Liver Damage May Be Prevented by Herbal Medicine

The liver is the second largest organ in the body and is often seen as the most important organ. In traditional Chinese medicine, for example, a healthy liver is seen as the most critical element in the body's ability to fight disease and function optimally. A new study has found that a well-known Asian medicine supplement may help avoid the most common cause of liver transplantation.

A well-known Eastern medicine supplement may help avoid the most common cause of liver transplantation, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The finding came as a surprise to the scientists, who used a number of advanced genetic and genomic techniques in mice to identify a molecular pathway that counters acetaminophen toxicity, which leads to liver failure.

"I didn't know anything about the substance that was necessary for the pathway's function, so I had to look it up," said Gary Peltz, MD, PhD, professor of anesthesiology. "My postdoctoral fellow, whose parents and other family members in Asia were taking this compound in their supplements, started laughing. He recognized it immediately." Read more

Help Your Body Deal with Fat

Margaret Durst discusses the powerhouse supplement, lecithin, and why you shouldn't cook your eggs until the yolks are hard.

Lecithin is known for helping to prevent arteriosclerosis, protecting against cardiovascular disease, improving brain function, facilitating repair of the liver and promoting energy. Lecithin is a fat emulsifier. It enables fats such as cholesterol to be dispersed in water and removed from the body. It also protects vital organs and arteries from fatty buildup.

Most commercial lecithin is derived from soy. The best food source of lecithin is egg yolks. Read more

Meditation Has Physiological Benefits, Study Says

Can stress-reducing Transcendental Meditation help coronary artery disease patients prevent future heart attacks? A new study says that a daily meditation practice can reduce the thickening of coronary arteries in adults with coronary artery disease.

Could the mental relaxation produced by transcendental meditation have physiological benefits? A study presented last week at the American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, Fla., suggests that it may, at least in the case of people with established coronary artery disease. Read more

Herbal Viagra: An Effective Alternative to Drugs?

Lots of men have trouble with erectile dysfunction, and Viagra is often prescribed to get their sexual desires and performance back. However, Viagra, like most pharmaceuticals has side effects that may outweigh the drug's benefits, leading men to search for a natural alternative.

Sure, there are a multitude of different erection pills on the market, but none are as well known as Viagra. Pharmaceutical Viagra isn’t for everyone though – so if you’ve talked to your doctor about Viagra and it’s not for you, herbal Viagra can be a great alternative. What exactly is herbal Viagra and what does it do?

Herbal Viagra is often considered cheap Viagra and is basically any herbal pill that suggests its ingredients aid erectile dysfunction and impotency. Herbal Viagra can contain anything considered “all natural,” even including extracts from the larvae of silkworms. Often, herbal Viagra contains a variety of naturally extracted substances to give the user more energy and stamina, in addition to an erection.

Herbal remedies have worked for centuries for a variety of ailments, including high blood pressure, obesity, cardiac problems, insomnia and more. It’s only natural that an herbal Viagra supplement could aid erectile dysfunction and impotency issues with the natural extracts from plants and herbs – and well, maybe insects. Read more

Dark Chocolate: The New Antianxiety Drug?

Chocolate is a comfort food and for good reason. It really does relieve anxiety. A new study found that eating chocolate reduced levels of their stress hormones, and the changes were “biologically significant."

OK, so it may not be kosher for me to report on a chocolate study that was conducted by an employee of a chocolate maker at the chocolate maker’s own research lab. Get over it. The results of this new study are intriguing and shed more light on the biochemical basis behind dark chocolate’s health benefits.

The team of researchers was led by Sunil Kochhar, PhD, who heads the BioAnalytical Science Department at the Nestlé Research Center in Switzerland. He and his colleagues designed the study to see whether eating dark chocolate every day for two weeks could affect the way the body metabolizes stress hormones. Read more

8 Health Benefits of Locally-Grown Raw Honey

It's no secret that unprocessed honey, straight from the hive, has been used worldwide for millennia to promote healing. Below are eight health benefits of raw, organic, locally grown honey.

Perhaps your parents failed to mention it when they discussed the birds and the bees with you. But, honey has a long history of healing, too.

Really, it’s been used for centuries for its healing properties, as well as its sweetness. People use it to bake with. It requires you to use less heat. Its tasty flavor is one reason many people prefer it over table sugar. Besides that, honey is much sweeter than regular table sugar and better for you.

It’s best if you buy locally grown organic raw honey whenever you can. Locally grown because it’s produced by bees which are from the environment in which you live. It is always best to grow or consume foods from the area in which you live as they contain the immune stimulating properties needed for your body to adapt to its environment. Fresh raw honey will also be tastier, and more potent. And, when you buy from local independent farmers you help keep them in business, which is good for your economy.

Eight Health Benefits of Honey Read more

How to Overcome Allergy and Asthma Symptoms Naturally

Runny nose, itchy eyes, coughing, wheezing? Margaret Durst tells how to overcome allergy and asthma symptoms naturally.

Quercetin is a bioflavonoid, or part of the vitamin C family. Bioflavonoids are coloring pigments that are found throughout the plant kingdom. Bioflavonoids are antioxidants and are known for providing protection from environmental stresses.

Quercetin is known for inhibiting allergy and inflammatory responses. Allergy and inflammatory conditions are triggered by contact with allergens that are absorbed into the blood. When allergens meet special immune cells containing histamine, the cell wall of the immune cell becomes leaky and releases histamine into the surrounding blood and tissues. Allergen released histamine produces the familiar allergic symptoms of runny noses, blocked sinuses, itchy eyes, blotchy skin, coughing and wheezing. Read more

New Warning on "Perfect Vaginas"

It shouldn't take a report for women to realize that having surgery to create a "perfect vagina" is a bad idea. Surgery on your genitals might have risks? Really? Who could have guessed?

Women are undergoing surgery to create perfect genitalia amid a "shocking" lack of information on the potential risks of the procedure, a report says.

Research published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology also questions the very notion of aesthetically pleasing genitals. Read more

Don't Blame Your Metabolism If You Can't Lose Weight

Can't lose weight? Don't blame your metabolism. It's easy to say it's your body's fault you're chubby, but, it's a big fat lie, says Dr. Susan Roberts.

For those who struggle to lose weight, it has always made sense to blame a slow metabolism.

In my work as a diet doctor and nutritionist, I hear this excuse all the time to explain away everything from middle-age spread to the fact that their best friend eats twice as much, but stays effortlessly slim.

It's not that they are overeating, they insist, it's because their body doesn't burn up calories as efficiently.

But what is the real truth about the link between your metabolic rate - that is, the amount of energy used up by your body just to keep your heart beating, your blood pumping and so on - and weight gain?

Does a slow metabolism automatically mean you will end up overweight? To find out, I have tackled seven of the most common myths about metabolism. Read more

Feeling Low? Banish the Blues the Natural Way

Feeling low? Banish the blues with mood-enhancing foods that will give you a lift and keep you healthy.

It’s the season of mists, mellow fruitfulness — and comfort food. But try to resist — or, at least, don’t go for the traditional, stodgy, fat-laden offerings. Research published last week in the British Journal of Psychiatry (BJP) showed that people who ate a Mediterranean-style diet (fruit, vegetables, pulses, cereals and olive oil) were 30 per cent less likely to get depressed than those whose diet was laden with processed and high-fat foods. And since the No 1 rule for keeping your mood on an even keel is to eat regularly during the day, you can take comfort from the fact that the research doesn’t advocate starving yourself.

Just the simple task of eating the right breakfast after a night’s fast will boost not only mood, but also memory, learning power and concentration, probably by increasing production of the nerve transmitter acetylcholine. The key is to stay off fast-release carbohydrates such as croissants with jam, cereal bars, muffins, sugary cereals and sweet drinks. These are digested rapidly, giving your blood glucose an exaggerated spike, which is swiftly followed by a low.

Instead, opt for slow-release glucose found in foods such as sugar-free muesli with berries, porridge or sourdough toast with peanut butter — choices that are more likely to keep moods level by delivering a stable and steady flow of energy to the brain and by keeping you feeling full for the morning ahead. Read more

Olive Oil May Help Prevent, Treat Alzheimer’s

Why do Italians get so old and stay so cheerful? They put olive oil on almost everything they eat!

Oleocanthal, a naturally-occurring compound found in extra-virgin olive oil, alters the structure of neurotoxic proteins believed to contribute to the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s disease. This structural change impedes the proteins’ ability to damage brain nerve cells. Read more

Hypnosis Can Help in Cancer Treatment

For those of you who have cancer or know of someone with cancer, hypnosis may offer hope in helping the body to heal. We all know about the “placebo” effect, as in taking a sugar pill unknowingly, and tricking the mind into believing that we actually are taking a medicated pill. It’s proven to work in many case studies. Hypnotherapy is basically just that. We bypass (fool) the conscious mind and get into the subconscious where the real healing takes place.

Research made in the last decade shows that hypnosis can cure many medical problems with no side effect. Hypnosis is now successfully used in different areas such as quitting smoking, weight loss, stress reduction, stopping negative thoughts, anger management, pain control and so on. Also the latest experiences show that hypnosis can have positive effect on different aspects of cancer treatment.

There are different therapies for cancer including drugs, hypnosis, radiation, reiki, special diet, surgery, emotional healing, ozone treatment, fruit juice treatment, chemotherapy and so on. Unfortunately, most cancers can not still be cured even with the help of modern science. So, there is a need for a different approach to cancer treatment. Cancer specialist DR D. W. Smithers writes that "Like other names used in science, cancer is just a shortened way of saying something that cannot be simply defined - cancer is no more a disease of cells than a traffic jam is a disease of cars. A lifetime of study of the internal combustion engine would not help anyone to understand our traffic problems. Cancer is a disease of organization, not a disease of cells." Yes, we need a complex approach to find the treatment of cancer through mind-body connection. Read more

Something Else Good about Kissing: It Spreads Germs

From its beginning, the act of kissing has become a nearly universal and natural expression of affection among people. However, scientists believe kissing was developed to spread germs which build up immunity to Cytomegalovirus, which, if caught while pregnant, can kill unborn babies or cause birth defects.

It isn't the most romantic theory, but scientists believe kissing was developed to spread germs which build up immunity to illness.

They say the gesture allows a bug named Cytomegalovirus, which is dangerous in pregnancy, to be passed from man to woman to give her time to build up protection against it.

The bug is found in saliva and normally causes no problems. But it can be extremely dangerous if caught while pregnant and can kill unborn babies or cause birth defects. Read more