Do You Know What’s Really In Your Tea?

Do You Know What’s Really In Your Tea?

...by Food Babe

If grocery store brands don’t provide a clean option for you, perhaps a high-end loose leaf tea would circumvent some of the issues of grocery store brands. Right? Wrong! Take Teavana, which is found in malls across North America for example. Teavana taps into tea culture with the “Teavana Experience.” Convincing their employees to take customers on a sensory journey – they open a huge canister of loose leaf tea and wave the top of the canister so you can smell the tea – touting all of the wonderful health benefits of tea complete with samples and manipulative demonstrations that end in an expensive visit to the tea shop. Is all the extra money worth it? Are customers getting a superior tea product? No.

Tea is something I drink every single day. It’s sacred at my house – I even have a whole drawer devoted to it! I drink it because it is amazing for your health. There are so many varieties of tea that can improve digestion, metabolism and even prevent certain diseases. This investigation into tea ingredients has been in the making for a long time. What I’m about to share with you totally rocked my world forever and I’ll never look at tea in the same way again. Do you really want to know what’s in your tea?…Then read on.

The ancient Chinese tradition of drinking tea dates back thousand of years to the early Chinese dynasties and aristocrats who drank the beverage for its medicinal properties. In ancient times, leaves from the Camellia Sinensis (the tea plant) were either ground into a powder or placed as loose leaves directly into water to infuse it with herbal essence. Unfortunately, modern day tea is nothing like the unadulterated version of old tea. Many of today’s tea brands are operating under the guise of providing health benefits and promoting clean living, but are actually laden with pesticides, toxins, artificial ingredients, added flavors and GMOs.

Conventional Teas – An Abundance of Pesticides

Did you know that most tea is not washed before it is put it into bags? That means if the tea was sprayed with cancer-causing pesticides, those pesticides go directly into your cup. And this is the reason why tea is on my organic shopping priority list. To prove this point, here are some shocking facts about one of the most well-known tea brands – Celestial Seasonings.

A recent third-party analysis by Glaucus Research found that 91 percent of Celestial Seasonings tea tested had pesticide residues exceeding the U.S. limits. For example, Sleepytime Kids Goodnight Grape Herbal contained 0.26 ppm of propachlor, which is a known carcinogen under California’s Propsition 65.

The “Wellness” tea line was found to contain traces of propargite, also a known carcinogen and developmental toxin. The FDA has already issued two warning letters to Celestial Seasonings in regard to poor quality control. Imagine what happens when pesticide-laden tea is steeped in boiling water.

Teavana tea was tested by an independent lab and 100 percent of it was found to contain pesticides. One tea in particular, Monkey Picked Oolong, contained 23 pesticides. 77 percent of the teas would fail European Union pesticide import standards, and would be banned from import. 62 percent of the teas tested contained traces of endosulfan, a pesticide that has been banned by the U.S., China, the E.U., and 144 other countries because it has been linked to impaired fertility and could harm unborn babies.

Teas Can Contain Artificial Flavoring, Natural Flavors, and Hidden GMOs

Furthermore, a majority of Teavana teas contain added flavor – specifically “artificial flavoring.” If their tea is so high end, why would they be adding ingredients produced by fractional distillation and chemical manipulation of various chemicals like crude oil or coal tar? Coal tar in my tea? No, thanks.

Many popular tea brands get away with using the ingredient “natural flavors” to trick the consumer into thinking they are buying better, cleaner ingredients; however companies are just covering up the inferior taste and low quality of their tea. Fortunately, there are brands that are putting the kibash on the use of natural flavors and using all real ingredients. I was happy to learn that Ahmed Rahim, CEO of Numi Tea is just as disgusted by this ingredient as I am. He said to me “You can breakdown anything that is found in nature and if it ends up tasting like the flavor you wish to use – you can add it to any product and call it NATURAL FLAVOR on the ingredient label. It could come from a stone in the ground and you’d never know.” This is why when I see the words “natural flavor” listed on a label – I put the product down and run far far away. I want to know what I am eating! Don’t you?

Additionally, the added risk of consuming possible GMOs is not something many people think about when consuming teas. Before this investigation and witnessing tea companies using modified corn starch and soy lecithin in tea (additives likely made from genetically engineered corn and soy), I didn’t think about it either! I can’t imagine having a serious soy allergy, considering all the places companies try to hide it.

Why The Tea Bag & Packaging Matters

A recent article in The Atlantic discusses the “silky sachet” and “luxurious mesh bags” that hold loose leaf teas (like in brands Tea Forte and Mighty Leaf). Turns out, these modern day bags meant to showcase the tea leaves, are made of plastic.

PLA (polylactic acid) is a (likely GMO) corn-based tea bag material that has attracted major tea companies due to its nice look and its claims of biodegradability. Terms like “silky sachets” and “corn-based biodegradable tea bags” mislead customers into believing a product is more natural and sustainable than it really is. While the processing for PLA removes all traces of genetic material, it is still made with genetically modified corn. Although the actual tea bag is not an ingredient like teas and herbs, it is an element that is put into boiling water.

According to The Atlantic, tea bags are most commonly made from food grade nylon or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which are two of what’s considered the safest plastics on the scale of harmful leaching potential. However, Dr. Mercola disagrees, he states:

“While these plastics are generally considered among the safest in terms of leaching potential, the molecules in these plastic tea bags may still in fact break down and leach out when steeped in boiling water…” Well, isn’t that how tea is prepared?

Another temperature consumers need to worry about in tea is the “glass transition” temperature. Here’s the science behind the glass transition temperature or, Tg, and why it becomes dangerous according to The Atlantic:

“That is the temperature at which the molecule in certain materials such as polymers begin to break down. As a rule, the Tg of a material is always lower than the melting point. In the case of PET and food grade nylon (either nylon 6 or nylon 6-6), all have a Tg lower than the temperature of boiling water. For example, while the melting point of PET is 482 degrees Fahrenheit, the Tg is about 169 degrees. Both nylons have a lower glass transition temperature than PET. (Remember that water boils at 212 degrees.) This means the molecules that make up these plastic tea bags begin to break down in hot water.”

So, while the plastic itself won’t melt in your tea, the glass transition temperature could potentially leak out harmful phthalates if there are such things in your tea. Another thing to worry about is that some of the newer tea bags are made with a variety of plastics. Some plastics are nylon, some are made of viscose rayon, and others are made of thermoplastic, PVC or polypropylene.

Beware of paper tea bags too, which can be worse than plastic tea bags.

GET THIS: Many paper tea bags are treated with epichlorohydrin, a compound mainly used in the production of epoxy resins. Considered a potential carcinogen by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health2 (NIOSH), epichlorohydrin is also used as a pesticide. When epichlorohydrin comes in contact with water, it hydrolyzes to 3-MCPD, which has been shown to cause cancer in animals. It has also been implicated in infertility (it has a spermatoxic effect in male rats) and suppressed immune function.

So what do you do the next time you want a cup of tea? Antioxidant rich teas aren’t going to do much to counterbalance the chemicals, additives and artificial flavorings in today’s modern teas.

First, I recommend looking at this chart below to see how your favorite tea brand stacks up:

And then when brewing and picking out the safest tea remember these tips:

1. Choose an organic & non-GMO certified brand of tea. (My favorites are Numi, Traditional Medicinals, and Rishi Tea (loose leaf)).

2. Check the ingredient list on the back of the tea package to make sure there are no added flavors, GMO ingredients like soy lecithin and corn starch added to the tea leaves.

3. Make sure the brand you buy uses a safe form of packaging material or buy loose leaf tea and use a stainless steel or glass tea strainer. Have the company verify that bags do not contain epichlorophydrin, and avoid plastic tea bags all together. (Numi and Traditional Medicinals are some of the only brands I trust in this category because they have publicly stated they do not use this harmful ingredient or GMO packaging and are Non-GMO Project verified.) 

4. The majority of restaurants use some of the most pesticide ridden tea and brands that have harmful packaging like Celestial Seasonings, Lipton, Bigelow, etc. Don’t fall victim to this. Bring your own tea when eating out or going to restaurants and ask for pot or cup of boiling water (remember to leave a good tip if you do this). I even do this at Starbucks because I like to vote with my dollars and not buy tea brands that are harmful. If you drink iced tea, brew your own at home and carry an insulated water bottle with you.

5. Remember these temps and times for brewing the perfect cup of tea

The Truth About Coconut Oil – Can It Really Cure Alzheimer’s?

Natural News Blogs > Entertainment > Books

The Truth About Coconut Oil – Can It Really Cure Alzheimer’s?

• 
  
• 
  

By Deane Alban

Posted Friday, August 23, 2013 at 05:49pm EDT

Keywords: alzheimer's, brain, coconut oil, dementia, disease, health, wellness

Coconut oil used to be thought of as an artery-clogging, cholesterol-raising food that should be avoided at all costs. But recently it’s health benefits have become known. Not only has it become a popular general-purpose cooking oil, there is even evidence that it could help to cure Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia.

This idea took off after Dr. Mary Newport wrote Alzheimer’s Disease: What If There Was a Cure? which detailed how her husband’s early onset Alzheimer’s positively responded to the addition of coconut oil to his diet.

But is coconut oil really a cure or is this just wishful thinking?

How Coconut Oil Got a Bad Reputation

Before we examine coconut oil’s potential to treat Alzheimer’s, let’s look at the history of how this healthy oil was vilified.

In the 1950s, research speculated, wrongly as history has shown, that hydrogenated fat was the cause of heart disease and that butter, lard, coconut oil, and palm oil were the culprits. Many of the early studies citing coconut oil as unhealthy were done with the partially hydrogenated form, which put it at a grossly unfair disadvantage.

Tariffs were even placed on coconut oil to encourage people to buy new partially hydrogenated oils like margarine and Crisco instead. Now it’s known that these highly processed vegetable oils contain dangerous trans fats that are so unhealthy they are banned in some places like New York City and even in entire countries like Iceland, Sweden, and Austria.

Why Coconut Oil?

You may wonder why Dr. Newport decided to try feeding her husband coconut oil in the first place. As a neonatal physician, she was familiar with the use of medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), the kind found in coconut oil, for feeding newborns. MCTs are administered to premature babies because they are easily utilized even before they have developed digestive enzymes. MCTs naturally occur in mother’s milk and are added to all infant formulas. Because of her background, Dr. Newport understood how MCTs could supply energy to the brain.

How MCTs Uniquely Feeds the Brain

Normally your brain’s main fuel is glucose. Insulin allows glucose to enter the brain cells.

But our bodies have a back-up system for times when we can’t get enough energy from carbohydrates. The liver then kicks in to produce ketones that can be used as a substitute fuel during times of starvation.

But you don’t have to starve to access ketones as a source of energy! The medium-chain triglycerides in coconut oil can be broken down into ketones by the liver. Ketones can then cross the blood-brain barrier to provide instant energy to brain cells with no insulin spike.

It is this unique quality – it’s high MCT content – that makes coconut oil a possible Alzheimer’s treatment. (Other typical vegetable oils contain long-chain fats which aren’t broken down the same way.)

Alzheimer’s – a Form of Diabetes

Some researchers believe that Alzheimer’s is a actually type-3 diabetes. A lifetime of too many carbohydrates can cause brain cells to becomes insulin-resistant so they no longer uptake the glucose they need.  Eventually brain cells start to die leading to Alzheimer’s, unless there is another source of brain cell energy, such as the kind supplied by coconut oil.

Signs of Growing Acceptance

Dr. Mary Newport publicized her husband’s story in hopes that it could help others and that the medical community would become aware of coconut oil as a possible Alzheimer’s treatment. The medical community largely thinks her idea is a bunch of bunk.

However, there are scientists, doctors, and researchers working on using coconut oil, MCTs, and ketones to treat Alzheimer’s. One drug company has come up with a prescription-only “medical food” called Axona that works by providing the brain ketones, similar to the kind provided by coconut oil.

Currently, the University of South Florida is conducting a clinical trial studying the benefits of coconut oil on people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s. The study will be using Fuel for Thought concentrated coconut-MCT oil beverage which can be purchased online without a prescription. You can learn more about the study here.

A month’s supply of Axona costs $120 while a month’s supply of coconut oil costs $6.60. A month’s supply of Fuel for Thought will run slightly less than Axona but much more than coconut oil.

Why Coconut Oil Should Be in Every Kitchen

Coconut oil is one of the best oils for cooking. It’s 90% saturated fat which may sound bad, but that’s what makes it so stable. While monounsaturated vegetable oils like extra virgin olive oil are healthy to use “as is”, they become unstable at relatively low temperatures and burn easily. Heat turns them into trans fats, the dangerous unhealthy fats you want to avoid!

Vegetable oils like canola, soybean, and safflower are bad news! If you have these in your kitchen, toss them today. They are high in inflammation-producing omega-6 fatty acids. They are processed with heat and toxic chemicals and contain the trans fats you want to avoid.

Coconut oil is 50% lauric acid which is antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal. It lowers risk of heart disease by increasing good cholesterol and boosts the immune system. Lauric acid naturally occurs in breast milk. Coconut is the only way to get it in your diet.

Coconut oil is unique in that it melts at 76° so, depending on the temperature in your home, some days it’s solid and some days it’s liquid! I can’t think of anything else that changes form at room temperature, can you? Don’t keep it in the fridge or it will turn rock hard.

The Bottom Line

Alzheimer’s is a complicated disease. Some experts even question whether we should call it a disease. There is no conclusive way to diagnosis it except by doing an autopsy after death and there is no effective medical treatment. There are many suspected causes and there almost certainly will be no one cure that works for everyone.

The bottom line? Coconut oil is not a “magic bullet” but is definitely a viable treatment that shows great promise in halting and even reversing Alzheimer’s in many cases.

If you or someone you love has Alzheimer’s, don’t wait for for coconut oil to become a “proven” and medically accepted treatment. That will take years and will almost certainly be too late by then. 

If you want to improve your mental function or prevent mental decline in the future, coconut oil is a healthy addition to any diet that anyone can safely start today. With 1 in 3 people in the US currently dying with Alzheimer’s it only makes sense to take this easy, inexpensive precaution.

Your brain was meant to last a lifetime, but… the assaults of modern life are aging our brains before their time. Brain fog, lack of focus, indecision, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and feeling overwhelmed can all be signs that your brain is not aging as well as it should. There are common lifestyle mistakes that almost everyone, no matter how healthy their lifestyle is, makes. Learn how to easily avoid the three most common brain mistakes that contribute to brain aging. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Deane Alban is co-founder of BeBrainFit.com, where you can learn how to keep your brain as young, healthy, and fit for life. Sign up for her newsletter Brain Builder and claim your FREE Special Bonus Report - “5 Causes of Brain Aging“.

Did You Know that Viruses are Saving Your Life Right Now?

Did You Know that Viruses are Saving Your Life Right Now?

August 26, 2013 | 11,352 views

Visit the Mercola Video Library

By Dr. Mercola

You’ve lived in an invisible sea of microbes from the moment you were born, breathing them, swallowing them, and harboring them on your skin. More than 90 percent of the DNA in your body is not yours, but actually belongs to these microbes.

In order for you to stay healthy, your body must remain in a perpetual state of battle-readiness so it can control the pathogenic organisms that make you sick, while supporting and protecting the ones beneficial ones that keep you healthy.

In order for this delicate dance to occur, your body must learn the difference between helpful and harmful microorganisms. But how does it accomplish this?
A brand new study from San Diego State University sheds new light on this amazing process. The secret lies in one of your most underappreciated body fluids: mucus.

This slimy substance coating the inside of your mouth, nose, eyelids, digestive tract, lungs and other organs may turn out to play one of the most important roles in your immune system. You produce about a quart of mucus each day from your nose, throat and sinus, most of which you swallow.1

Mucus used to be regarded as merely a physical barrier to prevent invading organisms from entering your body, as well as functioning as a lubricant. But recent scientific findings suggest it plays a far more active and critical role.

For some time, researchers have known that mucus is loaded with viruses. Not a pleasant thought, if you assume these viruses are pathogenic invaders that your body had trapped and marked for kill.

But this new study found many of these viruses to actually serve as immune helpers—not enemies—and an important part of your body’s defense system.2 The study’s findings appear in the May 20, 2013 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.3

Partners in Slime

Scientists have found a type of virus called a bacteriophage,4 or simply “phage,” present in great numbers in virtually all mucus samples.

Wherever bacteria reside, you will also find phages, because phages depend on bacteria for their survival. In the above referenced study, lead author and microbiologist Jeremy Barr and colleagues noticed there were MANY more phages in mucus than in mucus-free zones, just millimeters away.

For example, in the saliva surrounding human gums, they found about five phages to every one bacterium. But on the mucosal surface of the gum itself, the ratio was closer to 40 to one. This spurred the question, “What are these phages doing? Could they be protecting the host?”

Phages specialize in breaking open and killing certain kinds of bacteria, hijacking them in order to replicate. Most phages have hollow heads, which store their DNA and RNA, and tunnel tails designed for binding to the surface of their bacterial targets. According to phages.org, once a phage has attached itself to a bacterium:

“The viral DNA is then injected through the tail into the host cell, where it directs the production of progeny phages, often over a hundred in half an hour. These "young" phages burst from the host cell (killing it) and infect more bacteria.”

The researchers found evidence that these phages partner with animals and humans to stave off bacterial infections and control the composition of friendly microbes in your body. Like it or not, you and these snot-dwelling viruses have a symbiotic relationship with one another!

One of the scientists, Forest Rohwer, is actually an expert on sea coral, making him an important asset to this study. Why? What does sea coral have to do with mucus?

Sea Coral Makes Snot Too!

As it turns out, mucus can be found throughout the animal kingdom, from fish to worms to sea coral. Coral actually spends a great deal of energy producing and maintaining a prodigious layer of surface slime—yes, essentially mucus—which until recently has been poorly understood. And wherever you find slime, you also find dense populations of phages. Phages are studded with molecules that grab onto the complex sugar molecules in the slime, like a sticky bottlebrush, anchoring them where they have access to a rich, diverse bacterial population.

Recent studies suggest certain bacteria turn surface slime into a germ-fighting medicine for corals. The coral’s layer of mucus serves as a probiotics system. According to Science News:5

“Corals appear to craft their slimy coatings at least in part to encourage visits by particular families of microbial guests. Ecologists have even begun referring to the welcomed hordes of bacteria, viruses, and more that shelter in the mucus films as integral elements of the coral system... Like the bacteria that occupy the human gut, the flora that colonizes surface slime can offer health benefits to reef builders. Conversely, an absence of these microbes, caused by stress or environmental change, could leave corals vulnerable to disease.”

Smart Phones, Smart Cars, and Now, Smart Mucus

It's possible that humans and other animals have evolved ways of selecting specific phages to control specific types of bacteria, which opens the door to a variety of studies about the symbiosis between phages and their animal hosts. Barr notes that phages sometimes insert their genetic material into a bacterium’s genome rather than killing it outright—a process that can actually protect the bacterium against other phages.

Barr speculates that in this way, mucus-borne phages might protect bacteria that benefit their animal hosts, while destroying those that cause harm. Your mucus has developed an intelligence of its own.

Gut bacteria (E. faecalis) have also been observed creating phages to use as weapons against closely related bacteria that might consume shared resources. Researchers have called this a form of “bacterial warfare.”6

These newly recognized symbiotic relationships have exciting implications for treating disease—for example, conditions like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. IBD sufferers have severely disrupted gut biota with different dominant species than healthy people, and those with Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis suffer from a breakdown in the mucosal lining of their gut, suggesting this phage-based defense system may have failed.7

Therapeutic Applications for Bacteriophages

Bacteriophages have been used to treat a variety of bacterial infections and are considered safe, although many more clinical trials will be needed for them to be utilized therapeutically in the West. The main barrier to phage therapy in the US is the lack of published research, and the lack of interest by pharmaceutical companies who cannot profit from phages in the way they can profit from antibiotics. But in other parts of the world, phages have been successfully used in a variety of applications, especially in Russia.

The first reported use of phages for combating infectious disease came from France in 1921. In the 1930s, Stalin brought phage therapy to the Soviet Union to help Communist troops ward off dysentery.

Phages have been used to cure plant diseases. And in the war between humans and bacteria (mostly in the Soviet Union), they’ve been used successfully against diphtheria, tetanus, gangrene, scarlet fever, meningococcus, Salmonella and Shigella. Hospitals in the Republic of Georgia are spraying operating rooms with phages before surgeries to reduce the risk of infection, dousing both the air and surgical instruments.8

Phages are an excellent way to combat antibacterial resistance because they adapt to morphing bacteria, whereas antibiotics don’t. Phage therapy has been used successfully to treat acne,9 and even MRSA.10, 11 If phages can be controlled, they may become the ultimate antibacterial weapons against the latest deadly superbugs, such as CRE.12, 13 The Journal of Infection reported impressive success rates with phage therapy in humans, in the range of 80 to 95 percent.14 The good news is, you already have this wonderful army living in your body, right where nature put it—it’s built-in!

What's Snot to Love?

Hopefully this intriguing information has renewed your appreciation for your mucus... as funny as that sounds. Our modern culture tends to be overly concerned with cleanliness, especially for children, and snot has gotten a bad rap. It’s likely that germophobia has done us more harm than good. Children love snot, and in light of what science is now saying, we should follow their lead.

A child raised in a “sterile” environment, devoid of dirt and germs and given antibiotics that kill off all of the bacteria in his gut, is not able to build up natural resistance to disease, making him vulnerable to illnesses later in life. This theory, known as the hygiene hypothesis, is likely one major reason why many allergies and immune-system diseases have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled in the last few decades.

The hygiene hypothesis becomes even more significant in light of his new information about the symbiotic relationship between you and your mucosal inhabitants. By depriving children of germ exposure, this symbiosis really cannot happen as nature intended. Without regular microbial exposure, your child’s body isn’t given the opportunity to properly build its defenses. Perhaps this is why we have so much chronic inflammation, autoimmune disease, rampant allergies, depression and heart disease today, as these have all been associated with the hygiene hypothesis.

Phages aside, one of the most important aspects of overall health is balancing your gut microflora. For more information about how important your gut flora is to your overall health, please listen to the following interview with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, who developed the GAPS Protocol.

Total Video Length: 1:13:21

Download Interview Transcript

How to Avoid Being Overly Hygienic

If the hygiene hypothesis holds up (and there’s mounting evidence that it will), trying to keep your environment overly sterile could backfire big time and actually increase your risk of developing acute and chronic illnesses. Appropriate exposure to a variety of microorganisms from day one is key to developing a strong immune system. Your mucus provides the substrate for a complex symbiotic relationship between viruses, bacteria, and probably other players that have yet to be discovered. Once again, Mother Nature has proven much wiser than we humans! You can avoid being “too clean” and bolster your body’s natural defenses by:

1. Educating yourself on the differences between natural and artificial immunity, and making informed decisions about the use of vaccinations
2. Avoiding unnecessary antibiotics. Remember that viral infections are impervious to antibiotics, which only work on bacterial infections.
3. Letting your child get dirty. Allow your kids to play outside in the dirt (and realize that if your kid eats boogers, the world won’t end).
4. Avoiding the use of antibacterial soaps and other antibacterial household products, which wipe out the microorganisms your body needs exposure to in order for proper immune function. Simple soap and water are all you need for effective hand washing. Antibacterial chemicals (typically triclosan) are quite toxic and have even been found to promote the growth of resistant bacteria and superbugs.
5. Consuming organic, optimally locally grown meats that do not contain antibiotics.

Curcumin and Thalidomide Effective for Multiple Myeloma Cells

Curcumin and Thalidomide Effective for Multiple Myeloma Cells

Gokhale Method: Banish Pain by Relearning Proper Posture

Gokhale Method: Banish Pain by Relearning Proper Posture

August 25, 2013 | 12,965 views

Download Interview Transcript

Visit the Mercola Video Library

By Dr. Mercola

An important principle to embrace is that pain is typically a good thing as it can help us identify something in our lives that is not good for our long term health.

Back pain is one of the most common pains that people experience and some experts estimate that around 80 percent of us will experience back pain at some point in life. I was certainly in the 80 percent, largely as a result of the time I spent working at the computer. My exercise regimen was not enough to compensate for the damage I was doing while sitting.

I have recently learned that non-exercise movement and posture are two incredibly important yet sorely neglected baselines for health. The more I learn about them, the more convinced I am that posture and non-exercise movement are every bit as important as regular exercise in terms of importance.

Of course, you need both, and I’m not advocating giving up your fitness routine for postural exercises. But proper posture and properly using your body to work against gravity is the foundation upon which everything else related to your health is built.

We know about the importance of diet, exercise, and emotional health, but the fourth pillar, structural health, has for the longest time remained off the radar.

Esther Gokhale’s mission is to educate people on the importance of good posture, which is actually quite different from what is normally taught, such as “sit up straight,” “stand up straight,” and “tuck your pelvis.” According to Esther, virtually all the current guidelines are problematic.

Back Pain Can Be Eliminated Through Simple Posture Training

An estimated 80 percent of the US population will experience back pain at some point in their life, and learning proper posture is crucial if you want to avoid this fate. Esther was herself a statistic, as she developed severe back pain during her pregnancy.

She ended up having back surgery in her 20’s to remedy the problem, but soon thereafter the pain came back. Rather than opting for a second surgery, she began her quest to discover the root of her problem.

“The directions that made sense to me were looking for something in my own body. It had to be something about the way I was using my body, rather than looking for a patch, looking for something to alleviate the symptoms alone. I wanted a solution that addresses the root cause,” Esther says.

Her journey has taken her around the world—to India, Brazil, and Europe—and incorporating her knowledge of yoga, pilates, Indian dance and Chinese Medicine, she eventually created the Gokhale Method.

Esther is no stranger to Mercola.com either. She tells me she’s been following the newsletter for a while now, and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to share her knowledge and wisdom with you as this is such a crucial component of staying healthy.

I’ve been a big fan of exercising my whole life, but the principles taught not only by Esther, Dr. Joan Vernikos and Dr. Eric Goodman, are crucial for optimal health.N The interaction with gravity is crucial. and- exercise movements that act against gravity while maintaining proper posture are important for all of us.

Everyone wants to age gracefully and be flexible and pain-free, and I think applying what Esther teaches is a profoundly important tool to achieve that. As Esther states:

“The point is, if you have healthy posture, everything you do becomes exercise in some measure. Every step you take, if you’re doing it in a healthy way, becomes a rep for your glute strengthening and becomes a stretch for your calf, your soleus, and so on. Healthy posture makes everyday life into exercise—into therapy even.”

Rediscovering Your Primal Posture

Esther wisely sought answers among the most functional populations; people who do not suffer back pain and have a very low incidence of arthritis in their spines, for example. And that’s where she discovered most of her techniques. Experimenting on herself, she was able to avoid the second surgery, and she has been pain free for over 20 years.

“I’ve not had a back twinge or ache – nothing, zero. Now I get to teach other people how to be empowered in their bodies and how to get there quickly,” she says.

A testament to the effectiveness of her techniques is how quickly you can get lasting results. Her course is just six lessons long, each lesson lasting about 1.5 hours if done in a group, or 45 minutes when you do one-on-one sessions. Part of the beauty of her method is that she teaches you everything you need to make you completely independent. You don’t have to see a chiropractor on a regular basis or hire a Pilates trainer for the rest of your life to keep your pain under control.

By understanding the functional biomechanics of your body and working with gravity instead of against it, you learn to optimize the way you move about your life all the time. And, it works! I’m integrating her method with a few other things, such as Foundation Training and standing up at regular 10-minute intervals as advised by Dr. Joan Vernikos, author of Sitting Kills, Moving Heals. They do make a difference. I recently went hiking in Yosemite National Park for five days and remained completely free of low back pain. In the past it was hard to do one hike without back pain.

The Difference Between Flexibility and Laxity

Esther was a yoga teacher before her back pain set in, over 20 years ago, and there’s a lot of wisdom in any discipline that’s been around as long as yoga has. However, she points out that yoga is often misunderstood in the modern context.

“People are going for touching their toes rather than the principle of extending your limits and while keeping your baseline sound,” she says. “You want the integrity of your structure to remain intact. For example, your spine, it has a certain baseline shape that’s healthy. You don’t want to round your back just to make sure you touch the floor or your toes.”

There’s a big difference between developing flexibility, which would be in your muscles, and laxity, which occurs when your ligaments are no longer intact. As Esther points out, the danger of repeatedly rounding your back in one spot is that it creates ligament laxity. You really do not want your back to be curved. You want to maintain a straight spine with strong ligaments.

Most people reading this either have a desk job or is sitting down most of the day. This is absolutely true for me. I’m in a chair for at least 12 hours a day. I noticed that my health was starting to decline – not my biological health, but my structural- or musculoskeletal health – even though I was exercising; doing a lot of strength training, and what I thought was flexibility training. Now I know why. I simply didn’t know how to maintain proper posture. Improper posture not only affects you while sitting, but it can also make you more prone to exercise injuries and/or pains resulting from exercise.

Roll Your Shoulders Back

One of the first techniques Esther teaches her students is the shoulder roll. It’s easy, effective, and virtually impossible to mess up. Doing one shoulder at a time, simply bring your shoulder forward a little bit, then bring it upward a little, and then bring it as far back as you can. Then, totally let it go and relax.

“You’ll find that your shoulder will actually remain back,” she says. “So, forward, up, back, and then totally let go. Let go of any effort to hold your shoulders back and to stand up straight or sit up straight. Those are, by the way, very counterproductive guidelines, in my view.”

This technique repositions your shoulders, and the soft tissue of the back of your shoulder maintains it, unless, of course, you reach forward and displace the tissues.

Otherwise, your shoulders will easily remain in their proper position for some time, which will improve other biological functions, such as your breathing and blood circulation to and from your arms. It also helps prevent repetitive stress injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome, as well as cold hands and dry skin.

“It takes a little getting used to,” Esther says. “Because when people first do this, they feel like they have little dinosaur arms that don’t reach very far. But it is actually the natural way to use your arms. Every one of your great, great grandparents had their shoulders parked in this baseline position that is quite far back. If you look at the back, the shoulder blades should protrude from the torso; they should not be flush with the torso.”

How to Improve Your Head, Neck and Spine Posture

Esther refers to proper posture as primal posture, because it’s the posture of infants and native hunter-gatherer’s. One of the most troublesome postures of modern society is keeping your head thrust too far forward. Ideally, your ears should be above your shoulders, and to get there, you want to pull your head and neck back—typically about 45 degrees, depending how far forward your head is.

“One technique I like better than just telling people to push back is to pull back, because then you’re not tensing up some muscle to try to fight some other type of muscle. It’s like having the break and the accelerator on at the same time. You don’t want to sustain this tension,” Esther explains. “Instead, grasp a clump of hair, then very gently pull back and up, and then just relax your neck. Let your chin relax down rather than pushing it down and pushing it back.”

Another crucial area is your spine. You want to lengthen or elongate your spine, and maintain your buttocks out behind you rather than tucked in. Most conventional advice tells you to tuck in your pelvis to maintain an S-shaped spine, but a far more natural spine curvature is what Esther refers to as a J-spine. Here, your back is straight and your buttocks protrude slightly.

“There are two areas of the spine that get into more trouble than any other: (1) cervical spine and (2) lumbar spine. A lot of the problems that occur here are compression-related problems: stenosis, sciatic pain, and scoliosis even. So, lengthening is a really, really good first measure,” Esther says.

Maintaining this J-curve, which she describes really well in her book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, is really crucial for good posture. You can also find free PDF downloads describing this posture on her website, GokhaleMethod.com1. Again, the body part of the “J” corresponds to your behind, slanting out behind you. If you examine how toddlers stand, they stand with a straight back, the lumbar area remaining relatively flat, with their bottoms out behind them. This posture is maintained into adulthood by many tribal peoples.

Remember Primal Posture when Sitting, and Stand up Frequently

Research has repeatedly shown that prolonged sitting has detrimental effects on your body even if you’re exercising regularly. I recently interviewed Dr. Vernikos on this topic and what she refers to as gravity habits or “G habits.” Her job as a NASA doctor was understanding how microgravity situations affect health, because it ostensibly appears to rapidly speed up the aging process. G habits are movements that are quantified as non-exercise activities, and the challenge is to get more of them into your daily life.

One such movement is standing up from a seated position—ideally around 35 times a day—to counteract the cardiovascular health risks associated with sitting. This amounts to standing up about every 10 minutes or so throughout your workday, for example. I set a timer to go off at regular 10-minute intervals, and while I’m at it, I do some jump squats or one-legged squats as well.

Based on double-blind research, Dr. Vernikos discovered that standing up once every hour was more effective than walking on a treadmill for 15 minutes for cardiovascular and metabolic changes. She also found that sitting down and standing up repeatedly for 32 minutes does NOT have the same effect as standing up once, 32 times over the course of a day. To get the benefit, the stimulus must be spread throughout the day. Hence the suggestion to set a timer to remind you to get out of your chair at regular intervals.

Now, in addition to getting out of your chair frequently enough, maintaining proper posture while sitting can also make a significant difference, as poor posture might play a significant role in sitting’s detrimental effects on health. As Esther explains:

“For example, in our stack sitting method (which is really healthy sitting, primal sitting, if you will), you have your behind out behind, but not exaggeratedly. That’s very important. Then your bones stack well and the muscles alongside your spine are able to relax. They’re not obliged to be tense. Now when you breathe, your whole spine lengthens and settles, lengthens and settles. There’s this movement which stimulates circulation and allows natural healing to be going on as you sit.

If you sit poorly, whether relaxed and slumped or upright and tense, you’ve lost all of that. So do we want to blame [all the adverse health effects] on sitting, or do we want to blame it on the poor sitting form? That’s my question.”

Techniques to Elongate Your Spine

Esther recommends using your back rest as a traction device to help you elongate your spine. You can see her demonstrate this move toward the end in the video above. She also sells a specially designed traction cushion and even a chair for this purpose, but you could also use a rolled up towel.

“It’s a one- to two-second maneuver to bring your back away from the back rest, lengthen, and then root yourself a little higher against the back rest. Now, the whole time you’re sitting, your lower back is getting a little bit of traction. That is such a powerful way to change sitting into something that’s actually beneficial in some part rather than entirely damaging.”

By using some traction device in your chair to help you elongate your spine when sitting, you will start flattening out your lumbar area. This alone can sometimes provide immediate relief if your pain is due to compression of your sciatic nerve roots. Her Stretch Sit cushion is designed to “hitch” your midback so your L5/S1 and L4/L5 discs, which are the discs that cause the most trouble for the most people, are decompressed.

By getting traction on those discs, you allow them to rehydrate and prevent the nerves from being impinged between your vertebrae.

Anyone suffering with back pain would be wise to consider Esther’s advice on posture. One of the key factors for treating your pain is to elongate your spine as much as possible. So be mindful to use her “stretch sitting” technique demonstrated above regardless of where you sit. Do it while driving, while at your desk, and on the couch. You can also add some length to your spine while lying down. Esther calls this “stretchlying,” and the technique is demonstrated in the video below.

Develop Your Inner Corset

Esther also teaches a technique she calls “the inner corset,” where you engage your deepest layer of abdominal muscles and your deepest layer of back muscles. This technique, when applied, actually has a slenderizing effect, and makes you taller.

“I call that the inner corset because it’s different from what people teach under the name of core strength,” Esther explains. “It does not involve rectus abdominis. You’re not tucking your pelvis. You’re keeping your J-spine while going slender and tall.”

This takes pressure off the nerves in your spine and allows for your discs to rehydrate.

Be aware that in the beginning, you will not be able to hold this posture all day long. But eventually, as your abs and back muscles get stronger from repetition, this posture will become quite natural.

Good posture is the foundation of physical health, musculoskeletal health, and even psychological health. The reason for this is because it allows your body to operate as it was designed to, providing an ideal architecture for your lungs to move freely and for your digestive organs to function without blockages for example. By tucking your pelvis, you lose about a third of the volume in your pelvic cavity, which squishes your internal organs. This can compromise any number of them in a variety of ways.

More Information

Remember, proper posture and properly using your body to work against gravity is the foundation upon which everything else relating to your health is built. Relearning proper posture can feel odd at first, especially if you’re severely out of alignment. But if you stick with it, the results can be life-changing.

“When we place people [in proper posture], they say, “Whoa, this feels so weird. I feel like I’m falling flat on my face. I feel like I’m a Neanderthal.” It takes us showing them their reflection in the mirror to be astonished. They may feel weird, but they don’t look weird. It isn’t weird, but it’s so far away from what they’ve been doing,” Esther says.

Esther’s book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, contains over 1,000 illustrations and photographs and is an excellent manual. She also has a DVD that provides demonstrations of all her techniques. If you want to go to the next step, you can find a teacher of Gokhale Method on her website, GokhaleMethod.com2. You can also find more videos like the ones included in this article on YouTube.

Study Finds Blueberry Compound to Kill Cancer Cells, Blasts Cancer Radiation Treatment

Study Finds Blueberry Compound to Kill Cancer Cells, Blasts Cancer Radiation TreatmentStudy Finds Blueberry Compound to Kill Cancer Cells, Blasts Cancer Radiation Treatment

by Elizabeth Renter 

August 16th, 2013 

Updated 08/16/2013 at 2:06 am

4

comment

Pin It

In the battle against cancer, there are many conflicting theories. But one thing you’ll very seldom hear is that conventional treatments like radiation and chemotherapy are good for you. On the contrary, many cancer survivors swear off using such treatments ever again. So, when research comes out that substantiates their feelings and indicates such treatments may actually be doing more harm than good, it signals a possible shift in conventional thinking. One such piece of research has found that blueberries can somewhat negate the adverse effects of irradiation while inducing cancer cell death.

One such study, published in the journal eCAM, offers two promising findings. One of those findings is that a component of blueberries can actually suppress “adverse changes associated with irradiation.” The other finding: that radiation treatment leads to the “enrichment” of hepatoma (liver cancer) stem cells. Yes, radiation makes these cancer cells stronger and more plentiful.

While conventional cancer treatments would have you think that blasting every cancer-related cell in the body with radiation and toxins will eventually rid you of the disease, this isn’t the only theory.

For centuries, scientists have observed a certain type of cancer cell that resemble embryonic tissue. These cells, known as cancer stem cells, are believed to produce the various cancer cells throughout the body. They are, in essence, the brain behind cancer proliferation. This theory is known as the embryonal rest theory of cancer (ERTC) and conventional treatments don’t ascribe to it.

Read: Milk Thistle Protects Against Chemo Toxicity, Prevents Cancer

Conventional cancer treatments target tumor cells; they attempt to eradicate everything within the tumor. But, research has shown that although these treatments may kill off the smaller cancerous tumor cells, they actually enrich the cancer stem cells. What this means for a cancer patient is a possible reemergence of cancer somewhere else in the body at a later date. Such an occurrence, according to the thinking of conventional medicine, is totally unrelated to the original cancer. It is written off as being linked and therefore any connection to the conventional treatments is disregarded.

This latest study, however, indicates radiation does, in fact, enrich cancer stem cells, in alignment with the ERTC/Cancer Stem Cell explanation. But more than that, the study indicates a natural substance found in blueberries can cause programmed cell death (apoptosis), even killing the cancer stem cells within various cancer types.

While the authors of the study, true to form with conventional science, conclude by saying radiation treatment should be supplemented with the beneficial blueberry compound, we see their work as further evidence that radiation may not be the answer to cancer at all and that further research money needs to be poured into those studies looking at natural and wholly beneficial remedies. The health benefits of blueberries shouldn’t be overlooked.

Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/blueberry-substance-kill-cancer-cells/#ixzz2cx7lGIDp 

Follow us: @naturalsociety on Twitter | NaturalSociety on Facebook

How Milk Thistle can Fight Skin Cancer and Photo-Aging

How Milk Thistle can Fight Skin Cancer and Photo-AgingHow Milk Thistle can Fight Skin Cancer and Photo-Aging

by Elizabeth Renter 

August 23rd, 2013 

Updated 08/23/2013 at 7:41 am

1

comment

20

The beneficial properties of milk thistle have been known for centuries. It’s healing benefits were first recorded as early as the first century by Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder who wrote about it’s ability to “carry bile” throughout the body. From liver-health to indigestion, this prickly-looking plant has several long-standing perks. But, scientists with the University of Colorado Cancer Center have demonstrated yet another, perhaps previously unknown benefit: skin cancer prevention.

Researchers have found that silibinin, an extract from milk thistle, can actually combat skin cancer and photo-aging in two specific ways. According to their work, milk thistle is both able to repair skin cells damaged by radiation and destroy those that may go on to cause cancer.

In regards to UVA radiation, which according to GreenMedInfo, makes up 95% of the radiation reaching earth, silibinin-treated skin cells reacted far better to radiation, with a dramatic number of damaged cells dying off of their own accord. In addition, the silibinin was completely non-toxic to undamaged cells. In other words, the silibinin seemed to intelligently differentiate between damaged and non-damaged skin cells, killing only those that could go on to cause cancer.

The same researchers looked at silibinin and UVB radiation in another study. UVB radiation accounts for 5% of the sun’s radiation reaching Earth. In that study, the silibinin didn’t kill off the cells damaged by UVB radiation, but instead protected them from the DNA damage that could lead to cancer. It repaired them.

Some of their research was recently published in Phytochemistry and Photobiology.

The ways in which nature can almost intelligently act within the body are truly remarkable. In 2007, research published in Integrative Cancer Therapies reviewed numerous clinical studies suggesting milk thistle’s positive effects on cancer. After examination and according to the abstract: “there is strong preclinical evidence for silymarin’s hepatoprotective and anticarcinogenic effects, including inhibition of cancer cell growth in human prostate, skin, breast, and cervical cells”.

Although the research directly on humans has not been carried out, you can find milk thistle in seeds, supplements, and liquid extracts. It can be used for appetite improvement, heartburn, liver disorders, inducing menstruation, increasing lactation, depression, malaria, and even hangovers.

Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/milk-thistle-fight-skin-cancer-photo-aging/#ixzz2cx6ssmnE 

Follow us: @naturalsociety on Twitter | NaturalSociety on Facebook