Vegetarians Less Likely to Develop Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic syndrome, a precursor to incidences of stroke, diabetes, and heart disease is more prevalent in people who eat meat.

A new study in the journal Diabetes Care describes how vegetarians are 36% less likely to develop metabolic syndrome than meat consumers.  Researchers conclude that a plant based diet can help to ward off the diseases associated with metabolic syndrome.  These findings offer further proof that a healthy diet can reduce one’s chances of developing cardiovascular disease. 

 Source: Foodconsumer.org

Discovery Reveals Why Old People Go to Bed Early

Hormones that circulate in the blood could explain why older people have different sleep patterns than younger people, a new study suggests.The body's circadian clock is determined by the expression of the circadian genes in the body's cells, and the time for sleeping and waking are indicated by peaks in expression of these genes, the study said. Older people tend to have an earlier peak expression over a 24-hour period than younger people, which explains why they tend to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier.Scientists found they could manipulate the circadian clocks of skin cells from younger people to behave like those of older people, by growing those cells in the blood serum of older people, said study researcher Steven A. Brown, of the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Zurich in Switzerland.This finding suggests some hormone or other circulating molecule in the blood of older people has the ability to influence the cells' circadian clocks, he said."A gene that had a peak expression at a particular time in cells from younger individuals might have this peak two hours earlier in the presence of serum from older individuals," Brown told The study was published today (April 11) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.

Comparing circadian clocks

Scientists grew skin cells from people in their 20s and people in their 60s in regular bovine serum cultures, and then in cultures made of blood serum from the 60-year-olds, according to the study.They found that the cells from the 20-year-olds behaved like those of the 60-year-olds when they were grown in the blood serum."Human behavior shifts because activities normally done at one time of day” ― like waking, eating orsleeping ― “are now done earlier or late," Brown said. "Cellular 'behavior' shifts in the same way: Something that the cell normally does at one time of day is done instead at another."

Secrets of the skin cells

Scientists have long known that skin cells have clocks that genetically mirror their owners, he said."I can say whether you are a 'lark' or an 'owl' simply by looking at your skin cells," Brown said. But "what is new here is that blood serum from older individuals makes cells from younger people 'behave' as if they were old."Other factors also could account for the earlier sleep schedules of elderly people, he said.For example, elderly people may be exposed to less sunlight or may spend less time outdoors than younger people, which could have an impact their circadian clocks. Or, it's possible that the blood-circulating molecule is somehow tied with these factors to influence sleep and wake cycles, he added.

Misinformation About Food Allergies

People with food allergies who wish to dine out beware: Many restaurant staffers have not been trained to properly deal with customers who have food allergies, according to a new British study of restaurant owners, managers, waiters and chefs.

Researchers surveyed 90 restaurants across the United Kingdom and found that only 33 percent provided food allergy training to their workers.

Eighty-one percent of respondents said they were very or somewhat confident in providing a safe meal to a person with food allergies, the study said, but when asked specific questions about dealing with a food allergy, their responses revealed lack of sensitivity to the potential dangers of severe food allergy.For example, 38 percent of respondents believed that a person having an allergic reaction should drink water to dilute the allergen. Twenty-three percent of respondents thought that eating a small amount of an allergen is safe, and 21 percent said removing an allergen from a meal (like removing peanuts after they'd already been added to a cake, for a peanut-allergic customer) was safe, researchers found.

Sixteen percent of respondents said that cooking food prevented it from causing an allergic reaction, and 12 percent of respondents didn’t know thatallergies could cause death, the study said.

Researchers also found that in one of every three restaurants, common food allergens (like eggs, peanuts, wheat, milk, nuts and fish) were not separated from other foods.

"Diners who are food allergic must remain vigilant and not assume restaurants are safe or that all staff are knowledgeable about food allergy," Helen Smith, a professor at Brighton & Sussex Medical School in England, wrote in the study. "Our survey supports the need for more rigorous and accessible training if food-allergic customers are to avoid being put at risk by dining out."

The British results were similar to that of a U.S. study, published in 2006 in the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. In that study of 100 people from 100 restaurants, New York researchers found that only 42 percent provided food allergy training for their staffs, although 72 percent said they were somewhat or very comfortable providing a safe meal for a diner with a food allergy. However, 24 percent of respondents said eating a small amount of the allergen is safe, and 25 percent said removing an allergen from a meal was safe.

Food allergies are extremely common, with nearly 4 percent of U.S. children younger than 18 having experienced a food allergy in the last 12 months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some food allergies are more severe than others; some can cause a tingling sensation around the mouth, while others can cause hospitalization and even death, the CDC said.

Nine foods make up more than 90 percent of all food allergies, and include milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, fish, wheat and soy, according to the CDC.

The study was published this month in the journal Clinical & Experimental Allergy.

Source:Live Science

Healing with 12 homeopathic cell salts

WELCOME to homeopathy, a royal medicine system. Rarely has it been discussed directly in this column as I am encouraged to do today by Nigey Lennon, a professional writer and musician, and Lionell Rolfe, a journalist and authour with lifelong interest in medicine. They are co-authors of HOMEOPATHIC CELL SALT REMEDIES, subtitled HEALING WITH NATURE’S 12 MINERAL compounds. Their book is so simple that it takes away the tedium of navigation through a medical jungle which discourages many lay people like me from studying homeopathy.

Simple as this book is, it is impossible for it to begin the story of the 12 healing cell salts without reference to Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), the German researcher acclaimed as the father of homeopathy. He was disgusted by the practice of "bloodletting" or "bleeding" by doctors of his time which often killed their patients. If you were ill and your doctor thought your blood was poisoned, he made incisions into your body to help you lose some of the bad blood. Of course, given the insanitary conditions of this practice in those days, the patient could get infected and die. That got Dr. Hahnemann thinking and reviewing thousands of plant medicines in use at that time. He came up with the idea that whatever caused a disease in large doses could cure it in much smaller doses as small as one part in a million! Thus was born the idea of "like" curing "like". As an example, snake poison, diluted to say one-millionth of its potency, may cure snake bite poisoning. If you pinch yourself that you’re not going to take that kind of medicine preparatory to a forest tour where you could be bitten by deadly snakes, remember that, as a child, you had vaccination for polio or tuberculosis. It was the weakened poison of these diseases ("likes") which gave you immunity against their deadlier kindred ("likes"). Even the father of modern Western medicine, Hippocrates would say: "Through the like, disease is produced, and through the application of like, it is cured". A Yoruba adage will confirm: Omo ina li a n ran si ina" (it is the child of fire we send after fire).

In 1812, Hahnemann’s thoughts prevailed over the practice of bloodletting when French Emperor Napoleon let him treat 180 typhoid sufferers. At that time, typhoid epidemics were killing French people by the thousands and mainstream medicine was powerless against it. Only one of Dr. Hahnemann’s patients died! In 1832, homeopathy scored another plus over cholera, and America opened its doors to it. By the time Hahnemanne had built up a treasure trove of more than 900 homeopathic remedies. It is this list which, after him, grew to more than 2000 that have now been shrunken to no more than 12 biochemic cell salts by another German, Dr. William Schnessier. A linguist, Dr. Schnessier was influenced by the work of Pathologist Dr. Rudolph Virchow, said to be the father of modern pathology. Dr. Schnessier concluded that disease begins from disturbances at the cellular level. What is described as disease is actually a change of metabolism status within the cell. These changes would occur, no doubt, due to changes in the cell constituents. Discovering these constituents, therefore, was crucial for the understanding of disease and its reversal. Dr. Schnessier burned the cell and discovered, he said, that these constituents are reduceable to no more than 12 biochemical or cell salts. To him, these 12 salts can perform most of the functions within the cell that thousands of the other substances do. It would appear from this submission that those salts, in varying degrees, are present in all bodily materials. Why would Nature then create a large number of stores? I wondered after reading him. Could it be to avoid extinction of some of a small number of cell activators?

The 12 Cell Salts

Calcium Flouride

Lennon and Rolfe say it is "a natural producer of suppleness and elasticity". And it is found on the surface of bones, tooth enamel, and elastic fibres of the body. A chemical union of lime and fluoric acid, it debunks the lie often visited upon lime juice as a sperm thinner and infertility agent for women. People who are losing enamel protection of their teeth need it. So, do arthritic people with abnormal spine curvature, weak gums damaged or inelastic connective tissue in the joints. How about people with varicose veins, rumpled inelastic skin, hemorrhoids and even obesity? They all should profit from calcium fluoride. I take the juice of three limes in 75cl bottle of water in the moving and last thing to bed, sometimes added to oatmeal, in the search for calcium fluoride. After I read this book, I have searched the market for these salts and was compensated by Dr V.C. Vogel’s THE NATURE DOCTOR, which suggests that rye is rich in calcium fluoride. Now, I have added rye powder to my oatmeal breakfast.

Calcium Phosphate:

A potentiator or trigger of all activities in the cell, this is a powerhouse of calcium and phosphorus, a bone hardener which combines well with silica for fractures, osteoporosis, growing up pains of children and reproductive organ disorders, especially in women.

Calcium Sulphate

A wound healer good for boils, abscess and acne, it is well known for making hospital casts. It is plentiful in egg shell which may be ground to fine powder and used in these and other conditions it helps. It is a good antacid because it helps the body keep water. Many homeopaths say it protects stomach wall, eyeball, nasal passages, mouth, throat, bladder and the skin, preventing dehydration. As a wound healer, it works synergically with silica.

Ferrum Phosphate

We know shepherd’s purse for stopping, bleeding, especially from women’s problems. But here comes what may be a more powerful agent for this purpose which also aids iron metabolism, helps fever and anaemia. It delivers iron to the cells in such microscopic servings that do not cause constipation or damaging congestion in the liver.

Magnesium Phosphate

Magnesium calms and relaxes nerves; calcium contracts them. Palpitating hearts need magnesium. So do spasmodic uterine fibroids which cause menstruation pain. I suggest massage with magnesium oil to people with muscle and nerve pain. I learned this week of a doctor who was magnesium oil for the massage of the lifeless limbs of stroke patients. Magnesium phosphate acts on the white nerve fibers in contrast to potassium phosphate which acts on the grey ones. People who do a lot of brain work will benefit from magnesium phosphate. I am reminded of my ‘O’ Level school days when students took a product called phospherine while studying for their final exams.

Potassium Chloride

A mucus fighter that would also combat fluid in the ear and ease sore throat, this cell salt is useful for many of the conditions in which potassium sulphate would help.

Potassium Phosphate

This is the tranquiliser or cell salt for nerve problems and held as the most important of the three potassium salts. Potassium partners here with phosphoric acid. And phosphoric acid is part of the "gray matter" of the brain. This makes potassium phosphate good for people who suffer from psychological problems to which belong depression, anxiety and irritatibility. Lennon and Rolfe say "it helps cure headaches and restores healthful sleep patterns" and is often "prescribed for memory loss and dementia associated with the aging process".

Potassium Sulphate

An oxygen carrier, potassium phosphate works well with ferrum phosphate and goes on to help in the building of new cells to replace damaged or dead ones. It is used in asthma therapy and skin problems.

Silica

Known well for healthy skin, nails and hair, silica (dust from worn down rocks), it is suggested also for firming up tissue, cleansing, breaking boils. As the authors add:

"Silica also relieves swelling and heat in joints and has been used successfully to dissolve the urate deposits of arthritis and gout. In cases of asthma, complicated by heavy mucus on the chest, silica can significantly reduce the inflammation and restore normal breathing"

Sodium Chloride

Working with potassium but chiefly resident outside the cells, in spaces between them, sodium chloride helps to regulate water balance in the body by maintaining osmotic pressure of the cell wall. Sodium has been given a bad name for causing hypertension and other degenerative diseases, including cancers, when it overshoots its ratio with potassium in the body. Now it is known that the crisis comes from table salt which has been stripped in the manufacturing process of more than 80 brochemical micro nutrients which help to prevent a sodium carnage. And that’s why sea salt, though lacking in sufficient iodine which can be obtained from kelp or the proprietary product IODORAL, has become a bail-out. Sodium chloride cell salt helps combat headaches, probably because it supports steady blood flow to the brain.

Sodium Phosphate

This is a biological antacid. Present in muscles, nerves and brain cells, help it to decompose lactic acid and metabolise essential fatty acids. With many degenerate diseases now linked to excess acids in the body, what will a biological antacid not attend to?

Sodium Phosphate

Sodium chloride attracts water to the body, but sodium phosphate helps to take away excess water, as in dampness in the lungs which may provoke asthma. This makes it also eliminate toxins as it removes water containing toxins twice its size. It is suggested for diabetes, jaundice babies, and intestinal problems.

Simplified Remedy Guide: 

Nigey Lennon and Lionel Rolfe provide a simplified Remedy Guide for many health disorders. These included acne, aging related problems, airsickness, anaemia, appetite loss, asthma, back pain, bed wetting, behaviour related disorders, bladder-related problems, weakened bones, bronchitis, colds, constipation, cough, cramps, depression, diabetes, diarrhea, digestion-related problems, dizziness, ear-related problems, eating disorders, eye related problems, fatigue, split fingernails, gout, gum related problems, headaches, hemorrhoids (piles), hiccups, insomnia, irritability, itching, liver-related problems, memory loss, menstrual flow problems, menopausa-related problems, nervousness, osteoporosis, pain, perspiration-related problems, rheumatism, sore throat, teeth-related problems, vaginal discharge related problems, varicose veins, warts and weight problems, among others.

Courtesy:The Nation

Explore the goodness of naturopathy

It's said that a man first loses his health to earn money and then spends it to regain his lost health. Probably that was the reason for the invention of Naturopathy- a therapy that believes in avoiding illness rather than treating it. Just as religion is a way of life, so is Naturopathy.

Many misinterpret the science and call it 'ghas phhoos therapy'. But practitioners say it is not so. "Our taste-buds develop the way you want them to. If you are used to eating oily and spicy food, your tongue is bound to demand that," says Aruna Gokhale, an ardent follower of Naturopathy.Naturopathy is all about being natural. A basic routine of eating on time, ensuring you get enough sleep and avoiding unnecessary popping of medicines, are some of its basic principles that help one to maintain good health over a long period.Avoiding wrong combinations is the mantra. According to the science, some foods can be consumed together and others cannot. Ideally, a breakfast of fruits, lunch with a variety of mildly cooked vegetables, tea or a light snack in the evening and a light and early dinner is what naturopathy suggests. While having fruits, sweet and sour fruits are to be eaten separately. For example, papaya, banana, and chickoos go well with each other, while sour fruits like oranges, lime, pomegranates or strawberries can be combined to ensure proper digestion. Follow this for six days a week and freak out on chaat and outside food on Sundays, giving yourself a break without feeling guilty. Teatime snacks can include khakras, mixed vegetable cutlets which are healthy options and can add spice to the routine, killing the monotony.Rest is important. Never keep it pending as it accumulates and the increased stress. Regular exercise is also important. They say that a healthy mind resides in a healthy body. To have both, you can go for naturopathy.

Source:TNN

Infrared Thermal Imaging Clinic To Add Traditional Naturopathic Services

As owner Mark Randall completes his N.D. (Doctorate of Naturopathy), Wellness Medical Imaging (WMI) gears up to add other services such as supplement coaching and cold laser. WMI already uses a highly sensitive physiological test (measuring function) that can detect developing breast cancers 6-8 years before mammography, and without any radiation. The test is called Thermography, or DITI (Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging). Thermography measure’s the body’s (skin) heat signature to reveal health, a capability not possible by most conventional (& anatomical) tests today. It is also the only test that can detect Inflammatory Breast Disease.
There is no radiation and no contact, thus no bruising, no soreness, and no inflammation or adverse cell changes caused by the procedure. It’s like taking a few pictures. The appointments only take about 20 minutes (30 minutes at first visit, including turning in pre-completed paperwork from the website), and a certified doctor’s report & color images are ready in 1-1.5 week’s time.
The test can also be done on the entire body (man/woman/child) for more insight into your health as well as many other specific applications such as stroke screening, nerve damage, unexplained pain, fibromyalgia, dental & TMJ, disc disease, injuries, sprain/strain, digestive disorders, vascular disease, thyroid dysfunction, and therapy monitoring.
The new services will provide education and council concerning nutrition and supplements as well as offer sale of several lines of whole food supplements, the primary of which will offer organic ingredients and come in glass bottles. Free classes on cancer prevention will be available. The introduction of cold laser will provide therapeutic support for skin and inflammation issues and will be self applied. These new modalities may be utilized adjunctively with thermography (using insight given from the thermograms) or ‘a la carte’ per client desire. Purely thermographic services will still be available, and can be quite useful to the client's physician of choosing. The new services will fall under a division called "Simple Wellness."
WMI Thermography is located in The Woodlands Executive Suites right next door to “IMC” (Internet Medical Clinics), also know as Medical Clinic of the Woodlands.
As the suite window reads, “30 minutes could save your life!”
 Source:Digital Journal

Ayurvedic college will be shifted to Gandhinagar

To accommodate more patients and increase the number of seats for Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) and MD in Ayurveda, the state government has decided to relocate the Government Akhandanand Ayurvedic College and Hospital.At present the hospital is located opposite Victoria garden, Ellisbridge.'It will be shifted to Kolavda village of Gandhinagar and will have 14 undergraduate and six postgraduate departments," said Dr Medha Jani, director of Indian System of Medicine and Homeopathy (ISMH).This is a much awaited decision from the state health department, as the current building of the college is unable to accommodate more seats or beds in the hospital, which is run inside the college premises. According to principal Dr GK Mansuri, the current building is too old and requires periodic maintenance after the 2001 earthquake.He also admitted that it was not possible to make any new construction on the current land or building, due to space constraints. "The seats in the college depend on the number of beds in the hospital. Since we can't increase the beds, we can't increase the student intake either," said Dr Mansuri.At present, there are 75 seats for the BAMS course and only 11 seats for the MD course in the college. Since the college has only a 120-bed hospital attached to it, the number of seats cannot be increased as per the rules of the Gujarat Ayurveda University, Jamnagar.The college currently has 14 departments in UG including panchkarma, anatomy, physiology, toxicology, pharmacy, and two departments in PG level, panchkarma and medicine.Apart from these, the state health department is planning to add four more PG departments in the new college-MD in surgery, gynecology and ENT. "Very few colleges in the state have MD in surgery or gynecology," said Dr Mansuri.According to Dr Jani, the new college will have a 400-bed hospital, which will allow almost 120 seats of BAMS and 25 seats of MD, which is double the current capacity."This new college will be built as a model Ayurvedic college for the state," she added.