Yet more benefits of green tea

As I have now trailed so many benefits of this ‘wonder’ tea, I am amazed the supermarket shelves haven’t been stripped bare, and yet here is another one. You know that it is packed with powerful antioxidants with lots of great health bonuses, but recently scientists discovered that green tea increased the effectiveness of certain antibiotics by as much as 99.99%…even when pitted against antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.

This was a 12-month study at Alexandria University in Egypt and the results show that green tea boosted the performance of several antibiotics used in the treatment of 28 different disease-causing bacteria — including several strains of Staphylococcus. For example, 20 percent of previously drug-resistant bacteria were killed when green tea was combined with cephalosporin. This is good news because Cephalosporin is a widely used antibiotic – however many strains of bacteria have developed immunity against it.

Green tea was also shown to effectively support the antibiotics tetracycline, cefuroxime and it helped prevent the production of beta-lactamases-substances produced by bacteria allowing them to develop resistance to antibiotics.

So if you combine drinking green tea when on antibiotics you will help them be more effective and if you are drinking it regularly anyway then hopefully you won’t need the antibiotics at all, or in such quantity.

Risk of baby bottles – FDA keeps quiet

Information from the USA claims that plastics used in baby bottle feeders which contain the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) may cancer and diabetes. This is obviously a major concern but what is even more worrying is that America’s health regulator – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – has been suspected of sitting on the data and may be subpoenaed to release records about the safety of the bottles and infant formula liners.

The FDA has claimed the products are safe, but critics claim this is based on just two studies, which were both funded by the American Plastics Council – and you may be forgiven for thinking they would say that wouldn’t they? Only one of the studies was ever published and peer reviewed and many independent studies into BPA have linked the chemical to cancer, diabetes and obesity. Bart Stupak, a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce that is considering the subpoena, said: “While many scientists have raised concerns about the safety of bisphenol A, the FDA seems to have relied only upon science paid for by the plastics industry’s lobbying group.”

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.

Progesterone For Head Injuries?

I am very familiar with this natural hormone being used to treat osteoporosis and alleviate menopause symptoms, but Guomin Xiao, M.D., of Zhejiang University, has been doing a trial on treating head injury patients with injections of progesterone.

What was found was that less-severely brain-injured patients had almost a 50 per cent better chance of survival and better function after six months of treatment. Progesterone appeared to have little or no other effect during the acute phase but the main effect was seen during the recovery period after the patient had been discharged.

Although interesting, this was only a small study of 153 patients and further research is needed. However, certainly one of the benefits of progesterone as I have seen it used is to help alleviate depression, so it makes sense to see it extended to other brain function issues. Other medical research has previously found that the hormone aids in neuronal development and protects brain function in animal experiments.

Please Note: Natural progesterone is not available in the UK without a prescription as it is regulated as a natural medicine, although it is perfectly legal to buy it outside the UK and import it for your own use. Anyone wanting further information on how to obtain natural progesterone can contact us.

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.

Attitude, Illness and death

I know Christmas isn’t here yet, but I want to give you lots of notice of what I think will be a challenging and fascinating series of talks in the Royal Institution Christmas science lecture series by Dr Hugh Montgomery. He is an intensive care doctor, genetics researcher and Director of the Institute for Human Health and Performance at University College London and I think a brief ‘trailer’ is in order as I think what he has to say is so important about a topic that is often avoided, certainly by many doctors.

His lecture series will address what it is about certain people that enables them to survive starvation, extreme cold, extreme heat or lack of oxygen. He suggests that genes, environment and luck all play a part but what he was not able to tackle in the lectures is the question of the will to live in medical situations because it is a controversial topic. So I would like to flag it up here for your consideration.

Personally, I have given three talks this week; on procrastination, stress management and alternative health. The common theme in all of them was how important your attitude is to your success in life, your health and your happiness. The British Medical Journal has previously reported on the fact that a positive attitude prolongs lifespan and that positive thinkers recover faster from everyday illnesses and do not suffer from them as much as do those who have a more negative orpessimistic outlook.

Belief is a powerful thing. Ask anyone working in an intensive care ward or a hospice and they will tell you about people who have survived terminal illnesses altogether, or for longer than anyone could have predicted, and also have let go and died when given seeming ‘permission’ from family or their Doctor to do so. This is something that has long been privately acknowledged, but not publicly discussed, in the medical profession; that the ‘will to live’ or desire to die can influence a patient’s survival.

Dr Montgomery has raised the issue, based on his own experience. “What I have found again and again is that dying patients hold on for a loved one to arrive – say for a son to get the visa to fly to London and see mother in hospital for one last time. My father, who was unconscious in hospital for the last couple of days of his life, died at the rare moment when we – my mother, sisters and me – were in the room at the same time.” I have heard, and experienced myself, this phenomenon and been told of many similar stories of people ‘waiting’ to go for a specificevent or person to be present – and sometimes, absent.

As I said, this is a privately acknowledged fact by many doctors but it is also a controversial one. Dr Montgomery is not suggesting that some people who succumb to fatal illnesses may just lack the will to survive because it is important not to generalise. He is also looking at this from a behavioural psychology rather than a medical viewpoint. What he is saying is that one’s mental attitude or emotional state can cause fatal illnesses or help one survive and there is plenty of data to help support that view.

Certainly, we know that stress, often emotionally related, can cause coronary disease. St John Ambulance can confirm this in terms of the number of people who have heart attacks at football matches or majorsporting events. Dr Montgomery acknowledges that more work is needed on the notion of the will to live. “But when you come across, as I often do,two patients who seem to be in a similar condition and have the same strengths and weaknesses, but one dies and one lives, I’m convinced there is a will to live and that it’s important in deciding who survives. “As I am for ever pointing out to people, if you look at life with a half-full glass attitude then your ‘bonus gift’ is to have the potential to live an extra 7.5 years longer than your half-empty glass neighbour.

Worth thinking about isn’t it?

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.

Belly laughs and blood pressure

When I was a child a day trip to Blackpool was a highlight of the summer holidays and my favourite thing was to go to the funfair and stand in front of an enormous machine called the Laughing Policeman.

You put your penny in the slot (it was a long time ago), and the large animated figure would rock back and forth consumed by laughter.

It was contagious: you couldn’t stand there, or be within six feet of it, without joining in. Evidently that was my first experience of knowing just what was good for me, and the foundation of my later career as a health writer! Now it seems that the Laughing Policeman’s inventor was a man who knew not just how to make people feel good, but was also unwittingly helping them lower their blood pressure too. Now a wonderful piece of research from India has shown that when 200 workers at an IT call-centre in Mumbai, India, were given 20-minute laugh-yoga sessions they had significant reductions in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. I imagine that working in any call centre must be very stressful, and so this could be an ideal – and economic – way to increase the health of the workers. The study was reported by Dr Madan Kataria to the American Society of Hypertension and if you want to emulate it, then the laughter therapy involved breathing exercises along with laughter that starts as a gentle “hee, hee, hee” and builds to a raucous “ha, ha, ha.” Apparently it’s the full out belly laugh that really makes the difference. I can hear the voice of the Laughing Policeman echoing across the years in full agreement.

Of course you could always call in an expert, and I happen to know one. Anne McDonald actually follows the work of Dr Kataria and is based a little bit nearer to us in Dublin. She is a qualified ‘laughologist’ if you need one in your place of work and I can highly recommend her, though you may have a stitch in your side for several hours afterwards from being overcome by a strong case of hysterics. If you want to contact her, visit her website at www.mcdonaldcoaching.com for a wealth of delights, including her own artwork.

Beauty Queen – Naturally, with free samples

I must declare an interest here, I have been using the natural skincare range from German organic company Annemarie Borlind for many years and have never found anything better. They are free of every single irritating ingredient, wholly natural and – best of all – incredibly effective. I just got information from them about their new suncare range, which I highly recommend, particularly for the dynamic duo of very effective sun protection and incredible skin care no matter how sensitive your skin is.

However, that is not what I wanted to tell you about. They have reformulated their cosmetic range and it is amazing, nothing ‘worthy’ about it, this is glamour all the way. In fact, it is so good they are offering you the chance to try it free. You will get a tester containing generous amounts of two shades of their fluid foundation, two flattering lip colours and a lip brush.

And the beauty queen bit? No I didn’t make it up, but at the 2008 Miss Germany final professional makeup artists from the famous Face Academy made up the 22 contestants with the new Natural Caring colours from Annemarie Borlind. The eventual winner, Kim Valerie Voight, looked radiant even when surrounded by photographers, journalists, television and radio teams.

It showed that natural beauty cosmetics can cope with a high pressure, glamorous event, as well as being the perfect everyday makeup for the rest of us leading less exalted lives! All their products have dermatologically confirmed skin compatibility, so grab your chance to look at your best, for free.

Contact Jane Moore at Simply Nature, the importers of AnneMarie Borlind in the UK, by emailing her at [email protected] or visit the website for more information

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.

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