Portrait on the Mantel

Osteoporosis a condition of the bones characterized by a decreasing bone density, which makes those who suffer prone to fractures especially in the hips and back. Most people who suffer from osteo do not know they have it until they have suffered a bond break. A bone scan is the only way to diagnose the disease. Approximately 25% of pose menopausal women will develop osteo.

Risk factor include family history, heavy alcohol consumption, hyperthyroidism, smoking, women of Caucasian and Asian ethnicity are some of the most common. Others at risk are those who consume a diet high acidic foods. Acidic foods cause require the body to remove calcium from the bones to maintain blood ph balance.

Calcium is a vital component of health bones, diets high in salt and sugar can contribute to an increase excretion of calcium. Avoid consuming too much of one type of food source to avoid nutritional deficiencies. Key vitamins and minerals for bone health include; magnesium, boron, silica, calcium, vitamin D, K and C. Exercise and Weight Training are key activities in preventing osteo because they increase bone density and can cause the creation of new bones.

Foods you want to exclude from you diet; sodas, adding salt, caffeine, sugars and refined carbs, diets with excessive protein, grain fed dairy products.

Foods you want to increase include more; fruits and veggies, green veggies especially good, oats, berries, potatoes, onion soup, apple, grapes, peaches, almonds and hazelnuts.

Many women especially those of my mom’s generation didn’t grow up on cardio and weight training as have women in my generation. Women of my mom’s generation did grow up eating healthier than women of my generation. However both groups of women all grew up with the strains of the perfect body. This outside stresser causes women of every generation to skimp on nutrition and avoid the types of physical activity which could steer them clear of ever worrying about developing osteo.

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There seems to be shift to a more earnest debate about the health/medical benefits of marijuana. More and more medical organizations are falling instep searching for more evidence based research pertaining to legitimate medical marijuana benefits.

The American Medical Association (AMA), has revised its position on marijuana and supports clinical research on the plant for medicinal uses. The AMA is even requesting that the federal government revise its control substance laws which make marijuana illegal.

The AMA is focusing its research on alternative methods of delivering marijuana, other than smoking for medicinal uses. Advocates of medical marijuana, have for years, stated that tetrahydrocanniabinol (THC) or hemp oil could be extracted and delivered in many forms. Tetrahydrocanniabinol has claims of being able cure cancer.

One of the major problems with wide spread research of marijuana is it classification as a Scheduled I controlled substance, which categorizes it like heroin and LSD. Although, some state do allow marijuana to be used for medical purposes, this classification makes it difficult for research to be carried out on a grand scale.

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Sleeping in a slightly dark room, one that is not totally dark, although might not keep you awake at night could lead to symptoms of depression. This according to a soon to be published study, in the Journal Behavioral Brain Research.

The study was done on mice and tested depression and anxiety, the researchers used some of the same type of test that many drug companies use to test anti-depression or anti anxiety drugs on mice before testing them on humans. In all the test the mice who had to live and sleep in constant light with no chance of spending time in darkness showed more depressive like symptoms than the animals with normal light dark cycles.

The researchers concluded that the use of artificial light at night may have harmful effects on human health; This could be an important finding for shift workers and others who watch TV into the night, which disrupts their light-dark cycle.

Researchers also added that hospitals who keep rooms lite all night could increase healing and recovery for their patients. I guess this is why sleeping with those things over your eyes are suppose to aid a sound night sleep.

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Protect your prostate by eating more pomegranates. Pomegranate juice has more free radical fighting antioxidants than any other juice. Additionally, pomegranates have been found to have cancer fighting benefits.

Research shows that pomegranate juice has chemo-prevention like properties, stating that it’s an ideal juice for both cancer prevention and treatment. This could be important because recent studies have found that patients receiving chemotherapy for prostate cancer received in unnecessarily.

Better go find me some of that Pome Juice.

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According to traditional Chinese medicine, there are 5 taste; sweet salty, sour, bitter and pungent. All 5 taste need to be eaten for optimum health. Fermented veggies have a sour taste, which corresponds to their wood element and beneficial properties for the liver and gall bladder. Eating fermented vegetables can provide overall benefits for health.

Fermentation is an excellent way to preserve food ensuring rich vitamins. They also provide the body with microflora which keeps you healthy. Healthy bacterial cultures like Lactobacillus are found readily in fermented veggies. The more microflora there are in the body, the better your receptors are at blocking exposure to dangerous bacteria and viruses. Fermented veggies are high in antioxidants and other favorable benefits:

Fermented veggies; promote digestive health, removes toxins from food and they preserve nutrients and break them down for easier digestion. Wow this was very educational for me, chalk up another one for the Raw food crowd.

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The old stereotype of the muscle head with a small brain may be born out in research published in the Journal Molecular Neurodegeneration. They compared 3 types of diets; High Protein diets caused the most significant drop in brain weight.

Researchers tested specific diets to see if they contributed to the formation of amyloid proteins in the brain, amyloid proteins is a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease.

Using rats as their subjects the researchers supplied the specimens with 4 specific diets; high fat low carbs, low fat high carbs, high protein, low carbs and a well balance diet of all nutrients. They studied the rats for 14 weeks before examining them post mortem.

With the exception of the high protein diet all the other rats displayed little difference between them. The rats fed a high protein diets brain was underdeveloped and the portion of the brain adversely affected by Alzheimer’s weighted 5% less than the others.

Researchers believe that until human studies are complete, they can not make specific recommendations as for dieting to avoid Alzheimer’s disease.

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A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that boys with low levels of Omega 3s in their diet suffered from lower bone density. Boys with lower omega 3 intake and higher omega 6 had lower bone density. Omega 6s are thought to weaken bones because of their interaction with PPAR-gamma, a receptor in the bone marrow cell, which is believed to regulate bond density and formation.

Kids typically consume more fast food or processed foods which are loaded with omega 6 vegetable oils. Unfortunately, other research has shown that children who drink milk regularly have lower bone density as oppose to those who rarely or never drink milk.

This could be explained by the fact that most regular grocery store milk come from dairy cows that are fed grains, which are loaded with omega 6. Conversely, dairy cows who are graze in pastures produce milk with a higher omega 3s.

So let the rush begin to the store for bone thickening organic milk.

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According to a study conducted by Tufts Medical Center and the University of Bern, statin drugs may cause long term muscle damage that last long after the drugs have been stopped.

Researchers found signs of muscle damage in 25 of the myopathy patients, including the majority of those patients who’ve stopped using the drugs. In clinical practice the majority of patients with muscle symtoms improve rapidly the drugs have stopped being used. The finds showed that another group of patients appear to be more susceptible to statin associated myotoxicity, suffered persistent structural injury.

In this study researchers performed muscle biopsies on patients, 1/2were taking statin and experienced severe myapothy enough to interfere with exercise and daily activities.  Half of those suffering severe myopathy had ceased using the drug while others were still taking the statin drugs.

Researchers are unsure as to why statin use leads to myopathy in some, they know that certain factors may increase risk; including drug doses, age, exercise regiment or combining certain other drugs with the statin drugs.

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Watching TV before bedtime has been shown to contribute to chronic health problems, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania.  Sleeplessness contributes to major health problems such as obesity, heart disease and depression.

Most expert agree adults need about 8 hours of sleep per night, while almost 1/2 fail to meet this goal.  One possible cause for this lack of sleep is researchers have found that approximately 70% of participants in a recent study spent the 2 hours preceeding bedtime watching TV.

Researchers say, Americans set their sleep time based on the time their final TV program ends rather than when they’re sleepy. This means that many Americans are essentially choosing to sleep less.  Therefore, by sleeping less Americans are contributing to  major chronic health problems which could be avoided by making different lifestyle choices.

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By now most people have heard that exercise does the body good.  Benefits from exercise are such as improve mood function, prevention of major chronic diseases like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, osteroporosis and type II diabetes.

Additionally, exercise can assist the more than 1/2 Americans who are overweight or obese lose weight.

Hypnosis is a beneficial tool to establish a daily exercise routine.  Hypnosis along with neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) techniques has been shown to improve mental behaviors toward exercising regularly. One of the most common complains of those attempting to maintain an exercise routine is will power.  Hypnosis can combat the lack of motivation and procrastination in regards to exercise.

I have had clients who has used hypnosis to help them stop smoking or to improve other aspects of their life, why not exercise. Although some may see this a radical intervention, but with catastrophic health consequences of a nation growing steadily overweight maybe its time to consider all possibilities.

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