Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Alternative/natural solution-based discussions of topics like health, medicine, science, food, etc.
Post Reply
User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Today's note from Dr Mercola -- OIL PULLING using Coconut oil especially.
Don't know what that is? read on!

I know some of you guys have been heralding oil pulling for months; well finally --
I'm going to try it.
December 08, 2012 | 80,745 views |


By Dr. Mercola

Coconuts are among the most nutritionally dense foods on the planet and have been a dietary staple for millennia. Western science is now "playing catch-up" to what natives of tropical regions have known for thousands of years. One of the reasons coconut is so special is that it's a natural antimicrobial food.

Coconut, especially its oil, is a powerful destroyer of all kinds of microbes, from viruses to bacteria to protozoa, many of which harm human health.

Researchers at the Athlone Institute of Technology's Bioscience Research Institute in Ireland set out to test coconut oil's biocidal properties against the bacteria responsible for tooth decay.

Dental caries is a commonly overlooked problem affecting 60 to 90 percent of children and the majority of adults in industrialized countries, according to chief researcher Dr. Damien Brady. His research team tested the antibacterial action of coconut oil in its natural state and coconut oil that had been treated with enzymes, in a process similar to digestion.

The oils were tested against strains of Streptococcus bacteria, which are common inhabitants of your mouth.

They found that enzyme-modified coconut oil strongly inhibits the growth of most strains of Streptococcus bacteria, including Streptococcus mutans, an acid-producing bacterium that is a major cause of tooth decay1. It is thought that the breaking down of the fatty coconut oil by the enzymes turns it into acids, which are toxic to certain bacteria.2 Enzyme-modified coconut oil was also harmful to the yeast Candida albicans, which can cause thrush.

Dr. Brady said:

"Incorporating enzyme-modified coconut oil into dental hygiene products would be an attractive alternative to chemical additives, particularly as it works at relatively low concentrations. Also, with increasing antibiotic resistance, it is important that we turn our attention to new ways to combat microbial infection."

The work also contributes to our understanding of antibacterial activity in the human gut, which helps maintain the balanced flora necessary for a strong immune system.

"Our data suggests that products of human digestion show antimicrobial activity. This could have implications for how bacteria colonize the cells lining the digestive tract and for overall gut health," explained Dr. Brady.

The Many Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

Coconut oil offers an impressive array of health benefits. In addition to its antimicrobial properties, coconut oil is beneficial for:

Promoting heart health
Supporting proper thyroid function
Strengthening your immune system
Providing an excellent "fuel" for your body and supporting a strong metabolism
Maintaining healthy and youthful looking skin


One of the primary reasons coconut oil's benefits are so broad is that 50 percent of the fat in coconut oil is lauric acid, which is rarely found in nature. In fact, coconut oil contains the most lauric acid of any substance on Earth. Your body converts lauric acid into monolaurin, a monoglyceride that can actually destroy lipid-coated viruses such as HIV and herpes, influenza, measles, gram-negative bacteria, and protozoa such as giardia lamblia.

Another of coconut oil's antimicrobial components is capric acid, present in lesser amounts.

Coconut oil is also comprised of medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs), which are smaller than the long chain fatty acids that are much more common to vegetable and seed oils. MCFAs are easily digested and readily cross cell membranes, and are sent directly to your liver, where they are immediately converted into energy rather than stored as fat. Coconut oil is easy on your digestive system and does not produce an insulin spike in your bloodstream.

A Traditional Diet Might Not Guarantee You Perfect Oral Health

In the 1900s, Dr. Weston A. Price did extensive research on the link between oral health and physical diseases. He discovered that the most successful primitive groups health-wise were those who paid attention to and integrated beneficial ancient knowledge and dietary wisdom into their lives. The difference, Price reasoned, between primitive cultures who were healthy and those who were diseased came not from solely eating a traditional diet (as they all did), but in the accumulated wisdom enjoyed by certain populations, which allowed them to enjoy optimal health.

One of the keys to oral health is eating a traditional diet rich in fresh, unprocessed vegetables, nuts, and grass-fed meats that are in line with your genetic ancestry. However, as beneficial as that diet is to your dental and overall health, it might not be enough to guarantee perfect oral health.

We know, of course, that eating junk food and sugar certainly causes and worsens dental decay in humans, but there must be more to the story. There is evidence of tooth decay in ancient populations, long before there was exposure to refined sugar and white flour, as well as among wild animals today. Even some dolphins, which generally eat no carbohydrates whatsoever — only fish, squid, and crustaceans — have problems with tooth decay. Clearly, simply following a traditional diet is not enough to explain this phenomenon, or else there would be no dental decay in ancient peoples or wildlife.

Plaque-Busting Strategy No. 1: Fermented Vegetables

In the past, I was also challenged with plaque accumulation which resulted in my having to make monthly visits to the dental hygienist. It seemed no amount of brushing, flossing, and even using a dental irrigator diminished this problem. However, in November of 2011, I was introduced to the first of two natural strategies that have significantly improved my plaque problem. The trick? Simply adding healthy amounts of high quality fermented vegetables to my diet.

Fermented vegetables are loaded with friendly flora that not only improve digestion but alter the flora in your mouth as well. Since the addition of these foods into my diet, my plaque has decreased by 50 percent and is much softer. I later further refined my approach by doing oil pulling with coconut oil and learning how to specifically target the primary source of plague, which is the junction of the tooth and gum surface by carefully directing my toothbrush at the appropriate angle.

Download Interview Transcript

Plaque-Busting Strategy No. 2: Oil Pulling

The second technique I've been using for the past year is called "oil pulling" with coconut oil, which has reduced my plaque by another 50 percent, allowing me to go two months between visits to the hygienist, instead of one. Oil pulling is a practice dating back thousands of years, having originated with Ayurvedic medicine. When oil pulling is combined with the antimicrobial power of coconut oil, you have one very powerful health tool.

Sesame oil is traditionally recommended, but it has relatively high concentration of omega-6 oils. Therefore, I believe coconut oil is far superior, and, in my mind, it tastes better. But from a mechanical and biophysical perspective, it is likely that both work.

Oil pulling is simple. Basically, it involves rinsing your mouth with coconut oil, much like you would with a mouthwash. The oil is "worked" around your mouth by pushing, pulling, and drawing it through your teeth for a period of 15 minutes. If you are obsessive like me and want even better results you can go for 30-45 minutes. This process allows the oil to "pull out" bacteria, viruses, fungi and other debris. The best time is in the morning before eating breakfast, but it can be done at any time, the important point is to just do it. I seek to do it twice a day if my schedule allows. The used oil is discarded and your mouth rinsed with water. You should not swallow the oil because it's loaded with bacteria, toxins, pus, and mucous.

When done correctly, oil pulling has a significant cleansing, detoxifying and healing affect, not only for your mouth and sinuses but for the rest of your body as well.

Candida and Streptococcus are common residents in your mouth, and it's these germs and their toxic waste products that cause plaque accumulation and tooth decay, in addition to secondary infections and chronic inflammation throughout your body. Oil pulling can help lessen the overall toxic burden on your immune system by preventing the spread of these organisms from your mouth to the rest of your body, by way of your bloodstream.

The potential benefits of oil pulling extend well beyond your mouth. Oil pullers have reported rapid relief from systemic health problems, such as arthritis, diabetes and heart disease. According to Bruce Fife, naturopathic physician and expert in the healing effects of coconut3, the cleansing effect of oil pulling can be understood with the following analogy:

"It acts much like the oil you put in your car engine. The oil picks up dirt and grime. When you drain the oil, it pulls out the dirt and grime with it, leaving the engine relatively clean. Consequently, the engine runs smoother and lasts longer. Likewise, when we expel harmful substances from our bodies our health is improved and we run smoother and last longer."

Additional Tips for Improving Your Oral Health

Total Video Length: 01:12:05

Download Interview Transcript

Proper dental hygiene is important for optimal health in your mouth and in the rest of your body, as discussed by Dr. Bill Osmunson in the interview above. When it comes to preventing cavities, drinking fluoridated water and brushing your teeth with fluoridated toothpaste is not the answer, because fluoride is more toxic than lead. The key is your diet and proper dental care: good old brushing and flossing. By avoiding sugars and processed foods, you prevent the proliferation of the bacteria that cause decay in the first place.

Practicing twice daily brushing and flossing, along with regular cleanings by your biological dentist and hygienist, will ensure that your teeth and gums are as healthy as they can be. You may want to try oil pulling to enhance your current dental hygiene routine.

In addition to consuming foods that are part of the "traditional diet" and avoiding processed foods and refined sugar, make sure you are getting plenty omega-3 fats. The latest research suggests even moderate amounts of omega-3 fats may help ward off gum disease. My favorite source of high quality omega-3 fat is krill oil.

And speaking of sugar, a particular type of honey from New Zealand called Manuka honey has also been shown to be effective in reducing plaque. Researchers found Manuka honey worked as well as chemical mouthwash — and better than the cavity fighting sugar alcohol, xylitol — in reducing levels of plaque. This is most likely due to the honey's antibacterial properties. Clinical trials have shown that Manuka honey can effectively eradicate more than 250 clinical strains of bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant varieties.

I still believe that oil pulling with coconut oil gives you more bang for your buck for your oral health, but just realize you have natural options to harsh and often toxic chemicals.

User avatar
Original_Intent
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 13008

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by Original_Intent »

Hooray! Dr. Mercola! - having read much of his stuff, I have been surprised he hasn't prmoted oil pulling sooner!

Glad you will be joining us in swishing, Dr. Jones!

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Thanks, O_I ...

Today -- regarding exercise and aging gracefully... even feeling younger at my age (63).

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... _DNL_art_2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

By Dr. Mercola

If you had a choice and could either age well, enjoying your "golden years" with energy and vigor, free from disability and illness – or age poorly, and be straddled with health issues that keep you from fully living the later years of your life … which would you choose?

You do actually have a choice, or at least can choose to use strategies that will greatly sway your chances in one direction or the other. And I'm sure most everyone reading this would rather experience healthy aging than the alternative…

4 Key Strategies to Ensure Healthy Aging

New research has found four key behaviors that lower your risk of disability, chronic disease and mental health problems as you age.1

Not smoking
Moderate drinking

Exercising regularly (at least 2.5 hours a week of moderate activity or 1 hour a week of vigorous activity)
Eating vegetables and fruits daily

Now here's what's interesting. While each of these was moderately beneficial on its own, increasing the odds of "successful aging" by up to 50 percent, the best rewards came from following all of them simultaneously. Those who practiced all four of these tripled their chances of avoiding disability and disease over a 16-year period, and experienced good cognitive, mental, physical, respiratory, and cardiovascular functioning.

"Although individual healthy behaviors are moderately associated with successful aging, their combined impact is substantial," the researchers said.

6 Additional Healthy Aging Strategies to Add to Your Arsenal

The bottom line is, the more healthy habits you embrace, the higher your chances of aging "successfully" becomes. And while the strategies listed above are all important, there are several others that I believe can benefit most people greatly as well.

1. Avoid Sugar/Fructose

Limiting sugar in your diet is a well-known key to longevity, because of all the molecules capable of inflicting damage in your body, sugar molecules are probably the most damaging of all. Fructose in particular is an extremely potent pro-inflammatory agent that creates toxic advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which are associated with the development of chronic degenerative diseases associated with aging.

Excess fructose consumption also promotes the kind of dangerous growth of fat cells around your vital organs that are the hallmark of diabetes and heart disease. In one study, 16 volunteers who ate high levels of fructose produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs in just 10 weeks!2

Sugar/fructose also increases your insulin and leptin levels and decreases receptor sensitivity for both of these vital hormones, and this is another major factor in premature aging and age-related chronic degenerative diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. Keep in mind that while it's perfectly normal for your blood sugar levels to rise slightly after every meal, it is not natural or healthy when your blood sugar levels become excessively elevated and stay that way.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what will happen if you're eating like the average American, who consumes a staggering 2.5 pounds of sugar a week on average! And when you add in other low-quality carb foods such as pastries, cookies, candy and starchy "complex carbs" such as bread and pasta, which also break down to sugar (glucose) in your body, it's not so difficult to see why so many Americans are in such poor health.

Further, according to Professor Cynthia Kenyon, whom many experts believe should win the Nobel Prize for her research into aging, carbohydrates (glucose) directly affect the genes that govern youthfulness and longevity. So, you may actually be able to extend your life and stay fit throughout your old age with a simple dietary change that switches on your "youth" gene.

Kenyon's research with C. elegans roundworms showed that decreased carb intake can lead to significant life extension and improved long-term health. One of the most interesting details of her findings is that not only did the roundworms live up to SIX TIMES longer than normal, but they kept their health and youthful vigor until the end—and isn't that what "healthy aging" is really all about?

As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day. However, most people would be wise to limit their fructose to 15 grams or less, particularly if you have elevated uric acid levels, which can be used as an indicator of fructose toxicity. (For more information on this, please see this recent article.)

2. High Intensity "Anti-Aging" Exercise like Peak Fitness

Even if you're eating the healthiest diet in the world, you still need to exercise to reach the highest levels of health, and you need to be exercising effectively, which means including high-intensity activities into your rotation. A recent study published in the journal Mechanisms of Aging and Development3 confirmed the "anti-aging" effect of high-intensity training, such as Peak Fitness.

High-intensity interval-type training also gives a natural boost to your human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor.
I've discussed the importance of Peak Fitness for your health on numerous occasions, so for more information, please review this previous article.

3. Stress Reduction and Positive Thinking

You cannot be optimally healthy if you avoid addressing the emotional component of your health and longevity, as your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease -- from heart disease and depression, to arthritis and cancer. It's simply no coincidence that many centenarians mention positive thought and emotional wellness in their advice on how to stay healthy. As 114-year-old Walter Breuning said before his death:

"Tell yourself that every day is a good day, and make it that way."

Effective coping mechanisms are a major longevity-promoting factor in part because stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Meditation, prayer, social support and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium. I also strongly believe in using simple tools such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to address deeper, oftentimes hidden, emotional problems.

4. Take High-Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats

Animal-based omega-3 fat is a strong factor in helping people live longer, and many experts believe that it is likely the predominant reason why the Japanese are the longest lived race on the planet (as their diets are naturally high in omega-3s). In the United States, many are deficient in omega-3 fats.

According to Dr. William Harris, an expert on omega-3 fats, those who have an omega-3 index of less than 4 percent age much faster than those with indexes above 8 percent. Therefore, your omega-3 index may also be an effective marker of your rate of aging.

Although this research is preliminary, I would suggest that optimizing your omega-3 levels above 8 percent would be a good strategy if you're interested in delaying aging. (Your doctor can order the omega-3 index test from a lab called Health Diagnostic Laboratory in Richmond, Virginia.)

5. Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels

In one study of more than 2,000 women, those with higher vitamin D levels were found to have fewer aging-related changes in their DNA, as well as lowered inflammatory responses.4 Additionally, people with low levels of vitamin D have been found to be more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure, and diseased heart muscle -- and are three times more likely to die from any cause compared to those with normal levels.5

We have long known that it is best to get your vitamin D from sun exposure, and if at all possible, I strongly urge you to make sure you're getting out in the sun on a daily basis. If you can't get out in the sun, a safe tanning bed is the next best option. It is also important to make sure you get enough vitamin K2 to balance your vitamin D levels. The best way to get the vitamin K2 is from fermented vegetables that are created from special starter cultures that use bacteria that make vitamin K2.

6. Intermittent Fasting

There's a growing body of research showing that fasting has a beneficial impact on longevity in animals. There are a number of mechanisms contributing to this effect. Normalizing insulin sensitivity is a major one as insulin sensitivity is critical for the activation of the mTOR pathway, which plays an important part in repairing and regenerating your tissues including your muscles and thereby counteracting the aging process. The fact that it improves a number of potent disease markers indicates that fasting can have an overall beneficial effect on your general health. For example, modern science has confirmed fasting can help you:

Normalize your insulin sensitivity, which is key for optimal health as insulin resistance (which is what you get when your insulin sensitivity plummets) is a primary contributing factor to nearly all chronic disease, from diabetes to heart disease and even cancer
Normalize ghrelin levels, also known as "the hunger hormone"
Promote human growth hormone (HGH) production, which plays an important part in health, fitness and slowing the aging process
Lower triglyceride levels
Reduce inflammation and lessening free radical damage

On intermittent fasting, the longest time you'll ever abstain from food is 36 hours, although 14-18 hours is more common. You can also opt to simply delay eating, for example skipping breakfast, or stop eating earlier in the day. The issue of fasting is a major shift from my typical recommendations. I've not been a major advocate for it in the past, but as many of you who have been reading this site for years know, I am always learning.

To that end, I've now revised my personal eating schedule to eliminate breakfast and restrict the time I eat food to a period of about six to seven hours each day, which is typically from noon to 6 or 7 pm.

One caveat: the same genes that promote human longevity also appear to suppress female reproductive capacity. Hence fasting and intense exercise protocols, both known to promote longevity, also lower estrogen levels, thereby modulating body composition in women and suppressing female reproductive capacity. So this may not be an ideal strategy for women of reproductive age who wish to have children.

Healthy Aging is a "Package Deal"

There is no "quick fix" or magic bullet when it comes to aging well. Generally speaking, the better you treat your body throughout your life, the better your aging experience will be.

Most people do not revel in the thought of getting older because for many "aging" is synonymous with aches and pains, forgetfulness and loneliness. It certainly is inevitable that you're going to get older, but I can tell you from personal experience that this does not have to be a bad thing.

Now, in my late 50s, I am the fittest I have ever been in my life, and I also live out every day to its fullest potential. I may have been able to run faster when I was younger but I would never trade that for the muscle strength, flexibility and knowledge that I have today. You too can achieve wellness on both physical and mental fronts, and you can do so at any age. In fact, in many respects life only continues to get better as the years go by.

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Today -- ZINC!

By Dr. Mercola

Now that daylight is waning, cold and flu bugs are ready to jump on any warm body not armed with a strong immune system. With so many novel herbs and supplements on the market, it's easy to lose sight of the basics for robust immune defenses.

One of those is the trace element zinc. Your body needs zinc every day in just the right amount, because too much can be as harmful as too little. Your body has no way to store zinc, so it depends on a daily supply through diet. Zinc is important for a number of life-sustaining functions, including:

Strong immunity
Important component of the enzymes involved in tissue remodeling and prevention of cancer
Maintenance of your mood, mental clarity and restorative sleep
Prostate and intestinal health
Senses of taste and smell

Zinc is a constituent of at least 3,000 different proteins in your body and a component of more than 200 different enzymes. In fact, zinc is involved in more enzymatic reactions in your body than any other mineral. Zinc increases your production of white blood cells and helps them fight infection more effectively. It also increases killer cells that combat cancer, helps your immune system release more antibodies, and supports wound healing.

Could You Be Deficient in Zinc?

Mild zinc deficiency is relatively common, especially in infants and children, pregnant or breast-feeding women, elderly, people with poor gastrointestinal absorption or bowel disease like Crohn's disease, and for those eating vegetarian or vegan diets. A number of factors contribute to the overall problem of zinc deficiency:

Years of commercial farming practices, such as monocropping (planting large expanses of land with the same crop year after year), have left our soils deficient in natural minerals, like zinc.
Certain drugs deplete your body of zinc, such as ACE inhibitors, thiazide diuretics, and acid-reducing drugs like Prliosec and Pepcid.
Certain diets, such as vegetarian/vegan diets and high-grain diets, are low in bioavailable zinc and high in phytic acids, which further impair zinc absorption.

Mild zinc deficiency can lead to frequent colds and flu, chronic fatigue, and poor general health. In your child, when growth and development are vitally dependent on good nutrition, inadequate zinc can result in mood disturbances, poor memory, impaired learning and poor school performance. Zinc deficiency can also contribute to acne and poor eyesight. Chronic zinc deficiency can affect eyesight, taste, smell, and memory. White spots on your fingernails can indicate you're not getting enough zinc.

Zinc is a Key Mineral for Your Immune Health

If your body has inadequate zinc stores, you will experience increased susceptibility to a variety of infectious agents. Your white blood cells simply can't function without zinc. Zinc affects multiple aspects of your immune system, including neutrophils, natural killer cells, phagocytosis, cytokine production, antibody production, and even gene regulation within your lymphocytes. Zinc is involved in many basic cellular functions including DNA replication, RNA transcription, cell division and activation, and stabilization of cell membranes.

The research on zinc's effect on pathogens is a bit inconsistent, but many studies show a strong protective effect. Some studies show that zinc may reduce the duration of your cold by 50 percent.

The Cochrane Review found that zinc reduced both the duration and severity of symptoms of the common cold. And using zinc preventatively helped prevent colds, leading to fewer school absences and less antibiotic use by children. Zinc is the hallmark molecule for thymic proteins, which are immune substances made by your thymus gland. Without zinc, you lack this immune defense. Zinc salts are deadly to many pathogens. Viral gastroenteritis is slowed down by the ingestion of zinc due to direct antimicrobial action of the zinc ions in your gastrointestinal tract.

If You're Pregnant, Zinc is Even MORE Important

There is rarely a more nutritionally demanding time during a woman's life than pregnancy (and later breastfeeding), when the intake of nutrients from foods and supplements are needed not only to keep her body running but also to nourish and support her rapidly growing baby. Because zinc is required for proper cell division, it is vitally important to get adequate zinc during this time. Low zinc levels have been associated with the following:

Premature birth
Low birth weight babies
Growth retardation
Preeclampsia

One study found that zinc supplementation in pregnancy resulted in babies with significantly larger head circumference and higher birth weight. Zinc has many other important functions in your body, summarized in the following table:

Zinc is required for your body to utilize vitamin B6 Proper Sleep: Zinc, vitamin B6, and tryptophan are all needed to produce melatonin; zinc deficiency leads to insomnia
Mood: As with sleep, B6 is needed to produce serotonin, which is crucial for your mood Senses of taste and smell: Zinc is required to produce an enzyme called carbonic anhydrase (CA) VI, critical to taste and smell; deficiency can lead to anorexia.
Apoptosis, or "programmed cell death": Excessive apoptosis can occur from too much or too little zinc (this is why many viruses die in a zinc-rich environment) Eye health: Helps prevent ARMD (macular degeneration), night blindness and cataracts
Helps diabetics regulate insulin levels Skin health: Helps prevent and treat psoriasis, eczema, and acne (with results similar to tetracycline)
Treatment of Alzheimer's disease: Vast improvements in memory, understanding, communication, and social contact Improved outcomes for patients with HIV
Male sexual function: Treatment of male infertility, BPH, and erectile dysfunction; zinc may govern testosterone metabolism Reducing diarrhea in children with zinc deficiency
Antioxidant: Zinc retards oxidative processes in your body, although exact mechanisms remain unknown Anti-inflammatory: Zinc may reduce chronic inflammation and risk of atherosclerosis
High Grain Diets Directly Linked to Zinc Deficiency

High grain diets can lead to a number of health problems, including severe zinc deficiency, which in turn can lead to rickets and dwarfism. According to nutrition expert Dr. Loren Cordain:

"It is thought that the high levels of phytate in unleavened whole grain breads cause a zinc deficiency, which in turn is responsible for hypogonadal dwarfism, along with other health problems associated with zinc deficiencies. In Europe, where immigrant Pakistanis consume high levels of unleavened whole grain breads, rickets among their children remains a problem."

Why is this? Grains are high in phytic acids (as are legumes, seeds, and soy) and phytic acids are known to impair your absorption of minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc. People in Western populations most at risk are those with diets high in unrefined grains, legumes, soy protein, and calcium, and low in animal protein.

Protein assists with zinc absorption. Animal proteins increase zinc absorption in general. Vegetarian and vegan diets, often high in grains and legumes, contain more phytic acid and may increase your risk for zinc deficiency. This is just one of many reasons I don't recommend eating a lot of grains.

How to Optimize Your Zinc Levels

As always, it's best to optimize your nutrition by implementing a diet rich in whole foods to receive your zinc requirements. Animal products are by far the richest in dietary zinc, as you can see in the table below. Oysters tip the scales at up to 182mg per serving!

Food Serving Size Zinc (mg)
Oysters 100 grams 16-182
Veal liver 100 grams 12
Pumpkin seeds (roasted) 100 grams 10
Roast beef 100 grams 10
Tahini (ground sesame seeds) 100 grams 10
Unsweetened chocolate 100 grams 9.6
Alaska King Crab 100 grams 7.6
Lamb 3 ounces 7.4
Peanuts (oil roasted) 100 grams 6.6
Cashews (dry roasted) 100 grams 5.6
Pork Shoulder 100 grams 5.0
Almonds 100 grams 3.5
Cheddar Cheese 100 grams 3.1
Chicken Leg 100 grams 2.9
Chicken Breast 100 grams 1.0



If, for whatever reason, you are not getting enough zinc, or are a vegetarian or have one of the conditions listed in the table above, you may want to add a zinc supplement. But what kind of supplement should you take?

Chelated Forms of Zinc are Better Absorbed

There are a number of forms of zinc available on the market, some better than others. Your body does not easily absorb zinc, unless the zinc is first attached to another substance. Chelation is a process sometimes used to attach zinc to other substances to make it more absorbable and bioavailable. In chelation, the organic molecules have been electrically charged, which allows them to attract the zinc. One advantage of chelated forms is you won't get antagonism with calcium, which can be an issue for zinc salts, such as zinc sulfate.

Zinc sulfate is one of the inorganic forms of zinc, or zinc salts. These are not as biologically effective as chelated forms. Zinc sulfate can cause stomach irritation. Another inorganic variety is zinc oxide, which is the form of zinc used in many sunscreens.

Other good forms of zinc include zinc gluconate, which is made essentially by fermenting glucose; zinc acetate, made by combining the zinc with acetic acid; and zinc citrate, made by combining the zinc with citric acid. It's advantageous to take a supplement with a variety of forms, if possible. The current RDAs for zinc are listed in the following table:

Age Male Female Pregnancy Lactation
0-6 months 2 mg 2 mg
7 months to 3 years 3 mg 3 mg
4-8 years 5 mg 5 mg
9-13 years 8 mg 8 mg
14-18 years 11 mg 9 mg 12 mg 13 mg
19 + years 11 mg 8 mg 11 mg 12 mg



These recommended doses are for ELEMENTAL zinc, and each form of zinc (zinc sulfate, zinc citrate, zinc gluconate, etc.) contains a different amount of elemental zinc. The amount of elemental zinc a supplement contains will be listed in the Supplemental Facts panel on the supplement container.

For example, approximately 23 percent of zinc sulfate consists of elemental zinc. Therefore, 220 mg of zinc sulfate would give you about 50 mg of elemental zinc. You must take this into consideration if you're going to use a supplement, as well as the fact that the average person gets about 10 to 15 mg of zinc per day from the foods you consume. You will have to use your best judgment in determining if you are at the upper or lower end of that range, based on your dietary habits, and supplement accordingly.

Too Much of a Good Thing…

Foods and medications can interfere with absorption, so the timing of your supplement is important. For example, caffeine can interfere with zinc absorption of zinc by as much as 50 percent—so you will want to avoid chasing down your supplement with a cup of coffee. By contrast, the amino acids cysteine and methionine improve zinc absorption, which means taking your zinc supplement with a high-quality whey protein would be a dynamite immune-boosting duo.

Although it is important to get adequate zinc, balance is key. Taking TOO MUCH can also cause problems, although it generally takes fairly high doses over time to reach toxic levels. Chronically excessive zinc intake can suppress copper and iron absorption leading to deficiencies in those minerals.

In conclusion, zinc is an often forgotten nutritional staple to add to your flu-busting arsenal. It's inexpensive insurance that can stop those viruses dead in their tracks. In addition to making sure you're getting enough zinc, don't forget how important your vitamin D levels are for keeping you healthy this winter.

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Ah-hah -- an important link between Vitamin D3, calcium usage in the body and VITAMIN K2 - read on.
By Dr. Mercola

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin most well known for the important role it plays in blood clotting. However, many do not realize that there are different kinds of vitamin K, and they are completely different.

The health benefits of vitamin K2 go far beyond blood clotting, which is done by vitamin K1, and vitamin K2 also works synergistically with a number of other nutrients, including calcium and vitamin D.

Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue, a naturopathic physician with a keen interest in nutrition, has authored what I believe is one of the most comprehensive books on this important topic, titled: Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox: How a Little Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life

"I tuned in to the emerging research about K2 early in 2007," she says. "Not long before, I had read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price. When I learned about vitamin K2, I thought:

"Hey, you know what? I'm sure Price talked all about this in his book." I went to the book, looked through it, and didn't find any reference to vitamin K2. I was really stumped.

A little bit later in 2007, I read a brilliant article by Chris Masterjohn that links vitamin K2 to Prices' work on Activator X.

Once I realized that link, the light bulb went on about how important this nutrient is, and how overlooked it's been for so long. It really provides the missing piece to the puzzle of so many health conditions, and yet it was being completely overlooked, despite the overwhelming amounts of modern-day research."

What's So Special About Vitamin K2?

Vitamin K is actually a group of fat-soluble vitamins. Of the two main ones, K1 and K2, the one receiving the most attention is K1, which is found in green leafy vegetables and is very easy to get through your diet. This lack of distinction has created a lot of confusion, and it's one of the reasons why vitamin K2 has been overlooked for so long.

The three types of vitamin K are:

Vitamin K1, or phylloquinone, is found naturally in plants, especially green vegetables; K1 goes directly to your liver and helps you maintain healthy blood clotting
Vitamin K2, also called menaquinone, is made by the bacteria that line your gastrointestinal tract; K2 goes straight to your blood vessel walls, bones, and tissues other than your liver
Vitamin K3, or menadione, is a synthetic form I do not recommend; it's important to note that toxicity has occurred in infants injected with this synthetic vitamin K3

Vitamin K1 exclusively participates in blood clotting — that's sole purpose. K2 on the other hand comes from a whole different set of food sources, and its biological role is to help move calcium into the proper areas in your body, such as your bones and teeth. It also plays a role in removing calcium from areas where it shouldn't be, such as in your arteries and soft tissues.

"K2 is really critical for keeping your bones strong and your arteries clear," Rheaume-Bleue says.

Now, vitamin K2 can be broken into two additional categories, called:

MK-4 (menaquinone-4), a short-chain form of vitamin K2 found in butter, egg yolks, and animal-based foods
MK-7 (menaquinone-7), longer-chain forms found in fermented foods. There's a variety of these long-chain forms but the most common one is MK-7. This is the one you'll want to look for in supplements, because in a supplement form, the MK-4 products are actually synthetic. They are not derived from natural food products containing MK-4.

The MK-7 – these long-chain, natural bacterial-derived vitamin K2 – is from a fermentation process, which offers a number of health advantages:
It stays in your body longer, and
It has a longer half-life, which means you can just take it once a day in very convenient dosing

How Much Vitamin K2 Do You Need?

The optimal amounts of vitamin K2 are still under investigation, but it seems likely that 180 to 200 micrograms of vitamin K2 should be enough to activate your body's K2-dependent proteins to shuttle the calcium where it needs to be, and remove it from the places where it shouldn't.

"The most recent clinical trials used around those amounts of K2," Rheaume-Bleue says. "The average person is getting a lot less than that. That's for sure. In the North American diet, you can see as little as maybe 10 percent of that or less. Certainly, not near enough to be able to optimize bone density and improve heart health."

She estimates that about 80 percent of Americans do not get enough vitamin K2 in their diet to activate their K2 proteins, which is similar to the deficiency rate of vitamin D. Vitamin K2 deficiency leaves you vulnerable for a number of chronic diseases, including:
Osteoporosis Heart disease Heart attack and stroke
Inappropriate calcification, from heel spurs to kidney stones Brain disease Cancer

"I talked about vitamin K2 moving calcium around the body. Its other main role is to activate proteins that control cell growth. That means K2 has a very important role to play in cancer protection," Rheaume-Bleue says.

"When we're lacking K2, we're at much greater risk for osteoporosis, heart disease, and cancer. And these are three concerns that used to be relatively rare. Over the last 100 years, as we've changed the way we produced our food and the way we eat, they have become very common."

Researchers are also looking into other health benefits. For example, one recent study published in the journal Modern Rheumatology1 found that vitamin K2 has the potential to improve disease activity besides osteoporosis in those with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Another, published in the journal Science2, found that vitamin K2 serves as a mitochondrial electron carrier, thereby helping maintain normal ATP production in mitochondrial dysfunction, such as that found in Parkinson's Disease.

According to the authors:

"We identified Drosophila UBIAD1/Heix as a modifier of pink1, a gene mutated in Parkinson's disease that affects mitochondrial function. We found that vitamin K(2) was necessary and sufficient to transfer electrons in Drosophila mitochondria. Heix mutants showed severe mitochondrial defects that were rescued by vitamin K(2), and, similar to ubiquinone, vitamin K(2) transferred electrons in Drosophila mitochondria, resulting in more efficient adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production. Thus, mitochondrial dysfunction was rescued by vitamin K(2) that serves as a mitochondrial electron carrier, helping to maintain normal ATP production."

The Interplay Between Vitamin K2, Vitamin D, and Calcium

As I've discussed on numerous occasions, vitamin D is a critical nutrient for optimal health and is best obtained from sun exposure or a safe tanning bed. However, many are taking oral vitamin D, which may become problematic unless you're also getting sufficient amounts of vitamin K2. Dr. Rheaume-Bleue explains:

"When you take vitamin D, your body creates more of these vitamin K2-dependent proteins, the proteins that will move the calcium around. They have a lot of potential health benefits. But until the K2 comes in to activate those proteins, those benefits aren't realized. So, really, if you're taking vitamin D, you're creating an increased demand for K2. And vitamin D and K2 work together to strengthen your bones and improve your heart health.

... For so long, we've been told to take calcium for osteoporosis... and vitamin D, which we know is helpful. But then, more studies are coming out showing that increased calcium intake is causing more heart attacks and strokes. That created a lot of confusion around whether calcium is safe or not. But that's the wrong question to be asking, because we'll never properly understand the health benefits of calcium or vitamin D, unless we take into consideration K2. That's what keeps the calcium in its right place."

IMPORTANT: If You Take Vitamin D, You Need K2

This is a really crucial point: If you opt for oral vitamin D, you need to also consume in your food or take supplemental vitamin K2.

"There are so many people on the vitamin-D-mega-dose bandwagon, taking more and more of vitamin D. And it could absolutely be causing harm if you are lacking the K2 to complete the job to get the calcium where it's supposed to be," Rheaume-Bleue warns.

"We don't see symptoms of vitamin D toxicity very often. But when we do, those symptoms are inappropriate calcification. That's the symptom of vitamin D toxicity. And it is actually a lack of vitamin K2 that can cause that..."

While the ideal or optimal ratios between vitamin D and vitamin K2 have yet to be elucidated, Rheume-Bleue suggests that for every 1,000 IU's of vitamin D you take, you may benefit from about 100 micrograms of K2, and perhaps as much as 150-200 micrograms (mcg).

The latest vitamin D dosing recommendations, which call for about 8,000 IU's of vitamin D3 per day if you're an adult, means you'd need in the neighborhood of 800 to 1,000 micrograms (0.8 to 1 milligram/mg) of vitamin K2.

"My earlier recommendation was not taking into account people who were doing high dose of vitamin D supplementation," Rheaume-Bleue says. "That's where it gets a little bit more technical. It seems that for the average person, around 200 to 280 micrograms will activate your K2 proteins and do a lot of good for your bones and your heart. If you're taking high levels of vitamin D... then I would recommend taking more K2."

The good news is that vitamin K2 has no toxicity. No toxic effects have ever been demonstrated in the medical literature.

"The reason why K2 doesn't have potential toxic effect is that all vitamin K2 does is activate K2 proteins. It will activate all the K2 proteins it finds. And if they're all activated and you take extra K2, it simply won't do that. That's why we don't see a potential for toxicity the way we do with vitamin A or D," she says.

If You Need Calcium, Aim for Calcium-Rich Foods First

For those who are calcium deficient, Rheaume-Bleue recommends looking to food sources high in calcium, before opting for a supplement. This is because many high calcium foods also contain naturally high amounts of, you guessed it, vitamin K2! Nature cleverly gives us these two nutrients in combination, so they work optimally. Good sources of calcium include dairy, especially cheeses, and vegetables, although veggies aren't high in K2.

Additionally, magnesium is far more important than calcium if you are going to consider supplementing. Magnesium will also help keep magnesium in the cell to do its job far better. In many ways it serves as nutritional version of the highly effective class of drugs called calcium channel blockers. If you do chose to supplement with calcium, for whatever reason, it's important to maintain the proper balance between your intake of calcium and other nutrients such as:

Vitamin K2
Vitamin D
Magnesium

The Importance of Magnesium

As mentioned previously, magnesium is another important player to allow for proper function of calcium. As with vitamin D and K2, magnesium deficiency is also common, and when you are lacking in magnesium and take calcium, you may exacerbate the situation. Vitamin K2 and magnesium complement each other, as magnesium helps lower blood pressure, which is an important component of heart disease.

Dietary sources of magnesium include sea vegetables, such as kelp, dulse, and nori. Few people eat these on a regular basis however, if at all. Vegetables can also be a good source, along with whole grains. However, grains MUST be prepared properly to remove phytates and anti-nutrients that can otherwise block your absorption of magnesium. As for supplements, Rheaume-Bleue recommends using magnesium citrate. Another emerging one is magnesium threonate, which appears promising primarily due to its superior ability to penetrate the mitochondrial membrane.

How Can You Tell if You're Lacking in Vitamin K2?

There's no way to test for vitamin K2 deficiency. But by assessing your diet and lifestyle, you can get an idea of whether or not you may be lacking in this critical nutrient. If you have any of the following health conditions, you're likely deficient in vitamin K2 as they are all connected to K2:

Do you have osteoporosis?
Do you have heart disease?
Do you have diabetes?

If you do not have any of those health conditions, but do NOT regularly eat high amounts of the following foods, then your likelihood of being vitamin K2 deficient is still very high:

Grass-fed organic animal products (i.e. eggs, butter, dairy)
Certain fermented foods such as natto, or vegetables fermented using a starter culture of vitamin K2-producing bacteria. Please note that most fermented vegetables are not really high in vitamin K2 and come in at about 50 mcg per serving. However, if specific starter cultures are used they can have ten times as much, or 500 mcg per serving.
Goose liver pâté
Certain cheeses such as Brie and Gouda (these two are particularly high in K2, containing about 75 mcg per ounce)

"An important thing to mention when it comes to cheese (because this becomes an area of confusion), [is that] because cheese is a bacterial derived form of vitamin K2, it actually doesn't matter if the cheese came from grass-fed milk. That would be nice, but it's not the milk that went into the cheese that makes the K2. It's the bacteria making the cheese, which means it doesn't matter if you're importing your brie from France or getting it domestically. Brie cheese, the bacteria that makes brie cheese, will make vitamin K2," she says.

Fermented vegetables, which are one of my new passions, primarily for supplying beneficial bacteria back into our gut, can be a great source of vitamin K if you ferment your own using the proper starter culture. We recently had samples of high-quality fermented organic vegetables made with our specific starter culture tested, and were shocked to discover that not only does a typical serving of about two to three ounces contain about 10 trillion beneficial bacteria, but it also contained 500 mcg of vitamin K2.

Note that not every strain of bacteria makes K2. For example, most yoghurts have almost no vitamin K2. Certain types of cheeses are very high in K2, and others are not. It really depends on the specific bacteria. You can't assume that any fermented food will be high in K2, but some fermented foods are very high in K2, such as natto. Others, such as miso and tempeh, are not high n K2.

Pregnant? Make Sure You're Getting Enough Vitamin K2

Last but not least, while vitamin K2 is critical for the prevention of a number of chronic diseases listed above, it's also vital for women who are trying to conceive, who are pregnant, and for growing healthy children. "K2 plays a very important role throughout pregnancy (for the development of teeth for both primary and adult teeth, the development of proper facial form, healthy facial form, as well as strong bones), then again throughout childhood to prevent cavities, and through adolescence as the skeleton is growing," Rheaume-Bleue says.

Vitamin K2 is needed throughout pregnancy, and later while breastfeeding. It may be particularly important during the third trimester, as most women's levels tend to drop at that time, indicating there's an additional drain on the system toward the end of the pregnancy. Since vitamin K2 has no toxicity issues, it may be prudent to double or even triple — which is what Rheaume-Bleue did during her own recent pregnancy — your intake while pregnant.

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Dr Mercola warns about certain drugs' side-effects, and makes his recommendations.

By Dr. Mercola

Diabetes has increased more than 700 percent in the last 50 years. Today, more than one in four Americans are either pre-diabetic or have full-blown diabetes.

The conventional treatment route includes a variety of diabetes drugs, some of which have been found to do far more harm than good. Rosiglitazone, sold under the names of Avandia, Avandamet and Avaglim, is perhaps the most well-known in this category of unmitigated disasters.

Avandia Part of Worst Drug Fraud in History

This past summer, drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline agreed to a record-breaking $3 billion settlement over the sales and marketing practices of several of its drugs, including the dangerous diabetes drug Avandia. The payment is the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history, and the largest fine ever paid by a drug company.

Avandia was found to be profoundly dangerous — a fact hidden by GSK for over 10 years, as they knew it would adversely affect sales
1.

This was revealed in a Senate Finance Committee report, released by Max Baucus and Charles E. Grassley in February 2010. The report also asked why the FDA allowed a clinical trial of Avandia to continue even after the agency estimated the drug had caused an estimated 83,000 heart attacks between 1999 and 20072.

Avandia hit the market in 1999 and quickly became a blockbuster drug. By 2006 its annual revenue was $3.2 billion. A year later, a damning study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) linked it to a 43 percent increased risk of heart attack and a 64 percent higher risk of cardiovascular death than patients treated with other methods3.

This is a steep price, to say the least, for a disease that does not require drugs to begin with.

There were many articles and reviews published about Avandia following the New England Journal of Medicine study, but research from the Mayo Clinic revealed that 90 percent of scientists who wrote favorable articles about the drug had financial ties to GlaxoSmithKline4. Unfortunately, a committee of independent experts still recommended that Avandia remain on the market, despite its many risks, and a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight board voted 8 to 7 to accept the advice.

On September 23, 2010, the FDA restricted access to Avandia5, but it didn't take it off the market. Under the ruling, the drug is still available to patients not already taking it, but only if they are unable to achieve glycemic control using other medications and, in consultation with their health care professional, decide not to take a different drug for medical reasons.

Shockingly, current users of Avandia were told to continue using the medication if they appeared to be benefiting from it and they acknowledged that they understood the risks. Doctors had to attest to and document their patients' eligibility and patients had to review statements describing the cardiovascular safety concerns.

Unlike the US FDA, British regulators ruled that the benefits of Avandia no longer outweighed the risks, and so, in late September 2010, they told 90,000 British diabetes patients to stop taking it.

DPP-4 Inhibitors — Another Disastrous Diabetes Drug

Dr. Ron Rosedale, one of my mentors on the importance of insulin first alerted me to this issue in our recent interviews we had but are not yet published. This is another potential disaster-in-the-making, namely that of Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors6 (DPP-4 inhibitors), also known as gliptins (specifically, gliptins decrease the breakdown of glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1). These belong to a class of hypoglycemic drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes. DPP-4 inhibitors work by reducing glucagon and blood glucose levels7 (inhibiting glucagon release results in increased insulin secretion and decreased blood glucose).

The first drug in this class — Sitagliptin, manufactured by Merck and sold under the name Januvia8,9 — received FDA approval in 200610. Saxagliptin (Onglyza), another DPP-4 inhibitor, was approved in July 2009, followed by Linagliptin (Trajenta) in 2011. A number of additional DPP-4 inhibitors are currently under development.

I was among the first to publicly warn that another of Merck's drugs, Vioxx, would kill thousands from heart disease. The drug indeed wound up killing over 60,000 people before Merck removed it from the market in 2004.

To compound this problem even further, Merck has announced that it has successfully completed a Phase II trial of a once-a-week version of a DPP-4 inhibitor. In pharma announcements and in its own company literature, Merck indicates that the once-a-week version is also being tested in combination with certain statin drugs, such as Lipitor and Simvastatin. The reasoning for these drug combinations is that diabetics fall under the guidelines of being statin candidates because they have a higher cardiovascular risk, but 40 percent of diabetics don't take them.

The idea is to create a combination drug containing both a DPP-4 inhibitor and a statin. So one drug will radically increase your risk of cancer, and the other increase your risk of heart failure. These are virtually guaranteed side effects from these drugs when taken individually, but what has not even been studied is the synergistic toxicity of taking these dangerous drugs together.

So far, Merck has discussed the alleged efficacy of their once-a-week DPP-4 inhibitor. However, clinicaltrials.gov indicates that the SAFETY trial isn't until Phase III, which is just now beginning. Still, with or without company-performed (read biased) safety trials, there's plenty of reason to suspect these drugs can, and probably will, spell severe trouble for diabetics who take them. For example, Sitagliptin, sold under the names Januvia11 and Janumet, has a number of admitted side effects, including:

Low blood sugar
Allergic reactions and anaphylaxis (rash, hives, swelling of face, lips, tongue and/or throat)
Acute pancreatitis
Death

Anaphylaxis is in fact such a grave hazard with this drug that it actually carries a black box warning for lactic acidosis: "If acidosis is suspected, discontinue Janumet and hospitalize the patient immediately" According to diatetesselfmanagement.com12:

"... DPP-4 was discovered through its association with the immune system, and some researchers thought that inhibiting it might impair the immune system. So far, data from clinical studies have not demonstrated a serious immunosuppresive effect. They do indicate, though, that sitagliptin increases the risk of upper respiratory infections and nasopharyngitis (inflammation of the nose and pharynx), found in 6.3% and 5.2% of study subjects, respectively, who took sitagliptin versus 3.3% and 3.4% for placebo.

The most worrying side effects are those reported since the drug came onto the market.

These reactions seem to be allergic in nature and include anaphylaxis, a bodywide reaction that results in low blood pressure, and angioedema, a swelling of the tongue, face, and throat. Both of these may be life-threatening. The reactions have occurred anytime from immediately after taking the first dose until three months after starting the drug. There have also been reports of skin reactions, including a very severe type of drug reaction called Stevens–Johnson syndrome. Other diabetes drugs are not typically associated with Stevens–Johnson syndrome."

The Science You Don't Hear About — DPP-4 Inhibitors Repeatedly Linked to Cancer...

Another potential side effect of this class of drugs that you won't see in any drug advert or hear from your doctor is its potential link to cancer... Upon review of the medical literature, a number of studies have already indicated a connection of pancreatic, thyroid, colon, melanoma, and prostate cancer with DPP-4 inhibitors. Such studies include:

A 2006 study13 found that "the use of DPPIV inhibitors together with GLP-2 led to increased proliferation as well as elevated migratory activity. Therefore, the use of DPPIV inhibitors could increase the risk of promoting an already existing intestinal tumor and may support the potential of colon cancer cells to metastasize"
One 2008 study14 found that DPP-4 inhibitors may proteolytically inactivate local mediators involved in gliomagenesis (the formation and development of brain tumors). Another study published that same year15 linked the drug to prostate cancer
In 201016, researchers concluded that "although the data on the effects of DPP-IV inhibitors in humans are scarce, the increased risk of infections and the tendency towards a higher incidence of some tumors fall in line with experimental evidence suggesting the possibility of their adverse immunological and oncological effects"
According to a 2011 study in the journal Gastroentorology17,18: "data are consistent with case reports and animal studies indicating an increased risk for pancreatitis with glucagon-like peptide-1 based therapy. The findings also raise caution about the potential long-term actions of these drugs to promote pancreatic cancer, and DPP-4 inhibition to increase risk for all cancers"
Earlier this year, researchers warned19 DPP-4 "is implicated in regulation of malignant transformation, promotion and further progression of cancer, exerting tumor-suppressing or even completely opposite - tumor-promoting activities.

This study indicates the need for exploring the cause and the importance of the disturbances in the serum DPP-4 activity and in the CD26 expression on immunocompetent cells in complex molecular mechanisms underlying the development and progression of melanoma. Significant decline in serum DPP-4 activity found in melanoma patients compared to healthy controls might indicate its possible role in development and progression of melanoma, but further research needs to be done in order to fully elucidate the cause and the importance of observed changes in DPP-4 activity"

Logic Quiz: DPP-4 is a Tumor Suppressor, So What Happens When You Continuously Inhibit DPP-4?

A 2008 blog post on DiabetesUpdate20 spells out the concerns I have about this class of diabetes drugs:

"Two new studies grabbed my attention and should be of great interest to anyone taking Januvia. These studies looked at the impact of inhibiting DPP-4 on the growth of two different kinds of cancers. This is important because the way Januvia lowers blood sugar is by inhibiting DPP-4. It does this because DPP-4 is a protease (an enzyme that chops up protein chains) that, among other things, destroys a hormone, GLP-1, that helps control blood sugar levels. When you inhibit DPP-4, GLP-1 levels to rise and blood sugars drop.

But none of the drug industry-sponsored testing for the safety of Januvia looked at the other things that DPP-4 does. Fortunately, some academic researchers not-funded by drug makers are doing this and what they are finding should make any sane person stop taking Januvia. Because it turns out that DPP-4 is also a tumor suppressor. And when you inhibit it, cells that have become cancerous get a 'get out of jail free' card."

Just think about the logic (or rather, the lack thereof) of taking a drug that continuously inhibits one of your body's natural cancer suppressing mechanisms! According to Januvia's drug information, the drug inhibits the DPP-4 enzyme for 24 hours, and you take it daily, effectively permanently blocking the activity of a tumor suppressor gene. Yet none of the safety studies on Januvia addressed its impact on tumor growth!

Is this wise? I don't see how it can be — especially for a disease that doesn't require drug treatment to be resolved. The blogger received the following emailed note21 from a researcher who worked on one of the studies listed above (the author and study in question was not identified, and probably for good reason):

"... Inhibiting DPPIV function in general (according to ours and others research) may not be a great idea. I believe that decrease or loss of DPPIV may be associated with cancer initiation or progression. We have shown that loss of DPPIV is indeed associated with melanoma, prostate and lung cancers. Importantly our work has shown that restoring DPPIV can suppress the tumor growth..."

In a 2010 article in the journal Diabetes Care22 entitled "GLP-1–Based Therapy for Diabetes: What You Do Not Know Can Hurt You," the authors state:

"In conclusion, we believe it is premature to conclude that the GLP-1 class of drugs has been established as having a good safety profile and is appropriate for a relatively early choice of therapy for type 2 diabetes.

There are grounds for concern that the GLP-1 class of drugs [which includes DPP-4 inhibitors] may induce asymptomatic pancreatitis and, over time in some individuals, induce pancreatic cancer... [T]he implications of the data are sufficiently serious that continuing to promote this class of drugs without establishing clear experimental evidence to permit the concern to be rejected is irresponsible. Moreover, arguably patients prescribed these drugs should be made aware of the potential risks of pancreatic cancer."

"Researchers" Who Debunk Cancer Link are Paid Spokespersons for Big Pharma

Not surprisingly, some researchers have spoken out against studies linking DPP-4 inhibitors and GLP-1 agonists (such as Byetta, which was approved in 2009) with various cancers, calling such findings "flawed." Alas, it may be wise to look at who these people are, and who pays them. In an IBJ.com article published last year23, Dr. Michael Nauck, head of the Diabeteszentrum Bad Lauterberg in Harz, Germany said, with regards to studies linking GLP-1 agonist drugs Byetta and Victoza with increased risk of cancer:

"The bulk of findings tends to speak against such an association... There is no general agreement."

According to the article:

"Nauck debated Peter Butler of the University of California at Los Angeles at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting Friday on whether so-called GLP-1 therapies increase cancer risk. Sales of the drugs may be hurt should Butler's view prevail that there are signs of increased cancer from the drugs. He and other UCLA researchers said in a study this year that a review of a database of side effects showed patients taking Byetta and a Merck & Co. drug [Januvia] had a higher chance of developing pancreatic or thyroid tumors. The treatments are safe and there's no evidence of a higher cancer risk, according to the manufacturers of the drugs."

Who is Michael Nauck 24? While his biography may not spell it out, Professor Nauck has been a speaker and consultant25 for a long list of pharmaceutical companies, including Amylin Pharmaceuticals (the maker of Byetta), Novo Nordisk (maker of Victoza), Merck, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly & Co, and GlaxoSmithKline, just to rattle off a few. Note the first two I listed are the very makers of the very drugs he's arguing the safety of. So much for an independent opinion. He's also received grants and financial research support from a number of drug companies.

According to Peter Butler26, co-author of the Gastroenterology study listed earlier, the GLP-1 drug class "could have serious unintended and unpredicted side effects." His research discovered that patients taking Byetta and Januvia had a:

Six-fold increased chance of pancreatitis, and
Nearly three times greater rate of pancreatic cancer

In a September 2011 article in Bloomberg27, Matteo Monami, a physician at the University of Florence and Carreggi Teaching Hospital in Italy called Butler's study "an erroneous analysis," stating that its results "are really not reliable at all." Monami countered Butler's findings with a meta-analysis28 of his own, which not only found no increase in cancer or pancreatitis for DPP-4 inhibitors like Januvia, but also "possible protection from cardiovascular events."

What the media failed to report was that Monami is a paid spokesperson for Merck (the maker of Januvia — the drug at the center of the controversy), Astra Zeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli. Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Takeda. Knowing he's a paid Big Pharma spokesperson, surely no one can be surprised that Monami's analysis and "professional opinion" clears his employers' drugs of any potential cancer links...

Billions of Dollars at Stake...

When Merck and the FDA finally agree that DPP-4 inhibitors are linked to cancer, it will kill several of the most recent drug developments for diabetes. Untold hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars have already been invested in getting these new drugs to market. And the profits from these drugs are expected to be in the tens of billions at minimum..

According to Merck, Januvia is now the number one best-selling drug in the oral diabetes market. Should such a blockbuster drug be proven to be connected to cancer, it would be a HUGE loss not only to Merck, but several other major pharmaceutical companies that have developed similar drugs.

One of the most horrific parts of this is the fact that cancer can take decades to form — unless the drug dramatically speeds up the process by inhibiting your body's ability to suppress tumor growth. Merck's lethal drug Vioxx was only withdrawn from the market after its lethality became too obvious to ignore. Ditto for the dangerous diabetes drug Avandia. Those drugs caused heart attacks and stroke. Cancer, on the other hand is not something that will tend to make people keel over after a relatively short period of time.

They could make MASSIVE amounts of money from these clearly dangerous drugs while cancer slowly and quietly grows in patients taking them, while biased shills maintain that the science is still "unclear." I for one would urge you to reconsider taking any kind of DPP-4 inhibitor. Why risk cancer for an ailment you can effectively address without ANY drug at all?

Type 2 Diabetes is Nearly 100 Percent Preventable... and Reversible Without Drugs

There is simply no doubt in my mind that these drugs will be removed from the market, but not after many years, potentially decades, and likely after they have killed tens of thousands of people. But you don't have to needlessly suffer and wait till they are formally removed. You can stop taking them now. Reversing type 2 diabetes is one of the simplest and most straight-forward treatments in all of medicine.

It's important to understand that many of the conventional recommendations for treating diabetes are not only flawed but dead wrong, and I discussed the reasons why in this previous article. To reverse the disease, you need to recover your body's insulin and leptin sensitivities – the ones that are so badly upset by eating a poor diet. The ONLY way to accomplish this is through proper diet and exercise. There is NO drug that can correct leptin signaling and insulin resistance.

It will be absolutely crucial to eliminate ALL sugars and virtually all grains from your diet. You want to strive for an ultra-low carbohydrate diet seeking to restrict your carbs to high fiber vegetables only. You can replace the missing carbs with high quality fats like coconut oil, which are rapidly broken down and consumed as fuel so you won't feel as tired or fatigued when you make the transition to fat burning mode. Using intermittent fasting and restricting all your calories to a 6-8-hour window will also radically help your ability to transition to fat burning mode and improve your insulin and leptin signaling.

Adhering to the following guidelines can help you do at least three things that are essential for successfully treating, and reversing, diabetes: recover your insulin/leptin sensitivity, help normalize your weight, and normalize your blood pressure:

Severely limit or eliminate sugar and grains in your diet, especially fructose, which is far more detrimental than any other type of sugar. Following my Nutrition Plan will help you do this without too much fuss. Likely long before you work your way up to the Advanced Section, your type 2 diabetes will be under control without any drugs.
Exercise regularly. Exercise is an absolutely essential factor, and without it, you're unlikely to get this devastating disease under control. It is one of the fastest and most powerful ways to lower your insulin and leptin resistance. I recommend reviewing my exercise program for tips and guidelines. It is also critical to work your way up to include some Peak Fitness exercises.
Avoid trans fats.
Get plenty of omega-3 fats from a high quality, animal-based source, such as krill oil.
Optimize your vitamin D levels. Recent studies have revealed that getting enough vitamin D can have a powerful effect on normalizing your blood pressure.
Optimize your gut flora. Your gut is a living ecosystem, full of both good bacteria and bad. Multiple studies have shown that obese people have different intestinal bacteria than lean people. The more good bacteria you have, the stronger your immune system will be and the better your body will function overall.

Fortunately, optimizing your gut flora is relatively easy. You can reseed your body with good bacteria by eating fermented foods (like natto, kefir, raw organic cheese, miso, and fermented vegetables) or by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement.
Address any underlying emotional issues and/or stress. Non-invasive tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) can be extremely helpful and effective.
Get enough high-quality sleep every night.
Monitor your fasting insulin level. This is every bit as important as your fasting blood sugar. You'll want your fasting insulin level to be between 2 and 4. The higher your level, the worse your insulin sensitivity is.

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

On how to exercise, and how NOT to exercise. Pls note this especially:
Equally remarkable were the results of yet another study, in which unfit but otherwise healthy middle-aged adults were able to improve their insulin sensitivity and blood sugar regulation after just two weeks of interval training (three sessions per week)4. A follow-up study5 also found that interval training positively impacted insulin sensitivity. In fact, the study involved people with full-blown type 2 diabetes, and just ONE interval training session was able to improve blood sugar regulation for the next 24 hours! This truly is amazing, and while aerobic fitness is indeed important, improving and maintaining good insulin sensitivity is perhaps one of the most important aspects of optimal health.
By Dr. Mercola

In the TED talk above, Dr. James O'Keefe, a research cardiologist and a former elite athlete, discusses an important point that can be difficult for some to accept, namely the fact that extreme cardio can actually do more harm than good...

I am about two years older than Dr. O'Keefe and had a similar running history. Dr. O'Keefe actually won the largest sprint distance triathlon in Kansas City five years in a row, from 1999 to 20041 . Although I was never an elite athlete like Dr. O'Keefe, I had run a 2:50 marathon previously. It is satisfying to hear Dr. O'Keefe validate what I have been writing about for years now. I suspect we both wised up and stopped running at about the same age, after many decades of intense endurance training.

The myth that extreme endurance cardio is good for your heart took off at full speed when, in 1977, Dr. Thomas Bassler boldly proclaimed that "completing a marathon confers immunity against heart attack." Many die-hard runners still believe this to be true.

However, in the years since, research has shown that the complete opposite may be true2. According to one study, presented in the video above, once you reach 40-50 minutes of vigorous exercise per day, the benefits from your efforts plateau, and further efforts do not convey further improvements in life expectancy.

When it comes to light to moderate exercise, on the other hand — such as walking, housework, and similar less strenuous day-to-day activities — more is better. It's not as effective as vigorous exercise (performed less than about 40 minutes a day), but the more active you are throughout the day, the better your life expectancy.

Survival of the Moderately Fit

As Dr. O'Keefe says, "Darwin was wrong about one thing. It's not survival of the fittest, but survival of the moderately fit." If you can dance, or lightly swim, or jog at six miles an hour, your mortality rate plummets compared to someone who can barely walk a flight of stairs.
However:

"Further attainments of peak fitness do not translate into further increases in life expectancy. It plateaus out," Dr. O'Keefe says. "We weren't born to run. We were born to walk, and we need to be walking more... you need to be moving your body more than sitting — every chance you get, move! "

I've often described exercise as a drug that needs to be taken in the ideal dosage to impart the optimal benefit. Too little, and you won't get any benefit. Too much, and you could do harm.

As Dr. O'Keefe describes, extended extreme cardio actually sets in motion inflammatory mechanisms that damage your heart. So while your heart is indeed designed to work very hard, and will be strengthened from doing so, it's only designed to do so intermittently, and for short periods — not for an hour or more at a time. Repeatedly and consistently overwhelming the heart by long distance marathon running, for example, actually prematurely ages your heart.

Veteran endurance athletes have a five-fold increased risk of atrial fibrillation, a dangerous irregular heart rhythm. Worse yet, some endurance athletes also present ventricular tachycardia (a heart rhythm faster than 100-120 beats per minute), which can lead to ventricular fibrillation — a leading cause of sudden cardiac death.

Runners Live Longer — But Only Those Who Run Within the Goldilocks Zone...

Dr. O'Keefe also summarizes new research about to be published, showing that, yes, runners do live longer — in general, nearly 20 percent longer than non-runners. The study in question followed 14,000 runners and 38,000 non-runners for up to three decades. And they found that, to optimize the health benefits from running, you'll want to run 5-20 miles per week — the ideal amount being 10-15 miles per week. Once you reach 25 miles or more per week, the benefits actually disappear!

Also, if you run too fast — over eight miles an hour — the benefits tend to go away (note we're talking about speed in long distance endurance running here, not interval sprinting). It won't make your health worse than a non-runner, but as Dr. O'Keefe says, if you put in that much effort, surely you'd want to get some benefit from it!

In order to obtain the health benefits and increased longevity from long distance running efforts, it seems to be best to limit your pace to six to seven miles per hour (about a ten-minute mile). Lastly, if you run seven days a week, the benefits also seem to disappear. The ideal amount was found to be between two to five days of exercise a week.

Another Danish study, also discussed by Dr. O'Keefe, found similar results. It followed 20,000 Danes since 1976, and found that joggers live about six years longer than non-runners, but again the benefit disappeared in those who overdid it... The best survival rates were among those who ran at a slow to average pace for a total of 1 to 2.5 hours per week, divided between two to three runs per week.

High Intensity Interval Training May Be the Ideal for Most

Mounting research is showing that the ideal form of exercise isn't related to long-distance endurance after all. Rather, short bursts of high intensity exercise has been shown to beat conventional cardio time and time again as the most effective and efficient form of exercise. It also provides health benefits you simply cannot get from regular aerobics, such as a tremendous boost in human growth hormone (HGH), aka the "fitness hormone."

According to fitness expert Phil Campbell and author of Ready Set Go, getting cardiovascular benefits actually requires working all three types of muscle fibers and their associated energy systems -- and this cannot be done with traditional cardio. Here's a quick review:

Slow twitch (red muscle): Activated by traditional strength training and cardio exercises
Fast twitch (white muscle): Activated by high intensity interval exercises (sprints)
Super-fast (white muscle): Consists of fast twitch AND super-fast fibers, activated by high intensity interval exercises

Unfortunately, most traditional cardio and strength training exercises work only red muscle fibers, completely missing your white muscle fibers, which then atrophy. If your fitness routine doesn't work your white muscle, you aren't really working your heart in the most beneficial way. Your heart has two different metabolic processes: the aerobic, which require oxygen for fuel, and the anaerobic, which do not require any oxygen.

Traditional strength training and cardio exercises work primarily the aerobic process and the slow twitch (red) muscle fibers. On the other hand, high intensity interval exercises work your aerobic AND your anaerobic processes, which is what you need for optimal cardiovascular benefit. This is why you may not see the results you desire even when you're spending an hour on the treadmill several times a week. You're only working HALF of your muscle fibers!

In the case of these kinds of Peak Fitness exercises, less is more, as you can get all the benefits you need in just a 20-minute session performed twice a week. In fact, you should not do these exercises more than three times a week, as if you do it more frequently than that you may actually do more harm than good -- similar to running marathons.

Your body needs regular amounts of stress like exercise to stay healthy, but if you give it more than you can handle you will actually lose your health. So it is really crucial to listen to your body and integrate the feedback into your exercise intensity and frequency. When you work out it is wise to really push as hard as you possibly can a few times a week but you need to wisely gauge your body's tolerance to this stress.

Improve Your Heart Health and Your Insulin Sensitivity

High intensity interval exercises offers pretty astounding benefits to your heart and risk of chronic diseases, like diabetes. A Canadian research team gathered several groups of volunteers, including sedentary but generally healthy middle-aged men and women, and patients of a similar age who had been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease3. The participants were asked to undertake a program of cycling intervals as their exclusive form of exercise.

After several weeks on the program, both the unfit volunteers and the cardiac patients showed significant improvements in their health and fitness. Most remarkably, the cardiac patients showed "significant improvements" in both heart and blood vessel functioning. And, contrary to what popular belief might dictate, the intense exercises did not cause any heart problems for any of the cardiac patients.

The conventional widely held belief is that the short exposure of the exercise actually helps insulate your heart from the intensity!

Equally remarkable were the results of yet another study, in which unfit but otherwise healthy middle-aged adults were able to improve their insulin sensitivity and blood sugar regulation after just two weeks of interval training (three sessions per week)4. A follow-up study5 also found that interval training positively impacted insulin sensitivity. In fact, the study involved people with full-blown type 2 diabetes, and just ONE interval training session was able to improve blood sugar regulation for the next 24 hours! This truly is amazing, and while aerobic fitness is indeed important, improving and maintaining good insulin sensitivity is perhaps one of the most important aspects of optimal health.

A Simple to Follow Approach to Peak Fitness and Longevity

If you are using exercise equipment, I recommend using a recumbent bicycle or an elliptical machine for your high-intensity interval training, although you certainly can use a treadmill, or sprint anywhere outdoors. Just beware that if you sprint outside, you must be very careful about stretching prior to sprinting. Also, unless you are already an athlete, I would strongly advise against sprinting outdoors, as several people I know became injured doing it the first time that way. For a demonstration using an elliptical machine, please see the following video. Here are the core principles:

Warm up for three minutes
Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds. It is better to use lower resistance and higher repetitions to increase your heart rate
Recover for 90 seconds, still moving, but at slower pace and decreased resistance
Repeat the high-intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times. (When you're first starting out, depending on your level of fitness, you may only be able to do two or three repetitions of the high-intensity intervals. As you get fitter, just keep adding repetitions until you're doing eight during your 20-minute session)
Cool down for a few minutes afterward by cutting down your intensity by 50-80 percent

If you have a history of heart disease or any medical concern please get clearance from your health care professional to start this. Most people of average fitness will be able to do it though; it is only a matter of how much time it will take you to build up to the full 8 reps. By the end of your 30-second high-intensity period you will want to reach these markers:
It will be relatively hard to breathe and talk because you are in oxygen debt.
You will start to sweat. Typically this occurs in the second or third repetition unless you have a thyroid issue and don't sweat much normally.
Your body temperature will rise.
Lactic acid increases and you will feel a muscle "burn."

The remarkable effectiveness of interval training makes logical sense when you consider that this type of exertion mimics how our ancestors lived. This is also how animals and young children behave naturally (long-duration exercise really isn't "natural"). By exercising in short bursts, followed by periods of recovery, you recreate exactly what your body needs for optimum health, and that includes the production of growth hormones, the burning of excess body fat, and improved cardiovascular health and stamina.

Remember to Add Variety to Your Exercise Program

In addition to doing high intensity interval exercises a couple of times a week, it's wise to alternate a wide variety of exercises in order to truly optimize your health. Without variety, your body will quickly adapt and the benefits will begin to plateau. As a general rule, as soon as an exercise becomes easy to complete, you need to increase the intensity and/or try another exercise to keep challenging your body. I recommend incorporating the following types of exercise into your program:

Interval (Anaerobic) Training: This is when you alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods.
Strength Training: You can actually "up" the intensity by slowing it down. For more information about using super slow weight training as a form of high-intensity interval exercise, please see my interview with Dr. Doug McGuff.
Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability.

You need enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight should be heavy enough that this can be done in fewer than 12 repetitions, yet light enough to do a minimum of four repetitions. It is also important NOT to exercise the same muscle groups every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild.

Exercise programs like Pilates and yoga are also great for strengthening your core muscles, as are specific exercises you can learn from a personal trainer. In a related article, Pilates Platinum owner Healther Dorak shares three moves you can do at home or in the gym. To see a demonstration of each exercise, please check out the article posted on FitSugar.com6.

"Each of these three moves targets and challenges several different muscle groups at once so you get more bang for your buck," says Dorak. "Do this routine three times a week, and you'll start to strengthen and tone your abs, legs, glutes, and arms."

Stretching: My favorite type of stretching is active isolated stretches developed by Aaron Mattes. With Active Isolated Stretching, you hold each stretch for only two seconds, which works with your body's natural physiological makeup to improve circulation and increase the elasticity of muscle joints. This technique also allows your body to repair itself and prepare for daily activity. You can also use devices like the Power Plate to help you stretch.

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Good fish, and bad fish.

PS: Jesus ate fish!

By Dr. Mercola

Fish has made the news a few times lately. Some say Americans aren't eating enough of it, while others warn of mercury dangers. It's certainly a complex issue, as waterways are increasingly polluted and so many people are deficient in the omega-3 fats critical for health...

So, should you or shouldn't you eat fish?

Here, I will review a few of the fundamentals that need to be factored in to help you optimize your diet while reducing your exposure to environmental toxins like methylmercury as much as possible.

Fish has always been the best source for the animal-based omega-3 fats EPA and DHA, but as levels of pollution have increased, this treasure of a food has become less and less viable as a primary source of healthful fats.

However, there are still exceptions, and the key is to understand which types of fish are the least contaminated.

Interestingly enough, and fortunately for us, the types of fish that tend to suffer the least amount of toxic contamination also happen to be some of the best sources of fat and antioxidants. So, by choosing wisely, the benefits of a diet high in fish can still outweigh the risks.

Vital Choice

In the video above, I interview Randy Hartnell, founder-president of Vital Choice Wild Seafood and Organics. I'm a huge fan of their sockeye salmon, and beside a fish dinner at a restaurant here or there, Vital Choice salmon is about the only type of fish I eat, for the very reasons mentioned above — it's less likely to be contaminated, for reasons I'll review in a moment, and the nutritional profile is far better than most other fish, including other types of salmon.

Hartnell spent more than 20 years as a commercial fisherman before forming his company in 2001, which features sustainably harvested wild salmon that are particularly low in heavy metals.

The reason he switched from being a commercial fisherman to a supplier was because farmed salmon exploded onto world markets, and quite simply crowded out the wild-caught variety. People typically didn't understand the difference between the two, and farmed salmon was (and still is) cheaper. In a matter of a few years, grocery stores and restaurants across the US and beyond had switched to farmed salmon.

"Out of frustration, I went out with a friend, and we just started traveling around the country. We'd go to food stores like Whole Foods or Wild Oats. We'd set up our grill out in front. We'd barbecue our wild salmon. And we'd tell the story why wild is better than farmed," Hartnell says.

"People were very receptive. Often we would hear, 'Well, this is great, but they hardly ever have it here. Where can I get it?' Over and over again, I'd hear it. I'd have to tell them, 'I'm sorry. I don't know.' Then one day, a light bulb went off, and I said, 'I can send it to you. I'll send you some.'"

The rest, as they say, is history. Shipping the highest quality possible wild-caught Alaskan salmon right to your door is now his primary business. You can learn more on his website, VitalChoice.com.

Why Wild-Caught Alaskan Sockeye Salmon is a Good Option

There are three major differences between wild-caught and farmed salmon, and once you realize how different the fish are, based on how they were raised, you'll see why opting for the cheaper alternative isn't the wisest choice:

Fish Health — Wild salmon return to their native spawning grounds each year, without you having to do anything, while farmed salmon are kept in pens. Naturally, fish swimming in the wild get more exercise, and this alone make wild fish healthier than their incarcerated counterparts. As explained by Tony Farrell1 with the University of British Columbia Zoology department, fish kept in constrained environments become the aquatic version of "couch potatoes," with similar health consequences as humans face when we don't exercise enough.

Recent research2 has shown that survival rates of fish that have received sufficient exercise is 13 percent higher than the "couch potato" controls, and the exercise-conditioned fish had better growth, and stronger immune systems, courtesy of certain gene activations.
Nutritional content — Wild salmon swim around in the wild, eating what nature programmed them to eat. Therefore, their nutritional profile is more complete, with micronutrients, fats, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants like astaxanthin (which gives salmon its pink, or in the case of sockeye, red-colored, flesh).

Farmed salmon, on the other hand, are fed an artificial diet consisting of grain products like corn and soy (most of which is genetically modified), along with chicken- and feather meal, artificial coloring, and synthetic astaxanthin, which is not approved for human consumption, but is permitted to be used in fish feed.

Mother Nature never intended fish to eat these things, and as a consequence of this radically unnatural diet, the nutritional content of their flesh is also altered, and not for the better. Farmed salmon tastes different than wild-caught, and much of it has to do with the altered fat ratio, which is dramatically different. Farmed salmon contains far more omega-6, courtesy of their grain-based diet.

The ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fat of wild salmon is far superior to farmed. Wild salmon typically has 600 to 1,000 percent more omega-3s compared to omega-6s. So whereas farmed salmon has a 1 to 1 ratio of omega-3s and omega-6s — again due to its "junk food" diet — the ratio for wild sockeye salmon is between 6 and 9 to 1. This is important, because if you're trying to improve your omega-3 to omega-6 balance, you simply will not accomplish it with farmed salmon...
Environment — Probably around 99 percent of farmed salmon are raised in net pens in the open ocean. All the excess food that is dropped in ends up going out in the environment — the genetically engineered ingredients, the pesticides, the antibiotics and chemical additives. Anything the fish do not consume, along with all their now unnatural waste products, end up contaminating the environment. According to a new report from Scotland, some salmon farms have increased their use of pesticides 110 percent over the past four years, adding to the toxic burden of both the environment and your body. To learn more about the many hazards of fish farming, check out FarmedAndDangerous.org.3

There's also the vegetarian or vegan ethical aspect. Wild sockeye salmon are the vegetarians of the salmon world. Their diet consists of krill, plankton and algae, and they are caught at the very end of their life cycle. By the time they enter the fishing grounds, they've lived 95 percent of their natural life in the wild. At the end of their life, they fight their way up-river to spawn, after which they die a natural death — unless they're caught by a fisherman or get eaten by some other predator.

Beware of Mislabeled Salmon

Unfortunately, salmon are often mislabeled. According to Hartnell, studies have discovered that as much as 70 to 80 percent of the fish marked "wild" were actually farmed. This includes restaurants, where 90-95 percent of salmon is farmed, yet may be mis-listed on the menu as "wild." The following tips that can help you determine whether the salmon is authentically harvested Alaskan fish are:

Canned salmon labeled "Alaskan Salmon" is a good bet, as Alaskan salmon is not allowed to be farmed.
In restaurants, mislabeled salmon will typically be described as "wild" but not "wild Alaskan." This is because authentic "wild Alaskan" is easier to trace. The term "wild" is more nebulous and therefore more often misused. In many ways it is very similar to the highly abused "natural" designation.
Whether you're in a grocery store or a restaurant, ask the seafood clerk or waiter where the fish is from. If it's wild, they will have paid more for it, so they're likely to understand the value proposition. Since it's a selling point, they will know where it came from. If they don't have an answer for you, it's a red flag that it's farmed, or worse... The US Food and Drug Administration is moving forward with approving genetically engineered salmon to be sold, and as you know, GE foods still do not need to be labeled in the US.
Avoid Atlantic salmon, as all salmon labeled "Atlantic Salmon" currently comes from fish farms.
Sockeye salmon cannot be farmed, so if you find sockeye salmon, it's bound to be wild. You can tell sockeye salmon from other salmon by its color. It's bright red as opposed to pink. The reason again for this bright red color is its superior astaxanthin content. Sockeye salmon has one of the highest concentrations of astaxanthin of any food.

The Best and Worst Fish to Eat in Terms of Environmental Toxins

Most major waterways in the world are contaminated with mercury, heavy metals, and chemicals like dioxins, PCBs, and other agricultural chemicals that wind up in the environment. This is why, as a general rule, I no longer recommend getting your omega-3 requirements from fish. However, I do make two exceptions.

One is authentic, wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon; the nutritional benefits of which I believe still outweigh any potential contamination. The risk of sockeye accumulating high amounts of mercury and other toxins is reduced because of its short life cycle, which is only about three years. Additionally, bioaccumulation of toxins is also reduced by the fact that it doesn't feed on other, already contaminated, fish.

Whenever I consume fish, I always seek to consume it with a handful of chlorella tablets. The chlorella is a potent mercury binder and if taken with the fish will help bind the mercury before you are able to absorb it, so it can be safely excreted in your stool.

The second exception is smaller fish with short lifecycles, which also tend to be better alternatives in terms of fat content, so it's a win-win situation — lower contamination risk and higher nutritional value. A general guideline is that the closer to the bottom of the food chain the fish is, the less contamination it will have accumulated. This includes:

Sardines
Anchovies
Herring

If you insist on eating typical, store-bought fish and want to know more about the extent of your mercury exposure, I urge you to check out the online mercury calculator4 at GotMercury.org to get an idea of the risks. Additionally, as mentioned above, you may want to consider taking a natural mercury chelators with any fish dinner. This includes zeolite (green clay), chlorella, and fermented vegetables.

Larger fish, which tend to live longer and have the highest contamination levels and should be avoided include (please note this is not an exhaustive listing):
Tuna (tuna steaks, sushi, and canned) Sea bass and largemouth bass Marlin
Halibut Pike Walleye
Shark Sword fish White croaker

Do Detoxifying Nutrients in Fish Cancel Out Harm from Mercury Contamination?

While some believe that methylmercury in seafood is counteracted by other nutrients in the fish, such as selenium, which help your body eliminate the toxins, recent research has shown that this hypothesis is likely false. A French research team sought to determine whether mercury from fish is less harmful than other dietary mercury,5 and whether beneficial nutriments from fish might counterbalance the deleterious effects of fish-associated mercury. Mice were one of three diets:

Fish-based methylmercury diet: A diet that included fishmeal produced from fish containing five micrograms of methylmercury contamination per gram
Added methylmercury diet: A special diet higher in DHA and EPA, with added methylmercury chloride (considered more toxic than fish-associated methylmercury) also totaling five mcg/g
Control diet without mercury

Apart from mercury and selenium content, the three diets were comparable. Interestingly, only the fish group suffered significant behavioral abnormalities at the end of 58 days! The authors concluded:

"The two mercury-containing diets are differing by the fact that mercury was brought by the addition of either pure methylmercury chloride or by mercurial species associated to fish. Therefore, any differential effects observed between MeHg-containing and fish-containing diets should be attributed to different chemical species of mercury present in one diet and absent from the other and vice-versa along with the possible intervening role of fish PUFA and selenium.

If the beneficial role of fish nutriments such as PUFA and selenium was to counteract MeHg effects, the pattern of effects displayed after exposure to the fish-containing diet should appear less severe than that observed with the MeHg-containing diet. But in the present study, the mice fed the fish-containing diet displayed worse behavioral performances than those fed the control and the MeHg-containing diets, although the brain structures of both mercury-contaminated groups of mice contained comparable levels of mercury and even less in the striatum of those fed the fish diet.

Therefore, the different chemical species of mercury within fish flesh are likely to explain the deficit in cognitive performance in the Y maze and the decreased locomotory activity in the open-field maze."

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Dr Mercola comments/warns re: Obamacare -



By Dr. Mercola

There can be little doubt that we're in a health care crisis of massive proportions. The Affordable Health Care Act is the proposed solution, but to any person aware of the facts, it should be evident that so-called "ObamaCare" is NOT a viable solution.

Now that President Obama has won a second term, it is clear that the Affordable Care Act will be implemented in full force.

When this act was initially introduced, I described it as a mandatory tax despite the fact this was widely denied. Now it is widely accepted that the Affordable Health Care Act is indeed a mandatory insurance tax.

More importantly though, guaranteed health insurance does NOT equate to guaranteed health care. First of all, one of the key factors is access to health care providers, which is sorely lacking already.

Secondly, the Act will promote rather than solve the current problem of wasteful spending. If you didn't already know this, American medical care is the most expensive in the world. The U.S. spends more than twice as much on each person for health care as most other industrialized countries.

No strategies are included in the Act to actually prevent illness and reduce health care costs. Instead it expands an already flawed model of "care" that has been and continues to be one of the leading causes of death in the US!

$750 Billion Wasted Each Year

A recent review of U.S. healthcare expenses by the Institutes of Medicine1 revealed that 30 cents of every dollar spent on medical care is wasted, adding up to $750 billion annually. To get an understanding of how much money three-quarters of a trillion dollars really is, take a look at the video below.

If you think it's bad now, just wait until the Affordable Health Care Act gets implemented. There's nothing to prevent the wastefulness already inherent in the current Medicare and Medicaid system. Six major areas of waste identified in the report were:
Unnecessary services: $210 billion Inflated prices: $105 billion
Inefficient delivery of care: $130 billion Improper payments: $70 billion
Excess administrative costs: $190 billion Fraud: $75 billion



The United States spends $2.7 trillion annually — again, TWICE the amount per person as most other industrialized nations. If this spending actually resulted in Americans being among the healthiest people on the planet, I'd be all for it. After all, what is money if you don't have your health?

Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Using life expectancy as a barometer for the return of our investment, shows us that this expenditure is entirely in vain as the US life expectancy ranks 49th in the world, despite the fact that we're spending more on our health care than any nation on the planet.

The United States also gives newborn babies more vaccines than any other nation, yet as vaccination rates have risen, so has our infant mortality rates. In 1960, America ranked 12th in infant mortality among all nations of the world. By 2005, we had fallen to number 30. Today in America, there are more premature babies than ever before and more full term babies die before their first birthday than in most European countries. Is it possible that more is NOT better when it comes to inoculating our young against disease?

The US Health Care System — Not Only Inefficient, But Dangerous as Well

Inefficiency and wastefulness is one thing, but statistics also tell us that the US health care system as a whole is shockingly dangerous, in a number of different ways. For example, did you know that if you have Medicaid, you're twice as likely to die before you leave the hospital compared to those with private insurance? This again goes back to what I stated earlier, that guaranteed health insurance does not equate to guaranteed health care.

But that's not all. Medical mistakes occur across the board, regardless of what type of health insurance you have. An estimated 225,000 Americans die each year from medical mistakes, and the real number is likely far higher. I've worked in many inner city hospitals, and I can tell you a lot of medical mistakes, and resulting deaths, are covered up. All in all, medical mistakes are the third leading cause of death in the US.

This really should tell us something!

A sad example of this is the recent death of Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Twelve years ago, she authored one of the best articles I've ever read documenting the tragedy of the traditional medical paradigm. It was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Based on her article, I created a headline that has reverberated through the web ever since: Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US. Dr. Starfield's research documented how 225,000 Americans die from iatrogenic causes, i.e. their death is caused by a physician's activity, manner, or therapy.

Earlier this year, she became a victim of the very problem she sought to bring attention to... She died of a stroke after taking Plavix for about two years.

Over a decade ago, Professor Bruce Pomerance of the University of Toronto concluded that properly prescribed and correctly taken pharmaceutical drugs were the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. More recently, an article authored in two parts by Gary Null, PhD, Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, Martin Feldman, MD, Debora Rasio, MD, and Dorothy Smith, PhD, describes in excruciating detail how the modern conventional American medical system has bumbled its way into becoming the leading cause of death and injury in the United States.

From medical errors to adverse drug reactions to unnecessary procedures, heart disease, cancer deaths and infant mortality, the authors took statistics straight from the most respected medical and scientific journals and investigative reports by the Institutes of Medicine (IOM), and showed that on the whole, American medicine caused more harm than good.

Health Care System has Not Gotten Any Safer Over Past Decade

In 2010, a new analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine2 found that, despite efforts to improve patient safety, the health care system hasn't changed much. In looking over record that spanned from 1976 to 2006 (the most recent year available) they found almost a quarter-million deaths annually were coded as having occurred in a hospital setting due to medication errors.

In all, there were over 25 injuries per 100 hospital admissions.

When you add up all the different numbers — and these are likely conservative numbers as they are several years old — you find that our current heath care system is responsible for over 780,000 deaths per year. There are significant costs associated with all these errors as well. For example, the cost of adverse drug reactions3 alone is more than $136 billion annually -- greater than the total cost of cardiovascular or diabetic care!

How can there be any doubt that this system, indeed the entire medical paradigm, isn't seriously flawed?

Flawed or Nonexistent Preventive Strategies Drive the System

Our current medical system fails to acknowledge prevention in any way, as does the Affordable Health Care Act. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 80 percent of deaths are associated with chronic disease. Allopathic medicine does well with acute illness and injury, but when it comes to chronic disease the system is an utter failure.

What does the Affordable Health Care Act have on prevention?

Besides tobacco awareness, which most people are fully aware of at this point anyway, the Act wants to address obesity. While this is admirable — after all, obesity is a significant risk factor of at least 20 different chronic diseases — the question is whether or not the system is capable of offering any real solutions.

To get an idea of this capability, let's look at how they've done so far.

One would think that since they control the entire system, including the food supply and federal policy relating to everything from food and drugs to pollution, effective measures based on accurate information would have a beneficial ripple effect. Alas, since the 1960's, when the low-fat myth became the "law of the land," obesity rates have skyrocketed, and are projected to hit 50 percent of the population in the next two decades! A sharp uptick can also be seen in the mid-90's when the first genetically engineered foods were introduced.

The Revolving Door Problem Ensures Nothing Changes

A major part of the problem is the revolving doors between our regulatory agencies and industry. This applies to all major industries, but the pharmaceutical industry in particular.

Most recently, Elizabeth Fowler, special assistant to the president for health care and economic policy and previously the deputy director for policy at the Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight of the Health and Human Services Department, announced that she would be leaving the White House to take a senior-level position leading “global health policy” with drug maker Johnson & Johnson’s government affairs and policy group. 4, 5

Fowler played an influential role in the development of the new health care reform and was even praised by Montana Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, for being the “architect of the legislation.”6 Interestingly, prior to her government work, Fowler worked for WellPoint, the largest health insurer in the United States, where she was vice president of public policy. Now, after a successful stint in the White House, she’ll be moving on to help lead health policy at Johnson & Johnson.

For several graphics detailing some of the other individuals playing both sides of the fence, please see this link. For example:

Julie Gerberding, former head of the CDC, a position she held for seven years, is now President of one of the largest drug companies in the world: Merck Vaccines
Dr. Elias Zerhouni, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is now President of Global Research and Development for drug company giant Sanofi
Dr. Gary Nabel also worked at the NIH as the Director of Vaccines, but just a few weeks ago joined Dr. Zerhouni as the chief science officer at Sanofi
Dr. Gregory Geba, MD worked for Merck and was the lead author on studies showing Vioxx was toxic. Yet he did nothing. Vioxx subsequently killed 60,000 people before it was withdrawn. On July 15, 2012, Dr. Geba was appointed FDA Director of the Office of Generic Drugs

Quite simply, there is massive collusion going on, which ensures not just the profitability of Big Pharma and the medical industry as a whole, but also Big Ag, which is another major culprit behind the nation’s poor health. The ultimate price for this collusion and undermining of truth is not just your money but also your health. It’s a for-profit scheme, and healthy people do not make good customers.

So, considering the fact that the pharmaceutical industry effectively runs the entire medical system, how are the drug companies doing in their quest to deliver you from illness?

Well, according to our judicial system, not so well. And that’s besides the statistics of injuries and death associated with their products. The following chart lists fines levied against pharmaceutical companies for various criminal activities relating to their drugs — including conspiracy and fraud — over the past six years alone.

Drug Company Fines

Year Company Drug Fine
2012 GlaxoSmithKline Avandia $3 Billion
2012 Abbot Depakote $1.6 Billion
2011 Merck Vioxx $950 Million
2010 Allergan Botox $600 Million
2009 Pfizer Bextra $2.3 Billion
2007 Bristol Meyers Abilify $515 Million
2007 Purdue Oxycontin $635 Million
2006 Serono Laboratories Serostim $704 Million7

Most of the Leading Causes of Death are Preventable

Fortunately, there IS light at the end of the tunnel. You CAN take control of your health — you don't have to listen to and abide by this system that makes and keeps you sick in order to make corporations wealthy. President Reagan once said:

"Government does not solve problems, it subsidizes them. A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth."

As previously stated, the majority of deaths are due to chronic, not acute, disease. And most chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, are largely preventable with simple lifestyle changes. Even infectious diseases like the flu can often be warded off by a healthy way of life.

Imagine the lowered death toll, not to mention costs to the economy, if more people decided to take control of their health … heart disease and cancer alone accounted for 47 percent of deaths in the United States in 2010, and there are many strategies you can implement to lower your risk of these diseases. The added bonus to this is that the healthier you are, the less you will need to rely on conventional medical care, which is a leading cause of death.

So what does a "healthy lifestyle" entail? The following is a short list of the basics expounded upon in my nutrition plan:

Proper Food Choices

For a comprehensive guide on which foods to eat and which to avoid, see my nutrition plan. It's available for free, and is perhaps one of the most comprehensive and all-inclusive guides on a healthy lifestyle out there. Generally speaking, you should be looking to focus your diet on whole, ideally organic, unprocessed foods that come from healthy, sustainable, local sources.

For the best nutrition and health benefits, you will want to eat a good portion of your food raw. Nearly as important as knowing which foods to eat more of is knowing which foods to avoid, and topping the list is fructose. Sugar, and fructose in particular, can act as a toxin in and of itself when consumed in excess, and as such drive multiple disease processes in your body, not the least of which is insulin resistance, a major cause of accelerated aging and virtually all chronic disease.
Comprehensive Exercise Program, including High-Intensity Exercise

Even if you're eating the healthiest diet in the world, you still need to exercise to reach the highest levels of health, and you need to be exercising effectively, which means including not only core-strengthening exercises, strength training, and stretching but also high-intensity activities into your rotation. High-intensity interval-type training boosts human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor. I've discussed the importance of Peak Fitness for your health on numerous occasions, so for more information, please review this previous article.
Stress Reduction and Positive Thinking

You cannot be optimally healthy if you avoid addressing the emotional component of your health and longevity, as your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease -- from heart disease and depression, to arthritis and cancer. Effective coping mechanisms are a major longevity-promoting factor in part because stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Meditation, prayer, energy psychology tools such as the Emotional Freedom Technique, social support and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium.
Optimize Vitamin D with Proper Sun Exposure

We have long known that it is best to get your vitamin D from appropriate sun exposure during times when UVB rays are present. Vitamin D plays an important role in preventing numerous illnesses ranging from cancer to the flu.

The important factor when it comes to vitamin D is your serum level, which should ideally be between 50-70 ng/ml year-round. Sun exposure or a safe tanning bed is the preferred method for optimizing vitamin D levels, but a vitamin D3 supplement can be used as a last resort. Most adults need about 8,000 IU's of vitamin D a day to achieve serum levels above 40 ng/ml, which is still just below the minimum recommended serum level of 50 ng/ml.
High Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats

Animal-based omega-3 fat like krill oil is a strong factor in helping people live longer, and many experts believe that it is likely the predominant reason why the Japanese are the longest lived race on the planet.
Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants as Possible

This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.

User avatar
Etosha
captain of 100
Posts: 466

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by Etosha »

Excellen post, thank you!

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Two "Forbidden Foods" That Can Give You Instant Energy
December 31, 2012 | 234,370 views

By Dr. Mercola

Does your health food repertoire consist of salads, baked chicken and broccoli? Are you looking for a way to add some excitement to your meals while maximizing their nutritional punch?

There's absolutely no need to be bored when eating healthy, but many believe this to be the case because they are missing out on some of the tastiest and healthiest options of all.

I encourage you to peruse the list below to take advantage of some of the healthiest foods on earth. Before we can talk about the best foods, we need to perform some nutrition "mythbusting" and address two major dietary myths that have permeated Western culture for decades:

Fat is bad for you—especially saturated fat
All microorganisms are dangerous

Myth #1: "Fat is BAD for You"

Conventional medical "wisdom" continues barking that consumption of saturated animal fats is bad for you and causes heart disease. Most medical "experts" believes this to be true. But a hundred years ago, fewer than one in one hundred Americans were obese, and coronary heart disease was unknown and we had FAR more fat intake then we do today.

The demonization of saturated fat began in 1953, when Dr. Ancel Keys published a paper comparing saturated fat intake and heart disease mortality. His theory turned out to be flimsy, to say the least, but the misguided ousting of saturated fat has continued ever since. Fortunately, the truth is finally starting to come out, as medical scientists have finally begun to question Keys' findings. The truth is, it's the trans fat found in margarine, vegetable shortening, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils that is the true villain, causing a multitude of health problems.

Coconut oil also fell into the "bad for your heart health" as a result of the saturated fat disparagement. This is most unfortunate as it is one of the healthiest fats on the planet. It is mostly medium chain triglycerides with over half of those belonging to lauric acid, which is an essential fat to regulate your immune system, and is also very prevalent in breast milk. It can curb hunger and help provide lasting energy.

I personally consume about one quart of coconut oil a week. It is the ideal fat to use when you are using intermittent fasting and seeking to replace calories from grains and sugar, and excessive protein.

Myth #2: "When It Comes to Bacteria, Be Afraid... Be Very Afraid"

We have become one of the most germophobic cultures in the world, attempting to sterilize ourselves into a bubble—and our children as well. We haven't done ourselves any favors here. We live in a world of microorganisms... bacteria, viruses, and fungi, and our lives depend on living with them, rather than avoiding them. Literally.

Microorganisms are everywhere. You swallow them, breathe them, and they form invisible colonies on your skin. Your gut is home to approximately 100 trillion bacteria, both good and bad. These bacteria outnumber the cells in your body by about 10 to one, and maintaining the ideal balance of healthy and disease causing microflora forms the foundation for your health—physical, mental and emotional.

In fact, this microscopic zoo in your gut is the first-line defense of your immune system. While a few of these microorganisms can wreak havoc with your system, most of these little "bugs" are good, helping you digest your food, stay protected from infections, and even helping to prevent autoimmune diseases like asthma, allergies, and diabetes. An imbalance in your gut flora can be a major contributor to many serious illnesses, including autism, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

Your body's microbial community is so crucial to your health that researchers have compared it to "a newly recognized organ" whose function is so important that you simply cannot be optimally healthy without it. In addition to avoiding unnecessary antibiotics and antibacterial soaps, balancing your gut flora may be one of the most important steps you can take to improve your health. This requires "reseeding" your gut with naturally fermented foods and probiotics.

Are You Eating These 10 Healthiest Foods?

So, having dispelled two pervasive food myths, let me now focus on ten of the most healthful foods you could be consuming. Remember these are general recommendations. Not everyone will do well with these foods, but the vast majority will have health improvement by regularly consuming them. As always, it is important to listen to your body and let it guide you in making that determination. With some foods though, like fermented vegetables, you will need to start with very small amounts and work your way up to a healthy dose over a few months.

1. Fermented Vegetables

Fermented, or cultured, vegetables are teeming with essential enzymes and good bacteria needed for optimal digestion and they are easier to digest than raw or cooked vegetables. When you eat raw cultured vegetables loaded with enzymes, you give your body an opportunity to use its bodily stores of enzymes to rejuvenate itself instead of exhausting them trying to digest overly processed and otherwise dead food. Cultured foods also offer a multitude of medicinal rewards by:

Alleviating digestive disorders - the flora in living cultured foods form a "living shield" that covers your small intestine's inner lining and resists pathogenic organisms like Escherichia coli, Salmonella and an unhealthy overgrowth of yeast
Strengthening immunity with increased antibodies that fight off infectious disease
Helping pregnant and nursing mothers transfer beneficial bacteria to their infants
Effectively impacting the behavior of children with autism,ADD/ and ADHD
Regulating weight and appetite by reducing cravings for sugar, soft drinks, bread and pasta -- all foods I strongly advise against

Fermented foods are also among some of the best chelators available. The beneficial bacteria in these foods are very potent detoxifiers, capable of drawing out a wide range of environmental toxins, including pesticides and and heavy metals. And you don't need to consume huge amounts either. Caroline Barringer recommends eating about a quarter to a half a cup of fermented vegetables, or cultured food such as raw yoghurt, per day. In the following video, she discusses the process of fermenting your own vegetables in some detail, so for more information, please listen to that interview.

Download Interview Transcript

2. Kale

Kale contains fiber and antioxidants, and is one of the best sources of vitamin A, which promotes eye and skin health and may help strengthen your immune system. A one-cup serving has almost as much vitamin C as an orange and as much calcium as a cup of milk. It's simply an excellent source of multiple vitamins and other nutrients, including:
Vitamin A Vitamin B Vitamin C
Calcium Lutein (helps protect against macular degeneration) Zeaxanthin (helps protect against macular degeneration)
Indole-3-carbinol (may protect against colon cancer) Iron Chlorophyll

3. Kefir and Other Fermented Beverages

Kefir is a fermented milk beverage that contains beneficial probiotics that may help give your immune system a boost, among other health benefits. One of the best and least expensive ways to get healthy bacteria through your diet is actually to obtain raw milk and convert it to kefir yourself. All you need is one-half packet of kefir starter granules in a quart of raw milk, which you leave at room temperature overnight. By the time you wake up in the morning you will likely have kefir. If it hasn't obtained the consistency of yogurt you might want to set it out a bit longer and then store it in the fridge.

A quart of kefir has far more active bacteria than you can possibly purchase in any probiotic supplement, and it is very economical as you can reuse the kefir from the original quart of milk about 10 times before you need to start a new culture pack. Just one starter package of kefir granules can convert about 50 gallons of milk to kefir. This is also a far healthier, and far more economical, way to nourish your body with probiotics than buying any of the commercial probiotic beverages on the market, as these typically contain added sugars and are made using pasteurized milk, which I don't recommend drinking.

Kombucha, a fermented drink, is another great addition to your diet. The key is variety. The greater the variety of fermented and cultured foods you include in your diet, the better, as each food will inoculate your gut with a variety of different beneficial microorganisms.

4. Sardines

These tiny fish are packed with omega-3 fats, which are excellent for your heart, brain, mood and more, and vitamin D. And, because of their lower position on the food chain, they don't accumulate as many toxins, such as mercury, PCBs and dioxin, as larger fish do, making them among the safest fish you can eat.

5. Whey Protein Concentrate

Whey protein, a by-product of cheese production, was promoted for its health benefits as early as 420 B.C. As you age, your body gradually loses its ability to produce critical amino acids -- the essential proteins you need for energy production, immune actions and protein buildup in your muscle. Therefore, the need to supplement with these amino acids increases with age, and increases even more in times of high physical stress, like after a workout, or when recovering from injury or illness.

Whey protein concentrate (not to be confused with the far inferior whey protein isolate) is an ideal choice as it's a rich source of highly bioavailable amino acids that many are unaware of. Whey protein has been linked to a variety of health benefits, including:
Helping your insulin work more effectively, which helps maintain your blood sugar level after a meal -- This is important as research suggests lowering your blood sugar levels after meals may be more beneficial for your health than lowering fasting blood sugars. Promoting healthy insulin secretion, which is essential for optimal health. This is one of the foremost reasons for avoiding sugars and grains, as their overconsumption has a negative impact on both, and is a prime factor in developing type 2 diabetes.
Helping to promote your optimal intake of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals needed for your overall wellness. Helping you preserve lean body tissue (particularly during exercise) as it delivers bioavailable amino acids and cysteine.
Supporting your immune system, as it contains immunoglobulins. Maintaining blood pressure levels that are already within the normal range.

6. Organic Pastured Eggs (Raw)

While many people do eat eggs, many neglect to eat them raw, which is the healthiest way. Raw free-range or "pastured" eggs are an excellent source of high-quality nutrients that many people are deficient in, especially high-quality protein and fat.

A single egg contains:

Nine essential amino acids
One of the highest quality proteins you can find. Proteins are nutrients that are essential to the building, maintenance and repair of your body tissues such as your skin, internal organs and muscles. They are also the major components of your immune system and hormones
Lutein and zeaxanthin (for your eyes)
Choline for your brain, nervous- and cardiovascular systems
Naturally occurring B12

Why is raw better? Heating the egg protein actually changes its natural biochemical shape, and this distortion can easily lead to allergies. If you consume your eggs in their raw state, the incidence of egg allergy virtually disappears. Eating eggs raw also helps preserve many of the highly perishable nutrients such as lutein and zeaxanthin, which are powerful prevention elements for age-related macular degeneration, which is the most common cause of blindness.

Fresh raw egg yolk actually tastes like vanilla, in my opinion. The egg white is usually what most people object to when they say they don't like the texture of raw egg. If this is an issue, consider blending the whole raw egg into a shake or smoothie.

Beware of consuming raw egg whites without the yolks as raw egg whites contain avidin, which can bind to biotin. If you cook the egg white the avidin is not an issue. Likewise, if you consume the whole raw egg (both yolk and egg white) there is more than enough biotin in the yolk to compensate for the avidin binding.

If you choose not to eat your eggs raw, soft-boiled would be your next best option. Scrambling your eggs is one of the worst ways to eat eggs as it actually oxidizes the cholesterol in the egg yolk. If you have high cholesterol this may actually be a problem for you as the oxidized cholesterol may cause some damage in your body.

7. Organic Coconut Oil

Often shunned for its high saturated fat content, the naturally occurring saturated fat found in coconut oil has some spectacular health benefits such as promoting heart health, weight loss, immune system health, thyroid function and more. Half of the fat content in coconut oil is lauric acid—a fat rarely found in nature—that could easily qualify as a "miracle" ingredient because of its unique health promoting properties. Your body converts lauric acid into monolaurin, which has anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-protozoa properties.

And, because your body sends medium-chain fatty acids like those in coconut oil directly to your liver to use as energy, this makes coconut oil a powerful source of instant energy to your body, a function usually served in the diet by simple carbohydrates.

Coconut oil is also the ideal choice for all types of cooking. In fact, it's the only oil stable enough to resist mild heat-induced damage. So, whenever you need an oil to cook or bake with, use coconut oil instead of butter, olive oil, vegetable oil, margarine, or any other type of oil called for in recipes.Even though I don't fully recommend frying foods, if you must fry, by all means use coconut oil -- it's your smartest choice.

8. Avocado

Also shunned by many due to their fat content, avocados are actually incredibly healthy for this very reason. Healthy raw fat is a nutrient many are severely deficient in. I eat a whole avocado nearly every day. Avocados also provide close to 20 essential health-boosting nutrients, including:

Fiber
Potassium (more than twice the amount found in a banana)
Vitamin E
B-vitamins
Folic acid

9. Raw Grass-Fed Butter

Another type of healthy fat that many people do not eat is butter made from raw organic grass-fed milk. I typically eat about a half-pound to a pound of raw organic grass-fed butter per week, as it's an excellent source of high-quality nutrients, including:
Vitamins, such as vitamin A, needed for a wide range of functions, from maintaining good vision to keeping the endocrine system in top shape, and all the other fat-soluble vitamins (D, E and K2), which are often lacking in the modern industrial diet. Trace minerals, including manganese, chromium, zinc, copper and selenium (a powerful antioxidant). Butter provides more selenium per gram than wheat germ or herring. It's also an excellent source of iodine.
Healthful fats, including short- and medium-chain fats, which support immune function, boost metabolism and have anti-microbial properties, as well as the perfect balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fats, and arachidonic acid, which is important for brain function, skin health and prostaglandin balance. Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), a compound that gives excellent protection against cancer and also helps your body build muscle rather than store fat.
Glycospingolipids, a special category of fatty acids that protect against gastrointestinal infections, especially in the very young and the elderly. Wulzen Factor, a hormone-like substance that prevents arthritis and joint stiffness, ensuring that calcium in your body is put into your bones rather than your joints and other tissues. The Wulzen factor is present only in raw butter and cream; it is destroyed by pasteurization.

10. Pomegranate

The primary source of this fruit's benefits is its antioxidant content, particularly ellagitannin compounds like punicalagins and punicalins, which account for about half of the pomegranate's antioxidant ability. The juice and pulp of pomegranates have previously been studied for their potential heart- and joint health benefits.

Aim to incorporate as many of these foods into your diet on a daily or weekly basis as you can, and you'll be off to a great nutritional start. For even more advice on how to eat right by focusing your diet on whole, unprocessed "superfoods," see my nutrition plan.

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Detoxifying...
and effects of mercury in the body.

By Dr. Mercola

Dr. Christopher Shade, a former organic farmer, received his PhD from the University of Illinois. His education included the study of metal-ligand interaction in the environment, and for a long time, he specialized in environmental- and analytical chemistry of mercury.

About six years ago, he developed and commercialized technology for mercury speciation analysis—a process that separates and measures different forms of mercury. Shortly after starting this company, Quicksilver Scientific, he turned his focus to the clinical side, and the human body’s ability to detoxify mercury.

“The heart of mercury’s toxicity is what I call inappropriate binding,” Dr. Shade says. “Mercury is never a free ion... [M]ercury is always bound in these covalent relationships with what’s called the ligand. Mercury’s favorite ligand is sulfur; specifically a reduced form of sulfur called a thiol.

This is what you have on cysteine, like N-acetyl cysteine or in glutathione [editor’s note: which is why they’re so important for mercury elimination]. But these thiols are all throughout your body. [M]etals... like zinc, copper, or iron... are held in place by thiol groups. Mercury has higher affinity for those thiol groups than the [other] metals do.

How much higher? For zinc—a billion times higher – 10 to the ninth. When the mercury comes by... and it sees an enzyme that’s holding zinc in it, those cysteines are going to reach over and grab on to the mercury.

... Other places that mercury will bind to thiols are on cell membranes... [and] different forms of mercury will cross your blood-brain barrier.”

Mercury can also displace other elements such as zinc and copper, by attaching to the receptors that would otherwise hold these essential minerals. Overall, mercury has a very strong ability to dysregulate your entire system, which is part of the reason why mercury toxicity symptoms are so difficult to pin down.

“Neurologically, it can take you into depression, or it can take you into anxiety,” Dr. Shade explains. “Similarly, it can make you hyperactive, or it can give you chronic fatigue.”

From a more mechanical perspective, mercury destroys the enzyme tubulin, which builds microtubules that play an important role in intracellular communication. According to Dr. Shade, you can clearly see how mercury stops the assembly of tubulin in neurological cells, causing them to fall apart instead.

The Most Common Sources of Mercury Exposure

There are two primary forms of mercury:

Ethylmercury (inorganic mercury)
Methylmercury (organic mercury)

Phenylmercury was used in early paints, which is why you need to be careful with peeling paint layers in older homes. In terms of toxicity, ethylmercury rates the highest. While methylmercury penetrates your body very well, it’s slightly less toxic than the inorganic form, which is what gets released from your dental amalgams. According to Dr. Shade’s research, the two primary sources of mercury exposure are:

Inorganic mercury from dental amalgam, and vaccines
Organic mercury from fish consumption

“Vaccines would come underneath that, though they’re slowly removing the mercury from the vaccines. So, it depends if you get a lot of vaccines or not. Now if you’re going in for flu shots routinely, you might be exposed to a fair amount of mercury,” he says. “Research on spreading out doses versus punctuated doses show that punctuated or periodic high doses have more ability to penetrate the brain than distributed doses do. That’s one of the worst things about getting it from vaccines.”

Another source of mercury exposure comes from coal-burning power plants. This mercury pollution is distributed in the air, and is deposited in the ocean, where of course it bioaccumulates in fish. So indirectly, it’s still a major source of exposure.

“The one paper that has shed some light on coal-burning was the Palmer paper coming out of Texas, where they found higher rates of autism with proximity to coal-burning power plants. But that’s the only [study] that’s done that,” Dr. Shade says. “From all the data that I have looked at, from all the people that we have measured... fish and amalgam dominated everything. People who don’t have any fish consumption and don’t have any amalgam exposure, we very rarely see any significant amounts of mercury in.”

Why Most Mercury Tests are Ineffective and/or Inaccurate

While I no longer see patients, when I did, one of the standard mercury tests used was a challenge test, using a chelating chemical such as intravenous DMPS or DMSA. Then you’d measure the urine for 24 hours. You can also measure the mercury content in hair and blood. However, all of these tests have drawbacks and shortfalls, and Dr. Shade has developed a testing method that far surpasses all of these earlier tests.

While most of these older tests primarily measured total mercury load (and inaccurately at that), his technology, called mercury speciation, is able to separate and measure the different forms of mercury in your system. This allows you to determine your primary source of exposure—either fish-based methylmercury, or the dental-based inorganic ethylmercury. It can also help you evaluate how well your kidneys are processing such toxins.

Dr. Shade explains:

“When we move to speciation testing, then we’re able to take something like your blood and say, “This much of it is methylmercury from fish, and this much of it is inorganic mercury from amalgam, though some of it is from the breakdown of the fish-based mercury.”

People used to do everything as total mercury... Sometimes they couldn’t really correlate that with how many dental amalgams they had. That was because blood was primarily a measure of methylmercury exposure of fish-based exposure. In the blood, you got a high representation of your fish burden, and a lower representation of your dental burden, and thus the need to separate those two. Blood was used, but blood didn’t make sense for certain types of exposures. If you’re exposed to elemental mercury vapor, it didn’t really show correctly in the blood.”

Urine analysis has similar shortcomings.

“If your kidneys are working well and you’re excreting well, the amount that comes out in the urine will be linearly correlated with the amount or inorganic mercury in your blood. So as the inorganic mercury goes up from your loading, the urinary level will go up linearly. But if your kidneys are not excreting well, then the urinary output will be low, and you’ll get a damming up and building up of the reservoir of inorganic mercury in your blood. You’ll see high inorganic mercury in the blood, low in the urine.”

So, if you’re only looking for mercury in your urine, low levels of (total) mercury can be either good or bad, but you won’t easily know which. A low measurement could mean you have very little mercury in your system, or it could mean your kidneys are failing to process it and the mercury is actually accumulating in your tissues, OR it could mean your primary source of exposure is from organic mercury sources, so they’re not being expelled through your urine...

“Urine alone is very myopic, whereas urine normalized by the amount of inorganic mercury in the blood is a very good indicator then of how well you’re detoxifying or excreting that form of mercury,” Dr. Shade explains.

As for hair testing, while hair is a good marker of fish-based methylmercury in your blood, it will tell you absolutely nothing about the amount of ethylmercury you’re getting from dental amalgams or vaccines...

The Problem with Challenge Testing

“In a challenge test, you orally take the chelators like DMSA or DMPS. They go into your blood. They solubilize a lot of the mercury that’s in your blood, and they make it able to go very easily through your kidneys. This would round up a bunch of mercury in your blood and pass it through your kidneys. Now you would get both organic and inorganic forms coming out through your kidneys.

The problem here is the same one with all urinary measurements. If you’ve got problems in the kidney – and this happens commonly when people are exposed for long periods of time – you might not pass that mobilized mercury out through your urine.

The other problem with the challenge test is that you don’t know what the distribution is. How much of this is organic? How much of this is inorganic?

Then you got two chelators. You got DMPS and DMSA, and they’re different. They bias towards one of the other form of mercury. DMPS biases towards inorganic mercury. If you have a lot of inorganic mercury exposure, you use DMPS... Then there’s a mythology that the challenge test is showing you the body burden, like it’s reaching into every single cell taking out a representative amount of mercury in there and taking it out of the body. That’s really not true,” Dr. Shade says.

So as a summary, all of the earlier testing methods offer an incomplete picture of your actual mercury load.

Hair testing only shows organic (methyl) mercury load
Urine testing only shows inorganic (ethyl) mercury load
Blood testing for total mercury load really only gives you a measure of your mercury from fish consumption, while mercury from dental amalgams and vaccines remains ‘hidden’
Challenge testing can give false low readings if your kidneys are not functioning well, and each of the chelators are biased toward one form or mercury or the other, which can give you a misleading measurement of your mercury load

Mercury Speciation—the Next Generation of Mercury Testing

Dr. Shade’s mercury speciation technology overcomes all these problems by being able to separate and measure each of the different forms of mercury.

“You have got a lump sum of mercury in the sample. We want to pull them apart, so we know how much is the organic form and how much is the inorganic form,” he explains. “In the environment, which is what I originally developed it for, it is very important to know this because the bulk of the environmental mercury is inorganic mercury.

Inorganic mercury – even though it’s more toxic to the cell –does not accumulate well and it does not get into organisms very well, whereas methylmercury is the bioaccumulative form. That’s the one that a fish swimming in the water will have a million to 10 million times more [of]... than is in the water. It’s very important to be able to see the methylmercury separate from the inorganic mercury.

I developed this system where we could take a sample and relatively quickly – at least compared to the old methods – separate these two different forms... When I came to the clinical world, I started applying that... to blood and urine. What we found is that if you want to get a good measure of blood, you need to separate the methyl- and the inorganic mercury.”

The ethyl- and methylmercury have different reference ranges. Methylmercury is almost always higher than the ethylmercury if you’re exposed to both types. After measuring over 2,000 patients, Dr. Shade discovered that methylmercury levels in those with the highest loads is almost 15 times higher than the ethylmercury, on average.

“If you’re exposed to both, the methylmercury is always going to swamp out the inorganic mercury,” he says. “But once you separate those two, you can see very clearly how the two are tracking in the body. They have different targets in the body, and they have different sources coming in.”

... Urine can be nicely correlated to blood inorganic mercury, as long as the kidneys are working okay. That means that as blood inorganic mercury goes up, urinary inorganic mercury should go up with it. It’ll be a linear increase between the two. We can now plot out how well the kidneys are working.”

Being able to chart how well your kidneys are working is a significant benefit, as this will give you a better idea of how well your natural detox system is working. If you have high levels of inorganic (ethyl) mercury in your blood, but low mercury in your urine, it’s a sign that your body is retaining toxicity.

“These tend to be the sickest people and have the hardest time detoxifying,” Dr. Shade says. “Then we know that we have to work more on their kidneys before we go into really moving the mercury out of the body.”

The same technique is being used on hair, which, again, is an inorganic (ethyl) mercury marker. As your blood methylmercury goes up, the methylmercury in your hair should rise in a linear fashion. If they do not track together (meaning you have high levels in your blood but low levels in your hair), then it’s an indication that your biochemistry has been disrupted and cannot effectively mobilize methylmercury.

On Detoxing Mercury

According to Dr. Shade, effective detoxification is highly dependent on your glutathione and sulfur metabolism. For example, when your glutathione and sulfur levels increase, you’ll typically see higher levels of mercury coming out of your hair.

It’s important to realize, however, that detoxing cannot be achieved overnight. Or even in a few weeks. According to Dr. Shade, most people will typically need an entire year to detox, depending on how sick you are. The sicker you are, the longer it will take, simply because you have to go slower when you’re ill.

“But then you have to keep in mind one of the aspects of detoxification. You got to be mindful of that, and incorporate a lot of this into your life. I mean a lot of it is lifestyle changes that are going to keep you effectively detoxifying. Then, once or twice a year go back in for whatever period of time it takes you. Go back and do another detoxification, because even if you get all the mercury out, you’re continuously exposed to all kinds of things. I mean, you’ve got the airborne mercury coming in. You’ve got little bits through the food. Then you have cadmium, arsenic, and lead coming in... you’ve got all the different organic toxins... pesticides and herbicides... chlorinated organics... mold-based toxins... toxins from organisms that live in your GI tract, if you don’t have a perfect biotic flora...

... Probably, the biggest myth that’s got to be destroyed immediately is that mercury will stay in your body until you go in there with a chemical chelator and pull it out—that mercury is never removed from the body and it just builds up forever. That is completely a myth. We’d all be dead if that were the case.

You have a system for moving mercury and other heavy metals out of your body. They may work in different efficiencies for different people, or may be totally disrupted in some, but you have a [detoxification] system.”

How Your Body Detoxifies Naturally

One of the central problems in modern toxicology is the failure to fully understand the vast disparity amongst the population in their ability to deal with certain toxins, and their ability to detoxify them. We’re all highly individual, and exposure levels that will cripple one person may leave another seemingly unharmed. A major part of this individual difference in tolerance is the functioning of your body’s detoxification system. If your detoxification channels are working well, you will be able to withstand higher levels of toxins without experiencing obvious symptoms of toxicity.

“The core of the detoxification system is the glutathione system,” Dr. Shade says. “Notice that I don’t say, “it’s glutathione.” No, it’s the glutathione system.

Glutathione binds to metals and can move them out of your body, but it doesn’t do that alone. If we look at what the requirements for resistance to metals and effective detoxification (meaning not only the resistance but shuttling them out), you need healthy levels of glutathione in your cells. You [also] need activity of... a phase II detoxification enzyme called glutathione S-transferase. This is an enzyme that’s responsible for prying the mercury off the cellular proteins and linking it together with the glutathione. [Lets say] those two parts work: You have the glutathione; you have the glutathione S-transferase—now you have a mercury-glutathione conjugate in the cell. Now you’ve got to get it out of your body.

At the cell membrane, you’ve got active transport proteins, called multidrug resistance proteins, which pushes that mercury-glutathione complex out of the cell and into your blood. From there, you got another one at the liver... [which] pulls it from your blood into your liver; and another one that dumps it from your liver into your bile tract, to go into your small intestine. You have also got some of these transport proteins in your intestinal walls, pulling [toxins] from your blood into the intestines. And you have got them in your kidneys as well.

You have to have all parts of this going.”

If any one of these mechanisms is knocked out, your cells will lose their resistance to the metal, and bioaccumulation sets in. So in order to strengthen your detoxification system, you need to optimize the ENTIRE system from top to bottom within the transport chain, so that your body can pull the mercury away from the proteins it is bound to, and transport it out of your body.

Strategies for Optimizing Your Glutathione System

There are a number of different options for doing this. Taking oral or intravenous glutathione can be both expensive and ineffective. A more efficient way to optimize your glutathione levels is to provide your body with the precursor to glutathione, cysteine, in the form of foods that are naturally high in it. Whey protein, especially organic, grass-fed whey protein contains some of the highest levels of cysteine.

“Taking oral glutathione in a capsule is very inefficient, because your peptidases will break down the glutathione into its amino acids,” Dr. Shade explains. “... You’re left with precursors, or whey protein, which I think is probably the best precursor. Though, at the same time, you need to upregulate the activity of the synthesis enzymes that are making it from the precursors... [T]he other thing that we use a lot, which is a little bit more specialized, is liposomal delivery of glutathione.... At the same time, you’re also bringing in phosphatidylcholine, which has its own therapeutic benefits by helping to repair the cell membranes. The cell membranes are very highly damaged by metals and the free radical cascades that are catalyzed by them.

We use a lot of this liposomal glutathione. We have recently taken on the manufacturing of that that’s making a very small, high integrity liposome. But aside from liposomes, whey protein is my favorite way to get those precursors into the body.”

According to Dr. Shade, if your body is making glutathione well, then just taking whey protein should be sufficient. But if your detoxification system is severely compromised, the liposomal glutathione can serve an important function as it can offer immediate relief against the oxidative stress caused by the mercury. He typically recommends using both for people who are ill.

“Once you have repaired the system and you’re getting it working again, then the whey protein can sustain you,” he says.

But it’s important to remember that there’s more to your glutathione system than just glutathione. You also need the proper enzymes and proteins that work together with the glutathione to eliminate the mercury. These include:

Glutathione S-transferase
Glutathione synthetase
Gamma-glutamylcysteine ligase

Phylogenomics—Gene Activation through Superfoods

“This is a beautiful part of the science called phylogenomics, “phylo” meaning plants, and “genomics” meaning genes,” he says. “What we’re finding is that genes are not always [expressed]…

What are triggers to start expressing these genes?

We’re finding that whole families of genes that can be upregulated together. There’s protein out in the cytoplasm called the Nrf2 protein. It’s held in place there by another protein called the KIP1. When certain chemical triggers hit it, it translocates into the nucleus. When it does so, a whole family of genes that have what I call the promoter region (it’s a way to turn on families of genes and it’s called the antioxidant response element) turns on at once. These are genes that code for production of intracellular antioxidants, as well as production of these phase II enzymes like glutathione S-transferase, and production of these phase III proteins for transport. You’re helping turn up the whole system at once.

What are the things that trigger this?

Well, a lot of these things that we consider “superfoods.” The main family of food chemicals that do this or plant chemicals are polyphenolic antioxidants like you would find in green tea extract or pine bark extract. The one we use the most is called Haritaki. We have a blend called Clear Way Cofactors, where we bring together what we think are the best polyphenolics for doing this. The other side of it is the sulfur-based chemicals.”

The Importance of Sulfur Compounds for Your Detoxification System

One sulfur-based food is garlic, which has gained a reputation for being good for mercury detoxification. As explained by Dr. Shade, garlic contains sulfur molecules that trigger the translocation of the Nrf2 proteins into your cells. Thus they trigger an upregulation of your glutathione system. So it’s really your glutathione system as a whole that is responsible for the chelating effect, but the sulfur compounds in the garlic upregulate that system, allowing it to do its job.

“You would want to use the whey protein in conjunction with some of these polyphenolic antioxidants, with the crucifer family, or garlic. Then you would get the enzyme up, as well as bringing in the precursors,” Dr. Shade says.

As a side note, allicin is NOT the chemical responsible for upregulating the enzyme system. Allicin is part of what gives garlic its antimicrobial effect. According to Dr. Shade, taking garlic oil capsules is just as good as eating raw garlic, maybe even better, for upregulating your glutathione system. Another important sulfur compound is lipoic acid, which helps regenerate vitamin C and E.

“Vitamin C—this whole defense system that we’re talking about is part of the antioxidant system,” Dr. Shade says. “You need a lot of electron donors in there, feeding into the system. You’re going to transfer those electrons into the glutathione. As you’re using the glutathione up as an antioxidant, it’s getting oxidized and needs to be reintroduced... That’s the use of vitamin C: constantly bringing electrons into the system, as well as its immune effects building up the immune system. Vitamin C is an integral part of that. But you’re not going to do vitamin C alone. That’s a very myopic scene. But it is a strong player. It’s always there. It should be one of your main pawns in this game.

Then you look at lipoic acid. Lipoic acid is a very potent upregulator of the glutathione system and specifically R-lipoate. So, without the lipoic acid, you have got two forms: You have S-lipoic acid and R-lipoic acid. These are like amino acids where you’ve got D amino acids and L amino acids.

L amino acid is the only one that fits into the biochemistry, and D does not. S-lipoic does not fit into the biochemistry. I mean, it can act as an antioxidant in the body. It can do some functions. But it can’t upregulate the glutathione system. Only the R-lipoate fits into this Nrf2 mechanism to upregulate the glutathione system. That’s why we have a liposome that’s a mixture of vitamin C and R-lipoic acid. You can take high doses of this without running into bowel intolerance and very effective delivery of that lipoic acid. That’s the common sulfur chemical that we use the most.”

Other Helpful Players

Astaxanthin, which I’ve previously written about at great length, is one of the best performers when it comes to protecting your ENTIRE cell from damage, and as such, it can be an important ingredient to help optimize your detoxification system as a whole. Dr. Shade agrees, stating:

“You got the cytosol, or cytoplasm, that’s water-soluble. Then you got the membranes that are fat-soluble. You need to take care of both the water side and the fat side. I think astaxanthin would be a great thing to incorporate into the systems.”

Another commonly used detoxification tool is chlorella, which will help detoxify your system via your gut. Chlorella is a binder, meaning that it binds to the heavy metals present in your gut, which serves two important functions as it:

Prevents absorption and/or re-absorption (many metals can be excreted into your bile and then be re-absorbed), and
Prevents the metals from irritating your intestines by holding them away from the epithelia of your intestinal wall. This helps prevent inflammation

More Information

Some states, such as Colorado, are so-called “direct access” states, in which you can buy a testing kit directly from Dr. Shade’s company, Quicksilver Scientific. Then all you have to do is get your blood drawn at a local lab, which sends it back to the company for analysis. In other states, you have to go through your primary care physician to get the mercury speciation test done. The test retails for about $350.

The sensitivity of the test is “unmatched,” according to Dr. Shade.

“We’re the only one in the world doing the speciation—the separation of the different forms of mercury. And we’re the only ones working at the low ranges than we are... We have a detection limit of 10 part per trillion. Now you compare that to one of the routine labs like Lab Quest or Lab Corp; they’ll do a blood mercury for you, and their detection limit will either be one or 0.5 parts per billion. That’s 50 times higher, at the best, than what we’re running. We’re very sensitive. We run at very low levels, so we can see ALL the changes and the ambient profiles.

...I’ll tell you that I like people [to be] under 0.05 nanograms per milligram for the dental form of mercury. That’s when you know that you’re really cleaned up. For methylmercury, that number can be a little higher. Depending upon the state of their health, I like them down below 2 nanograms per liter, or if they have shown some sensitivity to mercury, then I like them under 1 nanogram per liter.”

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Comments on SITTING and the sedentary lifestyle:



By Dr. Mercola

From smart phones to computers to iPads, our beloved electronic devices are crippling our posture and contributing to weight gain, back pain, and joint problems like carpal tunnel syndrome.

Fortunately, there are a few strategies and exercises – such as changing your position often and “reorganizing” your torso – that can address a lot of these potential problems and help keep you more fit and properly aligned.

As miserable as back pain is, that may be the least of your worries if you spend a significant portion of your time on your duff. Sitting may actually cut years off your life. Lack of exercise is sitting’s evil accomplice. The more you sit, the less your body wants to move.

According to a study in the British Medical Journal,1 reducing the average time you spend sitting to less than three hours per day could increase your life expectancy by two years, which is a significant decrease from the 4.5 to 5 hours per day the average American now spends on a chair or sofa.


An analysis of 18 studies showed that people who sat for the longest periods of time were twice as likely to have diabetes or heart disease, compared to those who sat the least.2 Sitting has actually joined smoking and obesity as an important risk factor for chronic disease.

The Price You Pay for a Sedentary Lifestyle

A number of studies have investigated the health ramifications of a sedentary lifestyle. The research linking too much sitting with increased risks of disease and premature death is quite noteworthy:

Men who were sedentary for more than 23 hours a week had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who were sedentary less than 11 hours a week, according to a 2010 study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.3
A study of more than 17,000 Canadians found that the mortality risk from all causes was 1.54 times higher among people who spent most of their day sitting, compared to those who sat infrequently.4
According to an Australian study, sitting time is a predictor of weight gain among women, even after controlling for calories consumed and leisurely physical activity, such as exercise.5
People who use a computer for at least 11 hours per week or watch TV for more than 21 hours per week are more likely to be obese than those who use a computer or watch TV for more than 5 hours per week.6
Your risk of metabolic syndrome rises in a dose-dependent manner depending on your "screen time" (the amount of time you spend watching TV or using a computer). Physical activity has only a minimal impact on the relationship between screen time and metabolic syndrome.7

Going to the Gym May NOT Be Enough

Interestingly, research has also suggested a regular fitness regimen might be insufficient to counteract the effects of excessively sedentary habits during the remaining hours of the day, due to the adverse metabolic impact of sitting. Especially if the fitness regimen is focused around equipment that puts you back in a seated position like a recumbent bike or rowing machine. A 2009 study8 highlighted much of the contemporary evidence linking sitting with biomarkers of poor metabolic health, showing how total sitting time correlates with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other prevalent chronic health problems.

According to the authors:

"Even if people meet the current recommendation of 30 minutes of physical activity on most days each week, there may be significant adverse metabolic and health effects from prolonged sitting – the activity that dominates most people's remaining 'non-exercise' waking hours."

In other words, even if you're fairly physically active, riding your bike to work or hitting the gym four or five days a week, you may still succumb to the effects of too much sitting if the majority of your day is spent behind a desk or on the couch. Researchers have dubbed this phenomenon the "active couch potato effect."

According to a New York Times article,9 after just an hour of sitting, the production of enzymes that burn fat in your body declines by as much as 90 percent. Extended sitting slows your body’s metabolism of glucose and decreases your HDL, which is the type of lipid you want MORE of, instead of less. This explains why those who sit habitually for extended periods of time have higher risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular problems.

The Key To Sitting Successfully: Stand Up

The basic remedy is to get up and do a few simple exercises – but you have to do this frequently if you spend a lot of your life in a chair. Most back, neck, and other muscle pains are related to imbalanced absorption of force throughout your body, created by working in unnatural positions for extended periods. When you teach your body to establish and repeat correct positioning, the pain often goes away. You must correct your foot, pelvis, torso, shoulder and neck positions as these are all required for good posture and balance. When these core areas are positioned improperly, you will likely develop pain first in those areas, with other areas soon to follow. As the center of your body changes its structure to adapt to the demands you ask it to do most frequently, the extremities will follow..

For example, a great deal of carpal tunnel issues do not result solely from improper wrist position, but from forward rotation of the shoulder. The forward rotation of the shoulder is directly connected to the position of your lower back, and pelvis. As the shoulder changes position all of the muscles and nerves below the shoulder are adversely affected. The result is symptoms within the wrist that cannot be fixed at the wrist.

A basic remedy is to simply get up! But additionally, there are certain exercises you can perform to further reduce the adverse impact of sitting.

In the interview above, Kelly Starrett, popular mobility expert and physical therapist with Crossfit, shares some excellent tips for maintaining good posture while working for extended periods in a chair.10 The key is to change positions often – at least every 20 to 30 minutes – and maintain proper torso alignment, regardless of what position you’re in. Starrett recommends standing up often and doing some specific realignment exercises, which are actually quick and easy.

Sitting, especially while doing computer work or texting, tends to result in leaning forward with your head, neck, shoulders and upper back. The key is to teach your body to support itself in a more neutral position, without overcorrecting.

Realigning Your Body in Five Easy Steps

Starrett recommends a five-step series of body “reorganizations” or realignments, done in the following sequence:

Stand up with your with feet pointing straight forward or slightly inward.
In the interview Kelly recommends that we realign the pelvis by simply squeezing your butt tightly, we would like to add that this will be more effective for the majority of people if also told to internally rotate their feet 10-15 degrees (big toes slightly towards each other), roll feet to the outside of the arch and then try to pull the back of the legs together without the heels moving. This will allow the thigh and butt muscles to work together; the squeeze alone is otherwise less effective.
Create some tension in your core by slightly tightening your abdominals (this is not an extreme tightening – just to 20 percent of your max)
Correct your shoulder position by externally rotating (think of unscrewing) your shoulders and arms (rolling your shoulders back), which brings your shoulder blades closer together, your chest up and forward, and your thumbs pointing away from your body
While keeping your shoulders externally rotated, turn your hands back to neutral, so that your thumbs are now facing forward

These basic alignments can be applied no matter what position you’re in – whether you’re standing, sitting, kneeling, or anything in between. In the video, Starrett demonstrates exactly how to perform these simple corrections, making it much easier to visualize. If you practice these exercises regularly, you’ll be preventing many of the problems that commonly arise.

In case you’re wondering if you can just substitute a balance ball for your chair, there is little evidence for any benefit. Studies show minimal, if any, postural improvement, and one study even showed “spinal shrinkage” from using these balls as a chair.11 The apparatus you sit on is far less important than the positions in which you teach your body to sit.

However, the ergonomic revolution has led to the birth of some interesting desks and workstations that offer the option of standing up to work. Some workstations even have a treadmill underneath for walking. Sales of the “TredDesk” have reportedly grown tenfold since its introduction in 2008. There are a number of companies putting a lot of money into research and development in this area, and I suspect to see many more of these designs coming down the pike.

Foundation Training Exercises:

Foundation Training is another way to compensate for long hours spend sitting. Foundation training exercises are powerful simple structural movements that help strengthen and realign your body posture. This program was developed by Chiropractor Eric Goodman as a way to address his personal chronic back pain, and have been a great answer to the increasing physical challenges of modern society. As a starting point, Dr. Goodman suggests making the following adjustments to your body when sitting. These recommendations are not meant to replace the way you sit constantly, but to give you useful alternative positions to use. It is recommended that you try them often, as your body is likely in need:

Backrests tend to promote excessive rounding of the spine and push us into what's called an anterior head carriage. Sit upright on the front edge of a chair and practice the next 2 tips. At least 2/3 of your thigh should be off of the chair, and your knees should be no more than 6 inches apart while practicing.
When sitting, try to keep your chin behind your chest bone. When your chin is too far forward, you will inadvertently teach your hip flexors to remain abnormally short and you set yourself up for increased compression and degeneration.
An easy way to learn to lengthen your hip flexors without hyperextending your spine is to slowly increase the distance between your rib cage and pelvis while keeping your chin pulled in and down towards your throat. This is demonstrated in the last 5 minutes of the TED Talk listed above.

For more information on Foundation Training, please refer to my earlier article and interview with Dr. Goodman, as well as watching the videos below in which Dr. Goodman demonstrates two of his favorite exercises:..

Yet another type of exercise called Egoscue can also be helpful in mitigating the damage from excess sitting

Take Breaks from Sitting to Ground Yourself to the Earth

Another downside to sitting is the lack of contact with the Earth, since most of us are sitting indoors. Have you noticed how much better you feel when you walk barefoot on the Earth, whether it’s dirt or sand or grass?

Science has finally solved this mystery!

For most of our evolutionary history, humans have had continuous contact with the Earth, but this is certainly not the case today. We are separated from it by a barrier of asphalt, wood, rugs, plastics, and especially shoes. Living in direct contact with the Earth grounds your body, producing beneficial electrophysiological changes that help protect you from potentially disruptive electromagnetic fields. Some of the EMFs closest to our bodies are those generated by the electronic devices that have practically become a modern appendage – like smart phones and iPads.

Your immune system functions optimally when your body has an adequate supply of electrons, which are easily and naturally obtained by barefoot/bare skin contact with the Earth. Research indicates Earth’s electrons are the ultimate antioxidants, acting aspowerful anti-inflammatories.

Chronic inflammation leads to a multitude of health problems. Therefore, reducing inflammation will help mitigate the negative effects of excessive sitting. Earthing (grounding) decreases the effect of the potentially disruptive electromagnetic fields that are emitted by those electronic devices we’ve come to depend on.

Bottom line: the more you can walk or stand barefoot upon the Earth, the healthier you will be. Whenever possible, take a moment to venture outside and plant your feet in the wet grass!

We are designed to move well, sit well and play well within our environment. It is up to us to teach our body to do these things as it is designed to. We can only deprive our body of what it requires for so long before it begins to rebel against us physically.

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Intermittent fasting goes mainstream...



By Dr. Mercola

It is nice to see the intermittent fasting approach that I have recommended for some time now is starting to catch on. This is no surprise to me as it is one of the most powerful interventions I know of to move your body into fat burning mode and have your hunger nearly magically disappear. It is a powerful tool to help you keep a healthy weight.

In a new diet book, The Fast Diet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting, Dr. Michael Mosley1 suggests the best way to lose weight is to eat normally for five days a week, and fast for two. On fasting days, he recommends cutting your food down to ¼ of your normal daily calories, or about 600 calories for men and about 500 for women, along with plenty of water and tea.

Dr. Mosley himself claims to have lost 19 pounds in two months by following this recommendation. I lost about seven pounds when I implemented the approach last year, but the most amazing aspect is not the weight loss, it’s the absence of hunger and sugar cravings once you are fat adapted. Your desire to eat unhealthy foods seems to disappear; at least that was my experience.

I prefer to think of intermittent fasting as a lifestyle rather than a diet. It’s a way of living and eating that can help you live a longer, healthier life. I promoted the health benefits of intermittent fasting well before it hit the mainstream, and have been experimenting with different types of scheduled eating in my own life for the past two years. I currently restrict my eating to a 6-7 hour window each day.

In the featured BBC interview,2 Dr. Mosley also points out the importance of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) — especially in conjunction with fasting — and how sheer inactivity is actually more detrimental to your health than lack of formal exercise. He recommends getting up every 15-20 minutes if you have a desk job, to avoid the health hazards associated with prolonged sitting. For more helpful tips and recommendations, please see my recent article Sitting Less May be Key for Maximum Longevity, in which I discuss this issue.

HIIT, which is a foundational part of my Peak Fitness Program, is another aspect of optimal health that I’ve been trying to drill into my readers since the mid-2000’s, when the science behind it was showing signs of being really solid. Now the mainstream is finally starting to catch up on this as well, and proof that it really does work as advertised is becoming increasingly evident as people are trying it out.

Intermittent Fasting Becoming Mainstream Health Recommendation

In related news, MSNBC3 recently featured David Zinczenko and Peter Moore, co-authors of yet another book expounding on the health benefits of intermittent fasting:

“Can Americans trim their waistlines by spending less time at the dinner table? In 'The 8-Hour Diet,' best-selling authors David Zinczenko and Peter Moore argue that people can lose weight (and combat our 24-hour eating culture) by only consuming food during a set 8-hour time period.”

This is another version of intermittent fasting, in which you simply restrict your daily eating to a specific window of time. Zinczenko and Moore recommend an eight hour window, which is doable and convenient for most people, but you can restrict it even further — down to six, four, or even two hours, if you want, but you can still reap many of these rewards by limiting your eating to a window of about 8 hours. This means eating only between the hours of 11am until 7pm, as an example. Essentially, this equates to simply skipping breakfast, and making lunch your first meal of the day instead.

Remember, you’re NOT supposed to starve yourself. You’re not even required to restrict the amount of food you eat when on this type of daily scheduled eating plan, just chose healthy foods and be careful to minimize carbs and replace them with HEALTHY fats, like coconut oil, olive oil, olives, butter, eggs, avocados, and nuts. It typically takes several weeks to shift to fat burning mode, but once you do, your cravings for unhealthy foods and carbs seems to disappear as you’re now actually able to burn your stored fat and not have to rely on new carbs for fuel.

As discussed in “The 8-Hour Diet”:

“Consider this 2007 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study: Researchers divided study participants into two groups and had each group eat the same number of calories — enough for them to maintain their weight. The only difference: One group ate all their calories in three meals spread throughout the day, while the other practiced intermittent fasting, eating the same number of calories but in a restricted time frame.

Among the results: Participants who ate in a smaller window of time had a 'significant modification of body composition, including reductions in fat mass.'

Part of that fat burn comes simply from the body’s searching for energy and finding it in your belly. But part of it is also from a surprising source: According to Panda’s research, restricting the time period during which you eat makes your body burn more calories throughout the day. That’s right: The longer you feed, the lazier your metabolism becomes. But fit your food intake into an 8-hour window and your body steps up to the plate, burning more calories day and night. And new evidence shows that weight loss is just the beginning of intermittent fasting’s range of health benefits.”

Keep in mind that the form of fasting that might be best for you will vary depending on your weight, health, and fitness goals. Is your goal to live a longer, healthier life? Or are you a competitive or elite athlete? It may surprise many to learn that you cannot achieve maximum fitness and maximum longevity and fertility at the same time. Each goal requires a different strategy, and will not provide you with equal end results. For example, elite female athletes typically have a difficult time getting pregnant—their fitness has been maximized at the expense of their fertility, as female hormones depend on sufficient amounts of body fat.

Also, please remember that proper nutrition becomes even MORE important when fasting, so addressing the foods you eat really should be your first step. Common sense will tell you that fasting combined with a denatured, highly processed, toxin-rich diet is likely to do more harm than good, as you're not giving your body proper fuel to thrive when you DO eat.

How “Scheduled Eating” Can Promote General Health and Longevity

Aside from removing your cravings for sugar and snack foods, melting the pounds of excess fat away, and making it far easier to maintain a healthy body weight, modern science has also confirmed there are many other good reasons to fast intermittently, such as:

Normalizing your insulin and leptin sensitivity, which is key for optimal health as insulin resistance (which is what you get when your insulin sensitivity plummets) is a primary contributing factor to nearly all chronic disease, from diabetes to heart disease and even cancer
Normalizing ghrelin levels, also known as "the hunger hormone"
Promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production, which plays an important part in health, fitness and slowing the aging process
Lowering triglyceride levels
Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage

There's also plenty of research showing that fasting has a beneficial impact on longevity in animals. There are a number of mechanisms contributing to this effect. Normalizing insulin sensitivity is a major one, but fasting also inhibits the mTOR pathway, which plays an important part in driving the aging process. The fact that it improves a number of potent disease markers also contributes to fasting's overall beneficial effects on general health.

Interestingly, one recent study4 found that fasting increased the participants' low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL or "bad" cholesterol) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL, the "good" cholesterol) by 14 percent and 6 percent, respectively. Why would fasting raise total cholesterol? Dr. Benjamin D. Horne, PhD, MPH, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, and the study's lead author, offers the following explanation:

"Fasting causes hunger or stress. In response, the body releases more cholesterol, allowing it to utilize fat as a source of fuel, instead of glucose. This decreases the number of fat cells in the body... This is important because the fewer fat cells a body has, the less likely it will experience insulin resistance, or diabetes."

Even more remarkable, the study also found that fasting triggered a dramatic rise in human growth hormone (HGH)—1,300 percent in women, and an astounding 2,000 percent in men! The only other thing that can compete in terms of dramatically boosting HGH levels is high-intensity interval training.

HGH, commonly referred to as "the fitness hormone" plays an important role in maintaining health, fitness and longevity, including promotion of muscle growth, and boosting fat loss by revving up your metabolism. The fact that it helps build muscle while simultaneously promoting fat loss explains why HGH helps you lose weight without sacrificing muscle mass, and why even athletes can benefit from the practice (as long as they don't overtrain and are careful about their nutrition).

Cut Diabetes and Heart Disease Risk Just by Changing WHEN You Eat

In a 2005 study,5 Danish researchers showed that intermittent fasting quickly increases insulin-mediated glucose uptake rates. Eight healthy men in their mid-20’s fasted 20 hours every other day for 15 days. At the end of the trial, their insulin had become more efficient at managing blood sugar.

According to the authors, this appears to confirm the theory of “thrifty genes,” which is similar to Dr. Richard Johnson’s finding that metabolic syndrome is actually a healthy adaptive condition that animals undergo to store fat to help them survive periods of famine. The problem is that most all of us are always feasting and never undergo fasting... Our bodies have not adapted to this yet and as a result, this beneficial adaptation actually causes damage to contemporary man. According to the Danish researchers:6

“Insulin resistance is currently a major health problem. This may be because of a marked decrease in daily physical activity during recent decades combined with constant food abundance. This lifestyle collides with our genome, which was most likely selected in the late Paleolithic era (50,000–10,000 BC) by criteria that favored survival in an environment characterized by fluctuations between periods of feast and famine. The theory of thrifty genes states that these fluctuations are required for optimal metabolic function.

...This experiment is the first in humans to show that intermittent fasting increases insulin-mediated glucose uptake rates, and the findings are compatible with the thrifty gene concept.” [Emphasis mine]

So, by mimicking the natural fluctuations in food availability with an intermittent fasting schedule, you naturally optimize your metabolic function without actually changing what or how much you eat when you DO eat (keeping in mind the quality of the nutrients you eat, of course).

Studies have also found compelling links between fasting and reduced risk of heart disease.7 One of the most recent studies, published in June 2012,8 found that those who fasted regularly had a 58 percent lower risk of coronary disease compared to those who never fasted (90 percent of the participants were Mormons who are encouraged to fast one day a month). Regular fasting was also found to be associated with lower glucose levels and lower body mass index (BMI) overall.

Intermittent Fasting May Also Boost Your Brain Health

A recent article in the Washington Post9 highlighted yet another important health benefit associated with intermittent fasting, namely brain health and protection against dementia. Mark Mattson at the National Institute on Aging told the paper:

“We know from animal models that if we start an intermittent fasting diet at what would be the equivalent of middle age in people, we can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.”

A clue to the mechanism behind this benefit is offered in the following paragraph:10

“A fast is considered to start about 10 to 12 hours after a meal, when you have used up all the available glucose in your blood and start converting glycogen stored in liver and muscle cells into glucose to use for energy. If the fast continues, there is a gradual move toward breaking down stored body fat, and the liver produces 'ketone bodies,' short molecules that are byproducts of the breakdown of fatty acids. These can be used by the brain as fuel.”

Mattson’s research suggests that fasting every other day (restricting your meal on fasting days to about 600 calories), tends to boost production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) by anywhere from 50 to 400 percent, depending on the brain region. BDNF activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, and triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health. This protein also protects your brain cells from changes associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

“In mice engineered to develop Alzheimer’s-like symptoms, alternate-day fasting begun in middle age delayed the onset of memory problems by about six months,” the Washington Post reveals11. “'This is a large effect,' Mattson says, perhaps equivalent to 20 years in humans.”

Growing evidence indicates that both fasting and exercise trigger genes and growth factors that recycle and rejuvenate your brain and muscle tissues. These growth factors include BDNF, as just mentioned, and muscle regulatory factors, or MRFs. These growth factors signal brain stem cells and muscle satellite cells to convert into new neurons and new muscle cells respectively.

Interestingly enough, BDNF also expresses itself in the neuro-muscular system where it protects neuro-motors from degradation. (The neuromotor is the most critical element in your muscle. Without the neuromotor, your muscle is like an engine without ignition. Neuro-motor degradation is part of the process that explains age-related muscle atrophy.) So BDNF is actively involved in both your muscles and your brain, and this cross-connection, if you will, appears to be a major part of the explanation for why a physical workout can have such a beneficial impact on your brain tissue—and why the combination of intermittent fasting with high intensity exercise appears to be a particularly potent combination.

Give Intermittent Fasting a Try

Consider skipping breakfast eat lunch and dinner and make sure you stop eating three hours before you go to sleep, so you’re eating within an 8-hour time frame every day. In the 6-8 hours that you do eat, you want to have healthy protein, minimize your carbs like pasta and bread and potatoes and exchange them for HEALTHY fats like butter, eggs, avocado, coconut oil, olive oil and nuts. The type of fats the media and “experts" tell you to avoid.

This will help shift you to fat burning mode from carb burning mode. Remember it takes a few weeks, and you have to do it gradually, but once you succeed to switch to fat burning mode, you will be easily able to fast for 18 hours and not feel hungry. Your cravings for sugar will magically disappear and it will be much easier to achieve your ideal weight.

The other “magical” benefit that occurs is that you will radically improve the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Why is this a good thing? Because supporting healthy gut bacteria, which actually outnumber your cells 10 to one—is one of the most important things you can do to improve your immune system so you won’t get sick, or get coughs, colds and flus. You will sleep better, have more energy, have increased mental clarity and concentrate better. Essentially every aspect of your health will improve.

Hopefully these new books and studies, along with my own pleasant experience and positive results with intermittent fasting will encourage you to give it a try. It’s another powerful tool to help you and your family take control of your health.


User avatar
Thinker
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 12975
Location: The Universe - wherever that is.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by Thinker »

Lots of good ideas for natural health - thanks. :)

Over the years, I've learned some too...
-Exercise every day (15 min. before breakfast), then about 3x/wk go to the gym or do outdoor exercise (laughter & walking are "good medicine")
-I take supplements - multivitamin AM, Fish Oil/Calcium/D/E/Magnesium PM
-I got a general blood work up done, so I also take extra B-12, & topically: a dab of Progesterone cream (& I try to avoid food that has a form of estrogen)
-Oxygen is important - & I often have to remind myself to breath deeply.
-I try to drink a lot of water (1/2 one's body weight in ounces... ie if you're 130 lbs - drink 65 oz of water a day)

-I avoid meds if possible - I will take ibuprofin or anti-biotics, but usually only when I am in major pain or an infection seems to be dragging on. I haven't taken anti-biotics for a long time, though.
-Keeping the ears/nose & throat clean & moist seems to have limited sinus infections for me (olive oil helps with keeping nose moist)
-I like to smell good - but I also don't want to clog pores with alluminum (linked to alzeimers), so I mostly us a deoderant (& not anti-perspirant)
-I floss every day... I read that this is more important than brushing even.
-I admit that I love to have something sweet to eat, & have found that if I take a small handful of a tasty cereal, it satisfies that craving.

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Thinker wrote:Lots of good ideas for natural health - thanks. :)

Over the years, I've learned some too...
-Exercise every day (15 min. before breakfast), then about 3x/wk go to the gym or do outdoor exercise (laughter & walking are "good medicine")
-I take supplements - multivitamin AM, Fish Oil/Calcium/D/E/Magnesium PM

-I got a general blood work up done, so I also take extra B-12, & topically: a dab of Progesterone cream (& I try to avoid food that has a form of estrogen)
-Oxygen is important - & I often have to remind myself to breath deeply.
-I try to drink a lot of water (1/2 one's body weight in ounces... ie if you're 130 lbs - drink 65 oz of water a day)

-I avoid meds if possible - I will take ibuprofin or anti-biotics, but usually only when I am in major pain or an infection seems to be dragging on. I haven't taken anti-biotics for a long time, though.
-Keeping the ears/nose & throat clean & moist seems to have limited sinus infections for me (olive oil helps with keeping nose moist)
-I like to smell good - but I also don't want to clog pores with alluminum (linked to alzeimers), so I mostly us a deoderant (& not anti-perspirant)
-I floss every day... I read that this is more important than brushing even.
-I admit that I love to have something sweet to eat, & have found that if I take a small handful of a tasty cereal, it satisfies that craving.
An excellent summary, Thinker -- thank YOU!

I'm finding that walking/playing with the grand-children is great exercise, too.
Yesterday with the grand-daughter at Costco was so much fun.

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Do Americans have the poorest health of "1st-world countries"? and why the high obesity rates?

By Dr. Mercola

According to a new health analysis bearing the revealing title: US Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health1, Americans come in dead last in a comparison of 17 affluent nations.

The research was unable to uncover any single cause or “rallying point for action.” Instead, it calls for more research to “ferret out the effects of our current policies.”

C’mon! You’ve got to be kidding me.

Considering the fact that human health tends to be primarily affected by a) nutrition, b) exercise, and c) toxic exposures, do they seriously believe that we can improve public health while ignoring these three basic areas?

What Does the Human Body Require to Be Healthy?

A staggering two-thirds of American adults are overweight, and more than one-quarter of adults fall into the obese category. One in four Americans is pre-diabetic or diabetic. It should be obvious that diet and exercise are critical factors here. The National Institutes of Health even states that four of the six leading causes of death in the United States are linked to unhealthy diets.

The question is why are so many people unable to regulate their weight
and insulin sensitivity? The following points are well worthy of careful consideration when pondering this issue:

The top two crops grown in the U.S. are corn and soy. High fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soybean oil are two of the most popular ingredients made from these crops.2 High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has repeatedly been shown to be a driving factor behind being overweight and having poor health outcomes. HFCS is pervasive and in many processed food items some individuals would never expect, including so called diet foods and 'enhanced' water products. Even most infant formulas contain the sugar equivalent of one can of Coca-Cola.

Furthermore, soybean oil is another common unhealthy ingredient in many processed foods and soybeans can be severely and systemically contaminated with high amounts of the potent herbicide glyphosate. Additionally, over 85 percent of all corn grown in the US is genetically engineered (GE)3, which further increases the risk of high glyphosate contamination.The safety of either of these items has never been proven. According to a recent report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG)4, Americans are eating their weight and more in GE foods each and every year.
Thirty-three percent of American adults are also completely sedentary, and more than half of adults over the age of 18 never engage in any vigorous leisure-time physical activity lasting 10 minutes or more per week.
According to a study by the EWG5, blood samples from newborns contained an average of 287 toxins, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides, and chemicals from non stick products. Of the 287 chemicals EWG detected in umbilical cord blood, it’s known that 180 cause cancer in humans or animals; 217 are toxic to your brain and nervous system; and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests. Clearly, when babies are born loaded with toxic chemicals, it’s a sign that toxic exposure is too high.
While there are many types and routes of toxic exposure, one would be remiss to overlook Americans use of pharmaceutical drugs, as drugs have, on average, 70 different potential side effects, and are responsible for the premature death of at least 106,000 Americans per year, when taken as prescribed. Americans pop the most pills of any other nation, and that includes children. Americans also receive the most amount of vaccinations.

So.... let’s think... What could possibly be the root of Americans’ failure to thrive? The Atlantic6, reporting on the findings writes:

“In presenting their findings... the authors seemed to be urging the U.S. to do some soul searching. Our culture 'cherishes independence' and 'wants to limit the intrusion of government in our personal lives,' said Steven Woolf, director of the Center for Human Needs at Virginia Commonwealth University, the panel chairman.

While those values serve us in some ways, he said, our resistance to regulation 'may work against our ability to achieve optimal health outcomes.'"

Aha! So it’s Americans’ striving for independence and freedom of choice that is to blame for such poor dietary choices and health outcomes?! They mean to tell us that we’re all so inept at making healthy choices, we need to abandon our independent spirits and embrace more nanny state regulations that might finally whip us into shape. Honestly, I feel like I’m reading something out of The Onion... It’s all so backwards.

Why Do Americans Consume Such a Bad Diet?

For the sake of brevity, I will limit my comments to the issue of diet here. But first, let’s consider a few of the questions we need to ask:

Do Americans purposefully consume excessive amounts of fat-promoting, health-harming HFCS because they love it and refuse to eat foods that don’t contain it, or are there other reasons why Americans can’t seem to control their waistlines?

And do they really intentionally consume far too many carbohydrates, sugar and processed foods in place of healthy fats like avocados, olives, coconut oil, butter, nuts, eggs and olive oil, which cause them to be adapted to burning carbs as their primary fuel rather than fat, or is this type of diet a more or less inevitable side effect of NOT thinking independently and seeking out real nutritional facts, but rather mindlessly buying what’s available in the store and advertised as healthy on TV?
Do Americans really want to consume more genetically engineered foods than any other country?
Do freedom-loving Americans who “cherish independence” seek to buy more or less whole, unadulterated, unprocessed foods that might help improve their health and, at the very least, reduce toxic exposure?

I propose considering the following facts before blaming America’s failing health on the average shopper’s pesky determination to make independent, foolhardy choices:

The US government subsidizes the very crops identified as being the most harmful to human health and the environment; the top three being corn, wheat, and soybeans. And nearly all of the corn and soybeans grown are genetically engineered varieties.

By subsidizing these, the US government is actively supporting a diet that consists of these grains in their processed form, namely high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), hydrogenated soybean oil, and meats loaded with antibiotics – all of which are now well-known contributors to obesity and chronic disease.
These junk-food subsidies make it much cheaper to buy a burger, fries and soda from a fast-food restaurant than it is to buy grass-fed beef and veggies. It's not that these foods necessarily cost more to grow or produce; rather the prices for the junk foods are being artificially reduced by the government.
The US further promotes use of HFCS in food manufacturing by imposing import tariffs on foreign sugar, raising the price of sucrose above those in other countries.
When the dangers of HFCS finally began to seep into the American consciousness, consumer demand forced many companies to reformulate their processed foods using other types of sweeteners, or ditching sweetening agents altogether. Today, you can find a number of food products marked “No HFCS” and government intervention had nothing to do with this beneficial change.
The US government has repeatedly refused to take any action to label genetically engineered foods, despite overwhelming public support and demand for labeling.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has repeatedly harassed, raided, and shut down small farms producing healthful organic and raw foods, such as raw dairy and cheese, along with private co-ops procuring and delivering such foods to health-conscious customers.

Americans Die Earlier and Live in Poorer Health

These are examples of Big Government making health decisions for you. How have they been working out so far? The proof is in the pudding, and the featured report7 tells us that what we’ve been doing so far is NOT working.

According to the report, Americans die earlier and live in poorer health than people in other developed nations, which included Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the U.K.

Of these 17 affluent countries, the US ranks last overall,
and near the bottom in nine key areas of health, including low birth weight; injuries and homicides; teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections; HIV and AIDS; drug-related deaths; obesity and diabetes; heart disease; chronic lung disease; and general disability. At 75.6 years, American men have the lowest life expectancy among the countries reviewed, and American women ranked second-to-last at 80.7 years. The infant mortality rate in the US is equally abysmal, with 32.7 deaths per 100,000, while most others range between 15 and 25 deaths per 100,000.

Interestingly, the US lags behind all these nations even though smoking rates in the US are far lower than many of the other nations, indicating that, apparently, there’s more to good health than quitting smoking. Or, alternatively, that even smokers can enjoy a modicum of health IF they’re able to compensate with other healthy lifestyle strategies. So, again, how are more nanny state regulations going to improve the situation when they clearly are not willing to accept the sources of the problem in the first place?

The truth is, in order to regulate away this problem, the US government would have to cut all ties with industry and eliminate its conflicts of interest and massive revolving doors with the very industry it is mandated to regulate.

The likelihood of that happening appears slim to none, considering that Big Ag and Big Pharma are two of the biggest and strongest lobbying groups of all business sectors vying for favors from our legislators8. And they’re getting them—which is how we got into this abhorrent mess in the first place, where what is good is portrayed as bad, and that which is bad is ignored. The answer is to promote more independence of choice, and limiting the intrusion of government in our food choices—the very things these reviewers claim are part of the problem... The report also found that Americans:

Have a long-standing pattern of poorer health that is strikingly consistent and pervasive over the course of their lifetimes. Overall, Americans die and suffer from illness and injury at rates that are unnecessary
Even affluent Americans with higher education and insurance who engage in healthy behaviors (such as not smoking and maintaining a healthy weight) are in worse health than similar people in other nations
Consume the most calories among peer countries
Have more alcohol-related accidents
Spend more than $8,600 per person per year on health care, which is more than twice the amount spent by the UK, France, and Sweden

How Can the Wealthiest Industrialized Nation be the Sickest?

Since the mid-1990s, the number of Americans suffering from at least three chronic illnesses nearly doubled. Life expectancy has decreased and infant mortality has increased. Illnesses once rare are now common, with some approaching epidemic levels. For example:

Autism now affects one in 88 children (CDC), compared to one in 25,000 in the mid-1970s
Type 2 diabetes rates in the U.S. increased by 176 percent between 1980 and 2010
Celiac disease is four times more common now than 60 years ago
Alzheimer's disease is rising at alarming rates. It's estimated that 5.4 million Americans (one in eight older Americans) now has Alzheimer's disease, and nearly half of those age 85 and older have it; AD rates have doubled since 1980
New infectious diseases are increasing in number, according to a 2008 study

In his documentary, Jeffrey Smith makes a convincing argument that one of the primary forces driving these illnesses is America's changing food supply. And one of the most profound changes is genetically engineered food. Proving GE food is causing Americans to be sick is a tall order, but the evidence presented in this film is very compelling and should not be ignored.
fat Switch
Order button

GMO Report Disproves FDA's Safety Claims

There is a significant compilation of scientific evidence that casts serious doubt on the claims made by industry and government officials about the safety of GE foods. Consider this report by The Atlantic9 The authors of the report "GMO Myths and Truths"10 took a science-based approach to evaluating the available research, arriving at the conclusion that most of the scientific evidence regarding safety and increased yield potential do not at all support the claims.

In fact, the evidence demonstrates the claims for genetically engineered foods are not just wildly overblown – they simply aren't true. Not only are GE foods less nutritious than non-GE foods, they pose distinct health risks, are inadequately regulated, harm the environment and farmers, and are a poor solution to world hunger.

The authors of this critical report include Michael Antoniou, PhD, who heads the Gene Expression and Therapy Group at King's College at London School of Medicine in the UK. He's a 28-year veteran of genetic engineering technology who has himself invented a number of gene expression biotechnologies; and John Fagan, PhD, a leading authority on food sustainability, biosafety, and GE testing. If you want to get a comprehensive understanding of genetically engineered foods, I strongly recommend reading this report.

11 Basic Guidelines for General Health and Longevity

Leading a common sense, healthy lifestyle is your best bet to produce a healthy body and mind, and increase your longevity. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry, the food industry, and even government itself sure won't make it easy for you to avoid the garbage that ruins your health. The following guidelines form the basic tenets of optimal health and healthy weight—foundational strategies that will not change, regardless of what marvels modern science comes up with next. For more comprehensive guidance, please see my fully updated nutritional plan, which takes you from beginner’s stage to advanced:

Eat a healthy diet, paying very careful attention to keeping your insulin levels down (my free nutritional plan will help guide you through your dietary changes with minimal effort)
Replace sweetened drinks (whether they’re sweetened with sugar, HFCS, or artificial sweeteners) with plenty of pure, clean water
Avoid all genetically engineered foods. There are nine primary GE food crops, but their derivatives are in over 70 percent of supermarket foods, particularly processed foods. GE ingredients can hide. For example, every can of soda containing high fructose corn syrup most likely contains GE corn. Make sure none of the following are on your grocery list, unless they are USDA certified organic:
Soy Cottonseed Corn
Canola Oil Hawaiian papaya Alfalfa
Sugar from sugar beets Some varieties of zucchini Crookneck squash



Avoid any product containing aspartame, which is derived from a GE organism. And avoid any milk products that may have rBGH. I recommend consuming only raw, organic milk products you've obtained from a trustworthy local dairy farmer. The Institute for Responsible Technology has put together a helpful Non-GMO Shopping Guide you can download and print. They even have an iPhone app.
Optimize your gut flora with fermented foods, such as fermented vegetables, which you can easily and inexpensively make at home
Consume healthy fats, like butter, eggs, avocados, coconut oil, olive oil, and nuts, especially macadamia nuts which are higher in fat and lower in protein
Eat plenty of raw food
Exercise regularly. Make sure to incorporate high intensity interval training at least once or twice a week
Get an appropriate amount of sunlight to optimize your vitamin D levels
Limit toxin exposure
Get plenty of sleep
Manage your stress

Let’s face it, government health recommendations and regulations relating to diet and health have failed miserably, and the featured report delivers the somber statistics of where we’re at on the global scene. While spending twice as much on health care per capita, we’re not getting results. I believe we’ll keep seeing more of the same until or unless we change our stance on what a healthy diet is, and what constitutes a healthy lifestyle. We need to move away from the idea that being on a dozen medications means you’re doing something right for your health... This is NOT health care. This is disease management, and it comes at a very steep price, namely your longevity.

Until or unless the US government takes industry to task, our regulators and legislators cannot be trusted to usher Americans toward better health. In the meantime, it is up to YOU to take control of your health, and do what is right for you, to live a healthier, longer, drug- and disease-free life. Proper nutrition, exercise, and avoidance of toxins are three critical factors to address in this process, and this website contains literally tens of thousands of freely available articles to help you do just that.

By buying organic, you will dramatically reduce your exposure to pesticides, hormones and antibiotics, as those are used on nearly all GE crops. When shopping locally, know your local farmers. Many are too small to afford official certification, but many still adhere to organic, sustainable practices. The only way to determine how your food is raised is to check them out, meeting the farmer face to face if possible. Yes, it does take time but is worth it if you are really concerned about your family's health.

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Dr Mercola warns about soybean oil... thoroughly:



By Dr. Mercola

Processed food is perhaps the most damaging aspect of most people’s diet, contributing to poor health and chronic disease. One of the primary culprits is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), the dangers of which I touch on in virtually every article on diet I write.

The second culprit is partially hydrogenated soybean oil.

These two ingredients, either alone or in combination, can be found in virtually all processed foods and one can make a compelling argument that the reliance on these two foods is a primary contributing factor for most of the degenerative diseases attacking Americans today.

Part of the problem with partially hydrogenated soybean oil is the trans fat it contains. The other part relates to the health hazards of soy itself. And an added hazard factor is the fact that the majority of both corn and soybeans are genetically engineered.

As the negative health effects from trans fats have been identified and recognized, the agricultural- and food industry have scrambled to come up with new alternatives.

Partially hydrogenated soybean oil has been identified as the main culprit, and for good reason. Unfortunately, saturated fats are still mistakenly considered unhealthy by many health “experts,” so rather than embracing truly healthful tropical fats like coconut oil, which is mostly grown outside the US. The food industry has instead turned to domestic US alternatives offered by companies like Monsanto, which has developed modified soybeans that don’t require hydrogenation.

Why Hydrogenate?

Americans consume more than 28 billion pounds of edible oils annually, and soybean oil accounts for about 65 percent of it. About half of it is hydrogenated, as soybean oil is too unstable otherwise to be used in food manufacturing. One of the primary reasons for hydrogenating oil is to prolong its shelf life. Raw butter, for example, is likely to go rancid far quicker than margarine.

The process also makes the oil more stable and raises its melting point, which allows it to be used in various types of food processing that uses high temperatures.

Hydrogenated oil1 is made by forcing hydrogen gas into the oil at high pressure. Virtually any oil can be hydrogenated. Margarine is a good example, in which nearly half of the fat content is trans fat. The process that creates partially hydrogenated oil alters the chemical composition of essential fatty acids, such as reducing or removing linolenic acid, a highly reactive triunsaturated fatty acid, transforming it into the far less reactive linoleic acid, thereby greatly preventing oxidative rancidity when used in cooking.

In the late 1990’s, researchers began realizing this chemical alteration might actually have adverse health effects. Since then, scientists have verified this to the point of no dispute.

Beware that there’s a difference between “fully hydrogenated” and “partially hydrogenated” oils. Whereas partially hydrogenated oil contains trans fat, fully hydrogenated oil does not, as taking the hydrogenation process “all the way” continues the molecular transformation of the fatty acids from trans fat into saturated fatty acids. Fully hydrogenated soybean oil is still not a healthy choice however, for reasons I’ll explain below. The following slide presentation explains the technical aspects relating to the hydrogenation process.


This is a Flash-based video and may not be viewable on mobile devices.

The Health Hazards of Trans Fats Found in Partially Hydrogenated Oil

The completely unnatural man-made fats created through the partial hydrogenation process cause dysfunction and chaos in your body on a cellular level, and studies have linked trans-fats to:
Cancer, by interfering with enzymes your body uses to fight cancer Chronic health problems such as obesity, asthma, auto-immune disease, cancer, and bone degeneration
Diabetes, by interfering with the insulin receptors in your cell membranes Heart disease, by clogging your arteries (Among women with underlying coronary heart disease, eating trans-fats increased the risk of sudden cardiac arrest three-fold!)
Decreased immune function, by reducing your immune response Increase blood levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol, while lowering levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good" cholesterol
Reproductive problems by interfering with enzymes needed to produce sex hormones Interfering with your body’s use of beneficial omega-3 fats



As usual, it took many years before conventional health recommendations caught up and began warning about the use of trans fats. Not surprisingly, as soon as the FDA required food manufacturers to list trans fat content on the label — which took effect on January 1, 2006 — the industry began searching for viable alternatives to appeal to consumers who increasingly began looking for the “No Trans Fat” designation. It didn’t take long before Monsanto had tinkered forth a genetically engineered soybean that is low in linolenic acid, which we’ll get to in a moment.

Beware that some food manufacturers have opted to simply fool buyers — a tactic allowed by the FDA as any product containing up to half a gram of trans fat per serving can still legally claim to have zero trans fat2. The trick is to reduce the serving size to bring it below this threshold. At times, this will result in unreasonably tiny serving sizes, so any time you check a label and a serving is something like 10 chips or one cookie, it probably contains trans fats.

The Health Hazards of Soybeans

Besides the health hazards related to the trans fats created by the partial hydrogenation process, soybean oil is, in and of itself, NOT a healthy oil. Add to that the fact that the majority of soy grown in the US is genetically engineered, which may have additional health consequences. When taken together, partially hydrogenated GE soybean oil becomes one of the absolute worst types of oils you can consume.

Years ago, tropical oils, such as palm and coconut oil, were commonly used in American food production. However, these are obviously not grown in the US. With the exception of Hawaii, our climate isn't tropical enough. Spurred on by financial incentives, the industry devised a plan to shift the market from tropical oils to something more "home grown." As a result, a movement was created to demonize and vilify tropical oils in order to replace them with domestically grown oils such as corn and soy.

The fat in soybean oil is primarily omega-6 fat. And while we do need some, it is rare for anyone to be deficient as it is pervasive in our diet. Americans in general consume FAR too much omega-6 in relation to omega-3 fat, primarily due to the excessive amount of omega-6 found in processed foods. Omega-6 fats are in nearly every animal food and many plants, so deficiencies are very rare. This omega-6 fat is also highly processed and therefore damaged, which compounds the problem of getting so much of it in your diet. The omega-6 found in soybean oil promotes chronic inflammation in your body, which is an underlying issue for virtually all chronic diseases.

What About Organic Soybean Oil?

Even if you were fortunate enough to find organic soybean oil, there are still several significant concerns that make it far from attractive from a health standpoint. Soy in and of itself, organically grown or not, contains a number of problematic components that can wreak havoc with your health, such as:

Goitrogens – Goitrogens, found in all unfermented soy whether it's organic or not, are substances that block the synthesis of thyroid hormones and interfere with iodine metabolism, thereby interfering with your thyroid function.
Isoflavones: genistein and daidzein – Isoflavones are a type of phytoestrogen, which is a plant compound resembling human estrogen, which is why some recommend using soy therapeutically to treat symptoms of menopause. I believe the evidence is highly controversial and doubt it works. Typically, most of us are exposed to too much estrogen compounds and have a lower testosterone level than ideal, so it really is important to limit exposure to feminizing phytoestrogens. Even more importantly, there's evidence it may disturb endocrine function, cause infertility, and promote breast cancer, which is definitely a significant concern.
Phytic acid -- Phytates (phytic acid) bind to metal ions, preventing the absorption of certain minerals, including calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc -- all of which are co-factors for optimal biochemistry in your body. This is particularly problematic for vegetarians, because eating meat reduces the mineral-blocking effects of these phytates.

Sometimes it can be beneficial, especially in postmenopausal women and in most adult men because we tend to have levels of iron that are too high which can be a very potent oxidant and cause biological stress. However, phytic acid does not necessarily selectively inhibit just iron absorption; it inhibits all minerals. This is very important to remember, as many already suffer from mineral deficiencies from inadequate diets.

The soybean has one of the highest phytate levels of any grain or legume, and the phytates in soy are highly resistant to normal phytate-reducing techniques such as long, slow cooking. Only a long period of fermentation will significantly reduce the phytate content of soybeans.
Natural toxins known as "anti-nutrients" -- Soy also contains other anti-nutritional factors such as saponins, soyatoxin, protease inhibitors, and oxalates. Some of these factors interfere with the enzymes you need to digest protein. While a small amount of anti-nutrients would not likely cause a problem, the amount of soy that many Americans are now eating is extremely high.
Hemagglutinin -- Hemagglutinin is a clot-promoting substance that causes your red blood cells to clump together. These clumped cells are unable to properly absorb and distribute oxygen to your tissues.

Worst of All — Genetically Engineered Soybean Oil

The genetically engineered (GE) variety planted on over 90 percent of US soy acres is Roundup Ready — engineered to survive being doused with otherwise lethal amounts of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. The logic behind Roundup Ready crops such as soy is that you can decrease the cost of production by killing off everything except the actual soy plant.

However, animal studies reveal there may be significant adverse health effects from these GE soybeans, including progressively increased rates of infertility with each passing generation. By the third generation, virtually all the hamsters in one feeding study were found to be infertile. Second-generation hamsters raised on GE soy also had a five-fold higher infant mortality rate.

Are Low-Linolenic Soybeans the Answer?

We now also have other Monsanto-made soy crops to contend with. Responding to the growing demand for healthier diets, Monsanto launched Vistive low-linolenic soybeans in 2005. Most soybeans contain roughly seven percent linolenic acid. The new varieties contain one to three percent. As explained by Monsanto3:

“The oil from these beans can reduce or virtually eliminate trans fat in processed soybean oil... Vistive low-linolenic soybeans have lower levels of linolenic acid. Because of these lower levels, which were achieved through traditional breeding practices4, the oil produced by Vistive low-linolenic seeds does not require hydrogenation, the process that is used to increase shelf life and flavor stability in fried foods, baked goods, snack products and other processed foods.”

Yet another soybean variety created by Monsanto is the high stearate soybean, which also has the properties of margarine and shortening without hydrogenation. But are these soybeans any better or safer than either conventional soybeans or Roundup Ready soybeans, even though they don’t have to go through partial hydrogenation, and therefore do not contain trans fat? No one knows.

Another Hazard of GE Soybeans: Glyphosate

I keep stacking health risks upon health risks, and here’s another one: Research has shown that soybean oil from Roundup Ready soy is loaded with glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup — the broad-spectrum herbicide created by Monsanto.

According to a report in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology, the highest MRL for glyphosate in food and feed products in the EU is 20 mg/kg. GE soybeans have been found to contain residue levels as high as 17 mg/kg, and malformations in frog and chicken embryos occurred at 2.03 mg/kg.5 That's 10 times lower than the MRL.

This is an alarming finding because glyphosate is easily one of the world's most overlooked poisons. Research published in 2010 showed that the chemical, which works by inhibiting an enzyme called EPSP synthase that is necessary for plants to grow, causes birth defects in frogs and chicken embryos at far lower levels than used in agricultural and garden applications.6 The malformations primarily affected the:

Skull
Face
Midline and developing brain
Spinal cord

When applied to crops, glyphosate becomes systemic throughout the plant, so it cannot be washed off. And once you eat this crop, the glyphosate ends up in your gut where it can decimate your beneficial bacteria. This can wreak havoc with your health as 80 percent of your immune system resides in your gut (GALT – Gut Associated Lymph Tissue) and is dependent on a healthy ratio of good and bad bacteria. Separate research has also uncovered the following effects from glyphosate:
Endocrine disruption DNA damage
Developmental toxicity Neurotoxicity
Reproductive toxicity Cancer

To Avoid Harmful Fats of All Kinds, Ditch Processed Foods

If you want to avoid dangerous fats of all kinds, your best bet is to eliminate processed foods from your diet. From there, use these tips to make sure you're eating the right fats for your health:

Use organic butter (preferably made from raw milk) instead of margarines and vegetable oil spreads. Butter is a healthy whole food that has received an unwarranted bad rap.
Use coconut oil for cooking. It is far superior to any other cooking oil and is loaded with health benefits.
Be sure to eat raw fats, such as those from avocados, raw dairy products, olive oil, olives, organic pastured eggs, and raw nuts, especially macadamia nuts which are relatively low in protein. Also take a high-quality source of animal-based omega-3 fat, such as krill oil.

Following my comprehensive nutrition plan will automatically reduce your trans-fat intake, as it will give you a guide to focus on healthy whole foods instead of processed junk food. Remember, virtually all processed foods will contain either HFCS (probably made from genetically engineered corn) and/or soybean oil — either in the form of partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which is likely made from GE soybeans, loaded with glyphosate, or from one of the newer soybean varieties that were created such that they do not need to be hydrogenated. They’re ALL bad news, if you value your health.

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Interesting -- Dr Mercola warns AGAINST vaccinations, while Dr Oz recommends them.

And Piers Morgan (who int-viewed Alex Jones) is given a flu shot by Dr Oz -- with disastrous PR results:
Piers Morgan Falls Ill Days After Public Flu Shot with Dr. Oz

Comments (46)
Anthony Gucciardi

by Anthony Gucciardi
January 24th, 2013 |

Just two days after it was reported that GlaxoSmithKline’s Pandemrix H1N1 swine flu vaccine has actually caused a whopping 800 cases of narcolepsy in children according to Reuters, a major publicity stunt for the efficacy of the flu shot as presented by CNN has crashed and burned. After receiving his very first flu shot live on air from vaccine advocate Dr. Oz in attempt to showcase the ‘safety and effectiveness of the shot’, Piers Morgan has now developed flu-like symptoms that even he and his guest have attributed to the reception of the shot.

In the January 23 interview with country music celebrity Dwight Yoakam, Piers and Dwight discuss the connection between the recent shot and his new sickness. In the interview, which can be seen below, Piers asks “…As you can tell, things are deteriorating. Is there any advice you can give me?”

Yoakam replies with a simple “Don’t ever take a flu shot again,” sparking further discussion surrounding the public injection that ultimately turned into a PR nightmare for Big Pharma.
In a surprising reply, Piers says ““We’re both doing the math, so I mean, we both saw him put that thing in my arm and within 10 days I’m struck down.” It was Piers’ first flu shot in his life, according to his own testimony.

You can watch this segment below:

As pointed out by Adan Salazar, the sickness is also highly ironic as Piers actually questioned Dr. Oz about the so-called ‘myths’ surrounding the shot before it was administered. One such ‘myth’ was whether or not the shot could actually lead to the flu. In dialogue with Dr. Oz, Piers nervously asked:

“So the myth about these, and I’m told it’s a myth, is that you can actually get flu or flu-like symptoms simply by having the shot. Is that true?”

Dr. Oz, of course, regurgitated information provided by the CDC in stating that such an event is impossible due to the fact that the flu shot contains the dead flu virus. Dr. Oz also fails to mention that even the FDA’s own website admits that vaccines contain toxic additives like:

Antibiotics: Linked to the development of mental illness, obesity, and serious gut imbalance due to the depletion of beneficial bacteria in the gut, superbug-spawning antibiotics are used in vaccinations as an ‘additive’ as admitted by the FDA.

Formaldehyde: This of course is the known carcinogen used in the preservation of corpses by funeral homes and elsewhere. Even Cancer.gov admits that formaldehyde is a serious cancer-causing chemical, stating “Formaldehyde has been classified as a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing substance) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer…” So why is this cancer-causing substance being used an additive for vaccinations?

Aluminum: Popularly associated with Alzheimer’s disease and a bunch of other brain disorders, aluminum is used as a vaccine additive to ‘stimulate a response’ from the body.

Thimerosal: One of the most widely known additives, thimerosal is a mercury-containing substance that is unsafe at any dose. Your doctor is likely entirely misinformed on this additive, stating there is no mercury-containing thimerosal in a vaccine when even the FDA and CDC plainly state this. As stated by Dr. David Wallinga from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, mercury is ‘toxic in all its forms.”

Instead of giving Piers a vaccination full of these toxic additives, Dr. Oz could have simply recommended that Piers begin supplementing with high quality, inexpensive vitamin D3 — or simply take a walk around outside in a warmer climate. Even in considerably low doses, vitamin D3 has been found to flash the risk of flu development by nearly half – a much great success rate than the flu shot.
Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/piers-morgan- ... z2JHQ7Djw2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

TEETH --


By Dr. Mercola

It’s very difficult to achieve high-level physical health if your dental health isn’t effectively addressed. I’ve been involved with alternatives to regular dentistry for quite some time. I think many people fail to appreciate how important dentistry is to our total health.

Most tend to separate these two components, but both need to be considered as working in tandem.

Contrary to conventional dentistry, minimally invasive dentistry, like biological dentistry, is not about “drilling and filling;” creating an endless loop of revisits and retreating the same tooth again and again.

Instead, by using dietary prevention to create a healthy cavity-fighting bioflora in your mouth; dental prophylaxis such as brushing and irrigating with baking soda, and oil pulling; combined with minimally invasive restorations starting as early as possible, you can prevent about 80 percent of future dental problems.

Minimally Invasive Dentistry — A Valuable Aspect of Biological Dentistry

Dr. Tim Rainey is a true pioneer in biological dentistry, and is a big proponent of and leader in what’s termed “minimally invasive dentistry.”

“Basically, I knew that the way that we were preparing teeth back then was dead wrong; that you couldn’t go in and justify destroying massive amounts of tooth structure,” Dr. Rainey says. “...We need to be much more conservative.”

After dental school, the training and dogma of which he rebelled against, he began investigating alternatives to the standard “drill and fill” dogma. After reading a hallmark article by a Japanese researcher back in 1977, he began to put everything together:

How tooth decay actually occurs, what the tooth looks like on the inside, how the decay looks like, and finally, what could be done to minimize the damage being done to the tooth while trying to restore it.

“It took me about until 1983 to really understand what was really going on within the teeth. I’m talking several years there. I’m talking about dissecting hundreds, if not thousands, of teeth...

I realized two things. Number one, we did not even have a rudimentary understanding of the decay process in the teeth. Number two, everything that we’ve been taught about tooth structure and anatomy was just dead wrong.

By 1985, I had actually published the article on how to address 80 percent of all decay, which is in the chewing surface of the back teeth. That’s where most decay starts. We had a rather crude rudimentary way of going in and treating these teeth,” he says.

Minimally Invasive Restorations Can Last a Lifetime

The first patient he used his newly devised procedure on was the daughter of one of his class mates from dental school. The girl received these minimally invasive restorations in 1983 or ’84. Today, she is Dr. Rainey’s lead hygienist, and those restorations are still there, and those teeth have never decayed or broken down.

This is in stark contrast to what happens with most conventional fillings, especially if the dentist uses amalgam (about half of which is mercury, despite being deceptively referred to as “silver filling”). When you drill into the tooth with a high speed drill, and then stuff amalgam or other incompatible material in there, you can be almost certain that you will need additional work on that tooth down the road as the tooth begins to crack and the tooth structure fails.

“The average is somewhere around 14 to 15 years before the breakdown of the first restoration in the tooth and then somewhere around eight years for the second restoration,” Dr. Rainey says.

“Then you’re into the tooth has fractured, you start getting decay in between the teeth. That’s the root. That will destruct your teeth. Decay starts breaking down the teeth, and then you start getting into crowns and root canals. Here you have a whole series of manmade iatrogenic (dentistry-caused) 'disasters,' which fuels the future generations of dentists. It also fuels 80 percent of what all dental practice is about, that is repairing previous dentistry.”

By using early diagnosis and early intervention with minimally invasive dentistry, Dr. Rainey and other dentists trained in his techniques have eliminated 80 percent of future dentistry on the vast majority of their patients who are privileged to grow up in a practice such as theirs. As someone who has struggled with my own dental health, this sounds absolutely extraordinary. That equates to phenomenal savings in terms of money, pain, and emotional anguish, if you happen to be afraid of the dentist chair.

“Remember, there are several other people throughout the world who are now doing this. It has a very profound effect. We’re talking about something that the evidence of information has been out there approaching 30 years – three decades. Dental patients found out about it like they did in alternative medicine... They seek me out from all over. We have patients coming in from Canada. We haven’t even counted the number of states; I would say something around 30 states,” Dr. Rainey says.

“Of course, there are easier and simpler ways to do dentistry! You start these kids off very early. You eliminate the decay... and guess what? They don’t have much decay later on. We call it bulletproofing the teeth; where we go in, identify the defective pit, fissures, and grooves in the teeth, and clean those out.

There are several different types of materials that we can use. My preference is for glass ionomer cement... Not only do those chewing surfaces on those teeth never decay, but the interproximal areas are gaining some degree of protection because you’re removing the nidus of the infection, which is the bacteria within the teeth that are causing decay. You don’t have that bolus of xbowel bioactivity there to lead off into decay.”

Understanding Tooth Structure

The tooth is covered with a layer of lipoprotein, laden with calcium phosphate that comes and goes — eating and drinking, especially acidic foodstuffs and beverages, remove it, while saliva puts it back. Beneath that is an extremely hard and dense layer of enamel, which is about 0.2 millimeters, or 200-400 microns thick. Inside of that hard layer, the tooth structure becomes much softer. These parts all form the structural integrity of the tooth.

When you bite down on the tooth, the stress is transferred through the entire tooth down into the root, which deforms slightly. This is part of its natural stress-relieving mechanism. During the formation of the tooth can form little pits, fissures and grooves that may be hypocalcific — a defect that causes the enamel to be softer than normal and susceptible to decay.

“In the ideal world, you do not have decay start down in these pits and fissures, because you have a natural oil-based organic plug that seals that tooth,” Dr. Rainey explains. “However, in the real world what happens is as these teeth are finalizing development, you’ll get what we call 'hypocalcified enamel.' Now, if you put acid in that area, then you start getting a calcium deficit. That’s the beginning of decay in teeth.”

He identifies those areas, and using a miniature air abrasion tip that is very precise and focused, cleans out those pits, fissures and grooves. This removes the initial decay. Then he seals it with glass ionomer. The end result is that those teeth tend to not decay in the future.

Why Decay Occurs

Tooth decay is primarily driven by the symbiotic relationship between bacteria and acidity, which creates a pathogenic bioflora in your mouth. If you’re continually lowering the pH in your mouth, you start losing calcium, which is necessary for strong healthy teeth. Calcium deficiency leads to porosity in the teeth, which allows plaque that has turned pathogenic to attack the tooth more thoroughly. Once certain types of bacteria are able to penetrate the enamel, they put out enzymes that begin to break down the collagen of the inner structure of the tooth.

“That’s where you get cavitation, which is the loss of tooth structure to the point where you have a hole in that tooth,” Dr. Rainey explains.

One of the most important things Dr. Rainey instructs his patients to do is to use nothing but baking soda on their teeth at night.

“The pathogenic bacteria must have an acidic environment. Then you have the bacteria – the probiotic bacteria – that live in a neutral environment. You’re going to have X number of bacteria regardless of what you do. So, why not promote the non-pathogenic bacteria by neutralizing the acidity with baking soda at night, which has profound effects on the overall oral health of the individual?” Dr. Rainey says.

You can brush with it, use it as a mouth rinse, and even dissolve a little in the water you use in your WaterPik or HydroFloss.

To brush: Wet your toothbrush and dip it into the baking soda. Brush as usual. Your teeth should feel smooth when finished
To rinse: About a teaspoon in a small glass of water is sufficient. Just swish it around in your mouth and spit out
To floss: Dissolve a small amount of baking soda in water and fill your irrigation instrument. Make sure not to let it dry inside your water pik as it will cause buildup and eventually render the tool useless. So, always keep water in your irrigation tool, and instead of storing it standing up, store it upside-down in a glass of baking soda and water, as the baking soda will prevent harmful bacteria from proliferating. Once a week, drain it all out and rinse it thoroughly with water

In the mornings, you could use toothpaste containing calcium and phosphate salts, or even hydroxyapatite, which can help remineralize your teeth.

“Since the Pro-Enamel [toothpaste], I’ve believed that almost all of the toothpastes out there now have calcium of some form in them. The magic is the calcium phosphate. You want those present, so they can precipitate back into the teeth as amorphous hydroxyapatite... You’re rebuilding an amorphous crystal of enamel, because of all the interactions of the enzymes, calcium, phosphate, and everything else that goes on within your mouth.

Where you really mess this up is by getting it too acidic. That’s where the baking soda comes in.

We use it in our cancer patients, where they have a real deficit of calcium and phosphate in their saliva – people who have problems. The brand name of it, as a prescription item, is called Caphoso®. You actually get it in a calcium solution, a phosphate salt solution. You mix those together, and then you rinse with them.” That;s the building block of enamel, and what it takes to remineralize enamel.

Promote Beneficial Oral Bacteria with Fermented Foods

To promote a beneficial oral bioflora he also recommends taking Evora tablets while you’re trying to change the bacterial balance in your mouth. Eating fermented foods, such as cultured yoghurt made from raw organic milk (AVOID store-bought yoghurts as they are worthless in terms of probiotics. Most are loaded with sugars and other detrimental ingredients, and all of them are pasteurized), or fermented vegetables, which you can easily and inexpensively make at home.

According to Dr. Rainey, any type of probiotics will naturally help get rid of harmful Strep mutans. This includes Lactobacillus and bacteria that are bioactive in high concentrations of lactic acid.

To Pull or Not to Pull...

Another interesting technique that can help improve your oral health is oil pulling. The technique is thousands of years old, and it’s an ancient Ayurvedic Indian tradition. To perform it, you vigorously swish an oil in your mouth, “pulling” it between your teeth for 20-30 minutes. You can use a number of oils for this, but sesame, sunflower or coconut oil are commonly used. Dr. Rainey is also working extensively with ozonated oils.

Oil pulling is thought to remove pathogenic bacteria, improve oral hygiene, and help detoxify your system. Dr. Rainey agrees the technique can be beneficial. A drawback is that it is time consuming. You need to go at it for quite some time in order to get results. It’s not like swishing with mouthwash for 30 seconds. Ideally, you’ll want to reach close to 30 minutes.

The Three Main Components of Minimally Invasive Dentistry

Contrary to conventional dentistry, minimally invasive dentistry, like biological dentistry, is not about “drilling and filling;” creating an endless loop of revisits and fixing old dental work until there’s nothing left to work with. It comprises three main components:

Dietary prevention (creating a healthy bioflora in your mouth and body)
Dental prophylaxis (baking soda; oil pulling)
Minimally invasive restorations

As for dental prophylaxis, the simplest thing is just adding baking soda to your nightly oral hygiene. Ideally, add it to your dental irrigator, and brush with it. You can also use oil pulling in conjunction with this. They’re not mutually exclusive. You can combine the two, because it will provide a sort of organic matrix plug, which helps combat dental decay. And ultimately, you want to change the bioflora in your mouth, which is done through your diet. Fermented foods are key. A high-quality probiotic supplement may suffice if you really cannot stand fermented foods. I urge you to at least try some fermented veggies though, as they are, for most people, the most palatable. I think they’re delicious!

The next step, (where, ideally, you’d start your kids off) would be to see a dentist trained in minimally invasive dentistry. Kids treated with the NovaMin or baking soda air abrasion process to clean the pits and fissures and then seal them with glass ionomer, receive significant protection against future decay.

How to Find a Biological and Minimally Invasive Dentist

At present, there are a number of dentists trained in Dr. Rainey’s techniques. Several of them are in California and Florida. There’s also one in Beirut, Lebanon, and in New Zealand. To locate a qualified dentist, you can contact Dr. Rainey’s office at http://www.jtimrainey.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, or call 361-526-4695.

If there’s no minimally invasive dentistry practice in your area, or within reasonable travel distance, the following links can help you to find a mercury-free, biological dentist. These may not be trained in Dr. Rainey’s minimally invasive dentistry technique, but are trained to treat your oral and physical health as a cohesive whole. If you’re considering removing amalgam, you also need to make sure it’s done by biological dentist that’s been properly trained to do it safely, as removing amalgam can lead to severe and acute mercury poisoning:

Consumers for Dental Choice
International Academy of Biological Dentistry & Medicine (IABDM)
Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions (DAMS). E-mail them at: dams@usfamily.net or call 651-644-4572 for an information packet
Huggins Applied Healing. You’ll need to fill out a form and they will connect with you to find a suitable dentist in your area
Holistic Dental Association
International Association of Mercury Safe Dentists

AGStacker
captain of 1,000
Posts: 1270

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by AGStacker »

I love Dr. Mercola and check his website for advice regularly!

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

AGStacker wrote:I love Dr. Mercola and check his website for advice regularly!
Totally agree!

Quote:


Beef Burgers Made of Horse Meat and Salmonella Outbreak from Ground Beef -- The Unsavory Truth of Rising Food Fraud and Contamination
February 06, 2013 | 250,466 views |

By Dr. Mercola

When you buy processed meat, whether from your local grocer or a restaurant, what are you really getting?

That's a very valid question these days, as one meat-related scandal after another has been revealed. Most recently, at least 16 people in the US have been sickened from salmonella-tainted ground beef, and in the UK, many got sick to their stomach when it was discovered beef burgers contained horsemeat.

New DNA sequencing technology now allows regulatory agencies to inexpensively make this determination.

From the standpoints of health, animal welfare, and environmental sustainability, there's really only one type of meat I recommend: organically raised, grass-fed or pastured. This applies to all types of meat, from fowl to beef, and related animal products such as eggs and dairy.

Tesco Apologizes for Selling Burgers Containing Horsemeat

On January 17, BBC News1 reported that the supermarket chain Tesco had placed full-page ads in several national newspapers, apologizing for selling hamburgers found to contain nearly 30 percent horse meat. A majority of tested beef burgers also contained pig meat, as did over 30 other processed beef products, including cottage pie, beef curry pie, and lasagna.

"The supermarket giant said it and its supplier had let customers down and promised to find out 'what happened,'" BBC writes. "So here's our promise. We will find out exactly what happened and, when we do, we'll come back and tell you. And we will work harder than ever with all our suppliers to make sure this never happens again."

While horse meat does not pose a health risk per se, many are disgusted by the thought of eating horse, much like you'd shun cat or dog meat. The discrepancy was discovered by Irish food inspectors. Horse meat was also found in burgers sold by Iceland, Lidi, Aldi and Dunnes. The stores have reportedly removed all products from the meat supplier in question.

Burger King in the UK has also issued a statement saying it has replaced the meat supplier. According to Reuters:2

"'This is a voluntary and precautionary measure,' Burger King, famed for its flame-grilled burgers, said. 'We are working diligently to identify suppliers that can produce 100 percent pure Irish and British beef products that meet our high-quality standards.'"

According to Reuters, the source of the contamination is thought to be “a beef based product bought from two third-party suppliers outside of Ireland.” This highlights one of the most basic problems with mass-produced meat products.

The final product is a jumble-toss of meat and scraps from multiple sources, making the risk of contamination of huge amounts of meat very high – whether the contamination is a type of meat that doesn't belong, or contamination with a pathogen. It also makes tracing the contamination back to its source all the more difficult.

Overall, it's important to realize that the more steps your food goes through before it reaches your plate, the greater your chances of contamination becomes. If you are able to get your food locally, directly from the field or after harvest, such as directly from a farmer or farmer's market, you knock out numerous routes that could expose your food to contamination.

Several Sick After Eating Contaminated Ground Beef

Case in point... In the United States, federal health officials recently reported that at least 16 people in five states were sickened by ground beef contaminated with salmonella.3 About half of them required hospitalization, but none have died so far. Seven of those afflicted ate Kibbeh – a raw ground beef dish – at an unnamed Detroit restaurant.

Again, the contamination was scattered around a very large area: Michigan, Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention4 (CDC), the outbreak is linked to a recent recall of more than 1,000 pounds of ground beef from Gab Halal Foods and Jouni Meats, both based in Michigan.

Each year, an estimated one in six Americans become ill from consuming contaminated food. Sometimes this results in a 24-hour bout of diarrhea and vomiting that clears up on its own, but in other cases foodborne pathogens can lead to organ failure, paralysis, neurological impairment, blindness, stillbirths and even death.

While the majority of food contaminations are linked to imported foods, the mere fact that a food is manufactured on U.S. soil does not guarantee its safety. Most of the meat sold in U.S. grocery stores and restaurants comes from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which can house tens of thousands of animals (and in the case of chickens, 100,000) under one roof, in nightmarish, unsanitary, disease-ridden conditions. It's under these conditions that foodborne pathogens flourish, and indeed studies have shown that the larger the farm, the greater the chances of contamination.

How CAFO Chicken Farms May Contaminate Other Foods

In one study, more than 23 percent of CAFOs with caged hens tested positive for Salmonella, while just over 4 percent of organic flocks tested positive. The highest prevalence of Salmonella occurred in the largest flocks (30,000 birds or more), which contained over four times the average level of salmonella found in smaller flocks. Organic flocks are typically much smaller than the massive commercial flocks where bacteria flourish, which is part of the reason why eggs (and other products, like meat) from truly organic, free-range sources are FAR less likely to contain dangerous bacteria such as Salmonella.

What many don't realize is that not only are you at greater risk of getting sickened from CAFO chicken meat, contaminated chicken litter from these farms can also spread disease throughout the food chain...

Yes, even lettuce and other vegetables have occasionally been found to contain Salmonella, courtesy of contaminated fertilizer. Chicken litter and feathers are also commonly used in other livestock feed, further increasing chances of spreading contamination around from one mass-produced food source to another.5

If you buy your meat at your supermarket, even if it's U.S. raised, you should know that you are directly supporting a food system that typically promotes widespread contamination. And you can bet that as long as there are people willing to buy cheap, contaminated meat, the industry will continue to produce it. Consumer Reports tests6 have indicated that 83 percent of fresh, whole broiler chickens bought at supermarkets nationwide harbor Campylobacter or Salmonella. This is clearly unacceptable, and if you start to demand more -- meat that is raised in a healthy, humane way, free from toxins and disease -- producers will have no choice but to listen.

Study Shows Roundup Creates Botulism Breeding Ground in Poultry

CAFO chickens can also be heavily exposed to glyphosate when fed genetically engineered feed, and according to recent research,7 glyphosate residues will preferentially kill beneficial species of microorganisms in the GI tract, leaving pathogenic species that can cause harm.

What does this mean for you and me?

The essential implication is that poultry fed GE corn or soy would fall victim to dysbiosis, meaning unhealthy changes in their gut flora that threaten the health of the birds, as well as anyone consuming them. The beneficial bacteria in the poultry gut, such as Enterococcus, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, are killed off, allowing the pathogenic or disease causing bacteria to flourish. Varieties such as Salmonella and Clostridium are very dangerous pathogens for humans. Clostridia bacteria are some of the deadliest, with strains including C. tetani (tetanus) and C. botulinum (botulism).

Chickens bred in CAFOs are already routinely fed antibiotics, arsenic, and even antidepressants, all of which have serious adverse health consequences. But this German study8 suggests CAFO chickens exposed to glyphosate may become breeding grounds for Botulism, Salmonella and other major pathogenic organisms.

According to a new report by the CDC9 detailing the most common sources of foodborne illness reported between 1998 and 2008, the majority – 19 percent – of food poisoning deaths were linked to contaminated poultry.10

The implications of this become even clearer when you consider the recently released findings of a decade-long feeding study that showed GE feed can cause significant changes in the digestive system, immune system, and major organs (including liver, kidneys, pancreas, genitals and others) of rats, mice, pigs and salmon. If it's doing all of that to animals and fish, what's it doing to you? Clearly, the conventional agribusiness food system has emerged as a major threat to your health.

Food Fraud at All Time High...

According to a recent report by the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), a whopping 800 new records of food fraud have been added to its ever expanding database.11 You can both search the USP database and report fraud directly, at http://www.foodfraud.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. It seems quite clear at this point that food fraud is on the rise, and while many have started reading food labels, those labels are increasingly found to be less than truthful.12 According to the USP's press release:13

“The first iteration of the database compiled 1,300 records of food fraud published between 1980 and 2010. The update increases the total number of records by 60 percent – and consists mostly of newer information published in 2011 and 2012 in both scholarly journals and general media.

Initial analyses of the database by USP food scientists was published in the April 5, 2012, Journal of Food Science. This research revealed that milk, vegetable oils and spices were among the top categories where food fraud occurred as documented in published reports. Analyses of new information by USP scientists show similar trends for 2011 and 2012, and add seafood (fish, shrimp), clouding agents and lemon juice as categories vulnerable to food fraud.

Food fraud is a collective term that encompasses the deliberate substitution, addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, or false or misleading statements made about a product for economic gain. A more specific type of fraud, intentional or economically motivated adulteration of food ingredients, has been defined by USP as the fraudulent addition of nonauthentic substances or removal or replacement of authentic substances without the purchaser's knowledge for economic gain to the seller.

'While food fraud has been around for centuries, with a handful of notorious cases well documented, we suspect that what we know about the topic is just the tip of the iceberg,' said Dr. Jeffrey Moore, senior scientific liaison for USP and the database's creator and lead analyst.”

Are You Buying Unusable Scraps and Fillers, Thinking it's 'Good Food'?

Over the past year alone, I've discussed a number of food issues that have come to light that would turn the stomach of most people, including:

Fast food burgers that do not decompose, even after being left out for a decade
“Pink slime” (an unsavory combination of ground up beef scraps and connective tissues mixed with a solution of ammonia and water) being used in school lunches and processed meats across the US
Reconstituted meat, and how the use of meat glue cheats you out of your hard-earned money at the grocery store and threatens your health, and most recently
The truth of what's really in the famous McRib pork sandwich – a questionable concoction of over 70 different ingredients, the “meat” portion of which is actually “restructured” meat that can include the innards and castoffs from the pig

Buying Local is One of the Best Ways to Avoid Food Contamination

All in all, modern food manufacturing is far from savory once you learn what goes on, and there's room for fraud at every turn. Quite frankly, I'd be hard-pressed to call much of the processed fare available in stores today food. It's so far from it, it's no wonder we have such problems with obesity and poor health. What can you expect when you're not actually consuming real nutrients?

The solution, of course, is to revert back to real, whole food.

If you value food safety, you'll want to get your meat, chickens, eggs and dairy from smaller community farms with free-ranging animals, organically fed and locally marketed. This is the way food has been raised and distributed for centuries... And by supporting the small family farms in your area, particularly organic farms that respect the laws of nature and use the relationships between animals, plants, insects, soil, water and habitat to create synergistic, self-supporting, non-polluting, GMO-free ecosystems, you help everyone in your community to eventually have greater access to wholesome food. Because as demand for locally-grown food rises, farmers will heed the call...

If you opt for imported foods, or those from U.S. CAFOs, your food will go through upwards of nine steps before it reaches your dinner plate. Public health agencies like the FDA use the term "field-to-fork continuum" to describe the path any given food takes on the way to your plate, and during any of the following steps, contamination is possible:

Open field production
Harvesting
Field packing
Greenhouse production
Packinghouse
Repacking and other distribution operations
Fresh-cut/value-added processing
Food service and retail
Consumer

If you are able to get your food directly from the farmer, you knock out five potential operations that could expose your food to contamination. The closer you are to the source of your food, the fewer hands it has to pass through and the less time it will sit in storage, the better, and likely safer, it will be for you and your family. Plus, when you know the person who grows your food, you can ask questions about its growing conditions -- an impossibility when you buy food from CAFOs or other countries.

Helpful Resources

If eating locally is new to you, rest assured that you can find a source near you, regardless of whether you're in a remote or rural area or a big city. Here's a list of helpful resources:

For a listing of national farmer's markets, see this link.
Another great web site is http://www.localharvest.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. There you can find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
Subscribe to a community supported agriculture program (CSA). Some are seasonal while others are year round programs. Once you subscribe, many will drop affordable, high quality locally-grown produce right at your door step. To find a CSA near you, go to the USDA's website where you can search by city, state, or zip code.
Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the United States and Canada.
Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and promoting the products of small farms.
FoodRoutes. Their "Find Good Food" map can help you connect with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive map, you can find a listing for local farmers, CSA's, and markets near you.
For an even more comprehensive list of CSA's and a host of other sustainable agriculture programs, check out this link to my Sustainable Agriculture page.

With food fraud and contamination of processed foods on the rise, the safest and healthiest food you can get your hands on are those grown right in your backyard – perhaps literally your own yard, or from a local farm. Remember, from the standpoints of health, animal welfare, and environmental sustainability, there's really only one type of meat I recommend: organically raised, grass-fed or pastured. This includes all types of meat: chicken, turkey, pork and beef, and all related animal products, such as eggs and dairy.

User avatar
dennis
captain of 1,000
Posts: 1282
Location: east wanship hills
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by dennis »

Producing ones own food can be one of the best, most fulfilling experience of this life. there are many reasons this is True. Not the least of which is you get to enjoy your own harvest.Part of which is a lot of self satisfaction. One can get closer to God in the garden than any where else on earth. this fall my three year old grand daughter Isabell, was helping me harvest carrots. I t was a nice day and I was really enjoying her company. I thanked her and said it was fun working together in the garden. She looked up at me and said Grandpa. "This is called Team-work" Now I knew team work was not a common word in my vocabulary. And I sure did not know that word was in the vocabulary of a three year old. Let alone know how to apply it. But the sheer Joy I feel every time I relive that special moment in my memory will be with me forever. The best carrots in the world , right in your own back yard, and impossible to buy in a store. thank you Issy, I'm glad to be on your team.

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Gardens are wonderful -- thank you, Dennis.

Now a word from Dr Mercola on.... poop.



By Dr. Mercola

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.”

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!

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.

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 poop and rainbow in the same sentence.

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.

What is Normal Stool?

Your stool is about 75 percent water. The rest is a fetid combination of fiber, live and dead bacteria, miscellaneous cells and mucus.1, 2 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.

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.3

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.

Look, Listen and Smell Before You Flush

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.4
Healthy Stool Unhealthy Stool
Medium to light brown Stool that is hard to pass, painful, or requires straining
Smooth and soft, formed into one long shape and not a bunch of pieces Hard lumps and pieces, or mushy and watery, or even pasty and difficult to clean off
About one to two inches in diameter and up to 18 inches long Narrow, pencil-like or ribbon-like stools: 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 physician5
S-shaped, which comes from the shape of your lower intestine6 Black, tarry stools or bright red stools 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
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 White, pale or gray stools 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
Natural smell, not repulsive (I’m not saying it will smell good) Yellow stools may indicate giardia infection, a gallbladder problem, or a condition known as Gilbert’s syndrome – if you see this, call your doctor
Uniform texture Presence of undigested food (more of a concern if accompanied by diarrhea, weight loss, or other changes in bowel habits)
Sinks slowly Floaters or splashers
Increased mucus in stool: 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

Does Your Stool Have a Really Bad Odor?

If your stool has an extraordinarily bad odor, it should not be ignored. I am referring to an odor above and beyond the normally objectionable stool odor. Stinky stool can be associated with a number of health problems, such as:7

A malabsorptive disorder
Celiac disease
Crohn’s disease
Chronic pancreatitis
Cystic fibrosis

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.

Speaking of malodorous things, what about gas? Passing gas (flatulence) is normal. 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!8 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!

How Often Should You Move Your Bowels?

Normal bowel habits vary. When we talk about regularity, what we’re really talking about is what’s regular for you. Three bowel movements per day to three per week is considered the normal range.

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.9

Constipation and Diarrhea

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 too much water has been absorbed, resulting in hard, dry stools.

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.

Chronic, untreated constipation can lead to fecal impaction,10 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.
Common Causes of INCREASED Bowel Frequency/Diarrhea11
Lifestyle

Diseases and Conditions
Eating more fruits and vegetables (increased fiber) Hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid)
Increased exercise Crohn’s disease
Drinking more water Ulcerative colitis
Emotional stress Celiac disease
Food allergies Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Medication side effects

Gastrointestinal infection
Common Causes of DECREASED Bowel Frequency/Constipation12, 13
Change in diet, less fiber, less fruits and vegetables Pregnancy, childbirth, or hormonal disturbances
Emotional stress Problems with the muscles or nerve in the intestine, rectum or anus
Ignoring the urge to “go,” travel and scheduling factors that cause you to hold it Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Insufficient exercise Diabetes
Inadequate hydration Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid)
Calcium or iron supplements Local pain or discomfort around the anus, such as from fissures or hemorrhoids
Drugs such as narcotic painkillers (codeine, for example), diuretics, antacids, antidepressants, and excess or overused laxatives Less often: diverticulitis, intestinal obstruction, colorectal cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injury
Food allergies

How to Score a Home Run with Your Bowel Movements

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.

Remove all sources of gluten from your diet (the most common sources are wheat, barley, rye, spelt and other grains)
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
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
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
Try increasing your fiber intake; good options include psyllium and freshly ground organic flax seed (shoot for 35 grams of fiber per day)
Make sure you stay well hydrated with fresh, pure water
Get plenty of exercise daily
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
Address emotional challenges with tools like EFT
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

Consider a Bidet

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.

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 plumbing is required. I’ve made my favorite bidet available in the Mercola store.

User avatar
BroJones
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 8247
Location: Varies.
Contact:

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Post by BroJones »

Exercise as treatment for depression; Yoga --


By Dr. Mercola

Your body and your health can — indeed must — change as you start implementing the correct lifestyle changes. Yoga has received some well-deserved media attention recently.

Two recent studies show that regular yoga classes can help improve atrial fibrillation1 (irregular heartbeat) and common psychiatric disorders.2

While I believe you need to incorporate anaerobic exercise (high intensity interval training) for optimal health, there’s no doubt that yoga can be an important part of a comprehensive exercise program.

Yoga is particularly useful for promoting flexibility and core muscles, and has been proven beneficial if you suffer with back pain. As you’ll see later in this article, yoga can also help you turn your health around if you’re too overweight to engage in more strenuous types of exercise.

Ideally, you’ll want a comprehensive fitness program that includes aerobic, anaerobic, and resistance training as well, in addition to flexibility and core-building exercises like yoga.

Have Irregular Heart Rhythm? Yoga May Help...

The first featured study3 included 49 patients who had been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AF) for an average of five years. AF — a condition in which the upper chambers of your heart quiver chaotically — affects an estimated 2.7 million Americans.

They’re typically prescribed drugs like beta blockers in an effort to alleviate the symptoms, but these drugs don’t work for all patients, and come with a slew of side effects.

Beta blockers work by “blocking” the normally stimulating effects of the adrenaline hormone on your heart. They also slow your heart rate and reduce your heart’s need for oxygen when you exert yourself, which means your heart doesn’t have to work as hard.

These drugs have been used for more than 30 years to treat high blood pressure, and they are recommended as the first line of defense in both the United States and international health guidelines.

Aside from often being ineffective, they’re known to cause an array of serious side effects including heart attack and stroke, type 2 diabetes, and sexual dysfunction, just to name a few.

Considering the hazards of the drug paradigm, it certainly makes sense to look into safer alternatives or add-ons, and yoga might offer quite a bit of relief.

For the first three months of the study, the participants’ heart symptoms, blood pressure, heart rate, anxiety and depression levels, and general quality of life were assessed and tracked. During the second phase, the participants took yoga classes at least twice a week for three months, while still tracking their symptoms.

At the end of the study, the number of times participants reported heart quivering (confirmed by heart monitor), dropped by half. Their average heart rate also fell from an average of 67 beats per minute during the first three months, to 61-62 beats per minute post-yoga. The participants also reported feeling less anxiety and depression. Anxiety scores fell from an average of 34 (on a scale of 20-80) to an average of 25.

According to the authors:4

“There was significant decrease in heart rate, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure before and after yoga... In patients with paroxysmal AF, yoga improves symptoms, arrhythmia burden, heart rate, blood pressure, anxiety and depression scores, and several domains of quality of life.”

Yoga’s Impact on Your Mental Health

In related news, Duke University researchers recently published a review5 of more than 100 studies looking at the effect of yoga on mental health. Lead author Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, a professor of psychiatry and medicine at Duke University Medical Center told Time Magazine:6

“Most individuals already know that yoga produces some kind of a calming effect. Individually, people feel better after doing the physical exercise. Mentally, people feel calmer, sharper, maybe more content. We thought it’s time to see if we could pull all [the literature] together… to see if there’s enough evidence that the benefits individual people notice can be used to help people with mental illness.”

According to their findings, yoga appears to have a positive effect on:

Mild depression
Sleep problems
Schizophrenia (among patients using medication)
ADHD (among patients using medication)

Some of the studies suggest yoga can have a similar effect to antidepressants and psychotherapy, by influencing neurotransmitters and boosting serotonin. Yoga was also found to reduce levels of inflammation, oxidative stress, blood lipids and growth factors. As reported by Time:7

“Embracing yoga as a complementary treatment for mental disorders is not uncommon. Yoga is a feature in many veterans’ centers throughout the country, backed by research funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Huffington Post reported that many troops use yoga as a form of treatment for PTSD, for example, with companies like Warriors at Ease training instructors in yoga techniques specifically catered to those in the military. A study published earlier this month of 70 active-duty troops found daily yoga eased anxiety and improved sleep.

The researchers say there’s enough evidence to warrant a larger study on the effects of yoga on mental health, and it should be considered as part of treatment for more disorders...

'What we are saying is that we still need to do further, large-scale studies before we are ready to conclude that people with mental illnesses can turn to yoga as a first-line treatment,' says Doraiswamy. 'We are not saying throw away your Prozac and turn to yoga. We’re saying it has the promise and potential. If a large national study were done, it could turn out that yoga is just as good and may be a low cost alternative to people with unmet needs.' In the meantime, he says it doesn’t hurt to add yoga to existing treatments so patients can take advantage of any potential benefits.”

Is Exercise the Best 'Drug' for Depression?

Some psychologists swear by exercise as a primary form of treatment for depression, anxiety and other mood disorders. Research has shown again and again that patients who follow aerobic-exercise regimens see improvement in their depression -- improvements comparable to that of those treated with medication. The results really are impressive when you consider that exercise is virtually free and can provide you with numerous other health benefits too.

Exercise not only relieves depressive symptoms but also appears to prevent them from recurring. For example, one study conducted by Duke University in the late 1990's divided depressed patients into three treatment groups:

Exercise only
Exercise plus antidepressant
Antidepressant drug only

After six weeks, the drug-only group was doing slightly better than the other two groups. However, after 10 months of follow-up, it was the exercise-only group that had the highest remission and stay-well rate. In another study,8 which involved 80 adults aged 20 to 45 years who were diagnosed with mild to moderate depression, researchers looked at exercise alone to treat the condition and found:

Those who exercised with low-intensity for three and five days a week showed a 30 percent reduction in symptoms
Participants who did stretching flexibility exercises 15 to 20 minutes three days a week averaged a 29 percent decline

Yoga for Weight Loss and Health Maintenance

The following video, featuring Arthur Boorman, a disabled veteran of the Gulf War, is perhaps one of the most inspiring yoga success stories I’ve ever seen. His injuries had put him on a downward spiral for 15 years, and his doctors had told him he'd never be able to walk unassisted again. Due to his injuries, he couldn't perform high impact exercises, but one day, he came across an article about yoga, and the rest, as they say, is history...

If you've ever doubted the transformative power of a low impact exercise such as yoga, I urge you to take a look at this video. It's a truly remarkable story. Not only did he rapidly start losing weight, he also gained tremendous strength, balance and flexibility — to the point he proved his doctors' prognosis wrong by walking unaided in less than a year!

Interestingly, research9 published just last year discovered that yoga has a beneficial impact on leptin, a hormone that plays a key role in regulating energy intake and energy expenditure. According to the authors, novice yoga practitioners had 36 percent higher leptin levels compared to experts, leading them to theorize that regular yoga practice may benefit your health by altering leptin and adiponectin production:

“We compared adiponectin and leptin data from novice and expert yoga practitioners. Leptin plays a proinflammatory role, adiponectin has anti-inflammatory properties. Leptin was 36 percent higher among novices compared to experts. Experts' average adiponectin to leptin ratio was nearly twice that of novices.”

Both insulin and leptin resistance are associated with obesity, and impairment of their ability to transfer the information to receptors is the true foundational core of most all chronic degenerative diseases. Leptin tells your brain whether you should be hungry, eat and make more fat, whether you should reproduce, or (partly by controlling insulin) whether to engage in maintenance and repair. In short, leptin is the way that your fat stores speak to your brain to let your brain know how much energy is available and, very importantly, what to do with it.

Therefore, leptin may be on top of the food chain in metabolic importance and relevance to disease. If your leptin signaling is working properly.

When your fat stores are "full," this extra fat will cause a surge in your leptin level, which signals your brain to stop feeling hungry, to stop eating, to stop storing fat and to start burning some extra fat off. Controlling hunger is a major (though not the only) way that leptin controls energy storage. Hunger is a very powerful, ancient, and deep-seated drive that, if stimulated long enough, will make you eat and store more energy. The only way to eat less in the long-term is to not be hungry, and the only way to do this is to control the hormones that regulate hunger, the primary one being leptin.

Aim for a Comprehensive Fitness Program

Yoga and other simple restorative exercises tone and strengthen your body, increase circulation and oxygen flow, energize you for the day and help you unwind in the evening. However, while recent studies support the use yoga to improve atrial fibrillation and common psychiatric disorders (along with many other health benefits, such as promoting flexibility and core muscles, alleviating back pain, and more), I think it’s important to incorporate a variety of exercises into your routine for optimal health results.

Ideally, you’ll want a comprehensive fitness program that includes aerobic, anaerobic, and resistance training as well, in addition to flexibility and core-building exercises like yoga.

Post Reply