Seanol Super Food

The super-antioxidant from the sea that can undo years
of damage to your heart, brain, joints and nerves

This astonishing healing discovery is up to 100 times more potent than blueberries, pomegranates, and even green tea catechins.

By Robert J. Rowen, MD

SecondOpinionNewsletter.com 

What if I told you that one simple nutrient can improve your cholesterol, boost circulation, enhance memory and mental sharpness, and even help you sleep better?

You’d probably be skeptical. I certainly was…

But then I saw the research from Dr. Haengwoo Lee, a Korean biochemist now living near Seattle, Washington, and my jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

Dr. Lee has made a startling discovery that few people, even many alternative health doctors, know about. He and his team have found an antioxidant that’s up to 100 times stronger than the familiar antioxidants vitamins C and E, antioxidant-rich fruits like blueberries, pomegranates and even green tea catechins.

I’ll tell you what it is in a moment. But first, let’s take a look at what this amazing “super-antioxidant” can do for your health. For starters, it can…Revive damaged arteries and improve blood flow in just 6 weeks

As you may know, your body has special cells called endothelium that line the insides of your arteries and veins. Endothelium generate a chemical called nitric oxide (NO), which keeps your artery walls open, relaxed and healthy.

In a clinical study, researchers looked at patients with damaged artery walls. This artery damage was restricting blood flow and causing heart troubles. But after taking this nutrient for just 6 weeks, their arterial health markedly improved. Blood flow increased by more than 50% — confirming this nutrient’s ability to support healthier circulation.

If it can improve blood flow so dramatically in people with damaged arteries, imagine what it can do for you. And that’s not all…Improve cholesterol and support your cardiovascular health.

You probably know that many heart problems are not due to cholesterol alone, as the statin peddlers want us to believe. Damage to your heart and artery walls is often determined by how your body handles cholesterol.

In other words, you don’t want the “bad” LDL cholesterol in your arteries to oxidize. Oxidizing means reacting with oxygen, such as when iron “rusts.” When LDL oxidizes, it can damage the endothelial lining of your arteries.

But this super-antioxidant inhibits the oxidation of LDL cholesterol. Just imagine the healthy effect that can have on your heart and circulatory system.

In fact, in one study, researchers gave this nutrient to 39 adults (average age 55) for six weeks. Patients’ average cholesterol level dropped. Their hard-to-raise “good” HDL rose from 46.5 to 50.7 (highly significant). It’s very unusual for a natural supplement to raise HDL like this.

What’s more, their triglycerides fell from 215 to 195. And the atherogenic index (a key measurement of atherosclerosis) dropped a whopping 12.5%. All this with no lifestyle changes!

This little-known antioxidant is an extract of compounds found in red and brown sea algae called Ecklonia Cava. Ecklonia Cava grows at a depth of 100 feet off the coast of Korea and Japan. Researchers have named this brown seaweed extract Seanol.

Seanol has a unique molecular structure that gives it a big advantage over any antioxidant found on earth. You see, the power of an antioxidant depends on its structure, which is made up of rings.

Antioxidants use these rings to capture rogue electrons and neutralize free-radicals. The more rings an antioxidant has, the better it works.

For instance, resveratrol from grapes has 2 rings. Most land-based antioxidants (called polyphenols) have 3 interconnected rings. Green tea catechins have 4. But the ring structure of all these polyphenols pales in comparison to Seanol.

Seanol has 8 interconnected rings. That makes Seanol a veritable electron-trapping, free-radical killing machine! It’s like getting 10 servings of fruits and vegetables in a single nutrient.

You may have also heard that scientists measure antioxidant power with something called the ORAC scale. It’s short for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. The more free radicals a substance traps, the higher the ORAC score.

Nutritionists recommend that we consume around 5000 ORAC units per day to significantly reduce free radical damage. One serving (half a cup) of most fruits or vegetables gives you roughly 500 ORAC units — one-tenth your daily minimum.

But Seanol has an ORAC score of more than 8,300. That’s like getting your entire day’s worth of antioxidant protection in a single nutrient!

Seanol has another big advantage over what you might be taking now.

Virtually all land-based antioxidants (polyphenols) are water-soluble. Water-soluble antioxidants have a hard time penetrating your blood-brain barrier, to protect your brain cells.

But Seanol is 40% fat-soluble. That means it has a greater ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and protect the cells of your brain. In fact, it can more easily penetrate the membranes of all your cells, to give them the antioxidant protection they need.

Being fat-soluble also means that Seanol has a much longer active life in your body. Up to 12 full hours. While most water-soluble, plant-based polyphenols like blueberries and pomegranates are expelled through your urine in just 30 minutes. This means Seanol may be working inside your body up to 24 times longer.

All these advantages give Seanol up to 100 times more free-radical scavenging power than ordinary land-based polyphenols. Far more than even the popular green tea catechins.

I’ve already mentioned how Seanol can cross the blood-brain barrier, because it is 40% fat-soluble, unlike other antioxidants. Now let’s see how well it works inside your brain.

Your memory is dependent on the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh). In lab tests, Seanol increased rodent ACh by 140% in brain regions responsible for learning and memory. And it did this after just 7 days of treatment! There’s more…

Your carotid arteries feed your brain. One group of researchers found that Seanol increases the velocity of blood flow in this important artery from an average of 36.68 cm/sec. to 40.09 cm/sec. The placebo group showed no improvement at all.

A good night’s sleep is essential for weight loss, immune support, and your overall health. Here’s where Seanol shines again.

When researchers gave Seanol to 36 participants in an 8-week study, the results were startling. Seanol cut the time it took for participants to fall asleep by 47 minutes. It increased total nighttime sleep by 1.6 hours. It improved soundness of sleep by 80%. It even boosted their energy level by 71%. Patients given the placebo showed no improvement.

You can get Seanol as this formula at Emerson Ecologics

FibroBoost 400 mg 75 vcaps (FIB12)

Strawberries — more than just a powerful cholesterol fighter

from Dr. Robert Rowen’s www.SecondOpinionNewsletter.com

A few weeks ago, I told you about the powerful cholesterol-lowering abilities of strawberries. As you may know, I love strawberries. Actually, I love berries in general. They’re my favorite fruits. Now we find out that strawberries might be a powerhouse cancer preventive and treatment.

An Ohio State University study found that strawberry powder caused precancerous esophageal lesions to regress. Of 29 patients, 26 had large reductions in the malignancy grading of lesions.

This is good news for an otherwise bleak cancer. Only 8% of patients make it five years past diagnosis. It’s the sixth leading cause of worldwide cancer death. Here is a totally safe, nutritious, and inexpensive means of preventing it.

If you have acid reflux, you’re at increased risk. If you’ve ever been told you have Barrett’s esophagus, you are at very high risk. But I feel certain that the benefits of strawberries don’t just stop with the esophagus. This fruit has bioflavonoids that can attack cancer metabolism in several points. Consider adding other super fruits to your diet. These include pomegranates, acai berries, and gogi. All of these are readily available.

The strawberry powder used here was a 10x concentrate. But I have no doubt that fresh strawberries will prevent it just as well, especially if you eat as many as I do. Remember, strawberries are one of the most heavily sprayed crops, so be sure that any product you use is organic. For a list of residual pesticides go to http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/

Couch Potatoes 

from: healthiernews.com

It’s the couch potato — and while no one doubts that plugging your meat in a seat is unhealthy at any age, a new study finds that little kids who watch the most TV already have the earliest signs of heart disease.

Australian researchers randomly selected 1,492 6-year-olds from 34 schools in the Sydney area, and asked the kids’ parents to fill out questionnaires on how much time each day the children spent watching TV, using a computer, and playing outside.

They found that the average kid spent just 36 minutes a day being physically active… and nearly TWO HOURS a day parked in front of a screen, according to the study in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association (try saying that five times fast).

Then, the researchers photographed the arteries in the backs of the children’s eyes, and found that the couch potatoes had narrower blood vessels — and that each hour of tube time lead to a narrowing of 1.53 microns.

That’s a number so small it’s impossible to picture — but in real-world terms, it’s enough to raise systolic blood pressure readings by 10 mmHg.

The researchers say they have no idea what this means for children, and plan to follow these kids to see what happens as they age.

But we don’t need a study to know that narrow blood vessels lead to increased heart risk in adults. If that process is starting years earlier — in kindergarten! — the long-term news can’t possibly be good.

That’s not the only problem with TVs, computers and video games. Other studies have linked glowing screens to sleep issues, developmental problems and even stupidity — especially if your kid is inclined to mimic wrestling moves or cartoon stunts when he does go outside.

I know most kids would react to a TV-free home as if they’d been sentenced to Alcatraz… but that’s the best way to make sure your child is safe.

And if you can’t quite kick the tube to the curb, at least curb the number of hours your kids spend watching it.

4 powerful new uses for green tea

from… SecondOpinionNewsletter.com

If you’re not drinking tea every day, I just found two new studies that give even more reasons to make it a priority. I’ve told you in the past how tea can help prevent colon cancer, reduce inflammation, improve your memory, and even lower your cholesterol. But these two studies show tea’s protection goes a lot further.

In the first study, researchers found that drinking green or black tea every day may prevent ischemic stroke. Three or more cups per day reduced the risk by 21% in a meta analysis. While this type of study is not as good as a randomized, prospective clinical study, it supports everything else we know about the flavonoids in tea.

The second meta-analysis found green tea (two cups per day) may reduce the risk of lung cancer by 18%.

As for green tea’s ability to fight inflammation, the third study I found says this applies to your gums as well. That means it can fight periodontal disease. Gum disease is simply inflammation in your gums that leads to bleeding, deep gum pockets around your teeth, loose teeth, and infection. A Japanese study found that every one-cup-per-day increase in green tea intake decreases gum-pocket depth, average clinical attachment loss, and bleeding on probing. Here I would recommend the tea itself to bathe the tissues in its powerful phytochemicals.

The fourth study followed 20 obese men. They took 300 mg of ECGC, the catechin found in green tea, every day. Compared to a placebo group, the ECGC stimulated fat oxidation, the process by which you burn off fat.

Tea is simply loaded with beneficial plant chemicals. The leaves use these chemicals to protect themselves from the sun. These chemicals are extraordinarily helpful in reducing inflammation in your body.

Regarding green tea specifically, a mentor of mine pointed out that the nature of the flavonoids in green tea cause them to act as a beneficial antioxidant in normal cells, but as a pro-oxidant in cancer cells. That’s because of a deranged metabolism in the cancer cell. This process may explain the killing effect it has on cancer.

I suggest you drink two to three cups of green tea daily. Or you can find supplements that are green tea extracts many products may contain 750 mg of green tea, the amount needed to burn fat in the fourth study. This dose is equivalent in power to 10 cups of green tea.

To protect your gums from periodontal disease, I recommend the tea itself. It can bathe the tissues in its powerful phytochemicals. This delivers the nutrients right where you need them.

Taurine

From Dr Janson’s Healthy Living http://www.drjanson.com

Ever since my heart surgery in 2003 to replace a congenitally defective aortic valve (you can read about this in the newsletter of April, 2003), I have had rare episodes of atrial fibrillation lasting for a few hours, perhaps once a year, but this unusually cool winter altered my exercise schedule and immune function, and the arrhythmia recurred several times a week for about two months (and occasionally several times a day), and was causing fatigue and general discomfort.

I have known about the value of the amino acid L-taurine in treating arrhythmias for some time, and often take it as a supplement. With some further research, I came across an article suggesting much higher doses of taurine for managing atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias, and I decided to try this treatment along with other supplements.

The atrium (specifically, the sinus node) is where the regular heartbeat is initiated, and if the atrium is not beating normally, as in fibrillation, the ventricular rhythm is thrown off. In many cases (as in mine) there are periods of rapid heart rate and palpitations. If the atrium does not beat, about 30 percent less blood gets into the ventricle for pumping to the muscles, impairing exercise capacity and causing shortness of breath.

I have treated a number of patients with atrial fibrillation with taurine and magnesium, including intravenous doses. After reading this new report on taurine, I increased my oral dose to 9 to 15 grams per day, and treated myself with intravenous taurine and magnesium (along with vitamin C and B complex vitamins) and several EDTA chelation solutions. In addition, I took high doses of magnesium orally, and now my heart rhythm is back to normal. After this, I went back and reviewed several articles on taurine.

In 1987, researchers reported on a study of 19 young patients with borderline hypertension. They administered 6000 mg of taurine orally daily for 7 days in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. The taurine-treated group had an average drop in systolic blood pressure (the first, higher number) of 9 points. Their diastolic pressure (the lower number) dropped by 4 points. The placebo group had just a 2.7 drop in systolic pressure (the power of placebo) and a 1.2 point drop in diastolic pressure. (Fujita, T., et al. Effects of increased adrenomedullary activity and taurine in young patients with borderline hypertension. Circulation. 75(3):525-532, 1987.)

This research confirmed what had been noted in previous studies in rats. The researchers also noted that stress hormones were reduced by taurine treatment in humans, just as they were in rats. The baseline plasma epinephrine level (Adrenalin) was higher in the hypertensive patients than in normals, and it dropped significantly with the active treatment.

Young patients are often treated with medication for hypertension, and they are told they need to be on the drugs for the rest of their lives, but lifestyle changes and supplements can almost always totally eliminate the need for these treatments. (Many of the patients do not take their medications because of side effects, but they are not taught the proper diet, exercise, and supplement programs that might help (coenzyme Q10, magnesium, omega-3 oils, hawthorn), and they often do not tell their doctors that they are not taking the drugs.)

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Taurine is also beneficial in the management of congestive heart failure (CHF). In CHF, the heart muscle is too weak to pump out as much blood as it needs to, resulting in fluid congestion in the tissues. CHF has a variety of causes. In a double-blind study of 14 patients published in 1985, half were treated with taurine along with conventional treatment, and half were given placebo. (Azuma, J, Therapeutic effect of taurine in congestive heart failure: A double-blind crossover trial. Clinical Cardiology. 8(5):276-82, 1985.)

Those subjects on the taurine were clinically improved and ventricular function was enhanced. None of the patients on the active treatment worsened during the treatment, but four of those on placebo deteriorated. During taurine administration, no side effects were noted.

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In 1983, researchers studied 24 patients with CHF in another double-blind trial using 4000 mg of taurine per day. They were evaluated by clinical signs and symptoms as well as the New York Heart Association functional classification, a common standard for monitoring CHF. (Azuma, J., et al. Therapy of congestive heart failure with orally administered taurine. Clin Ther 5(4):398-408, 1983.)

After eight weeks, 19 of the 24 patients on taurine were improved. Of the 15 patients on taurine who were classified as NYHA class III or IV at the start of the study, 13 were designated as class II at the end of the 8 weeks. This was a highly significant improvement from relatively serious CHF to only mild impairment, and very unusual with single nutrient treatment, although coenzyme Q10 offers similar benefits.

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In a study of rat hearts, researchers compared treatment with taurine to hearts that were subjected to the same low-oxygen stresses but not treated. Taurine protected the tissue from ventricular fibrillation (much more serious than atrial fibrillation). The incidence of ventricular fibrillation was reduced from 86 percent in the control hearts to just 16 percent in the hearts that were treated with taurine throughout the stress period. (Chahine R, Feng J, Protective effects of taurine against reperfusion-induced arrhythmias in isolated ischemic rat heart. Arzneimittelforschung 1998 Apr;48(4):360-4).

The researchers also evaluated the effect of taurine on indicators of lipid peroxidation, which corresponded to heart muscle damage. The indicator molecule, malondialdehyde, was significantly reduced with the taurine treatment. In addition, taurine decreased the frequency of ventricular premature beats and rapid heart rates, acting both as a free radical scavenger and a membrane stabilizer. Both of these effects strongly suggest its value in treatment of arrhythmias.

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In a report of case studies, researchers presented a hypothesis for how taurine might work for elimination of cardiac arrhythmias. They included in their subjects those with a variety of arrhythmias, including premature beats, atrial fibrillation, and pauses. They treated with either taurine, or a combination of taurine with another amino acid, L-arginine. (Eby G, Halcomb WW, Elimination of cardiac arrhythmias using oral taurine with l-arginine with case histories: Hypothesis for nitric oxide stabilization of the sinus node. Med Hypotheses. 2006;67(5):1200-4.)

This report is on only three subjects (with premature atrial contractions (PACs), premature ventricular contractions (PVCs), atrial fibrillation (AF), and tachycardia (rapid heart rate), and palpitations), but the results were striking and in accord with the theoretical information already available in laboratory, animal, and some human studies. They treated the patients with 10 to 20 grams of taurine per day and found a 50 percent reduction in PACs and elimination of PVCs, but not pauses.

When they added 4 to 6 grams of arginine per day, the PACs were eliminated as well as all pauses. In the patient with heavy palpitations and AF, 95 percent of symptoms were eliminated by taking 4 grams of taurine three times per day, and the remaining symptoms disappeared with the addition of one gram of arginine with each dose. They noted that fish oils can provide similar benefits.

Tachycardia and palpitations can be exhausting and uncomfortable, and can disrupt sleep. As a result of these reports, I started taking 3-4 grams of taurine three to four times a day. I also gave myself 100 mg of taurine with magnesium intravenously several times a week. This all occurred over a 10 week period, and I was able to eliminate all of my arrhythmias. I am now down to a maintenance dose of six grams of taurine orally per day. I never needed to add the arginine, but as a precursor of nitric oxide it is a valuable treatment in itself.

One case such as my own does not constitute research, but my experience is worth noting, as taurine is a safe nutrient produced in the body, with no reports of toxicity. It is possible that my symptoms simply disappeared with improvement in the weather, or the elimination of a virus (a relatively mild attack of herpes zoster that seemed to coincide with the onset of the AF, and for which I added much higher doses of vitamin C to my IV treatments).

The physicians that I saw did not suggest any relationship with stress (cold weather) or the virus, and all of the tests and monitors offered no solutions. I was told only that the abnormal sinus function would get worse over time, and they wanted to treat me with a drug but could not because they either lower blood pressure (mine is already very low) or heart rate (mine is already at 44 beats per minute). Fortunately, I have found a solution that might help other patients also.

Acupuncture-related technique, Moxibustion, Beneficial in Rectifying Breech Presentation During Pregnancy

Keywords:

PREGNANCY, FETAL BREECH PRESENTATION, C-SECTION, CAESAREAN SECTION – Acupuncture, Chinese Medicine, Moxibustion, BL-67, BL67

Reference:

“Cost-effectiveness of breech version by acupuncture-type interventions on BL 67, including moxibustion, for women with a breech foetus at 33 weeks gestation: a modelling approach,” van den Berg I, Kaandorp GC, et al, Complement There Med, 2010; 18(2): 67-77. (Address: Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: ineke.vandenberg@erasmusmc.nl ).

Summary:

In a study designed to determine the effectiveness and finances associated with using acupuncture and the acupuncture-related technique, moxibustion on the acupoint BL-67, in turning a fetus in a breech presentation to a normal healthy vertex position in women at 33 weeks of gestation, this acupuncture related treatment was found to significantly reduce the number of babies who presented as breech at full term, therefore reducing the number of C-sections, thereby proving to be a very cost-effective treatment as compared to “expectant management,” including the use of external cephalic version. While 50% of women who underwent “expectant management” ended up having C-section, a significantly lower 37% of women who underwent the acupuncture-moxibustion treatment ended up having C-sections. Furthermore, according to sensitivity analysis, the authors found that if 16% or more of women who were offered moxibustion treatment complied, it would have proven to be significantly more effective and less costly than expectant management. Analysis revealed that 7 women would have had to have used the acupuncture-moxibustion treatment in order to prevent 1 C-section. These results suggest that the very simple and safe treatment of the acupuncture-associated technique, moxibustion given to women starting at 33 weeks gestation whose fetus presents as breech, may significantly reduce the likelihood of having a breech presentation at full term, may reduce the risk of C-section, and is a cost-effective treatment.

Nick’s Comment: This point at the outer base of the little toe nail and it can also be stimulated several times a day with simple finger nail pressure. I have shown this technique to several expectant mothers and also have shown them how to treat the point with an acupuncture needle and moxibustion.

EXPIRATION DATES

We’ve all been there: You open the fridge, reach for the milk, and notice the date on the carton says it expired yesterday. You gingerly sniff the carton, fully expecting to be overwhelmed by noxious fumes but instead all you can smell is . . . milk.

According to University of Minnesota food scientist Ted Labuza (who spoke to Slate), perishables like milk and meat have a three- to seven-day grace period after the expiration date, assuming you are a normal person and store said perishables in the fridge and not, say, the sauna. The fact is, the “sell by” date that appears on that questionable gallon of milk serves as a guideline for stores on when they should pull products from their shelves — not when you should indulge in a last sip. Rather than being an indicator of the product’s safety span, the date implies when a food’s quality — its taste, aroma and appearance — would be at peak conditions.

What’s even more confusing is the lack of consistency in “open dating” descriptors and regulations on labeling. In addition to “sell by,” certain products contain “best if used by (or before),” to indicate peak quality, “use by,” to establish a finite don’t-ingest-after-this-date or simply the jumble of numbers that is a “closed date,” for those long-living shelved goods.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration requires that an expiration date appear on only infant formula, which must contain the quantity of nutrients described on its label. Milk — so widely known for its spoiling — is not uniformly regulated, but is handled on a state by state basis. Manufacturers perform stress tests on milk to determine an expiration date, ranging from 15 to 21 days post-pasteurization. Only certain states, indicated in the chart below, mandate a specific “sell by” date, with a handful falling short of that 15-day manufacturer-determined minimum.

New York City is notoriously the only city which contains its own regulation on milk dating; there are no requirements for the state at large. The debate rages as to whether this separate date is due to longer unloading times during delivery or improper store storage temperatures. But if you’ve ever tried to move into an apartment building in Manhattan at 4:30pm on a weekday like one of our Slashfood writers, you’d probably guess it’s the former.

With all this talk about milk, you’re probably wondering how to factor in expiration dates on all those other perishable foods you buy? Pay close attention to meat, which should be cooked or frozen within two days of purchase. If you freeze that ground beef or rack of lamb, be sure to cook them within 3 months or 12 months, respectively. Cold cuts, which can contain an organism called listeria, should be consumed by their use by dates.

Other foods offer some more wiggle room, though. You’ll get a few weeks out of hard cheeses — which is good to know, considering how stinky they can be outright. Interestingly, the United States Department of Agriculture found that eggs refrigerated at an optimal 27 degrees are safe for up to four to five weeks past their expiration. As you’d expect, you’ll have the most leeway with dry goods. Pasta and rice is fine for a year. Unopened packages of cookies are good for a few months (though we wonder who has packets of cookies that sit around unopened for months?) and canned goods are safe for at least five years: perfect if there’s a major catastrophe that keeps you housebound for . . . years. But beware of cans that are dented or rusted, as rust signifies tiny pin holes that can provide an entrance point for bacteria.

In the end, the best “use by” detector is planted firmly in the middle of your face. If it smells suspicious, it’s best to chuck it; if it smells okay then it’s usually fine.

Fish Oil lowers risk for dementia

from www.SecondOpinionNewsletter.com

Did you know that a supplement you’re probably already taking can cut your risk of dementia by 39% or more?

You probably already know that omega-3 fatty acids are great for your heart, your colon, and your lungs. But a new study suggests they’re also a great way to protect yourself from dementia.

A study followed 1,214 subjects for four years. At the start of the study, none of the participants had dementia. During the four years, 65 developed dementia. Having a high EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) level reduced that risk by 31% regardless of depression. Higher arachidonic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid that can cause inflammation) compared to another omega-3 fatty acid called DHA raised the risk 39%. And the omega-6 fatty acid was particularly devastating to those with depression.

Omega fatty acids must be in balance. A natural human diet will contain from 4:1 to 2:1 omega 6 to omega 3. The average American intake is 6:1 or greater. This can be very pro-inflammatory, which is a huge risk for Alzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases.

There are many ways to increase your omega-3 fatty acids. The best way is to eat a diet rich in chia seeds, flax seeds, cold water fish from Alaska (or other northern waters), and also take supplements. Fish oil supplements, are a great way to get omega-3 fatty acids.

Resveratrol could replace HRT from http://www.wrightnewsletter.com

You’re no stranger to the hazards associated with HRT–the increased risk of breast cancer being just one of them. Some women feel there’s no choice, though–I have family members who won’t give up this risky conventional treatment. The symptoms of menopause are just too much for them to handle, they say.

But as more dangers are uncovered, more safe and natural alternatives are also being brought to light.

And now there’s another one to add to the list.

Resveratrol. That’s right–the miracle substance in grape skins and red wine that could increase our longevity could also replace dangerous HRT and help prevent breast cancer, according to new research.

You see, resveratrol is a phytoestrogen like red clover and lignans (found in soy, berries, and others). Phytoestrogens are nothing new– numerous studies have shown they can reduce cancer risk and help your heart. And resveratrol could prove a very powerful phytoestrogen.

The study, the results of which were published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, demonstrated the high antitumor and estrogenic activity of resveratrol. Researchers compared resveratrol to other phytoestrogens and found that it increased cancer-cell death more than any of the others.

It also lowered a measure called the Bcl-2/Bax ratio, which determines the susceptibility of cancer cells to apoptosis (basically cell suicide).

They called it the “most promising candidate as an HRT alternative and chemopreventive reagent for breast cancer.”

Researchers say more investigation is needed to understand how resveratrol suppresses cell growth, but if you want to start taking it right away, Dr. Wright recommends 200–300 milligrams daily.

Sweet relief for recurring ear infections

http://www.wrightnewsletter.com

Q: My poor grandson is constantly getting ear infections. I know they can lead to serious damage later in life—what can be done to help?

Dr. Wright: All physicians skilled and knowledgeable in nutritional and natural medicine have plenty of clinical evidence showing that ear infections can be completely eliminated by doing two things: eliminating refined sugar and eliminating and desensitizing food allergies. But as it turns out, there’s a sweet alternative to sugar that can also prevent this commonly recurrent childhood ailment. It’s a naturally occurring sugar-alcohol called xylitol. In a double blind, placebo-controlled study, children who chewed xylitol gum had 40% fewer ear infections than children taking placebo. Children taking xylitol syrup experienced 30% fewer infections. Of course, be sure to check the label on any product you’re thinking of picking up—if it contains artificial flavoring, coloring, preservatives, or any other chemicals, put it right back on the shelf and leave it there.

More info here: http://www.xlear.com/

Xylitol is available at most health food stores

Acupressure for nausea

P6 marks the spot.

That’s the acupressure point – also known as “Inner Gate” – that relieves nausea caused by motion sickness, morning sickness, and chemotherapy.

A 2000 study was published in Oncology Nursing Forum in which 17 breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy were divided into two groups. One group received standard care, while the other group received standard care plus instruction on how to address nausea by finding and pressing P6.

Another acupressure point known as ST36, or “Three Miles,” was included in the instruction. ST36 is located one hand width below the knee just to the outside of the shin bone, and P6 is located on the inner wrist, about three finger-widths below the wrist crease, right between the tendons. Rub the most tender spot in the area.

Study results showed that acupressure subjects significantly curbed nausea and lessened its intensity compared to subjects who didn’t use acupressure. Similar results were reported in a University of California study released this summer. In that study, the placebo group was taught to apply pressure to a sham acupressure point. Subjects in the control group said acupressure didn’t do much good right after chemo was administered, but was effective in relieving bouts of nausea over the following days.

Some drugstores carry wristbands (SeaBand) designed with a hard nub that puts pressure on P6.

These points can also work for any kind of stomach upset….motion sickness, morning sickness…anything that disturbs the stomach.

Vitamin D

In a June 2008 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, Austrian researchers checked vitamin D levels in blood tests from more than 3,200 male and female heart patients whose average age was 62. Blood tests were conducted frequently for more than eight years.

Results confirmed the potential danger of vitamin D deficiency. Subjects with the lowest D levels were significantly more likely to die of any cause over the study period. And even when researchers excluded patients with serious heart risk factors, they found that vitamin D deficient subjects were more likely to die of heart-related complications.

Another D study – published within days of the Austrian research – offers very promising results for anyone who experiences chronic pain.

In the June 2008 issue of Pain Treatment Topics, editor Stewart B. Leavitt, Ph.D., reports on a meta-analysis of more than 20 studies that included patients with osteoarthritis, muscle pain, joint pain, bone pain, fibromyalgia, and other chronic pain conditions. Dr. Leavitt reports that most of these patients had insufficient D levels.

Here are three key points Dr. Leavitt uses to summarize his findings:

• “While further research is needed, current evidence demonstrates that supplemental vitamin D can help to resolve or alleviate chronic pain and fatigue syndromes in many patients who have been unresponsive to other therapies.”
• “A 2400 IU to 2800 IU per day supplement of vitamin D3 is proposed as being helpful for patients with chronic nonspecific bone and joint pains and related muscle pain or weakness.”
• “Vitamin D therapy is easy for patients to self-administer, well tolerated, and very economical. Other therapies need not be discontinued during a trial of vitamin D ‘analgesia.'”