Blueberries for Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis may be helped by consuming blueberries, recent research has shown.

Research published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research has shown that rats who were fed a diet including 10% of blueberries had much greater bone mass than those who did not eat the blueberry-enriched diet.

This indicates that blueberries may be a powerful aid in helping avoid a bane of the Western world for many – osteoporosis.

The most likely mechanism is that the antioxidants present in blueberries – the polyphenols – somehow facilitate the increase in bone mass. The exact mechanism is not yet clear and will require further study.

In any case, it is a good idea to supplement your diet with blueberries, if you do not already. The powerful health benefits of blueberries has already been well established. And this is just one more benefit to add to a long list – the possible strengthening of bones and reduction of osteoporosis.

Related Articles for Osteoporosis and Blueberries

• Bad British diet is putting bones at risk of osteoporosis due to lack of vitamin D (guardian.co.uk)
• Tropical blueberry is the ultimate super fruit (news.bioscholar.com)

Osteoporosis and Blueberries is a post from: Alternative HealthZine

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Brain Decline with Alzheimer's

Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia can certainly be affected by diet. One obvious source of problems is the generalised inflammation which occurs with a high sugar diet.

“High sugar” includes the sugar derived from all starches in the diet. Starches include potatoes, rice, bread and pasta. All these foods consist of 95% or more sugar. They do not taste sweet, but when they are broken down in digestion sugar is released.

The high level of generalised inflammation which these sugars in the diet tend to cause is made worse, the more starches that are eaten. Refined sugar is the worst type of starch to eat; but all starches have this inflammatory effect to some degree.

A recent study showed that in just a matter of four weeks cognitive skills were adversely affected by a diet relatively high in starchy food and sugar and high in saturated fats. Those in the study consisted of 50% of people with with mild cognitive disability, and 50% who were healthy.

Read details at this blog post. Diet does affect brain function.

http://livingto150.com/dementia-low-saturated-fat-low-sugar-helps

It is pretty clear that diets can make cognitive decline, including Alzheimer’s disease, more likely; and faster to take hold.

Related Articles For Alzheimer’s Disease

• Diet and Alzheimer’s Disease – Some Evidence (foodworksblog.wordpress.com)
• First sign of Alzheimer’s Disease (poshcaresupport.com)

Diet and Alzheimers Disease is a post from: Alternative HealthZine

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A great deal of research has determined that coconut oil is a wonderful oil to have in your diet. Coconut oil can be consumed in the diet – for example, it can be melted, called, and then used to make salad dressing.

Coconut Oil Salad Dressing

If you mix in 25 percent of olive oil the dressing will stay liquid at room temperature. Use 3 parts of coconut oil to 1 part of olive oil to 1.4 part of vinegar – cider vinegar or wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar. Add a few dried herbs to taste, and/or a little mustard of any type. Mix well – and there is your dressing. Lovely.

Coconut oil has been used to cook with for thousands of years. It was widely used and advertised for example, at the end of the nineteenth century.

Coconut Oil And Heart Health

More recently, there has been a move to push polyunsaturated fats, and the American diet has swung towards polyunsaturated. However, this does not seem to have stemmed the increase in heart disease, which is still with us.

In parts of the world where Coconut oil has been a major part of the diet for all their lives, populations in these parts of the world have a low occurrence of heart disease. So the simple equation “saturated fats equal heart disease” is obviously an oversimplification. Similarly, people living in these parts have less cancer and other degenerative diseases than people in the Western world despite their diets containing large amounts of unsaturated fats.

Coconut Oil And Smoothies

Coconut oil can be added to shakes and smoothies to make a more filling drink. For example, if you are choosing some vegetables, then mix it with a dessertspoon or two of coconut oil after you have extracted the juice.
Green Smoothie
Here is a very tasty and healthy smoothie.

Blend together a banana, a handful of spinach, a cup of rice milk or oatmeal, a tablespoon of coconut oil and a little vanilla and cinnamon to taste. This is an absolutely delicious smoothie drink which will fill you up and keep you going for several hours!

Make sure to melt the coconut oil before adding it – to avoid a lumpy smoothie.

Coconut Oil And Soup

Similarly, if cooking soups you can make them more satisfying and filling by adding some coconut oil after you make the soup.

The way soup is usually made satisfying is by frying the vegetables first, and then adding the other ingredients to make the soup. Here is a healthier way of doing it – don’t do the frying at the beginning at all; but just just add the oil – coconut oil – when the rest of the cooking has been done. I bet you can’t tell the difference!

Cooking With Coconut Oil is a post from: Alternative HealthZine

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Coconut oil benefits for health are well known in tropical areas. These benefits are not so well known in the Western world, but word is getting out!

Coconut oil is produced from the kernel or meat – the white part – of matured coconuts. These are collected when ripe from the coconut palm tree. Being so abundant in tropical parts, the coconut palm has provided the main source of fat in the tropical diet for many centuries.

Coconut oil has numerous uses in these counties because of its many interesting properties. These uses range from food uses, as medicine, and industrial uses.

Coconut Oil Benefits For The Diet

Coconut oil is remarkably stable when heated, which makes is a very good oil for cooking and frying, as it does not degrade when heated. Because it is so stable this means is does not oxidize as readily as most other cooking fats, so it does not go rancid easily. In fact, it will keep well for up to two years unrefrigerated.

Benefits For Health

Getting back to examining coconut oil benefits for health, we find that coconut oil contains several natural acids which combine the properties of anti-microbial, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-oxidant. Many benefits and of coconut oil can be attributed to 3 particular acids in it, lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid.

Coconut Oil And Immunity

One prime health benefit of coconut oil is for the immune system.

Coconut oil contains several substances which strengthened the immune system. These include the three fatty acids mentioned above, which have antifungal and antibacterial anti-viral properties. The lauric acid mentioned is converted by the body into more no law in. This is claimed to be helpful when combating a wide range of viruses and bacteria, including herpes, influenza, and thrush. It is also thought to be helpful in counteracting heliobacter pylori, the bacterium implicated in causing stomach ulcers.

Coconut Oil Benefits For Healing

In tropical areas, coconut oil is used widely to enhance healing when the skin has been damaged. Applied to a wound it appears to reduce infection and enhance healing by excluding air and bacteria because it provides a barrier. It appears to be able to speed up the healing process.

Coconut Oil’s Benefits For The Digestion

In practice, coconut oil is found to benefit the whole digestive tract  stop many people have found that when suffering from inflammatory bowel conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome coconut oil provides a soothing treatment. as it descends the intestinal system, the oil can coat the damaged areas providing relief in many cases.

It is certainly worth trying coconut oil to treat these various health conditions. There are no known side effects with coconut oil, and it is not very expensive. So, especially being a natural substance, the risk is low and the benefits may be substantial.

Do make sure to get the virgin form of coconut oil, though, or its benefits will definitely be reduced.

Related articles on Coconut Oil Benefits for Health

• Dr. Joseph Mercola: Coconut Oil Benefits: When Fat Is a Good Thing (huffingtonpost.com)
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The most painful arthritis symptom is likely to be the one that you are suffering from. It doesn’t matter so much about the pain that is affecting other sufferers. It is our own symptoms which we want to ameliorate.

Whichever is our predominant arthritis symptom, we are best off treating it with measures which benefit the whole body.

Of course, if our condition has become advanced it may be that pharmaceutical drugs are called for.

Hopefully, this is not the case for you and it is not too late for intervention simply with dietary supplements.

Fish Oil Supplements

It is a fact that high levels of inflammation in the body accompany the presence of arthritis of any type. This is why fish oil is such a great supplement for anybody suffering from arthritis – even if taking drugs. Fish oil supplements are a very safe remedy which have no deleterious effects on any health conditions or any drugs being taken. Fish oil is for any arthritis symptom.

But do be sure to take enough fish oil supplements every day. A good dosage is to take 1500 mg daily of EPA combined with DHA.

In other words, look at the label of your fish oil and add up the total milligrams of these two important fish oils. The total needs to come to around 1500 mg daily.

This may equate to 6 capsules of a typical fish oil supplement. If it is a weak supplement you will need many more! So make sure you buy a Fish Oil Supplement with high potency.

Fish oil is a great anti-inflammatory and so is brilliant for all arthritis sufferers. Just make sure you take enough.

Related articles For The Most Painful Arthritis Symptom

• Fish Oil for Arthritis? (everydayhealth.com)
• Guide to Omega 3 Fish Oil Supplements (brighthub.com)
• The Link Between Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Arthritis (brighthub.com)

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Inflammatory bowel disease symptoms can be helped with various probiotics brands, according to a new meta-study (an analysis of past studies).

There is little in the conventional armoury to treat IBS successfully; so it is good that the medics have identified as beneficial something which won’t do any harm; because it is not a drug. The study was carried out by colleagues from Oxford University, UK.

The results of the analysis showed significant improvements after just a few weeks of treatment.

Half the studies analysed showed significant improvements in “abdominal pain, flatulence, bloating and quality of life - a great result.

It is said that many people have a deficiency of natural bowel flora – probiotics. So whether you have IBS or a similar inflammatory bowel disease or not, taking a bowel flora supplement daily is a good idea anyway. Of the probiotics brands available, we always take the best probiotic we can find. Bowel flora is also great to take any time you go on holiday – travelling can affect the bowel flora negatively, so taking a probiotic supplement at this time is a great idea.

Slippery Elm Benefits – Top Herb for IBS

There are also valuable herbal approaches which will often help IBS in addition to the use of flora or probiotics. The top herbs for IBS, for most people, is Slippery Elm. The main Slippery Elm benefits are that it coats the lining of the intestines, soothing, nourishing and healing any inflamed tissues.

If you have IBS then it’s best to use a multiple approach including Slippery Elm, a probiotic, managing your stress level and dietary control – including eliminating potential allergens.

Though you can do a lot of this yourself, it is often better to have the guidance of a skilled practitioner in natural therapy, and well as your doctor’s advice to consider.

Using methods like these, you may be able to assist IBS without drugs.

In a recent study, it has been found that various probiotics brands reduce anxiety.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease Symptoms – Probiotics is a post from: Alternative HealthZine

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Choosing a healthy diet. is never easy.

Michael Eades provides excellent information about four popular diets – Atkins, Ornish, Zone and LEARN – and provides intelligent commentary on them.

If you are confused by the contradictory advice offered in the press, by books, and by medical advisers; and if you are prepared to spend half an hour taking on board some new information I strongly recommend this post to you.

The truth is, all these diets have some good points. The trick comes in knowing what the good parts are, and at what times they might suit you.

Michael Eades’ post will help you get to the truth underlying these diets. You will then be in a position to judge for yourself what you should be eating, and what you should not.

It’s a great piece.

Let me know in the comments what you think.

What Is The Best Healthy diet? is a post from: Alternative HealthZine

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Beans cause wind – and that’s not very nice.

Well, I had a huge bean lunch a couple of days ago, and I suffered for it about 18 hours later. I could have powered a wind farm. I had to find out how to reduce wind from beans..

I’ve never noticed beans have this effect on me before: but I plan to be eating them more frequently, so I thought I’d attack the problem.

The Answer To Reducing Wind From Beans.

I think I might have the answer. Next day I did two things to the same bean mix:

1. I added cumin and curry powder.

2. I ate s-l-o-w-l-y. I chewed lots. And lots. I know we all know we should – well, I actually did.

And next day – perfectly fine: no discomfort, no extra wind. Yay!

Beans – How to Avoid Wind is a post from: Alternative HealthZine

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A study in Germany has found that organically grown apples have 15% higher anti-oxidant properties than non-organic.

The study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, compared the content of polyphenols and anti-oxidants in Golden Delicious apples over a three year period.

We do not recommend eating too many apples as, especially these days, the sugar content is usually very high. But when you do eat one, it makes sense to eat organically grown apples whenever you can.

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Choose Organic Apples is a post from: Alternative HealthZine

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A study of 2000 Chinese women has shown that women consuming a third of an ounce of mushrooms a day were 64% less likely to develop a tumour of the breast. The study found that the more mushrooms eaten, the greater the protective effect. It was better where women consumed not only fresh mushrooms, but also dried mushrooms.

An even greater protective benefit was found for women who ate lots of mushrooms and drank green tea regularly. The protective effect was so great, that women who consumed both fresh and dried mushrooms and who drank green tea had only 10-20% of the chance of developing breast cancer. This is a fantastic reduction of risk.

More research will determine whether the mushrooms and tea are causing the reduction, or whether some other factor is involved.

Still, for now it might well be wise to include either cooked or raw mushrooms in your diet every day if you can and drink green tea. (Hopefully, you are drinking this anyway, as it is so good for you).

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Mushrooms Against Breast Cancer? is a post from: Alternative HealthZine

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