Archive for the ‘Nutrition’ Category

Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases are on the rise. The pharmaceutical companies have not found a drug that cures a person. What’s the answer?

It’s so simple that most people don’t know about it. It’s getting proper cellular nutrition.

Studies have shown that one of the largest if not the only cause of neurodegenerative diseases is oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is simply the damage made to our cells by the normal process of metabolism, which creates free radicals.

Antioxidants to the rescue. But some antioxidants don’t pass through the blood brain barrier and then the cells begin to die. To keep a healthy brain we need a good diet, exercise and quality nutritional food supplements. A major factor in the death of brain cells are the statin drugs which take the cholesterol from the body. Without cholesterol, Co-Q10 and other nutrition, the brain cells die and the loss of mental capabilities sets in.

Studies today are showing with proper supplements which will pass through the brain blood cells some of the damaging effects can be reversed.

Again, eat good nutritious food, meditate, exercise regularly and take quality supplements.

Quality nutrition is something lacking in the majority of Americans today. Each processed food lowers the quality of the food you’re eating. Also, quality nutrition could replace 95 percent if brain medication used today. And there would be no side effects and a great savings in money. The two things which are in shortest supply today is good nutrition and regular exercise.

Do yourself a favor – read the labels and buy fresh produce and lean meats. Exercise three or four times a week. We can’t get our nutrients from plants grown in nutrient poor soil so for most of us high quality food supplements provide the proper balance.

The way we prepare food has a lot to do with how we obtain the best nutrients from those fruits and vegetables.

Tomatoes

Tomato sauce gives more lycopene than raw tomatoes. The heat makes the lycopene molecules more bioavailable,

Carrots

Boiling is the best way to increase a carrot’s bioavailability of carotenoids.

Bell Peppers

Are rich in vitamin B6. To preserve most nutrients, steam, roast or stir-fry.

Broccoli

An Italian study showed that cooking broccoli in water best preserved antioxidant and glucosinolate content.

Read the whole article in Dr. Andrew Weil’s August 2009 Newsletter.

It’s hard to know where to begin when speaking of nutritional supplements. In 1982, supplement sales amounted to only two billion dollars. By 1999, sales were more than $15 billion, and growing more each day.

Only a couple of decades ago, just a few vitamins and minerals were the only supplements nutritionists needed to know about. Now with all the scientific advances that we have seen and are seeing every day, we’re beginning to understand how these supplements work in the human body.

Traditionally doctors have told us we don’t need supplements. They kept saying that over the years even as they began taking supplements for themselves. The FDA and other branches of our government are slow to come into the 21^st century. Because the pharmaceutical companies basically write the laws on food and drugs, and the need for health care, neutraceuticals are being outlawed in many cases. The Food Guide Pyramid is calculated to contain all the nutrients a body needs. They maintain therefore you don’t need supplements if you follow the Food Guide Pyramid. Today we know the Food Guide Pyramid is neither accurate nor complete.

Those who propose taking supplements are often negatively placed into the alternate health care position. But we know there is a profound difference between the absence of scurvy and optimum health when taking vitamin C. And unfortunately until recently the FDA has taken the stance that one size fits all.

Do we buy fire insurance because we know we’re going to have a fire? So nutritional “insurance” will help provide us with a healthy body. Also, many drugs prescribed by doctors drain away vital nutrients. For example, if you are taking Lipitor, your doctor should prescribe Coenzyme Q 10. Mine didn’t. The essential fatty acids in fish oils does a better job than Lipitor in lowering cholesterol. But following that line would make a hugh dent in the $20 billion a year in sales for Lipitor alone. Take away the 95% that is not needed and see where that leaves the pharmaceuticals.

The reason the pharmaceutical companies need to advertise so heavily in print and TV is that thinking people would stop buying all these drugs if not for the scare tactics of the pharmaceutical companies. When people stop buying all these processed foods and go back to whole food without the nutrition taken out the pharmaceutical companies would loose billions and billions of dollars each year and they want to feed the fat cats.

It was after World War II (ended in 1945 for you youngsters) that the edible oil companies took over our food supply. As they learned that refining food products, literally taking the nutrition out of our food and substituting placebos that obesity began to occur. By 1959 the fast food restaurant came into being and hydrogenated oils replaced lard, butter and tallow. They told us that margarine was better than butter, transfat better than saturated fat; eggs were filled with cholesterol and therefore unhealthy. All the real foods were being replaced with artificial ingredients that were supposed to save us from getting heart attacks and strokes.

The reality is that since WWII diabetes, strokes, heart attacks and sudden cardiac arrest have increased. Dementia, Alzheimer, fibromyalgia spread among the population as people got away from “real” food and ate the plastic food off the shelf. This food had most of the nutrients taken out and preservatives added so that they had a longer self-life and it didn’t matter if you ate it this year or next. It was indestructible and indigestible.

Our human bodies are quite amazing and are capable of  overcoming many obstacles but continued abuse with poor diets and lack of exercise are taking its toll and so more than half of US citizens are obese. When we look at other countries who have not taken on Western ways we find they are much healthier.

Unfortunately we have been sold a bill of goods and only now people are beginning to realize there is a better way – there is a way to eat healthy. As scientific studies have shown we need food supplements to get the nutrients we need for a healthy body. Exercise and diet are the two main ingredients for a healthy llife-style.

Live life as it was meant to be.

The most creative thing we can do is to bring balance into our life. As we learn that process we will also bring quality and longevity into our life as well.

Business analysts estimate that the antiaging industry generates $50 billion a year in sales. It does this by offering remedies for the effects of aging – creams, lotions, injections, surgeries, and food supplements. The end result is that in these offerings of products you can never stop buying the products.

Dr. Thomas Perls of Boston University School of Medicine and his team, who are studying centenarians, found a region on chromosome 4 that is linked to exceptional longevity. If you have one of these 200 genes which slow down the aging process you can expect a longer life. But nutrition, exercise, lifestyle and environment play a 70 percent chance in longer life while genes play only a 30 percent chance.

Good healthy living plays a large part in how long we live and the quality of life we live.

You can read more in Dr. Joseph Maroon’s book, The Longevity Factor, Chap. 20

As we age we see a loss of organ reserve, not only do our muscles get weaker, many other factors play in as well as our bodies seem to grow old. But the biggest factor contributing to the deterioration of our body is nutrition. Most people still do not eat a good diet with the food that is responsible for building us up. We consume too many omega-6 oils (safflower, sunflower, corn, soybean, cottonseed as well as others). We need to increase our consumption of omega-3 oils (fish oil supplements, flax seed, and others). Omega-3 is an anti-inflammatory essential fatty oil which improves the elasticity of every cell in our body. Cells that are hydrated and oxygenated work at an optimal level and reverse the aging process. With a smooth functioning, healthy body we see our energy levels rise. More and more studies tell us that as we take the proper nutrients, and not drugs, there is less likelihood of disease. Disease is not natural or normal. We bring it upon ourselves by improper eating and taking too many drugs. Drugs are sometimes needed in some cases but the widespread use of drugs in America is making us a sicker nation than any other industrialized nation in the world.

If you want to live a long healthy life examine what you are doing—eat properly, meditate, exercise, and breathe deeply.

One good move today is taking place as some schools are taking soda/pop machines out of the schools. The cola companies promised to give a percentage of the dollars spent back to the schools. But at what cost? The corn syrup industry likes it. The dentists get plenty of business filling teeth. But the student suffers. For one thing it raises the omega-6 level in the body which is already out of balance for a healthy life.

The most important thing we can do for our children is to provide them with good, natural fresh foods and clean water. Instead of the candy bar eat a piece of fresh fruit. To my understanding, most tastes are acquired. If you give a child wholesome, nutritious food they will look for that when they snack. I suggest organic foods wherever possible. They may cost a little more up front but then you don’t have as many illnesses and doctor’s bills.

There are also several supplements you actually need.

First we don’t get enough omega-3—the anti-inflammatory “medicine”. The ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 should be one-to-two. Studies today say it is more like 1-to-17 or 25. (Much of this comes from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in our diets. Omega-3 is also very important for making healthy cells in every part of our bodies. They are also essential for prenatal and childhood brain development.

Probiotics (acidophilus/bifidus) are the healthy bacteria that needs to be in our digestive system. When we take an anti-biotic, the good bacteria gets killed along with the bad and it needs help to be restored to the proper level.

A multi vitamin for children then helps to fill the gays that usually happens in every diet. Keep extra vitamin C on hand for use when a cold is coming on.

As the child gets older vitamin D is a necessity for those of us living in northern climates where we don’t get enough sun to manufacture the vitamin D our system needs. Milk is often fortified with vitamin D.

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is the energy running every cell in the body. The heart works harder than any other muscle in the body. To keep it healthy we need a balance to keep our energy up.

Just a reminder! When you buy food supplements buy QUALITY. The cheapest is probably the most expensive in the long run. A recent study showed that one-third of the supplements tested didn’t provide what was stated on the label. A poor supplement will just pass through the body without any benefit at all. Some children’s vitamins were too potent for the age listed on the label. It is important to buy a good quality supplement.

You only have one body. Take care of it.

I found this article quite interesting. You can read the whole article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/health/17well.html?_r=2&ref=science
New York Times, February 17, 2009
Vitamin Pills: A False Hope? By TARA PARKER-POPE

“Ever since the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Linus Pauling first promoted “megadoses” of essential nutrients 40 years ago, Americans have been devoted to their vitamins. Today about half of all adults use some form of dietary supplement, at a cost of $23 billion a year.

But are vitamins worth it? In the past few years, several high-quality studies have failed to show that extra vitamins, at least in pill form, help prevent chronic disease or prolong life.”

They did a number of studies of over 200,000 men and women. In the article it said that a well-balanced diet “typically provides an adequate level of these nutrients, and today many popular foods are fortified with extra vitamins and minerals.” What they didn’t tell you was that farm raised salmon typically doesn’t have much omega-3 because they are fed corn and soy. Wild salmon eat smaller fish which have fed on algae and are rich in omega-3.

Another question is: How many men and women in these studies are following the popular low fat-high carb food regimen that has been popular the last 50 years?

How many are on statin drugs which not only lowers cholesterol but also weakens muscles, including the heart? Statin drugs also lowers CoQ10 which ever cell in the body needs because CoQ10 supplies the energy to the body.

How many people are taking omega-3 which does a better job than statin drugs in lowering cholesterol? That $23 billion mentioned above on vitamins is less than the pharmaceutical companies are making on the statin drugs. And the vitamins are not doing the harm that statin drugs do.

How many people are loading up with foods saturated with hydrogenated oils? It’s hard for me to find any processed food that isn’t loaded with hydrogenated oils. And I’m looking. How many people just pull some food off the shelf and don’t look at the label?

How many people are using butter and lard instead of Crisco (a hydrogenated oil)?
When you’re taking poison into your system by way of hydrogenated oils vitamin pills are at a loss for doing their job.

How many people are using pure coconut oil that is not contaminated? Much of the coconut oil we find has been dried in the sun and then chemically processed to take out the impurities. Pure coconut oil doesn’t need this contamination process.

In these studies of over 200,000 men and women how many were eating healthy? Other studies tell us that most people do not eat healthy, they fill up on hydrogenated oils in their food, like margarine, vegetable oils processed by hydrogenation, and French fries (loaded with 40% hydrogenated oil – the high heat also contaminates food)?

My take on this: If you want a true test of vitamins, ignore what the government says about the daily recommended amount of vitamins. This was basically set in World War II to keep young soldiers alive. Go back to butter, lard, and eat plenty of green vegetables. Most of what the average American eats lead to obesity, type-2 diabetes, inflammation of the arteries, and poor health. Just look around you.

For more on this just peruse my blog on eating.

To Your Health and Wellness.

“Appearing in the February issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA journal, the study suggests that health care providers in the country should discourage the use of supplements by children with healthy diets.”

Okay! Let’s say that you eat a healthy diet – that’s protein, fruits and vegetables at every meal and cut out the sugared foodstuffs and soda pop.
How many children fall into this catagory? I’m just guessing but I believe it would be below 10 percent. I hope I’m wrong. But in my neighborhood where drugs come before food I don’t believe most of the children are getting healthy diets. My question is why does the AMA continue to suppress supplements? In these northern states we don’t get enough vitamin D even when the sun comes out. When I was a child, some 70 years ago, my parents gave us codliver oil. The list could go on but I’m really unhappy with some of these suggestions? by the AMA. Are they still being too well paid by big Pharma?