A recent study conducted from the Rashid Laboratory for Developmental Neurobiology at Silver Child Development Center at the University of South Florida is stating their findings regarding the antioxidants known as flavonoids and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Published in the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, an experiment using mice found that the two compounds within flavonoids, luteolin and diosmin have been shown to reduce the plaque build up on the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.

These two components of flavonoids have proved their ability to reduce the build up of beta-amyloid, which is what causes the plaque build-up on the brain of someone suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The scientists within this study have been working diligently to find a natural way to reduce this build up and these flavonoids may prove to be the answer. These powerful antioxidants produce far less side effects than the drugs currently being developed to treat Alzheimer’s disease. This is only one of the many benefits that are turning the heads of medical professionals today.

The researchers involved in this study believe that flavonoids may be able to prevent and guard against Alzheimer’s disease. You can consume large amounts of flavonoids through your diet. Some of the foods include fruits, vegetables, seeds, wine and peanuts. The question that still remains within this research study is if this method of treatment will work on those with cognitive impairments. Other researchers and professionals have brought their attention to this new study to find that the flavonoids are targeting GSK3, which is an important factor within cognitive activity. With this in mind there is still a great deal of research to be done prior to using this form of treatment on humans but it offers high potential for a new avenue of natural treatments.

I have been talking about flavonoids for quite some time now. Flavonoids also hold many other healing benefits and properties when it comes to conditions that include inflammation of any kind. Foods high in flavonoids such as broccoli and strawberries can help reduce inflammation throughout the body. Flavonoids can also be taken advantage of through different medicinal herbs as many times flavonoids are the main component within herbs and their healing functions.

There is no end to the amount of health benefits and healing properties that can be obtained through flavonoids. The more modern science continues to research these benefits, the more likely we will be able to control the conditions and diseases within our society by protecting our own bodies that much more.

A study was recently presented at the American Academy of Neurology stating that anyone who is middle-aged with high cholesterol is 50% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease decades later. A study was conducted, which included 9,752 people from Northern California that found these statistics and on the contrary those who had low cholesterol were considered to be far less likely candidates. What many people do not realize is that Alzheimer’s disease is not something that happens over night, it can be developing in your brain and cognitive resources for many years before any signs appear, which is called the silent phase.

A study was recently presented at the American Academy of Neurology stating that anyone who is middle-aged with high cholesterol is 50% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease decades later. A study was conducted, which included 9,752 people from Northern California that found these statistics and on the contrary those who had low cholesterol were considered to be far less likely candidates. What many people do not realize is that Alzheimer’s disease is not something that happens over night, it can be developing in your brain and cognitive resources for many years before any signs appear, which is called the silent phase.

In collaboration with the first study, these same researchers found information to support their original theories that having a big belly when you are middle aged is yet another factor that can contribute to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Studies like this are working around the clock to develop more and more information regarding the disease itself and what other risk factors are associated with it like obesity and hypertension. There have been many studies in the past that have specifically targeted high cholesterol to be related to dementia but never Alzheimer’s in particular.

The people within the study went through numerous and detailed health evaluations throughout the years of 1964 and 1973 when they were between the ages of 40-45 years old. This study resulted in 504 of the original 9,752 participant developed Alzheimer’s later in life and they took this opportunity to study their cholesterol levels at this point in their lives as well. With research and studies like this constantly being published and presented to our society, it becomes that much more important to take care of our health and cholesterol levels at a younger age.

Statin drugs are NOT the answer to lower cholesterol. There are many natural ways to lower and maintain healthy cholesterol levels through your diet. There are several different foods that have been known to lower cholesterol levels that should be in everyone’s diet, no matter what your age. Some of these foods include almonds, apples, bananas, carrots, cold-water fish, garlic, grapefruit, oats, olive oil, strawberries and walnuts. As you can see no matter what your taste buds prefer there is at least one of these foods you can enjoy and lower your cholesterol at the same time.

Fiber is an important element when it comes to lowering your cholesterol and including types of high fiber foods in your diet like brown rice, beans, fresh fruits and vegetables you are making a healthy choice all the way around. There are many different types of natural supplements you can choose to utilize as well. Studies have shown that spirulina can improve cholesterol levels when taken everyday. Garlic can be taken as a supplement and will lower your blood pressure as well as your cholesterol levels. Use Kyolic Formula I04 by Wakunaga of America, which is a powerful combination of aged garlic extract and lecithin.

There are so many different natural ways to relieve high cholesterol and maintain these healthy levels that there is no reason not to! The more and more our society becomes health conscious and aware of the consequences the easier it will become to avoid risking Alzheimer’s and other conditions that may be associated with health problems we can correct now.

Gat-o-rot?  If given the choice between two kinds of drinks, soda or Gatorade, which do you think is the better option? Soda is loaded with sugar and empty calories and offers zero nutritional value.  Gatorade, while it too contains sugar, has at least has some nutritional value, being fortified with potassium, phosphorus and sodium.

But you may be surprised to know that the correct answer is soda!  Why, you ask?  Just ask your dentist – he knows.  But if by chance you don’t have a dental check-up scheduled, read on.

According to tests done by a dentistry professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore Dental School, it’s due to the high acidity of sports drinks.  Yes, sugary sodas are highly acidic as well, but the acidity levels in sports drinks are so high that drinking them can spell irreversible damage for your teeth.

“Sip [sports drinks] all day, and you’re not going to have any teeth left,” said University of Alabama at Birmingham professor Dr. John Ruby.  Ruby has performed similar tests in the past and reached similar conclusions.

Measuring the acidity of liquids is done by measuring their pH levels.  Though it sounds counterintuitive, the lower the pH level, the more acidic the drink is.  Any drink with a pH lower than four, and it’s enough to rot your teeth.  All of the sodas and energy drinks tested were lower than four.  The best of the worst?  Root beer.

As for the test itself, Dr. Anthony von Fraunhofer  placed false teeth into cups filled with either soda, water, fitness water, sports drinks (like Gatorade), or energy drinks (like Red Bull).  After 14 days of soaking, the teeth that lost the most enamel were those doused in the sports and energy drinks.   The worst of the worst?  KMX – an energy drink from The Coca-Cola Company.  Nipping at KMX’ heals on the worst of the worst list were Gatorade and Red Bull. 

Dr. von Fraunhofer also tested alcoholic drinks.  Wine weighed in at a 3 on the pH scale, well within the rot-your-teeth zone; beer, on the other hand, scored an acceptable 7 on the pH scale.

The good doctor of the study said that if you must drink sports drinks, drink them through a straw, as they’re less likely to touch the surface of your teeth that way.  Even better, use sports drinks for their primary purpose:  to replace the electrolytes lost through sweat after exercise.

I have an even better recommendation:  don’t drink them at all.  While Gatorade may provide taste, it doesn’t provide the kind of hydration water provides, despite what their commercials say.  Studies done by a host of researchers confirm this.  And if you’re looking for taste, spritzing water up with some sliced lemon or lime is a much healthier alternative, free of the harmful chemicals that citric and phosphorus acids bring to flavored beverages.  Want the sodium that Gatorade provides?  Sprinkle in a touch of unrefined organic sea salt and stir.

The only thing Gatorade has that water doesn’t is a catchy name.  Whatever happened to calling water Adam’s Ale?

Dr. Jack Tsao recently led a study presenting the information he has found regarding the connection between the large $3 billion dollar a year industry of incontinence drugs and memory loss within the elderly. More times than not bowel or urinary problems are generally treated with prescription drugs, but as you’ll soon find out it is time to begin considering the natural alternatives that are safe and present no side effects.

Dr. Tsao decided to begin this research when a 73 year old patient came into his office after seeing hallucinations and losing her memory while taking the incontinence drug he had prescribed for her. Her symptoms improved when she stopped taking the drug. From here he decided to gather a group of patients and closely study their reaction to these types of drugs.

The findings of this study were released at a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. The people who took the incontinence drugs within the study were found to have a 50% faster decline of their cognitive abilities, in comparison to those patients who didn’t take medication. Dr. Tsao and his fellow researchers took into account the age of the patients, which were all over the age of 75 years old and the link between incontinence drugs and memory loss still existed. This research study found no link between this memory loss and the onset of conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, which should be noted here.

Detrol is one of the most popular medications distributed to the elderly when they are facing urinary problems and this is perhaps one of the most potent of all the incontinence drugs on the market today. Since this research report, Detrol has added the side effect and warning of memory loss to its label for safety awareness.

What we have here folks is yet another example of the grim side effects that prescription drugs can produce. If you are suffering from the loss of bladder control, there are many natural alternatives to prescription medications that can apply the same treatments without the dangerous and life altering side effects.

Calcium and magnesium are two natural minerals that when taken together in dosages of 1,500 mg for calcium and 350 mg daily for magnesium can aid in controlling the bladder’s spasms, which cause the ultimate urinary problems.

Free-form amino acid complex is a supplement that can help strengthen the overall muscle of your bladder, increasing its strength and will therefore increase its ability to fight these spasms and urges that until now could not be controlled. Take as directed.

Vitamin A is an essential component for bladder regularity and should be taken as directed. Vitamin A can aid in the complete normalizing of your bladder muscle and overall function. Take daily for best results.

These natural supplements have been used for working with incontinence issues for centuries, there is nothing new about them, except that we are only now beginning to look elsewhere for healing remedies besides Western Medicine. Take this opportunity to correct your urinary problems with a natural remedy and avoid the side effects that can take a real toll on your life.

Cause for Concern  Tax season is now past, but this time of year always reminds me of one of Benjamin Franklin’s many popular proverbs, the guarantee that everyone in life would go through two things: death and taxes.

While death and taxes are undeniable, when it comes to our mortality, we can all make choices that put off the inevitable (not so with taxes, unfortunately). 

In 2000, 18 percent of the deaths in the United States were attributable to tobacco and 4 percent were attributable to alcohol.  The grim statistics are similar in the United Kingdom.  Smoking cigarettes is the leading cause of preventable death in the UK, and in 2006, 13.4 deaths out of 100,000 were alcohol related – a rate that nearly doubles the 1991 alcohol-related death rate.

If this weren’t enough, a new study presented at the European Cancer Conference in Barcelona, Spain indicates that consuming three or more alcoholic beverages a day can increase a woman’s chance of getting breast cancer as much as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day does.

The study involved approximately 70,000 women from various ethnic backgrounds, all living in the United States, tracing their medical history for 20+ years.  By 2004, more than 2,800 of the participating women were diagnosed with some form of breast cancer.  The revealing aspect of these diagnoses, though, was looking at their daily habits.  What the researchers found was that women who consumed three or more alcoholic drinks daily – whether those drinks were beer, wine or liquor – were 30 percent more likely to contract breast cancer than women who drank one or two.  Those women had a 10 percent higher risk.

The researchers don’t dispute the health benefits red wine has with regard to cardiovascular disease, but can understand how some might find the dichotomy of findings troublesome.  They speculate that the cardiovascular benefit of red wine has more to do with what characterizes the social drinker, i.e. those that consume alcohol sparingly or in moderate amounts.

The researchers aren’t calling for women to abandon alcohol altogether.  By and large, according to the statistics, women drink alcohol less frequently than men, and death as a result of alcohol is higher in men than it is in women.  Nevertheless, alcohol-related death rates among women has more than doubled since 1991 – going from 7.2 to 14.8 per 100,000 – in the 35 to 54 age bracket.  As such, these kinds of statistics, in combination with the researchers’ findings, ought to lend a renewed sense of importance to a phrase we all know but perhaps haven’t always lived by:  please drink responsibly.

For centuries green tea and reishi mushroom have been used for medicinal purposes throughout Chinese medicine for longer life, health and as treatment for many different specific conditions. Most recently more evidence has been released that these two ingredients have the power to enhance your body’s immune function as well as prevent certain types of cancer. Now Chinese scientists have discovered a new form of medical treatment that combining the active ingredients of the mushroom with the tea, creates synergetic effects that can actually inhibit the growth of tumors and delay the time of death in the mice with Sarcoma.

These two successful studies were presented to the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in San Diego this year. Although reishi is generally hard to find because they grow in the damp mountain areas of the world that have little to no sunlight, just like green tea today these medicinal plants are being manufactured as extracts for nutritional value. ReishiMax is one of the products sold to the public today and scientists have been experimenting with this component only to find numerous active ingredients inside the mushroom once it has been cut open like this.

In the first study a group of mice were injected with the Sarcoma cells and then divided into groups. Some of the groups received high, low and medium dosages of ReishiMax and green tea where one group received none. This controlled group died 28 days after the Sarcoma injections and the others lives were prolonged another 12 days in comparison.

The second study, which was designed to look towards cancer prevention instead of treatment like the first study, groups of health mice were given dosages of ReishiMax and green tea in the same manner as stated above. After given this treatment for 14 days and one group receiving no treatment, the mice were then injected with the Sarcoma cells. On the 28th day the tumors were removed from under the mice’s skin and the scientists found that the tumor weight was 45% less in weight than the mice who received no ReishiMax and green tea treatment.

Each of these Chinese herbs have dozens of different healing capabilities that have been utilized for centuries, only today are we looking back towards natural resources for medical purposes. You can find reishi mushrooms and green tea anywhere herbal and natural supplements are sold. After first speaking with a naturopathic professional who can guide and help you create a supplementation routine, you too can reap the benefits of these two herbs and do what you can to prevent different forms of cancer in your future.

The simple benefit of immune system enhancing is enough to help your body combat the conditions and diseases that are around us on a daily basis. Each of these herbs can be taken safely and should always be taken as directed. Using nature to help keep us healthy is the best way to avoid prescription drugs in the future that can only cause more side effects and conditions when natural medicine like this can do no more harm, only good.

New and developmental research was recently released at the Society for Endocrinology BES meeting in Harrogate, that the majority of patients suffering from Tuberculosis (TB) have a Vitamin D deficiency. This new information is bringing up new questions that are related to Vitamin D and how using this fat-soluble vitamin can help not only reinforce the current Tuberculosis treatments, but also be a preventative action as well. Researchers throughout the world are taking this information and conducting their own research to develop positive results linked to Vitamin D.

Researchers in a Hospital in London have taken their current Tuberculosis patients and examined their Vitamin D levels thoroughly. Out of 158 patients, only 7% had adequate Vitamin D levels. It is too early to determine whether or not Vitamin D has the ability to prevent this disease and if in fact those with low Vitamin D levels are more at risk. More research is currently underway to establish whether Vitamin D could be the new wave of Tuberculosis treatment in the future and how its healing properties can affect this condition.

Folks, don’t be fooled into believing that the best source of Vitamin D is through milk. The most abundant source of Vitamin D is through your skin from the UV rays of the sun (D₃). For those who live in climates that the sun is constantly fluctuating, it is fair to say that your Vitamin D levels also fluctuate as the sun plays a major role in your Vitamin D levels. There are many natural ways to enhance your Vitamin D levels to make sure that you do not become deficient of this essential nutrient. With sunlight being the number one source of Vitamin D you can also obtain it through different sources as well that include:

- 1 Tablespoon of Cod Liver Oil per day
- Salmon
- Tuna
- Sardines
- Sweet potatoes
- Oatmeal
- Dandelion greens
- Herbs such as parsley and alfalfa

Vitamin D is essential in the prevention and treatment of many conditions so it’s important to make sure you have an adequate level for your age and health. A vitamin deficiency can be quite serious and in many cases opens the gates for more harmful and life threatening diseases that are difficult to be stopped once the gate is open. Tuberculosis is a condition that is life long and Vitamin D has many different healing properties that can possibly attribute to this condition to either lessen the symptoms and prevent fast escalation of the condition or be the tool to prevent it altogether.

A ‘Refined’ Palette of a Different Kind In life, we often need to be reminded of why we do the things we do.  For example, we all know that eating foods high in fiber and low in fat help us avoid obesity and disease, thus increasing our chances of living a long, healthy life.  But there are times when we question just how important it really is:  Is it really THAT important to have wheat bread rather than white?  Does it really make any difference if I have white rice instead of brown?  After all, they’re both about the same in calorie and fat content.

I’m here to serve as that friendly little reminder of why whole grain carbohydrate choices are always better than refined carbohydrates.  Allow me to give you a brief history lesson: 

Before the refining process came along, food spoiled quickly.  But with the advancement of technology, the refining process made spoilage a thing of the past.  With refining, breads, cereals and rice could sit on store shelves for longer periods of time, ushering in the boom of supermarkets and their aisles of food choices.  This is all well and good, but it came with a cost.   Refining strips foods of vitamins, nutrients and minerals – the same nutrients that help the body turn carbohydrates into energy.  Without these vitamins, the energy conversion process halts, and carbohydrates are stored as fat.

Thanks to government intervention, foods once stripped of vitamins and minerals were replaced, or fortified, with vitamins and minerals like vitamin B, folic acid and calcium.  This fortification process helped alleviate the wealth of people dying from vitamin deficiencies in the early years of refining. 

Today, there are other health maladies associated with consuming vast amounts of refined carbohydrates, despite their fortification.  Obesity is the most common one mentioned, but others include diabetes, hypertension and heart attacks.  If that wasn’t enough, a recent study links the rise in refined carbohydrates to the rise in throat cancer diagnoses. 

This disturbing trend was discovered by a group of Ohio-based researchers, all affiliated with Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.  By looking at the rate of throat cancer diagnoses between 1973 and 2001 and comparing those with food consumption numbers compiled by the National Nutrient Data Bank, researchers found a “strong correlation” between throat cancer diagnoses and carbohydrate consumption.  

In addition to carbohydrates, they also found a correlation between throat cancer and gastroesophageal reflux, a disease characterized by an abnormal backward flow of gastric juices that affect the esophagus.  And it just so happens that gastroesophageal reflux – acid reflux disease for short – is strongly correlated with obesity and high carbohydrate intake. 

The specifics of how the researchers made these connections can be found in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. 

The researchers are reticent to make any broad-based conclusions about individuals’ likelihood of getting throat cancer and consuming large amounts of refined carbohydrates (you guessed it, more research needs to be done before that can happen).  Nevertheless, they and yours truly view the link as another reminder of why choosing whole grain carbohydrates over the refined kind is so important.

Give Me an E! There’s a very nice gentleman that works out at my gym named Frank. Frank’s not unlike the other regulars; he comes in, exchanges pleasantries with the staff and his fellow exercise addicts, goes through his weightlifting routine and leaves after about an hour and a half. One thing makes him stand out, though: he’s 85 years old!

Though there are lots of older folk that attend my gym, few lift weights with the same amount of weight and intensity as Frank.  As such, I’ve often wondered what’s coursing through Frank’s veins that other people his age don’t have.  Willpower is certainly one; good genetics is probably another.  The other thing he probably has a lot of that I didn’t give much consideration to is vitamin E. 

You probably didn’t think vitamin E played much of a role in one’s level of physical activity.  And why would you?  After all, vitamin E is usually referenced in health reports when it comes to improving one’s skin, or assisting in the digestion and the absorption of nutrients from food.  You may have even heard it referenced as a protection against diseases like Parkinson’s and bladder cancer.  But according to research from the Yale School of Medicine, vitamin E also plays a role in the decline of physical activity among the elderly.

To determine this, researchers collected blood samples from approximately 700 people in the 65 and older age bracket.  They then analyzed the levels of vital nutrients and vitamins in their bloodstream to see if any of them were lacking.  Participants were also asked to perform various physical tasks so researchers could detect the level of physical decline over a three-year period.

What the researchers found was that among the people whose physical activity declined the most, they all had low levels of vitamin E. 

“The odds of declining in physical function was 1.62 times greater in persons with low levels of vitamin E compared with persons with higher levels,” said Benedetta Bartali, nutritionist, author and lead researcher of the study.  “Our results suggest that an appropriate dietary intake of vitamin E may help to reduce the decline in physical function among older persons.”

The researchers believe vitamin E plays this role in physical activity because of its antioxidant properties.  Antioxidants work to rid the body of free radicals, the very free radicals that adversely affect one’s level of physical activity.  However, because vitamin E was the only antioxidant tested in the study, the researchers can’t be absolutely certain low levels of vitamin E is the common thread.  Further tests will examine other antioxidants and their impact on physical activity, antioxidants like vitamins A and C.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in maintaining or increasing your level of physical activity, finding good sources of vitamin E through food isn’t hard.  Great sources include sunflower seeds, almonds, spinach, papaya, olives and blueberries.  Just a handful of blueberries will give you about 10 percent of your daily recommended allotment, which is said to be about 15 mg per day for men and women 14 years of age and older (more for pregnant and lactating females).

Fish:  A Baby’s Brain Food? I’m sure you’ve heard of the methods some pregnant women use to turn their soon-to-be born babies into baby Einstein’s.  Some of them follow the research that says playing classical music from the likes of Mozart, Bach and Beethoven stimulates a baby’s brain development.  Others say just talking to your pre-born is the secret to baby braniacs.

Of course, these methods have never been proven fail-safe methods; it’s very debatable as to their effectiveness from one case to another.  What isn’t debatable, though, is the adverse effect mercury has on a pre-born baby’s development.  Study after study links the level of mercury in a pregnant women’s blood stream to children’s learning disabilities and impaired brain development.  In light of this, many pregnant women swear off fish.  Because various fish are known to contain large to trace amounts of mercury, many pregnant women go the full nine months without eating a single thing culled from the ocean.  But new evidence suggests this might not be such a good idea, particularly when it comes to a child’s brain development.

Researchers came to this conclusion after taking blood samples from 350 pregnant women during their second trimester, asking them what their diets were like in those three months.  By the time their child turned 3 years of age, the formerly pregnant women had their kids take various tests for the researchers, tests that measured their speaking abilities and motor skills.  What they found was that the children with the best scores had mothers who ate fish regularly during their second trimester (more than twice a week). But findings like this fly in the face of U.S. health officials’ caution to pregnant mothers – avoid eating more than two servings of fish a week (i.e. more than 12 ounces).  The findings are published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

So, what’s a pregnant mother to do?  Well, one thing researchers suggest pregnant women not do is take health officials’ caution lightly; fish like mackerel, shark, red snapper and orange roughy have high amounts of mercury that pose risks to a baby’s overall development.  Just as the researchers’ findings indicated the more fish pregnant women ate the better their children performed on tests, it also showed that the higher mercury levels were, the worse their children performed on tests.  While not all of the women with high mercury levels ate fish, a quarter of those with high mercury levels did.

Now, this probably sounds like I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth – eat more fish and you get smarter children; eat more fish and you run the risk of infecting your pre-born kids with mercury poisoning.  Which is it?  The key is to find fish that have low levels of mercury but high levels of omega-3 fatty acids – the fats believed responsible for healthy brain development.

While fish with high levels of mercury tend to also have high levels of omega-3s, there are fish that provide the best of both worlds.  One of them is salmon.  Salmon contains a .01 parts per million mercury level (ppm) and nearly two grams of omega-3s in a three ounce piece.  A close second is herring, containing .04 parts per million of mercury and roughly two grams of omega-3s for every three ounce piece.  Two other good bets are flounder or sole (.05 ppm, .48g omega-3s per three ounce piece) and pollack (.06 ppm, .45g omega-3s per three ounce piece). 

So, if you want a healthy heart and a bright child, swearing off fish entirely isn’t the answer.  Eating the safe kind of fish, however – two to three times a week – is.