A second clinical study examined 50 middle-aged men with low testosterone levels who suffered from ED as well as from poor fertility due to impaired sperm motility and morphology.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">36</span> Men were given 3 g L-arginine aspartate and 120 mg Pycnogenol® plus 120 mg testosterone undecanoate over a period of 11 months. A statistically significant <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">76%</strong> of men achieved <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">normal sexual function</strong> and this effect was <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">sustained</strong> during the entire treatment period. The researchers found that this treatment improved sperm quality and quantity at the end of the 1-year treatment and an astounding <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">40%</strong> (20 of 50 patients) achieved fertilization.</div>
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A third study—this one a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study—evaluated the effects of Pycnogenol® and L-arginine aspartate on spermatozoa parameters in 50 middle-aged men diagnosed with infertility.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">37</span> Investigators found improvement of sperm quality in all participants, with better results in younger men. Study results confirmed that <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">this treatment improved sperm parameters in men with infertility</strong>.</div>
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A fourth clinical study, which used a randomly allocated, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, examined 50 middle-aged men with mild to moderate erectile dysfunction who were treated for one month with placebo or with Pycnogenol® and L-arginine aspartate.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">33</span> Study participants recorded their sexual function/dysfunction in diaries. Investigators monitored testosterone levels and endothelial nitric oxide synthase levels along with routine clinical chemistry. Treatment with Pycnogenol® and L-arginine aspartate for one month restored erectile function to normal, and intercourse frequency doubled. Investigators found that <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">endothelial nitric <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">oxide synthase</em> in spermatozoa and testosterone levels in blood increased significantly,</strong> while blood cholesterol levels and blood pressure were lowered.</div>
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The fifth clinical study used a randomly allocated, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">34</span> It examined 50 infertile men who were treated for one month with placebo or Pycnogenol® and L-arginine aspartate. Investigators tested semen samples at four-week intervals and found that <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">treatment with this formula significantly increased semen volume, concentration of spermatozoa, percentage of motile spermatozoa, and percentage of spermatozoa with normal morphology compared with placebo treatment.</strong> Intake of Pycnogenol® and L-arginine aspartate for one month restored the fertility index to normal values. After treatment, the fertility index decreased again to infertile status. No adverse events were reported.</div>
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Researchers believe that improving the quality of spermatozoa from infertile status to a normal fertility index could be caused by two mechanisms: the first is that Pycnogenol® in combination with L-arginine aspartate inhibits the peroxidation of the lipid membrane of spermatozoa, thereby improving the morphology and motility of spermatozoa. The second action could be that these ingredients enhance sperm motility and function by stimulating the activity of endothelial <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">nitric oxide synthase.</em> Both mechanisms, perhaps acting simultaneously, have been shown to improve the quality of spermatozoa.</div>
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ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION LINKED TO <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ENDOTHELIAL</em> DYSFUNCTION AND AGE</h6>
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The vascular endothelium is the thin layer of cells lining the interior surface of blood vessels throughout the entire circulatory system. Endothelial cells are involved in many aspects of vascular function.</div>
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Endothelial <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">dysfunction</em> leads to constriction of blood vessels, inflammation, and increased tendency toward blood clotting. It is associated with the major forms of <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">cardiovascular disease, peripheral artery disease, diabetes, chronic renal failure,</strong> and <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">erectile dysfunction.</strong><span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">14,15</span></div>
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The aging process leads to physiological changes in male sexual activity, including <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">erectile dysfunction</strong> (ED), <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">reduced libido,</strong> and <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">loss of fertility.</strong><span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">16</span> A remarkable <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">52%</strong> of men between the ages of 40 and 70 suffer some degree of erectile dysfunction. The likelihood of erectile dysfunction increases with age, and older men are more likely to suffer from more serious erectile dysfunction.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">17-19</span></div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Changes in blood flow</strong> to and from the penis are thought to be the most frequent cause of male erectile dysfunction.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">20</span> Alterations of penile arterial endothelial cell function relate to arterial risk factors such as atherosclerosis and hypertension—health problems that occur more frequently as men age.</div>
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Normal endothelial function depends on nitric oxide (NO) release by endothelial cells.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">21</span> With age, arterial production and availability of NO declines.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">22</span> One reason may be that an altered form of the amino acid arginine, called <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ADMA</strong> (asymmetric dimethylarginine) competes with L-arginine, the precursor of nitric oxide, thus inhibiting NO production and leading to <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">endothelial dysfunction</strong> and <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">atherosclerotic disease.</strong><span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">23,24</span> This makes adequate ingestion of arginine all the more important as we age.</div>
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Numerous conditions aside from endothelial dysfunction can also contribute to erectile dysfunction. Such conditions include: diabetes,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">25</span> prostate disease,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">26</span> prescription drug use,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">27</span> smoking,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">28</span> and psychological and physical stress.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-87840740664844494982015-10-22T15:13:00.003-05:002015-10-22T15:13:41.627-05:0018 Tips for Mindful Eating<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Research suggests that mindful eating can help you lose weight and keep it off. Defined as being fully aware and present during a meal, mindful eating contributes to healthier food choices, slower eating, improved hunger signals, and enjoyment. There are many ways to incorporate more mindful eating into your day.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Change your menu.</strong></em></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It is easy to fall into a rut, eating the same breakfast and lunch day after day. Trying new foods, cooking styles, and types of cuisine will make you more mindful of what you put in your mouth.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Take small bites.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Big bites contribute to eating too quickly. This prevents you from truly enjoying your food. Reduce the size of your bites by at least 1/3 and chew slowly to improve your focus at meal time.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Put down the fork.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Set down your fork at least every two to three bites. This pause will slow your eating and create a more mindful experience.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Use chopsticks.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Forks allow you to scoop up large portions of food, but chopsticks restrict how much you can hold in each bite. It takes practice, but as you learn, you will become more focused on the details (texture, taste, weight) of the food you are eating.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Stay focused.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avoid being distracted by thoughts of dessert, your next meal, or the snack you plan to have later. If you find this difficult, start making your meals more interesting and flavorful. Incorporate new foods with fresh ingredients that you look forward to eating.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Stop negative thinking.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Classifying a food as good or bad and berating yourself for eating something unhealthy brings negative thinking to the table. Eating should be a pleasurable experience, not one that leaves you feeling guilty. Appreciate the positive aspects of your meal.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Use your table.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The car, couch, and desk create an environment for multi-tasking, removing the focus from your meal. Use your kitchen table when eating at home. Dress it up with a vase of flowers and placemats for an inviting place to relax while you enjoy healthy food.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Reflect on your food.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Take time to think about the food you are eating. Consider where the food came from, what it looks like on the plant or in the ground, and who grew it. This creates a sense of gratitude. Appreciation for your food is a key factor in mindful eating.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Take note.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">As you chew, pay attention to the textures, temperature, flavor and crunch of the food. You may discover new elements you haven’t noticed before, which can make your eating experience more enjoyable.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">No need for speed.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The faster we complete a task, the more we accomplish. Unfortunately, allowing mealtime to follow this pattern leads to overeating. It also reduces satisfaction and your ability to listen to hunger cues. Slow down, focus, and stop when you are full.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Make it a meal.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Eating from a bag or box makes it difficult to track serving sizes. Regardless of what you eat, grab a plate or bowl and sit down. Measure out portions of crackers, dips, cheeses, nuts, and seeds. Not only does this give you time to consider your food choices, it will keep you from going overboard on servings.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Take one bite.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Make an effort to take one bite of food at a time. Chew it slowly and swallow before picking up the fork and knife for the next. The taste, textures, and flavors will come to life -- increasing how much you enjoy the meal.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Work for your food.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Serve peanuts and pistachios in the shell. Eat oranges and bananas that require peeling. Enjoy cherries and olives with the pits still intact. Removing the inedible portions during the meal will help you eat at a slower pace.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sip your drink.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The liquids you drink during a meal help to increase fullness. When this liquid is water or unsweetened tea, you can feel fuller without added calories. Additionally, stopping to sip a drink between bites slows your eating.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Stay in the present.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The television, laptop, and Smartphone take attention away from the food causing mindless eating. Give yourself a 20 to 30 minute break from the screen to focus only on your meal.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Serve a pretty plate.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Take the time and effort to set out your meal in a way that makes you appreciate it’s appearance. Use a pretty plate or bowl, add garnishes like fresh herbs or lime slices. Enjoy both the look and taste of your healthy meals.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Assess your hunger level.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">When eating out you have less control over serving sizes so it is important to take note of your hunger level. Before your meal, decide how much food will satisfy your hunger and take the rest home for a later meal.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Eat a meal alone.</strong></em></span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">You may have a family to feed or coworkers that insist you eat lunch together, but dining solo from time to time can help you return to mindful eating. Whether it is a 15-minute breakfast or a dinner alone, dine quietly by yourself and incorporate mindful eating practices.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-38451177846121326962015-10-22T15:12:00.007-05:002015-10-22T15:12:52.959-05:006 Things to Know About High Protein - Low Carb Diets<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">There are many forms of high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets. Some are prescribed by doctors to control conditions such as diabetes. Others put you at risk for nutrient deficiencies. It’s important to define what the eating plan entails to determine if it will benefit your long term health -- beyond a quick-fix for weight loss. Here are a few things to think about before cutting out carbs.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Carbohydrates do not “make you fat.” Carbohydrates are macronutrients and the primary energy source for the body. Eating carbohydrates does not directly result in weight gain -- although a diet high in refined carbohydrates (sugar, white flour, processed grains) is likely to be high in calories. Large portions and excess calories are the culprit when it comes to weight gain, not carbohydrates.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> High protein diets may stress the kidneys. The byproducts produced when kidneys break down protein can be harmful when concentrations becomes too high in the bloodstream. That being said, in a study by the Indiana University School of Medicine, researchers found that after two years of eating a high protein, low carb diet no harm to kidney function was detected in healthy obese patients when compared to those eating a standard low-fat diet. But even researchers caution that those involved had no evidence of chronic kidney disease or other illness before adopting this eating style. High protein diets are strongly discouraged for anyone with reduced kidney function.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> High protein diets can be high in saturated fat. High protein diets that rely on animal products for increased protein can increase saturated fat intake. The American Heart Association advises limiting saturated fat intake to less than seven percent of total calories per day to reduce risk for heart disease. When increasing protein, it’s important to include plant-based sources. Beans, nuts, and seeds provide protein along with healthy fat, fiber, and important vitamins and minerals.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> High protein diets may affect bone health. Research shows that high protein diets, especially those high in meat products, can increase acid levels in the body. In high acid conditions, calcium from the bone breaks down to help neutralize the acid which weakens the bones over time. This is especially concerning for postmenopausal women who may already be experiencing accelerated bone loss due to drops in estrogen levels.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Low carbohydrate diets can be low in micronutrients. When restricting carbohydrate intake so much that it reduces or eliminates your intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, you are at an increased risk for nutrient deficiencies. These foods contain valuable vitamins and minerals necessary for health. They also contain unique phytonutrients that cannot be found from other sources (including supplements).</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Low carbohydrate diets can be low in fiber. Fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains are the best sources for fiber. Fiber improves digestive health, lowers blood cholesterol, and helps to control blood sugar. Cutting out foods rich in fiber causes you to miss out on these healthy benefits. Recommended fiber intake is about 25 grams per day. It is nearly impossible to consume this amount of fiber when cutting out these naturally fiber-rich foods.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-83130404334793425132015-10-22T15:12:00.003-05:002015-10-22T15:12:12.854-05:00A Natural Approach to Menopause<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="wwwMagTitleSubHeading" style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By Dale Kiefer</span></div>
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For the last few decades, doctors have had a simple solution for <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=Menopause" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">menopause</a>: writing prescriptions for estrogen drugs. With millions of women taking estrogen, all seemed to be going well, until data revealed that estrogen drug use resulted in significant increases in lethal diseases ranging from breast cancer to stroke.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">1</span> This development left both the medical profession and menopausal women paralyzed, with no direction and no answers as to how best to relieve the debilitating symptoms of menopause.</div>
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Clearly overlooked is the fact that menopause is a complex, multifactorial health condition. Addressing menopause requires a diverse approach that both restores normal hormone balance and protects against the multitude of diseases that can arise during this period in a woman’s life. The onset of menopause triggers profound changes in cardiac health, mental states, bone strength, and cell proliferation, all of which combine to greatly elevate a woman’s risk for contracting heart disease, osteoporosis, and certain cancers.</div>
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These health issues are not easy to correct, especially when they occur simultaneously. The ideal approach to addressing menopause would be comprehensive and holistic, providing fast-acting, short-term symptomatic relief as well as longer-term benefits that support women’s health as their body chemistry changes. While declining levels of estrogen are what gives rise to the difficulties of menopause, both nutritional and hormonal support are required to address and ameliorate the physiological symptoms and other changes that accompany menopause.</div>
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Fortunately, researchers have identified natural approaches that may safely relieve hot flashes, breast pain, insomnia, irritability, and other menopausal symptoms. Unlike estrogen-progestin drugs, the use of these natural agents is correlated with reduced risks of certain cancers, along with improved bone and cardiovascular health.</div>
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Scientists have known for years that women who consume certain plant-based nutrients are less likely to develop hot flashes, heart disease, osteoporosis, and breast cancer.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">2-5</span> In response to the health debacle arising from the use of estrogen drugs, researchers have begun digging deeper into the botanical medicine chest, critically evaluating the efficacy of various traditional herbal products that safely stimulate estrogen receptors and create estrogen-like responses.</div>
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Mounting scientific evidence indicates that menopausal women may safely benefit from inexpensive, readily available botanical extracts that do not require a prescription.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">6-18</span> This article reviews the latest research findings concerning menopause-related health conditions—ranging from depression and hot flashes to osteoporosis and heart disease—and how women may benefit from highly researched botanicals. Taken together, these findings suggest a new approach to safely and effectively managing menopause.</div>
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Why Lignans Are So Important</h2>
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For women approaching meno-pause, plant lignans offer important protection against cancer, cognitive decline, and hypertension. These fibrous compounds are present in large quantities in foods such as flaxseed, whole grains, and vegetables. In the digestive tract, they are converted to beneficial estrogenic compounds by resident bacteria. Two of these metabolic byproducts, enterolactone and enterodiol, are believed to play an important role in cancer prevention in mammals.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">19-22</span></div>
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A recent study published in the Journal of Hypertension concluded that dietary lignans, even in small amounts, are likely to normalize blood pressure and reduce hypertension, thereby lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">23</span></div>
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Research from Korea indicates that high enterolactone levels also are associated with greater bone mineral density in postmenopausal women. Furthermore, scientists have found that women with low levels of enterolactone are more likely to suffer from osteoporosis.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">5</span> Scientists in the Netherlands recently reported that “higher dietary intake of lignans is associated with better cognitive function in postmenopausal women.”<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">24</span></div>
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Surprisingly, the evergreen tree is an excellent source of potent lignans. Scandinavian researchers recently discovered that the knotwood of these majestic trees contains highly concentrated amounts of a lignan known as hydroxymatairesinol, or HMR. Numerous studies have shown that HMR is a potent antioxidant that may promote health and help protect against diseases such as cancer. In laboratory models of uterine, breast, colon, and other carcinomas, HMR lignan has demonstrated efficacy in reducing the volume and growth of existing tumors and preventing the formation of new tumors.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">22,25-29</span></div>
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Bioavailability—that is, the ease with which HMR lignan is converted directly to enterolactone and absorbed into the bloodstream—is what sets HMR apart from other plant lignans. Its unique chemical composition allows natural gut bacteria to convert HMR directly to the beneficial enterolactone and enterodiol lignans. This contrasts with other plant lignans, which must undergo further metabolism.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">29</span> Although flaxseed has long been recognized as one of the most concentrated sources of plant lignans, it takes far more flaxseed than HMR lignan to deliver an equivalent amount of beneficial enterolactone into the bloodstream. While one would have to eat about four tablespoons (20-30 grams) of unrefined flaxseed to get a beneficial dose of lignans, just 10-30 milligrams of HMR lignan (about 1,000 times less) provide an equivalent amount of enterolactone in the body.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">28</span></div>
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Protective Effects of Pomegranate</h2>
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One of the more devastating long-term effects of <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=Menopause" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">menopause is an increase in both cancer and heart disease risk</a>. Doctors initially thought that estrogen drugs would reduce cardiovascular risk, but these drugs instead dramatically increased a woman’s risk of contracting these lethal diseases. Fortunately, scientists are now discovering that natural agents can help protect aging women from these diseases.</div>
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Long venerated for its health-promoting properties, the fruit of the pomegranate tree is drawing new attention as a source of beneficial compounds that provide powerful protection against heart disease and cancer. Among these compounds are unique antioxidants that may dramatically improve cardiovascular health. A recent study conducted in Israel, for example, examined the effects of consuming pomegranate juice on the cardiovascular status of patients with atherosclerosis. Although some patients were followed for three years, dramatic differences were noted after just one year. Patients receiving the juice experienced a 30% improvement in atherosclerosis as measured by blood flow capacity through the carotid artery. In control patients who did not receive the juice, the same parameter of cardiovascular health actually worsened by 9%. Systolic blood pressure was reduced by 21% and total serum antioxidant status increased by 130% in the pomegranate-supplemented patients.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">30</span></div>
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These dramatic improvements were achieved within one year of treatment. Subsequent years yielded no further improvements, except in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation, which continued to decrease with continued consumption of pomegranate juice.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">30</span> More recent research confirms that pomegranate juice fights cardiovascular disease by preventing LDL peroxidation and by significantly suppressing the synthesis of new cholesterol by macrophages.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">31</span> In fact, punicalagin, the major antioxidant polyphenol ingredient in pomegranate juice, is found nowhere else in nature. But pomegranate also contains ellagic acid, the compound that makes berries the health-promoting powerhouses of the produce aisle. A recent analysis of the abilities of various components of pomegranate juice to fight cancer and quench free radicals found that pomegranate’s many compounds work synergistically and in a variety of ways to stop cancer.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">8</span></div>
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New research indicates that pomegranate may be particularly indicated in the prevention of breast cancer, one of the most common cancers threatening women after menopause. The most powerful estrogen in the body, 17-beta-estradiol, plays an important role in the genesis and development of breast cancers, most of which are hormone dependent in their early stages.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">32</span> Pomegranate-derived polyphenol compounds inhibit 17-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type I, the enzyme that converts the weak estrogen estrone into its most potent metabolite, 17-beta-estradiol.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">33</span> High expression of 17-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type I can be an indicator of adverse prognosis in women with estrogen-receptor-positive breast tumors.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">32</span> Based on these findings, scientists hope to conduct clinical trials assessing the preventive and therapeutic applications of pomegranate in human breast cancer.</div>
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Hormonal Effects of Soy</h2>
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Phytoestrogens are plant-derived compounds that closely mimic the natural estrogens women produce in abundance before menopause. In the body, phytoestrogens have been shown to modulate the effects that estrogen exerts on cells in a way that could reduce the risk of contracting various diseases. It was long ago established that natural estrogens play a role in the healthy function of bones, heart muscle, and blood vessel linings. Estrogens also contribute to learning and memory.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">34</span></div>
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Aging women need to counter the depletion of beneficial natural hormones that occurs upon meno-pause. Soy contains genistein and daidzein, which are among the most extensively studied phytoestrogens. Epidemiological evidence shows that cancer and heart disease are less prevalent in populations that consume large amounts of soy.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">35</span> Moreover, scientists have demonstrated in laboratory studies that genistein inhibits the proliferation of breast cancer cells.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">36-39</span></div>
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Rates of cardiovascular disease and hormone-dependent cancers are lower among Asian women who consume soy.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">4</span> Epidemiological evidence shows that North American women who consume the greatest amounts of phytoestrogens enjoy significantly better cardiovascular risk profiles than women who consume the least phytoestrogens.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">40</span> Such epidemiological evidence suggests that dietary rather than genetic differences account for Asians’ better health.</div>
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Numerous studies have shown that increased consumption of phytoestrogens, including genistein and daidzein, is associated with a reduced risk of breast and other hormone-dependent cancers, such as endometrial cancer.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">19,41-44</span> Scientists have also determined that phyto-estrogens confer protection against lung cancer.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">45</span> Recent studies have documented significant improvements in long- and short-term memory, mental flexibility, and attention with increased phytoestrogen consumption.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">46-49</span></div>
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Phytoestrogens from soy have also been shown to reduce the loss of bone density in postmenopausal women.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">50</span> The findings from a recent prospective study suggested that postmenopausal women who consume more soy products experience a decreased risk of bone fracture compared to those who consume little soy. This association was most pronounced in the years immediately following menopause.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">51</span></div>
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Asian women experience hot flashes less frequently than do Western women. Less than one fifth of menopausal Chinese women, for example, complained of <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=Menopause" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">hot flashes</a> in one such study.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">3</span> By contrast, more than three fourths of menopausal North American and European women suffer from hot flashes. Numerous studies have demonstrated that isoflavone-rich soy extracts decrease both the frequency and severity of hot flashes in postmenopausal women.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">52</span> In one study, 80% of women using a soy extract experienced a significant decrease, averaging 48%, in the number of daily hot flashes. These women also reported statistically significant improvements in other menopausal symptoms, including sleep disorder, anxiety, depression, vaginal dryness, loss of libido, and bone pain.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">53</span></div>
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In response to these findings, scientists conducted clinical trials using soy extracts in an attempt to relieve menopausal miseries. Because these studies produced inconclusive results, many mainstream medical doctors lost confidence in soy’s ability to relieve menopausal symptoms. This is regrettable considering the many diseases associated with normal aging and menopause that soy-derived phytoestrogens have been shown to prevent. While soy phyto-estrogens by themselves may not be equal to potent estrogen drugs in alleviating menopausal symptoms, their estrogen-modulating effects merit including soy in a comprehensive approach to both reducing disease risk and relieving the symptoms of menopause.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-70472187011122081182015-10-22T15:09:00.001-05:002015-10-22T15:09:09.632-05:00Are You Hypothroid?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hypothyroidism (Underactive, Low Thyroid)<br />
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Hypothyroidism means your thyroid is not making enough thyroid hormone. The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland in the front of your neck. It makes hormones that control the way your body uses energy.<br />
Having a low level of thyroid hormone affects your whole body. It can make you feel tired and weak. If hypothyroidism is not treated, it can raise your cholesterol levels and make you more likely to have a heart attick or stroke. During pregnancy, untreated hypothyroidism can harm your baby. Luckily, hypothyroidism is easy to treat.<br />
People of any age can get hypothyroidism, but older adults are more likely to get it. Women age 60 and older have the highest risk. You are more likely to get the disease if it runs in your family.<br />
Wondering If You’re Hypothyroid? Don’t Let A Blood Test Fail You.<br />
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Does this scenario sound familiar to you?<br />
Mary: “But doctor, I am so tired all the time, I can’t sleep, I am gaining weight even though I hardly eat anything, I can’t think clearly, my joints ache, my hair is falling out and I just feel awful. Are you sure it’s not my thyroid?”<br />
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Doctor: “Mary, your blood test is normal, so there is no way you could have hypothyroidism.”<br />
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We hear from people all the time who share with us their hypothyroid symptoms, but are then quick to say that their doctor already checked their thyroid and it is fine. So they are still searching for the cause of their symptoms. This is so frustrating because their doctor has dismissed their hypothyroid symptoms in lieu of one blood test result, the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) test. The doctor totally ignores the patient’s symptoms which are clearly indicative of low thyroid function.<br />
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Some people then decide to see an endocrinologist. This will only get the same results, because he is also trained in the conventional mindset. Using the TSH blood test to diagnose hypothyroidism is what he or she was taught in medical school. It is the “gold standard” used by conventional doctors and endocrinologists to diagnose low thyroid function.<br />
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If you feel like Mary does, then please do not give up! You could have what is called Type 2 Hypothyroidism, which is extremely common today. This occurs when there is resistance to your thyroid hormones at the cellular level, which is not due to a lack of production of thyroid hormones. This means that your thyroid can be producing enough thyroid hormone, but your cells are not able to use them efficiently, so therefore you still exhibit the signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism.<br />
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When your doctor reviews your blood test results, he sees that you are making the sufficient amount of thyroid hormones, so he tells you that you are “normal.” By using this test, the doctor is assuming that your cells are properly utilizing the thyroid hormones – an assumption that should not be made. This is why this TSH blood test fails thousands upon thousands of hypothyroid patients.<br />
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Type 1 Hypothyroidism is the failure of the thyroid gland to produce sufficient amounts of thyroid hormones. This type of hypothyroidism can be detected by the TSH blood test. Most people with hypothyroidism have normal thyroid blood tests, because the tests do not detect Type 2 Hypothyroidism. It’s time to scream this message from the mountain tops:<br />
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A BLOOD TEST DOES NOT DIAGNOSE TYPE 2 HYPOTHYROIDISM. YOUR SYMPTOMS MUST BE CONSIDERED BY YOUR DOCTOR, NOT IGNORED!<br />
The symptoms of hypothyroidism are often subtle. They are not specific (which means they can mimic the symptoms of many other conditions) and are often attributed to aging. Patients with mild hypothyroidism may have no signs or symptoms. The symptoms generally become more obvious as the condition worsens and the majority of these complaints are related to a metabolic slowing of the body. Common symptoms are listed below:<br />
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Fatigue<br />
Depression<br />
Modest weight gain<br />
Cold intolerance<br />
Excessive sleepiness<br />
Dry, coarse hair<br />
Constipation<br />
Dry skin<br />
Muscle cramps<br />
Increased cholesterol levels<br />
Decreased concentration<br />
Vague aches and pains<br />
Swelling of the legs<br />
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As the disease becomes more severe, there may be puffiness around the eyes, a slowing of the heart rate, a drop in body temperature, and heart failure. In its most profound form, severe hypothyroidism may lead to a life-threatening coma (myxedema coma). In a severely hypothyroid individual, a myxedema coma tends to be triggered by severe illness, surgery, stress, or traumatic injury. This condition requires hospitalization and immediate treatment with thyroid hormones given by injection.<br />
Properly diagnosed, hypothyroidism can be easily and completely treated with thyroid hormone replacement. On the other hand, untreated hypothyroidism can lead to an enlarged heart (cardiomyopathy), worsening heart failure, and an accumulation of fluid around the lungs.<br />
What's best for you?<br />
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If you are concerned that you may have hypothyroidism, you should mention your symptoms to your physician. A simple blood test is the first step in the diagnosis. From there, both you and your doctor can decide what the next steps should be. If treatment is warranted, it is important for you to let your doctor know of any concerns or questions you have about the options available. Remember that thyroid disease is very common and, in good hands, hypothyroidism is easily addressed and treated.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-13658646164227005972015-10-22T15:07:00.001-05:002015-10-22T15:07:10.258-05:00Body Cleansing is he Natural Way to Eliminate Disease<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Eliminating disease with deep body cleansing is unparalleled, and happens all over the world. In fact, it's common for people who work with others to cleanse their bodies to </span><i style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">regularly</i><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> see disease simply up and disappear with deep cleansing. These diseases can run the gamut from minor problems all the way up to life-threatening "incurable" ones.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sherry Rogers, M.D. explains, "Environmental toxins cause all human disease... They can cause any symptom or disease from high blood pressure, heart failure, osteoporosis, high cholesterol, arthritis, or Alzheimer's disease to fibromyalgia, degenerating disks, Parkinson's disease, depression, fatigue, irritable bowel, loss of libido, colitis, asthma, eczema, prostatitis, esophagitis, atrial fibrillation, GERD (gastro esophageal disease), hearing loss, headaches, recurrent sinus, ear and throat infections, diabetes, cancer, and more."</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">This sentiment is echoed by many in the natural health world. So is the fact that when these poisons and a regularly accompanying fungus overgrowth are eliminated, so too is the disease. When you consider that most people, through common diets and lifestyles, are bombarded with pesticides, preservatives, plastics, and all sorts of unnatural chemicals on a </span><i style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">daily</i><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> basis, it pretty quickly becomes clear that those chemicals (also called toxins) trapped in our bodies are the underlying cause of quite a bit of the disease that our culture experiences.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">While it's a serious problem, the good news is, it's a problem with a solution. You can remove those chemical toxins from your body by cleansing your body deeply, and along with those poisons, disease regularly disappears too.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">However, as we have more and more chemical foods and lifestyles, more and more cleansing is needed to really make a dent at what's stored in there. A week on the Master Cleanse simply won't cut it. Neither will popping some store bought detox pills. Deep cleansing, at a minimum, involves colon cleansing, liver cleansing, and a natural plant-based diet, or juice or water fasting.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Most people are generally unconscious as to the amount of toxicity they have in their bodies. It can be an enormous amount, and some are under the impression that our bodies can handle all of this for us. Others have the belief that while they might have some toxicity in them, a week or two of cleansing makes them squeaky clean inside. Doctors, unfortunately, will tell you that those chemicals in your body won't harm you, and that you actually need more chemicals in your body to manage your symptoms. Nothing could be further from the truth.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A week or two of deep cleansing is a good place to start. It's certainly better than leaving it </span><i style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">all</i><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> in there, but it's exactly that, a start.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">To understand why, you need to understand that most people consume pesticides each day of their lives, and have been since day one. In fact, most people have been eating unnatural and chemical-filled foods, most of their lives, while slapping even more chemicals on their skin each day.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Then, people breathe in chemicals from the home, garden and workplace - to say the least of auto fumes (which are known to kill you if you breathe them in a closed garage). And this doesn't take into account the toxicity created from habits like smoking cigarettes, which is a habit for about twenty percent of the population.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">While different people, due to different habits, have different amounts of toxicity stored in them, most people have been building toxicity in their bodies for exactly as many years as they've been alive. So it can take some time and effort to really get it all out.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">But the benefits of deep cleansing are obvious, and for most who've actually done it obviously worth it. The benefits of deep cleansing can be the elimination and prevention of disease, as well as having more energy, while looking and feeling younger. Easy weight loss and maintenance are also common, as is developing a greater spiritual connection.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Have you ever thought about it? Perhaps the Divine didn't intend for us to be filled with chemicals and poisons? Although thousands of years ago the world and food supply wasn't nearly so chemically contaminated, perhaps the quality of their spiritual connection was why Jesus, Buddha, and St. Francis of Assisi are all known to have cleansed their bodies deeply?</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Perhaps enlightenment, which is really just having light in your soul (as opposed to dimness or darkness) is meant for everyone, not just a few who come around every few thousand years? But to get there, perhaps you'll need to follow the path these great spiritual men took. Or, you could just take more drugs and consume more chemicals. Which will you choose?</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-55443334297895255062015-10-22T14:56:00.005-05:002015-10-22T14:56:30.373-05:00Excess weight increases risk of prostate cancer death<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">An article published online on August 6, 2013 in the journal </span><em style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Obesity Research & Clinical Practice </em><span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">reveals a greater likeliness of dying from prostate cancer among overweight or obese men in comparison with those of normal weight. </span></div>
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The case-control study involved 751 Kaiser Permanente patients who underwent radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. Three hundred twenty-three men who died from the disease were compared to 428 matched survivors. The men were classified as healthy, overweight or obese according to body mass index (BMI) at the time of diagnosis.</div>
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Nearly 43% of the subjects had a BMI of 25 or more (categorized as overweight). Among those who died from prostate cancer, 30% were considered obese, with a body mass index of 30 or more, in comparison with 22% of the control group. Researchers Reina Haque, PhD and colleagues observed that obese men had an adjusted 50% greater risk of dying from prostate cancer than those with a healthy BMI. The greatest impact of being overweight or obese was observed among those with Gleason scores of 8 or more, which indicate aggressive disease.</div>
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"We found among patients undergoing surgical treatment for prostate cancer, weight at time of diagnosis is more strongly correlated with prostate cancer survival than many other factors researchers have studied in the past, including some prostate cancer treatments," stated Dr Haque, who is a researcher at Kaiser Permanente Southern California's Department of Research & Evaluation in Pasadena, California. "Moving forward, we are hoping future studies will examine the effect of weight loss and other lifestyle modifications on prostate cancer mortality."</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-50293475079057138152015-10-22T14:53:00.003-05:002015-10-22T14:53:57.080-05:00Foods With Super-Healing Powers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cherries</em></span></strong></div>
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Cherries boast a laundry list of healing powers. For starters, they pack a powerful nutritional punch for a relatively low calorie count. They're also packed with substances that help fight inflammation and cancer. As if that weren't enough, in lab studies, quercetin and ellagic acid, two compounds contained in cherries, have been shown to inhibit the growth of tumors and even cause cancer cells to commit suicide—without damaging healthy cells. Cherries also have antiviral and antibacterial properties.</div>
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Anthocyanin, another compound in cherries, is credited with lowering the uric acid levels in the blood, thereby reducing a common cause of gout. Researchers believe anthocyanins may also reduce your risk of colon cancer. Further, these compounds work like a natural form of ibuprofen, reducing inflammation and curbing pain. Regular consumption may help lower risk of heart attack and stroke.</div>
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In Chinese medicine, cherries are routinely used as a remedy for gout, arthritis, and rheumatism (as well as anemia, due to their high iron content). Plus they're delicious.How much: Aim for a daily serving while they're in season locally. And keep a bag of frozen cherries in your freezer the rest of the year; frozen cherries retain 100 percent of their nutritional value and make a great addition to smoothies, yogurt, and oatmeal.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Tip: Buy organic, since conventionally grown cherries can be high in pesticides.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Guavas</em></strong></span></div>
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Guavas are a small tropical fruit that can be round, oval, or pear-shaped. They're not all that common, so they might be hard to find, depending on where you live. But if you can track them down, it's more than worth it. Guavas contain more of the cancer-fighting antioxidant lycopene than any other fruit or vegetable, and nearly 20 percent more than tomatoes. Our bodies can't process much of the lycopene in tomatoes until they're cooked; the processing helps break down tough cell walls. However, guavas' cell structure allows the antioxidant to be absorbed whether the fruit is raw or cooked, and the whole fruit offers the nutrition without the added sodium of processed tomato products.Lycopene protects our healthy cells from free radicals that can cause all kinds of damage, including blocked arteries, joint degeneration, nervous system problems, and even cancer. Lycopene consumption is associated with significantly lower rates of prostate cancer; in addition, men with prostate tumors who consumed lycopene supplements showed significant improvements, such as smaller tumors and decreased malignancy. Lycopene has also been found to inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells, and research suggests that this antioxidant may also help protect against coronary heart disease.</div>
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This strange-looking little fruit is also packed with vitamin C and other antioxidants. Serving for serving, guava offers more than 60 percent more potassium than a banana, which can help protect against heart disease and stroke. In fact, the nutrients found in guavas have been shown to lower LDL and boost HDL cholesterol, reduce triglycerides, and lower blood pressure.</div>
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How much: Aim to eat fresh guavas as often as you can when you can find them in stores. They're not commonly available in the freezer section; and most guava juices are processed and sweetened, so they don't provide the same superior nutrition that the whole, fresh fruit does. One to two guavas a day is a good goal.</div>
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Tip: Opt for the red-fleshed variety if you can; both are loaded with antioxidants, but the red type has more than the white-fleshed apple guava.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Beans</em></strong></span></div>
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Beans are a miracle food. They lower cholesterol, regulate blood sugar and insulin production, promote digestive health, and protect against cancer. If you think of fiber, protein, and antioxidants and immediately think whole grains, meat, and fruit, think again—beans offer all three in a single package.An assortment of phytochemicals found in beans has been shown to protect cells from cancerous activity by inhibiting cancer cells from reproducing, slowing tumor growth. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health reported that women who consumed beans at least twice a week were 24 percent less likely to develop breast cancer, and multiple studies have tied beans to a reduced risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and breast and colon cancers.Beans deliver a whopping amount of antioxidants, which help prevent and fight oxidative damage. In fact, the USDA's ranking of foods by antioxidant capacity places three varieties of beans (red beans, red kidney beans, and pinto beans) in the top four—and that's among all food groups. Beans are a great source of dietary fiber, protein, and iron. They also contain the amino acid tryptophan; foods with high amounts of tryptophan can help regulate your appetite, aid in sleep, and improve your mood. Many are also rich in folate, which plays a significant role in heart health. And depending on the type of bean you choose, you'll also get decent amounts of potassium, magnesium, vitamin B1 and B2, and vitamin K. Soybeans are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids.In Chinese medicine, various types of beans have been used to treat alcoholism, food poisoning, edema (particularly in the legs), high blood pressure, diarrhea, laryngitis, kidney stones, rheumatism, and dozens of other conditions.<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
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How much: Aim for a minimum of two servings of beans per week.</div>
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Tip: Adzuki and mung beans are among the most easily digested; pinto, kidney, navy, garbanzo, lima, and black beans are more difficult to digest.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Watercress</strong></em></span></div>
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Not only is watercress extremely nutritious, it's about as close as you can get to a calorie-free food. Calorie for calorie, it provides four times the calcium of 2 percent milk. Ounce for ounce, it offers as much vitamin C as an orange and more iron than spinach. It's packed with vitamin A and has lots of vitamin K, along with multiple antioxidant carotenoids and protective phytochemicals.The nutrients in watercress protect against cancer and macular degeneration, help build the immune system, and support bone health. The iron helps red blood cells carry oxygen to your body's tissues for energy. The phytochemicals in watercress battle cancer in three ways: killing cancer cells, blocking carcinogens, and protecting healthy cells from carcinogens. They've also been shown to help prevent lung and esophageal cancer and can help lower your risk for other cancers.In Chinese medicine, watercress is thought to help reduce tumors, improve night vision, and stimulate bile production (improving digestion and settling intestinal gas). It's used as a remedy for jaundice, urinary difficulty, sore throat, mumps, and bad breath.How much: Eat watercress daily if you can. In some regions, it's more widely available during the spring and summer, when it's cultivated outdoors. But since it can also be grown hydroponically in greenhouses, you can find it year-round in many grocery stores and at your local farmers market.<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
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Tips: You can cook it, but watercress is better for you when you eat it raw. Tuck it into a sandwich in place of lettuce.</div>
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Toss it with your favorite vegetables and eat it in a salad.</div>
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Watercress is great in pesto—just replace the basil with watercress—and soups.</div>
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Use watercress as a wonderfully detoxifying ingredient in juice or smoothies.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Spinach</em></strong></span></div>
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You already knew spinach was good for you, but did you know just how good? Spinach protects against eye disease and vision loss; it's good for brain function; it guards against colon, prostate, and breast cancers; it protects against heart disease, stroke, and dementia; it lowers blood pressure; it's anti-inflammatory; and it's great for bone health. Spinach has an amazing array of nutrients, including high amounts of vitamin K, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, magnesium, and iron.A carotenoid found in spinach not only kills prostate cancer cells, it also prevents them from multiplying. Folate promotes vascular health by lowering homocysteine, an amino acid that, at high levels, raises the risk of dementia and cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke. Folate has also been shown to reduce the risk of developing colorectal, ovarian, and breast cancers and to help stop uncontrolled cell growth, one of the primary characteristics of all cancers. The vitamin C and beta-carotene in spinach protect against colon cancer in addition to fighting inflammation, making them key components of brain health, particularly in older adults.Spinach is loaded with vitamin K (one cup of cooked spinach provides 1,111 percent of the recommended daily amount!), which builds strong bones by helping calcium adhere to the bone. Spinach is also rich in lutein, which protects against age-related macular degeneration, and it may help prevent heart attacks by keeping artery walls clear of cholesterol buildup.How much: Fresh spinach should be a daily staple in your diet. It's available in practically every grocery store, no matter where you live, it's easy to find year-round, and you'd be hard pressed to find a more nutritionally sound, versatile green. So do yourself a healthy favor and aim for a few ounces, raw or lightly steamed, every day.<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
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Tips: Add a handful of fresh spinach to your next fruit smoothie. It'll change the color but not the taste. Conventionally grown spinach is susceptible to pesticide residue; stick to organic.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Onions</em></strong></span></div>
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Onions get a bad rap for their effect on the breath, but that's not the only part of the body where they pack a wallop. Onions contain potent cancer-fighting enzymes; onion consumption has been shown to help lower the risk of prostate and esophageal cancers and has also been linked to reduced mortality from coronary heart disease. Research suggests that they may help protect against stomach cancer. Onions contain sulfides that help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as a peptide that may help prevent bone loss by inhibiting the loss of calcium and other bone minerals.Onions have super antioxidant power. They contain quercetin, a natural antihistamine that reduces airway inflammation and helps relieve symptoms of allergies and hay fever. Onions also boast high levels of vitamin C, which, along with the quercetin, battles cold and flu symptoms. Onions' anti-inflammatory properties help fight the pain and swelling associated with osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis. Onions are also extremely rich in sulfur and they have antibiotic and antiviral properties, making them excellent for people who consume a diet high in protein, fat, or sugar, as they help cleanse the arteries and impede the growth of viruses, yeasts, and other disease-causing agents, which can build up in an imbalanced diet.How much: For all the health benefits onions provide, it would be ideal to eat one a day. However, if that's not doable for you, add a few onions to your weekly grocery list and try to eat a little bit every day. All varieties are extremely good for you, but shallots and yellow onions lead the pack in antioxidant activity. Raw onions provide the best nutrition, but they're still great for you when they're lightly cooked. And cooking meat at high temperatures (such as on a grill) with onions can help reduce or counteract carcinogens produced by the meat.Tip: Onions should be stored at room temperature, but if they bother your eyes when you cut them, try refrigerating them for an hour beforehand.<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Carrots</em></strong></span></div>
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Carrots are a great source of the potent antioxidants known as carotenoids. Diets high in carotenoids have been tied to a decreased risk in postmenopausal breast cancer as well as cancers of the bladder, cervix, prostate, colon, larynx, and esophagus. Conversely, diets low in carotenoids have been associated with chronic disease, including heart disease and various cancers. Research suggests that just one carrot per day could reduce your risk of lung cancer by half. Carrots may also reduce your risk of kidney and ovarian cancers. In addition to fighting cancer, the nutrients in carrots inhibit cardiovascular disease, stimulate the immune system, promote colon health, and support ear and eye health.Carrots contain calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, fiber, vitamin C, and an incredible amount of vitamin A. The alpha-carotene in carrots has shown promise in inhibiting tumor growth. Carrots also contain the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, which work together to promote eye health and prevent macular degeneration and cataracts. In Chinese medicine, carrots are used to treat rheumatism, kidney stones, tumors, indigestion, diarrhea, night blindness, ear infections, earaches, deafness, skin lesions, urinary tract infections, coughs, and constipation.How much: Eat a serving of carrots each day if you can, and enjoy them year-round. Carrots are good for you whether they're raw or lightly cooked; cooking helps break down the tough fiber, making some of the nutrients more easily absorbed. For the best nutrition, go for whole carrots that are firm and fresh-looking. Precut baby carrots are made from whole carrots and, although they're convenient, they tend to lose important nutrients during processing.Tips: Remove carrot tops before storing them in the fridge, as the tops drain moisture from the roots and will cause the carrots to wilt. Buy organic; conventionally grown carrots frequently show high pesticide residues.<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Broccoli</em></strong></span></div>
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You'll find it difficult to locate another single food source with as much naturally occurring health-promoting properties as broccoli. A single cup of steamed broccoli provides more than 200 percent of the RDA for vitamin C (again, more than oranges), nearly as much of vitamin K, and about half of the daily allowance for vitamin A, along with plentiful folate, fiber, sulfur, iron, B vitamins, and a whole host of other important nutrients. Calorie for calorie, broccoli contains about twice the amount of protein as steak—and a lot more protective phytonutrients.Broccoli's phytochemicals fight cancer by neutralizing carcinogens and accelerating their elimination from the body, in addition to inhibiting tumors caused by chemical carcinogens. Studies show evidence that these substances help prevent lung and esophageal cancers and may play a role in lowering the risk of other cancers, including gastrointestinal cancer.Phytonutrients called indoles found in broccoli help protect against prostate, gastric, skin, breast, and cervical cancers. Some research suggests that indoles also protect the structure of DNA and may reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Extensive studies have linked broccoli to a 20 percent reduction in heart disease risk. In Chinese medicine, broccoli is used to treat eye inflammation.How much: If you can eat a little broccoli every day, your body will thank you for it. If you can't swing it, aim for eating it as regularly as possible. Like many other vegetables, broccoli provides fantastic nutrition both in its raw form and when it's properly cooked. Cooking reduces some of broccoli's anticancer components, but lightly steaming it will preserve most of the nutrients. Broccoli is available fresh year-round in most areas, but if you can't find it where you live, frozen broccoli is a good substitute.<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
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Tip: Steaming or cooking broccoli lightly releases the maximum amount of the antioxidant sulforaphane.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Kale</em></strong></span></div>
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Kale is highly nutritious, has powerful antioxidant properties, and is anti-inflammatory. One cup of cooked kale contains an astounding 1,328 percent of the RDA for vitamin K, 192 percent of the RDA for vitamin A, and 89 percent of the RDA for vitamin C. It's also a good source of calcium and iron.Kale is in the same plant family as broccoli and cabbage, and, like its cruciferous cousins, it contains high levels of the cancer-fighting compound sulforaphane, which guards against prostate, gastric, skin, and breast cancers by boosting the body's detoxification enzymes and fighting free radicals in the body. The indoles in kale have been shown to protect against breast, cervical, and colon cancers. The vitamin K in kale promotes blood clotting, protects the heart, and helps build strong bones by anchoring calcium to the bone. It also has more antioxidant power than spinach, protecting against free-radical damage. Kale is extra rich in beta-carotene (containing seven times as much as does broccoli), lutein, and zeaxanthin (10 times the amount in broccoli). In Chinese medicine, kale is used to help ease lung congestion.How much: Like cabbage, the more kale you can eat, the better. A daily serving is ideal. Eat it as much as you can, as long as you can find it fresh at your local grocery or farmers market. In some areas, it's available all year; in others, it only makes an appearance during summer and fall.Tips: Kale's growing season extends nearly year-round; the only time it's out of season is summer, when plenty of other leafy greens are abundant.<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
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Steam or sauté kale on its own, or add it to soups and stews. Cooking helps tenderize the leaves.</div>
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Kale is also a great addition when it's blended in fruit smoothies or juiced with other vegetables.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dandelion</em></strong></span></div>
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The same pesky weed known for ruining lawns has a long history of being used as a healing herb in cultures around the globe. One cup of raw dandelion greens provides 535 percent of the RDA of vitamin K and 112 percent of the RDA for vitamin A. Dandelion greens are also a good source of vitamin C, calcium, iron, fiber, and potassium. Among all foods, it's one of the richest sources of vitamin A; among all green vegetables, it's one of the best sources of beta-carotene.Dandelion has been used for centuries to treat hepatitis, kidney, and liver disorders such as kidney stones, jaundice, and cirrhosis. It's routinely prescribed as a natural treatment for hepatitis C, anemia, and liver detoxification (poor liver function has been linked to numerous conditions, from indigestion and hepatitis to irritability and depression). As a natural diuretic, dandelion supports the entire digestive system and increases urine output, helping flush toxins and excess salt from the kidneys. The naturally occurring potassium in dandelions helps prevent the loss of potassium that can occur with pharmaceutical diuretics.Dandelion promotes digestive health by stimulating bile production, resulting in a gentle laxative effect. Inulin, a naturally occurring soluble fiber in dandelion, further aids digestion by feeding the healthy probiotic bacteria in the intestines; it also increases calcium absorption and has a beneficial effect on blood sugar levels, therefore being useful in treating diabetes. Both the dandelion leaves and root are used to treat heartburn and indigestion. The pectin in dandelion relieves constipation and, in combination with vitamin C, reduces cholesterol. Dandelion is excellent for reducing edema, bloating, and water retention; it can also help reduce high blood pressure. On top of all that, dandelion contains multiple antidiarrheal and antibacterial properties.In Chinese medicine, dandelion is used in combination with other herbs to treat hepatitis and upper respiratory tract infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia. The sap from the stem and root is a topical remedy for warts. Imagine—all this from a lowly weed!<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How much:</strong> How much dandelion to incorporate into your diet boils down to two factors: availability and personal preference. Dandelion greens are considered a specialty item in some areas and therefore can be difficult to find. They also have a pungent taste, and people tend to love or hate the flavor. If you can find fresh dandelion greens and you enjoy the taste, make them a regular part of your diet.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Tips: </strong>Use the root in soups or sauté it on its own.</div>
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If the raw leaves are too bitter for you, try them lightly steamed or sautéed.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-192106637041255342015-10-22T14:52:00.005-05:002015-10-22T14:52:53.335-05:00How to Avoid Self-Sabotage During Weight Loss<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;">You are likely familiar with the pattern -- you get close to your goal weight and then sabotage your efforts by indulging in unhealthy foods or skipping workouts. The self-sabotage phenomenon is common, especially when goals are within reach. This can indicate that you have not fully realized the difference between wanting to be fit and actually being fit.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;">Living with the daily desire and dream of being fit can be consuming. It not only causes you to put your life on hold, it gives you an excuse for not fully living in the moment and provides a scapegoat for all things gone wrong. When you're overweight, it's easy to make excuses when a situation doesn’t go well: "If I wasn't overweight, then he would like me," or "I can take that chance on a new career once I lose weight." It's a comfortable fantasy without risk.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;">When you actually reach your goal weight, a primary self-protection mechanism is gone. You have reached the goal of being fit, the one thing that you have been waiting for and dreaming of for years. The excuse that weight once offered is no longer valid. It can be a scary and unnerving situation that leaves you feeling vulnerable. If things don't work out, then who or what is to blame?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;">It takes courage to live life and roll with the punches, but you can do this without losing weight. Start now and the transition won't be so difficult once you reach your goal. To work through this, begin by assessing what role weight plays in your life. Start a journal and answer these questions:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;"> What positive aspects does it offer you?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;"> How does it protect you?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;"> Can you find alternative ways to protect yourself without hiding?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;"> What does being fit mean to you?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;"> What internal qualities do you have? In your mind, can you maintain these qualities and still be thin? If not, why?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;"> Does being fit threaten you in some way? Why?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;">Self-exploration takes time and patience, but the result can help you get past those issues that hold you back. There are many resources that can help, including Web sites, books, and professionals such as registered dietitians and nutritionists. Be patient and trust that you can resolve internal conflicts by facing them and working through them, one by one.</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-84545089254523819222015-10-22T14:47:00.005-05:002015-10-22T14:47:58.480-05:00I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter (because it’s also flame-retardant)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The next time you're looking to fireproof something forget trekking down to the hardware store, instead check the fridge and grab a stick of butter. Researchers have found varied amounts of flame retardant in sticks of butter. Polybrominated dphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, are a class of chemicals commonly used in furniture and electronic manufacturing as flame-retardants. When digested these chemicals have been known to stop hormone function and increase cancer risk.</div>
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"Flame retardants were not made to be eaten," said Arnold Schecter, one of the researchers. "They're made to slow down the smoke in fires. They're not a food component. They don't belong there." Just in case that was unclear. They have also been associated with reproductive, developmental and neurological problems. This is the first documented case of PBDEs being found in food in the US.</div>
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U.S. researchers tested a selection of ten kinds of butter sourced from Dallas grocery stores. Nine of the samples showed small amounts of the contaminant, which is consistent with the results of previous studies as PBDEs can enter foods through soil, water and air. But one sample had levels of PBDEs that were 135 times that of the others. The source of the contaminants was traced to the wrapper. Though Shecter will not release the name of the company whose butter contained such high levels of the chemicals, he believes that the issue could be due to an electrical incident. If there was a fire in one of the machines or overheating, the chemicals could have leaked into the paper and then later into the butter.</div>
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Currently, there are no federal agencies tracking levels of chemicals like PBDEs in food so there is no way to know how widespread this sort of contamination is. The newly Senate-approved Food Modernization Safety Act would not be able to help as it focuses on bacteria rather than chemicals. Though it is unlikely that the sample with high levels of PBDEs is the only contaminated stick out there, it is also unlikely that there is a large quantity of the sticks. (If you feel like doing a little detective work to find out the exact brand of butter, Schecter says that the company's headquarters are in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area). These types of chemicals are also nothing new to our systems. "We basically have all of these chemicals in our bodies just from being in an indoor environment and from eating," Schecter said. "You're certainly not going to be able to control that by being careful about what kind of butter you buy." Schecter and the other researchers believe that their research emphasizes the need for a government-regulated program to test foods for contaminants like PBDEs.</div>
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How do you feel about these findings? Are you going to switch to Country Crock? Or will you throw caution into the wind and continue the use the real stuff?</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-37169380620627096342015-10-22T14:47:00.001-05:002015-10-22T14:47:02.331-05:00Your Pet Needs Healthy Food Too<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </em></strong>Pet owners must realize just how important nutrition is to the health of their pets, and they are beginning to pay more attention to what they are feeding their cats and dogs. To keep your pet healthy, extend your pet's life and save on vet bills, it's just as important for your pet to eat healthy as it is for you. A perceptive owner is aware that a healthy pet has clear bright eyes, brilliant coat sheen, clean teeth, good breath, and a playful happy attitude. Unfortunately, many pets are unhealthy, attributed to their diet, and suffer from health problems, such as allergies, diabetes, cancer, ear infections, irritable bowel, urinary tract infections, bladder stones, scratching and skin and coat issues.</div>
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Holistic vets believe that the harmful ingredients in most pet foods are factors that lead to various illnesses and chronic problems in the lives of pets and they advise pet owners to provide natural dog and cat food. Many well-known large commercial pet food companies advertise that their food is natural and healthy and contains fresh vegetables and lean cuts of meat. But a look at the ingredients is a different story. Questionable potentially harmful ingredients are: animal by-products, artificial colors and flavors and chemical preservatives like BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin, a cancer-causing preservative. Many pet medical conditions are believed to be directly linked to diet since pet foods contain wheat, corn and soy-the top three allergy-causing grains; in addition, by-products, partial grains and unidentified meat sources are problem-causing also.</div>
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Dr. Sandra Sargent, vet dermatologist at Pittsburgh Vet Specialty and Emergency Center in Ohio Township says, "The vast majority of food allergies in pets are sensitivities to beef, dairy, wheat, corn, soy, chicken, turkey and eggs. A smaller percentage is to preservatives and dyes." She also states that if your pet is sensitive to chicken, then any diet containing chicken will cause problems. Only 10-15 percent of skin conditions are pure food allergies. A higher percentage is thought to be a combination of food and environmental allergies (pollen, dust, mold etc.).</div>
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Dr. Doug Knueven of Beaver Animal Clinic, near Pittsburgh, one of the few holistic vets in the area, recommends supplementing processed pet food with a small amount of people food (meats and vegetables, not pizza or fatty table scraps.) Dr. Knueven recommends switching foods every month to avoid nutritional deficiencies or toxicities.</div>
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Why is all-natural pet food so healthy? It contains no rendered by-products such as intestines, heads, feet or feathers, no harmful fillers and no chemical additives, and it only contains human-grade ingredients. Healthy natural food has quality ingredients, nutritional adequacy and no harmful chemicals. It has meat amino acids and basic building blocks for muscle, skin, coat, bone, blood and immune system. In addition, it contains essential fatty acids, all natural preservatives and a combination of mixed tocopherols (Vitamin E) and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).</div>
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Pet food companies are self-regulated and food from reliable companies is tested voluntarily on pets of all ages. Various aspects of the animals' overall health are monitored including age, weight, activity level, stool and urine, allergy sensitivity, and hair and skin conditions.</div>
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According to the National Pet Owners Survey in 2005-06, 63 percent of all U.S. households owned pets-73 million dogs and 90 million cats. The pet industry is big business. In 2008 $41 billion was spent on pet food, shelter, healthcare and luxuries, double what was spent just ten years ago.</div>
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If you are into healthy eating, why not do the same for your pet? Check the ingredients in your pet's food and see if it is healthy. Your pet's health is your choice.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The best organic pet food brands revealed</em></strong></span></div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </em></strong>A stroll down the pet food aisle at the local pet store can be overwhelming. The shelves are full of countless brands all claiming to have the best formulations for your furry friend. Many brands are now selling "natural" and organic lines in order to attract discerning shoppers who are concerned about finding the healthiest food for their pets. So which brands truly deliver?</div>
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While some people may argue that fresh or raw foods are the best route to take when feeding your pet, not everyone has the time to prepare these kinds of meals, or access to affordable ingredients in order to make them. While many premium pet food brands can be quite expensive themselves, it is often the more practical choice for people who care about their health of their pets but prefer the convenience of dry kibble.</div>
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In this review, I will highlight a few of the best organic dry pet food brands I have found based on the quality and source of their ingredients. While I would highly recommend investigating them for yourself, these are some of the best formulas that use at least 95 percent organic ingredients, and the companies seem to embody principles that are in line with our philosophy here at Natural News.</div>
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Also, it is always good to sample these products first to make sure your pet will eat them. If your pet is used to some of the cheaper brands that use additives to improve palatability, it may not like some of these premium formulas which often do not smell or taste the same.</div>
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Another excellent organic dry pet food is the Castor & Pollux Organix line of pet foods. The first ingredient in every Castor & Pollux dry food is certified organic, free-range chicken. Most of the ingredients are organic and the ones that are not are still reviewed and approved by an organic certifying agency.</div>
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Like PetGuard, none of the Castor & Pollux Organix products contain any ethoxyquin, and they are free of common allergens like corn and wheat. Some of the formulas do contain organic soybean seeds, however, so make sure your pet is not allergic to them before buying.</div>
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My dog happens to love Castor & Pollux Organix canned chicken formulas more than any other brand I have tried thus far. And I feel good knowing that the ingredients are mostly organic and do not include dangerous chemicals and preservative.</div>
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Natura's entire line of pet foods is truly remarkable, but its Karma organic line for dogs is even better. Made from over 95 percent certified organic ingredients, Karma is made of organic chicken and a variety of organic whole grains. It also contains no wheat, soy or corn.</div>
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Natura's manufacturing process is also quite impressive, as the food must undergo over 100 quality-control checks before being shipped to stores. Natura also utilizes unique cooking and processing techniques that cook the food as gently as possible, preserving more natural nutrients than most other brands. This is noteworthy because most pet foods are cooked at extreme temperatures which strip them of most of their nutrients and enzymes</div>
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The company is also highly committed to sourcing only the best ingredients available. It uses no artificial chemicals or preservatives, and its products do not contain ethoxyquin.</div>
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PetGuard is one of the few pet food makers that produces a line of certified organic foods. That certification alone sets this brand apart from most other brands by ensuring that superior ingredients are used in these formulations. The company is family-owned and operated and sources all of its ingredients from the U.S., which is an additional plus. Not every company can make this claim, and when speaking with them directly, I got a real sense about their commitment to quality.</div>
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PetGuard's organic line is made with more than 95 percent organic ingredients. Its all life stages dog formula does contain whole ground soybeans, which I consider to be a negative, but at least they are organic. The company also makes an organic vegetarian formula for dogs that is free of soy.</div>
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PetGuard uses "human grade" ingredients, though it cannot legally say so. There are no GMOs in any of its formulas and the company uses only natural preservatives like vitamins C and E. There are no animal by-products in any of its formulas and the company does not use ethoxyquin, a dangerous chemical preservative made by Monsanto, in any of its formulas.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-82726695324164964562015-10-22T14:46:00.003-05:002015-10-22T14:46:13.521-05:00Mediterranean diet associated with lower risk of mortality<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">American Journal of Clinical Nutrition</em> reports a protective effect for the Mediterranean diet against the risk of premature death from all causes in cardiovascular disease patients. The diet, which is characterized by a relatively high amount of fruit and vegetables, legumes, nuts, fish and monounsaturated fatty acids, and a lower intake of meat and meat products, has been associated with several long-term benefits, including protection against cardiovascular disease, however, its effects in individuals with established disease had not been well studied.</div>
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The current study included 6,137 men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study initiated in 1986 and 11,278 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study established in 1976. Subjects in the current study were limited to those who had experienced a nonfatal cardiovascular event, including heart attack, stroke, angina, or coronary bypass or angioplasty. Dietary questionnaire responses provided by the participants in 1980, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 were used to score adherence to the Mediterranean diet.</div>
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Over a median follow-up period of 7.7 years, 1,982 deaths occurred among the men. Among the women, 1,468 deaths occurred over a 5.8 year median. Pooled analysis of the subjects revealed a 19% lower risk of death from any cause among those whose adherence to the Mediterranean diet was among the top one-fifth of participants in comparison with those whose adherence was among the lowest fifth. Among those in the top fifth, the risk of dying from cancer or heart disease was 15% lower than those whose diet adherence was lowest, and the risk of death from other causes was 21% less than the risk experienced by those in the lowest group.</div>
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"These results are of interest because they show that a healthy diet can still be beneficial at an advanced stage of the atherosclerotic process and that following a Mediterranean-style diet pattern may be of benefit for populations outside the Mediterranean area," write Esther Lopez-Garcia of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and her colleagues. They note that the diet has been associated with reductions in such factors as weight, blood pressure and unfavorable lipid levels.</div>
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"A Mediterranean-style diet pattern was associated with a reduced risk of mortality in men and women with cardiovascular disease," the authors conclude. "These results support the adoption of a Mediterranean-style diet in patients with cardiovascular disease to prevent premature death."</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-20071606202551599112015-10-22T14:45:00.003-05:002015-10-22T14:45:26.069-05:00Mental Health Problems and Mind-Body Wellness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Mental health problems are similar to other health problems: some can be prevented, others will go away on their own with home treatment, and some need professional attention.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Mind-Body Connection</strong></span></div>
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Medical science is making remarkable discoveries about the relationship between your state of mind and your mental and physical health. Researchers have found that one function of the brain is to produce substances that can improve your health. Your brain can create endorphins, which are natural painkillers; gamma globulin for fortifying your immune system; and interferon for combating infections, viruses, and even cancer. Your brain can combine these and other substances into a vast number of tailor-made prescriptions for whatever ails you.</div>
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The substances that your brain produces depend in part on your thoughts, feelings, and expectations. If your attitude about an illness (or life in general) is negative and you don't have expectations that your condition will get better, your brain may not produce enough of the substances your body needs to heal. On the other hand, if your attitude and expectations are more positive, your brain is likely to produce sufficient amounts of the substances that will boost your body's healing power.</div>
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Your physical health also has an impact on your brain's ability to produce substances that affect your mental well-being. An illness or injury that causes long-term physical stress can lead to chemical imbalances in the brain. These imbalances may lead to depression and other mental health problems.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mental Health Problems and Mind-Body Wellness - Mental Self-Car</strong>e</span></div>
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Many mental health problems begin when physical stress (such as an illness or injury) or emotional stress (such as the loss of a loved one) triggers chemical changes in your brain. The goal of treatment for mental health problems-including self-care and professional treatment-is to reduce stress and restore the normal chemical processes in your brain.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Seeking professional help</span></strong></div>
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In general, it is a good idea to seek professional help for a mental health problem when:</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A symptom does not get better on its own.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A symptom becomes severe or disruptive.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A symptom becomes a continuous or permanent pattern of behavior and does not respond to self-care.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Symptoms become numerous, affect all areas of your life, and do not respond to self-care or help from family or friends.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">You are thinking about hurting yourself or someone else. Suicidal Thoughts or Threats and Physical Abuse.</li>
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There is a wide range of professional and community resources to choose from for mental health problems.</div>
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GoodTherapy.org is an international association of counselors, therapists, and psychologists who believe people are equipped to transform the obstacles to optimum health and happiness. As a leading advocate for healthy psychotherapy, GoodTherapy.org educates the public about the differences between healthy and unhealthy psychotherapy and promotes non-pathologically based approaches within the professional community. Ranked as one of the leading mental health organizations and therapist referral sources on the web, GoodTherapy.org maintains the highest standards for membership, allowing only those therapists who meet all the membership requirements and who believe people are basically proficient at their core and have the capacity to access their own wisdom and internal resources to overcome the obstacles to health & happiness.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-50679402546834934922015-10-22T14:44:00.002-05:002015-10-22T14:44:19.084-05:00Naturally Improve Vitality, Sexual Function, and Prostate Health<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As men grow older, they often face daunting health challenges caused by the age-related decline in testosterone levels. As levels of free testosterone dwindle and estrogen levels increase, many men experience diminishing energy levels, reduced libido, decreasing muscle mass, deteriorating mood, abdominal obesity, and perhaps even faltering cognition. At the same time, they become increasingly prone to benign prostatic enlargement (BPH) and prostate cancer.</div>
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Testosterone replacement drug therapy has gained enormous popularity in recent years. Those who choose this method need to find a doctor willing to prescribe a testosterone cream drug that is then rubbed into the skin each day.</div>
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Alternatively, there are natural testosterone-boosting methods that have been around for centuries. Plant extracts such as chrysin and certain plant lignans inhibit the aromatization (conversion) of testosterone to estrogen, effectively enhancing free testosterone levels. Nettle root liberates testosterone in the body by preventing it from being bound to sex hormone-binding globulin.</div>
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Lignans have also shown promising results against prostate cancer, while plants like muira puama have been shown to improve desire and performance, allowing aging men to recapture their sexual pleasures.</div>
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This article discusses how men can regain much of their youthful vigor, body composition, and sense of well-being by using plant extracts to naturally restore their testosterone levels.</div>
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After peaking in his 20s, a man’s levels of the sex hormone testosterone tend to gradually decrease and continue to further decline throughout the remainder of his years. This decrease is often accompanied by closely related changes in everything from skin tone and lean muscle mass, to a gradual erosion of libido and the beginning, in some cases, of erectile dysfunction. Although the evidence is preliminary, it appears that low testosterone levels may be a risk factor for cognitive decline and possibly for Alzheimer’s-type dementia, as well.</div>
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Computer artwork of a molecule of the male sex hormone testosterone. The age-related decline in testosterone can result in a number of disturbing symptoms including reduced libido, stamina, muscle mass, and cognitive function, as well as making men increasingly prone to BPH and prostate cancer. <span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;">Testosterone occurs in two distinct forms in the body: free and bound. Free testosterone is useful and functional; bound testosterone is less so. Ironically, as a man’s production of testosterone declines, the amounts of a substance known as sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) often increase.</span><span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">3,4</span><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;"> Thus, remaining testosterone is increasingly bound by this protein, rendering already dwindling supplies less effectual. When assessing a man’s hormone status, clinicians frequently measure “total testosterone,” which includes free testosterone and testosterone bound to SHBG. It is free testosterone, however, that is the most relevant measure of a man’s testosterone status.</span><span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">5</span></div>
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Often called “testosterone deficiency syndrome,” male andropause is characterized by declining levels of free testosterone. Just as women undergo dramatic changes during menopause, men are now believed to suffer similar changes related to the age-associated decline in sex hormones, although these changes are more gradual, and perhaps less dramatic in men. “Consequences of testosterone deficiency syndrome…include depression, sexual dysfunction, mild cognitive impairment, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and mortality,” Italian researchers wrote recently. <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“The consequences that are likely to impact on patients’ quality of life include sexual function, energy levels, body composition, mood, and cognitive function.”<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">6</span> UCLA-based scientists noted, “manifestations of testosterone deficiency have included depression, anxiety, irritability, insomnia, weakness, diminished libido, impotence, poor memory, [and] reduced muscle and bone mass…</em>”<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">7</span></div>
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Just as free testosterone levels are declining with age, another detrimental process is taking place. Levels of the enzyme aromatase tend to increase with age (and increasing belly fat mass). Aromatase converts testosterone to estrogen, further depleting free testosterone levels and increasing estrogen levels. As a result, men become even more susceptible to complaints related to diminished testosterone levels, while becoming more prone to suffer the adverse effects of too much estrogen, which can include prostate enlargement and even increased risk for prostate cancer.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">8</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Botanical Support for Male Virility</span></h4>
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Recent insights into reversing the effects of male aging and preserving prostate health have led to new strategies for extending virility and youthfulness. It is possible to boost the availability of beneficial free testosterone and offset detrimental increases in estrogen using botanical extracts. This integrative approach to male aging may dramatically improve conditions ranging from flagging energy levels to fading libidos while simultaneously decreasing the chances that a man will fall victim to prostate enlargement or cancer.</div>
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Botanicals of interest include the Amazonian “nerve tonic” muira puama, which has been shown to possess antioxidant and antidepressant activities while benefiting male sexual function; the Peruvian “aphrodisiac,” maca, which has been shown to increase libido in cases of sexual dysfunction; the aromatase inhibitor chrysin (which may increase free testosterone, while decreasing potentially carcinogenic estradiol); the antioxidant/anti-inflammatory botanicals ginger and nettle, which may relieve the symptoms of enlarged prostate; and natural plant lignans, which offer impressive aromatase-inhibiting and prostate cancer-prevention activity.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">9-31</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maca (<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Lepidium meyenii</em>)</span></h4>
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Maca has been used among indigenous people in the Andes region for centuries. Maca is a vegetable in the same family as broccoli. It is a reputed aphrodisiac and fertility enhancer. Research has shown there is sound scientific basis for this belief. Maca improves libido while enhancing sperm production and sperm motility, according to recent research. And it achieves this without affecting male sex hormone levels<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">.18,32,33</span> In 2002, Peruvian researchers conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study on a small group of men aged 21-56 years. Results showed that maca improved subjective reports of male sexual desire versus placebo. Subjects consumed either 1,500 mg or 3,000 mg maca, or placebo, for three months. After eight weeks, improvements were noted in sexual desire among the subjects who consumed maca.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">33</span></div>
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In late 2008, investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital conducted a double-blind, randomized, parallel group study of two different doses of maca for the treatment of sexual dysfunction related to the use of the selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class of modern antidepressant drugs<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">20</span> (such as Prozac®, Zoloft®, or Paxil®). SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction, in the form of severely depressed libido among women, and inability to achieve orgasm among men, is a common side effect of these antidepressants.</div>
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Male and female subjects receiving 3,000 mg maca per day experienced a significant improvement in a standardized score of sexual function, while subjects taking placebo did not. <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“Maca root may alleviate SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction,” concluded researchers, “and there may be a dose-related effect. Maca may also have a beneficial effect on libido.”</em> Importantly, maca was well tolerated by all subjects.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">20</span></div>
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In addition to improving sexual desire,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">33</span> semen quantity, and sperm quality in human males,18 maca has also repeatedly been shown to reduce prostate enlargement among animals with experimentally induced prostate enlargement.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">16,34-36</span> In one experiment, maca reduced prostate enlargement as effectively as a common drug used in men for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">35</span></div>
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Interestingly, maca has also been shown to significantly improve glucose tolerance, antioxidant levels, and lipid profiles among rodents with a hereditary tendency to develop abnormally high blood triglyceride levels. Despite their genetically abnormal lipid profiles, rats given maca while consuming a sugar-rich diet experienced significant improvements in a number of parameters related to cardiovascular disease risk, including lower total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels, and increased levels of the potent natural antioxidants, glutathione, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase.<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> “Results demonstrate that maca seems to be promising for a positive influence on chronic human diseases (characterized by atherogenous lipoprotein profile, aggravated antioxidative status, and impaired glucose tolerance), and their prevention,” </em>researchers concluded.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">37</span></div>
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: IMPROVING VITALITY, SEXUAL FUNCTION, AND PROSTATE HEALTH IN AGING MEN</h6>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">As men grow older, they become increasingly susceptible to health concerns such as sexual dysfunction, fatigue, depressed mood, cognitive complaints, and prostate enlargement.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Many health complaints experienced by aging men are linked with aging-related hormonal changes, including decreased free testosterone levels and increased estrogen levels.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Botanical agents such as maca, muira puama, chrysin, nettle, ginger, and Norway spruce lignans can help alleviate many of the health complaints associated with male aging such as fatigue, low libido, poor memory, and prostate enlargement.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">These botanicals may work in part by enhancing free testosterone levels while blocking the conversion (aromatization) of testosterone to estrogen.</li>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Muira puama (<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Ptychopetalum olacoides</em>)</span></h4>
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Depression, anxiety, and irritability are common side effects of age-induced testosterone deficiency. Muira puama has long been used by Amazonian people to manage various age-related conditions and support the body’s response to stress, and modern research shows that this reputation is well deserved. A recent rodent study conducted by Brazilian researchers showed that muira puama and the standard antidepressant drug, imipramine, were equally effective at alleviating symptoms of chronic mild stress-induced depression.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">9</span> Muira puama is marketed in Brazil as a “body stimulant, energetic, tonic, and aphrodisiac,” in combination with several other herbal extracts, including ginger and guarana (a source of caffeine).<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">38</span> Research on human volunteers demonstrated that this cocktail of ingredients was safe and well tolerated. “No severe adverse reactions or haematological and biochemical changes were reported,” researchers concluded.</div>
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Muira puama is reputed to enhance erectile function and orgasm in aging men suffering the effects of fatigue or age-related complaints.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">31</span> In one study of 262 men suffering from poor sexual desire, more than 60% reported improvements with muira puama. Additionally, more than 50% of the men reported that muira puama improved their ability to attain an erection.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">39</span> While muira puama’s mechanism of action remains unknown, it is interesting to note that the plant contains sterols—the building blocks of sex hormones such as testosterone.</div>
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Muira puama may also alleviate age-related cognitive complaints. A notable experiment showed that muira puama alone “facilitates memory retrieval” in adult and aging mice. “Indeed, aging mice treated with [muira puama extract] performed as well as adult mice,” researchers concluded.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">40</span> Researchers have subsequently replicated these findings.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">41</span> At least one research team has proposed that muira puama acts as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. Acetylcholine is an important neurotransmitter involved in memory and cognition. One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease is a gradual decline in acetylcholine levels and the receptors for this neurotransmitter, especially in the hippocampus region of the brain. Although there is currently no cure for the disease, modern drugs to combat its progression include acetylcholinesterase inhibitors such as Aricept® (donepezil), which block the activity of an enzyme that breaks acetylcholine down.</div>
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In test tube experiments on rat brain tissue, scientists showed that muira puama extract “significantly inhibited [acetylcholinesterase] activity,” prompting the researchers to conclude, <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“we propose that such [acetylcholinesterase] inhibitory activity is a neurochemical correlate of a number of therapeutic properties traditionally claimed for [muira puama], particularly those associated with cognition.</em>”<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">42</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Chrysin</span></h4>
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Chrysin is a natural flavone found in numerous plants, but especially in passionflower (<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Passiflora incarnata</em>). Research suggests that chrysin reduces anxiety by binding with receptors in the brain that are also targeted by anxiety-reducing drugs known as benzodiazepines (such as Xanax® or Valium®).<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">25 </span>In one study, chrysin’s anxiety-reducing effect was roughly comparable to that of a reference benzodiazepine drug.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">25</span> Recent research on rats demonstrates that chrysin may also promote healthy natural killer cell activity, which could minimize the metastatic spread of cancer.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">24</span> But chrysin’s primary benefit to human sexuality may derive from its ability to block aromatization.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">43</span></div>
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Aromatization is a chemical transformation that takes place in the body, whereby testosterone or other androgen hormones are converted to estrogens by the aromatase enzyme. Aromatase inhibitors are beneficial because they prevent the loss of free testosterone and the buildup of potentially dangerous estrogens. Synthetic aromatase inhibitors have quickly gained in popularity for the treatment of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, for instance, since the growth of these tumors is driven by estrogens.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">44,45</span></div>
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But men may also benefit from aromatase inhibition. A recent controlled clinical trial of the synthetic aromatase inhibitor, anastrozole, for the treatment of hypogonadism in aging men showed, <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“anastrozole administration normalized androgen production in older hypogonadal men and decreased estradiol production modestly.” </em>There were no changes in lipid levels, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, or red blood cell levels in this one-year study.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">46</span></div>
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These findings echo results reported earlier by the same team at Massachusetts General Hospital. Working with anastrozole, the scientists concluded,<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> “these data demonstrate that aromatase inhibition increases serum bioavailable and total testosterone levels to the youthful normal range in older men with mild hypogonadism. Serum estradiol levels decrease modestly but remain within the normal male range.”</em><span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">47</span></div>
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Although chrysin has low oral bioavailability,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">48</span> its bioavailability may be significantly enhanced by co-administration with the pepper extract, piperine.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">49</span> The combination of chrysin with piperine may thus represent an important botanical strategy to optimize free testosterone levels and minimize excess estrogen levels by blocking aromatization.</div>
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UNDERSTANDING TESTOSTERONE</h6>
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Testosterone is a hormone manufactured primarily in the testes in men. It is the chief male sex hormone. As such, it is androgenic, meaning that it promotes the development and maintenance of characteristics associated with manhood and virility, libido, muscle mass, etc.</div>
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Testosterone promotes bone growth and maintenance and higher levels have been shown to protect against heart disease and chronic inflammatory disorders. It also stimulates greater production of red blood cells, increasing oxygen capacity. Despite antiquated beliefs that testosterone induces male aggression, modern science has shown that normal testosterone levels are actually necessary for overall well-being, both mental and physical. In fact, among men with hypogonadism (a condition in which the testes do not produce adequate levels of testosterone), there is a relatively high level of depression, sexual dysfunction, and even exaggerated symptoms of aggressive behavior.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">59-61</span></div>
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In recent years, testosterone replacement therapy has gained in popularity <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“… to induce and maintain secondary sex characteristics and to improve their sexual function, sense of well-being, muscle mass and strength, and bone mineral density.”</em><span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">62</span></div>
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Natural methods of boosting free testosterone levels and counteracting negative aspects of male aging have been in use for centuries. These methods, largely derived from folk medicine, include plant agents with a long history of safe use. Specialized botanical extracts may help support healthy free testosterone levels, while reducing excess estrogen levels with age.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-39976744597063477262015-10-22T14:42:00.003-05:002015-10-22T14:42:10.673-05:00Obesogens - are they making us fat?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">There’s a new group of secret saboteurs in the war against weight gain. They’re called obesogens, and they are all around us. Here’s how to track down the enemies to win the battle of the bulge. </span></div>
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We blame weight gain on eating too many burgers and burning too little fat, but scientists are discovering that chemicals we’re exposed to everyday could be a big part of the obesity epidemic. Called obesogens, or endocrine disruptors, these natural and man-made chemicals work by altering the regulatory system that controls your weight—increasing the fat cells you have, decreasing the calories you burn, and even altering the way your body manages hunger.</div>
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It’s time to fight back. The White House's task force on childhood obesity is tackling obesogens and the Environmental Protection Agency has pumped $20 million into studying them. Here’s what you need to know to wage your own battle on the home front.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How they work</strong></span></div>
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By mimicking the actions of naturally occurring hormones in our bodies or preventing the hormones we produce from acting correctly, endocrine disruptors can:</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Encourage the body to store fat and re-program cells to become fat cells.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Prompt the liver to become insulin resistant, which makes the pancreas pump out more insulin that turns energy into fat all over the body.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Prevent leptin (a hormone that reduces appetite) from being released from your fat cells to tell your body you are full.</li>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Where you find them</strong></span></div>
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The short answer: everywhere, particularly because high fructose corn syrup, which can be found in every kind of food, from sodas to yogurt to pretzels, is an obesogen. The ubiquitous, viscous sweet stuff makes your liver insulin resistant and tampers with leptin to increase your hunger, setting up a vicious cycle where you crave more food that is then more easily turned into fat.</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In your faucets</strong>:</span> Pesticides seep deep into the soil and find their way to the water table and into your tap water. The main obesogen in tap water is atrazine. Banned in Europe, but found around the United States, atrazine slows thyroid hormone metabolism. Another culprit found in tap water, tributylin, a fungicide painted on the bottoms of boats, stimulates fat cell production.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cans and water bottles</strong>:</span> Bisphenol-A (BPA), a synthetic estrogen used to make plastics hard which has been banned from baby bottles, but is still present in many other plastics (especially sports water bottles) and the lining of most cans, has been shown to increase insulin resistance in animal studies.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nonstick pans and microwave popcorn</strong>:</span> Animal studies have shown that early exposure to a chemical used to make items non-stick – Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) – leads to obesity in later life. It also is known to affect thyroid glands, which are important regulators of hormones that control weight. Found mainly in products like Teflon pans, it’s also hidden in microwave popcorn bags and pizza boxes.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Shower curtains and air fresheners</strong>:</span> Phthalates, chemicals found in vinyl products such as shower curtains and fragrance products such as air fresheners, may lower testosterone and metabolism levels, causing you to gain weight and lose muscle mass. They’re also found in vinyl flooring and industrial-grade plastic wrap used to shrink wrap meat in the grocery store.</li>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How to avoid obesogens:</strong></span></div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Buy wild fish (such as salmon, which is packed with heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids) and meat products that are hormone- and antibiotic free.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Install a granular activated carbon filter on your faucet to filter out chemicals such as atrazine.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Use aluminum water bottles or those that are BPA-free.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Steer clear of plastics with the number 3 or 7 on the bottom, which may leach BPA. Instead look for the numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, which are unlikely to contain BPA.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Keep water bottles cool (warm temperatures increase BPA leaching) and never microwave plastic.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Eat fewer canned foods. Opt for frozen or fresh instead. Tuna can be found in pouches that do not contain BPA.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Get rid of your non-stick pans if possible. If you must use a Teflon pan, never use a metal implement on it that can scratch the surface and release the chemicals inside, and throw away any scratched non-stick pans.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Buy meats straight from the butcher counter (instead of pre-packaged) and ask that they wrap them in brown paper.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Skip the air fresheners, open the windows, and try a vase of dried lavender instead.</li>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-28552601971962518962015-10-22T14:41:00.003-05:002015-10-22T14:41:21.610-05:00Polycystic Ovary Syndrome<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A woman that finds herself with irregular menstrual cycles, excess facial and body hair, adult acne, weight gain, infertility and enlarged ovaries may have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), an unfortunate condition that afflicts 5-10 percent of women of child-bearing age and approximately 70-90 percent of women with irregular menstrual cycles (Azziz et al 2004). Among its many symptoms, PCOS causes hormonal imbalances, including elevated testosterone (male hormone) and estrogen (female hormone) levels, as well as increased insulin levels (Azziz 2006, Moran 2010).</div>
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Although PCOS is the most common female endocrine disorder in the United States, its cause remains unclear (McCartney 2004). Perhaps this is why “syndrome” is most commonly used in conventional medicine to describe PCOS since the word itself alludes to its varied signs and symptoms but does not indicate a precise cause of the condition.</div>
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However, research largely overlooked by mainstream medicine reveals a strong association between PCOS, obesity, and insulin resistance, including characteristic features of insulin insensitivity such as dyslipidemia (abnormality of metabolism of fats) and hypertension (Diamanti-Kandarakis 2007, Sasaki 2011).</div>
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If left untreated, women with PCOS often develop severe clinical manifestations, such as hirsutism (excess facial and body hair), adult acne, infertility, and depression (Diamanti-Kandarakis 2008, Drosdzol 2007). Women with PCOS are at significantly higher risk for developing cardiovascular disease (Teede 2010) and endometrial cancer (Chittenden et al 2009).</div>
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Integrative medicine recognizes the seriousness of PCOS, as well as the need to approach the management of PCOS as a disease of insulin resistance in order to offer hope to the millions of women who suffer from this disease. For example, metformin, an insulin sensitizing agent that also helps to reduce excessive androgen production, promotes weight loss, restores fertility, and enhances glucose metabolism in patients with PCOS, is drastically underutilized by conventional medicine for this disease. However, management strategies commonly used to control individual symptoms of PCOS are known to have a number of undesirable side effects (Pasquali 2011).</div>
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Fortunately, for the millions suffering with PCOS published clinical studies support the use of natural therapeutics, such as inositol and N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), for controlling the symptoms and side-effects.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Symptoms of PCOS</span></h4>
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One of the challenging aspects of diagnosing PCOS is that the signs and symptoms vary from person to person, in both type and severity. Frequently, PCOS symptoms are mistaken for other medical illnesses. However, common symptoms include:</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Menstrual abnormality</strong></span> is the most widespread characteristic of PCOS. These include cycles longer than 35 days (fewer than eight menstrual cycles a year); failure to menstruate for four months or longer; and prolonged periods that may be scant or heavy (Ma 2010).</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Excess androgen production:</strong> </span>Increased androgen levels are a key feature of PCOS, and may result in excess facial and body hair (hirsutism), adult acne and male-pattern baldness (in women). Worth noting, however, is that the physical signs of androgen excess vary with ethnicity. As an example, the prevalence of hirsutism in PCOS patients is at least 40% in European and American females, yet is even more common in darker skin types, but women of Asian descent may not be affected (Lowenstein 2006).</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Polycystic ovaries:</strong></span> Enlarged ovaries containing numerous small cysts can be detected by ultrasound. However, some women with polycystic ovaries may not have PCOS, while some women with the condition have ovaries that appear normal (Azziz 2004).</div>
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Other conditions associated with PCOS</h4>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Infertility:</strong></span> PCOS is the most common cause of female infertility. Many women with polycystic ovary syndrome experience infrequent ovulation or lack of ovulation altogether and may have trouble becoming pregnant, PCOS also is associated with spontaneous abortion and preeclampsia (van der Spuy 2004).</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Obesity:</strong></span> Compared with women of similar age who don't have polycystic ovary syndrome, women with PCOS are significantly more likely to be overweight or obese (Martínez-Bermejo 2007, Moran 2010). Furthermore, about half of all women with PCOS manifest central obesity, in which there is a greater deposition of visceral fat around internal organs in the abdominal region, as opposed to the fat being located on the thighs and hips. Abdominal fat distribution is associated with increased risk of hypertension, diabetes and lipid abnormalities (Faloia 2004).</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes:</strong></span> Studies have found that women with PCOS have higher incidences of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes than age and weight-matched controls (Moran 2010). Moreover, a majority of obese PCOS women and more than half of those of normal weight are insulin resistant (Pasquali 2006), and a significant number develop type 2 diabetes mellitus by the age of 40 (Pelusi 2004).</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Acanthosis nigricans</strong></span> is a dark, poorly defined, velvety hyperpigmentation found on the nape of the neck, armpits, inner thighs, vulva, or under the breasts. This condition is a sign of insulin resistance, which leads to higher circulating insulin levels. Insulin spillover into the skin results in hyperplasia, an abnormal increase in skin growth (Higgins 2008).</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Diagnosis of PCOS</span></h4>
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There is no specific test to definitively diagnose polycystic ovary syndrome. The diagnosis is one of exclusion, which means the doctor considers all signs and symptoms to rule out other possible disorders (Azziz 2004). A standard diagnostic assessment for PCOS includes a full medical history, at which time a doctor will consider irregular or absent periods, obesity, hirsutism (coarse facial and body hair), and poor breast development. During a physical exam, doctors typically look for physical signs of PCOS like acne, facial hair, male pattern baldness and acanthosis nigricans.</div>
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A pelvic or transvaginal ultrasound is used to detect "follicular arrest", or the development of small (5–7mm) follicles that never reach the pre-ovulatory size of 16 mm or more. Though not all women with PCOS have polycystic ovaries (PCO), nor do all women with ovarian cysts have PCOS (Artini 2010), ultrasonographic scanning has substantially broadened the phenotypic spectrum of PCOS (Azziz 2004).</div>
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Diagnostic criteria published by the Androgen Excess Society in 2006 require the presence of clinical or biochemical hyperandrogenism, with either menstrual dysfunction or polycystic ovarian morphology (PCOM), which are detected via transvaginal ultrasonography (Artini 2010).</div>
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Blood work is used to measure the levels of several hormones and to exclude the many possible causes of menstrual abnormalities or androgen excess that mimic PCOS. Along with tests used to measure elevated androgen levels, doctors may look for high levels of luteinizing hormones (LH) or an elevation in the ratio of LH to follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), prolactin, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), 17-hydroxyprogesterone, testosterone and DHEA-S. Other associated conditions such as high levels of glucose, insulin, cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as insulin resistance may also be assessed (Shi 2007).</div>
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Some doctors now screen for high levels of Anti Mullerian Hormone (AMH) since it is considered a potential diagnostic marker for PCOS (Chen 2008, Dewailly 2010). AMH is a protein released by cells that are involved with the growth of the egg follicle. AMH levels correlate with the number of antral follicles (small follicles that are 2 to 8 mm in size and appear in the beginning of the menstrual cycle) found on the ovary; the higher the antral follicle count, the higher the AMH levels (van Houten 2010). Women with PCOS typically have a high number of antral follicles; they have correspondingly high AMH levels as well (Pellatt 2010).</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Causes and risk factors for PCOS</span></h4>
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PCOS was once regarded solely as a reproductive disorder affecting women of child-bearing age. Anovulation (a menstrual cycle in which ovulation does not occur) and androgen excess have been considered the hallmark diagnostic criteria of the syndrome (Azziz 2004). However, insulin resistance is now identified as a significant contributor to the pathogenesis of PCOS, the metabolic and cardiovascular consequences of which are widely acknowledged within the scientific community (Pasquali 2011). To date, several factors involved in the development of PCOS have been identified:</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">LH Secretion and Androgen Excess:</strong></span> Past research has emphasized the role of neuroendocrine abnormalities in the persistent and excessive secretion of luteinizing hormones (LH), one of two glycoprotein hormones that stimulate the final ripening of the follicles and the secretion of progesterone. Excessive LH triggers premature ovulation, disrupting the follicle’s maturation process and leading to an increase in androgen production by ovarian theca cells. Some research points to increased LH as the driving force for PCOS in slender and normal body-weight women (Chang 2000).</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hyperinsulinemia and Androgen Excess:</strong></span> Hyperinsulinemia produces hyperandrogenism in women with PCOS via two distinct and independent mechanisms:</div>
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First by stimulating ovarian androgen production. Studies have shown that insulin acts synergistically with LH to enhance androgen production in ovarian theca cells (Guzick 2004, Tsilchorozidou 2004; and Second by directly and independently reducing serum sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) levels. Insulin decreases hepatic synthesis and SHBG secretion, thus increasing the amount of free, biologically active testosterone (Carmina 2003). The net result of these two actions increases circulating free testosterone concentrations.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Genetics and Androgen Excess:</strong></span> An increase in LH, as well as hyperinsulinemia, leads to an increase in androgen production by ovarian theca cells (Tsilchorozidou 2004). Research indicates that morphological changes in the ovaries, including ovarian cyst development and theca-cell (steroid-producing cells in the ovaries) dysfunction, may be an indication of a genetic basis for PCOS. Researchers suspect there is a genetically determined ovarian defect present in women with PCOS, causing the ovary to overproduce androgen (Tsilchorozidou, 2004, Jakubowski 2005, Diamanti-Kandarakis 2006, Bremer 2008). Indeed, abnormal theca cell activity seems to be a primary source for excess androgens (Wood 2003).</div>
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The following risk factors are also thought to have a strong influence over the progression of PCOS.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Obesity.</strong></span> Studies have found that obesity not only contributes to the development of PCOS, but arises also as a result (Martínez-Bermejo 2007). The adipose tissue of women with PCOS is characterized by enlarged fat cells (hypertrophic adipocytes) and impairments in the body’s ability to break down fat (lipolysis) and regulate insulin. Whether these abnormalities are primary or secondary to hyperandrogenism or other PCOS-related abnormalities is not yet known (Villa 2011).</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Age at onset.</strong></span> Some research suggests that girls who develop pubic hair early (often before the age of eight, and a condition known as premature pubarche) have many of the signs and symptoms of PCOS. In one study that followed pre-pubescent girls throughout puberty, premature pubarche resulted in excess testosterone production and irregular periods consistent with PCOS, leading researchers to conclude that premature pubarche may be an early form of PCOS (Witchel 2006).</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Other risk factors</strong></span> that may play a role in the pathogenesis of PCOS include chronic inflammation (Escobar-Morreale 2011); exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (Takeuchi 2004); autoimmune disorders, especially those involving the ovaries, pancreas, thyroid and adrenal glands (Petríková 2010); and the use of medications that increase prolactin production (Hernández 2000).</div>
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Laying aside etiology, women with PCOS are prone to defects in insulin signaling, which aggravates the synthesis of androgens in the ovaries and adrenal gland (Tsilchorozidou 2004). Excess androgens encourage insulin resistance, leading to elevated insulin levels, which in turn stimulate further androgen synthesis. This vicious cycle results in a “snowball effect” worsening PCOS symptoms and making sufferers especially susceptible to obesity and diabetes, conditions that significantly compound the syndrome’s progression (Schuring 2008, Pasquali 2011).</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What You Need to Know</span></h4>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Polycystic Ovary Syndrome is a common female endocrine disorder.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Though symptoms vary from person to person, it is characterized by multiple ovarian cysts, irregular, heavy or non-existent periods, excessive facial/body hair, male pattern baldness, decreased sex drive, skin tags, infertility, depression and weight gain.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Insulin resistance is one of the most common features of PCOS, and a condition in which the cells of the body literally become resistant to the effects of insulin.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The root cause of PCOS is unknown but genetic predisposition, insulin resistance, excess androgen production, and obesity all play a role.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Since the symptoms of PCOS vary in severity and form, many treatments are used. Conventional options include drug treatments for hirsutism and acne; drugs such as clomifenem tamoxifen and gonadotrophins to induce ovulation for infertility; surgery to induce ovulation by reducing androgen levels, and promising insulin-sensitizing drugs such as metformin.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The most important aspect of long term care of PCOS is managing cardiovascular risks such as obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, hypertension and elevated blood cholesterol, early recognition and intervention are considered to be the cornerstones of PCOS treatment.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Emerging evidence suggests that lifestyle choices such as weight reduction and exercise, along with a specific nutraceuticals targeted to safely and effectively deal with symptoms, underlying causes and associated risk factors, might help reduce the incidence and severity of PCOS.</li>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Conventional treatment of PCOS</span></h4>
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Polycystic ovary syndrome treatment generally focuses on management of the individual main concerns, such as infertility, hirsutism, acne or obesity.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hirsutism:</span></h4>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Oral contraceptive pills, estrogen–progesterone combinations, are preferably used. Estrogens lower LH levels and androgen production; Progesterone is crucial, as it may increase the liver production of SHBG, reducing free testosterone levels (Kopera 2010).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Another medication called spironolactone (Aldactone®) is used as a primary medical treatment for hirsutism and female pattern hair loss since the accidental discovery of its antiandrogenic effects. Spironolactone reduces testosterone production and inhibits its action on target tissues. It also is an effective alternative treatment for acne in women. Spironolactone should not be used in pregnancy since it can disturb the growth and development of the embryo and fetus (Rathnayake 2010).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Even more promising are insulin-sensitizers like metformin (see text box below), which also holds promise for managing hirsutism in PCOS patients (Kopera 2010).</li>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Infertility:</span></h4>
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<span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Ovulation induction remains a milestone in the treatment of women with anovulatory infertility (Polyzos 2009).</span></div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Clomiphene citrate (CC), an oral anti-estrogen medication, is considered the first line treatment for inducing ovulation in women with PCOS (Polyzos 2009).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Since insulin resistance plays a central role in PCOS, insulin reduction strategies are a possible treatment for infertility in PCOS patients (Fica 2008). For instance, if CC alone is not effective, metformin can be added to help induce ovulation (Abu Hashim 2010).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">If the CC and metformin combination fails, gonadotropins — follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) medications that are administered by injection—may be another option (Nugent 2000, Polysoz 2009).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Aromatase inhibitors, such as anastrozole and letrozole, are a relatively new treatment for ovulation induction (Polyzos 2009). Aromatase inhibitors selectively block the peripheral conversion of androgens to estrogens, causing a reaction in the pituitary gland, increasing FSH, and optimizing ovulation. The advantage of aromatase inhibitors is that they avoid the unfavorable side-effects seen frequently with antiestrogens (Mitwally, 2001).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">If medication does not work, a surgical procedure called laparoscopic ovarian drilling (LOD) may be considered. During LOD, a surgeon makes a small incision in the abdomen and inserts a tube attached to a tiny camera (laparoscope) providing detailed images of the ovaries and neighboring pelvic organs. The surgeon then inserts surgical instruments through other small incisions and uses electrical or laser energy to destroy the extra, androgen producing follicles on the surface of the ovaries. The goal of the operation is to induce ovulation by reducing androgen levels.</li>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Regulation of the menstrual cycle:</span></h4>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Metformin improves ovulation and leads to regular menstrual cycles (see side bar).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Birth control pills containing a combination of synthetic estrogen and progesterone decrease androgen production, correct abnormal bleeding, and decrease the risk of endometrial cancer as well. Low-dose birth control pills have been proven effective for regulating the menstrual cycles of those who are not trying to become pregnant (Cianci 2007).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">To date, there are no known clinical studies on bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) and PCOS</li>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Long term PCOS management:</span></h4>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Managing cardiovascular risks such as obesity, elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes is considered the most important aspect of PCOS treatment.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Since medications such as metformin and thiazolidinedione improve insulin sensitivity, in 2004 Great Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical excellence recommended that women with PCOS that have a BMI above 25 be given metformin when other therapies fail to produce results (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence 2004).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">This recommendation proved to be well-founded, as Metformin is known to be an effective treatment for both hyperinsulinemia and hyperandrogenism (Azziz 2001, Romualdi 2011, Yasmin 2011).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Indeed, metformin may be the most promising conventional medical treatment for PCOS.</li>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Metformin: An Underutilized Treatment for PCOS</span></h4>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Metformin, a medication currently used to lower blood sugar, is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to manage type 2 diabetes mellitus. Metformin inhibits liver glucose production, though it also decreases intestinal glucose uptake and increases insulin sensitivity in peripheral tissues (Grundy 2002).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Metformin improves the likelihood of ovulation in women with PCOS through a variety of actions, including reducing insulin levels and altering the effect of insulin on ovarian androgen synthesis, theca cell proliferation, and endometrial growth (Polyzos 2009).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">To increase metformin tolerance, patients start with 500 mg daily with food. After one week, the dose increases to 1000 mg for another week and then to 1500 mg daily. Clinical response is usually seen at the 1000 mg daily dose (Harborne 2005).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Studies have found that PCOS patients who do not respond to metformin at the 1500 mg dose, respond favorably to 2000 mg (Harborne 2005).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">For many years, oral hypoglycemic agents were regarded as teratogenic, and their use was contraindicated during pregnancy. However, the latest data supports the safety of metformin throughout pregnancy. Glueck et al reported that metformin was not teratogenic and did not affect the motor or social development of infants age 3 and 6 months (Glueck 2002). Recently, Tang et al concluded that metformin improves ovulation and pregnancy rates, findings they noted while updating the Cochrane Review of insulin-sensitizing drugs (metformin, rosiglitazone, pioglitazone, d-chiro-inositol) for women with PCOS, oligo/amenorrhea and subfertility (Tang 2010).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A recent clinical study of 50 PCOS patients reported that metformin exerts a slight but significant deleterious effect on serum homocysteine levels. Therefore, supplementing with folate is considered useful for lowering homocysteine and increasing the beneficial effect of metformin on the vascular endothelium (the inner lining of the blood vessels)(Palomba 2010).</li>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Side Effects with Conventional Treatments</span></h4>
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A pitfall of mainstream approaches to PCOS is that they are often associated with unwanted side effects, for example:</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">For trouble conceiving, a doctor typically prescribes fertility drug Clomid®. In some women, Clomid® causes no side effects. In others, side effects may include mood swings, hot flashes, breast tenderness, abdominal cramps, and nausea. Roughly 30 % of women who take Clomid® experience the more serious side effects of hostile fertile mucous (HFM, a condition in which the cervical mucus become too thick to allow sperm to penetrate the cervix) and uterine lining thinning. HFM prevents conception and a thin uterine lining decreases the likelihood of implantation and may lead to early miscarriage, both are undesirable effects of using Clomid®.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Birth control pills are still the treatment of choice for irregular periods. However, a 2006 study concluded that birth control pills increase insulin resistance, making the symptoms of PCOS more pronounced and increasing the risk of major heath complications (Mastorakos 2006).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In fact, many medications used in the treatment of PCOS do not adequately address the lifestyle and hormonal imbalances that are at the root of PCOS, nor do they hold much promise for managing associated cardiovascular risks and type 2 diabetes</li>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-26799223584479388662015-10-22T14:39:00.005-05:002015-10-22T14:39:38.612-05:00Reversing Female Sexual Dysfunction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;">By Michael Downey</span><br />
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sexual dysfunction</strong> afflicts <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">43%</strong> of women compared to <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">31%</strong> of men.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">1,2 </span>Yet the only sexual enhancement commercials you see on TV are those promoting drugs to treat male erectile dysfunction.</div>
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While prevalence of <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">female sexual dysfunction </em></strong>increases with age,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">3</span> <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">40%</strong> of affected women do not seek help from a physician.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">4</span> One reason is that no pharmaceutical has yet been approved for the treatment of female sexual dysfunction and doctors have no protocol (other than hormone replacement) for this condition.</div>
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The exciting news is that recent discoveries have identified several <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">new</em> natural compounds that work together to halt the mechanisms behind female sexual dysfunction, as well as menopausal symptoms.</div>
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This article describes how these <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">botanical-based extracts</em></strong> beneficially modulate <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">six</strong> pathways that can lead to female sexual dysfunction. Just one of these extracts—<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">taken alone</em>—reduced sexual dysfunction for over <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">86% </strong>of the women enrolled in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study in just <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">40 days!</strong><span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">6</span></div>
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You will also learn how another <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">compound</em> made from several plants modulates hormonal activity behind the menopausal symptoms—which frequently trigger female sexual dysfunction. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled human study, this multi-extract blend reduced menopausal symptoms by an average of <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">62%</strong> in <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">12 weeks</strong>!<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">7</span></div>
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Preferring at times not to engage in sexual activity does not indicate a woman has female sexual dysfunction. Disinterest, or even occasional dysfunction, can be a normal response to a variety of life situations.</div>
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But when a woman is frustrated and depressed by a lack of normal sexual interest and function, it indicates disruption of one or more pathways in the body’s overall <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">physiological matrix</em>—a condition that demands treatment.</div>
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Although the incidence of female sexual dysfunction increases with age,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">8</span> it is not an inevitable symptom of aging, and it can afflict women of any age.</div>
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One study warned that the increasing number of women with sexual dysfunction complaints indicates that “it is time for physicians to start to acknowledge women’s sexuality with the same importance their patients do.”<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">4</span></div>
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Supporting the underlying physiological mechanisms is a vital step in preventing sexual dysfunction.</div>
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As you will learn, several <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">botanical extracts</em></strong> have been studied—<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cordyceps sinensis</em></strong>, <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">maca</em></strong>, and a three-extract blend called <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">EstroG-100</em></strong>™—for their ability to complement each other and simultaneously modulate diverse biochemical pathways to provide a <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">multi-factorial treatment</em> for this complex disorder.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How Female Sexual Dysfunction Develops</span></h4>
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<img alt="Maca" src="http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2012/images/may2012_Reversing-Female-Sexual-Dysfunction_02.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;" /></div>
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Maca</div>
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Female sexual dysfunction can be difficult to diagnose due to the complexities of the female sexual response. It manifests as one or more of a set of symptoms that can come and go: reduction of sex drive, aversion to sex, lack of arousal, vaginal dryness, pain during sex, and inability to feel pleasure or reach orgasm.</div>
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Symptoms of female sexual dysfunction may be triggered by physiological changes, especially those that affect the reproductive system such as premenstrual syndrome, pregnancy, postpartum, or menopause.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">9</span></div>
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Female sexual dysfunction is often the result of reduced levels of <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">estrogen</em></strong>, <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">testosterone</em></strong>, <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">progesterone</em></strong>, <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">serotonin</em></strong>, <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">antioxidants</em></strong>, and <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">nitric oxide</em></strong>; or increased levels of pro-inflammatory <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">cytokines</em></strong> and <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">monoamine oxidase</em></strong>.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">9</span></div>
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In the brain, increased levels of <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">monoamine oxidase</strong> destroy the pleasure chemical <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">dopamine</strong>.</div>
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Menopausal transition is considered the most difficult time to remain sexually healthy and can be a frequent cause of reduced sexual interest or desire in women. Menopause involves symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, fatigue, anxiety, and memory loss—but the accompanying depression, vaginal dryness, and loss of libido can be elements of female sexual dysfunction.</div>
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Up until a decade ago, conventional medicine erroneously treated menopausal symptoms with unnatural-to-the-human-body hormones such as <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">conjugated equine estrogen</em></strong> plus <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">medroxyprogesterone acetate</em></strong>. All that changed with the publication of a landmark July 2002 study called the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), which concluded that the benefits of treatment did not outweigh the <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">26%</strong> increased risk of breast cancer, the <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">29%</strong> increased risk of heart disease, and the <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">41%</strong> higher risk of stroke.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">10-12</span></div>
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Female sexual dysfunction involves the disruption of multiple physiological mechanisms for which modern medicine has no consistently safe and effective treatment.</div>
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For this reason, mainstream physicians have been virtually helpless in the face of increasing numbers of women afflicted by <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">female sexual dysfunction</em></strong> or menopause, or both—until now.</div>
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<tr style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">Botanical Compound</td><td style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">Benefit in Reversing Female Sexual Dysfunction</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">Cordyceps(Cs-4)</td><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">Balance communication pathways between the brain and the body, optimize adrenal function, mediate inflammation, minimize oxidative stress, support energy production.</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">Maca</td><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">Support balanced brain chemistry (neurotransmitters), help the body better manage stress, optimize signals from the brain to the body.</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">Estro G-100™</td><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">Selectively reinforce appropriate hormonal response by amplifying/inhibiting estradiol action in tissues.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Targeting Multiple Pathways</span></h4>
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To find an effective, non-pharmaceutical solution to the complexities of female sexual dysfunction, scientists screened numerous botanical sources. They discovered specific <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">botanical extracts</em></strong> to address the multiple underlying causes of female sexual dysfunction. Research scientists narrowed down the search and found that the following botanicals were the most effective in treating female sexual dysfunction:</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">1. <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cordyceps sinensis </em></strong>extract</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">2. <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Lepidium</em></strong> <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">meyenii </em></strong>(<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">maca</em></strong>) extract</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">3. <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">EstroG-100</em>™</strong> three-extract blend</li>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cordyceps</span></h4>
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An extract of <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cordyceps sinensis</em></strong>—derived from the Cs-4 strain of this medicinal mushroom—was found to have the ability to modulate various physiological pathways that impact female sexual dysfunction. Its efficacy is believed to originate with its unique composition of pharmacologically active substances.</div>
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The <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cordyceps sinensis</em> extract works on the following <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">distinct pathways</em></strong> to:</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Modulate the hypothalamus-pituitary axis (HPA), balancing levels of estrogen and testosterone as required.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">6</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Optimize adrenal function, promoting downstream flow of sex hormones.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">6,13</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Support mitochondrial function by increasing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production, and with it, energy levels and sexual interest.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">6,14,15</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Boost antioxidant action, inhibiting the destruction of nitric oxide, and allowing normal vaginal lubrication, and sexual function.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">6,16,17</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Moderate inflammation by controlling levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, thus blocking their dampening effect on sexual desire, and activity.<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">18,19</span></li>
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Scientists tested the <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cs-4</strong> strain of <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cordyceps</em> in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study involving 40 elderly patients suffering from sexual dysfunction. The test group took <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cordyceps</em> Cs-4 in dosages that translate to <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">375 mg</strong> of commercially prepared product, because it is formulated as an 8:1 extract. Over <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">86%</strong> of the women in the Cs-4 group significantly improved both hyposexuality signs and symptoms—in only <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">40 days!</strong><span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">6</span></div>
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And in a similar <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cordyceps sinensis</em> study of 189 subjects with decreased sex drive, this time including both women <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">and</em> men, improved symptoms were noted in over <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">66%</strong> of participants—again, in just <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">40 days!</strong></div>
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: KEYS TO REVERSING FEMALE SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION</h6>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Modern medicine offers no effective treatment for female sexual dysfunction, which afflicts <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">43%</strong> of women,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">1,2</span> As a result, <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">40%</strong> of these women do not even bother to consult a physician,<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">4</span> and are in need of a safe and effective solution.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Scientists working on what has been termed an “important public health concern”<span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">1,2</span> have identified <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">two botanical extracts</em></strong>—<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cordyceps sinensis </em>and <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">maca—</em>that work together to modulate six distinct pathways that can lead to female sexual dysfunction.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cordyceps</em> was found in placebo-controlled studies to reduce sexual dysfunction for over <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">66% </strong>of women—in just <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">40 days!</strong><span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">6</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A third multi-plant extract, <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">EstroG-100</em>™</strong>, addresses the imbalance in estrogenic activity that causes the many menopausal symptoms—which often trigger sexual dysfunction. In a placebo-controlled study, this blend reduced menopausal symptoms (and sexual dysfunction risk) by <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">62%</strong>–in only <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">12 weeks!</strong><span class="wwwMagTextRefNumber" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">26</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">These three scientifically validated <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">natural botanical compounds</em> are now available to safely reverse female sexual dysfunction, <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">and</em> alleviate menopausal symptoms.</li>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-86588528194928700922015-10-22T14:37:00.003-05:002015-10-22T14:37:26.285-05:00Sauna's for Better Health<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Health Benefits</span></h4>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Removes Toxins and Mineral Waste</span></h4>
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Increased blood circulation stimulates the sweat glands, releasing built-up toxins and waste. Daily sweating can help detoxify your body as it rids itself of an accumulation of potentially carcinogenic heavy metals (lead, mercury, zinc, nickel, cadmium) as well as alcohol, nicotine, sodium, sulfuric acid and cholesterol.</div>
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<a class="mceItemAnchor" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="weightmaintenance" name="weightmaintenance" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Burns calories and controls weight</span></h4>
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As you relax in the gentle heat of the <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/healthsaunas.aspx" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">Health Mate sauna</a>, your body is actually hard at work, producing sweat, pumping blood - and burning calories. According to a Journal of the American Medical Association report, in a single sauna session you may burn as many calories as you would rowing or jogging for 30 minutes. So you lose weight - not just water.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Clears Cellulite</span></h4>
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Health Mate saunas help clear ugly cellulite, the gel-like lumps of fat, water and debris trapped in pockets beneath the skin. European beauty specialists routinely incorporate daily saunas in programs to reduce cellulite. And because the radiant heat of the Health Mate sauna warms three times as deeply as conventional saunas, it is significantly more effective at reducing cellulite.</div>
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<a class="mceItemAnchor" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="pain" name="pain" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Relieves Pain</span></h4>
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The deep heat of your <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/healthsaunas.aspx" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">Health Mate sauna</a> helps peripheral blood vessels dilate, bringing relief and healing to muscle and soft tissue injuries. Increased blood circulation carries off metabolic waste products and delivers oxygen-rich blood to oxygen-depleted muscles, so they recover faster. Muscles relax most readily when tissues are warm, for greater flexibility and range of motion.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Eases joint Pain and Stiffness</span></h4>
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In Europe, radiant heat therapy is widely used to treat patients suffering from many forms of arthritis. In addition, it has been proven effective in the treatment of sprains, neuralgia, bursitis, muscle spasms, joint stiffness and many other muscular-skeletal ailments. Much of the stiffness, aches and soreness that comes with aging is reduced or eliminated.</div>
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<a class="mceItemAnchor" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="immunesystem" name="immunesystem" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Improves the Immune System</span></h4>
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A sauna's deep heat raises your body temperature, inducing an artificial fever. As it works to combat the "fever," your body's immune system is strengthened. Combined with the elimination of toxins and wastes produced by the intense sweating, your overall health and resistance to disease is increased.</div>
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<a class="mceItemAnchor" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="cardiovascular" name="cardiovascular" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Increases Blood Circulation and Strengthens the Cardiovascular System</span></h4>
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As your body increases sweat production to cool itself, your heart works harder pumping blood at a greater rate to boost circulation, supplying the conditioning benefits of continuous exercise. Heart rate, cardiac output and metabolic rate increase, while diastolic blood pressure drops, for improved overall cardiovascular fitness.</div>
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Increased blood circulation has also been shown to relieve acne, eczema, psoriasis, burns, lesions and cuts. In addition, open wounds heal more quickly, reducing scarring.</div>
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"Many of us who run do so to place a demand on our cardiovascular systems, not to build big leg muscles. Regular use of a sauna may impart similar stress on the cardiovascular system. and its regular use may be as effective as a means of cardiovascular conditioning and burning of calories as regular exercise.... A moderately conditioned person can easily sweat off 500 gms. in sauna, consuming nearly 300 calories."</div>
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<a class="mceItemAnchor" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="relaxation" name="relaxation" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Relaxation (Reduces Stress and Fatigue)</span></h4>
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Perhaps the most immediate relief your <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/healthsaunas.aspx" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">Health Mate sauna</a> offers is simple relaxation, as it melts away the stresses and tensions of urban life. Just a few minutes in the gentle warmth of your Health Mate sauna gives you an overall massaging effect, soothing jangled nerves and knotted muscles. You'll feel rejuvenated and renewed, restored in both body and mind.</div>
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<a class="mceItemAnchor" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="skin" name="skin" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Improves Skin</span></h4>
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The profuse sweating achieved after just a few minutes in the Health Mate sauna carries off deeply imbedded impurities and dead skin cells, leaving the skin glowing and immaculately clean. Increased circulation draws your skin's own natural nutrients to the surface. You'll see improved tone, elasticity, texture and fresh color.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Health Mate Sauna is <span class="style3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">GREEN!</span></span></h4>
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PLH Products, Inc / Health Mate Sauna is the<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> ONLY manufacturer</strong> of far infrared saunas with certifications from the <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).</strong> Here is what they say:</div>
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“Being FSC certified shows that you comply with<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> the highest social and environmental standards </strong>on the market. As public concerns about the state of the world’s forests and timber resources increases, FSC provides you with a credible solution to complex environmental and social issues.”<br />
-- <a href="http://www.fsc.org/16.html" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">http://www.fsc.org/16.html</a></div>
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“The PEFC provides an assurance mechanism to purchasers of wood and paper products that they are <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">promoting the sustainable management of forests</strong>.”</div>
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“[SFI’s] forest certification standard is based on principles that promote sustainable forest management, including measures to <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">protect water quality, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, species at risk, and forests with exceptional conservation value.</strong>”</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What do these certifications mean?</span></h4>
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They mean that PLH Products, Inc is the ONLY manufacturer who<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> cares enough about the environment and you to makesure their products meet the highest standards of sustaining the earth’s resources. </strong> Health Mate saunas are the ONLY far infrared saunas that <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">protect</em> Earth’s natural resources. <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> We care about your health and we care about the planet’s health too.</strong> Health Mate saunas are socially and environmentally responsible. <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Health Mate saunas are</strong> <span class="style5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">GREEN!</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What is Chain-of-Custody?</span></h4>
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Not only is the final Health Mate sauna a “green” product, but our <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">entire process</em></strong> is certified “green.” The FSC, SFI, and PEFC have certified PLH Products, Inc.’s <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Chain-of-Custody (COC)</strong>. <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">COC is the path taken by raw materials from an FSC-certified source through processing, manufacturing, distribution, and printing until it is a final product ready for sale to the end consumer.</strong> <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> So the Health Mate sauna is 100% “<span class="style3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">GREEN</span>”, top to bottom, from log to sauna!</strong></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-70017738513366648362015-10-22T14:35:00.002-05:002015-10-22T14:35:52.158-05:00The Power of Chia Seeds<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Packed inside a tiny chia seed is protein, omega-3 oil, fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and calcium. Tiny chia seeds don't stop with what's packed inside of them, once eaten, chia seeds provide energy, lessen the risk of cardiovascular disease, stabilize blood sugar, provide the daily requirements of fiber, vitamins and aid in weight loss. Huge health benefits from a tiny seed, but the chia seed isn't done yet.</div>
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<a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=chia" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">Chia seed</a>s are extremely versatile. Chia seeds can be eaten as is, ground and put into baked goods, made into a gel and added to any recipe or dissolved in water and used as a fiber drink.</div>
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The tiny chia seed still is not done showing off it's health benefits and versatility. Chia seeds can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 years since they never go rancid. Chia seeds are easy to carry with you and are readily available online or in health food stores. Now for the big question about tiny chia seeds that provide huge health benefits, how do chia seeds taste? Chia seeds have very little taste, which makes them acceptable to even the most discriminating palate.</div>
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A chia seed consists of 20% protein, 34% oil and 25% fiber. The high protein content in <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=chia" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">chia seeds </a>is enough to provide the full daily requirement of protein. The chia seed is said to be the richest source of Omega-3 fatty acids, and water soluble dietary fiber, supplements that we commonly add to our diets for their health benefits.</div>
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Chia seeds have natural gel forming properties that slow digestion and help keep blood sugar levels stable, which aids in the prevention and/or control of diabetes. The feeling of fullness after eating chia seeds aids in weight control and weight loss. Chia seeds are packed with vitamin B, vitamin C and vitamin E and calcium. Huge health benefits from tiny chia seeds.</div>
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The chia plant is in the mint family, originating the central valley of Mexico and cultivated by the Aztecs. Chia is now commercially grown for it's seeds. We are familiar with Chia Pets, the clay pot designs that sprout 'hair' which is actually the chia sprouts.</div>
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<a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=chia" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">Chia seeds</a> are sticky, and sprout easily when spread on earthen clay pots. Chia seeds originated in Mexico, and Mexico is known for it's clay pottery usage and designs, the chia seeds and clay pottery were a perfect union. Incidentally, the chia sprouts grown on Chia Pets are edible, tasting like watercress, providing the same health benefits as the chia seeds.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-24106415666865873502015-10-22T14:34:00.004-05:002015-10-22T14:34:57.029-05:00Weight-Breast Cancer Link<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;">Scientists have discovered that excess weight not only raises the risks of getting cancer but the chances that cancer will return. Now, as medical studies seek to determine how much weight loss is needed for a better prognosis — and whether the fat-cancer link can be disrupted in other ways, patients are being encouraged to slim down.</span><br />
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"We need to do this for our health, now more than ever," said Angela Watts, 59, who is among the first survivors to benefit from a calorie-counting computer program provided by Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she was treated for stage 2 breast cancer. She dropped 5 pounds her first week.</div>
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The connection between fat and breast cancer, strongest in those diagnosed with the disease after menopause, is especially troubling given that two-thirds of the national population is overweight. Breast cancer remains the most common type of cancer for women, with more than 200,000 diagnoses and almost 40,700 deaths reported in 2009, the most recent year for which government statistics are available.</div>
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Doctors and public health officials have long been promoting lifestyle changes to stave off heart disease and diabetes, but they believe fewer people associate better diets and exercise with cancer prevention.</div>
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Cancer patients, meanwhile, face their own hurdles. They might have trouble dieting and exercising because treatment often makes them gain weight while experiencing fatigue and other side effects.</div>
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Given those challenges, researchers in Baltimore and across the country are seeking the best ways to change behaviors among those with a diagnosis and those who could be headed down that path.</div>
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Dr. Lewis E. Foxhall, who works on cancer-prevention policy at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said doctors don't know exactly how much weight loss improves a prognosis.</div>
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One often-cited study, published in 2009, tracked only those who had weight-loss surgery, which typically cuts much more body fat than diet and exercise, and keeps the fat off longer. Researchers also believe biological changes resulting from the surgery itself might have helped reduce women's risk of cancer.</div>
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Still, Foxhall, an American Cancer Society board member, recommends that doctors advise all their patients to diet and exercise and that public health officials get the message out.</div>
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"We need to pursue the things we know are associated with preventing cancer and help us deal with cancer once we get it," he said. "We need to address nutrition in the community and physical activity in schools and make sure people can make healthy choices."</div>
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Scientists theorize that obese women have elevated levels of hormones — including insulin, which regulates blood sugar; estrogen, a female sex hormone; and leptin, which helps regulate appetite — that lead to complex biological changes, including inflammation in the body that can promote cancer growth.</div>
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Some researchers are looking for ways to disrupt this link.</div>
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Dipali Sharma, an associate professor of oncology at Hopkins, wants to eventually develop a pill. After exploring the biology of many compounds, she's focusing on broccoli, garlic and the magnolia plant, whose properties show promise.</div>
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The therapy is a long way off — if it's possible — but important because "it's hard to tell someone just to lose a lot of weight," she said.</div>
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"If we know the pathways and the key players, we can develop a pill or capsule that can shut the pathways and tackle the key players and inhibit the link," Sharma said.</div>
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Dr. Vered Stearns, co-director of Hopkins' breast cancer program, will join with other U.S. and Canadian researchers during the next year in studying weight reduction among breast cancer survivors — including Angela Watts — and how much their long-term health improves. She will enroll up to 200 overweight women who completed treatment for breast cancer no more than five years ago.</div>
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Stearns provided Watts with the computer program and is "hopeful that our busy women will be able to adhere to the intervention that is both personalized and minimizes in-person visits."</div>
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Stearns added that all overweight women need to consider how their behavior affects their bodies.</div>
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"Being a woman in Western society is a risk factor for breast cancer regardless of family history," she said, adding that she recommends a balanced diet, regular exercise and no smoking.</div>
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Angela Watts, 59, says the computer program is helping her. She's been through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation for her breast cancer and she knows that dropping more pounds can reduce the risk of the cancer recurring.</div>
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The computer counts calories from her meals and subtracts calories burned from exercising — warning her when she's approaching her daily 1,500-calorie limit. Watts said she weighed as much as 212 pounds and has a goal weight of 150. Cancer, and her 4-year-old grandson Zhione, Candi's son, are motivating her, she said.</div>
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Watts said she had no symptoms but was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2011 when she went for a checkup a month after her daughter was diagnosed at the age of 32. The Watts women have a genetic mutation that increased their chances of cancer.</div>
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They were treated together at Hopkins and are now focused on diet and exercise. Angela Watts said her daughter, now 34, "doesn't have as far to go" in losing weight and isn't participating in the study.</div>
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"I always knew I had a weight problem, and losing the weight was something I always wanted but didn't know how to achieve," she said. "Counting calories is working for me."</div>
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Watts said she walks at least 30 minutes on a treadmill daily. That gets her "excited to start the day."</div>
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Watts is just the kind of woman Lynne Brick likes to see. For years she has been promoting fitness to stave off disease, and for those diagnosed with breast cancer, she launched a boot camp this month with the American Breast Cancer Foundation and the awareness group Pink P.A.W.S.</div>
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The president and founder of Brick Bodies fitness centers said the program helps women learn how to get into and stay in shape, which improves their moods and helps them overcome fatigue and other ill effects of treatment. She's hoping it also keeps cancer at bay.</div>
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"It's not like we're putting the women through CrossFit or other strenuous exercises, but enough that the women feel good about themselves and develop confidence to keep their bodies strong," she said. "Every year there is another study that demonstrates the importance of fitness.</div>
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"So I tell everyone to put on a pedometer and get your 10,000 steps a day."</div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Baltimore Sun (MD) </em>10-28-13</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-12918632988013914582015-10-22T14:33:00.001-05:002015-10-22T14:33:18.628-05:00What is Your Poop Saying About You<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18px;">The next time you’re in the bathroom, take a second to glance down and observe the color of your poop. This guide breaks down what stool color is normal and which colors you should consult your doctor about. </span><br />
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By Dr. Mercola</strong></div>
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When it comes to toileting habits, the topic is not exactly a favorite among Americans – at least for those above the age of four. Mention poop and you can easily clear a room – or at the least, generate some unusual facial expressions, nervous laughter, and wisecracks about “too much information.”</div>
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But your bodily emissions are an important health topic that deserves serious attention, regardless of the “ick factor.” In fact, if you ignore what you deposit in your toilet, you could be flushing your health down the drain!</div>
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Did you know the average person generates about five TONS of stool in his or her lifetime? Turns out, there is much to be learned from this mountain of poop.</div>
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The shape, size, color, and other fecal features can tell you a great deal about your overall health, how your gastrointestinal tract is functioning, and even give you clues about serious disease processes that could be occurring, like infections, digestive problems, and even cancer. Poop comes in just about all the colors of the rainbow... and please forgive me for using the words <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">poop </em>and<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> rainbow</em> in the same sentence.</div>
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Although there is a certainly a wide variety of stool colors, textures and forms that are considered “normal,” there are definitely things that, if seen or experienced, warrant immediate medical attention. With this in mind, the overview that follows covers what you need to know about what’s normal and not normal in the bathroom department.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What is Normal Stool?</span></h4>
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Your stool is about 75 percent water. The rest is a fetid combination of fiber, live and dead bacteria, miscellaneous cells and mucus.<span style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/14/normal-stool.aspx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a></span><span style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/14/normal-stool.aspx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a></span> The characteristics of your stool will tell you a good deal about how happy and healthy your digestive tract is – the color, odor, shape, size, and even the sound it makes when it hits the water and whether it’s a “sinker” or a “floater” are all relevant information.</div>
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If you’re one to poop and scoot quickly out of the bathroom without looking in the toilet, then you might want to slow down and look down. The Bristol Stool Chart is a handy tool that may help you learn what you’re going for. Ideally, your stool should approximate Types 3, 4 and 5, “like a sausage or a snake, smooth and soft” to “soft blobs that pass easily.” Type 4 is the Holy Grail.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/14/normal-stool.aspx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a></span></div>
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Fiber tends to bulk up your stool and acts like glue to keep the stool stuck together, instead of in pieces. If your stool is on the softer side, short of diarrhea (“soft serve,” as some call it), it could be related to lactose intolerance, artificial sweeteners (sorbitol and Splenda), or a reaction to fructose or gluten.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Look, Listen and Smell Before You Flush</span></h4>
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<span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What’s normal and what’s not when you look into the toilet? The following table will help you narrow down what to look for, so that you aren’t needlessly alarmed. Of course, there are a few signs that ARE cause for concern, and those are listed too. If you have a change in stools accompanied by abdominal pain, please report this to your physician.</span><br style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div>
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<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Healthy Stool</strong></td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Unhealthy Stool</strong></td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Medium to light brown</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Stool that is hard to pass, painful, or requires straining</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Smooth and soft, formed into one long shape and not a bunch of pieces</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Hard lumps and pieces, or mushy and watery, or even pasty and difficult to clean off</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">About one to two inches in diameter and up to 18 inches long</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Narrow, pencil-like or ribbon-like stools</strong>: can indicate a bowel obstruction or tumor – or worst case, colon cancer; narrow stools on an infrequent basis are not so concerning, but if they persist, definitely warrant a call to your physician<span style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/14/normal-stool.aspx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">S-shaped, which comes from the shape of your lower intestine<span style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/14/normal-stool.aspx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a></span></td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black, tarry stools or bright red stools</strong> may indicate bleeding in the GI tract; black stools can also come from certain medications, supplements or consuming black licorice; if you have black, tarry stools, it’s best to be evaluated by your healthcare provider</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Quiet and gentle dive into the water...it should fall into the bowl with the slightest little “whoosh” sound – not a loud, wet cannonball splash that leaves your toosh in need of a shower</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">White, pale or gray stools</strong> may indicate a lack of bile, which may suggest a serious problem (hepatitis, cirrhosis, pancreatic disorders, or possibly a blocked bile duct), so this warrants a call to your physician; antacids may also produce white stool</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Natural smell, not repulsive (I’m not saying it will smell good)</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Yellow stools</strong> may indicate giardia infection, a gallbladder problem, or a condition known as Gilbert’s syndrome – if you see this, call your doctor</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Uniform texture</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Presence of undigested food (more of a concern if accompanied by diarrhea, weight loss, or other changes in bowel habits)</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Sinks slowly</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Floaters or splashers</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top"></td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Increased mucus in stool</strong>: This can be associated with inflammatory bowel disease like Crohn’s disease, or ulcerative colitis, or even colon cancer, especially if accompanied by blood or abdominal pain</td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Does Your Stool Have a Really Bad Odor?</span></h2>
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If your stool has an extraordinarily bad odor, it should not be ignored. I am referring to an odor <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">above and beyond</em> the normally objectionable stool odor. Stinky stool can be associated with a number of health problems, such as:<span style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/14/normal-stool.aspx#_edn7" name="_ednref7" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a></span></div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A malabsorptive disorder</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Celiac disease</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Crohn’s disease</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Chronic pancreatitis</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cystic fibrosis</li>
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Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a disease caused by a defective gene that causes your body to produce abnormally thick, sticky mucus, which builds up and causes life-threatening lung infections and serious digestive problems. Most cases of CF are diagnosed before the age of 2, so this is more of a concern with infants and toddlers.</div>
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Speaking of malodorous things, what about gas? <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Passing gas </em>(flatulence)<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> is normal. </em>Not only is it normal, it’s a good sign that trillions of hard working gut bacteria are doing their jobs. People pass gas an average 14 times per day – anywhere from one to four pints of it!<span style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/14/normal-stool.aspx#_edn8" name="_ednref8" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a></span> Ninety nine percent of gas is odorless, so you may even be unaware you’re passing it. Think about it – were it not for an exit, we’d all blow up like balloons!</div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How Often Should You Move Your Bowels?</span></h4>
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Normal bowel habits vary. When we talk about regularity, what we’re really talking about is <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">what’s regular</em> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">for you</em>. Three bowel movements per day to three per week is considered the normal range.</div>
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<span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What’s more important than frequency is the ease with which you move your bowels. If you need to push or strain, something is off – moving your bowels should take no more effort than urinating or passing gas. The thing to watch for is a sudden change in your bowel habits. Many factors can affect regularity, such as diet, travel, medications, hormonal fluctuations, sleep patterns, exercise, illness, surgery, childbirth, stress and a whole host of other things.</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Constipation and Diarrhea</span></h4>
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The average body takes between 18 and 72 hours to convert food into poop and pass it on out. When this time is significantly shortened, the result is diarrhea because your intestine doesn’t have time to absorb all of the water. Conversely, when transit time is lengthened, you may end up constipated because <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">too much</em> water has been absorbed, resulting in hard, dry stools.</div>
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Constipation is defined as passing hard, dry stools that you have to strain to move, and it’s typically accompanied by decreased frequency of defecation. Straining is not normal, nor are experiencing feelings of incomplete elimination, bloating, crampiness, or sluggishness after going number two. If you’re over the age of 65, your risk of becoming constipated increases significantly.</div>
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Chronic, untreated constipation can lead to fecal impaction,<span style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/14/normal-stool.aspx#_edn10" name="_ednref10" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a></span> which can be a serious medical condition. Laxatives should be avoided at all cost and used only as a last resort. If you absolutely must use a laxative, make sure it is used for only a very short period of time.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Common Causes of INCREASED Bowel Frequency/Diarrhea<span style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/14/normal-stool.aspx#_edn11" name="_ednref11" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a></span></strong></center>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Lifestyle</strong></center>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Diseases and Conditions</strong></center>
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<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Eating more fruits and vegetables (increased fiber)</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid)</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Increased exercise</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Crohn’s disease</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Drinking more water</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Ulcerative colitis</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Emotional stress</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Celiac disease</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Food allergies</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top"></td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Medication side effects</td></tr>
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</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Gastrointestinal infection</td></tr>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Common Causes of DECREASED Bowel Frequency/Constipation<span style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/14/normal-stool.aspx#_edn12" name="_ednref12" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a></span><span style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/14/normal-stool.aspx#_edn13" name="_ednref13" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"></a></span></strong></center>
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<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Change in diet, less fiber, less fruits and vegetables</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Pregnancy, childbirth, or hormonal disturbances</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Emotional stress</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Problems with the muscles or nerve in the intestine, rectum or anus</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Ignoring the urge to “go,” travel and scheduling factors that cause you to hold it</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Insufficient exercise</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Diabetes</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Inadequate hydration</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid)</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Calcium or iron supplements</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Local pain or discomfort around the anus, such as from fissures or hemorrhoids</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Drugs such as narcotic painkillers (codeine, for example), diuretics, antacids, antidepressants, and excess or overused laxatives</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Less often: diverticulitis, intestinal obstruction, colorectal cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injury</td></tr>
<tr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top">Food allergies</td><td style="border: 3px solid rgb(175, 225, 248); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 300px;" valign="top"></td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></h4>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How to Score a Home Run with Your Bowel Movements</span></h4>
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Most gastrointestinal problems can be prevented or resolved by making simple changes to your diet and lifestyle. If you aren’t achieving poo perfection, or if you don’t feel right, then look at the following factors and consider making a few changes. These strategies will help reverse constipation or diarrhea, in addition to helping prevent recurrences.</div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Remove all sources of gluten from your diet (the most common sources are wheat, barley, rye, spelt and other grains)</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Eat a diet that includes whole foods, rich in fresh, organic vegetables and fruits that provide good nutrients and fiber; most of your fiber should come from vegetables, not from grains</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avoid artificial sweeteners, excess sugar (especially fructose), chemical additives, MSG, excessive amounts of caffeine, and processed foods as they are all detrimental to your gastrointestinal (and immune) function</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Boost your intestinal flora by adding naturally fermented foods into your diet, such as sauerkraut, pickles, and kefir (if you tolerate dairy); add a probiotic supplement if you suspect you’re not getting enough beneficial bacteria from your diet alone</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Try increasing your fiber intake; good options include psyllium and freshly ground organic flax seed (shoot for 35 grams of fiber per day)</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Make sure you stay well hydrated with fresh, pure water</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Get plenty of exercise daily</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avoid pharmaceutical drugs, such as pain killers like codeine or hydrocodone which will slow your bowel function, Antidepressants, and antibiotics can cause a variety of GI disruptions</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Address emotional challenges with tools like EFT</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Consider squatting instead of sitting to move your bowels; squatting straightens your rectum, relaxes your puborectalis muscle and encourages the complete emptying of your bowel without straining, and has been scientifically shown to relieve constipation and hemorrhoids</li>
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<span style="color: blue; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Consider a Bidet</span></h4>
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As a practical and affordable alternative to toilet paper, you might want to try a bidet. Bidets are the norm in Europe—no bathroom is found without one. Once you experience a bidet, you’ll probably never go back to toilet paper! A bidet is refreshing in a way toilet paper will never be, is gentler and less irritating than wiping with paper, and reduces hand contamination. Whenever I travel it is one of the items that I miss most from my home. Nearly everyone that I know has received one just loves them.</div>
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The bidets pay for themselves in no time with the money saved on toilet paper, as well as helping save valuable environmental resources. You still need a sheet or two of toilet paper to dry yourself, but that is a tiny fraction of what you would need to clean yourself. But more importantly they clean your bottom far more effectively than simply using dry toilet paper. They are easy to install, as no plumber is required. I’ve made my favorite bidet available in the Mercola store.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17230866673826030706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2309607553684865754.post-64955455247636266672015-10-22T14:30:00.004-05:002015-10-22T14:30:30.494-05:00Why Should We Eat Whole Foods<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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For many years I have been teaching that it is a good idea to consume whole foods for our health and well-being. The reasons seemed obvious. Whole foods are those that nature provides, with all their edible parts.</div>
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Whole foods of vegetable origin include fresh vegetables and fruits; whole grains (millet, brown rice, oats, rye, whole wheat, buckwheat, quinoa, cornmeal); beans and legumes (lentils, chick peas, kidney beans, etc); nuts and seeds. Whole foods of animal origin include eggs, small whole fish, seafood (shrimp, lobster, soft shell crabs), and small fowl. Under this model, when consuming larger animals (pork, beef, venison) the idea is to use as many parts as possible (muscle, kidney, heart, etc), including the bones to make stock, to maximize nutrient intake. Eating whole foods insures consumption of the maximum amount of original natural nutrients, in the right proportions.</div>
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Conversely, fragmented foods include all foods that are missing original parts: refined complex carbohydrates such as white flour and white rice (missing fiber and nutrients found in bran and germ); conversely, the bran and germ of grains (missing carbohydrates); sweeteners (crystallized sugars, syrups, concentrates -- all missing water, some missing most nutrients); refined and deodorized oils and fats (missing both their trace elements and the rest of the plant or animal). Fragmented foods that have generally been considered healthful include juices and tofu (all missing fiber), bran, wheat germ (missing starch), and vitamin supplements (missing macro nutrients and whatever micro nutrients they do not contain). Fragmented, extracted, or concentrated nutrients may have medicinal applications.</div>
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A healthful regime would include at least 70-80% whole foods. How could anyone doubt the wisdom of this concept? If human beings are part of the earth, denizens of the ecosystem, we are programmed to survive on what the earth provides. When we consume foods that are missing certain of their original ingredients, wouldn’t our bodies know that? Wouldn’t they respond in some unexpected manner to this deficiency? For a long time, society ignored this question, even though studies had shown conclusively that various fragmented foods contributed to disease -- e.g., polished rice caused beri-beri,, and plain cornmeal brought on pellagra, both B-vitamin deficiencies.</div>
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But recently, there have been some studies that show more clearly that the body can distinguish between whole and fragmented foods, between whole foods and nutrients taken in the form of supplements -- and that whole foods have better health benefits than the individual nutrients.</div>
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For example, whole foods are more likely to protect against disease than their individual nutrients. According to Nan Kathryn Fuchs, Ph.D., in the September ‘98 <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Women’s HealthLetter</i>, whole grains give better protection against chronic diseases than any of their component nutrients used as supplements. One of the major benefits of eating whole grains is that they slow down the digestive process, thereby allowing better absorption of the nutrients. Their fiber content also regulates blood sugar by slowing down the conversion of starches into glucose. Whole grains make favorable changes in the intestines, allowing healthful bacteria to keep disease-producing bacteria in check; they have strong anti-oxidant properties to help protect the body against free radicals, as well as phyto-estrogens and phytochemicals that break down carcinogenic substances. Most interestingly, grains have a more concentrated amount of these phytochemicals than fruits and vegetables. Apparently, we don’t need much: a half cup of brown rice, a bowl of oatmeal, or a few slices of wholegrain bread may be quite sufficient. Here is a reminder of which are whole grains: in addition to those just mentioned, consider whole grain rye, barley, quinoa, amaranth, whole wheat, buckwheat or kasha, millet, and whole corn or (non-degermed) cornmeal. Foods that are <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">not</i> whole grain: regular pasta, breakfast cereals (unless specifically made from whole grains), most breads (look for "wheat" in the ingredient list, and you’ll know it contains white flour), white rice, and degermed cornmeal.</div>
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Other phytonutrients that have been in the news for a while are the carotenoids such as beta carotene, which are in fact precursors to <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=Vitamin+A" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">Vitamin A</a>. However, their benefits are felt best when they are part of whole foods such as yams, carrots, and winter squash. According to Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., the incidence of macular degeneration, an eye disease that causes blindness, is considerably lower in persons who regularly consume these vegetables than in those who do not. Supplements of<a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/search.aspx?find=beta+carotene" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;"> beta carotene</a>, on the other hand, do not seem to offer such protection.</div>
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Insuring our <a href="http://www.holistichealthhouston.com/" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 300ms ease-in-out, background-color 300ms ease-in-out;">nutritional health</a> is therefore quite simple. We can do so by consuming daily one or two servings of whole grains, a serving of beans and/or animal protein, plenty of vegetables of many different colors, and fruit and nuts as snacks.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: 13.2px;">by Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D.</span></div>
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