How Common Sleep Problems Like Snoring Can Lead to Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic syndrome is a medical diagnosis that refers to the presence of at least three of the five primary risk factors that are associated with diabetes, heart disease and stroke. The five factors include high triglycerides, high blood sugar, excess abdominal fat, high blood pressure, and low HDL cholesterol. And it is not just snoring that is the problem, if you have trouble falling asleep or have restless sleep then according to a new study you are more likely to develop the symptoms of metabolic syndrome as well.

This is the first study to explore the link between sleep quality and metabolic syndrome risk and was done on a total of 812 individuals who were between the ages of 45 and 74, and who developed metabolic syndrome during a three year period of analysis. This particular age bracket was chosen because many people who fall under this category record the highest complaints of sleep disorders. The results of the study revealed that 70 percent of people who do not sleep well and 80 percent of those who have trouble falling asleep are twice as likely to develop symptoms of metabolic syndrome than those who do not experience sleeping difficulties.

Loud snoring is disruptive on many levels, but it seems that it also is associated with low levels of HDL (good cholesterol) and high blood sugar levels, both of which are can lead to the development of diabetes. If you or a partner have put up with snoring, then this might be the piece of information that could get them to address the problem. Everyone has trouble sleeping from time to time, but if you find you are unable to do so easily over a prolonged period then that also is a significant predictor of metabolic syndrome.

If I had a cure for snoring I would be a rich woman, but there are some simple changes that can often help. Being overweight is certainly a factor so looking at dietary and lifestyle changes can be a place to start. Stress is another factor so do what you can to eliminate or reduce it – and if you need help then can I suggest you look at my website for How To Cope Successfully With Stress and apply the many tips there.

I also recently came across an excellent herbal tea from the American company Celestial Seasons which has a combination of their great tasting Sleepytime tea to help you drop off, together with additional herbs for soothing sore throats.

It might just help if you have a cup of that before going to bed to both relax you and calm those inflamed airways that occur with snoring.

Natural Help for Sensitive Skin in Extreme Weather Conditions

There is no doubt that the extreme weather we have been suffering has created havocs in all areas of life, and you may think your skin is the least important part of it. However, your skin is the largest organ of elimination that you have and plummeting temperatures and icy winds can leave it dry, tight and over sensitive. Now, a new and innovative skincare company, Senzimi Skincare may just have the answer to help sensitive skin rebalance, and in an entirely natural way. The products are suitable for dry, inflamed, sensitive skin and scalp, including those with conditions such as rosacea and eczema and are dermatologically tested in Germany on real people with real skin conditions, not in an abstract laboratory setting.

There are many products for sensitive skin, but what exactly does that mean? There is no real agreement on what natural means so consumers are often left confused. Senzimi provide all the facts on their website in a clear, understandable format, and then let you draw your own conclusions. So whether you’re concerned about ingredients, preservatives and parabens, how ‘natural’ is defined and how products are manufactured and dermatologically and safety tested, you’ll find all the answers at www.senzimi-skincare.com.

The Senzimi range includes a daily moisturiser, cleanser, shampoo and conditioner for your skin and hair and products are formulated with ingredients including Jojoba oil and Rosehip oil and soothing Oat extract for soothing and calming inflamed skin. It also protects and refines, whilst a special blend of soothing and anti-irritating herbal extracts encourage skin rehydration. It also helps promote cell growth and boosts natural protection against UV damage and the appearance of age spots.

If your hair is also being dried out by winter winds and central heating then they also make a sulphate free shampoo and conditioner which clean and strengthen hair with a powerful blend of soothing herbal extracts to help protect and nourish the scalp plus Neem oil, traditionally used to help dry skin. If you can’t find it in the health store, go online to www.senzimi-skincare.com

The Benefits of Fish Oil in Avoiding Complications of Diabetes

There are 2.8 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK and it’s estimated that there are a further 850,000 undiagnosed people with the condition. Unfortunately, there are many serious complications associated with diabetes including nerve damage, amputation, blindness or heart disease and new research currently being funded by leading health charity Diabetes UK aims to determine if regular doses of medication derived from fish oil could be used to improve this situation.

Keith McCormick at the University of Southampton is to conduct an 18-month clinical trial on 100 people at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes to determine whether taking high-doses of purified n-3 long chain fatty acids can improve the function of nerves and small blood vessels in the feet of those with a higher chance of developing the condition.

This will be done by giving them a medication derived from fish oil found in Norwegian sardines (named OMACOR) but whether that is each individual sardine or their family name isn’t quite clear – at least to me. The object of the study is to use the data obtained to improve our knowledge of the link between nerve function and blood vessel damage.

People with diabetes are susceptible to develop serious health complications as previously described and this is as a result of neuropathy where the nerves and small blood vessels become damaged. Sensory neuropathy is the most common form and mainly affects the nerves in the feet and legs. The loss of sensation in these limbs can make people with diabetes vulnerable to foot wounds and these complications can develop even before diabetes is diagnosed.

Apparently those OMACOR sardines have already proved to be extremely successful in the treatment of high triglycerides (a type of fat) in the blood, so I sincerely hope there are plenty of such fish in the sea and they don’t fall fall foul of fishing quotas.

This is a valuable area to explore as diabetes is one of the biggest health challenges facing the UK today. It takes approximately 10 per cent of NHS spending, £9 million a year, and neuropathy and blood vessel damage are behind many of the complications of diabetes, which ultimately lead to 100 amputations each week in the UK.

Because Type 2 diabetes can go undetected for up to ten years, 50 per cent of people already have complications, such as neuropathy, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and stroke, by the time they’re diagnosed. The research being funded at the University of Southampton therefore has the potential to identify a readily available treatment to prevent some of the serious complications of diabetes and protect those at risk.

If you would like more information on diabetes, then The Diabetes UK Careline offers information and support on any aspect of managing diabetes. The line is a low cost number (0845 120 2960) and opens Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm. Recorded information on a number of diabetes-related topics is also available on this number 24 hours a day.

U.S. Life Expectancy Decreasing – Why?

You would expect that as we have become ever more ingenious at saving lives through surgery and medication that our life expectancy would be increasing, but in fact the reverse is true. The latest report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be about America, but we would do well to heed its warning as this is the second recent drop and they also found a surge of deaths from chronic lower respiratory diseases.

The U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world, but like in the UK it is focused on dealing with the fire, not how to prevent it. Like all western medical systems it is based entirely on treating symptoms of disease, managing it, rather than teaching people how to avoid disease through nutrition, foods and natural remedies.

If I were of a cynical turn of mind, which occasionally I am, then I would point out to you that only in China was there a system for paying your doctor to keep you well and that the minute you got sick you stopped paying. There is so much money to be made out of illness, from simple over the counter remedies for colds and headaches to expensive surgeries, drugs and consultations. There is simply no incentive in telling you how to avoid diabetes or through diet and exercise

The only way to be certain of enjoying a healthy, long, life is to be proactive about your own healthcare. There is nothing mysterious about this, and goodness knows I have mentioned it often enough, but following some very simple rules will pay huge dividends in terms of being, and staying, healthy.

The key word is moderation: some exercise, a healthy diet, and managing your stress are where you start.

Three quarters of Hip Fracture Patients Deficient in vitamin D

The International Osteoporosis Foundation reported last week on an Indian study that could prove to be a useful index for the assessment of hip fracture risk in elderly people.

There has been much in the press recently about a recent report from the US Institute of Medicine which found that most people in the U.S. and Canada do not need vitamin D supplements as they are getting enough from their diets. Previous research has shown that low vitamin D levels increase the risk of cancer and heart disease and strokes, diabetes, breast and colon cancer, auto-immune diseases, infections and depression, and to play a role in muscle strength and multiple sclerosis. Studies have suggested many Americans don’t get enough vitamin D because they spend long periods indoors and wear sunscreen when outside which prevents vitamin D being absorbed.

This study from New Delhi India has revealed high rates of vitamin D deficiency among hip fracture patients, confirming the conclusions of similar international studies which point to vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for hip fracture. It may be that Indians in general have low levels due to skin pigmentation, traditional clothing and the avoidance of sunlight.
Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to development.

The US study recommended amount is 600 international units of vitamin D daily and good food sources are oily fish and eggs but the main source is from sunlight on the skin.

The Benefits of Chocolate for Older Women

Now how could I resist telling you about this, particularly as we approach Christmas when you are bound to be given the odd box or two? My mother used to give me a tin of Roses, a ‘chest’ of Terry’s Old Gold and a box of Black Magic which started me on the road to a sweet tooth, but from which she also got to eat more chocolate than my father approved as she was only helping me out by eating at least half!

So in that spirit back to the benefits of chocolate for older women, which was studied in a controlled trial over 10-years by researchers at the University of Western Australia. Their findings were that women over 70 are less likely to die or be hospitalized due to heart disease if they are regular chocolate eaters. This is the first study in older women that demonstrates a link between chocolate intake and reduced atherosclerotic plaque, which causes ASVD (Arteriosclerotic Vascular Disease).

Of the subjects involved in the research, more than 47% had less than a serving of chocolate per week; about 36% consumed one to six servings per week; and the remaining 17% had more than seven servings. A single serving in this case was equivalent to the amount of cocoa found in one cup of hot raw cocoa – or perhaps a tenth of the top tray of Black Magic (dark chocolate being healthier than milk).

The group that consumed the most chocolate had the least incidence of heart-related death or hospitalization (42 incidents); the group that had six servings or fewer had 90 incidents of cardiovascular-related problems; and the group that rarely consumed chocolate had the highest rate of heart-related problems (158 incidents).

Everyone in the trial regardless of how often they ate chocolate had similar overall results, which suggests that one serving per week could have significant benefits – if you can manage to keep it to that level!

This is not the only study to extol the benefits of chocolate: raw cocoa, the principal ingredient in chocolate, is rich in flavonoids. Previous studies have found that flavonoids have been associated with a 50% lower risk of heart-related deaths and in 2008 Italian researchers found that regular consumption of dark chocolate may reduce inflammation linked to heart and blood vessel disease.

If chocolate isn’t to your taste, then you can get the same benefit from foods rich in flavonoids, such as apples, apricots, blueberries, pears, raspberries, strawberries, cabbage, onions, parsley, and of course red wine as all have been shown to be helpful in postmenopausal women to prevent coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, and stroke.

Preventing Breast and Colon Cancer with your Feet

Whatever ‘new’ discovery about cancer prevention comes along (like a daily aspirin), there are certain well-established principles that we need to remember first. Once you have sorted out a healthy diet that you will stick with and reduced environmental and emotional stresses in your life then 10,000 cancers a year could be prevented in the United Kingdom alone if people took several brisk walks a week, according to a report from the World Cancer Research Fund.

“You don’t have to be an athlete to reduce your cancer risk,” said Henry Scowcroft of Cancer Research UK. “There’s solid evidence that certain cancers — including breast and bowel cancer — are less common in people who do regular, moderate exercise such as brisk walking.”

Nor are we talking about marathon effort here as the report found that an average of just 45 minutes of moderate exercise per day could prevent roughly 4,500 cases of bowel cancer in the United Kingdom each year and approximately 5,500 cases of breast cancer. That is more than 10 percent of the current cancer figures so that has to be worth paying attention to.

Walking is something everyone can fit into their life, whether it’s not taking the car down to the local shop for the paper, or getting off the bus a stop early and walking the rest of the way. If walking doesn’t appeal then any moderate exercise that you enjoy will fit the bill so dust off the dancing shoes, set to in the garden, go for a swim and it even includes vigorous housework like vacuuming. Just ten minutes a time, done regularly is better than slogging away for an hour every other week, and surely such a simple change to reduce your cancer risk has got to be worth it.

Exercise is effective for cancer prevention because cancer cells are typically oxygen-deprived, and exercise is a direct way to deliver extra oxygen to cells throughout the body and to improve the immune response. Exercise can also regulate the production of certain hormones that, unregulated, may spur tumour growth.

Get out those walking shoes, and if it’s still too slippy out there put on some music and dance!

Natural Help for Infant Colic

There is no doubt that coping with infant colic causes tremendous distress for parents who have to cope with a suffering baby in obvious pain and hours of daily screaming. There are many suggested ways of dealing with it, but a study in the September 2010 issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, provides a simple remedy for these symptoms.

We know that probiotics are hugely helpful in helping adults with digestive problems and it seems that a probiotic, Lactobacillus reuteri has been shown to significantly relieve symptoms of colic when compared to placebo in a double-blind study and this also confirms the findings of a previous study that compared the effect of L reuteri to a frequently prescribed colic medicine, simethicone in 2007.

The researcher must have used earplugs because this study was conducted on 50 breastfed infants who cried for at least three hours per day at the beginning of the study. After giving them L reuteri in a dose of ten billion colony-forming units per day they had at least a 50 percent improvement in crying time – to say nothing of the stress on the parents who must have been almost crying themselves with relief. The treatment group also showed an increase in healthy lactobacilli in the stools and a decrease in E coli, a bacterium associated with colic. Even better, no side effects occurred as a result of the treatment.

Other natural Colic treatments:
Probiotics are a simple solution to treat colic in babies and when combined with other natural solutions can substantially reduce the distressing crying and pain. One very old –fashioned but highly effective method is to swaddle the baby by wrapping them tightly in a blanket – science has got in here too as they tested this in 2006 and found it reduced crying times significantly.

Diet too is important as by eliminating certain items from the diet of breastfeeding mothers it had the knock on effect of reducing crying – but no use if you are bottle feeding. Getting rid of common potential allergenic foods such as cow’s milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, soy, and fish also reduced crying in a trial in 2005.

As stress in the mother can be a factor in baby colic it makes sense to tackle that and maybe try out some soothing herbal teas. Ingredients to look for include chamomile, fennel, vervain, liquorice, and lemon balm.

If the colic does not respond to any of these then it may be time to consider other treatments found effective such as cranial osteopathy, which is very gentle, and both homeopathy and acupuncture have seen good results.

New Supplement for Joint Health Help

I went to a press conference last week that along with some staggering statistics (80% of over 70’s have osteoarthritis) provided a very splendid lunch – just getting my ‘expenses’ up front, unlike our MP’s- and news of a new and unique formulation designed for maintenance of joint health.

Two doctors fronted the information, and although frankly I don’t find the medical profession to be the best informed on supplements, or nutrition, they set the case out fairly clearly. If you can avoid getting old, you can probably avoid osteoarthritis – any takers?

Osteoarthritis is a painful, often crippling, condition and the main news from the press conference was that prevention was a darn sight better than cure which involves either pain ful injections into the joint or replacement surgery.

If you have been relying on chondroitin for your joint health then the other surprising fact to emerge was that current research does not show it to be that effective and Regenovex® contains no glucosamine or chondroitin but depends instead on two natural ingredients – Natural Marine Bionovex Oil and Hyaluronic Acid.

Natural Marine Bionovex® Oil may be more familiar to you as Green Lipped Mussels (GLM) which has been popular for joint health for a number of years as it contains polyunsaturated fatty acids, including omega-3s, and is particularly rich in eicosatetraenoic acid (ETA), an omega-3 unique to GLM. ETA has been scientifically shown to have special properties to help maintain joint health and the Bionovex Oil in Regenovex has a concentration of ETA that is up to 40 times greater than in conventional GLM powders.

Marine lipids have been shown to have anti-inflammatory activity in laboratory studies and , of benefit to joint health in various clinical studies. Marine lipids have been shown in studies to inhibit both the cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase (LOX) inflammatory pathways, which means they support your body’s normal processes to relieve discomfort. Unlike non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs – a common painkiller prescribed for osteoarthritis) marine-derived lipids do not seem to have any of the stomach or digestive problems associated with NSAID’s such as bleeding.

The other key ingredient is hyaluronic acid® (HA) and it works in a different way. It is naturally found in the body in a wide range of tissues, to cushion joints and supplementing fluid within the joint, which helps to stimulating the joints’ own HA production, supporting the strengthening of cartilage structure, and generally maintaining joint health. In people with joint problems, particularly osteoarthritis, as the cartilage becomes more and more damaged both the amount and molecular weight (or structure) of HA in the joint changes. This results in further cartilage damage, increased inflammation and a reduction in the synovial fluid function and Regenovex® helps maintain joint health by providing the joint with the type of HA it needs to supplement the synovial fluid,.

As well as helping maintain the health of joints and the supplement claims to also tackle the two main causes of joint wear and tear:

• Physical Damage
• Internally released harmful chemicals which affect joint comfort, which can happen after physical damage, wear and tear or aging.

Glucosamine and chondroitin can be helpful for joint health but they are only effective with one aspect of joint discomfort. The combination of Bionovex oil and Hyaluronic in Regenovex® help to harness the nutritional benefits of both hyaluronic acid and omega-3 fatty acids to help maintain joint health.

In a recent trial, 74% of users who took the one-a-day capsules who noticed a difference did so within 30 days and further trials and a scientific study are currently being undertaken It comes in three forms: one-a-day capsules, . a gel for targeted application to individual joints and a flexible patch which continues to work for up to 12 hours and is ideal for day and night time use.

CAUTION: because it contains marine oil it should not be used by anyone who has an allergy to shellfish.

Preparing Your Body for Christmas the Mediterranean Way

Whatever we tell ourselves there is no doubt that Christmas – and indeed all of December – is a time for over-indulgence and it might be sensible to give your body an MOT in preparation.

Detoxing has long been a favoured naturopathic tool and Vital Detox has taken the principles of the Mediterranean diet and applied them in a very convenient way. The traditional Mediterranean detox is based on three things:

1. Reducing the amount of food consumed in order to give the digestive system a rest and allow energy to be diverted to cleansing rather than digesting.
2. Introducinge extra greens to provide the important additional nutrients needed to help quell the accumulated winter toxins being thrown from the cells
3. Take traditional herbal recipes to ensure the natural, seasonal detoxification process works efficiently.

Developed by a Naturopathic Physician in Italy, vitalDETOX is based on this herboristic tradition to allow a gentler detox approach and ensure the effectiveness of the immune system during the process and so prepare you for the festive season.

Some of the herbs included are well known to us such as Milk Thistle which has a beneficial effect on the liver, and Artichoke which improves digestion. Less common in the UK are ingredients such as Rosemary which stimulates the adrenal cortex and is diuretic, Boldo leaves, traditionally used to produce the bile needed for the breakdown of dietary fats, and Radish roots and Agrimony, used for centuries to support the liver. The plant extracts arethen dissolved in an organic solution of the juice extracted from the Mexican cactus Agave salmiana, which is rich in calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium.

During December, instead of having a glass of sherry as an aperitif, you can add one 5ml spoonful of vitalDETOX to a small glass of water with an added a dash of lemon juice before your meal. You should find it in health stores, but if not then visit the website at www.simplyvital.com.

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