Health & WellnessS


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The toxicities all around us

Dr. Al Danenberg
drdanenberg.com
Mon, 13 Jan 2020 13:49 UTC
Toxic Zone
The days of accepting the status quo are over. At least, they should be.

If you continue to believe what you read and hear without the science to back it up, you may be causing severe harm to yourself and your family. When you listen to companies-for-profit tell you their products are designed to make you feel better, live longer, and become happier, you better also demand answers to the questions, "How? Can you prove it? What's in it for you?"

I'm not going to cite the numerous medical papers that support my rant and rave in this post. I don't want to bog you down with the detailed science that supports the facts you will read here. For sure, these are available and easily researched if you simply went to PubMed.gov (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/) and searched for the topics I reveal below. So, let me sound off for a moment and get this stuff off my chest. The bottom line I want to emphasize is don't be gullible. Be discerning. Get your facts straight and then make your decisions.

Comment: See also:

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Brain

Coconut oil improves brain function in Alzheimer's patients

GreenMedInfo Research Group
GreenMed Info
Sat, 11 Jan 2020 00:00 UTC
Coconut oil
Alzheimer's disease is a devastating degenerative brain condition that affects millions of people in the U.S. While pharmaceutical treatments have long lists of side effects, there is a natural food-based intervention that has proven effective in improving key brain functions. The best part is, it's probably in your food pantry right now

If you're a regular reader of GreenMedInfo.com, you're likely to have seen numerous articles detailing the dozens of healthy uses for coconut oil that are backed by science. From balancing blood sugar[i] and hormones[ii] to healing burns[iii] and ulcers,[iv] it seems there is hardly an ailment that is not soothed or supported by adding this nutrition-dense fat to your diet.

Coconut Oil: The Brain's Preferred Fuel?

In 2018, researchers added to the knowledge base with confirmation of coconut oil's usefulness as a brain-boosting superfood. The pilot study,[v] published in July 2018 in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, has shown that a Mediterranean diet, rich in coconut oil, improves the main cognitive functions in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Catholic University of Valencia, Spain, the aim of the study was to detect changes in key cognitive functions of patients with AD after following a traditional Mediterranean diet boosted by therapeutic doses of coconut oil.
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Pills

Wonder drug? Exploring the molecular mechanisms of metformin, a diabetes drug with Medieval roots

Delthia Ricks
Medical Xpress
Fri, 10 Jan 2020 14:35 UTC
Metformin
At only pennies per dose, metformin is a Type 2 diabetes drug with distant roots in Medieval folk medicine and a powerful capacity to reduce body weight, fat mass, circulating glucose — and prevent the disorder altogether in people at elevated risk.

New research on the most widely prescribed Type 2 diabetes drug in the world arrives as a global obesity epidemic continues unabated. Obesity is the leading risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, a metabolic disorder.

While scientists have found that more than 60 percent of metformin's ability to control Type 2 is derived from lowering body weight, it has taken until now to tease out key molecular mechanisms underlying how the medication does its job.

In the United Kingdom, Dr. Stephen O'Rahilly and colleagues at the University of Cambridge, are in the vanguard of scientists worldwide who have tackled a series of metformin studies in humans and laboratory animals. The team has shown how the drug causes weight loss, even among heart patients who don't have diabetes.

Outside of their work, other scientists are hailing metformin as a wonder drug not only because of its effect on Type 2 diabetes, but because of its emerging prominence in cancer research and potential influence in the lungs of those diagnosed with tuberculosis.

Comment: See also, Berberine: A powerful remedy - may ease symptoms of anxiety and depression
Berberine - a yellow-colored alkaloid compound found in several different plants, including European barberry, goldenseal, goldthread, Oregon grape and tree turmeric - has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative, antidiarrheal, antineoplastic, antidiabetic and immune-enhancing1 properties. It has a long history of use in traditional medicine, including traditional Chinese medicine, and many of its historical uses now have scientific backing.

For example, it's effective against a wide range of bacteria, protozoa and fungi, and is commonly used to treat gastrointestinal issues, including traveler's diarrhea and that from food poisoning. Having similar mechanisms of action as the drug metformin, berberine can also be used as an oral hypoglycemic for Type 2 diabetics.


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Brain

Best of the Web: The medications that change who we are

Zaria Gorvett
BBC
Wed, 08 Jan 2020 00:01 UTC
brain x-ray
"Patient Five" was in his late 50s when a trip to the doctors changed his life.

He had diabetes, and he had signed up for a study to see if taking a "statin" - a kind of cholesterol-lowering drug - might help. So far, so normal.

But soon after he began the treatment, his wife began to notice a sinister transformation. A previously reasonable man, he became explosively angry and - out of nowhere - developed a tendency for road rage. During one memorable episode, he warned his family to keep away, lest he put them in hospital.

Comment: See also:

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Life Preserver

Detox safely with Homeopathy

Jennifer Giustra-Kozek, LPC, NBCC
Collective Evolution
Wed, 08 Jan 2020 19:21 UTC
homeopathy
Homeopathy, when applied according to its well-established principles, can reach deep into the body and trigger healing and detoxification in a way nothing else can. It safely and gently tells our body what it is designed to do without using harsh chemicals or suppressing symptoms.

What Is Homeopathy?

Homeopathy is a system of medicine that originated in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann. Before it was coined "homeopathy," Native American Indians practiced many forms of these natural healing principles. In India, it is their traditional system of medicine. Additionally, early homeopathic literature contains many examples and stories of accidental, medical, and industrial or occupational poisoning and its treatment with potent substances. Many of the most common remedies are diluted amounts of poisons made into powerful medicines to act against poisons.

Comment: Homeopathy has withstood the test of time

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Info

The apoptotic and anticancer effects of cinnamon

GreenMedInfo Research Group
GreenMed Info
Fri, 03 Jan 2020 03:45 UTC
Cinnamon sticks
Cancer rates are on the rise, and researchers are anxious to find possible alternative and herbal remedies to prevent and treat cancer. Conventional cancer treatments include chemotherapy and radiotherapy, both of which work to kill cancerous cells or arrest cancerous cell growth but have numerous negative side effects.[i],[ii]

However, a recent study published in the European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry concluded that eugenol and cinnamaldehyde, two of the active ingredients in cinnamon, have powerful apoptotic properties that could be used to fight the growth and regeneration of cancerous cells. Researchers believe that cinnamon, widely used as a spice and flavoring agent, may be a possible preventative agent and treatment for cancer.

Cinnamon's Apoptosis Effects

Apoptosis is programmed cell death caused by biochemical changes, and it's a normal part of cellular growth and development. However, too little apoptosis can lead to dangerous conditions including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, while too much apoptosis can lead to the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells (cancer).[iii]

Cancerous cells are usually able to avoid apoptosis, allowing them to survive and grow rapidly. The pro-apoptotic activity of cinnamon makes it a potential inhibitory measure against cancer cell growth.[iv] Researchers have concluded that there are three ways in which an abnormal cell can suppress or avoid apoptosis, including:
  • The impaired balance of pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic proteins
  • A dysfunction in the ability of the cell to detect death receptor signaling
  • Decreased caspase (an enzyme that initiates cellular death) activity
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Handcuffs

Flashback 'Bioethicist' Art Caplan: Parents should be held liable for the deaths 'caused' by unvaccinated children

Alan Phillips, J.D.
greenmedinfo.com
Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:27 UTC
handcuffs
Bioethicist Art Caplan, Ph.D. of New York University has argued that parents of unvaccinated children should be held liable for illness or death allegedly caused by their unvaccinated children.[1] This article rebuts Caplan's position, and explains why liability should fall, if with anyone on this issue, on him, for the deliberate or negligent use of his academic status and authority, supported by false information, to promote a flawed vaccine policy resulting in avoidable vaccine injury and death.

Dr. Caplan's primary premises, for purposes of the parental liability question, are essentially that: 1) Unvaccinated children put others at risk, 2) Unvaccinated children, as such, cause actual harm to others, and 3) Non-vaccinating parents know these first two premises, and should, therefore, be held liable for the harm caused by their failure to get their children vaccinated.

Comment: Additional information when considering the debate between vacinated and unvaccinated children:
One of the conclusions that Tetyana has come to after investigating real-world scientific findings on the safety and efficacy of vaccines is that children who have not been vaccinated do not pose any increased risk to public health as compared to vaccinated children. In an 'Open Letter To Legislators Currently Considering Vaccine Legislation,' she argues to legislators, some of whom are poised to remove vaccine exemptions from their districts, that "discrimination in a public school setting against children who are not vaccinated for reasons of conscience is completely unwarranted."


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Cow

The insidious flaw in the "less meat" argument — We need soil, not soy

Seth Itzkan
Medium
Mon, 06 Jan 2020 00:01 UTC
combine harvesters
The insidious flaw with the "less meat" argument is that it implies that meat is bad (when, of course, it isn't) while looking the other way as it advances soil-depleting, GMO soy, faux meat products at the expense of nutritionally superior, regenerative beef and dairy alternatives that are essential for enhancing soil carbon, reviving pasture ecosystems, and just now gaining a foothold in supermarkets.

What Burger King and other franchises should do instead of carrying Impossible Foods paddies, is to insist that each region source at least 10% of their meats locally and via ecologically restorative production. That would jumpstart the food revolution genuinely poised to deliver a safe climate.

Comment: See also:

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Gold Bar

Butter Nutrition 101


Daily Health Post
Sat, 02 Nov 2019 14:03 UTC
butter
Butter is not just better...it's essential
Are you one of those people who still believe that butter is bad for you? Butter may have had a bad rep over the last decade but it hasn't always been this way. In the 1900s, butter was a food staple and was used in just about every recipe.

Everyone seems to have a different opinion about butter these days. The government, doctors, and even the media constantly contradict each other on this issue. So, you might be wondering if butter is good for your health or not? While you were told to avoid butter, new research is challenging this myth.

Many doctors and scientists now believe that you shouldn't be demonizing saturated fats, which has been shown to increase cholesterol. In fact, current studies say that cholesterol is beneficial to your health. The researchers explain that cholesterol is not the bad guy here; it's actually necessary to help repair damaged tissues in the body (1).

Comment: Why Butter is Better

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Info

Almond milk: Vegan milk alternative that comes with a heavy environmental cost

Madeleine Aggeler
thecut.com
Wed, 08 Jan 2020 13:49 UTC
bees
© Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
In the past five years, almond milk consumption in the United States has exploded over 250 percent. The lower-calorie, vegan milk alternative is a staple in grocery stores and coffee shops across the country now, but its booming popularity comes at a heavy environmental cost. According to a new report from the Guardian this week, the titanic and growing demands of the California almond industry are placing a huge strain on the hives of bees used to pollinate their orchards, wiping out billions of honeybees in a matter of months.

"My yard is currently filled with stacks of empty bee boxes that used to contain healthy hives," Dennis Arp, a commercial beekeeper, told the Guardian. Like many of his peers, nearly half of Arp's income comes from renting out his hives to pollinate almonds. But now, he says, he loses 30 percent or more of his bees a year, a number that's on par for many beekeepers in the U.S. One survey of commercial beekeepers found that 50 billion honeybees were wiped out in just a few months during the winter of 2018-19.

Comment: Bees are dying in record numbers: The deadly truth behind our obsession with almonds

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