Thursday, July 31, 2014

Love oneness integration

A virtuous life is the one lived with oneness ***

Oneness in our personality. Oneness in our emotions. Oneness in our relationship with life.
Any sort of perceived separation and thus, rejection; will take us away from that Oneness.
The above is not a matter of belief. It is not a matter of being a “selected one,” it is not a matter of being an intellectual full of information.
It is a matter of being empty of all those things, which create a personality ready to reject, to separate, to analyze to live in duality, to live in the perception of a wall of insurmountable dichotomy.
Rejection of a religious group. Rejection of moral views. Rejection of people due to some belief. Rejection of any being, which we find “ugly,” “no good,” “despicable,” “abominable,” etc.
Rejection of any circumstance that is surrounding us at any moment in time.
When there is no rejection, then enjoyment is and in that enjoyment, oneness appears.
A collective consciousness which is fragmented, will see a set of virtuous living behaviors: Generosity, detachment, love, toleration, friendliness, compassion, contentment, joy, etc.
All of those dictionary words represent a fragment of Oneness. A particular person may exhibit what we call “generosity,” but that is a ray of Oneness in the vacuum of darkness of the fragmented self.
Love is a misunderstood feeling.
It is not a romantic trip to Disneyland where the lovers could love each other forever… A person exhibiting a fragmented personality cannot know what love is.
It doesn’t matter if the object of that love is the world, another person or God.
A fragmented personality is not able to become one… that means; to be empty of all beliefs, emotional traumas and fears.
How on earth a person could know about oneness, about love in that condition? 
A typical person only knows about the “master and slave” relationship. It is “me” over you. It is “me” under you. That is all. There are no equals, because to be equal means to be empty.
Empty so we could listen. So we could provide emotional comfort to another, so we could harmonize… so we could be intimate.
Otherwise, our fragmented personality will not allow us to experience oneness with someone, with God or with the world, with life.
The above is not a religious belief. But it could be for those who are not looking to understand themselves, with honesty and with their whole hearts.
That is with passion.
When someone does not wish to understand himself, then to be lost in another is desirable. Whether that is God or another person, or a belief, the aim is for someone else to “drive” the car of our destiny.
The interesting thing is that nobody can do that for us. Not even God.
We live in fear.
Fear of tomorrow. Fear of the past. Fear of that person. Fear of God. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of pleasure. Fear of dying…. Fear of living life.
And then we wish to know love… 
Isn’t that contradictory?

Love is Oneness.

A virtuous life is the one lived with oneness.
Oneness in our personality. Oneness in our emotions. Oneness in our relationship with life.
Any sort of perceived separation and thus, rejection; will take us away from that Oneness.
The above is not a matter of belief. It is not a matter of being a “selected one,” it is not a matter of being an intellectual full of information.
It is a matter of being empty of all those things, which create a personality ready to reject, to separate, to analyze to live in duality, to live in the perception of a wall of insurmountable dichotomy.
Rejection of a religious group. Rejection of moral views. Rejection of people due to some belief. Rejection of any being, which we find “ugly,” “no good,” “despicable,” “abominable,” etc.
Rejection of any circumstance that is surrounding us at any moment in time.
When there is no rejection, then enjoyment is and in that enjoyment, oneness appears.
A collective consciousness which is fragmented, will see a set of virtuous living behaviors: Generosity, detachment, love, toleration, friendliness, compassion, contentment, joy, etc.
All of those dictionary words represent a fragment of Oneness. A particular person may exhibit what we call “generosity,” but that is a ray of Oneness in the vacuum of darkness of the fragmented self.
Love is a misunderstood feeling.
It is not a romantic trip to Disneyland where the lovers could love each other forever… A person exhibiting a fragmented personality cannot know what love is.
It doesn’t matter if the object of that love is the world, another person or God.
A fragmented personality is not able to become one… that means; to be empty of all beliefs, emotional traumas and fears.
How on earth a person could know about oneness, about love in that condition? 
A typical person only knows about the “master and slave” relationship. It is “me” over you. It is “me” under you. That is all. There are no equals, because to be equal means to be empty.
Empty so we could listen. So we could provide emotional comfort to another, so we could harmonize… so we could be intimate.
Otherwise, our fragmented personality will not allow us to experience oneness with someone, with God or with the world, with life.
The above is not a religious belief. But it could be for those who are not looking to understand themselves, with honesty and with their whole hearts.
That is with passion.
When someone does not wish to understand himself, then to be lost in another is desirable. Whether that is God or another person, or a belief, the aim is for someone else to “drive” the car of our destiny.
The interesting thing is that nobody can do that for us. Not even God.
We live in fear.
Fear of tomorrow. Fear of the past. Fear of that person. Fear of God. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of pleasure. Fear of dying…. Fear of living life.
And then we wish to know love… 

Isn’t that contradictory?

by avyakt7


Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Lactobacillus Plantarum One Probiotic You Need to be Taking


The One Probiotic Supplement You Need to be Taking
Bowel wall permeability, more commonly described these days as “leaky gut,” is now front and center in the news, and is well known as a cause of a large number of common disease entities. The intestinal barrier that separates the luminal contents from the systemic circulation is, incredibly, only one cell thick! This extends from the esophagus to the anus. That means that we are dependent on a one cell layer, as well as the connections between these single cells, to carefully screen what is taken in and what is excluded.
The integrity of the gut lining can be compromised by any number of influences including antibiotics, stress, various medications, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, as well as steroids, harmful bacteria, glycated proteins, and even exposure to gluten. When the permeability of the gut lining is increased, it sets the stage for a dramatic increase in inflammation and compromises our immune system’s ability to determine self versus non-self. The latter is a hallmark of autoimmune diseases including lupus, diabetes type I, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and so many more of the common maladies of our modern world.

Swedish researchers have recently reviewed the effectiveness of a particular probiotic organism, Lactobacillus plantarum, in terms of its effectiveness in reducing gut wall permeability. Their report summarized not only the animal research done to evaluate the effectiveness of this probiotic organism, in terms of restoring gut wall integrity, but human research as well. While the science is a bit compelling, the take-home message is that non-pharmaceutical approaches, like taking a probiotic, can significantly reduce the permeability of damaged gut lining, and this may have a significant downstream effect in terms of reducing inflammation, the cornerstone of virtually any the degenerative disease you can think of. This is why Lactobacillus plantarum has become one of my most coveted “go to” players when I prescribe probiotics to my patients.

What they won't tell you: The sun is a full-spectrum medicine that can heal cancer


Wednesday, July 30, 2014 by: Paul Fassa

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(NaturalNews) "Those that have attempted to convince the world that the Sun, the Earth's primary source of energy and life causes cancer, have done so with malicious intent to deceive the masses into retreating from the one thing that can prevent disease." -- Dave Mihalovic, Naturopathic Doctor
and writer. [1]

Truth is, we've been systematically lied to about the sun and skin cancer for years. This video presentation explains fully. How many know that there is no definitive proof that the sun alone causes skin cancer? [2]

Can the sun cure cancer?
In the book The Healing Sun, author Dr. Richard Hobday documents a wide array of studies which show that the sun protects against cancer of the breast, colon, ovaries and prostate. It can also prevent diabetes, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and high blood pressure, osteoporosis, psoriasis and seasonal affective disorder (SAD). [3]

Then there's the case of Dr. Harland G. Call, who was diagnosed with skin cancer and was advised by a surgeon to have it removed. Instead, he decided to sunbath the cancerous area.

After a short period of continuous sunbathing, the skin cancer was completely gone. He returned to his MD for a confirmation, and his doctor confirmed that the skin cancer had disappeared and no surgery was required. [3]

According to Dr. Bernarr Zovluck, "Cancer is helped by sunbathing, writes Dr. Zane R. Kime. Kime writes
that those who get more sunlight have less cancer. Sunbathing heals
cancer by building up the immune system and increasing the oxygen in the
tissues." [4]

Still, we're bombarded almost daily with dire "warnings" from reputable "authorities" admonishing us, for our own good of course, to avoid the sun at all costs.

Epidemic levels of sun phobia
For example, Dr. Robin Ashinoff, chief of dermatological and cosmetic surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center advised: "Wearing sunscreen and then deliberately going out in the sun is almost as [bad] as going out with no sunscreen at all."

She continued, "You don't get burned, but the UV rays are still getting into your skin. Sunscreen is important, but you should also wear the right clothing and shield yourself as much as possible from direct sun exposure." [5]

Is Dr. Ashinoff advocating a vampire lifestyle? The reality is that the vast majority of people, including doctors, have been duped into believing the myth that the sun is toxic, carcinogenic and a deadly health hazard.

That's why most people slavishly and lavishly slather toxic sunscreens on their skin whenever they anticipate direct contact with the sun's rays. But in fact, most conventional sunscreens are cancer-causing biohazards. [6] [7]

Meanwhile, the multi-billion-dollar cancer industry and the billion-dollar toxic sunscreen industry are making hay with this hoax. True believers are left scratching their heads in bewilderment as statistics reveal that the dreaded malignant melanoma skin cancer is on the rise. [8]

The sun doctor
Dr. Auguste Rollier opened the first European "Sun Clinic" in 1903 at Leysin, Switzerland. He also wrote a very influential book: Heliotherapy. He was considered the most famous heliotherapist in the world.

At his peak, he operated 36 clinics. Dr. Rollier espoused that the sun was an unsurpassed broad-spectrum medicine. He healed his patients using a wholesome diet combined with the power of the sun.

By 1933, there were over 165 different diseases successfully treated with heliotherapy including tuberculosis, wounds, rickets and much more. Dr. Rollier's death in 1954 marked the end of sun therapy not because it was ineffective, but because it had been replaced by Big Pharma's "miracle drugs." [9]

Sources for this article include:










About the author:
Paul Fassa is dedicated to warning others about the current corruption of food and medicine and guiding them towards direction for better health with no restrictions on health freedom. 

You can check out his many non-compromising cutting edge, non-fluff articles here



Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Antibacterial clay and natural antibiotics offer hope for humanity to halt superbugs

Antibacterial clay and natural antibiotics offer hope for humanity to halt superbugs
Tuesday, July 29, 2014 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer




(NaturalNews) Naturally occurring clay may turn out to be one of the most effective ways to kill antibiotic-resistant superbugs, according to a study conducted by researchers from Arizona State University and published in the journal Environmental Geochemistry and Health.

"Minerals have long had a role in non-traditional medicine," said Enriqueta Barrera of the National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the study. "Yet there is often no understanding of the reaction between the minerals and the human body or agents that cause illness. This research explains the mechanism by which clay minerals interfere with the functioning of pathogenic bacteria."

The key to stopping superbugs?
According to researcher Lynda Williams, clay minerals have been used in many traditional medical systems for thousands of years. Relatively recently, green clays found only in France and traditionally used in French mineral baths were proven to have antibacterial properties. Indeed, the green clays were used effectively to treats Mycobacterium ulcerans, a bacterial species that causes the skin disease known as Buruli ulcers.

"These clays," Williams said, "demonstrated a unique ability to kill bacteria while promoting skin cell growth."

Buruli ulcers begin as painful swelling of the skin but can eventually lead to large, open ulcers on the arms and legs. If untreated, the disease can lead to permanent deformity and even secondary infections that can cause death.

The French green clay was eventually depleted, however, and scientists have been searching for viable replacements. The value of antibacterial clay has become even higher as more and more pathogens continue to develop resistance to numerous forms of pharmaceutical antibiotics.

"As antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains emerge and pose increasing health risks," Williams said, "new antibacterial agents are urgently needed."

Indeed, multi-drug-resistant bacteria are now so prevalent and dangerous that they are considered a global health concern.

"This serious threat is no longer a prediction for the future," reads a 2014 World Health Organization report, "it's happening right now in every region of the world and has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country."

Clays kill MRSA, E. coli
The new study identifies and partially explains antibacterial properties in clays extracted from a volcanic deposit near Crater Lake, Oregon. The tests were conducted using the bacterial species Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus epidermidis, which are common causes of human digestive and skin infections, respectively.

The researchers found that the clays flooded the bacterial cells with iron, overwhelming their ability to store the mineral and eventually killing them.

In addition, the researchers found that clays with antibacterial activity tend to be more acidic, thereby creating an environment more hostile to bacteria. This is particularly significant, since chronic, non-healing wounds tend to have a higher pH (i.e., less acidity and more alkalinity) than healthy skin. This same principle is used in many current wound treatments, such as acidified nitrate.

"Antibacterial clays can buffer wounds to a low [more acidic] pH," Williams said. "The clays may shift the wound environment to a pH range that favors healing, while killing invading bacteria."

Clays extracted from the Crater Lake region have also shown antibacterial activity against superbugs including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-resistant E. coli (ESBL).

"To date," Williams said, "the most effective antibacterial clays are those from the Oregon deposit."

Even in the Oregon deposit, not all clays were equally potent. Apparently, the geologic history (and thus chemical composition) of the clays plays a key role. The researchers found that two blue clays from the deposit were very effective against E. coli and S. epidermidis, while a white clay was 56 percent effective against E. coli and 29 percent effective against S. epidermidis. A red clay had no effect.

Sources for this article include:





Debunking the Absurd Notion of Vitamin D in Mushrooms

Debunking the Absurd Notion of Vitamin D in Mushrooms

Sunday, July 27, 2014

New Science Destroys the Saturated Fat Myth

July 27, 2014 | 179,788 views











By Dr. Mercola
The nutritional myth that saturated fat is bad for you continues to fall apart as a steady stream of new books and studies on this topic hit the media. The latest work to challenge the old dogma is a book called The Big Fat Surprise by journalist Nina Teicholz, interviewed above.
Her book comes alongside new research that raises questions about the long-held but false belief that cardiovascular disease is related to fat and cholesterol intake.
Teicholz points out the flaws in the original Ancel Keys study; how saturated fat has been a healthy human staple for thousands of years, and how the low-fat craze has resulted in excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates, which has resulted in increased inflammation and disease.1 Teicholz tells the Wall Street Journal:2
"There has never been solid evidence for the idea that these [saturated] fats cause disease. We only believe this to be the case because nutrition policy has been derailed over the past half-century by a mixture of personal ambition, bad science, politics, and bias."
Are We Seeing the Cholesterol Myth in a Scientific Free-Fall?
The cholesterol myth has suffered a bit of a triple whammy of late, making it harder and harder for heart specialists to uphold the company line. This information is just the latest in a long line of science disproving the need for the saturated fat phobia.
  1. In 2012, researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology examined the health and lifestyle habits of more than 52,000 adults ages 20 to 74, concluding that women with "high cholesterol" (greater than 270 mg/dl) had a 28 percent lower mortality risk than women with "low cholesterol" (less than 183 mg/dl).
  2. Researchers also found that, if you're a woman, your risk for heart disease, cardiac arrest, and stroke are higher with lower cholesterol levels.3
  3. In 2013, a prominent London cardiologist by the name of Aseem Malhotra argued in the British Medical Journal that you should ignore advice to reduce your saturated fat intake, because it's actually increasing your risk for obesity and heart disease.4
  4. Then in March 2014, a new meta-analysis published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, using data from nearly 80 studies and more than a half million people, found that those who consume higher amounts of saturated fat have no more heart disease than those who consume less.
  5. They also did not find less heart disease among those eating higher amounts of unsaturated fat, including both olive oil and corn oil.5, 6
Fat Has Been Blamed for Sugar's Evil Deeds
What do these journalists and scientists know that your physician might not? Going back forty years or more, fat has been misidentified as the culprit behind heart disease, when all along it's been sugar.
A high-sugar diet raises your risk for heart disease by promoting metabolic syndrome—a cluster of health conditions that includes high blood pressure, insulin and leptin resistance, high triglycerides, liver dysfunction, and visceral fat accumulation.
Insulin and leptin resistance is caused by factors inherent in our modern lifestyle, including diets heavy in processed carbohydrates, sugars/fructose, refined flours, and industrial seed oils.
Making matters worse, the average American gets inadequate exercise, suffers from chronic stress and sleep deprivation, is exposed to environmental toxins, and has poor gut health (dysbiosis). This is the perfect storm for chronic disease.



Cholesterol Is Not Only Beneficial for Your Body—It's Absolutely Mandatory
About 800,000 Americans die from cardiovascular disease annually. A quarter of these deaths could be prevented through simple lifestyle changes such as maintaining a healthy weight, exercising, and managing insulin and leptin levels.
By reducing your cholesterol, you may actually be increasing your risk for cardiovascular disease. Your body needs adequate cholesterol to perform a number of critical functions, and there is strong evidence that people have a higher risk for heart attacks by having their cholesterol levels driven too low, as is being done by drugs like statins.
Cholesterol plays important roles such as building your cell membranes, interacting with proteins inside your cells, and helping regulate protein pathways required for cell signaling. Having too little cholesterol may negatively impact your brain health, hormone levels, heart disease risk, and more. Therefore, placing an upper limit on dietary cholesterol, especially such a LOW upper limit as is now recommended, is likely causing far more harm than good.
The Truth About Saturated Fats
Just as your body has requirements for cholesterol, it also needs saturated fats for proper function. One way to understand this is to consider what foods humans consumed during their evolution. Many experts believe that since the Paleolithic Era, we evolved as hunter-gatherers. Paleolithic nutrition states that we have eaten animal products for most of our existence on Earth. To suggest that saturated fats are suddenly harmful to us makes no sense, especially from an evolutionary perspective.
As recently as 2010, the current recommendations from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) call for reducing your saturated fat intake to a mere 10 percent of your total calories or less. This is astounding, and quite the opposite of what most people require for optimal health! The latest science suggests healthy fats (saturated and unsaturated fats from whole food, animal, and plant sources) should comprise anywhere from 50 to 85 percent of your overall energy intake. Saturated fats provide a number of important health benefits, including the following:
Providing building blocks for cell membranes, hormones, and hormone-like substances
Mineral absorption, such as calcium
Carriers for important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K
Conversion of carotene into vitamin A
Helping to lower cholesterol levels (palmitic and stearic acids)
Acts as antiviral agent (caprylic acid)
Optimal fuel for your brain
Provides satiety
Modulates genetic regulation and helps prevent cancer (butyric acid)
Seven Good Tests for Assessing Cardiac Risk


The best indicators for heart disease risk are outlined in the table that follows. Be aware that these same indicators have also been found to be fairly accurate in predicting your dementia risk.
1. HDL/total cholesterol ratio: HDL percentage is a very important heart disease risk factor. Just divide your HDL level by your total cholesterol. This percentage should ideally be above 24 percent. Below 10 percent, it's a significant indicator of heart disease risk.
2. Triglyceride/HDL ratios: Divide your triglyceride number by your HDL. This ratio should ideally be below 2.
3. NMR lipoprofile: Possibly the most powerful test for evaluating heart disease risk, this test determines your proportion of smaller, more damaging LDL particles. Small LDL particles get stuck easily, cause more inflammation, and are tied to insulin and leptin resistance. This test is not typically ordered, so you might need to request it from your physician or order it yourself through a third-party. (For more information on the NMR Lipoprofile, please watch my interview with Chris Kresser, above.)
4. Fasting insulin: A normal fasting blood insulin level is below 5, but ideally, you'll want it below 3. If your insulin level is higher than 5, the most effective way to optimize it is to reduce or eliminate all forms of dietary sugar, particularly fructose, and processed grains.
5. Fasting blood glucose: Studies have shown that people with a fasting blood glucose of 100-125 mg/dl had nearly three times the risk of coronary artery disease of people with a blood glucose below 79 mg/dl.
6. Waist-to-hip ratio: Visceral fat, the type of fat that collects around your internal organs, is a well-recognized risk factor for heart disease. The simplest way to evaluate your risk here is by simply measuring your waist-to-hip ratio. (For further instructions, please see the link to my previous article.)
7. Iron level: Excess iron can exert very potent oxidative stress, so if you have excess iron in your blood, you can damage your blood vessels and increase your risk of heart disease. Ideally, you should monitor your serum ferritin level and make sure it is below 80 ng/ml. The simplest ways to eliminate excess iron are blood donation and therapeutic phlebotomy.
What REALLY Constitutes a Heart-Healthy Diet?
The following table outlines my version of a "heart-healthy diet," which minimizes inflammation, reduces insulin resistance, and helps you reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease. If you want further details, I suggest reviewing my Optimized Nutrition Plan, which will guide you through dietary changes in a step-by-step fashion, moving from beginner to intermediate to advanced.
1. Limit or eliminate all processed foods
2. Eliminate all gluten and highly allergenic foods from your diet
3. Eat organic foods whenever possible to avoid exposure to harmful agricultural chemicals, such as glyphosate
4. Avoid genetically modified ingredients (GMO), which wreak biological chaos on a cellular level and are linked to abundant health problems, including chronic inflammation and heart disease
5. Eat at least one-third of your food uncooked (raw), or as much as you can manage; avoid cooking foods at high temperatures
6. Increase the amount of fresh vegetables in your diet, locally grown and organic if possible
7. Eat naturally fermented foods, which help optimize your gut bacteria and prevent inflammation-causing superantigens from pathogenic bacteria, as well as providing valuable vitamin K2, B vitamins, and other nutrients
8. Avoid all artificial sweeteners.
9. Limit fructose to less than 25 grams per day from all sources, including whole fruits. If you have insulin resistance, diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease, you'd be well advised to keep your fructose consumption below 15 grams per day until your insulin resistance  has normalized
10. Swap all trans fats (vegetable oils, margarine etc.) for healthy fats like avocado, raw butter, cheese, and coconut oil; avoid consuming oxidized cholesterol (cholesterol that has gone rancid, such as that from overcooked scrambled eggs)
11. To rebalance your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, take a high-quality animal-based omega-3 supplement, such as krill oil, and reduce your consumption of processed omega-6 fats from vegetable oils
12. Drink plenty of pure water every day
Five Other Heart-Healthy Moves
In addition to following the heart-healthy plan discussed above, there are several more strategies that can be profoundly helpful in reducing chronic inflammation and thereby lowering your cardiovascular risk:
  1. Exercise regularly. One of the primary benefits of exercise is that it helps normalize and maintain healthy insulin and leptin levels. Exercise also boosts HDL, increases your growth hormone production, helps curb your appetite, and improves your mood and sleep.
  2. Intermittent fasting. Fasting is an excellent way to "reboot" your metabolism so that your body can relearn how to burn fat as its primary fuel, which helps you shed those excess fat stores. Intermittent fasting has a far greater retention and compliance rate compared to conventional all-day fasting regimens. Another version is alternate-day fasting.
  3. Grounding yourself to the earth. When you walk barefoot, free electrons are transferred from the earth into your body, and electrons are some of the most potent antioxidants known. Grounding (also called Earthing) helps alleviate inflammation, as well as thinning your blood and causing your red blood cells to repel each other, making them less likely to clot.
  4. AVOID statin drugs. Statin drugs can reduce your cholesterol to dangerously low levels, while doing nothing tomodulate LDL particle size. Statin drugs may even accelerate heart disease. A 2012 study showed that statin use is associated with a 52 percent higher prevalence of calcified coronary plaque compared to those not taking them.7 And coronary artery calcification is the hallmark of potentially lethal heart disease. Antidepressants have also been associated with heart disease.
  5. AVOID chemicals whenever possible. BPA, for example, has been linked to heart disease: adults with the highest levels of BPA in their urine are more than twice as likely to develop coronary artery disease as those with the lowest levels.


New Science Destroys the Saturated Fat Myth

New Science Destroys the Saturated Fat Myth

Oatmeal

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Friday, July 25, 2014

Type 2 diabetes The Diagnosis that Could Mean Cognitive Decline


The Diagnosis that Could Mean Cognitive Decline
One of the most important concepts described in Grain Brain focuses on the fundamental role of elevated blood sugar as it relates to brain degeneration. We explored in-depth, scientific literature that demonstrates a significant increased risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease or dementia if a person carries a diagnosis of type II diabetes. This relationship was amplified recently by a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that demonstrated significantly increased risk for cognitive decline with mild elevations of blood sugar, well below levels that would indicate diabetes.
In a recent report, published in Clinical Interventions in Aging, Japanese researchers again solidified our knowledge base about the relationship between diabetes and cognitive decline. The report, “Type II Diabetes as a Risk Factor for  Cognitive Impairment: Current Insights“, focuses on not only statistics relating diabetes to cognitive decline, but also the mechanisms by which that happens.
The researchers describe a variety of factors relating type II diabetes to brain dysfunction including impaired neurogenesis which is the process by which we are able to grow new brain cells, specifically in the brains memory center, hippocampus. This is compromised in diabetes.
Blood brain barrier dysfunction is also noted to occur in diabetes. This sets the stage for entry of otherwise excluded proteins and even bacteria into the brain leading to nerve cell damage.
Diabetes is known to enhance inflammation, and inflammation is indeed a cornerstone of Alzheimer’s type dementia.
Hyperglycemia, describes an elevation of blood sugar, which has direct and toxic effects of brain cells, but also indirectly leads to damage by increasing both inflammation as well as free radical activity through the process of protein glycation, meaning proteins binding to sugar.
Insulin resistance also is associated obviously with type II diabetes. Insulin plays an important role as a trophic hormone in the brain meaning important for health and vitality of brain cells. And when the brain becomes insulin resistant with type II diabetes the function of insulin is compromised.
Finally, it is well known that diabetes is associated with compromise of vascular function, throughout the body, and particularly in the brain. Vascular issues are associated with cognitive decline.
So again, a central theme of Grain Brain is to prevent becoming a diabetic at all cost. That means the diet should be one that is exquisitely low in sugar as well as carbohydrates. We emphasize physical activity, and eating a diet high in fiber based upon above ground vegetables.
These lifestyle recommendations fundamentally focus on regulation of blood sugar which this report clearly supports as playing a critical role in brain preservation.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

How the Bates Method Can Help You Retrain Your Eyes

How the Bates Method Can Help You Retrain Your Eyes

6 Things You Didn't Know About Watermelon

July 21, 2014 | 97,796 views




By Dr. Mercola
In the US, July is National Watermelon Month, so named not only because a cool, refreshing slice of watermelon represents the epitome of summer, but also because watermelon harvests peak this month.1
Watermelon is now the most-consumed melon in the US (followed by cantaloupe and honeydew). This cousin to cucumbers, pumpkins, and squash is thought to have originated in Egypt close to 5,000 years ago, where it is depicted in hieroglyphics.
Today, upwards of 300 watermelon varieties are grown in the US and Mexico (although only about 50 are popular).2 You may think you know everything there is to know about this summertime fruit, but allow me to surprise you… watermelon is more than just delicious… it’s a super-healthy addition to your diet (in moderation, of course).
You just need to be careful when eating any melon, including watermelon to follow the advice of Wayne Pickering in my interview. Eat melon alone or leave it alone because it will make your stomach groan. So ideally, no food 30 minutes before or after eating melons.
6 Watermelon Facts That Might Surprise You
1. Watermelon Has More Lycopene Than Raw Tomatoes
Lycopene is a powerful carotenoid antioxidant that gives fruits and vegetables a pink or red color. It’s most often associated with tomatoes, but watermelon is actually a more concentrated source.
Compared to a large fresh tomato, one cup of watermelon has 1.5 times the lycopene (6 milligrams (mg) in watermelon compared to 4 mg in a tomato).3 More on why lycopene is so important shortly…
2. Watermelon Juice May Relieve Muscle Soreness
If you have a juicer, try juicing about one-third of a fresh watermelon and drinking its juice prior to your next workout. This contains a little over one gram of l-citrulline, an amino acid that seems to protect against muscle pain.
One study found that men who drank natural unpasteurized watermelon juice prior to their workouts had reduced muscle soreness 24 hours later compared to those who drank a placebo.4
You do need to be careful with drinking watermelon juice, though, as it contains a significant amount of fructose. It may be better to eat the entire fruit, or opt for these other tips to prevent muscle soreness.
3. Watermelon Is a Fruit and a Vegetable
Remember how watermelon is related to cucumbers, pumpkin, and squash? That’s because it’s part vegetable and part fruit (it’s a sweet, seed-producing plant, after all).5 The other clue that watermelon is both fruit and vegetable? The rind is entirely edible…
4. You Can Eat Watermelon Rind and Seeds
Most people throw away the watermelon rind, but try putting it in a blender with some lime for a healthy, refreshing treat.6 Not only does the rind contain plenty of health-promoting and blood-building chlorophyll, but the rind actually contains more of the amino acid citrulline than the pink flesh.7 
Citrulline is converted to arginine in your kidneys, and not only is this amino acid important for heart health and maintaining your immune system, but it has been researched to have potential therapeutic value in over 100 health conditions.8
While many people prefer seedless watermelon varieties, black watermelon seeds are edible and actually quite healthy. They contain iron, zinc, protein, and fiber. (In case you were wondering, seedless watermelons aren’t genetically modified, as they’re the result of hybridization.9)
5. It’s Mostly Water
This might not be surprising, but it’s still a fun fact; watermelon is more than 91 percent water.10 This means that eating watermelon with you on a hot summer day is a tasty way to help you stay hydrated and avoid dehydration (it’s not a substitute for drinking plenty of fresh water, however).
6. Some Watermelon Are Yellow
The Yellow Crimson watermelon has yellow flesh with a sweeter, honey flavor than the more popular pink-fleshed Crimson Sweet. It’s likely that yellow watermelon offers its own unique set of nutritional benefits, but most research to date has focused on the pink-fleshed varieties.11
Lycopene: Watermelon’s Nutritional Claim to Fame
Watermelon is an excellent source of lycopene, with upwards of 6,500 micrograms (6.5 mg) in less than half a cup (the red-fleshed varieties will contain significantly more lycopene than yellow-fleshed watermelon).
Also noteworthy, the lycopene in watermelon appears to be quite stable, with little deterioration occurring even after it’s been cut and stored in the refrigerator for more than two days. In one study, it took about seven days of storage for the lycopene to deteriorate, and then it was only by about 6 percent to 11 percent.12
So what makes lycopene so important? Lycopene's antioxidant activity has long been suggested to be more powerful than that of other carotenoids, such as beta-carotene. In one study, after controlling for other stroke risk factors, such as older age and diabetes, they found that men with the highest blood levels of lycopene were 55 percent less likely to have a stroke than those with the lowest.13
A 2014 meta-analysis also revealed that lycopene decreased stroke risk (including stroke occurrence or mortality) by more than 19 percent.14 In addition to lowering your risk of stroke, lycopene has been shown to have potential anti-cancer activity, likely due to its potent antioxidant properties.
A 2014 meta-analysis of 10 studies also showed that dietary lycopene may protect against the risk of ovarian cancer among postmenopausal women.15 There is also some evidence from animal studies that lycopene may help with cancer treatment as well.
One study found that lycopene treatment reduced the growth of brain tumors while another showed frequent lycopene intake suppressed breast tumor growth in mice.16
Watermelon Extract May Significantly Reduce Blood Pressure
New research also highlights the role of watermelon nutrients on heart attack prevention, via a significant reduction in blood pressure. Obese study participants who received citrulline and arginine supplements derived from watermelon extract had significant improvements in blood pressure and cardiac stress, both while at rest and undergoing a stressful cold-water test.17 According to the researchers:
“Watermelon supplementation reduced aortic BP [blood pressure] and myocardial oxygen demand during CPT [cold pressor test] and the magnitude of the cold-induced increase in wave reflection in obese adults with hypertension. Watermelon may provide cardioprotection by attenuating cold-induced aortic hemodynamic responses.”
Remember, in your body the citrulline in watermelon is converted into L-arginine, which is a precursor to nitric oxide. Adequate nitric oxide is required to enable you blood vessels to stay relaxed and open for blood flow, which is one reason why it may help lower blood pressure.
Watermelon for Inflammation, Sexual Health, and More
L-arginine may also help with erectile dysfunction by helping to relax your blood vessels, including those supplying blood to your penis – and that’s why watermelon is sometimes referred to as “Nature’s Viagra.” In fact, citrulline supplementation has been found to improve erection hardness in men with mild erectile dysfunction.18
What else is watermelon good for? It’s rich in anti-inflammatory substances. For instance, watermelon contains the anti-inflammatory antioxidant lycopene as well as cucurbitacin E, or tripterpenoid, which reduces the activity of the pain and inflammation-causing enzyme cyclooxygenase – the same enzyme blocked by COX-2 inhibitors, which include most NSAIDs like aspirin and ibuprofen. While being very low in calories (about 46 calories in a cup), watermelon also contains an impressive variety of other important nutrients in which many Americans are lacking, including:
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin B6
  • Potassium
  • Vitamin A
  • Magnesium
How to Pick the Perfect Watermelon



Cutting into a watermelon and finding out it lacks flavor is disappointing. There’s a trick you can use to pick out a ripe watermelon, either from your farmer’s market or your own melon patch. Look for a pale, buttery-yellow spot (not white or green) on the bottom. This is where the watermelon sits on the ground ripening, and it’s one of the best indicators of ripeness you can use (even commercial watermelon pickers use this as a gauge).19 Other tricks for picking a ripe watermelon include:
  • Should be heavy for its size
  • Smooth rind with a dull top (the top is the side opposite the ground spot)
  • The thump test (this is controversial, but ripe watermelon is said to have a hollow bass sound)
Store your watermelon in a cool area (50-60 degrees F) until it’s cut. Cut watermelon should be refrigerated (and be sure to wipe off your watermelon with a damp cloth prior to cutting it). Remember, try the rind blended with some lime juice rather than simply tossing it in the trash (choose an organic watermelon especially if you’ll be eating the rind). Finally, watermelon should be enjoyed in moderation due to its fructose content. One-sixteenth of a medium watermelon contains 11.3 grams of fructose (I recommend keeping your total fructose intake below 25 grams of fructose per day if you're in good health, and below 15 grams a day if you’re overweight or have high blood pressure or diabetes).

Guys: Your Cellphone Is Hurting Your Sperm

Guys: Your Cellphone Is Hurting Your Sperm

Raw Milk versus Pasteurized—Which Is Safer?

July 22, 2014 | 110,733 views









By Dr. Mercola
The United States lags far behind many other nations when it comes to food safety and nutritional recommendations, and this is perhaps particularly true when it comes to raw milk.
The fact is, large dairy farmers operating under the factory farm model simply cannot produce raw milk safe for human consumption.
They're too large, and therefore end up being hotbeds for pathogenic contamination. They also cannot provide enough open pasture for tens of thousands of cows to continually graze on.
Cleanliness and pasture are critical parameters for producing healthy milk fit for raw consumption. So really, the war on raw milk boils down to control—controlling the competition, which is selling a superior product. It's NOT an issue of safety at all.
In fact, several studies have demonstrated the superior safety of raw milk compared to pasteurized, yet the vilification of raw milk continues unabated—science and statistics be damned...
Europeans Can Buy Raw Milk from Vending Machines
In sharp contrast to the US, some European nations sell raw milk in vending machines! And contrary to popular (American) belief, the bodies are NOT piling up as a result. As reported by Modern Farmer:1
"Europe's embrace of raw milk vending machines isn't new. Such daring dispensers of unpasteurized dairy can be found in France, Croatia, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and, as one map2 shows, all over the place in Italy."
The safety measures are remarkably simple. If the temperature of the milk rises above the regulated level, the machine will stop dispensing milk, and the farmer is notified via text message. The milk spout is sterilized by a UV light between each purchase.
In the US, several states have outright banned the sale of raw milk for fear of contaminated milk despite the fact that, statistically, such fears are completely and udderly unfounded (pun intended).
Research by Dr. Ted Beals, MD,3 featured in the summer 2011 issue of Wise Traditions, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, shows that you are actually about 35,000 times more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk!
Pasteurized Dairy and Processed Foods Top the List of 'Most Dangerous'
The vast majority of foodborne illnesses in the US are linked to factory farmed and highly processed foods, not raw foods. For example, late last year, Chobani Greek yogurt was recalled following reports of gastrointestinal illness.4 The yogurt, which is pasteurized and not raw, was found to be contaminated with a fungus called Murcor circinelloides.
In 2011, Cargill recalled a whopping 36 million pounds of ground turkey.5 An antibiotic-resistant strain of Salmonella in the meat ended up causing 107 illnesses and one death.
An investigation revealed that this strain of Salmonella had been found four times over the course of one year, yet the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), took no action against the producer. And, from the time the first illness was reported and the recall took effect, five months passed, allowing over a hundred more people to become ill from the contaminated meat.
A major part of the problem is that, despite being in charge of food safety oversight of meat and poultry, the USDA does not have the authority to take action against a meat or poultry producer—even if the permissible limits of pathogenic contamination are repeatedly exceeded.
Clearly, this does not bode well for food safety. As explained in a previous Food Safety News article discussing this case:6
"For example, take ground turkey. When USDA tests for Salmonella, they take individual 1-pound samples on 52 consecutive days of production. Sometimes it takes a year to complete a set — and the establishment gets a heads up that a sample is going to be taken!
In addition, if 26 or fewer are positive, the sample set passes. If more than 26 are positive, the sample set fails.
Basically, these are like open book exams — not pop quizzes — where a 50 percent is still passing! And even when a sample set fails, USDA does another set of testing. And they keep doing testing until a set passes."
What this means is that if 50 percent of the samples are contaminated with disease-causing bacteria, it's deemed "safe." But if it hits 51 percent, it's tagged as "unsafe." And testing simply continues until illness is reported. What sense does this make?
Yet anytime the lack of food safety is discussed, the focus is suddenly turned to raw milk! It's almost as though US agencies are using raw milk as a scapegoat to keep you from looking at the real problem, which is that factory farms produce inherently unsafe foods. It's like a propaganda machine sleight of hand maneuver...
CDC Stance on Raw Milk—As Biased as It Gets
Mark McAfee, CEO of Organic Pastures Dairy and an internationally recognized expert in raw milk production and safety, has on numerous occasions tried to set the record straight with US authorities, to no avail. In a 2012 letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), he writes:7
"As a grade A producer of retailed-approved raw milk in California, I find your raw milk page filled with highly erroneous and very misleading information... In California, we have legal retail-approved raw milk in 400 stores consumed by 75,000 consumers each week. This retail legal raw milk is tested and state inspected and far exceeds pasteurized milk product standards without any heat or processing.
It is clean raw milk from a single source dairy. There have been no deaths from raw milk in California in 37 years. Two years ago, I submitted a FOIA request to the CDC to request data on the two deaths that the CDC database claims were from raw milk. The data I received back from the CDC showed that in fact there had been no death from raw milk at all.
The two deaths had been from illegal Mexican bath tub cheese and not raw milk from any place in America. Why does the CDC persist in publishing this erroneous information? ...The last people to die from milk died from pasteurized milk at Whittier farms in 2007, not from raw milk."
While both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the CDC warn that raw milk can carry disease-causing bacteria, they completely overlook the fact that these bacteria are the result of industrial farming practices that lead to diseased animals, which may then in turn produce contaminated milk.
They make no distinction whatsoever between disease-riddled factory farmed milk and the milk from clean, healthy, grass-fed cows. This is indeed a key issue, as raw milk from a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) IS dangerous and must be pasteurized in order to be fit to drink, whereas raw milk from cows raised on pasture IS NOT dangerous and DOES NOT need pasteurization. The source of the milk makes all the difference when it comes to raw milk.
What the CDC Doesn't Tell You About Raw Milk Is Worth Knowing...
The CDC also fails to inform visitors in its website that legal raw milk producers oftentimes adhere to stricter safety standards than CAFOs do. California, specifically, has its own special set of standards for raw milk for human consumption, in which farmers must meet or exceed pasteurized milk standards, without pasteurizing.
Instead of giving you the facts, the CDC lists raw milk as one of the riskiest foods in America, without any real proof to back up such a proclamation. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has even called for a complete ban on raw milk because it is so "dangerous." But on what do they base their assumptions? On the CDC's unproven opinion? If safety was truly the issue, then pasteurized dairy would be banned, as that's what's causing the most disease.
So you've got to ask yourself, is this really about our personal safety or the safety of the milk industry? Eating directly from the farm is prohibited by industry so they can control our food supply. They make it very difficult for farmers to sell directly to us, whether dairy products or meat products. They claim this is done for our safety, but it's really just a plot to control our food system.
"The FDA does not mention raw milk on their top 10 most risky foods in America list," McAfee notes. "Pasteurized ice cream and pasteurized cheeses make the top 10 risky foods list... According to the Cornell study performed on CDC data, there were 1,100 illnesses caused by raw milk between 1973 and 2009. There were 422,000 illnesses caused by pasteurized milk. No deaths from raw milk and at least 50 deaths from pasteurized milk or pasteurized cheese—the CDC left out the 29 or more people that died from the pasteurized Jalisco cheese listeria incident in 1985."
Raw Milk Has Many Health Benefits
The CDC, as McAfee notes, is absolutely riddled with bias. While most of it is obvious, some of the bias is hidden by the way the CDC counts its statistics. For example, it counts outbreaks rather than the number of people affected by the outbreak. In one outbreak caused by pasteurized milk, 200,000 people fell ill! Yet it's only counted as one incident. Its website also makes no mention whatsoever to studies showing how raw organic milk differs, nutritionally, from CAFO milk, and how it improves health. For example, raw milk is:
Loaded with healthy bacteria that are good for your gastrointestinal tract
High in omega-3 and low omega-6, which is the beneficial ratio between these two essential fats
Full of more than 60 digestive enzymes, growth factors, and immunoglobulins (antibodies). These enzymes are destroyed during pasteurization, making pasteurized milk much harder to digest
Loaded with vitamins (A, B, C, D, E, and K) in highly bioavailable forms, and a very balanced blend of minerals (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and iron) whose absorption is enhanced by live Lactobacilli
Rich in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which fights cancer and boosts metabolism
Rich in healthy unoxidized cholesterol
Rich in beneficial raw fats, amino acids, and proteins in a highly bioavailable form, all 100 percent digestible
It also contains phosphatase, an enzyme that aids and assists in the absorption of calcium in your bones, and lipase enzyme, which helps to hydrolyze and absorb fats

Pasteurizing milk, on the other hand, destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamins, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamin B12 and vitamin B6, kills beneficial bacteria, and actually promotes pathogens.
Max Kane's Self-Healing Is a Testament to the Power of Raw Dairy
In the video above, I interview Max Kane, a local raw dairy farmer from whom our office purchases a variety of raw dairy products from. Max was diagnosed with Crohn's disease at the age of 10. Through years of study, he eventually healed himself through nutrition and lifestyle changes. He now consumes only 100 percent raw, 100 percent organic, and 100 percent pasture-raised dairy products. Raw dairy makes up about 50 percent of his diet.
"The cream is perhaps the most important part of the milk because the cream is where all the energy is that's needed to digest the milk protein casein," he explains. "That's why it's important to consume full-fat dairy products instead of non-fat or skim dairy products. The cream is also responsible for regulating the sugar absorption into your blood. It decreases the likelihood of insulin spikes. The cream naturally floats to the top of the milk, and it can be skimmed right off the top. Traditionally, people would use the cream line as a visual aid to help them assess the quality of the milk...
Homogenization [is] an industry process that fractionates the cream molecule, the fat molecule, into small little pieces. This was done for the purpose of making the cream line non-detectable to the human eye... That's how they standardized the milk, by taking away the viewable quality assessment from the consumer, and ultimately left the consumer with no real visual way to assess the quality and the value of the milk."
The quality of grass-fed milk, butter, and yogurt can easily be ascertained by its color. The carotenoids in the plants cows eat on pasture gives grass-fed products a more yellow-orange cast. When cows are raised on dried grass or hay, opposed to fresh-growing grass, you end up with a whiter product, which is an indication of reduced carotenoid and antioxidant content. Raw milk yogurt is also very thick and creamy, compared to pasteurized commercial varieties. The same goes for pastured eggs, which can be ascertained by their deep orange yolk. CAFO chickens, which never go outdoors, and are fed grains rather than bugs and insects, produce eggs with pale yellow yolks.
ABOUT Max Kane - Max Kane was diagnosed with Crohn's disease at the age of 10, and through years of study, healed himself through nutrition and lifestyle changes. 100% of his dairy products and over 50% of his other foods are purchased directly from farms. When it comes to dairy, he only consumes 100% raw, 100% organic, 100% grass-fed. Dairy makes up about 50% of his diet. After realizing the healing power of fresh farm foods, Kane teamed up with Amagisoft to create FarmMatch.com.
ABOUT FarmMatch -- It's free to create an account, but no account is required to use the system.
FarmMatch is built over the Google mapping system and makes local food searchable worldwide, making it easy to find a local farmer. Not only are specific farm products searchable, but products are searchable by quality standards as well… 100% grass-fed, non-GMO, etc. You can connect with farmers and buy online as well. The order management system is consumer funded. Buyers pay a $2.95 fee when placing an order or can opt into a $3.95/month plan that allows unlimited ordering with no $2.95 fees. Through these small affordable consumer fees, FarmMatch delivers a state-of-the-art software suit to every small scale farmer at no charge to the farmer. The FarmMatch business model not only helps individual small farmers, but it also lifts the entire local food movement as a whole.
Join the Fight for Food Freedom
The fight over raw milk stands as a symbol of the much larger fight for food freedom. Who gets to decide what you eat? You? Or the FDA? If the FDA and other government agencies are allowed to impose their view of "safe food" on consumers, raw milk won't be the only thing lost—all food will be pasteurized, irradiated, and genetically engineered. The effort to reclaim our right to buy and consume raw milk is leading the way for everyone who wants to be able to obtain the food of their choice from the source of their choice. So please, get involved! I urge you to get involved with the following action plan to protect your right to choose your own foods:
  1. Get informed: Visit www.farmtoconsumer.org or click here to sign up for action alerts. To review the raw milk laws in your state, see the Farm-to-Consumer.org's Raw Milk Nation page.
  2. Join the fight for your rights: The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) is the only organization of its kind. This 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization provides a legal defense for farmers who are being pursued by the government for distributing foods directly to consumers. Your donations, although not tax deductible, will be used to support the litigation, legislative, and lobbying efforts of the FTCLDF.
  3. Support your local farmers: Getting your raw milk from a local organic farm or co-op is one of the best ways to ensure you're getting high-quality milk. You can locate a raw milk source near you at the Campaign for Real Milk Website. California residents can find raw milk retailers by using the store locator available at www.OrganicPastures.com.


Monday, July 21, 2014

Wille Nelson - Rare Video Recording (1962)

Willie Nelson & Lily Meola - Will You Remember Mine (Live at Farm Aid 2013)

10 Medicinal Ginger Health Benefits



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Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is surprisingly the most widely used dietary condiment in the world today. It’s actually part of the plant family that includes turmeric and cardamom, which may explain why the health benefits of ginger are so extraordinary.

The Chinese and Indians have been using ginger tonics to treat ailments for over 4,700 years and it was a priceless commodity during the Roman Empire trade around the coming of Christ because of its medicinal properties.
So, what makes ginger so good for us?
In one word: Gingerol.
Of the 115 different chemical components found in ginger root, the therapeutic benefits come from gingerols, the oily resin from the root that acts as a highly potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent. These bioactive ingredients, especially [6]-gingerol have been thoroughly evaluated clinically and the research backs up why you should be using ginger on a regular basis.
Top 10 Ginger Health Benefits 
Here are the top ginger health benefits proven by medical studies:
1.     Stroke and Heart Disease
Two of the biggest killers on the planet may be kept at bay with regular ginger use; especially when it is eaten with other key Superfood. Garlic, ginger and onions all have an anti-blood clotting ability, yet when they are eaten together they are a powerful mainstay against heart attacks and stroke!
2.     Indigestion and Nausea
Whether we’re talking about curing a simple tummy ache or severe morning sickness, ginger has been used for thousands of years as an effective digestive aid. Recently, Taiwanese researchers discovered that 3 capsules (1.2 g total) of ginger can actually help the stomach release its contents into the small intestines in people with dyspepsia – a condition where 40% of patients suffer from abnormally delayed gastric emptying.
This is one reason why ginger helps people who are bloated, constipated, and with other gastrointestinal disorders. It relaxes the smooth muscle in your gut lining and basically helps the food move along throughout the system.
Key Takeaway: Eating whole ginger, drinking fresh ginger juice and inhaling diffused ginger essential oil are all highly effective ways to curb stomach disorders.
3.     Malabsorption
Proper food transport (and nutrient absorption) from the mouth out through your colon is the mainstay to health. If food gets stuck somewhere in between, it can ferment, rot or (even worse) cause obstruction, which is a life-threatening emergency.
Improper digestion can also cause improper assimilation of the nutrients in your food. Either way, both cause malabsorption and your body will suffer from a nutrient deficiencies. This is why ginger is so important. Like we’ve seen above, it helps promote regular digestion and metabolism of your food and is largely responsible for promoting a strong immune system.
4.     Compromised Immunity & Respiratory Function
Ayurvedic medicine has praised ginger’s ability to boost the immune system before recorded history. It believes that because ginger is so effective at warming the body, it can help to break down the accumulation of toxins in your organs. It is also known to cleanse the lymphatic system, our body’s sewage system.
Dr. Oz says that, “By opening up these lymphatic channels and keeping things clean, ginger prevents the accumulation of the toxins that make you susceptible to infections, especially in the respiratory system.”  Combining ginger oil and eucalyptus oil is an effective remedy to boost immunity and improve breathing.
5.     Bacterial Infections
The Journal of Microbiology and Antimicrobials published a study in 2011 that tested just how effective ginger can be in enhancing immune function. Comparing the ability of ginger to kill Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes with conventional antibiotics, Nigerian researchers discovered that the natural solution won every time!
The drugs, (chloramphenicol, ampicillin and tetracycline) just couldn’t stand up to the antibacterial prowess of the ginger extract. This is important because these two bacteria are extremely common in hospitals and oftentimes cause complications to an already immune-compromised patient.
Key Takeaway: if you ever need to go to the hospital for surgery or to visit a friend, make sure you bring some ginger essential oil with you and add a couple drops to your water. You’re less likely to get a dangerous staph infection and it can help speed the healing process! Other healing remedies that are effective against infections include oregano, clove and melaleuca oil.
6.     Fungal Infections
One of the trickier issues to control because they are increasingly becoming resistant to conventional medicine, fungal infections don’t stand a chance against ginger. Of the 29 plant species evaluated in a Carleton University study, ginger won the prize for having the extract most effective at killing fungus.
Key Takeaway: For a powerful anti-fungal punch, mix several drops of pure ginger essential oil with tea tree oil with 1 tsp of coconut oil and apply up to 3 times a day.
7.     Ulcers and GERD
Since the 1980s, researchers have known that ginger can cure stomach ulcers. More recently, Indian scientists have been able to more closely quantify this medicinal effect. In a study published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, they discovered the ginger was 6 – 8 times more potent than Prevacid, the drug of choice to treat GERD!
8.     Pain
Ginger is becoming known for its anti-pain property. Very similar to how capsaicin works to relieve pain, gingerol acts on vanilloid receptors, which are located on sensory nerve endings. Similar to the initial intense burning feel you get when you consume spicy pepper, ginger’s burn only lasts but a second and researchers have discovered that it “affects the pain pathways directly but also relieves the inflammation which in itself causes pain.”
9.     Cancer
Working with mice without an immune system, University of Minnesota scientists discovered that three weekly feedings of [6]-gingerol delayed the growth of colorectal cancer cells. University of Michigan researcher confirmed these results with ovarian cancer. In fact, they found that, “Ginger treatment of cultured ovarian cancer cells induced profound growth inhibition in all cell lines tested.”
Key Takeaway: Executive Director of the Herbal Medicine Research and Education Centre Basil Roufogalis advised that, “The most likely way to administer ginger as a painkiller would be in the form of a tea taken several times a day, but more work needs to be done on the amount of ginger powder needed per dose to take effect, and the time required between doses.”  For most people, taking 1,000mg of powdered ginger root is effective or doing 2 drops daily 2x daily of ginger essential oil.
10.  Diabetes
Gingerols are widely known to improve diabetes and enhance insulin-sensitivity. Building off this knowledge, a 2006 study out of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry discovered that they could also suppress sorbitol accumulation in human blood cells and in sugar-fed rats. Simply put, ginger not only helps prevent and reverse diabetes itself, it can help protection against and improve diabetic complications like diabetic retinopathy!

Best Ways to Use Ginger
There are many forms and ways you can use ginger to benefit for your health.  The most common forms ginger come in include:
Raw Ginger – You can put raw sliced ginger (the size of your thumb) in a smoothie every morning or use it in making homemade vegetable juice.
Ginger Essential Oil - The most potent form of ginger is ginger essential oil because it contains the highest levels of gingerol.  This is the #1 way ginger can be used as medicine.  It can be taken internally to treat health conditions or rubbed topically with a carrier oil on an area of pain. Typically, 2-3 drops of essential oil is the recommended therapeutic dose.
Ginger Tea – This form of ginger in liquid form is commonly used to relieve nausea, settle the stomach and relax the body.  Have one cup, 2-3x daily to reduce inflammation.  Also, adding a bit of raw honey and lemon to the tea makes it taste great!
Ginger Powder – Using ground ginger powder for cooking is an excellent way to take advantage of this super spice. I use it in making chicken curry, homemade pumpkin pie and a ginger berry smoothie for breakfast. Also, it can be taken in supplement form as a capsule with the recommended dose being 1,000mg daily.
How about you? What do you use ginger for? Have you experience any health benefits of ginger?


Sunday, July 20, 2014

Yes, Dietary Fat is Associated with Better Health



There is no question that one of the biggest debates these days centers on the health risks or benefits of dietary fat. And rather then enter into this discussion from an opinion derived position, I believe it’s fundamentally important to first and foremost see what our most well respected institutions that are researching questions such as this are telling us in the form of peer-reviewed publications.
Arguably, one of the most well respected medical journals on the planet is the New England Journal of Medicine. And last year the journal published a study entitled, Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet. The researchers enrolled 7447 individuals whose age ranged between 55 and 80 years. There were slightly more women than men, 57%. There were three different dietary plans used in this interventional study including a standard low-fat diet, A Mediterranean diet enriched with extra-virgin olive oil, and a group that received the Mediterranean diet with the addition of fat derived from added nuts.
The study was designed to look for particular “endpoints” and in this case there were three. They included having a stroke, a heart attack, or death.
The study was halted at 4.8 years, far earlier then what was intended. The researchers had performed an “interim analysis” meaning that they looked at the results before the planned end of the study to determine if there were any trends. When the researchers actually looked at the data, it revealed a dramatic difference between those eating the high-fat diets (Mediterranean diet with either extra olive oil or added nuts) when compared to those given the still popular “low-fat” dietary recommendation. In fact, risk for the endpoints, stroke, heart attack, or death (which is certainly a meaningful end point), were found to be 30% reduced in those individuals eating the most fat, in comparison to the low-fat group.
Importantly, the diets enriched with fat were “energy–unrestricted,” meaning that there was no limitation in total calories. As the authors stated: In conclusion, in this primary prevention trial we observed that an energy-unrestricted Mediterranean diet, supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts, resulted in a substantial reduction in the risk of major cardiovascular events among high-risk persons.

So again, I really feel it’s time to move away from the emotion as it relates to these aspects of dietary recommendations, and take the time to see what current science is telling us.