True Health™ Tip

Boost Your Health With A Super Smoothie

One of the most delicious super foods that provides amazing health benefits is a smoothie made with fresh and frozen fruit, raw nuts, rice milk, ice and one or two of your favorite vegetables thrown in. Why can this be considered a super food? Because these smoothies can provide all the fiber, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, healthy oils and phytochemicals your body should have during the day. Plus, you can get half or more of your daily fruit and vegetable servings in a single meal.

Try a combination of three fresh and one frozen fruit from the following scrumptious choices…

• Strawberries (fresh or frozen)
• Apples
• Oranges
• Mango slices
• Pineapple chunks (fresh)
• Craisins
• Dates
• Pears
• Peaches
• Bananas

Now you could add in half of an avocado for more healthy fat and protein… almonds or macadamia nuts… red pepper for a nice fresh twist… or a handful of fresh spinach leaves to provide you with plenty of chlorophyll. And if you want to add a little extra flavor, put a little stevia natural sweetener into the blender along with your other all-natural ingredients. What a tasty way to do something great for your health

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Questions for the Doctor

Finding The Essence Of Essential Oils

Dear Dr. Cutler,

I have been hearing a lot of hype about essential oils lately. Some are claiming that these oils can help with a variety of problems ranging from improving skin problems to decreasing joint pain and swelling. Could you give me your take on essential oils—where they come from and what they can possibly do for my health?

Dear Myra,

There are only 700 plants and trees that can be processed to obtain their essential oils. The “essences” that plants contain protect them from disease and parasites. And oils like frankincense and myrrh shield the plant or tree from extreme sunlight.

The essential oils are found in various parts of the plant—in the flower of the rose, in the leaves of basil, in the wood of sandalwood or in the rinds of fruit. The essences of the trees and plants are turned into essential oils through steam distillation, cold pressing or solvent extraction—methods that are expensive and time-consuming. For example, to produce 4 to 5 teaspoons of rose essential oil, it takes more than 220 pounds of rose petals… for 1 quart of rosemary essential oil, it takes 500 pounds of rosemary… and 1 quart of thyme essential oil requires at least 1 ton of thyme.

But these aromatic essential oils absorb rapidly through your skin and tissues and stimulate multiple organ systems within your body. If they are used in massage therapy, essential oils have an aromatherapy effect because they are absorbed not only through your skin, but through the olfactory nerve in your brain where they can influence other nerves. This contributes to a decrease in stress, clarity of the mind and an improvement in your mood. And as you breathe, the oils are drawn into your lungs and rapidly absorbed into your bloodstream.

What does this mean for your health? For many acute illnesses, essential oils can be as effective as potent prescription drugs. However, for chronic conditions, they have much slower and less dramatic healing effects. Numerous studies have proven that these oils can be used to…

• Fight microbial infections
• Reduce pain dramatically

If you want relief for heartburn pain, for example, rubbing a few drops of peppermint oil into your upper abdomen can create first a deep heat inside your body and then resolve your heartburn in a matter of a few minutes.

All the best!

Michael Cutler, M.D.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Red Wine Protects The Prostate,

Research Suggests

ScienceDaily (May 26, 2007) — Researchers have found that men who drink an average of four to seven glasses of red wine per week are only 52% as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer as those who do not drink red wine, reports the June 2007 issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch. In addition, red wine appears particularly protective against advanced or aggressive cancers.

Researchers in Seattle collected information about many factors that might influence the risk of prostate cancer in men between ages 40 and 64, including alcohol consumption. At first the results for alcohol consumption seemed similar to the findings of many earlier studies: There was no relationship between overall consumption and risk.

But the scientists went one step further by evaluating each type of alcoholic beverage independently. Here the news was surprising—wine drinking was linked to a reduced risk of prostate cancer. And when white wine was compared with red, red had the most benefit. Even low amounts seemed to help, and for every additional glass of red wine per week, the relative risk declined by 6%.

Why red wine? Doctors don’t know. But much of the speculation focuses on chemicals—including various flavonoids and resveratrol—missing from other alcoholic beverages. These components have antioxidant properties, and some appear to counterbalance androgens, the male hormones that stimulate the prostate.

Many doctors are reluctant to recommend drinking alcohol for health, fearing that their patients might assume that if a little alcohol is good, a lot might be better. The Harvard Men’s Health Watch notes that men who enjoy alcohol and can drink in moderation and responsibly may benefit from a lower risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and cardiac death.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Short People Are More Likely

to Develop Heart Disease

Than Tall People, Review Finds

Science (June 9, 2010) — Short people are at greater risk of developing heart disease than tall people, according to the first systematic review and meta-analysis of all the available evidence, which is published online June 9 in the European Heart Journal.

The systematic review and meta-analysis, carried out by Finnish researchers, looked at evidence from 52 studies of over three million people and found that short adults were approximately 1.5 times more likely to develop cardiovascular heart disease and die from it than were tall people. This appeared to be true for both men and women.

Dr Tuula Paajanen, a researcher at the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland, said that over the years there had been a number of studies that had provided conflicting evidence on whether shortness was associated with heart disease.

“The first report on the inverse association between coronary heart disease (CHD) and height was published in 1951 and, since then, the association between short stature and cardiovascular diseases has been investigated in more than 1,900 papers. However, until now, no systematic review and meta-analysis has been done on this topic. We hope that with this meta-analysis, the association is recognised to be true and in future more effort is targeted to finding out the possible pathophysiological, environmental and genetic mechanisms behind the association, with eyes and minds open to different hypotheses,” she said.

Due to the many different ways that previous studies have investigated the association between height and heart disease, Dr Paajanen and her colleagues decided to compare the shortest group to the tallest group instead of using a fixed height limit.

From the total of 1,900 papers, the researchers selected 52 that fulfilled all their criteria for inclusion in their study. These included a total of 3,012,747 patients. On average short people were below 160.5 cms high and tall people were over 173.9 cms. When men and women were considered separately, on average short men were below 165.4 cms and short women below 153 cms, while tall men were over 177.5 cms and tall women over 166.4 cms.

Dr Paajanen and her colleagues found that compared to those in the tallest group, the people in the shortest group were nearly 1.5 times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease (CVD) or coronary heart disease (CHD), or to live with the symptoms of CVD or CHD, or to suffer a heart attack, compared with the tallest people.

Looking at men and women separately, short men were 37% more likely to die from any cause compared with tall men, and short women were 55% more likely to die from any cause compared with their taller counterparts.

“Due to the heterogeneity of studies, we cannot reliably answer the question on the critical absolute height,” write the authors in their study. “The height cut-off points did not only differ between the articles but also between men and women and between ethnic groups. This is why we used the shortest-vs.-tallest group setting.”

The findings have clinical implications. Dr Paajanen said: “The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that height may be considered as a possible independent factor to be used in calculating people’s risk of heart disease. Height is used to calculate body mass index, which is a widely used to quantify risk of coronary heart disease.”

It is not known why short stature should be associated with increased risk of heart disease. Dr Paajanen said: “The reasons remain open to hypotheses. We hypothesize that shorter people have smaller coronary arteries and smaller coronary arteries may be occluded earlier in life due to factors that increase risk, such as a poorer socioeconomic background with poor nutrition and infections that result in poor foetal or early life growth. Smaller coronary arteries also might be more affected by changes and disturbances in blood flow. However, recent findings on the genetic background of body height suggest that inherited factors, rather than speculative early-life poor nutrition or birth weight, may explain the association between small stature and an increased risk of heart disease in later life. We are carrying out further research to investigate these hypotheses.”

Dr Paajanen said that it was important that short people should not be worried by her findings. “Height is only one factor that may contribute to heart disease risk, and whereas people have no control over their height, they can control their weight, lifestyle habits such as smoking, drinking and exercise and all of these together affect their heart disease risk. In addition, because the average height of populations is constantly increasing, this may have beneficial effect of deaths and illness from cardiovascular disease.”

In an editorial on the research published at the same time, Jaakko Tuomilehto, Professor of Public Health at the University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, welcomed the study, writing: “The systematic review and meta-analysis on this topic . . . is well justified 60 years after the first observation and the hundreds of other papers which have been published since then on this topic. The results are unequivocal: short stature is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease. This meta-analysis provides solid proof for this, but, as the authors conclude ‘The possible pathophysiological, environmental, and genetic background of this peculiar association is not known’.”

He suspects that environmental events affecting growth before and after birth may be involved. “Socio-economic adversity in childhood is . . . associated with delayed early growth and shorter adult stature. The so-called catch-up growth during the first years of life among children who are born small has negative health effects in adulthood; much of the early growth is due to greater fat accumulation. Thus, it is most likely that short stature is the link to coronary heart disease, and that tallness is not a primary factor in preventing the disease, although it indicates healthy growth. Short stature seems to be a marker for risk.”

While more work is needed to understand the exact nature of the mechanisms at work, he writes that information on height can be used now for the prevention of heart disease and other chronic diseases linked to shortness. “Full term babies who are born small are likely to be short as adults. They should receive preventive attention early on. The primordial prevention of chronic diseases should start during foetal life, and health promotion should be targeted to all pregnant women with the aim of health development of the foetus. Low birth weight and some other birth characteristics can reveal potential problems during this period of life. After that, in babies with low birth weight, it is important to avoid excessive catch-up growth, i.e. early-life fatness.”

In adult life it becomes more difficult to discover best practices, but Prof Tuomilehto, thinks it is likely short adults would benefit from more aggressive risk factor reduction.

He concludes: “Most of us know approximately our own height ranking, and, if we are at the low end, we should take coronary risk factor control more seriously. On the other hand, tall people are not protected against coronary heart disease, and they also need to pay attention to the same risk factors as shorter people.”

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 11th June 2010

Depression & Vitamin D: The Emerging Link

Vitamin D has been linked to many health conditions before. A recent study links insufficient levels of the vitamin with the disabling condition depression

In a recent study performed by researchers from the National Institute of Aging in the United States, insufficient levels of vitamin D may be the reason why many individuals over the age of 65 are experiencing symptoms of depression.

Senior individuals often have low levels of the important vitamin because they tend to stay indoors more often, as opposed to younger, more sprightly individuals with more active lifestyles. The study was published in a medical journal on endocrinology this year.

According to Luigi Ferrucci, the lead researcher, the emerging link between vitamin D deficiency and the occurrence of depression must be further investigated.  The study involved a follow-up testing of nearly one thousand male and female respondents within a six-year period.

The researchers used a specialized scale that measured the symptoms of depression called CES-D.  The researchers discovered that those with lower levels of vitamin D in their blood tended to have poorer score in the CES-D test.  Those with higher vitamin D percentages in their blood scored better in the same test.

Alarming, global trend

Depression is fast becoming one of the leading causes of disability around the world, not just in the United States.  It is estimated that today, there are 120 million people afflicted with the condition.  Ferrucci’s study is not the first to point at the possible link between the vitamin and depression.

In an earlier study carried out two years ago, Dutch researchers reported that insufficient levels of the vitamin in the body resulted in a higher percentage of the parathyroid hormone.

This hormone, which is used by the body to regulate calcium loss, has been directly linked to a higher incidence of depression in some one thousand two hundred respondents in yet another independent study.  This is the reason why a causal pathway must be mapped out to determine just how this vitamin affects the human brain.

In a fourth related study, researchers McCann and Arnes noted that vitamin D is important for the proper functioning and health of the human brain.  The widespread presence of vitamin D receptors throughout the human brain is evidence of the vital role of the nutrient in brain health.

According to yet another scientific review, vitamin D has been associated with affecting proteins in the human brain that are responsible for governing the learning process and remembering.  If an imbalance occurs in these areas, you can just imagine a chain reaction occurring throughout the brain.

Benefits of vitamin D

There are several ways that you can get vitamin D: natural exposure to sunlight, food (like dairy products, e.g. yogurt, milk, etc.) and through vitamin supplementation.  The body only needs about 10 – 15 minutes of exposure to natural sunlight to produce vitamin D on its own.

If this is not possible, people with low levels of vitamin D should explore vitamin supplementation; this applies most especially to senior individuals who may not be eating well or are unable to engage in a more active lifestyle.  Instead of using sunscreen when going out to get your healthy dose of sunshine, you can protect your skin naturally by taking natural antioxidants like fresh wheatgrass juice and citrus fruits.

The usual recommended dose for adults is between 400 to 800 IU (international units) of vitamin D everyday. Pregnant women should be given a higher dose (800 IU) to ensure optimum bone health and proper development of the fetus.

And there are more reasons to love vitamin D! Here are some of the most important benefits:

1. It is needed for proper absorption and utilization of calcium and phosphorous.  It is needed for the proper maintenance and repair of the bones and skin.

2. It strengthens and helps maintain the immune function of the body. Conditions like flu and the common cold can be warded off more efficiently if the immune system is strengthened by vitamin D.

3. It is an important nutrient that prevents the occurrence of MS (multiple sclerosis).  According to researchers from the Oregon Health & Science University, MS is less frequent in tropical countries because there is more available sunshine in these places than in temperate regions.

4. Vitamin D has also been linked to the maintenance of normal body weight (according to research from the Medical College of Georgia).

5. Vitamin D is important for brain health in the later years (60 – 79 years of age).

6. In a recent study from the Harvard Medical School, vitamin D can also reduce asthma attacks in asthmatic individuals.

7. We are exposed continually to low levels of radiation.  The good news is vitamin D can also help protect us from such exposures.

According to US cancer researchers, people with adequate levels of vitamin D have a lower risk for many types of cancer than people with low or inadequate levels of the vitamin.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 7th June 2010

Brushing lowers risk of heart disease

LONDON (UPI) — Brushing your teeth twice a day can lower your risk of heart disease, British researchers said.

The researchers studied the brushing habits and medical histories of more than 11,000 adults and found that people who brush less than twice a day were 70 percent more likely to develop heart disease.

Inflammation in the body, mouth and gums included, plays a key role in the buildup of clogged arteries, which can lead to heart attacks.

“If you don’t brush your teeth, your mouth can become infected with bacteria, which can cause inflammation,” Judy O’Sullivan, a cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation told the BBC in a story published Friday.

More studies are needed to determine the exact cause and effect between oral hygiene and heart disease, said Damien Walmsley, scientific adviser to the British Dental Association.

Received and published by Henry Sapiecha 7th June 2010

How Silence Can Be Bad For Your Health

No doubt that loud noises are bad for you, wrecking your hearing and even driving up your blood pressure. But silence can hurt you, too — at least when it’s what you don’t say to your doctor. Don’t fall into these clam-up traps:

1. You think something “isn’t worth bothering anyone about.” We know a 50-something guy who kept hoping that the shortness of breath he had while walking up the hill to work was just going to go away. Fortunately, he got himself to the hospital … where he survived his heart attack. We know you don’t want to hear that something’s amiss, but it’s better to hear it when you’re standing than for others to hear it when you’re about to go 6 feet down.

2. You think your appointment is over when you leave. You don’t get to ask your doc questions only after you’ve forked over your co-pay. Too many people leave their appointment and then say, “I wish I’d asked … whether I can have wine/when can I have sex,” and other essentials. Don’t rely on Dr. Google! Smart patients call or e-mail and ask!

3. You think that if the doctor didn’t bring it up, it’s not important. We can do lots of things, but mind reading isn’t one of them. We don’t know that you’ve been having erectile dysfunction, chest pains or an overwhelming desire to speak in Klingon unless you tell us. We don’t know what that last one means, either, but if it’s bothering you, mention it. Speaking up may be the healthiest move you’ve made.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 1st May 2010

More Reasons to Make Sure You are Getting

Enough Vitamin D

Today there has been a great deal of concern placed on global warming, ozone layer depletion and the overuse of chemicals and pesticides in our world. Each of these environmental issues plays a large role in our health and many times our body’s immune system is the last line of defense. Our immune system is a complex unit that protects our bodies from many different harmful and toxic conditions. Without maintaining and promoting the health of our immune system it can be impossible to fight the different environmental issues that we are currently being faced with.

What many people do not realize is that global warming and the chemicals we use today so freely are greatly affecting the food we eat and our quality of water. Proper nutrition is vital to maintaining your immune system and today many people are missing out on the nutrients they need by eating fast foods too regularly and not understanding the importance of proper nutrition. There are many toxic minerals in our environment today and some are necessary for our health and others can harm us. It is important to understand the difference.

Copper, calcium and zinc are all minerals that are required for our body to function properly. Minerals such as aluminum, lead and mercury can be absorbed throughout the environment and can be very dangerous for your health. Pesticides and herbicides many times contain these types of dangerous minerals and can be found in traces on your fruit and vegetables and of course in the air you breathe. Indoor pollution should not be ignored either as it can cause just as many serious conditions as the environment can. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has stated that the pollution levels within homes, schools and workplaces are often 2-5 times higher than outdoors. When most people spend up to 90% of their time indoors, this can be extreme exposure.

Types of indoor pollutants include dust, disinfectants, household cleaning products, carbon monoxide and electromagnetic fields. These are items that are used in absolutely every household today. Ionizers can be effective in clearing the air of bacteria, pollen and smoke. To help build up your immune system you should also consider the natural side of treatment.

• Supplements such as Coenzyme 10 are used regularly to help build and promote a strong immune system. This particular supplement can also help detoxify the body and eliminate pollutants.
• Vitamin C is another option, this supplement can be taken daily in dosages of 3,000-10,000 mg and it aids in removing toxins from the body such as heavy metals.
• Herbs such as burdock root and red clover help cleanse the body as well through the blood stream and lymphatic systems.
• Garlic is a powerful immunostimulant and should be consumed daily. I recommend the brand Kyolic from Wakunaga of America, which is an odorless organic garlic supplement.
• Turmeric’s main constituent is curcumin, which enhances the liver’s ability to remove toxins from the body and stops tumor growth.

Naturapaths are great professional people in assisting you to cleanse your system

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 3rd April 2010

Did you know that over time our body’s can experience a build up of toxins and chemicals from the foods we choose to eat, the chemicals we breathe in the air and absorb through our skin? This type of build up can really inhibit our health on more levels than one and the best way to rectify this solution is fasting. Fasting can help detoxify the body and cleanse it of the toxins and chemicals that can eventually cause problems throughout the body such as gallbladder conditions, colon disorders and other types of chronic conditions. By riding the body of the requirements to digest the foods we eat, fasting allows your digestive system to eliminate the toxins and chemicals naturally.

Fasting is not something you have to be ill to take advantage of, the benefits of fasting can assist everyone’s health to a more beneficial level. By choosing to fast on a regular basis you are literally giving your organs a break and allowing them to cleanse your body of toxins and chemicals that can make you feel less energetic and even depressed if the build up goes on for too long. During the fasting process you are literally reducing the amount of toxins that enter your body and allowing your body to continue the excretion process for overall toxin reduction. From here the energy that would normally be used for the digestion process is redirected to contribute to your overall immune function and cell growth to further help the excretion of toxins and chemicals.

The immune system’s functions are greatly reduced during the fasting process, which allows your digestive tract to do its job more efficiently and therefore eliminate the risk of inflammation. Lastly, your fat-stored chemicals such as pesticides and drugs are released from the body as well. The fasting process promotes a healthier way of eating and living when you begin to feel just what true health really is and how far from it you have been in the past. Let’s go through the fasting process so everyone is clear on how to utilize it properly.

• To prepare for a fast eat only raw vegetables and fruits for 2 days prior.
• During the fast make sure to consume at least ten 8 ounce glasses of pure water per day as well as 2 glasses of fresh fruit juice and up to 2 cups of herbal tea to avoid dehydration that can inhibit the cleansing process.
• Avoid all juices that contain additives or artificial sweeteners.
• Making your own juice from vegetables or fruit is the best way to assist in the cleansing process.
• The first meal after your fast should be frequent and small because your stomach size is now smaller and your body has to readjust to cooked foods once again.
• Consider taking a fibre supplement before and after your fast, but not during.

No matter what your age or current health situation, fasting is the perfect solution to built up toxins and everyone has them. This is a completely safe process and drinking the vegetable and fruit juices allows your body to maintain the nutrients it needs in order to complete the cleansing process.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 3rd April 2010