Acupressure for your – and your pet’s – health

When most people think about acupressure they tend to think only about the benefits it can have for people. However, acupressure can also provide great benefits for dogs and other pets, particularly as they become elderly. Dogs, for example, love to be touched, petted and massaged, and they respond very well to this type of therapy. Used alone or in conjunction with alternative remedies, acupressure may result in significant improvement in your pet’s health.

Acupressure is acupuncture without the needles and many people find it very beneficial. Based on the same principles of acupuncture, it is the application of pressure on certain energy points of the body. In a gentle and non-invasive way, this pressure balances and releases the flow of blocked energy, enhancing health and mental stability.

Acupressure helps to improve the quality of life in elderly dogs suffering from hip dysplasia, arthritis, as well as every day aches and pains. At the same time, it can calm a new puppy and help ease the transition period when the puppy is brought into a new home.

Although acupressure is most commonly used to relieve pain and discomfort, it has many more benefits including strengthening the immune system, strengthening, muscles, tendons, joints, and bones, alleviates inflammation and swelling and releasing endorphins which calm and relieve pain as well as helping with behavioural issues.

Once you hve learned the necessary points, which you can do by first having a session with an therapist so they can show you where they are. Applying acupressure to your pet is actually a very simple technique. The most important thing to remember is that there must be a loving, calming, and trusting atmosphere. Acupressure is not a difficult process. It can be applied in the position that your pet likes best: standing, sitting, or lying down.

You can of course do this yourself, but you need to know where those points are so I would suggest an initial consultation with an accupressure therapist and say why you want the session to make sure they do work with animals or there is a website that will give you an idea of what you need to be looking for which I think is equally applicable to other household pets. You will see a tab at the top of the page to click on at at www.luckydoghealth.com.

Always begin a session by slowly petting and massaging your pet and then when they are in a relaxed state, you can move to the pressure points that you need to focus on. Once you have located the point, apply steady gentle pressure with your thumb or index finger. As you do this, visualize an even flow of energy going through that point into the body. The purpose of this visualization technique is to help you focus and not make any sudden movements that may distract the pet.

With a steady and gentle hand, increase the pressure and release it after five to fifteen seconds, always paying close attention to your pet’s body language. If they feel uncomfortable, release the pressure. However, please note that the maximum amount of time to hold the pressure is fifteen seconds. If you come across a tender spot, simply massage the tender area and as the pet relaxes, then slowly apply pressure to that point.

I have personal experience of using it when one of my cats had what seemed to be a stroke in the middle of the night. I did what we most naturally do for an animal in distress, I held and stroked and soothed and used my hands to relieve her discomfort by using the pressure points I knew. The following day she was lethargic but alert and has continued to improve, of course I checked with the vet as well but it seemed that simple contact and pressure did have a beneficial effect. The key is to make these sessions an enjoyable activity and many pets look forward to this activity while experiencing improvement in health

Low Testosterone Linked to Alzheimer’s and Early Death

Hormone balance is not confined to women but somehow men don’t get the same level of attention. This may be because they do not pay as much attention to their own health, or visit the doctor as often, so this is aimed as much at the women in their life as it is at them. This is an alert to prompt men to get their testosterone levels checked because of the new links between that and Alzheimer’s and even premature death.

Alzheimer’s
This new research on Alzheimer’s comes from a team that was led by Leung-Wing Chu, M.D., Chief of the Division of Geriatric Medicine at Queen Mary Hospital at the University of Hong Kong. The researchers studied 153 Chinese men who were at least 55 years and older, lived in the community and didn’t have dementia. Of those men, 47 had mild cognitive impairment — or problems with clear thinking and memory loss.

Within a year, 10 men who all were part of the cognitively impaired group developed probable Alzheimer’s disease. They also had low testosterone; elevated levels of the ApoE 4 (apolipoprotein E) protein, which is correlated with a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease; and high blood pressure. Going a step further, the research indicates that having good levels of testosterone may also have a protective value against the disease.

Low Testosterone Linked to Greater Risk of Early Death
A report in the BMJ-British Medical Journal this month also reported that low testosterone levels seem to be linked to a heightened risk of premature death from heart disease and all causes.

This research is based on 930 men, all of whom had coronary artery heart disease, and had been referred to a specialist heart centre between 2000 and 2002. Their heart health was then tracked for around 7 years.

On referral, low testosterone was relatively common. One in four of the men was classified as having low testosterone, as opposed to a tailing off in levels of the hormone as a result of ageing. During the monitoring period almost twice as many men with low testosterone died as did those with normal levels.

The only factors that influenced this risk were heart failure, treatment with aspirin or a high blood pressure drug and low bio-T levels. A low bio-T level was an independent risk factor for premature death from all causes and from heart disease, after taking account of other influential factors, such as age, other underlying health problems, smoking and weight.

It is not just low levels that are a problem either, as borderline levels of low total testosterone also increased the risk of an early death. Low levels are associated with obesity, risky blood fats, and insulin resistance, all of which are themselves risk factors for diabetes and heart disease.

Time for a visit to the doctor?

Coconuts – the source of the new low GI sweetener and more

As an all round health food coconuts are hard to beat – you try knocking them off their perch at the fair! We use their milk, oil and flesh in cooking and the milk straight from the shell is a refreshing health drink. A rich source of fibre, vitamins, and minerals it is classified as a “functional food” because it provides many health benefits beyond its nutritional content.

Now coconut sugar is emerging as an environmental and nutritional champion of low glycaemic sweeteners. This is promising news for those concerned with health issues such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and gallstones.

Low glycaemic foods are important to overall health since they do not create rapid spikes in blood glucose levels. Increased blood glucose triggers the pancreas to increase insulin and when this becomes excessive then you have the groundwork for diabetes, hypoglycaemia, and insulin resistance.

The benefit of low gycaemic foods is that they keep blood glucose levels more even, whereas when a high glycemic food is consumed, excess insulin is secreted and blood glucose levels drop lower over the next few hours. This is one of the reasons that eating high glycaemic foods contributes to weight gain and obesity as you get hungrier faster than someone which encourages over eating and snacking.

High glycaemic intake has also been linked with increased serum levels of C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation that is an accurate predictor of heart disease as well as increased risk for breast cancer, colorectal cancer and gallbladder disease.

Coconut sugar is high in potassium, magnesium, iron, boron, zinc, sulphur, and copper and it also plays an important part in natural healing and has been used to treat a wide variety of health problems including abscesses, asthma, , bronchitis, bruises, burns, colds, constipation, cough, , dysentery, earache, fever, flu, gingivitis, kidney stones, nausea, rash, skin infections, sore throat, tuberculosis, ulcers, upset stomach, weakness, and wounds.

Nor is its use confined to traditional healing, modern medical science is never slow to latch on to a good thing and they now there are now published studies in medical journals showing the benefits of coconuts for a wide range of conditions. These include killing the viruses that cause influenza, herpes, measles, hepatitis C, SARS, AIDS, and other illnesses and the bacteria that cause ulcers, throat infections, urinary tract infections, gum disease and cavities, pneumonia, and other diseases as well as killing the fungi and yeasts that cause candidiasis, ringworm, athlete’s foot, thrush, diaper rash, and other infections.

I hope that shows you the health value of the humble coconut, and for anyone still using artificial sweeteners – really, haven’t you been reading my articles at all – then this might be the time – please – to give up them up for the natural, nutritious sweetener that coconut sugar provides.

Dark Chocolate Is Good For Diabetics – Oh Really?

You may have seen a similar headline that in your daily newspaper this week (without the boom really of course) and it relates to results from a study by a group of researchers from the University of Hull and the Hull York Medical School.

I never thought I would be the one to try and dissuade anyone from eating chocolate, but there are some serious drawbacks to my mind with this research.

The study reports that dark chocolate has significant health benefits for people with Type 2 diabetes as HDL (high density lipoprotein) or ‘good’ cholesterol is improved and overall cholesterol balance is enhanced when patients consume 45g of dark chocolate each day over 16 weeks.

The patients were given 85% cocoa solids or a placebo which contained no cocoa solids but was dyed the same colour as the dark chocolate. No mention is made of how the poor group, placebo fared, rather than having to consume something that sounds quite unpleasant.

Steve Atkin, Professor of Diabetes and Endocrinology, who led the study says: “People with Type 2 diabetes are twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease and since one of the main contributory factors to heart disease is a low level of HDL or ‘good’ cholesterol, the findings that dark chocolate can improve this, means the results of this study are hugely significant.”

Hmm, I agree with the first part of the sentence but not at all convinced about his conclusion. He goes on to say “Chocolate with a high cocoa content should be included in the diet of individuals with Type 2 diabetes as part of a sensible, balanced approach to diet and lifestyle. This study demonstrates that it can offer a potential reduction in cardiovascular risk without detrimental risks on weight, insulin resistance or glycaemic control.”

I do wonder about doctors I do really — however as he is a professor perhaps he is slightly different — but firstly there is rarely such a thing as a sensible approach chocolate intake for many people and secondly I do not see how a chocolate bar does not have a detrimental risk for weight or glycaemic control.

I’m certainly no expert, but Dr. Iain Frame, Director of Research at leading health charity Diabetes UK, is and takes the same view and he should know what he’s talking about. This was his response to that piece of research:

“On no account should people take away the message from this study, conducted in only 12 people, that eating even a small amount of dark chocolate is going to help reduce their cholesterol levels. The tiny health benefit of this compound found in cocoa-rich chocolate would be hugely outweighed by the fat and sugar content. The design of the study is also somewhat unrealistic as they asked participants to eat only around half the size of a normal, dark chocolate bar every day for eight weeks.

That is something that I can agree with, but the really critical element for me in this research is that yet again it is being paraded as a result on an incredibly tiny sample. 12 people might make up a jury but they do not weigh very heavily for me against the 3 million diabetics estimated in the UK.
This research is on far too small scale to draw such a huge and potentially damaging conclusion from and although there certainly might be some benefit in investigating further. I will let Dr. Iain Frame, of Diabetes UK, have the last word. “It would, however, be interesting to see if further research could find a way of testing whether polyphenols could be added to foods which weren’t high in sugar and saturated fat such as chocolate.”

Until then by all means each chocolate if you are diabetic, but very little and not very often would be my advice and if you would like further information on diabetes please visit www.diabetesuk.org

No Time For Breakfast – Power Up!

It is probably tedious by now for my regular readers to hear yet again of my quest for the perfect breakfast, both nutritionally and in time and effort. However I now have found a pretty good combo that I think could work through my combination of two new healthy products. One of them amazingly has been developed by professional wrestler — that’s not something you see in the health world everyday.

Seed Stacked are one of those advertising miracles where the name tells you exactly what it is — a flapjack bar full of seeds. Chris Thompson had no plans to develop a healthy, natural snack bar when he was travelling the world as a professional wrestler but a shock diagnosis of Crohn’s Disease, changed all that. That led him to discover the power of seeds as his research showed him how many nutrients were packed into seeds, and the fact that they are truly superfoods.

He started to develop the Seed Stacked flapjack and entered a ‘Dragons Den’ style competition with Peter Jones on the panel and won! Chris sourced a factory and the 100% natural bars went into production with three varieties including yoghurt and carob topped.

Naturally he is delighted with the success of his idea, but probably even more grateful that he is Crohn’s Disease is in remission and he is happy, healthy and back in training for the wrestling ring.

We know seeds are essential for our health and generally speaking we do not eat enough of them. Anyone can benefit from them but they will be of particular interest to women going through menopause as the particular combination of Pumpkin, Sunflower, Sesame and Linseeds, oats and honey provide naturally occurring plant estrogens (phytoestrogens). These can help to balance hormones and the sunflower seeds in particular are high in vitamin E which has shown to help reduce the dreaded hot flushes.

And To Wash It Down?
If there is a drawback to the seed bars, and they are certainly delicious, it is that you do need something to wash them down with. Breakfast drinks are usually coffee or tea but a much healthier option would be a glass of tart cherry juice.

Cherrygood juice contains US grown Montmorency cherries which have the highest antioxidant level of any fruit with a whopping 17 different antioxidant compounds in them. It’s also giving you the equivalent health benefits of around 20 portions of fruit and vegetables in a carton. Think of all that peeling and chopping you could save!

Don’t be deluded by the fact it is called tart cherry juice; it is certainly not sweet, but nor is it sharp but actually has a very nice refreshing taste. It’s certainly packs in the benefits as a glass contains more antioxidants than five portions of banana, tomatoes, watermelon, peas and carrots. Antioxidants are vital to helping the body to fight free radicals and cherries contain 19 times more beta-carotene than blueberries or strawberries along with Vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, iron and folate.

If you do have trouble sleeping, then you might want to take your glass of the juice at night as tart cherries are one of the very few known food sources of melatonin, which is crucial to the maintenance of regular sleep patterns.

So if, like me, you are looking for a healthy and fast way to start the day then this is a good combination to try out. If you have any difficulty locating them in your supermarket or health store then go to their respective websites at www.seedstacked.com and www.cherrygood.com

Botox – More Than Just A Pretty Face?

One of the things about progress in medicine is the sheer adaptability of a treatment or drug when faced with adverse publicity. Botox has certainly had plenty of the latter, and now I read that FDA approved it for March as treatment for flexor muscle spasm of the elbow, wrist, and fingers in adult patients and now expanded that to include the prevention of migraine headaches in adults.

According to Russell Katz, MD, director of the neurology products division in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, “Chronic migraine is one of the most disabling forms of headache. Patients with chronic migraine experience a headache more than 14 days of the month. This condition can greatly affect family, work, and social life, so it is important to have a variety of effective treatment options available.”

Well yes, that is certainly true and Botox prescribed for migraines is given approximately every 12 weeks as multiple injections around the head and neck to try to dull future headache symptoms. Personally I wonder how it helps as this is a treatment that actually paralyses the muscles of the forehead we must have an effect on blood flow and I would have thought on migraines that happily I am not a doctor and am therefore allowed to speculate just how beneficial this might be.

In case you were wondering if you could get your wrinkles treated and your headaches at the same time please note that the FDA say that it “has not been shown to work for the treatment of migraine headaches that occur 14 days or less per month, or for other forms of headache.”

This research is based yet again on a tiny sample. It took place in February with just 18 participants who were patients with imploding and ocular headaches who were having Botox to treat their wrinkles and they did see a reduction in their migraines as well. Though again I have to wonder whether they had fewer migraines because they were smiling a lot more at their new and improved appearance, and in any event once you have Botox you are unable to frown and we know that smiling more often elevate your mood and perhaps give you less to have a headache about?

Interestingly the most common adverse reactions reported by patients being treated for chronic migraine were neck pain and headache — really?

Anyone considering Botox — whether for cosmetic or medical reasons — needs to be aware that if the botulinum toxin spreads to other areas of the body than the reactions can include swallowing and breathing difficulties and these can be life-threatening.

What is more interesting fact for me is that Allergan (who make Botox) also have been making headlines over marketing issues related to it. The company announced last month that it would pay $375 million in fines after pleading guilty to a charge of misbranding related to off-label use of botulinum toxin and a further $225 million to settle civil claims brought by the Department of Justice.

The misbranding charge alleged that, during the period from 2000 to 2005, labelling for the drug did not contain complete directions for intended use, which included off-label uses for headache, pain, spasticity, and juvenile cerebral palsy — none of which they are currently recommending it for I believe.

Oh, and in case you wanted to know about their most recent developments I’m sure you will be pleased to hear that Allergan is now conducting phase III trials using Botox with patients who have neurogenic and idiopathic overactive bladder. I really don’t want to think about what the effect of a muscle freezing agent is going to do in those cases.

Forget brain training – This simple exercise can work wonders for your memory

If you think the Internet is a lot of fluff and nonsense — or full of useless trivia — then this piece of information might change your mind. CBS News in Los Angeles featured an unusual exercise to improve mental health and acuity that has created positive results for learning disabled and autistic children as well as older Alzheimer’s victims and the rest of us whose memory can occasionally leave home and leave us wondering why we are standing in the middle of the spare room.

The exercise was introduced by pranic healing Master Koa Chok Sui’s book SuperBrain Yoga and taught by him personally on lecture tours. Prana is another word for Chi, the subtle life force energy that surrounds and permeates the body and the basis of Eastern medicine and practices such as Qi Gong and yoga.

If you still think that’s fluff then you will be surprised to learn it has been endorsed by doctors, a Yale neurobiologist, an occupational therapist, educators, and parents and has gone viral on the internet.. It is a simple routine, and useful for any kind of brain fog or dullness, even emotional instability, and might even make you laugh as well.

It can improve memory and focus, and it’s even made some a little smarter – memo to self, forward this on to the Houses of Parliament, and it seems to work for everyone regardless of mental condition (second reminder to self re the above).

Here’s how to do it
This exercise is suitable for any age but please monitor and respect your own personal level of fitness.

With your feet pointing straight ahead, spread them apart about shoulder width. Grab your right earlobe with the thumb and finger of your left hand. Cross over your left arm and do the same using your right hand on the left earlobe.

Then squat as fully as you can, breathing in. That’s a little counter intuitive, as well as making you feel ridiculous, but that’s apparently what you do.

The breathing needs to be synchronized with the squats, so breathe in as you squat and breathe out as you stand. The instruction is to do this on a loop for three minutes, though I suspect that most of us will start out with one minute and work up. On bad days it might even be 30 seconds, but you can apparently continue for as long as five minutes if you wish to — and your thighs can hold out.

You keep doing this every day until you can feel that mental fog drifting away and certainly you will be able see an improvement in your final sort!

How It Works
According to Los Angeles physician Dr. Eric Robins, the brain cells and neurons are energized with this simple exercise and he certainly has seen good results from his own patients. He gives the example of a youngster doing poorly in school who was given the exercise to do and went on to become an A student.

If you are wondering what the earlobes had to do with it than this explanation from Yale neurobiologist Dr. Eugenius Ang might help. The earlobes grabbed are acupuncture points that stimulate neural pathways in the brain. The brain’s hemispheres are in opposite sides of the earlobes and using opposite hands for pinching the earlobes may have something to do with the way our subtle energies are arranged.

Still too new age and fluffy for you? Well, Ang showed that the results from EEG readings after doing this exercise indicate the right and left hemispheres of the brain had become synchronized. EEG readings measure the neuron firings in the brain via electrodes on the scalp, and are used to determine brain wave normalcies and abnormalities.

Apparently this is the same effect that subliminal sound recordings (as in many new-age CDs) have attempted to do by producing subliminal sounds to the brain attached to audible sounds through a headset. Dr. Ang believes firmly that this exercise really does achieve the brain being actually lateralized, which is apparently an ideal hemispheric arrangement.

What’s more he performs the exercise daily, so if it’s good enough for Yale, then surely it’s worth giving it a try? If you do, I would love to hear how you have got on with it.

Maintaining joint health without glucosamine or chondroitin supplements

If you are suffering from less than perfect joints then there is a new supplement — Regenovex ® – that could help with its unique combination of two natural ingredients.

If you are over 40, or take part in active sports, then you are probably aware that there are two main causes of joint wear and tear: physical damage and internally released harmful chemicals that occur after any physical damage, wear and tear or aging.

Other joint care products and ingredients, for example Glucosamine and chondroitin, tend to tackle only one aspect of joint discomfort, but Regenovex has a unique formulation designed for maintenance of joint health. It is based on two natural ingredients: Natural Marine Bionovex Oil and Hyaluronic Acid rather than the more traditional supplements.

Natural Marine Bionovex® Oil is a pure marine lipid oil derived from New Zealand Green Lipped Mussels (GLM) which are certainly nothing new on the health scene. Many people were introduced to them for help with arthritis for example, but Regenovex contains polyunsaturated fatty acids, including omega-3s, and is particularly rich in eicosatetraenoic acid (ETA), an omega-3 unique to green lipped mussels. ETA has been scientifically shown to have special properties to help maintain joint health and this Bionovex Oil has a concentration of ETA is up to 40 times greater than in conventional green lipped mussel powders.

Marine lipids have been shown to have anti-inflammatory activity in laboratory studies, which is why they first came to the attention of arthritis sufferers, while in various clinical studies, marine lipids have been of benefit to joint health. Marine lipids inhibit both the cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase (LOX) inflammatory pathways, and hence have the ability to support the body’s normal processes to alleviate discomfort.

Unlike some conventional drugs, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), marine-derived lipids have not been associated with the most common side effect of such drugs such as stomach problems or even bleeding.

The second component, Hyaluronic acid® (HA), works in a different way. It is naturally found in the body in a wide range of tissues, including the joint cartilage, and it is a major component of synovial fluid. In the joint, it helps provide lubrication and cushioning as it supplements fluid within the joint, helping to stimulating the joints’ own HA production, supporting the strengthening of cartilage structure, and generally maintaining joint health.

At low levels of impact such as standing and walking, HA’s properties are primarily lubricating but if you are going in for high levels of impact such as running and jumping (lucky you) then HA’s main function is to cushion the joint.

If you have joint problems, particularly osteoarthritis, then you will know that as the cartilage becomes more and more damaged both the amount and structure of HA in the joint changes. This results in further cartilage damage, increased inflammation and a reduction in the synovial fluid function, all of which are bad news for joint health.
As you get older, and certainly if you engage in active sports, it makes sense to be proactive about taking care of your joints. Regenovex is widely available as capsules, instant relief gel, and a patch and a user trial found that it was highly effective, with 74% per cent of people who took the one-a-day capsules noticing a difference within 30 days.

Help for Bad Backs and Knees and Clean Floors!

I don’t know what it is about getting older, but the knees are definitely not quite as flexible as they used to be and I know from my young relatives that pregnancy also makes getting down to the floor more of a problem. If you just want a quick clear up and don’t want to have to do drag out the Hoover — and you certainly don’t want to get out the dustpan and brush — then I have been trying out something that you might find helpful. It’s a cordless Power sweeper that is rechargeable and also seems to be very helpful for a friend with arthritis in her hands who has also been trying it for me.

I always like to see British design and the Gtech Cordless Power Sweeper is based in Worcestershire and is apparently selling well to pregnant women and those of us for whom the floor has got rather farther away than it used to be. Lifting heavy items whether you are pregnant, or have a bad back, is not advised and sadly many household vacuum cleaners are fairly heavy.

The Gtech has the advantage of weighing only 1.6kg and is fully rechargeable so you are not trailing any flex either. It will not replace your vacuum cleaner as it has only a small slide out drawer to collect dust and debris, but it is invaluable for day-to-day light use and the manufacturers claim that it will even pick up glass — which happily I never had to put to the test.

What certainly surprised me is that having invested in a specific (and very expensive) cleaner for dealing with pet hair this small sweeper actually pulled up more hair out of the carpet and is much more efficient than I would have expected.

It will be useful for anyone with problems with their back, or bending, but the telescopic handle has a very unconventional shape – like a large firm loop -which makes it very comfortable to hold for anyone who has problems with their hands and its swivels easily to make the sweeper of a flexible in use. The friend with arthritis who used it certainly found it much easier to use and more comfortable than the conventional handle on a vacuum cleaner.

You should find it in most high street retailers including Argos, Comet, Currys, Lakeland and Robert Dyas but in case of difficulty go to their website at www.gtechonline.co.uk

Food is the major source of human antibiotic exposure

I have often spoken — indeed quite recently — about the dangers of the overuse of antibiotics and you may have patted yourself on the back and thought ‘well I hardly ever have them’ — but I bet you do.
The problem is that you are probably not even aware of it — particularly if you are a meat eater. A new study has shown that what you ingest from your diet is an important factor in the levels of toxicity in your body.

In a conventional, Western, diet you are taking in the antibiotics and hormone growth promoters that are routinely fed to cattle and intensively farmed salmon and chicken and through the pesticides used in modern intensive farming. This can leave you with quite a high level of toxic chemicals in your body — if you are a wholly organic vegan, you can skip the next bit but everyone else might find it of interest.

In order to test the theory that vegetarians are healthier, scientists recruited 25 people to stay at a Buddhist temple for five days, living the same lifestyle as the monks residing there. This lifestyle included adhering to a strictly meat-free diet and I imagine was also fairly stress-free, unless they were suffering severe withdrawal symptoms from their iPhones and computers..

The researchers took urine samples from all participants both 48 hours before and immediately after their five-day retreat and it was tested for antibiotics and their metabolites, as well as six chemicals produced by the body upon the breakdown of phthalates.

What are phthalates I can hear you cry? They are industrial chemicals used in the manufacture of pesticides and soft plastics and have been proven to interfere with our bodies hormonal systems, producing defects of the reproductive, nervous and other bodily systems. Because it is difficult to detect phthalates in urine, the researchers instead had to test for its metabolites.

All six phthalate metabolites were detected in every participant both before and after the study, but levels of levels of all drugs had dropped dramatically. and five metabolites had significantly dropped over the course of the study. That is in just five days — which is quite impressive.

These findings suggest that food is one of several sources through which humans are exposed to phthalates. The researchers found that participants who had eaten more beef, pork and dairy prior to the study started out with higher phthalate levels than participants who had eaten less of those foods.

The good news is that it is relatively easy to reduce the level of drugs and toxins in the body by switching to a diet that contains less meat and more vegetarian sources. I am not suggesting you give up meat altogether, but one idea for a healthier diet is certainly to have at least one or two meals a week that are meat-free.

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