A rosy outlook for arthritis pain

As a child I used to go off into the hedgerows gathering rosehips every autumn, and taking them to school as part of a massive country wide drive. We used to be paid the vast sum of a penny a bag and they were turned into rosehip syrup which after the war was a vital source of vitamin C. Rosehips are having a bit of a revival and a study review has concluded that they could be more effective than painkillers at easing the pain of arthritis sufferers. Apparently when made into a powder, the wild variety of rosehip, Rosa canina, was almost three times more effective than standard paracetamol at reducing pain in patients than paracetamol. It was also almost 40 per cent more effective than another common therapy, the drug glucosamine.

You should find it in supplement form in good health stores or there is an organic form available online at: www.little-green-nursery.co.uk.

Keep the grapes for yourself

Ever wondered why most of us take grapes to people in hospital and end up eating them ourselves at the bedside? My personal idea is that all hospital visiting is stressful and so we unconsciously try to reduce that stress by distracting ourselves. Stress can impact heart disease, so imagine my surprise to find I have scientific backing for this idea – perhaps not the exact circumstances,but the latest research findings from Spain show that antioxidant-rich red grapes are high in fibre and may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease more effectively than other fibre sources such as oat or psyllium.

It has to be red grapes however, not any other colour as a trial conducted by researchers in Madrid reported that cholesterol levels fell by nine per cent, LDL (“bad”) cholesterol by a similar amount and blood pressure was reduced by about 5 per cent. The researchers said: “Grape antioxidant dietary fibre contains relatively large amounts of proanthocyanidins (condensed tannins), which are partially bioavailable in the small intestine, but a major part reach the colon, where they may provide a high antioxidant status.” This was only a small trial of 34 subjects, but might be worth you keeping that fruit bowl filled up with a large bunch if you have any concerns about family blood pressure.

Juice benefits for Alzheimer’s

A recently concluded study which investigated Alzheimer’s disease in older Japanese populations living in Japan, Hawaii and Seattle, has found that people who drank fruit and vegetable juices more than three times a week had a 76 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than those who drank juice less than once per week.

This ten-year study was based on the fact that there is a very low incidence rate of Alzheimer’s disease in the Japanese population in their native country, but when Japanese people in the USA were studied they were found to have almost the same incidence rates as Americans have. Obviously this indicates that environmental factors like diet and lifestyle are important contributors to disease risk, but that the benefit of drinking juice was most apparent in those people who carry the genetic marker linked to late-onset Alzheimer’s disease — the most common form of the disease, which typically occurs after the age of 65.

Further research is being done on exactly what types of juice that would bring most benefit but from a natural healing viewpoint the most likely would seem to be pomegranate, cherry, red grape juice, red wine and fresh juiced vegetables. The researchers say that their findings are not yet conclusive so cannot be guaranteed to prevent Alzheimer’s but common sense would indicate that freshly juiced fruit and vegetables have all their essential minerals, vitamins and enzymes and would certainly improve overall health generally if not Alzheimer’s specifically.

Broccoli juice as sunscreen?

As my friends will testify, vegetables and I are not on very intimate terms and broccoli is something I avoid at all costs. But I may change my mind because of it’s newly discovered potential as a sunscreen. Apparently an extract made from broccoli boosts the body’s natural ability to defend against the sun’s ultraviolet rays that cause skin cancer. According to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the USA, an extract of broccoli sprouts contains high levels of sulforaphane and gives substantial protection. Co-leader of the study, Paul Talalay, first discovered in 1992 that broccoli is rich in a naturally occurring plant compound called sulforaphane. While all cruciferous vegetables (such as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, mustard, turnip, radish and watercress) contain it to a certain degree, the concentration is highest in three-day-old sprouts of the broccoli plant.

Sulforaphane has the effect of activating cells’ production of what are known as “phase 2 enzymes.” One such enzyme, glutathione S-transferase, has been shown to neutralize the DNA-damaging compounds produced by the skin produces when struck by ultraviolet radiation. It also appears to reduce inflammation, which can cause precancerous growths to transform into full-blown cancerous tumors. Only a very small (6 person) trial has been done on this but they are enthusiastic about developing a new sunscreen product as many of the commercial products contain chemicals that are themselves potentially carcinogenic. However, unless they can get broccoli juice to smell more pleasant (I may not eat many vegetables but I do juice them) it will be no competition to my preferred choice which is the all-natural organic sun range from Annemarie Borlind.

Naturally better – New food preservative from Australia

Concerns have been raised over the past few years about the safety of E211, known as sodium benzoate, a preservative used for decades by the carbonated drinks industry. Sodium benzoate derives from benzoic acid and occurs naturally in berries, but is used in large quantities to prevent mould in soft drinks, pickles and sauces. Sodium benzoate has been linked to cancer concerns because when mixed with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it causes benzene, a carcinogenic substance. A Food Standards Agency survey of benzene in drinks last year found high levels in four brands which were removed from sale, but there was then found to be another problem.

Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology and expert in ageing at Sheffield University, has been working on sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999. He tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory and found that the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the “power station” of cells known as the mitochondria. He told The Independent on Sunday in an interview that, “These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether.”

Professor Piper’s main concern though is for adults, and particularly children, who consume large amounts of fizzy drinks. A review of sodium benzoate by the World Health Organisation in 2000 concluded that it was safe, but it noted that the available science supporting its safety was “limited”. Professor Piper, whose work has been funded by a government research council, said tests conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration were out of date. “By the criteria of modern safety testing, the safety tests were inadequate. Like all things, safety testing moves forward and you can conduct a much more rigorous safety test than you could 50 years ago.” The makers of the major soft drink brands, and the British Soft Drinks Association, said they entrusted the safety of additives to the Government. So needless to say most sensible people have a right to feel worried.

Help may be at hand though from an Australian inventor who has developed a blend of native Australian herbs that he says functions as an effective preservative for food and drink and that can be used to replace artificial preservatives such as sodium benzoate. Vic Cherikoff’s product Herbal-Active is marketed as an inhibitor of bacteria and surface mould growth, and as a flavouring agent. He researched a number of native Australian herbs and developed a blend that is 30 times more effective as a preservative than the sum of all the plants put together. Because he cannot afford to patent the blend, Cherikoff says, he will not reveal which herbs are being used, but that all of them are native culinary herbs and are either wild-harvested or grown on organic plantations.

Because all the ingredients in Herbal-Active are already culinary herbs, the product can be listed as “herbal extracts” in ingredients lists, and products using it can bear a “preservative-free” label. It has already been bought and used by a university in South Wales, which runs a small dairy. The herbal preservative is used to keep their cheeses from spoiling due to exposure to the yeast from a nearby vineyard. Apparently Herbal-Active does not affect lactic acid bacteria, meaning that it can be used as a preservative in fermented meat and dairy products without interfering with those products’ probiotic effects. He may be able to apply for that patent soon because it now seems that a major juice company is testing Herbal-Active for potential use.

Ripe fruit = more antioxidants

As someone who has never been in favour of ‘crunchy’ fruit and been told often by nutritionists that too ripe fruit was bad for me as it upped my sugar levels too high, I am delighted to report that there is an upside to fruit that are fully ripened.

Apparently, as pears and apples ripen, the chlorophyll in the peel is replaced by an antioxidant known as nonfluorescing chlorophyll catabolytes (NCCs), not a very catchy name, but according to a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, it has the benefit of upping the antioxidant level of the fruit.

Chlorophyll is the chemical that makes plants’ leaves green and enables them to convert sunlight into energy. When a leaf dies, the chlorophyll begins to decay and the leaf loses its green color. This may happen because of age or injury, so I shudder to think what state the Jolly Green Giant is in as he got his name in 1925 when the US General Food Company thought it would help kids eat more vegetables, by frightening them into it presumably, and has been around on their canned vegetable labels ever since.

The decay of chlorophyll in fruit appears to be linked not to death, but to ripening. In apples and pears, chlorophyll in and just below the peel breaks down into NCCs as the fruit ripens. NCCs are only the most recent antioxidant to be identified in fruit and according to the researchers, the presence of NCCs in ripe fruit have a definite antioxidant effect, and this suggests that they may have an important nutritional effect in animals that regularly eat fruit. That would be us and the chimpanzees, so I can now have a good reason for avoiding the crunchy conference pears and heading straight for the luscious Italian dessert varieties.

Formaldehyde – Is it killing you?

Say formaldehyde and most people automatically think of the embalming process, of which it is a primary ingredient, but you would amazed at where else it turns up. Formaldehyde, is a toxin and carcinogen and is also one of the most common ingredients in many household items, from furniture to bedding. These items can give off formaldehyde fumes that are harmful to our health and lead to developing symptoms such as asthma, eye and skin irritation, headaches, wheezing and coughing.

Formaldehyde is a tissue preservative, and it is the chemical’s very toxic nature that makes it so effective at that as it quickly kills bacteria or fungi that might otherwise begin the process of decomposition. Unfortunately, it is also an ingredient in a wide variety of resins used to make permanent adhesives for plywood and carpeting, so you find it in present in furniture and building materials (particularly those made with pressed wood products) and certain moulded plastics.

Like a crease-free existence? Well formaldehyde resins are used to make textiles wrinkle-resistant and can be found in everything from curtains to sheets and clothing. Where else will you find them?

** dishwashing liquids
** fabric softeners
** carpet cleaners
** glues
** cardboard and paper products
** wallpaper and certain latex paints
** cosmetics including nail polish and nail hardener

If you like to leave your engine running in the garage or on the drive near your home, then be aware that the exhaust from cars, lawnmowers and other combustion engines contain not only the formaldehyde, but other toxic chemicals as well.

Although formaldehyde gas is colourless, it has a sharp and distinctive odour at high concentrations, but at much lower concentrations is unlikely to be obviously noticeable. If it worries you, this link takes you to a UK supplier of a home testing kit – www.hannainst.co.uk/acatalog/HI_3838_Formaldehyde_test_kit.html

And Another Reason to Avoid Aspartame!

Millions of people actually are absorbing formaldehyde in their diet soft drinks. It’s true: formaldehyde is one of the chemical byproducts of aspartame breakdown in soft drinks if they are stored at incorrect temperatures – this generally is over 95F when the chemical sweetener aspartame begins to break down, forming small amounts of formaldehyde right in the can, which when swallowed becomes a potent neurotoxin. You may say you only keep your diet drinks in the fridge, but you have no control over their storage before they get to you, or if they are taken out as part of a picnic and left in the sun.

Aspartame is currently responsible for 75% of all consumer complaints to the FDA in the States and why I am so adamantly against diet drinks. Not only do they not work, your body is not ‘fooled’ by the chemical sweetener and often sends you off looking for real sugar to compensate, but aspartame has been linked to seizures, blindness, fuzzy vision, headaches and other neurological disorders. A healthy alternative is to use half fruit juice and half water, preferably still but if not then go for a less gassy alternative such as Badoit if you want that sparkle and fizz.

Could diabetics and others benefit from grape skins?

A recently published paper in the science journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism has reported on new research carried out by scientists at the Peninsula Medical School in the South West of England, which has found that resveratrol, a compound present naturally in grape skin, can protect against the cellular damage to blood vessels caused by high production of glucose in diabetes.

Patients with diabetes have elevated levels of glucose that circulate in the blood and which cause both micro- and macro- vascular complications by damaging the mitochondria. These are the tiny power plants within cells responsible for generating energy and when they are damaged they can leak electrons and make highly damaging ‘free radicals’. Serious complications can arise when this happens, including kidney disease, heart disease and retinopathy – which if left untreated can lead to blindness.

Resveratrol stops the damage by helping cells make protective enzymes to prevent the leakage of electrons and the production of the toxic ‘free radicals’. By including grapes in your diet, and other sources such as seeds, peanuts and red wine you could be helping prevent vascular damage caused by hyperglycemia in the future.

Other Health Benefits

You know how you take grapes to patients in hospitals? Well if you take them red grapes the resveratrol in the skin has also been shown to help with other health issues. For instance, if you have the flu, then resveratrol has been shown to prevent the continued reproduction of the flu virus if taken within six hours of the first infection. It has been shown to be anticarcinogenic, and there is also growing evidence that it can also protect the heart. It does this in several ways: inhibits platelet aggregation, the proliferation of smooth-muscle cells, and the oxidation of LDL-cholesterol. So don’t ask ‘Beulah, peel me a grape’, as Mae West famously said, but insist she keeps the skins on!

A chocolate a day keeps womens heart attacks away?

The University of East Anglia is conducting a study on the health benefits of chocolate, specifically relating to risk of heart disease in women. In the first clinical trial of its kind, the researchers at UEA will be asking postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes to eat a specially formulated chocolate bar which has been developed with the help of a Belgian chocolatier for this study. It will provide a higher dose of the protective compounds in cocoa than found in standard chocolate and to maximise the potential benefits, soy has also been added. Soy is another great source of flavonoids, which have been shown to benefit the heart-health of women. This is particularly important for women over 50, because the hormonal changes at that time means that deaths due to heart disease increase rapidly after the menopause, and having type 2 diabetes increases this risk by a further three-and-a-half times.

According to Professor Aedin Cassidy, the lead researcher and Professor of Diet and Health at UEA, “Despite postmenopausal women being at a similar risk to men for developing cardiovascular disease, to date they are under-represented in clinical trials. We hope to show that adding flavonoids to their diets will provide additional protection from heart disease and give women the opportunity to take more control over reducing their risk of heart disease in the future.” Funded by Diabetes UK, I would have thought the health benefits of chocolate had been thoroughly explored, certainly by me on a regular basis, but if any of you are still in doubt: per ounce, chocolate has more antioxidants than fruit, vegetables, tea or wine, with dark chocolate having twice the antioxidants of milk chocolate but you will get the most benefit, as usual, from eating organic. Looks like sales of Green & Black’s organic chocolate bars is set to rise!

Interested in taking part? The researchers at UEA are recruiting 150 women under the age of 70 who have type 2 diabetes and have not had a period for at least one year (and are not taking HRT). If you fit the profile you will also need to have been prescribed cholesterol lowering drugs (statins) for at least one year. To find out more, or to volunteer, please telephone 01603 288570 and ask for Andrea Brown (study nurse) or Dr Peter Curtis (study co-ordinator) or email [email protected].

DIY Alternatives to butter

If you are looking to have less dairy in your diet, but don’t want synthetic margarines and spreads with their additives, you could always make up a healthy option yourself that will be full of healthy fatty acids, good cholesterol, and vitamin A. You can buy ‘olive oil’ spread in the supermarket, but this version is much better for you  and very easy to make.

Olive Butter Recipe

Whisk sea salt and extra-virgin olive oil together in a small bowl. Pour mixture into a small container and freeze for 4 hours, or until solid. Use like normal butter – but keep it in a jar in the fridge and it will keep for several months if stored in the freezer. You can of course add other flavours such as garlic or herb for savoury use.

If you want something different, and think you might have a low thyroid function then this recipe for coconut butter might be just the thing. Because of its potential ability to speed up metabolism, coconut oil is good for people with sluggish thyroid glands, as well as for anyone who find it difficult to shed unwanted weight.

Coconut Butter Recipe

Ingredients: 1/4 cup cocunut oil (solid form) and 1 tablespoon light miso. Use a spoon or fork to thoroughly mix miso with coconut oil, again store in the fridge and will stay fresh for two months if kept in the freezer.

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