Rather Be Healthy

Anti-aging is one of the major concerns among “baby-boomers” and others as well. This is bad news for social security and other pension plans, but it can’t be helped. Everyone wants to stay young forever.

If not actually youthful, at least spared the ravages of debilitating health issues and dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease, which has seen rising rates of affliction at earlier ages over the past few decades.

Most NaturalNews readers are at least aware of several lifestyle, dietary, and supplemental options to allay those concerns. But for those inclined toward using pharmaceuticals, as most baby-boomers are, there is hope for a new drug on the horizon if research concludes before too many succumb to the handicaps of old age.

The research that unfolded an interesting breakthrough
Dr. Dongsheng Cai, a molecular pharmacologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York was concerned that: “There’s really not much understanding regarding the mechanism of aging.”

Dr. Cai set out to determine a single unifying anatomical premise for aging issues. He and his team focused on the hypothalamus, an almond-sized organism in the center of the brain. The hypothalamus is involved with growth, reproduction, and the immune system activity.

That last activity was intriguing because a dysfunctional immune system cannot curb inflammation. And inflammation is at the root of degenerative neurological and cardiovascular issues as well as other age related debilitating situations such as rheumatoid arthritis. So that seemed a logical point to begin exploring aging factors, not just for the brain, but the whole body.

This led to isolating one of those complex esoteric biochemichal terms called nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells, simplified with the code NF-B. It’s a key protein complex involved with inflammatory processes.

Interesting so far, but it had to be tested in vivo (living organism). Time to play science with mice again. They discovered that activating the NF-B pathway in the hypothalamus of mice accelerated aging, caused thinner skins, decreased muscle strength, as well as diminished learning abilities and shortened life spans.

When they blocked or inhibited the NF-B pathway, all the aging factors were ameliorated and the mice lifespans were increased 20 percent over those whose NF-B pathways were not blocked.

Consequently, a neuron-generating chemical was isolated. This chemical is, here’s another multisyllabic complex term, gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). We’ll stick with GnRH.

When those NF-B pathways were activated, GnRH levels decreased. Conversely, GnRH levels increased when those pathways were blocked. Injecting mice with GnRH demonstrated that using GnRH would be the most practical pharmaceutical approach to slowing the aging process. Write up the patents.

An iconoclastic aging researcher at the USC Davis School of Gerentology, Caleb “Tuck” Finch praised the study. He has always gone against the conventional theories of aging, postulating the hypothalamus’s hormonal role in modulating aging for the whole body.

Finch, who wasn’t involved with Dr.Cai’s New York study crowed that ” … the case is now powerfully made for the role of the neuroendocrine mechanisms as modulators of aging.”

What about natural anti-aging?
While they’re working on a new anti-aging “miracle drug” we can religiously observe the tried and true practices of more and better sleeping, less stressing, and more moderate exercising mentally and physically.

We can exclude excessive sugar intake, especially HFCS, refined carbs, hydrogenated oils, and processed foods in general.

Increasing healthy omega-3 fatty acids, CoQ10 as ubiquinol, turmeric or curcumin for reducing inflammation, and detoxing often will help us stay active and disease free as our years in the body increase.

Have you noticed that contented people leading fulfilling, purposeful lives tend to stay in good condition longer? Could be another clue.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.livescience.com

http://www.nature.com

http://www.sagecrossroads.net/node/198

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South Korea joins Japanese ban on U.S. wheat imports after shocking GMO contamination announcement by USDA

News about the GMO contamination of U.S. wheat crops seems to be spreading faster than the GMOs themselves. On Friday, South Korea joined Japan in announcing a halt on imports of U.S. wheat due to the USDA’s recent announcement that commercial wheat grown in the USA is contaminated with Monsanto’s genetically engineered wheat.

Some Americans may still not realize this, but GMOs are outlawed or shunned nearly everywhere around the world. Only in the USA have GMOs managed to avoid being labeled or outlawed — and that’s primarily due to Monsanto’s financial influence over lawmakers.

Monsanto shares plummeted 4 percent on Friday following the announcement by South Korea. This is completely in line with predictions made here at Natural News, where I said earlier in the week, before Japan and South Korea announced their wheat boycotts:

All wheat produced in the United States will now be heavily scrutinized — and possibly even rejected — by other nations that traditionally import U.S. wheat. This obviously has enormous economic implications for U.S. farmers and agriculture.

How much of the U.S. wheat supply is now contaminated with GMOs?
“…the mysterious appearance of the Monsanto wheat has raised questions about how the strain traveled there and whether it is lurking in the commercial wheat crop,” reports the Washington Post.

WashPo goes on to report that Monsanto, “is still testing strains of gene-altered wheat in Hawaii and North Dakota.”

In truth, nobody knows how much of the wheat is contaminated. Every more shockingly, food companies don’t bother testing wheat for GMOs, either!

Until now, that is. All of a sudden, food importers all around the world are wondering whether they are inadvertently buying U.S. wheat that’s contaminated with GMOs. Consumers, too, are asking the question, “Have I been eating GMO wheat without even knowing it?” These Monsanto wheat experiments, after all, have been taking place since 1998.

Is Monsanto lurking in your Wheaties?

U.S. farmers suddenly seeing the economic damage that Monsanto can do
The real issue in all this, however, is an economic issue. Suddenly U.S. farmers are seeing the kind of economic destruction that can be caused by Monsanto’s genetic engineering experiments.

Thanks to Monsanto and the USDA — which approved the open-field experiments — every U.S. farmer who grows wheat is now at high risk of losing enormous sums of money on a food crop that’s increasingly being rejected around the world. This means Monsanto is pushing U.S. farmers toward bankruptcy while harming America’s exports and GDP. Monsanto has become a force of economic destruction in America.

Will Monsanto reimburse all these farmers who suffer an economic loss? Not without being sued, of course. Perhaps it’s time for a nationwide class-action lawsuit against Monsanto, supported by all commercial farmers who hope to be able to protect their crops from market-crushing GMO contamination.

Nobody wants GMOs except Monsanto!
Consumers don’t want GMOs, farmers don’t want GMOs, foreign nations don’t want GMOs and food companies don’t want to deal with the hassle of GMOs either. The only entity that still wants GMO in America is the very company making money off GMO: Monsanto.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

You may not realize this, but a lot of foods that are BANNED in many countries may be ending up in your grocery cart… foods that contain hidden toxic chemicals that increase your risks of cancer, various diseases, and storing belly fat.

Read the article below for the controversial story about what’s in your foods…

The top 5 BANNED foods still in your kitchen?

By Nick Pineault
Author and food investigator: The Truth About Fat Burning Foods

Every day, Americans eat tons of dangerous banned ingredients, and chances are you’re one of them.

I don’t mean to scare you, but to simply tell you the truth.

I’ve spent the last 7+ years researching how our food is made, and discovered dark secrets I have to tell the world – even if it makes me the most HATED author by the big food companies.

Here are 5 banned ingredients that might be ending up on your plate:

1) Ractopamine (in pork)

It’s banned in the European Union, China, and Taiwan – but Consumer Reports found this dangerous drug in 20% of all pork products.

Oh, and as a side note – recent studies also found that 81% of all supermarket meats in the US are contaminated with antibiotics which damage your gut flora and slow down your weight loss. That’s one reason to choose pasture-raised organic meats if you can find them.

2) rBGH (in milk)

While Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel and all European Union countries banned the use of rBGH, this hormone used to increase cows’ milk production is still used in all 50 states.

The use of rBGH increases the levels of IGF-1 hormone in the milk by at least 6 fold, increasing risks of various cancers.

3) GMOs (in most processed foods)

Over 50 countries require labeling of GMO foods, and many of them banned GMOs altogether.

In the US, GMO foods are NOT labeled – even though 91% of the population feels they should be. And because 85-90% of all soy, corn, canola and sugar (sugar beet) in the US is now GMO, Americans eat their weight in GMO foods each year.

The first-ever lifetime feeding study on the potential health risks of GMOs was published in September 2012. The results of feeding rats GMO corn for two years were very scary:

· Some rats developed massive tumors that represent 25% of their body weight

· Liver damage was up to 5 times higher in the GMO group than in the non-GMO group

· Female rats that ate GMOs had a 3X higher risk of premature death

4) Potassium Bromate (in bread)

Called a cancer threat by the CSPI since 1999, banned from dozens of countries, this ingredient is still used in bread these days. If you’ve been following Mike Geary’s recommendations to reduce or eliminate bread and other grains in your diet, you’re safe from this one.

5) Chloramphenicol (in honey)

This antibiotic used on honey bees has been banned in the US for years, but can still be found in cheap supermarket honey (along with heavy metals) that comes from China.

The concerning thing is that a recent study found that 75% or more of all the honey in the U.S. may be Chinese honey sold as American honey. In addition, some reports have shown that honey from China could be mixed with cheaper sweeteners such as corn syrup.

Choose local honey or raw honey if you can find it to avoid these issues.

These 5 banned foods are just the tip of the iceberg in what food companies are HIDING from you…

Let’s continue the rest of the article on the next page below:

=> 5 LIES about food that’s making you fatter and causing disease

PS — if you liked today’s article, please fwd this email on to any of your friends, family, or co-workers that would enjoy it.

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

The cause of the debilitating, and fatal, brain disease Alzheimer’s is conventionally said to be a mystery.

While we know that certain diseases, like type 2 diabetes, are definitively connected to the foods you eat, Alzheimer’s is generally thought to strike without warning or reason.

That is, until recently.

Now, a growing body of research suggests there may be a powerful connection between the foods you eat and your risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, via similar pathways that cause type 2 diabetes.

Some have even re-named Alzheimer’s as “type 3 diabetes.”

Can You Eat Your Way to Alzheimer’s?

In a recent animal study, researchers from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island were able to induce many of the characteristic brain changes seen with Alzheimer’s disease (disorientation, confusion, inability to learn and remember) by interfering with insulin signaling in their brains.1

Faulty insulin (and leptin, another hormone) signaling is an underlying cause of insulin resistance, which, of course, typically leads to type 2 diabetes. However, while insulin is usually associated with its role in keeping your blood sugar levels in a healthy range, it also plays a role in brain signaling. When researchers disrupted the proper signaling of insulin in the brain, it resulted in dementia.

What does this have to do with your diet?

Everything, as over-consumption of sugars and grains is what ultimately causes your body to be incapable of “hearing” the proper signals from insulin and leptin, leaving you insulin resistant in both body and brain.

Alzheimer’s disease was tentatively dubbed “type 3 diabetes” in early 2005 when researchers learned that the pancreas is not the only organ that produces insulin. Your brain also produces insulin, and this brain insulin is necessary for the survival of your brain cells.

If You Have Diabetes, Your Risk of Alzheimer’s Increases Dramatically

Diabetes is linked to a 65 percent increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s,2 which may be due, in part, because insulin resistance and/or diabetes appear to accelerate the development of plaque in your brain, which is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.3 Separate research has found that impaired insulin response was associated with a 30 percent higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease,4 and overall dementia and cognitive risks were associated with high fasting serum insulin, insulin resistance, impaired insulin secretion and glucose intolerance.

A drop in insulin production in your brain may contribute to the degeneration of your brain cells, mainly by depriving them of glucose, and studies have found that people with lower levels of insulin and insulin receptors in their brain often have Alzheimer’s disease (people with type 2 diabetes often wind up with low levels of insulin in their brains as well). As explained in New Scientist, which highlighted this latest research:5

“This new focus [on the Alzheimer’s/diabetes/insulin connection] follows a growing recognition of insulin’s role in the brain. Until recently, the hormone was typecast as a regulator of blood sugar, giving the cue for muscles, liver and fat cells to extract sugar from the blood and either use it for energy or store it as fat. We now know that it is a master multitasker: it helps neurons, particularly in the hippocampus and frontal lobe, take up glucose for energy, and it also regulates neurotransmitters, like acetylcholine, which are crucial for memory and learning.

What’s more, it encourages plasticity – the process through which neurons change shape, make new connections and strengthen others. And it is important for the function and growth of blood vessels, which supply the brain with oxygen and glucose.

As a result, reducing the level of insulin in the brain can immediately impair cognition. Spatial memory, in particular, seems to suffer when you block insulin uptake in the hippocampus… Conversely, a boost of insulin seems to improve its functioning.

…this role in the brain ‘makes evolutionary sense,’ since it would help us to remember the location of a food source. As our ancestors gorged on berries in the savannah, for instance, the spike in glucose and the subsequent rush of insulin would signal ‘remember this, it’s important,’ causing the brain to crystallise the memory.

But as we know from type 2 diabetes, processes that evolved to help us meet the challenges of prehistory can easily backfire in the modern world.

When people frequently gorge on fatty, sugary food, their insulin spikes repeatedly until it sticks at a higher level. Muscle, liver and fat cells then stop responding to the hormone, meaning they don’t mop up glucose and fat in the blood. As a result, the pancreas desperately works overtime to make more insulin to control the glucose – and levels of the two molecules skyrocket.

…The pancreas can’t keep up with the demand indefinitely, however, and as time passes people with type 2 diabetes often end up with abnormally low levels of insulin.”

Alzheimer’s Might be “Brain Diabetes”

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the same pathological process that leads to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes may also hold true for your brain. As you over-indulge on sugar and grains, your brain becomes overwhelmed by the consistently high levels of insulin and eventually shuts down its insulin signaling, leading to impairments in your thinking and memory abilities, and eventually causing permanent brain damage.

You may already know I have become passionate about warning of the dangers of fructose. There is NO question in my mind that regularly consuming more than 25 grams of fructose per day will dramatically increase your risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Consuming too much fructose will inevitably wreak havoc on your body’s ability to regulate proper insulin levels.

Although fructose is relatively “low glycemic” on the front end, it reduces the affinity for insulin for its receptor leading to chronic insulin resistance and elevated blood sugar on the back end. So, while you may not notice a steep increase in blood sugar immediately following fructose consumption, it is likely changing your entire endocrine system’s ability to function properly behind the scenes.

Additionally, fructose has other modes of neurotoxicity, including causing damage to the circulatory system upon which the health of your nervous system depends, as well as profoundly changing your brain’s craving mechanism, often resulting in excessive hunger and subsequent consumption of additional empty carbohydrate-based calories.

In one study from UCLA, researchers found that rats fed a fructose-rich and omega-3 fat deficient diet (similar to what is consumed by many Americans) developed both insulin resistance and impaired brain function in just six weeks.6

Plus, when your liver is busy processing fructose (which your liver turns into fat), it severely hampers its ability to make cholesterol, an essential building block of your brain crucial to its health. This is yet another important facet that explains how and why excessive fructose consumption is so detrimental to your health.

Since the average American is exceeding this recommendation by 300% this is a pervasive and serious issue. I view significantly reducing fructose consumption as the MOST important step you can take to lower your risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

More Tips for Avoiding Alzheimer’s Disease

The beauty of following my newly revised Nutrition Plan is that it helps treat and prevent all chronic degenerative diseases, from the common ones like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and Alzheimer’s to the ones you have never heard of or can’t even pronounce. So please read the Plan as soon as you can. It is divided into three helpful sections, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced to help you start at the right level.

The plan is the first step in addressing Alzheimer’s disease, which is currently at epidemic proportions, with 5.4 million Americans – including one in eight people aged 65 and over – living with the disease.7 By 2050, this is expected to jump to 16 million, and in the next 20 years it is projected that Alzheimer’s will affect one in four Americans.

In spite of how common memory loss is among Westerners, it is NOT a “normal” part of aging. While even mild “senior moments” may be caused by the same brain lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, these cognitive changes are by no means inevitable! People who experience very little decline in their cognitive function up until their deaths have been found (post-mortem) to be free of brain lesions, showing that it’s entirely possible to prevent the damage from occurring in the first place… and one of the best ways to do this is by leading a healthy lifestyle.
•Fructose. As mentioned, most everyone will benefit from keeping their total fructose consumed to below 25 grams per day.
•Improve Magnesium Levels. There is some exciting preliminary research strongly suggesting a decrease in Alzheimer symptoms with increased levels of magnesium in the brain. Unfortunately most magnesium supplements do not pass the blood brain levels, but a new one, magnesium threonate, appears to and holds some promise for the future for treating this condition.
•Optimize your vitamin D levels with safe sun exposure. Strong links between low levels of vitamin D in Alzheimer’s patients and poor outcomes on cognitive tests have been revealed.8 Researchers believe that optimal vitamin D levels may enhance the amount of important chemicals in your brain and protect brain cells by increasing the effectiveness of the glial cells in nursing damaged neurons back to health.

Vitamin D may also exert some of its beneficial effects on Alzheimer’s through its anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties. Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation that is also associated with Alzheimer’s.
•Keep your fasting insulin levels below 3. This is indirectly related to fructose, as it will clearly lead to insulin resistance. However other sugars (sucrose is 50% fructose by weight), grains and lack of exercise are also important factors.
•Vitamin B12: According to a small Finnish study recently published in the journal Neurology,9 people who consume foods rich in B12 may reduce their risk of Alzheimer’s in their later years. For each unit increase in the marker of vitamin B12 (holotranscobalamin) the risk of developing Alzheimer’s was reduced by 2 percent. Very high doses of B vitamins have also been found to treat Alzheimer’s disease and reduce memory loss.
•Eat a nutritious diet, rich in folate, such as the one described in my nutrition plan. Vegetables, without question, are your best form of folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies every day.
•High-quality animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil. (I recommend avoiding most fish because, although fish is naturally high in omega-3, most fish are now severely contaminated with mercury.) High intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA help by preventing cell damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease, thereby slowing down its progression, and lowering your risk of developing the disorder.
•Avoid and remove mercury from your body. Dental amalgam fillings, which are 50% mercury by weight, are one of the major sources of heavy metal toxicity, however you should be healthy prior to having them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the diet described in my optimized nutrition plan, you can follow the mercury detox protocol and then find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed.
•Avoid aluminum, such as antiperspirants, non-stick cookware, vaccine adjuvants, etc.
•Exercise regularly. It’s been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized,10 thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s. Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha. Research has also shown that people with Alzheimer’s have less PGC-1alpha in their brains11 and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer’s. I would strongly recommend reviewing the Peak Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations.
•Avoid flu vaccinations as most contain both mercury and aluminum, well-known neurotoxic and immunotoxic agents.
•Eat plenty of blueberries. Wild blueberries, which have high anthocyanin and antioxidant content, are known to guard against Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.
•Challenge your mind daily. Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
•Avoid anticholinergic and statin drugs. Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of dementia. These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic pain relievers.

Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of coenzyme Q10 and neurotransmitter precursors, and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as low-density lipoprotein.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

Alzheimer’s disease is currently at epidemic proportions, with 5.4 million Americans — including one in eight people aged 65 and over — living with Alzheimer’s disease.1 By 2050, this is expected to jump to 16 million, and in the next 20 years, it is projected that Alzheimer’s will affect one in four Americans.

While the cause of this condition is believed to be a mystery, it’s becoming increasingly clear that what you eat, or don’t eat, can influence your risk as well as the rate at which the disease progresses. B group vitamins, in particular, especially folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12, are again making headlines for their powerful role in preventing Alzheimer’s disease.

B Vitamins May Reduce Brain Shrinkage by Up to 90 Percent

High levels of the amino acid homocysteine are linked to brain shrinkage and an increased risk of Alzheimer’s. B vitamins are known to suppress homocysteine. In a 2010 study,2 participants received relatively high doses of B vitamins, including:
•800 micrograms (mcg) folic acid — US RDA is 400 mcg/day
•500 mcg B12 (cyanocobalamin) – US RDA is only 2.4 mcg/day
•20 mg B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride) — US RDA 1.3-1.5 mg/day

The study was based on the presumption that by controlling the levels of homocysteine, you might be able to reduce the amount of brain shrinkage, which tends to precipitate Alzheimer’s.

Indeed, after two years those who had received the vitamin-B regimen suffered significantly less brain shrinkage compared to those who had received a placebo. In those who had the highest levels of homocysteine at the start of the trial, their brains shrank at half the rate of those taking a placebo.

The latest study takes this research a step further, showing not only that B group vitamins may slow brain shrinkage but that it may specifically slow shrinkage by as much as seven-fold in brain regions specifically known to be most impacted by Alzheimer’s disease.3

Among participants taking high doses of folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12, blood levels of homocysteine were lowered as was the associated brain shrinkage – by up to 90 percent. The researchers noted:

“ … B vitamins lower homocysteine, which directly leads to a decrease in GM [gray matter] atrophy, thereby slowing cognitive decline. Our results show that B-vitamin supplementation can slow the atrophy of specific brain regions that are a key component of the AD [Alzheimer’s disease] process and that are associated with cognitive decline.”

Foods Rich in Vitamin B12 Also Shown to Lower Alzheimer’s Risk

According to a small Finnish study published in the journal Neurology,4 people who consume foods rich in B12 may reduce their risk of Alzheimer’s in their later years. For each unit increase in the marker of vitamin B12 (holotranscobalamin), the risk of developing Alzheimer’s was reduced by 2 percent.

This makes a strong case for ensuring your diet includes plenty of healthful B-vitamin sources, such as meat, poultry, eggs, dairy products and wild-caught fish. Leafy green vegetables, beans and peas also provide some B vitamins, but if you eat an all vegetarian or vegan diet, vitamin B12 is one of the nutrients your body is most likely deficient in, as it is naturally present in foods that come from animals, including meat, fish, eggs, milk and milk products.

This is also a strong argument to use fermented foods and limit sugar intake. Consider that the entire B group vitamin series is produced continually within your gut, assuming it is continually replenished and reseeded with healthy flora from organically grown raw foods, particularly the flora-dense cultured traditional fermented foods, e.g. yoghurt, sauerkraut, or failing that, a good probiotic supplement.

B-Vitamin Deficiencies Tied to Brain Risks

Even if you eat animal foods, vitamin B12 requires a complex system in your body involving intrinsic factor to bind to it so it can be actively absorbed in the end of your small intestine (terminal ileum). As you grow older, the ability to produce intrinsic factor decreases and may cause a deficiency state. Studies from the U.S. Framingham trial show one in four adults are deficient in vitamin B12, and nearly half the population has suboptimal blood levels.

This is important to be aware of, and correct if it applies to you, as people with high levels of markers for vitamin B12 deficiency are more likely to score lower on cognitive tests, as well as have a smaller total brain volume, which suggests a lack of the vitamin may lead to brain shrinkage.5

A previous study on the impact of vitamin B12 on brain wasting also found that seniors with lower vitamin B12 levels at the start of the study had a greater decrease in brain volume at the end.6 Those with the lowest B12 levels had a six-fold greater rate of brain volume loss compared with those who had the highest levels.

Interestingly, none of the participants were actually deficient in vitamin B12 — they just had low levels within a normal range. This goes to show that “normal” is not necessarily the same as “optimal” when you’re talking about nutrients. You don’t have to be clearly deficient in order to experience a decline in brain health. The study’s lead researcher commented on this, saying:

“Our results suggest that rather than maintaining one’s B12 at a level that is just above the cut-off for deficiency, it might be prudent to aim to keep it higher up than normal range.”

Folic Acid Versus Folate: What’s the Difference?

Hearing about the benefits of B vitamins for your brain health might make you consider trying a supplement. However, it’s important to know the difference between folic acid and folate before you do. Although often used interchangeably, folic acid is a synthetic type of B vitamin used in supplements and fortified foods, while folate is the natural form found in foods. Think: folate comes from foliage (edible leafy plants) and not supplement bottles as a guideline.

There is some research suggesting that taking high doses of synthetic folic acid may actually increase your risk of cancer, immune system damage or other health problems.7 Further, in order for folic acid to be of use to your body, it must first be activated into its biologically active form – L-5-MTHF. This is the form that is able to cross the blood-brain barrier to give you the brain benefits noted. However, nearly half of the population has difficulty converting folic acid into the bioactive form because of a genetic reduction in enzyme activity. For this reason, if you take a B-vitamin supplement, make sure it contains natural folate rather than synthetic folic acid.

More Dietary Strategies for Fighting Alzheimer’s Disease

Ensuring you have adequate levels of B vitamin in your diet is just one dietary strategy to reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s and protect your brain health, as it’s becoming increasingly clear that the same pathological process that leads to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes may also hold true for your brain. As you over-indulge on sugar and grains, and starve yourself of enough essential fatty acids, your brain becomes overwhelmed by the consistently high levels of insulin and eventually shuts down its insulin signaling, leading to impairments in your thinking and memory abilities, and eventually causing permanent brain damage.

Alzheimer’s disease was tentatively dubbed “type 3 diabetes” in early 2005 when researchers learned that the pancreas is not the only organ that produces insulin. Your brain also produces insulin, and this brain insulin is necessary for the survival of your brain cells – that is, until the brain starts resisting chronically elevated levels of it, and it becomes toxic.

You may already know I have become passionate about warning of the dangers of fructose. There is no question in my mind that regularly consuming more than 25 grams of fructose per day will dramatically increase your risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Consuming too much fructose will inevitably wreak havoc on your body’s ability to regulate proper insulin levels.

In one study from UCLA, researchers found that rats fed a fructose-rich and omega-3 fat deficient diet (similar to what is consumed by many Americans) developed both insulin resistance and impaired brain function in just six weeks.8 Additionally, recent research has also shown that intermittent fasting also triggers a variety of health-promoting hormonal and metabolic changes similar to those of constant calorie restriction — including reduced age-related brain shrinkage.

According to Professor Mark Mattson, head of neuroscience at the US National Institute on Ageing:9 “Suddenly dropping your food intake dramatically — cutting it by at least half for a day or so — triggers protective processes in the brain.” He likens the effects to those from exercise, stating intermittent fasting could help protect your brain against degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

A Comprehensive Anti-Alzheimer’s Lifestyle

Memory loss and cognitive impairment are NOT “normal” parts of aging. While even mild “senior moments” may be caused by the same brain lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, these cognitive changes are by no means inevitable! People who experience very little decline in their cognitive function up until their deaths have been found (post-mortem) to be free of brain lesions, showing that it’s entirely possible to prevent the damage from occurring in the first place… and one of the best ways to do this is by leading a healthy lifestyle, which includes:
•Limit fructose. As mentioned, most everyone will benefit from keeping their total fructose consumed to below 25 grams per day.
•Improve magnesium levels. There is some exciting preliminary research strongly suggesting a decrease in Alzheimer symptoms with increased levels of magnesium in the brain. Unfortunately, most magnesium supplements do not pass the blood-brain barrier, but a new one, magnesium threonate, appears to and holds some promise for the future for treating this condition.
•Optimize your vitamin D levels with safe sun exposure. Strong links between low levels of vitamin D in Alzheimer’s patients and poor outcomes on cognitive tests have been revealed.10 Researchers believe that optimal vitamin D levels may enhance the amount of important chemicals in your brain and protect brain cells by increasing the effectiveness of the glial cells in nursing damaged neurons back to health.

Vitamin D may also exert some of its beneficial effects on Alzheimer’s through its anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties. Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation that is also associated with Alzheimer’s.
•Keep your fasting insulin levels below 3. This is indirectly related to fructose, as it will clearly lead to insulin resistance. However other sugars (sucrose is 50% fructose by weight), grains and lack of exercise are also important factors.
•Vitamin B12 and other B vitamins: As mentioned, these vitamins appear useful in protecting against brain shrinkage and may even help treat Alzheimer’s disease and reduce memory loss.
•Eat a nutritious diet, rich in folate, such as the one described in my nutrition plan. Vegetables, without question, are your best form of folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies every day.
•High-quality animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil. (I recommend avoiding most fish because, although fish is naturally high in omega-3, most fish are now severely contaminated with mercury.) High intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA help by preventing cell damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease, thereby slowing down its progression and lowering your risk of developing the disorder.
•Avoid and remove mercury from your body. Dental amalgam fillings, which are 50% mercury by weight, are one of the major sources of heavy metal toxicity. However you should be healthy prior to having them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the diet described in my optimized nutrition plan, you can follow the mercury detox protocol and then find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed.
•Avoid aluminum, such as antiperspirants, non-stick cookware, vaccine adjuvants, etc.
•Exercise regularly. It’s been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized,11 thus slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s. Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha. Research has also shown that people with Alzheimer’s have less PGC-1alpha in their brains12 and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer’s. I would strongly recommend reviewing the Peak Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations.
•Coconut Oil may offer profound benefits in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. One of the primary fuels your brain uses is glucose, which is converted into energy. When your brain becomes insulin resistant, atrophy due to starvation can occur. However, ketone bodies, or ketoacids, can also feed your brain, perhaps better, and prevent brain atrophy. It may even restore and renew neuron and nerve function in your brain after damage has set in. In fact, ketones appear to be the preferred source of brain food in patients affected by diabetes or Alzheimer’s.

Ketones are what your body produces when it converts fat (as opposed to glucose) into energy, and a primary source of ketone bodies are the medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) found in coconut oil, which is approximately 66% MCT by weight. It can also be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease by using a ketogenic diet with coconut oil.
•Astaxanthin is a natural pigment with unique properties and many clinical benefits, including some of the most potent antioxidant activity currently known. As a fat-soluble nutrient, astaxanthin readily crosses your blood-brain barrier. One study found it may help prevent neurodegeneration associated with oxidative stress, as well as make a potent natural “brain food.”13
•Gingko biloba: Many scientific studies have found that ginkgo biloba has positive effects for dementia, including improving cognitive performance and social functioning for those suffering from dementia.
•Alpha lipoic acid (ALA) can help stabilize cognitive functions among Alzheimer’s patients and may slow the progression of the disease.
•Avoid flu vaccinations, as most contain both mercury and aluminum, well-known neurotoxic and immunotoxic agents.
•Eat plenty of blueberries. Wild blueberries, which have high anthocyanin and antioxidant content, are known to guard against Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.
•Challenge your mind daily. Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
•Avoid anticholinergic and statin drugs. Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of dementia. These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic pain relievers.

Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of coenzyme Q10 and neurotransmitter precursors, and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as low-density lipoprotein. In fact, last year the FDA required statin manufacturers to list “memory loss” as a known side effect of their use.

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NaturalNews) When I got this from a friend, I was in utter disbelief. So, I go to Snopes and they back it up. So, In answer to the question, everyone should freeze lemons.

All kinds of people are saying that the entire lemon should be used with nothing wasted. How?

Simple, take a lemon, wash it, and then put it in the freezer. Once it is frozen you get whatever is necessary to grate or shred the whole lemon without even peeling it first.

Then sprinkle it on your salad, ice cream, soup, cereals, noodles, spaghetti sauce, or whatever. No holds barred. What you will experience is that whatever you sprinkle it on will take on a taste you may never have experienced before.

Why would I do this? Because the lemon peel contains 5 to 10 times more vitamins than the lemon juice itself and the peel is the part that is usually wasted. Not only that, but the peel helps to get rid of toxins in the body.

But wait, there’s more. Lemon is effective in killing cancer cells because it is allegedly 10,000 stronger than chemotherapy.

This has been revealed because there are people out there that want to make a synthetic, chemicalized version that will bring them huge profits. Shades of Monsanto.

The good news is that the taste of lemon is pleasant and does not deliver the horrific effects of chemotherapy.

What’s bizarre is that people are closely guarding this fact so as to not jeopardize the income to those that profit from other’s illnesses.

Another interesting aspect of the lemon is that it has a remarkable effect on cysts and tumors. Some say the lemon is a proven remedy against all types of cancer.

It doesn’t end there. It has an anti-microbial effect against bacterial infections and fungi; it is effective against internal parasites and worms; it regulates blood pressure, which is too high; it acts as an anti-depressant; it combats stress and nervous disorders.

The source of this information, although not specifically named, is one of the largest drug manufacturers in the world. They further say that after more than 20 laboratory tests since 1970, the extracts revealed that it destroys the malignant cells in 12 cancers, including colon, breast, prostate, lung and pancreas and that the compounds of the lemon tree were 10,000 times more effective than the product Adriamycin, which is a drug normally used chemotherapeutically in the world to slow the growth of cancer cells.

Even more, this type of therapy with lemon extract only destroys malignant cancer cells and does not affect healthy cells.

The process is simple: buy a lemon, wash it, freeze it, grate it, and put it on everything you eat.

It’s not rocket science. God puts stuff on the planet to keep the body healthy. The corporations hide this information and create synthetics to treat disease. The synthetic chemical creates other symptoms from its ingestion requiring another drug to combat these symptoms.

And so the cycle continues, which equates to enormous profits coming from an overt intention to keep a body ill and suppressing natural healing foods, minerals and modalities, all withheld by the mainstream media to not jeopardize their advertising dollar income, and payoffs to the politicians to not pass laws that will greatly benefit the people.

If we do not take responsibility for ourselves and go against the mainstream grain, we will inevitably remain a “trick” our whole life.

Aloha!

About the author:
I have been doing a weekly radio show in Honolulu since 1981 called “Health Talk”. In 2007 I was “forced” to get a Masters degree in Nutrition because of all the doctors that would call in asking for my credentials. They do not call in anymore. Going to www.healthtalkhawaii.com enables you, among other things, to listen to the shows. I am an activist. In addition to espousing an organic vegan diet for optimum health, I am strongly opposed to GMOs, vaccines, processed foods, MSG, aspartame, fluoridation and everything else that the pimps (Big Pharma, Monsanto and the large food companies) and the hookers (the doctors, the government agencies, the public health officials, and the mainstream media) thrust upon us, the tricks.
After being vaccinated with the DTP vaccine as a child I developed asthma. After taking the organic sulfur crystals (they are harvested from the pine trees in Louisiana) in November of 2008 for 10 days my asthma reversed and has not come back over 4 years later, 18 cases, so far, of autism have been reversed, as has cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, osteoarthritis, joint pain, astigmatism, gum disease, increased sexual activity, heavy metal and radiation elimination, parasite elimination, free radicals elimination, faster athletic recovery time, increased blood circulation, reduced inflammation, resistance to getting the flu, reduction of wrinkles, allergy reduction, reduced PMS and monthly period pain, nausea, migraines and so much more. And it’s only possible because of the oxygen it releases that floods the cells of the body. The sulfur, as proven by the University of Southampton in England, enables the body to produce vitamin B12 and the essential amino acids. You can find out more about this incredible nutrient also on my website – www.healthtalkhawaii.com -.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

Thank goodness carbon dioxide levels are finally rising ever so slightly in our atmosphere, bringing much-needed carbon dioxide to the plants and forests of the world which have been starving for CO2. The lack of CO2 in the atmosphere is one of the most devastating limiting factors for plant growth and reforestation of the planet, and at just 400ppm — that’s just 400 micrograms per kilogram — carbon dioxide is so low that Earth’s plant life can barely breathe.

Throughout the history of our planet, atmospheric CO2 was much, much higher, and it supported eras of lush rainforests, rapid plant growth and far greater biodiversity than what we see today. In fact, 525 million years ago, Earth’s atmospheric CO2 levels were as high at 7,000 ppm — and far from the planet “dying” as global warming hoax pushers try to claim, it was one of the most lush and biodiverse times in our planet’s history.

As the following chart clearly shows, CO2 levels are at one of their lowest levels in the history of our planet:

Carbon dioxide is greening the planet
Global warming alarmists and hoaxers, of course, have warned that CO2 levels crossing the threshold of 400ppm will spell certain doom for the human race. What they don’t mention is that rising CO2 levels actually set off a “global greening,” complete with forests re-growing at an accelerated rate, gardens producing more food and arid regions seeing a restoration of green plants.

In fact, a study just published in Geophysical Research Letters has documented that a 14% increase in CO2 levels in the atmosphere gave rise to a 5% – 10% increase in green foliage, with a total increase in plant “cover” of 11%. That study is entitled, CO2 fertilisation has increased maximum foliage cover across the globe’s warm, arid environments.

That study refers to CO2 as a “fertilizer” that causes a “fertilization effect.” As the study authors explain:

Our results confirm that the anticipated CO2 fertilization effect is occurring alongside ongoing anthropogenic perturbations to the carbon cycle and that the fertilisation effect is now a significant land surface process.

CO2, you see, isn’t a “pollutant.” It’s a nutrient!

By the way, your body is 18% carbon and 65% oxygen. (I’m going to pre-empt some stupid Facebook trolls who will say, “Not true! Your body is 75% water!” by answering in advance that H2O is made of hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen has such a low atomic weight, however, that it doesn’t contribute more than about 10% to your total body mass. Then again, trying to teach science to Facebook trolls is a lot like trying to teach pigs to write javascript.)

In total, you are 83% made of the same stuff as CO2, just in a different molecular arrangement. CO2 is, of course, constantly reformed and recycled throughout the planetary ecosystem. Ocean biological activity alone produces 90 billion tons of CO2 each year — many multiples of the far smaller amount produced by human activity (about 6 billion tons). If CO2 alone caused global warming and global death, we’d all be dead by now. It turns out that CO2 actually helps fertilize the growth and restoration of plants and forests!

Ocean plants love carbon dioxide, too!
By the way, it’s not just land plants that are starving for CO2. Marine plants also need more CO2, and most marine biology came into being in a time when CO2 levels were far higher than they are today.

The higher CO2 levels are in the atmosphere, the more CO2 gets absorbed into ocean water, making it available to help marine plants thrive. This CO2, importantly, is also used to build coral reefs.

Wait a second! Haven’t we all been told that CO2 is destroying coral reefs? I used to think so, too, because I hadn’t scrutinized the science closely enough. But if you really dig into this issue, it turns out that coral reefs are largely being destroyed by toxic chemical runoff from human activity, not from CO2.

If you love plants and forests and gardens, you gotta love CO2
The bottom line in all this is that if you love plant life on planet Earth, you’ve gotta love carbon dioxide. CO2 is the key nutrient that’s needed to bolster the rapid growth of nearly all plants, and right now Earth’s atmosphere is in a state of carbon dioxide deficiency.

That’s why professional greenhouse owners actually pump CO2 into their greenhouses to increase plant production.

Rising CO2 levels are a huge benefit to plant life across the planet. Hare-brained plans to “sequester” CO2 will cause an artificial reduction in this crucial plant nutrient, resulting in the mass global die-off of plants and the thinning of forests. Carbon sequestration is, quite literally, plant starvation and an attack against Mother Nature.

So don’t buy into the disinfo hawked by CO2 alarmists like Al Gore. They are pushing an utterly fictional story about how “CO2 will destroy the world” and end human civilization if we don’t stop its rise. I welcome rising CO2 levels and being scientifically trained, I know that carbon dioxide only exists at less than 1/1000th of the atmosphere. In fact, it’s currently at less than half of 1/1000th of the atmosphere. That’s an extremely small amount of CO2 — just 400ppm. And it’s just barely enough to keep Earth’s plants from dying en masse.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

Gluten intolerance, or celiac disease, is the bummer of all bummers. The gluten intolerance creates a chronic malabsorption syndrome that is the worst of the worst.

If someone experiences lethargy, weight loss, loss of appetite, diarrhea, stools that are bulky, pale, floating or horrendously smelly, abdominal pain or distension, weakness, and or anemia, hello gluten intolerance.

Gluten intolerance, or celiac disease, can manifest itself very dramatically, causing malnutrition and wasting, or else it many act insidiously to downgrade general health and vitality over a number of years.

Classic forms of this disorder begin early in life, just as soon as cereal grains containing gluten protein are introduced into the diet. In this case, the infant fails to thrive, muscular structures begin to waste, especially if the gluteal (butt) region, and the abdomen protrudes markedly due to intestinal fermentation. Fat absorption is reduced, fat-soluble vitamin deficiency is common, and other necessary nutrients are passed out with the doo doo.

Adult-onset gluten intolerance is often diagnosed and may, in reality, stem from childhood, but with only mild or unnoticed symptoms that gradually progressed for many reasons.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, oats, rye, barley, and other grains related to wheat. If these are consumed in these cases the gluten causes severe intestinal irritation and a flattening of the mucous membrane of the middle part of the small intestine.

The two main causes of celiac disease are strict gluten intolerance, which may be caused by enzyme deficiency, or other metabolic fault, and improper weaning.

The introduction of cereal grains before the body’s enzymes can digest them can only set the stage by causing gastric irritation, antibody reaction, and intestinal thinning.

The average infant is approximately 4 months old at the onset of the disorder and a full 2 months before the body has even developed the digestive ability to handle concentrated carbohydrates. Add to this the frequency with which these foods are usually given in the diet and it’s not rocket science to see how simple irritation can later lead to permanent reaction. The foods most commonly found allergic are those given the earliest and most frequently.

Then, other food allergies like yeast, dairy and/or sugar intolerances can further complicate celiac disease. The good news is that breastfeeding is a protective factor and can help prevent future food sensitivities. This is why infant formulas laden with fluoride, aspartame and other horrific substances should be avoided during this stage of life.

Believe it or not, researchers have found a significant percentage of schizophrenics and victims of multiple sclerosis who suffer from a gluten reaction. This largely comes from the malabsorption of vitamins (B3 and B6 deficiency are closely associated with schizophrenia) or fat-soluble substances (essential fatty acids found in seeds or nuts are deficient in those with multiple sclerosis).

What has to be instituted initially is a totally gluten-free diet and this could well present a challenge to many households. Down the road some may be able to tolerate some moderate additions.

Basically, you have to say bye-bye to everything except quinoa, brown rice, millet and non-GMO corn.. And yes, that includes eliminating sandwiches unless you can substitute the wheat with non-GMO corn tortillas.

Another thing to watch out for is making sure that wheat or wheat flour has not been added to any prepackaged products consumed at home or in restaurants.

Believe it or not, gluten-containing grains are commonly found in a wide variety of restaurant and commercially prepared foods, such as ice cream, candies, salad dressings, lunch meats, soups, sauces, and even condiments. It’s as bad as the MSG hidden problem.

One must take great care to pay attention to all ingredients, especially when eating at restaurants. Reading labels should be taken seriously and become your second religion. Even an incredibly small amount of gluten in the early stages of the disorder can initiate a reaction lasting up to 5 days, so you can see how important it is to be diligent about excluding gluten entirely.

Forget about buying gluten-free flour to do your own baking as these products are usually refined and vitamin deficient. It’s best to stick with highly nutritious non-gluten grains, as previously mentioned, vegetable, fruits, nuts and seeds. Please don’t forget that the animals are fed enormous amounts of grains that are the worst of the worst.

Lastly, be sure that your supplement regimen includes vitamins A, C, D, E, B complex, B6, calcium, magnesium, zinc, slippery elm to soothe inflamed mucosa, superfoods, and organic sulfur to repair all the cells in the body.

In the beginning of the healing process, the celiac person is thin and has an irritable stomach, making supplements poorly tolerated. You might want to start the healing process with a fresh juice fast of 3 to 5 days, to give the digestive tract a bit of a rest.

Remember, due to prolonged malabsorption, nutritional deficiency is kind of broad-based, so the emphasis should be placed on vitamins A, B complex, C, D, and E (fat-soluble), essential fatty acids, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, organic sulfur, and any other supplement that may have become deficient in the process. It’s best to see a naturopath. An MD will only give you drugs.

Aloha!

About the author:
I have been doing a weekly radio show in Honolulu since 1981 called “Health Talk”. In 2007 I was “forced” to get a Masters degree in Nutrition because of all the doctors that would call in asking for my credentials. They do not call in anymore. Going to www.healthtalkhawaii.com enables you, among other things, to listen to the shows. I am an activist. In addition to espousing an organic vegan diet for optimum health, I am strongly opposed to GMOs, vaccines, processed foods, MSG, aspartame, fluoridation and everything else that the pimps (Big Pharma, Monsanto and the large food companies) and the hookers (the doctors, the government agencies, the public health officials, and the mainstream media) thrust upon us, the tricks.
After being vaccinated with the DTP vaccine as a child I developed asthma. After taking the organic sulfur crystals (they are harvested from the pine trees in Louisiana) in November of 2008 for 10 days my asthma reversed and has not come back over 4 years later, 18 cases, so far, of autism have been reversed, as has cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, osteoarthritis, joint pain, astigmatism, gum disease, increased sexual activity, heavy metal and radiation elimination, parasite elimination, free radicals elimination, faster athletic recovery time, increased blood circulation, reduced inflammation, resistance to getting the flu, reduction of wrinkles, allergy reduction, reduced PMS and monthly period pain, nausea, migraines and so much more. And it’s only possible because of the oxygen it releases that floods the cells of the body. The sulfur, as proven by the University of Southampton in England, enables the body to produce vitamin B12 and the essential amino acids. You can find out more about this incredible nutrient also on my website – www.healthtalkhawaii.com -.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

12 Ayurvedic herbs that significantly slow down aging

Herbal anti-aging treatment is now being accepted by scientific communities with Ayurvedic treatment being the most well-known. Ayurvedic treatments concentrate on three areas of a person – Vata, Kapha and Pitta. According to Ayurvedic treatment experts, maintaining a perfect balance among these three aspects is the secret to staying young-looking and healthy.

One very effective ayurvedic treatment
One very effective Ayurvedic treatment is called Rasayana. Its two major faculties are what experts call Kutipravesika and Vatatapika. These may be very strange sounding names, but they can be understood easily with a simple explanation. For instance, Kutipravesika’s unique methodology is its requirement that the person being treated should stay in a small shelter that has only one door. There are holes around the shelter for air to pass through, but these holes are all very tiny.

The goal and the herbs
The goal of Ayurvedic treatments is not only to bring about the slowing down of the aging process but also to make the body work at its best and bring vitality and peace to individuals. The 12 types of herbs used in the treatment are the following:

Amla or emblica officianalis

This herb is specifically given special attention in the literature Charaka Samhita. This herb is full of natural vitamin C and therefore has the capacity to rejuvenate bodily systems.

The ginger family

The herbs of the ginger family are rich in anti-oxidative ingredients, ingredients that increase blood flow to the peripheries and ingredients that reduce inflammation at the cellular level.

Turmeric rhizomes

These substances in the form of curcumin, curcuminoids and tetrahydrocurcuminoids possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

Galanga (also called chinese ginger)

Galanga contains gingerols, diarylheptanoids and essential oils. Diarylheptanoids are anti-arthritic. Pure Galanga extracts have the ability to fight oxidants, absorb UV radiation and inhibit tyrosinase.

Frankincense, boswellia

This herb also fights arthritis. Pure compounds from this herb are very much used in many anti-aging formulations.

The clove family

These herbs are used to relieve pain such as toothache and muscle pains. It is because they contain anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties.

Vitis
The anti-aging abilities of Vitis are attributed to the grape family members’ antioxidant properties. Procyanidins are concentrated in the seeds while resveratrol is concentrated in grapes’ skin.

Rosemary

The rosmarinic acid, carnosic acid, amyrenones, rocciferone, seco-hinokiol, oleanoic acid, carnosol and diterpenes ursolic acid contained in the rosemary herb exhibit strong anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and tyrosinase-controlling properties.

Licorice

This herb contains anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. It has also been found to protect the skin from the harmful UV rays. Licorice’s active ingredients include liquiritins, glabridins, glabrol, glycyrrhetinic acid, and glycyrrhizin.

Neem

This herb is already recognized for its ability to control bacteria and insects. Found to have hypoglycemic, anti-malarial and wound-healing properties, neem is also known to have powerful free radical inhibiting and antioxidant properties.

Andrographis

Research suggests that the herb andrographis has a strong potential to control skin aging. This substance is taken from the Andrographis herb.

Pomegranate

This herb has punicalagins, punicalins, gallagic acid and ellagic acid. Although some of these substances are not yet used commercially, all of them have been found to be effective in neutralizing oxidants and free radicals.

Sources for this article include:

http://voices.yahoo.com

http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com

http://kaleidoscope.cultural-china.com/en/7Kaleidoscope10712.html

About the author:
Sandeep is an avid rock climber, Mountaineer, runner, and fitness coach. He shares his tips for staying in shape and eating healthy on several fitness sites.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

A topic rarely discussed, yet phenomenally important, relates to the food children and babies are fed, and they way in which they are weaned. This can have a profound impact on your child’s future dental- and physical health.

Dr. Kevin Boyd is an attending dentist at Lurie Children’s (formerly Children’s Memorial) Hospital, the leading pediatric institution in Chicago area. Incidentally, this is where I did some training as a resident. It’s a phenomenal training hospital associated with Northwestern University.

He’s also trained in nutritional biochemistry, and serves on a board with Joy Moeller who is the leader in the United States for oral myofunctional therapy.

Dr. Boyd’s interest in diet, health and dental health began during a stint in an experimental Peace Corps volunteer program in Honduras, where kids suffered terrible dental decay.

“[S]ugar cane is the abundant crop there. The kids start eating it at birth, and their front teeth rot out,” he says.

He eventually obtained a master’s degree in nutritional biochemistry and did his research in the area of unhealthy eating as it affects bodyweight and susceptibility to diabetes and tooth decay. After that, he entered dental school.

Weight Gain and Cavities Have the Identical Root Cause

As Dr. Boyd explains, the foods that cause weight gain are the same foods that cause tooth decay—primarily simple carbohydrates. This realization led him to investigate ultimate causes versus approximate causes, meaning the evolutionary significance of diet and tooth decay. He’s now pursuing a Ph.D. in anthropology and evolutionary medicine, looking at historical patterns of Westernization of the food supply and how it impacted internal- and oral disease.

“To suggest that this epidemic of tooth decay is because of poor brushing is not sound from an evolutionary perspective,” he says. “It’s not evidence-based. It’s important to brush. But plaque – the stuff that forms on the teeth after you eat – from food residue is not intrinsically acid-producing. It doesn’t produce gum disease. It doesn’t produce tooth decay unless it becomes activated.”

What activates it are simple carbohydrates – starches and sugars – that are not conjugated to its native fiber. All sugars in nature, such as the fructose in fruits, are conjugated to fiber, which actually provides mechanical cleansing of teeth.

“I think brushing is important, but not activating plaque with simple sugars is more important,” he says.

Introducing alkalinity in the form of baking soda can also help decrease the acid level in your mouth at the tooth- and gum surface, which can help prevent plaque formation. I can personally attest to the effectiveness of brushing and flossing with baking soda.

This is something I learned from Dr. Tim Rainey, who is a pioneer in biological dentistry. Despite eating healthy for well over a decade I was still having problems with persistent plaque formation.

I noticed a significant change after introducing fermented vegetables (which provide me with tens of trillions of beneficial bacteria or probiotics each day) but what really made the difference was adding baking soda irrigation to my daily regimen. I follow this with coconut oil pulling as it puts a protective coat back on the teeth that the baking soda irrigation tends to remove.

The Vital Importance of Baby-Led Weaning

The Ph.D. dissertation Dr. Boyd hopes to pursue would compare modern Westernized infant and early childhood feeding regimens with what he calls ‘ancestral-type infant and early childhood feeding regimens.’ Fossil records show that up until the last 300 years or so, babies were more or less exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life. Interestingly enough, this can actually be determined from fossilized teeth.

“You can tell when a baby stops breastfeeding in a 30,000-year-old tooth. We can analyze it,” Dr. Boyd explains. “There’s something called the natal line. That shows when the baby just came into the world and stopped feeding off of the placenta. And then we can tell when they are starting to wean and completely weaned just by looking at teeth and bones.”

The reason you’ve likely never heard of this from your doctor or dentist is because it’s not taught in dental- or medical schools. Anthropologists, however, have known this for decades.

“Dental schools need to have evolutionary biologists on their teaching staff. They just do,” he says. “My whole mission – I’m dedicating the rest of my career to this – is to integrate this into dental education in dentistry. I call it evolutionary oral medicine or Darwinian dentistry.”

An ancestral-type infant and early childhood feeding regimen is defined by six months of exclusive breastfeeding, after which the child undergoes a period of weaning. This weaning period includes breastfeeding on demand, combined with the gradual introduction of regular foods, via a process now referred to as “baby-led weaning.” This type of feeding schedule is what the human genome was adapted to.

Modern-day baby-led weaning has been popularized by one of Dr. Boyd’s anthropology colleagues, Gill Rapley in England, and includes premasticating regular whole foods in lieu of serving processed baby foods. Dr. Boyd explains:

“It’s called kiss feeding. Modern-day hunter-gatherers (there’s not many of them left, but some aboriginal cultures still do these practices) will pre-chew the food like a bird does and spit it into the child’s mouth. It sounds gross, but it’s actually not. It’s quite wonderful.

…Usually, by seven-, eight-, and certainly nine-months-old – even though a child didn’t have that many, if any, teeth – they were chewing with their gums everything that anyone in the tribe was chewing. Certainly by a year old, there was no difference in what a child ate. That would continue into the third year of life. Children are typically breastfed on demand while weaning on to firm, regular foods into the third year of life and sometimes beyond. That’s consistent throughout the human history.”

This natural process actually trains the child’s tongue to position itself upward and forward, and to lateralize toward the sides of the jaws. When your tongue pushes upwards and forward, it expands the palate in the middle, which allows your palate and jaw to settle into the anatomically correct positions.

As a result of this ancestral-type of feeding, which allows the oral cavity to develop naturally and properly, our ancestors were not plagued with crooked teeth and poorly aligned jaws. The anthropological evidence shows that such problems really didn’t arise until about 350 years ago. At present, an estimated 92 percent or more of all Westernized people have some degree of malocclusion, such as crowding of the teeth, narrowing of the jaws, or both. (This is where Joy Moeller’s oral myofunctional training comes in—her protocol helps correct the oral defects and misalignments created by modern feeding.)

This has ramifications for breathing and sleeping, which in turn can lead to what we’ve now dubbed “attention deficit disorder.”

“We now know that snoring children and children that don’t get a good-quality –good REM sleep – are far more susceptible to having behavioral and brain dysfunction like ADD,” Dr. Boyd says. “Giving a stimulant to a child for ADD is not the right thing to do for a child who needs better sleep. Sometimes just changing the architecture of their jaws early in life (I’m not saying that’s the only thing), getting them myofunctional training, and getting them to chew harder, fresher, more nutritious foods can preclude all kinds of problems that we’re throwing drugs at right now.”

How Breastfeeding Promotes Proper Oral Development

When a child is fed the way he was genetically designed to be fed, it stimulates the structure of the mouth and facial bones to develop in an optimal way. This begins with exclusive breastfeeding, ideally for the first six months. However, if you cannot breastfeed, for whatever reason, there are alternatives that can mimic the stimulus created by breastfeeding, which will promote proper formation of your child’s oral cavity.

According to Dr. Boyd, baby bottles are NOT the way to go if you cannot breastfeed. Instead, feeding your child from a cup is much better. Not a lidded sippy cup, however, but an unlidded cup with a small cutout.

“Panera Bread’s little kid cups can be easily modified. I tell parents to go to Panera Bread and ask for their little cups. You can just cut out a little mouth piece on it. You just cut a little loop in it, a little arc.”

Dr. Boyd Supplying an Image/Illustration?

This may surprise many, but baby bottles actually do not mimic the natural suction a baby exerts on the breast. Baby bottles were created under the mistaken belief that babies deform the mother’s nipple, elongating it all the way back to the soft palate. This is why baby bottle nipples are designed the way they are. It was also assumed that babies massage the milk via a peristaltic wave motion, pressing the nipple up against the roof of the mouth. Alas, all of these assumptions have been solidly disproven by Dr. Donna Geddes.

“You can go on a website called Bumpology, and hit Ultrasound Breastfeeding. Donna put an ultrasound probe underneath the mother’s breast while she was breastfeeding and totally disproved the assumption that babies elongated nipple back to the gag reflex and massage it against the mid-palatal suture. That isn’t what happens,” Dr. Boyd says.

Instead, what really happens is that a vacuum is created when the middle of the baby’s tongue comes down, which helps express milk from the breast. Next, the forward part of the baby’s tongue pushes the mother’s nipple inside, right behind the two front teeth. This motion explains why ancestral feeding widens the jaw, and pushes both the upper and lower jaws forward. It also pushes the cheekbones in the mid-face forward.

“It’s like a piston that pushes out on the mid-face. There’s an incisive suture that goes all the way up to your nose that pushes the whole mid-face forward,” he explains.

How to Do Baby-Led Weaning

First of all, babies should not be given any solid food, including pureed baby food, until they are able to sit up on their own. This typically occurs around six months, which coincides with when our ancestors stopped exclusive breastfeeding. Dr. Boyd also advises parents to wait to introduce solid foods until your baby can grasp them. This is because the ability to firmly grasp something in their hand coincides with the development of the gag reflex, which is nature’s way of making sure your baby will not choke on the food. (Naturally, you still must observe and supervise your baby while she’s eating on her own.)

That said, even before your baby can sit up on her own, you should let her lick, smell, see and touch real food in order to get used to it.

“Because they’re born with a visceral suck-swallow, they think Gerber baby food puree is thick milk, and they’re going to try to suck it. And that’s where the deviant tongue-swallowing pattern starts,” Dr. Boyd says. “They’re not being allowed to transition from a visceral, hardwired suck-swallow to a more mature, lateralizing chew-swallow. That’s what baby-led weaning along with breastfeeding do. It teaches the tongue how to transition from an infantile, immature suck-swallow to a mature chew-swallow.

Then, by six- to seven-months-old, in that first month, you can chop fresh foods up. Let your baby pick them up and make a mess on their tray. Let them hold the food to their mouth. Let them pick up things that are big, you know, carrots. They can gnaw on it.”

For those who want to incorporate “kiss feeding,” you can either premasticate, meaning pre-chew, the food before giving it to your baby, or you can buy what’s called a “mesh feeder”—a net bag into which you place chopped up fresh foods, which then turns into a puree as your baby chews on the mesh bag. This way, your baby gets the benefit of the challenge to his jaws. This also provides the proper tongue training. Once pureed, you can empty the contents out onto a plate and allow your baby to feed himself with his hands.

“Gradually, making the foods a little more course, a little less chopped, until really, certainly by 10, 11, to 12 months for sure, a child should be eating everything that the adults are eating,” Dr. Boyd says.

Five Recommendations to Optimize Your Baby’s Oral Health

The top five recommendations issued by Dr. Boyd to promote oral health in your child are:
1.Find a pediatric dentist by age one, and get checkups at least twice to three times per year
2.Establish healthy eating habits, based on whole foods and no- or low sugar. If your child does not eat sugar, his teeth will not decay, even if he does not brush religiously. During infancy, make sure to only feed your child breast milk during the night. If they get any other type of commercial carbohydrate (most infant formulas are actually loaded with sugar), breast milk can become toxic to the teeth.

“If it’s just breast milk, lactoferrin kills the bacteria that cause tooth decay,” Dr. Boyd explains. “As soon as you can get your children to where they don’t have to breastfeed through the night, they’re less risky of getting decay. But as long as it’s just breast milk, don’t worry about it.”
3.Brush teeth three times a day. Ideally, you’ll want to start massaging your child’s gums before his teeth erupt, using either your finger, a Q-tip, or a square of gauze.

When your child starts to show teeth around six or seven months, you can start brushing them with a baby toothbrush. The night time brushing is the most important one. The morning and midday brushing you can let your child do on her own. “If they can hold the toothbrush, they’re going to do enough,” Dr. Boyd says.

Children typically will not need to floss until the age of about three or four years old, when the spaces between the teeth begin to tighten
4.Drink pure water as the primary beverage, and
5.If drinking juice, eat a whole piece of fruit along with it (so if drinking four ounces of orange juice, eat eight slices of orange). This way, your child gets the fiber of the fruit, which slows down absorption, and helps to mechanically clean his teeth. Then rinse the mouth with water afterward. Personally I would advise against drinking any juice. Just provide your child with fresh fruit

Work with Genetic Adaptation Rather Than Against It…

It’s quite clear that following a feeding program that includes breastfeeding (or using cup feeding in lieu of bottle feeding) and baby-led weaning can have a tremendously beneficial impact on your child’s future development; from allowing natural tongue-, jaw- and facial development to occur, to promoting better dental health, to avoiding common problems like snoring, mouth-breathing and sleeping problems that can contribute to behavioral- and learning disabilities.

All it takes are minor modifications, such as ditching the baby bottle for a modified lidless feeding cup, and using “kiss feeding” or a mesh feeder instead of processed baby food.

To learn more about Dr. Boyd’s work, check out his website at dentistry4children.net. For more information about baby-led weaning, Dr. Boyd recommends the book Baby-Led Weaning, by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett. You can also learn more on babyledweaning.com.1

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