Food as Medicine (Dr. D’Adamo)

A secretor is a person who secretes the blood type antigens into body fluids, like the saliva in your mouth or the mucous in your digestive tract (80% of population). A non-secretor, is a person who puts little or none of their blood type antigen into these same fluids.

Non-secretors are more susceptible to inflammation, diabetes, candida, fibromylagia, autoimmune conditions and UTIs.

Included is video clips on blood type evolution and food as medicine.

Eating and exercising the right way will keep the right genes talking while gently encouraging the wrong ones to quiet down. But because you’ve got a unique genetic inheritance, you need the diet and exercise plans that are right for you. The strategies that work for your spouse, your friend, or even your parents might be harmful for you. This is what I call genetic medicine, and it is the first aspect of the GenoType program because it’s literally designed to reprogram your genes’ responses. Accordingly, I’ve developed individualized diet plans for each GenoType, emphasizing the foods and supplements that will work best to silence some genes and turn up the volume on others, creating optimal health, weight, and vitality. Since every one of your body’s functions ultimately begins with your genes, genetic medicine is the deepest and longest-lasting force for change. It’s the fastest way to get those positive changes under way and the surest way to hold on to your gains.

DNA is NOT Your Destiny (Dr. Mercola)

Medical science claims that cancer is brought on by “mistakes in DNA replication,” causing cells to gradually change from normal to “abnormal” and eventually to “malignant” cells.Studies in the science of Epigenetics show that genes are by no means ‘set in stone’ but that they can alter themselves in response to a person’s environment.

In short, the DNA and thus the biology of an organism are constantly adjusting themselves to signals from outside the cells, including energetic information arising from thoughts and beliefs.

Diseases such as cancer are not caused by defective genes, as claimed by mainstream geneticists, but rather by non-genetic factors that alter the expression of genes without changing the DNA sequence.

Microflora in Gut Related to Diabetes (Nutraresearch)

Thirty-six men with range of ages and body-mass indices (BMIs) were recruited to take part in the new study. Half the participants were diagnosed with type-2 diabetes.

Results showed significant differences in intestinal populations of various bacterial groups. In particular, a reduction in the “relative abundance” ofFirmicutes was observed, as well as increases in the proportion of Bacteroidetesand Proteobacteria in diabetics, compared their non-diabetics.

A positive correlation was observed for the ratios of Bacteroidetes to Firmicutesand reduced glucose tolerance, added Larsen and her co-workers.

“Assuming that diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance are linked to obesity, our results are in agreement with the recent evidence obtained for overweight persons,” they wrote.

“Furthermore, based on the assumption above, a positive correlation between ratios of Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes and BMI could be expected. However, the reverse tendency was observed, indicating that overweight and diabetes are associated with different groups of the intestinal microbiota,” they noted.

Keeping Your Kidneys Healthy (Natural Solutions)

Though many don’t think of kidneys when they think of health, in Chinese medicine this organ correlates with Jing or vital force. In Western Medicine, the kidneys functions include: filtering toxins, balancing electrolytes, converting to the active form of Vitamin D, and a manufacturer of various hormones. These hormones regulate the heart and oxygen supply (EPO), calcium levels (Calicitriol), and blood pressure (renin). I enjoyed this authors tips on healthy kidney practices. There is also a brief discussion on kidney stones.

Commandments of good kidney health to incorporate into your lifestyle today.

1. Stop smoking. The results of a 2007 study published by the American Physiological Society suggest that nicotine is a major factor in the development of kidney disease.
2. Get your “levels” under control: cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar.
3. Rethink your diet. Avoid soda (especially ones with high-fructose corn syrup, a known cause of obesity and inflammation); load up on organic fruits, veggies, and whole grains; stay away from salty and processed foods; and limit animal products to lean cuts of chicken or fish a couple of times a week.
4. Pay attention to your digestion. Adding pre- and probiotics and additional fiber can aid elimination; steering clear of pesticide-laden foods will put less strain on your kidneys.
5. Avoid pain medications and any other prescription or over-the-counter meds that may tax the kidneys, such as Motrin, Advil, and any other NSAIDs. If you have to use them, even short term, take milk thistle (80 to 160 mg two to three times a day).
6. Get plenty of exercise, including aerobics that will get your heart rate up, five or six times a week.
7. Stay hydrated. Drink at least six to eight glasses of water (preferably filtered) every day.
8. Cut back on alcohol consumption. Overindulgence can increase blood pressure (a problem for the kidneys) and urination (which can cause dehydration).
9. Do something every day to decompress and de-stress, such as listening to music, doing yoga or t’ai chi, or laughing with friends and family.
10. Take these herbs to keep your kidneys healthy and prevent kidney stones and other problems:
Dandelion: Rich in beta-carotene and high in potassium, dandelion works as a gentle diuretic, as well as a liver and kidney tonic. The roots can be steeped as a tea, and the leaves eaten raw in salads. Or take 500 mg twice a day.
Stinging nettle: Taken in tea (1 tablespoon steeped in 1 cup of hot water) or supplement form (follow dosing on the package), nettles are high in chlorophyll, which tones and supports the whole body, particularly the urinary and digestive systems.

Research Studies on Kidney Stone Prevention and Natural Medicine

1. (Alt Med Review 2008) Clinical research suggests the best natural options for long-term prevention include cranberry, mannose, and probiotics. Botanicals that can be effective at the first sign of an infection and for short-term prophylaxis include berberine and uva ursi. Estriol cream and vitamins A and C have also been shown to prevent UTIs, while potassium salts can alkalinize the urine and reduce dysuria.

2. (J of Am Society of Nephrology)Large doses of vitamin B6 may reduce the risk of kidney stone formation in women. Routine restriction of vitamin C to prevent stone formation appears unwarranted.

The Two Sides of Probiotics- Why Quality Counts (alternet)

This article highlights the lawsuit on Dannon’s claims of Activa and if probiotics are effective. Interestingly enough, the adversary of probiotics is a lawyer and the proponents are dietitians and food experts.

“Most Americans are not eating adequate amounts of fermented foods such as yogurt, kefir, kombucha, miso, sauerkraut, kimchee and real pickles (not the jarred kind that are pasteurized and so are ‘dead’) and are missing out on the benefits of the friendly bacteria found in these foods,” laments registered dietician Karen Scheuner. “The health benefits from eating fermented foods are like taking a pill to boost or protect your immune system. Most Americans do not eat these foods on a regular daily basis, and yet we as a nation tend to be reaching for more pills and potions to treat many ailments without addressing the underlying health [of] the gut where these bacteria live. … Seventy percent of immune function takes place in your gut. The gut is where most of the pathogens — the bad bacteria that make us sick — live, and if there is an infection of any kind,” anywhere in the body, “the fighting of it will take place in the gut.”

U.S. Centers for Disease Control nutritionist Joel Kimmons agrees. The cooperation between our bodies and those countless foreign microorganisms inside us, on us, and around us — minuscule and living foreign objects permeating our internal tissue, our skin, our hair, even our eyes — is evolving still.

“We are constantly educating our immune systems and our digestive systems, establishing which bacteria have a symbiosis with us. Yet many people still have this very draconian slash-and-burn attitude toward any life on our bodies that is not ‘our’ life. With this attitude, the only way to deal with these other life forms is: kill, kill, kill.”

The good news is that mainstream is seeing the difference between high quality and marketing claims. This is the difference between therapeutic food supplements and food vs. eating yogurt spiked with sugar and additives that cause an imbalance in flora to begin with. I recommend rotating your probiotics and fermented foods for optimal strains and find what works for your body.

Healthy Fats & Brain Function (Vital Choice)

A new epidemological study links brain health and function to serum levels of essential fatty acids as it relates to non-verbal reasoning and working memory. Studying actual blood levels of EFAs is more accurate that dietary questionnaires.

Of the three omega-3s, DHA is most closely associated with brain function. DHA constitutes some 60 percent of the fat in the brain, and it’s a key structural and functional component of brain cell membranes.
And as we would have expected, DHA was the winner: “[A] higher DHA [blood level] was related to better performance on tests of nonverbal reasoning and mental flexibility, working memory, and vocabulary.” (Muldoon MF et al. 2010)
Importantly, the researchers detected a “dose-response” relationship between omega-3 DHA and better brain function … a finding that raises the likelihood that omega-3 DHA really was responsible for the brain benefits the scientists observed.
In contrast, higher blood levels of EPA and ALA were not associated with better cognitive performance. This is not very surprising, since neither of these omega-3 fatty acids is as closely associated as DHA with brain health.
The authors had this to say about the significance of their results: “These findings suggest that DHA is related to brain health throughout the lifespan …” (Muldoon MF et al. 2010)
That is, in addition to helping deter, delay, or diminish dementia among people aged 65 or more, omega-3 DHA from fish fat may boost basic brain powers in younger adults.

Your brain controls all processes in your body. By comparing brain CT scans with medical records and personal histories, it becomes evident that emotional trauma or “conflict shock” leaves a visible mark in precisely the same area of the brain that controls the disease process.

Anti-depressants Discredited Again (Dr. Northrup)

In 2008, we learned that the benefits of antidepressants, including Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft, had been greatly overstated.1 Former FDA psychiatrist Erick H. Turner, M.D., uncovered some startling information about Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). In reviewing all the medical literature, he learned that 94 percent of the reports showing the therapeutic benefits of SSRIs were published compared to only 14 percent of the reports showing either no benefits or inconclusive results (of taking SSRIs). When he weighed all the literature, Dr. Turner determined that SSRIs were no more effective than a placebo for treating most depressive patients. British researchers using the Freedom of Information Act uncovered identical findings in 2008.2And now, a study released in 2010 confirms these results for both SSRIs and tricyclic antidepressants.

43 Ways to Simplify (Simply put) (Zen Family Habits)

1. Turn off your cell phone.

2. Process email only twice a day.

3. Go to bed early.

4. Get rid of (or at least reduce) commitments that you do out of obligation.

5. Create a weekly meal plan.

Blueberries for Intestinal Health (Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology)

CONCLUSIONS: A combination of probiotics and blueberry husks or rye bran enhanced the anti-inflammatory effects compared with probiotics or dietary fibres alone. These combinations can be used as a preventive or therapeutic approach to dietary amelioration of intestinal inflammation.

Girls with ADHD At Higher Risk for Eating Disorders (Science Daily)

“Adolescent girls with ADHD frequently develop body-image dissatisfaction and may go through repeating cycles of binge eating and purging behaviors that are common in bulimia nervosa,” said University of Virginia psychologist Amori Yee Mikami, who led the study.

Girls with the “combined type” of ADHD (those with both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity) were most likely to have adolescent bulimia nervosa symptoms, relative to girls with the “inattentive type” of ADHD (those with inattention only) and girls without ADHD. Girls with both types of ADHD were more likely to be overweight, to have experienced harsh/critical parenting in childhood, and to have been peer-rejected than girls without ADHD. Mikami said she believes these factors could contribute to the bulimia nervosa symptoms.

“An additional concern is that stimulant medications used to treat ADHD have a side effect of appetite suppression, creating a risk that overweight girls could abuse these medicines to encourage weight loss, though we have not yet investigated that possibility,” Mikami said.

Childhood Obesity Linked to Commercial Television Viewing (Science Daily)

ScienceDaily (Feb. 10, 2010) — The association between television viewing and childhood obesity is directly related to children’s exposure to commercials that advertise unhealthy foods, according to a new UCLA School of Public Health study published in theAmerican Journal of Public Health.

Diabetes Drug Linked to Heart Attacks

(Mercola summary below links to NY times and FDA Senate hearing)

B12 & Calcium Loss with Metformin (Dr. Mercola)

The Role of Vitamin D on the Immune System (Vital Choice)

Two studies are highlighted. One discusses Vitamin D’s effect on innate immunity through its antimicrobial  activation of the antimicrobial peptide and recruitment of other immune boosting white blood cells. The second study demonstrates vitamin D’s role on the adaptive immune system by signaling of an important immune cell, the helper T-cell, which controls activation of other immune players. This is done at the genetic level.

New Strain of Drug Resistant Antibitoc (Medpage)

A new study reports a surge in drug-resistant strains of a dangerous type of bacteria in US hospitals: Acinetobacterstrikes patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and others and often causes severe pneumonias or bloodstream infection, some of which are now resistant to imipenem, an antibiotic that is reserved for last-line treatment.

This is why preventative medicine which focuses on the terrain (gastrointestinal health, inflammation modulation) of the immune system rather than the invader of the immune system (the microbe), is so important. Powerful immune boosters such as Vitamin D (mentioned above), herbals,  probiotics, and essential oils  all help modulate and re-boost your immune function,. Therefore, critter exposure simply is a trigger rather than a cause of infection. If your immune system is strong and healthy, bugs can’t live in it!

A Researcher’s Take on GMO’s (OCA)

What types of things are you seeing in the Roundup Ready system?
RK:
This system is altering the whole soil biology. We are seeing differences in bacteria in plant roots and changes in nutrient availability. Glyphosate is very systemic in the plant and is being released through the roots into the soil. Many studies show that glyphosate can have toxic effects on microorganisms and can stimulate them to germinate spores and colonize root systems. Other researchers are showing that glyphosate can immobilize manganese, an essential plant micronutrient.

What are glyphosate’s impacts on beneficial soil bacteria?
RK:
The most obvious impact is on rhizobia, a bacterium that fixes nitrogen. It has been shown that glyphosate can be toxic to rhizobia. (Nitrogen fixing bacteria are important to soils because nitrogen is the most commonly deficient nutrient in many soils.)

The papers published in the European Journal of Agronomy received no publicity in the United States. Why is that?
RK:
I was working with USDA-ARS to publish a news release about these studies. I’ve gone all the way to the administrators, but they are reluctant to put something out. Their thinking is that if farmers are using this (Roundup Ready) technology, USDA doesn’t want negative information being released about it. This is how it is. I think the news release is still sitting on someone’s desk.

What about your future research?
RK:
We’re looking at some methods that could be used to overcome negative effects if we continue to use Roundup Ready crops, such as supplementation of nutrients by foliar application. I’m more interested in sustainable agriculture. More farmers are interested in using cover cropping to maintain soil quality and other organic amendments. But it’s a steep learning curve for them.

Health Care Reform Debate by Minnesota Philanthropist (Star Tribune)

Every American should have health insurance, regardless of their age or health status. But access is only one element of the complex health care equation.

Virtually overlooked at the federal level are three equally important aspects of health care: cost, quality and personal responsibility. Without addressing these essential areas, the health care crisis cannot be resolved.

One lesson from the federal effort is that health care at the national level is too complex to yield to a single comprehensive solution. America’s health care needs are too diverse geographically to devise a “one-size-fits-all” formula. Instead of waiting for Washington, Minnesota’s health care leaders should seize the initiative and move forward with the optimal health system for Minnesotans.

A 2 minute summary of the problems of not eating local

Anti-oxidants from Berries Bio-available & Anti-inflammatory

And it’s becoming increasingly clear that the apparent benefits of antioxidants in foods relate as much or more to their influence on various genes – an emerging science called nutrigenomics – as to their direct antioxidant effects.
For example, many polyphenols in plant foods reduce activation of Nf-kappaB: a “DNA transcription factor” protein complex, activation of which is linked to inflammatory diseases including cancer, atherosclerosis, diabetes, allergy, asthma, arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Compared with the control group, the berry-fed group showed substantial increases in their blood levels of key polyphenol antioxidants.
(For example, levels of quercetin were up to 84 percent higher, p-coumaric acid levels were 40 percent higher, caffeic acid levels were 100 percent higher, vanillic acid levels were 31 percent higher, and propionic acid levels were up to 31 percent higher.)

DHA protects the Brain & Study Shows Anti-Cancer Effect (FASBE & Prohealth)

“[Docosahexaenoic acid’s] ability to help prevent numerous diseases is well documented, but now we see that DHA or one of its byproducts might serve as the starting point for a new class of anti-cancer drugs.”

The next treatment for cancer might come from a component of fish oil, according to new research published Mar 1 in FASEB Journal.(1) In the report, scientists show that the omega-3 fatty acid, “docosahexaenoic acid” or “DHA,” and its derivatives in the body kill neuroblastoma cells [nervous system cancer in young children]. This discovery could lead to new treatments for a wide range of cancers, including neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma [type of brain cancer], colon, breast, and prostate cancers, among others.

FASBE

The cytotoxic effect of DHA in neuroblastoma is mediated through production of hydroperoxy fatty acids that accumulate to toxic intracellular levels with restricted production of its products, resolvins and protectins.

The Connection Between Diabetes, Obesity, High Blood Pressure, Metabolic Syndrome, Fatty Liver & Gout (Dr. Mercola)

Great 45 minute interview with researcher and clinician, Dr. Johnson on fructose and it’s contribution to many diseases. Fructose is not metabolized like sugar and can cause burden to the liver and elevate cholesterol, increase inflammation, and release uric acid in higher levels than is helpful to your body.

High levels of uric acid may be the contributing factor to inflammation underlying the pathology to these diseases.

n the following statement, Dr. Johnson explains just how closely tied uric acid levels are to fructose consumption:

“If you give animals fructose, they develop diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and fatty liver. And in most of these conditions, if we lower uric acid, we can prevent many of these conditions, [although] not completely.

So lowering uric acid seems to benefit some of the mechanisms by which fructose causes disease.

So a very important point is that if you take two animals and you feed one fructose and feed the other one the exact same number of calories but give it as dextrose or glucose, its only the fructose-fed animal that will develop obesity, insulin resistance, fatty liver, and high triglycerides, signs of inflammation, vascular disease, and high blood pressure.”

Animal Cruelty in Factory Farms (NY Times)

Brain lobectomy so Cows can’t feel pain and mutalation of factory farming! Organic Meat does not allow for cruelty.

Veal calves and gestating sows are so confined as to suffer painful bone and joint problems. The unnatural high-grain diets provided in feedlots cause severe gastric distress in many animals. And faulty or improperly used stun guns cause the painful deaths of thousands of cows and pigs a year.

We are most likely stuck with factory farms, given that they produce most of the beef and pork Americans consume. But it is still possible to reduce the animals’ discomfort — through neuroscience. Recent advances suggest it may soon be possible to genetically engineer livestock so that they suffer much less.

This prospect stems from a new understanding of how mammals sense pain. The brain, it turns out, has two separate pathways for perceiving pain: a sensory pathway that registers its location, quality (sharp, dull or burning, for example) and intensity, and a so-called affective pathway that senses the pain’s unpleasantness. This second pathway appears to be associated with activation of the brain’s anterior cingulate cortex, because people who have suffered damage to this part of the brain still feel pain but no longer find it unpleasant. (The same is true of people who are given morphine, because there are more receptors for opiates in the affective pain pathway than in the sensory pain pathway.)

Recently, scientists have learned to genetically engineer animals so that they lack certain proteins that are important to the operation of the anterior cingulate cortex. Prof. Min Zhuo and his colleagues at the University of Toronto, for example, have bred mice lacking enzymes that operate in affective pain pathways. When these mice encounter a painful stimulus, they withdraw their paws normally, but they do not become hypersensitive to a subsequent painful stimulus, as ordinary mice do.

Growing Dead Zones of Ocean May Provide Evidence of Global Warming (Vital Choice)

Ocean “dead zones” are caused by low levels of dissolved oxygen, and one of the largest is in the Gulf of Mexico.
That desolate undersea area is clearly caused by agricultural runoff and other pollution coming down the Mississippi.
Changes in the wind and ocean circulation over the past eight years have disrupted the exchange of deep, oxygen-poor waters for shallow, oxygen-rich waters, trapping low-oxygen zones near the coasts of Washington and Oregon.

But scientists have detected large, growing dead zones off Southern California and the Northwest coast … and while they need more time to be sure, they say that the changes fit current climate-change models.

Vitamin D Decreases Risk of Colorectal Cancer, but High Vitamin A Could Prevent it (BMJ)

Although vitamin D metabolism might be modulated by some dietary factors, particularly intake levels of calcium,20 retinol21, and alcohol,22 23 the potential interactions have not been well studied in previous considerations of the vitamin D-colorectal cancer hypothesis. We therefore did a nested case-control study within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer andNutrition (EPIC) cohort to examine the association between pre-diagnostic 25-(OH)D concentration and dietary intakes of vitamin D and calcium with colorectal cancer risk in European populations.

Dietary calcium
Higher intake of dietary calcium showed some evidence of association with a reduced cancer risk association, particularly in the rectal anatomical sub-site (table 3). P values for linear trend tests were: colorectal=0.013, colon=0.152, rectum=0.026. The risk associated with a 10% increase in dietary calcium intake was (multivariate adjusted incidence rate ratio, 95% confidenceinterval): colorectal 0.97 (0.94 to 0.99); colon 0.98 (0.94 to 1.00); rectum 0.94 (0.90 to 0.99).Interactions with dietary factors
The dose-response analysis of the interaction between circulating 25-(OH)D concentration and dietary calcium intake (P=0.154) showed that the inverse association between colorectal cancer risk and circulating 25-(OH)D concentration was apparent across levels of dietary calcium. The lowest level of both variables was associated with an increased colorectal cancer risk (incidence rate ratio 1.33 (95% confidence interval 1.16 to 1.55); table 4Go). No interaction on colorectal cancer risk was observed between circulating 25-(OH)D concentration and the level of alcohol consumption (P for interaction=0.283; table 5Go). However, the highest colorectal cancer risk was seen in those with the lowest circulating levels of 25-(OH)D and the highest level of alcohol consumption (incidence rate ratio 1.46, 95% confidence interval 1.16 to 1.83). The dose-response analysis of the interaction between circulating 25-(OH)D concentration and level of dietary retinol intake (P for interaction=0.030) indicates that the inverse colorectal cancer risk association of higher 25-(OH)D was stronger at lower intakes of retinol (table 5).

Anti-aging Panel at Longevity Conference

Panelists include Dr. Dave Woynarowski, Dr. Karlis Ullis, Dr. Phillip Miller and Dr. Stephen Coles and Dr. Joseph Mercola. The role of anti-aging doctor for Primary care, telomere, antioxidants, and fish oil are discussed.

News Brief (Available for members of Functional Medicine Institute) revealed in an interview of Dr. Dean Ornish by Dr. Mark Hyman for functional medicine students. Dr. Ornish reported that lifestyle modifications lowered PSA, decreased tumor growth, and modulated gene expression of over 5oo genes!! Another study showed that telomerase was increased with lifestyle changes! (telomerase is an anti-aging enzyme).

School Lunches- Where’s the Broccoli (EWG)

How do we get more fruits and vegetables into school cafeterias?

  1. Congress must provide enough money to buy healthier foods. Schools must be able to afford nutritious meals. As part of his commitment to eliminate childhood hunger by 2015, President Obama proposed a $1 billion per year increase in these programs in his 2011 budget. This is a good start, but a few cents more per meal is not nearly enough to meet the need for healthier, more nutritious food for the 30 million kids who eat school lunches.
  2. Require healthy foods. Congress should tie increased funding for school meals directly to guidelines proposed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). These will ensure that schools provide more servings of fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains. Otherwise there will be no guarantee that the increased reimbursement will actually pay for healthier food.
  3. Prevent subsidies from indirectly supporting unhealthy foodsA recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that federally subsidized meal programs are often underwriting the expenses of unhealthy food items that are available on a la carte menus and in vending machines. Better yet, Congress should keep schools from serving unhealthy foods altogether by increasing federal nutrition standards for all foods served in schools, including from vending machines.
  • Support a robust farm-to-school program. This month (March), Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) introduced the Farm to School Improvement Act that would provide $10 million a year in mandatory funds under the Child Nutrition Act for grants to help schools buy healthy, fresh products directly from local farmers.
  • PCBs Found in Fish Oil (CNN)

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/02/health/main6259938.shtml

    Another reason to make sure you are getting supplements that are pharmaceutical grade from your health care professional:

    The lawsuit, filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco, targets eight supplement manufacturers or distributors – CVS Pharmacy, Rite Aid, General Nutrition Corp., Solgar, Twinlab, Now Health, Omega Protein and Pharmavite – for alleged violations of California’s Proposition 65, which requires that consumers be warned about chemical exposures.