I recently wrote a paper summing up the negative effects of vitamin C supplements.  This morning I read a new study on vitamin C and cataracts.  The study found that women age 65 and up who supplement with vitamin C has a 38% increased risk for developing cataracts!

Eat food!  That is the secret to optimum nutrition.  Supplements should be food based.  Taking labratory produced antioxidants to try and substitute for nature's bounty just doesn't work. 

Read the study here.

New research shows that pynogenol, an extract from pine bark, significantly decreases pain and inflammation related to arthritis.  The study followed 156 patients with painful arthritis of the knee; 77 were given 100mg of pycnogenol per day, while the remaining 79 were given a placebo.  After 3 months the treatment group outperformed the placebo group with less pain, increased walking distance, less edema (swelling) in the foot, and 58% less anti-inflammatory use.  

A follow-up to that study found large reductions in CRP (an inflammatory marker in the blood), fibrinigen (an indicator of inflammation and fibrosis), and free radicals following pycnogenol use (read the study here).

Keeping in mind that the diseases that plague modern man are all associated with inflammation and free radical production, on would expect pycnogenol to be helpful in other disorders as well.  A review of the literature over just the recent pasts reveals the following (you can click each topic to read the research): pycnogenol is very effective in the treatment of diabetes, fertility disorders, ADD/ADHD, and dementia (pycnogenol improves memory).

Read the study on knee arthritis.

Another study shows no benefit of aspirin in preventing cardiovascular disease.  The new study published in the British Medical Journal found that aspirin did nothing to prevent risk of cardiovascular disease (stroke or heart attack) in people with diabetes (read the study).  The study also found no benefit from taking supplemental antioxidant pills containing vitamin C, E, B vitamins, and zinc.  This is not surprising if you’ve read my article on Antioxidants, which explains why food based antioxidants are far superior to man-made pills.

If you or someone you know takes aspirin for health reasons please read the article.  Here is a link to another article on aspirin—in it they found a 60-80% increase in stroke in women who use aspirin, and an increase in certain types of stroke in men. 

If you want to decrease your chances of having cardiovascular problems, taking a high quality, purified fish oil is your best bet.  If you want to decrease damage caused by stroke consider using Gingko and/or Ashwagandha.

Curcumin, an extract from turmeric, has can be used to combat osteoporosis.  Curcumin has been extensively researched for cancer prevention, improving immune function, heart protection, and anti-inflammatroy effects.  A recent study may add bone-health to the list of reaseons to supplement with curcumin.  The study involved removing the ovaries form female rats.  This produces hormonal changes similar to those in post-menopausal women--specifically, estrogen production drops off.  Since estrogen is necessary for bone health, the rats developed osteoporosis.  The researchers then tried supplementing a similar group of rats with curcumin, and their bone density increased!  They concluded "Curcumin produces beneficial changes in bone turnover and increases in bone strength using the ovariectomized mature rat model of postmenopausal osteoporosis."

Please visit my Osteoporosis Page for more information on how to build bone health holistically!  Also note that in my store I have a product that combines the bone building effects of whey protein with curcumin.  I highly recommend it for bone health.

Read the study here. 

New research sheds more light on how Andrographis Paniculata benefits your health.  You'll recall from previous blogs that Andrographis is the most beneficial herb known for the treatment and prevention of cold and flu.  Several studies done over the past few months show that Andrographis causes your body to produce more glutathione--your body's most powerful antioxidant and detoxifier.  For more on Glutathione read my Antioxidant Article.  Glutathione powerfully protects your body from free radicals and helps you to process and and excrete toxins.

One of the new studies showed that the increased glutathione levels from Andrographis supplementation provide protection to your heart after a heart attack (read the study), and another shows that it protects the liver from injury (read the study).

This powerful herb should be in every medicine cabinet.  It is extremely bitter as a powder--I carry an excellent pill-extract in my webstore--check it out. 

There has been a huge body of research in the past decade as to the relationship between the circulatory system and depression.  Here's what we know:

• There is a strong relationship between heart disease and depression.
• Inflammation is strongly related to depression.
• Many supplements that are good for circulation/inflammation are also helpful with depression, especially fish oil.

There are two reasons that come to mind for these relationships:

1. A poor circulatory system causes poor blood flow to the brain and more "silent infarcts".  It is actually considered normal now to have many small areas of dead brain tissue on MRI!  I have had several patients bring in brain MRI's showing these multiple infarcts with the explanation "my doctor said it is normal with aging."  The only reason its considered normal is that it happens to most Americans.  This line of reasoning could leave one to believe that being fat, having heart disease, and being depressed is "normal".  When your brain is less active, it becomes less effective at inhibiting, or "turning down" your sympathetic, or "fight or flight" system.  This can lead to chronic stress and depression.
2. A poorly functioning circulatory system and inflammation go hand in hand.  For regular readers, you know that the root of heart disease is inflammation, not cholesterol, and that fish oil (a potent anti-inflammatory) is helpful in the treatment of virtually all degenerative disease (read my article on omega-3's ).  Inflammatory chemicals have receptors in your brain that promote "sickness behavior"--this means lying in bed and being generally cranky.  This occurs so that if you have an injury that is undergoing an inflammatory process you'll engage in behaviors that help you to heal.  With chronic inflammation, however, the end-result is depression.

So here's what you can do with this information:

• Learn to avoid inflammatory foods and use a high dose fish oil like the one in my store (read more on how and why here).
• Exercise--putting demand on your system is necessary to improve your circulatory system--read more on my exercise page.
  
• Use potent brain antioxidants--read my Antioxidant article to find out how to do this safely.
• See your chiropractor--chiropractic adjustments affect your nervous system to produce balance.  It has been show that chiropractic can reduce inflammatory chemicals in your body, reduce blood pressure, and promote balance in your brain.

A new study sheds some light on the healing benefits of prayer, yoga and meditation.  Researchers had healthy adults in the Indian military either practice normal physical training for six months, or practice prayer, breathing exercises, yoga postures, and meditation for 6 months.  Both groups were evaluated for antioxidant status before and after the 6 month intervention.

At six months the yoga group had a significant increase in antioxidant status, whereas the physical training group had a significant decrease in antioxidant status!  It is important to remember the power of the ancient practices of breath, prayer, and yoga.  Breathing Exercises have been shown to cause beneficial changes in hormone profiles, decrease stress, normalize brain function, and increase cardiovascular fitness.  Yoga Postures have been shown to create a host of benefits including increased bone density, increased strength, increases in cardiovascular health, and decreaces in musculoskeletal problems such as back pain and  carpal tunnel syndrome.  Prayer has been demonstrated to have multiple healing benefits for the practitioner and for society in general. 

Never underestimate the power of these tools!

Read the study here.

A new study demonstrates that supplementing with vitamin C actually decreases athletic performance.  Its a great study because the authors actually figured out why they got the results they did--here's the synopsis:

The researchers took a group of "healthy, sedentary men" and divided them into 2 groups.  Group A did routine aerobic exercise for 8 weeks and took no supplements.  Group B did the same workout program, but took 1 gram (1,000 milligrams--what you find in one "emergen-C") of vitamin C.

The researchers measured a key marker of endurance fitness called the VO2max before and after the study.  Here are the results:

• The group that did not take vitamin C improved 22%
• The group that took vitamin C improved 10.8%

Put another way, the group that took the vitamin C achieved less than half of the gains that the other group experienced!  The interesting part is why, and here it is in a large nutshell.

Exercise in and of itself creates free radicals.  These free radicals then trigger the body to make 2 major antioxidant enzymes: superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase.  These two antioxidants are incredibly powerful neutralizers of free radicals and they appear to be part of a signaling system that causes the body to make mitochondria.  Mitochondria, in turn, are the "energy factories" of our cells.  Increasing their numbers gives us further ability to create energy for endurance.  The researchers in this study found that taking vitamin C inhibited the body's natural antioxidant pathways  as well as the creation of new mitochondria.  So the bottom line is: if you take vitamin C you decrease your body's natural antioxidant defense system and literally sabatage your capacity to create energy.  Here's the scary part--millions of Americans are taking 1,000mg of vitamin C every day without even thinking about.  We have a surge of fatigue-related diseases such as chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.  Ironically, these very populations are the ones often taking more vitamin C because they think its good for them!

Please read my Antioxidant Article to get a better understanding of how to increase your antioxidant status.  You just can't substitute for whole foods!  Pill-form antioxidants are killing you!

Read the study here.

More and more research demonstrates that we are living in a mercury-toxic environment.  Fish, seafood, seaweed (kelp, dulse, etc), and many vaccinations are all sources of methylmercury (methylmercury is a form of mercury that is readily absorbed by body tissues that acts as a neurotoxin).

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently performed an experiment with profound results.  The researchers exposed rats to mercury, then supplemented the rats with N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), an amino acid that raises your body’s glutathione levels (read more about glutathione in my Antioxidant Article and on the Whey Protein page).  Astonishingly, after the dose of NAC the rats excreted 5% of the mercury load in their urine within 2 hours!  More impressively, they found that in pregnant rats “NAC markedly reduced the body burden of Methylmercury, particularly in target tissues such as brain, placenta, and fetus.”

The authors prefaced the study “Many people, by means of consumption of seafood or other anthropogenic sources, are exposed to levels of methylmercury (MeHg) that are generally considered to be quite low, but that may nevertheless produce irreversible brain damage, particularly in unborn babies. The only way to prevent or ameliorate MeHg toxicity is to enhance its elimination from the body.”

How does it work?  NAC is a very effective way to raise glutathione levels in your body—glutathione is your body’s main detoxifier and antioxidant.  Elevated glutathione levels increase the amount of mercury that you excrete.

In my store you will find an excellent NAC product called “Complete Glutathione”—check it out.  I recommend using this product as directed for 2 weeks, the using it for the first 3-4 days of every month.  Glutathione levels can be kept high throughout the month by using Undenatured Whey Protein daily (also available in my store).

Read the full-text study here.

We have another link (in addition to pesticides and herbicides) to diet and development of Parkinson's disease.  A new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that people who eat a "prudent" diet--one high in fruits,vegetables, and fish significantly lowered risk of Parkinson's disease.  People eating a standard Western diet ("...characterized by high intakes of red meats, processed meats, refined grains, French fries, desserts and sweets, and high-fat dairy products.") had a greatly increased risk of Parkinson's disease.  Specifically, the prudent diet resulted in a 22% reduction in Parkinson's.

 We need to take care of our bodies and brains, and what's good for one is good for the other.  Parkinson's is  essentially an oxidative process that takes place in an area of your brain called the substantia nigra.  Free radicals are caused by poor antioxidant status--please read this article on how to better your antioxidant status.  Free radicals flock to damaged brain tissue like lawyers to rich people who want a divorce.  We know of several ways brain tissue can be damaged, some obvious, and some not--here's the short list:

1. Chronic stress elevates cortisol levels--this eventually damages your brain.
2. Excitotoxins--aspartame, MSG, etc....read the book Exitotoxins: The Taste That Kills.
3. Physical trauma--don't take up boxing.
4. Mercury, lead, PCB's, herbicides and pesticides--check out the environmental pollutants page.

Lastly, read my paper on Parkinson's if you have Parkinson's--there are very effective alternative treatments that may be appropriate for you.

Read the study here.