Located in a mountainous region in the west of China on the slopes of the Himalayas, Bama County is famous for longevity. Indeed, it sometimes is called the “home of longevity” because, despite its small population of less than 230,000 people, circa 2000 there were at least 79 men and women over one hundred years old and still in good health. The ratio was 3.52 centenarians per ten thousand people, seemingly the highest found anywhere in the world. The inhabitants of Bama look younger than their chronological ages and even their grazing animals are noted for good health and long lives. The official line from the Chinese government is that the health of the inhabitants is a result of the area being blessed with good water combined with clean air and a diet consisting preponderantly of vegetables and lean pork. All true, but not particularly distinguishing from any number of mountainous areas in other parts of the world or even in China. Moreover, harsh living conditions can be quite taxing on the elderly and shorten life, for example, due to accidents and illnesses during long winters. Hence, if the Bama live longer lives than would be expected, something other than a mountainous environment would seem to be responsible.
When summer comes and people
across America get ready to start
slathering on the sunscreen, a
note of caution is in order—a little sunshine
is good for you.
Studies increasingly are suggesting the value of vitamin D—often known as the sunshine vitamin, because that’s one way you can obtain it—in everything from bone metabolism to maintaining muscle strength, immune function, reducing hypertension and possibly even playing a role in prevention of cancer and autoimmune disease.
The strongest case for the use of nutritional supplements can be made, even to the typically skeptical mainstream medical community, when traditional pharmaceuticals have shown to be of limited efficacy. In such cases, the use of nutraceuticals as both preventive and therapeutic agents becomes very compelling. The need to consider and employ natural bioactive compounds is particularly strong in the field of infectious diseases.
PS (PhosphatidylSerine, pronounced fos-fa-tie-dil-ser-een) is a nutrient that supports many brain functions, and many of our most important life processes. PS has a sophisticated molecular structure in the vital lipid class. Biochemically PS is a phospholipid (fos-fo-lip-id), not technically a fat but working closely with “good fats”—essential fatty acids.
TOTAL HEALTH MANAGEMENT Requires Conscious Living - Not Getting-by on Auto-pilot
Written by Gloria Gilbère, DAHom, PhD
An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study of chemicals found in human body fat through biopsy showed the wide array of toxic chemicals that each of us carries within. The “toxic load,” also known as “total body burden” or “bio-accumulation” occurs when the body exceeds the capacity of the organs of detoxification to reduce or neutralize toxins. Since the end of the Second World War, our planet has been experiencing a dramatic chemical revolution. Our existence, at the cost of our health and quality of life, now depends upon thousands of synthetic chemicals that are used to create virtually everything we associate with modern life—agriculture, health care, energy production, food supply, household and personal care products, and manufacturing all pumping tons of chemicals—most sold to consumers or dumped into the environment. A portion of these foreign chemicals, referred to as xenobiotics (foreign to the body), end up within the human body.
Four humble herbs with an impressive history for helping people to improve their health and overcome disease include burdock root (Arctium lappa L.), sheep sorrel herb (Rumex acetosella L.), Indian rhubarb root (Rheum officinale L.) and slippery elm bark (Ulmus rubra Muhl.). A traditional herbal formulation made with these four herbs is gaining recognition as a good remedy for treating a wide range of health problems. The below information covers some of the impressive research on these four herbs and helps to shed light on how this synergist blend can afford so many profound health benefits.
Green MEDICINE
Written by Nicholas Gonzalez, MD
What exactly is Green Medicine? I like to think of it in terms of stimulating the body’s own resources and extraordinary abilities to repair and rebuild itself. It helps reverse even serious illness, using diet, nutrients, detoxification procedures and rarely drugs, to move our bodies in a healing direction. It means living a clean life at home, avoiding exposures, as much as possible, to toxic, synthetic chemicals. It also means working to keep the larger world around us cleaner, greener, as it was originally meant to be.
This approach differs considerably from the more conventional medicine we know so well, the slash and burn treatment of illness that uses drugs, invariably with long lists of toxic side effects, to blast away at the illness—be it bacterial or cancer. Of course no one denies the benefits of technological, pharmaceutical based modern medicine but it has serious limitations, and often doesn’t work well—witness the recent reports revealing that antidepressants, long considered one of the great victories of modern medicine, may overall work no better than placebo. But, nice as it may sound, gentle as it might seem in theory, can green medicine really work against a terrible disease like cancer? My colleague Dr. Isaacs and I, certainly believe so, and our experience over the past 20 years in the trenches with at times the sickest of the sick has helped confirm that done properly and intensively our brand of medicine can work.
What does it take to actually thrive, not merely survive, in our hectic 21st century world?
The combination of relentless stress, a toxic environment within
our bodies and in the outside world, and nutrient-depleted
foods have conspired to create a perfect storm that directly
impacts on the body’s ability to repair, detoxify and rejuvenate.
Unlike the health challenges of the past, which were predominantly due to infectious diseases, our modern health epidemics such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia, cancer, and obesity are fueled by a one-two punch of chronic inflammation and extensive free radical damage to our cells.
Face it. Life is a balancing act. Between work, relationships, parental duties, staying fit, academic efforts, maintaining friendships, community involvement and personal fulfillment, it’s a wonder most of us can even find time to catch our breath. Yet we soldier forward with all our obligations and commitments because we have to, and in most cases, we want to. But when life gets so hectic the stress of it all impacts our mental and physical well-being, it’s time to take action.
Advancements in Alzheimer’s Disease - An Antidote in An Era of Soaring Health Care Spending
Ronald Klatz, MD, DO
In February, the U.S. government forecast that the nation’s health care spending will consume an expanding share of the U.S. economy during the next decade. Officials predict health care to cost $4.3 trillion by 2017 and account for 19.5 percent of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2007, U.S. health care spending stood at $2.2 trillion, and that spending will rise by 6.7 percent annually for the next ten years. One of the contributing factors to the surge in health care spending is the aging Baby Boomer population. In the U.S. men and women born between 1946 and 1964 are turning 60 at the rate of 330 per hour. They are also now cashing in on Medicare health benefits, and by 2017 Medicare payouts will climb to $884 billion—more than one-fifth of all national health care spending, and nearly double the programs spending in 2007.
