Drink beer & lose weight!

I’ve been warning you away from some pretty awful diets lately – eating schemes loaded with everything from Twinkies to jelly beans.

So let me give you the lowdown on one crazy diet that might actually work: The Beer Diet!

Before I tap the keg on this one, let me get to one crucial little detail right up front: This isn’t a license to drink to excess each night, or skip out on the real food your body needs.

But if you want to have a couple of brews each night, go ahead – they won’t interfere with your weight-loss goals, and a new study shows they might even help shrink your belly.

Spanish researchers examined 1,249 men and women aged 57 or older, and found that daily beer drinkers were much less likely to suffer from diabetes or high blood pressure.

So far so good… but it gets even better, because this study also cuts the beer belly myth right open. The researchers say the beer drinkers had lower levels of body fat, were unlikely to gain weight, and some of them even lost it during the study period.

They say the secret isn’t the beer alone… but the things that usually accompany it.
Think chorizos instead of chips.

This study took place in Spain, after all – and the researchers say their volunteers ate a typical Mediterranean diet.

Now, I’m not a big fan of the trendy diet, but I will say this for it – while it’s low in the red meat your body needs, it’s also relatively low in carbs, especially sugar, and that means they’re on the right track.

And a couple of cold ones each night helps take the diet to the next level, because beer is bubbling over with amino acids and loaded with essential minerals including potassium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, and copper.

It’s also rich in the dietary silicon that’s great for your bones, and some studies have even linked it to a lower risk of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Beer does contain a few carbs – but with benefits like that, they’re well worth the tradeoff.

Joining the brew crew,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

Received & published by Henry Sapiecha

Red wine battles cavities

Any reason to drink is a good one as far as I’m concerned, so here’s one more for the list: Red wine is good for your teeth.

No, I’m not drunk and I haven’t gone crazy – I know wine can darken your pearly whites if you’re not careful.

But the polyphenols in a good red can also stop the process that leads to cavities and tooth decay.

As you learned in kindergarten, sugar kicks this party off. But the sugar alone doesn’t do all the damage – it gets help from Streptococcus mutans, bacteria that basically eat the sugar and poop out glucans.

The glucans form a film on your teeth that then allow the bacteria to cling and cause decay and rot – and next thing you know, you’re screaming 7 kicking in a dentist’s chair.

But researchers have found that the polyphenols in fermented grape stems, skins, and seeds actually render S. mutans impotent, at least when it comes to all that glucan- making.

The researchers also found a similar effect with cranberries. And if you can eat or cook with plain cranberries, more power to you. But since most people have never seen a cranberry that wasn’t drowned in sugar and then sauced or juiced, let’s stick to the wine.

Researchers say the two best wines for bacteria-blocking polyphenols are Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir. But they don’t recommend actually drinking those wines – oh no. That would be too easy.

These killjoys point out that wine can stain teeth, so instead they want to isolate the polyphenols and add them to toothpaste and mouthwash.

And that’s where this turns into hogwash – because you just know that rinse will be loaded with fluoride, too.

Since the benefits of wine go far beyond cavity prevention, don’t be afraid to drink up. And if you’re worried about stains, be sure to rinse with 3 percent hydrogen peroxide at the end of your evening.

Just remember to swallow your wine and spit your peroxide, and you’ll do just fine.

Wining and dining,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Back in 1918, a precursor of today’s dreaded avian flu virus wiped out over 20 million people worldwide. People tried everything to stop the onslaught. At least one folk remedy may have succeeded. The formula was handed down from generation to generation by a family in Stuttgart, Germany, who credit it with saving many lives.

Bird flu survivors credit astonishing fact

Why it really may have worked. The recipe calls for a quarter kilo of garlic and a quart of cognac. The cognac may act as a tincture, extracting powerful antiviral compounds that are known to exist in garlic. If you’ve got any type of flu, take 20 drops, 3 times a day. It was also used to prevent flu.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Arthritis Vanishes

so fast, “I am in a state of shock!”
Yet all this incredible new cure consists of is…

HUH? How can a recipe for gin-soaked raisins qualify as the arthritis home remedy of the century?

Hey, it wasn’t my decision, it’s yours! In the past few months, savvy Bottom Line readers like yourself have been writing to us in stunned amazement about their personal results from the Wilen Sisters’ famous raisin remedy…

What is this recipe? We’re printing a short version right here

• 1/2 kg. golden raisins
• gin (approximately 1 pint)
• glass bowl (Pyrex^® is good – crystal is bad)
• glass jar with lid

Spread the golden raisins evenly on the bottom of the glass bowl and pour enough gin over them to completely cover. Let them stay that way until all the gin is absorbed. It may take 5 to 7 days.

When the gin is absorbed, transfer the raisins to the jar, put the lid on and keep it closed. Do not refrigerate.

Daily intake of several gin soaked raisens is a must.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Plusses of the ‘magic’ hangover cures

The effects of having too much ‘Christmas cheer’.

After a hard night on the booze, you would do or pay just about anything to ease the headache, the nausea and the feeling as though you’re as dry as the Great Sandy Desert.

With the silly season in full swing, so are the parties and, along with that, the risk of having a little too much “Christmas cheer”.

The web bursts with tips and tricks to speed up the recovery from the more “self-induced morning sickness”, but a Perth nurse (who wishes to remain anonymous) revealed some of the medical guild’s most coveted secrets.

Over-indulging on alcohol is easy during the Christmas ‘silly season’, but prevention seems to be better than any cure.

“When some doctors or nurses have a bad hangover, they sometimes self-administer intravenous fluids or put on an oxygen mask for a while,” she said.

Perth-based National Drug Research Institute director Steven Allsop said he was familiar with the unorthodox practices, having heard about them “in medical school 30 years ago”.

Breathing in pure oxygen with a mask could help ease fatigue and oxygen-depletion caused by an alcohol binge, he said, while an IV drip could help alleviate the effects of dehydration a little faster than drinking fluids.

The most common hangover cures recommended by the online community are a hearty bacon and egg breakfast, a swig of Berocca or the infamous “hair of the dog”, otherwise known as the “counter-beer”.

According to the National Geographic website, strange remedies from around the world include pickled herring in Germany, tripe soup in Romania and sour pickle juice in Poland.

Another website, humouretc.com, lists remedies that range from lemon in the armpits, dried bull penis and licking your own sweat and spitting it out, to pickled sheep eyes and rabbit droppings.

The root of the rotten feeling

Professor Allsop said while science to date didn’t offer one single cure to relieve the sufferer, there were a variety of reasons why we feel bad when we drink.

“Some of it has to do with the metabolites from alcohol, and one of them is acetaldehyde, which is highly toxic and can make you feel very, very poorly,” he said.

“Alcohol is also diuretic, so you become dehydrated and that’s a particular issue in a country like ours, and some quench their thirst with alcohol, which is the worst thing you could do.

“It also impairs your sleep. You do fall asleep quickly initially, but it disturbs that deep, restful REM sleep.

“Some people react to congeners, which give flavour and colour to alcohol. So for some, the higher the number of congeners, the greater the negative effects.”

Professor Allsop also said the reason why people thought their hangovers got worse with age was that the older people got, the proportion of water and muscle tissue in the body decreased, while fat increased.

He said this could influence how long alcohol stayed in the body and how it affected the body. The same amount of alcohol people used to drink would have worse effects as they got older.

Rethink and replenish

Megan Alsford, a dietician with the Dietitian Association of Australia, said the loss of electrolytes, low blood sugar and damage to the lining of the digestive tract also added to the poorly feeling after too much alcohol.

She said there while there was no magic hangover cure, a sure bet to feel better was drinking plenty of water or an electrolyte-replacement drink and eating some fruit.

“An anti-inflammatory may help with the headaches, but try to eat before you take any tablets as they may irritate your stomach further,” she said.

“If all else fails, you may be best to go back to bed and let the liver do its job.

“One sure fire way of not getting a hangover is not to overdo it on the alcohol – prevention is better than cure.

“Failing that, have a glass of water in between each alcoholic drink, as one of the reasons for a hangover is dehydration. This method can prevent dehydration and slow yourself down so you don’t drink as much.

“Why not make it a sparkling water with a lemon or lime slice if water is a bit boring?”

Professor Allsop supported Mrs Alsford’s message, saying hangover prevention was “much better than putting yourself on a drip”.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Here’s one from the wacko-science files: Some nut actually thinks drinking alcohol is more dangerous than crack or meth.

Not only that, this nut actually claims you can have a “safe” heroin habit.

The nut in question is Dr. David Nutt, a man obsessed with living up to his name by trying to prove that illicit and dangerous drugs are far safer than a good booze habit.

And his latest “study” is an absolute masterpiece — not from a scientific point of view, of course, but from a public relations standpoint: The work earned him headlines around the world.

Too bad for him it’s a work of fiction.

Nutt created a list of 20 “drugs” and ranked them based on 16 measures of harm to both individual users and society as a whole.

Who assigned those rankings? Why, it was Dr. Nutt and his friends, of course. Nutt & Company.

And they “found” that alcohol — more widely used and therefore more widely abused — does far more overall harm than heroin, crack, meth, coke, pot and so on. What’s more, Nutt actually claims that heroin, for example, is safe if you use it in the form of a prescription opiate.

“Heroin itself is a medicine,” he said in a TV interview with the BBC. “All medicines are safe if used appropriately.”

Really? All of them?

I’d like to say that this Nutt has finally cracked — it’s a pretty good pun — but it’s clear this man lost it years ago.

He was fired from a government position last year for making similar claims about booze and drugs, and once even tried to develop an “antidote” to alcohol — which is kind of like creating an antidote to chicken.

But I don’t care what this Nutt says — a couple of drinks a day is not just acceptable for most people, it’s healthy. Moderate booze can boost heart and brain health, and even increase longevity.

I guess Dr. Nutt will not be enjoying those benefits.

Published by Henry Sapiecha

Louis Pasteur and the history  of Brewing Beer

Many historians believe that the ancient Sumerians and Mesopotamians were brewing as early back as 10,000 B.C. Even though this product would have been different from the bottles varieties of today, it would have still been recognizable. The ancient Egyptians and the Chinese brewed their beer, as did civilizations in America, where they used corn instead of barley. Back then, thousands of years ago, microbrews were very popular and on their way to what we now know and love today.

In the middle ages, European monks were the guardians of literature and science, as well as the art of making beer. They refined the process to perfection, and even institutionalized the use of hops as both flavoring and a preservative. It wasn’t however, until Louis Pasteur came along that a final, important development was determined. Until this time, brewers had to depend on the wild yet airborne yeast for fermentation. By establishing that yeast is actually a living organism, he opened the gates for controlling the conversion of sugar into alcohol. Grapes grow well in warmer climates, while barley grows better in cool climates. This is how the cold northern areas of Germany and England first became famous for their beers. *

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

The Wilen Sisters love all the fan mail they get about how their “kitchen cures” book Healing Remedies has changed people’s lives. They especially enjoy hearing about how a cure worked on a so-called “hopeless” case.

That’s why they were so pleased to hear from Ms. Carmen S. of Connecticut, USA. She writes that she spent over a thousand dollars on doctor visits and drugs for the arthritis pain in her neck. But the doctor finally told her to “go home and learn to live with the pain.”

Then she heard about the Wilens’ “amazing gin-soaked raisin remedy.” With nothing to lose, she tried it. As she reports: “I can now turn my head with no pain.” She told four friends and they swear by it as well.

Why does it work? Raisins are packed with many pain-relieving, anti-arthritic, anti-inflammatory compounds. The gin may act as a “turbocharger.”

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Drinking Wine Lowers Risk

Of Barrett’s Esophagus,

Precursor To

Nation’s Fastest Growing Cancer,

Study Suggests

Science (Mar. 7, 2009) — Drinking one glass of wine a day may lower the risk of Barrett’s Esophagus by 56 percent, according to a new study by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in the March issue of Gastroenterology. Barrett’s Esophagus is a precursor to esophageal cancer, the nation’s fastest growing cancer with an incidence rate that’s jumped 500 percent in the last 30 years.

Barrett’s Esophagus affects 5 percent of the population and occurs when heartburn or acid reflux permanently damages the esophageal lining. People with Barrett’s Esophagus have a 30- to 40-fold higher risk of developing esophageal adenocarcinoma (a type of esophageal cancer) because the Barrett’s Esophagus cells can grow into cancer cells.

Because there are no symptoms or warning signs of Barrett’s Esophagus, people discover they have Barrett’s Esophagus when an endoscopy for anemia, heartburn or a bleeding ulcer reveals esophageal cells that were damaged, then changed form during the healing process. Currently nothing can be done to treat Barrett’s Esophagus; it can only be monitored.

This is the first and largest population-based study to examine the connection between alcohol consumption and risk of Barrett’s Esophagus. Funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, the Kaiser Permanente study looked at 953 men and women in Northern California between 2002 and 2005 and found that people who drank one or more glasses of red or white wine a day had less than half the risk (or 56 percent reduced risk) of Barrett’s Esophagus. There was no reduction of Barrett’s Esophagus risk among people who drank beer or liquor.

“The rate of esophageal adenocarcinoma in this country is skyrocketing yet very little is known about its precursor, Barrett’s Esophagus. We are trying to figure out how to prevent changes that may lead to esophageal cancer.” said Douglas A. Corley, MD, a Kaiser Permanente gastroenterologist and the study’s principal investigator.

The study findings are echoed by two other studies published in the same issue of the Gastroenterology journal: Australian researchers found that people who drank wine were at a lower risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma, and Irish researchers found that people who drank wine were at a lower risk for esophagitis, an irritation of the esophagus that follows chronic heartburn and often precedes Barrett’s Esophagus and cancer.

Researchers are not certain why wine reduces the risk of Barrett’s Esophagus and esophageal cancer. One theory is that the wine’s antioxidants neutralize the oxidative damage caused by gastroesophageal reflux disease, a risk factor for Barrett’s Esophagus. Another theory is that wine drinkers typically consume food with their wine as opposed to drinking straight liquor without food, thereby reducing the potentially damaging effect of alcohol on esophageal tissue, said Ai Kubo, MD, an epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente and lead author on the study. “But we cannot preclude the possibility that wine drinking is a proxy for other ‘health-seeking’ behavior,” Kubo added.

This study is part of larger, case-controlled Kaiser Permanente study led by Dr. Corley that looked at abdominal obesity and consumption of dietary antioxidants, fruits and vegetables in connection with Barrett’s Esophagus. It found that people can reduce their risk of Barrett’s Esophagus by eating eight servings of fruits and vegetables a day and maintaining a normal body weight.

“My advice to people trying to prevent Barrett’s Esophagus is: keep a normal body weight and follow a diet high in antioxidants and high in fruits and vegetables,” Corley said. “We already knew that red wine was good for the heart, so perhaps here is another added benefit of a healthy lifestyle and a single glass of wine a day.”

Researchers noted, though, that the protective effect of wine in terms of preventing Barrett’s Esophagus was greatest with just one or two glasses a day. The protective effect of wine did not increase with higher consumption.

“It’s not actually clear that treating the acid reflux will necessarily prevent getting someone from getting Barrett’s Esophagus,” said Dr. Corley. “The best way to prevent reflux is to maintain a normal weight.”

Authors of the study include: Ai Kubo, T. R. Levin, Gregory Rumore, Charles P. Quesenberry, Jr., of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Gladys Block and Patricia Buffler of the School of Public Health, University of California-Berkeley.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Red Wine May Lower Lung Cancer Risk

Science (Oct. 7, 2008) — Moderate consumption of red wine may decrease the risk of lung cancer in men, according to a report in the October issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention¸ a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

“An antioxidant component in red wine may be protective of lung cancer, particularly among smokers,” said Chun Chao, Ph.D., a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente Department of Research and Evaluation in Pasadena, California.

Chao analyzed data collected through the California Men’s Health Study, which linked clinical data from California’s health system with self-reported data from 84,170 men aged 45 to 69 years. Researchers obtained demographics and lifestyle data from surveys computed between 2000 and 2003, and identified 210 cases of lung cancer.

Researchers measured the effect of beer, red wine, white wine and liquor consumption on the risk of lung cancer. Adjustments were made for age, race/ethnicity, education, income, body mass index, history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or emphysema, and smoking history.

Among the study participants, there was on average a two percent lower lung cancer risk associated with each glass of red wine consumed per month. The most substantial risk reduction was among smokers who drank one to two glasses of red wine per day. The researchers reported a 60 percent reduced lung cancer risk in these men. Researchers warned men to stop smoking as the best way to reduce lung cancer risk; noting that even men who drank one to two glasses of red wine per day still face higher lung cancer risk than do non-smokers.

No clear associations with lung cancer were noted for consumption of white wine, beer, or liquor. “Red wine is known to contain high levels of antioxidants. There is a compound called resveratrol that is very rich in red wine because it is derived from the grape skin. This compound has shown significant health benefits in preclinical studies,” Chao said.

Chao said their findings should not be construed to recommend heavy alcohol consumption.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha