Archive for the Health News

Ok girls, if you haven’t heard me say this yet hear it now: Fat is not the enemy!

Healthy fats, monounsaturated and some polyunsaturated, even saturated fats all have beneficial effects on every system in the body. Fat actually powers our metabolism. It causes no blood sugar spikes which lead to inflammation which puts us at increased risk of the diseases of aging. It is critical for preservation of bone, immunity, and energy throughout the day.

Adding fat to a carb will slow down the blood sugar response and it will help you feel full–one key way to prevent overeating. But this post is about Alzheimer’s and related kinds of disease processes and how you can help someone you love and yourself.

Today I read in Dr. Whitaker’s newsletter a story about a new Alzheimer’s drug which is actually fat in a pill. A man who at 59 was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, put on Aracept and a few other drugs, but declined over the years following his diagnosis.  His wife, a doctor, (Dr. Newport) was made aware of a clinical trial evaluating a new Alzheimer’s drug. When her husband was not approved for the trial she did some research to find out what the active ingredient in this new drug was. To her surprise, the active ingredient was medium chain triglycerides (MCTs). These are natural fatty acids abundant in coconut oil.

She started giving her husband coconut oil and with the first dose, “a light switch came on” said the patient. Maybe I should tell you that at this point he was unable to use a calculator, work, type or remember to eat.

One dose! Why it worked is too long to go into here but it has to do with ketones which are the body’s alternative energy source. These are the very things produced and burned as fuel when you do an Atkins type eating program.

It’s a remarkable story and just one example of how a food we’ve been told for years is a “bad, saturated fat” is being rightfully shown as an important part of a healthy diet. Even Big Pharma found something to love in this healthy fat.

The drug they based on MCTs is called Axona and is available as a “medical food.” That phrase makes me laugh just thinking about it. Now the medical world wants to claim natural foods as their own? If you were to take enough of this “food” to help brain function throughout the day you’d have to take it three times per day at a cost of $300/month. According to Dr. Whitaker, insurance companies are not reimbursing for it at this time.

Dr. Newport has a website with more information. 

Food for thought and for those who want to keep on thinking clearly.

Have you ever thought about natural flu prevention? We talk about building a strong immune system and that eating well and exercise are important in that regard but what about keeping some herbal remedies on hand to fortify your immune system against the flu and other bugs?
Vaccines are popular and this time around our government is going to be pushing hard for everyone to get a flu vaccine. As for me and my house we say “no thanks.” There are too many nightmare stories about neurotoxins, deaths, heavy metal poisoning for me to go near these vaccinations. Take a look at this page from Dr. Mercola which has a number of videos including one from a flu vaccine manufacturers rep.

Swine flu specific since it’s all the buzz right now, according to the CDC this year’s regular flu virus will come at the exact time of the swine flu surge which will combine to create an entirely new virus. It will be unresponsive to the current vaccines being produced.
So why go there?

What can you take to boost immunity against viruses specifically? I’m sharing a free report generously made available by Natural News, one of the resources I go to for unbiased opinions on natural health and related products. Use this link to read or download it. They make no money from the sale of products listed here nor do they manufacture them. All are easily purchased from online sources and some from discount sites so you get the best price.
I’m usually pretty lax about adding more nutritionals just to protect against flu but this year it feels like the right thing to do.
What are you going to do this year to stay well during flu season?

Well ok it’s a healthy food for men too but sometimes one has to include a keyword here and there.

I recently did some research for my weekly audio postcards on fats and oils in our diets. I wanted to be sure I was up to date on my information on what was really healthy and what was not. For years I’d heard that coconut oil was good for us, coconut a very healthy food, but I didn’t know why. Well I learned why as well as what to look for and I think you’re going to like this.

First of all, yes, coconut oil is considered a saturated fat. 92% of the fatty acids in coconut oil are saturated but come from a healthy class of fatty acids called medium chain fatty triglycerides. According to obesity researchers at McGill University compared to other types of fatty acids, MCFAs actually use up energy when they are metabolized, and thus can act as weight loss agents.

The most rapidly oxidized MCFA is called lauric acid. Coconut oil contains almost 50% of this which also has been shown to be antimicrobial, antibacterial and antiviral.

Coconut oil is easy to digest and like other fats helps you feel satisfied, and adds the yumm factor.

Be sure to buy virgin or extra virgin coconut oil which will not have been hydrogenated not processed with high heat. Speaking of heat, coconut oil has a very high smoke point, 450° which makes it great for sautéing. It does not oxidate as easily as some cooking oils which is good news as you’ll see in a minute.

If a pina colada now sounds like a good idea buyer of cream of coconut beware. Those cans are loaded with sugar and not a lot of the real fruit or milk of the coconut left. How about using the canned Thai coconut milk and sweeten your drink, if you need it, with agave syrup, a low glycemic, very delicious sugar substitute.

If you want more info on this pick up a copy of Dr. May Enid’s book, “Eat Fat, Lose Fat.”

Ah the lowly, lovely egg. If you know me you know I am a big fan of the egg for it’s versatility, flavor, and health attritbutes. After all it’s a perfect food, plenty of protein, low in calories, some good healthy fat and the kind of cholesterol that helps, not hurts, our over all system.

So when I got this Health Alert this morning from HSI Baltimore had to share.”Egg-Irony” – that’s how ScienceDaily referred to a new study that shows how egg consumption might alleviate a heart disease risk factor. 

If you have high blood pressure, your doctor has probably pressed you to take an ACE inhibitor drug. 

A couple of eggs each day might do just as well. 

Two researchers at Canada’s University of Alberta recently ran lab tests to determine if consumption of fried eggs or boiled eggs would produce greater amounts of ACE inhibitory peptides. 

I’ll cut to the chase: The fried eggs won. 

In a recent issue of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry the authors write: “Our results showed that in vitro digestion of cooked eggs could generate a number of potent ACE inhibitory peptides which may have implications for cardiovascular disease prevention, including hypertension.” 

One of the physicians on the board of the HSI panel is Dr. Allan Spreen M.D. He’s got what some consider controversial views but he always has mainstream science to back them up so let’s see what he had to say about this egg irony.

The author of the Health Alert newsletter introduced him this way: “HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., kindly sent me the info about the Alberta egg study. But even more valuable was his commentary. Stand back and give him some swinging room. Dr. Spreen takes no prisoners in this one. ”

Dr. Spreen: “Actually, neither egg nor cholesterol ingestion has ever had anything to do with either hypertension or hypercholesterolemia [high cholesterol]. There is no correlation between oral intake of cholesterol and serum levels (I also firmly believe there’s no connection between serum levels and heart disease, but that’s an argument for another time).

“If you never eat cholesterol your body will manufacture it (or you die), and the ‘manufactured’ variety is more readily deposited in vessel walls. 

“Eggs are wonderful food, always have been, and that includes the yolk (rare good source of sulfur). 

Well there you have it. More good news on one of nature’s perfect, portable, frickin’ wonderfully delicious foods. Of course human trials will have to be done to prove that the heart disease protection extends to us as well as the lucky test tube organisms that had eggs for breakfast each day. But this study should at least lend some credence to the idea that eggs are not going to kill you!

What’s on your breakfast plate?