Healthy Life

Hi I am Jake Glover, I am 35 years old. I am a nurse in a local hospital. I always browse health blogs for keeping myself about health in my free time. Pinterest Wordpress

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How Proper Sleep Lowers Infection

Previous research1 has shown that sleep deprivation has the same effect on your immune system as physical stress. When volunteers stayed awake for 29 hours straight, their white blood cell counts were found to increase during the sleep deprivation phase.

This is the same type of response you typically see when you're sick or stressed. In a nutshell, whether you're physically stressed, sick or sleep-deprived, your immune system becomes hyperactive and starts producing white blood cells — your body's first line of defense against foreign invaders like infectious agents.

Elevated levels of white blood cells are typically a sign of disease. In other words, your body reacts to sleep deprivation in much the same way it reacts to illness. Your immune system, in turn, plays a key role in controlling inflammation in your body, and if it's not working optimally, your ability to fight off the infection will be impaired. As reported by Science Daily:2

"Sleep improves the potential ability of some of the body's immune cells to attach to their targets … The study,3,4 led by Stoyan Dimitrov and Luciana Besedovsky at the University of Tübingen, helps explain how sleep can fight off an infection, whereas other conditions, such as chronic stress, can make the body more susceptible to illness."

When Ga(s)-Coupled Receptor Agonists Are Activated, Immune Function Declines

When your immune system senses a foreign invader, such as a virus, white blood cells known as T cells (among others) are dispatched. Sticky proteins called integrins allow the T cell to attach to the infected target and kill it.

Dimitrov and his team decided to investigate5 the effects of signaling molecules called Ga(s)-coupled receptor agonists. While these signaling molecules are known to have immunosuppressive effects, it was not known whether they might inhibit the activation of integrins in T cells specifically, which is what they sought to determine here.

What they discovered was that certain Ga(s)-coupled receptor agonists did indeed prevent T cells from activating integrins once the target was identified. Ga(s)-coupled receptor agonists exhibiting this effect included:

Adrenaline and noradrenaline (hormones)

Prostaglandin E2 and D2 (proinflammatory molecules)

Adenosine (a neuromodulator)

Sleep Helps Your Body Fight Infection

Levels of adrenaline and prostaglandin are known to decrease during sleep, and both have been shown to suppress integrin activation, so the team continued their investigation by comparing T cells obtained from volunteers during sleep and during sleep deprivation (when the volunteers were kept awake throughout the night).

All of the volunteers were infected with cytomegalovirus, a mostly benign virus, as they tend to have higher amounts of antigen-specific T cells. As suspected, the T cells were found to have significantly higher integrin activation during sleep than during wakefulness.

Ultimately, the findings reveal that when you sleep, Ga(s)-coupled receptor activation is inhibited, and this is one important way by which sleep helps your body combat inflammation. According to Besedovsky:6

"Our findings show that sleep has the potential to enhance the efficiency of T cell responses, which is especially relevant in light of the high prevalence of sleep disorders and conditions characterized by impaired sleep, such as depression, chronic stress, aging and shift work."

Dr. Louis DePalo, a professor of medicine, pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, who was not involved in the study, told Reuters:7

"Multiple clinical studies have demonstrated that people who do not get quality or sufficient sleep are more likely to get sick after being exposed to viruses. This study demonstrates yet another molecular pathway where good quality and quantity sleep may lead to immune supportive effects via immune cells, called T cells."

Sleep Also Plays an Important Role in Cancer

Dimitrov also points out that many pathological conditions, including malaria infection and cancer, have higher levels of molecules that inhibit integrin activation, which suggests that "This pathway may therefore contribute to the immune suppression associated with these pathologies."8

Certainly, we know that tumor growth speeds up when you're sleep deprived. This has previously been attributed to suppression of melatonin, a powerful antioxidant known to combat cancer. As noted in the clinical review9 "Melatonin, Sleep Disturbance and Cancer Risk," published in 2009:

"The pineal hormone melatonin is involved in the circadian regulation and facilitation of sleep, the inhibition of cancer development and growth, and the enhancement of immune function. Individuals, such as night shift workers, who are exposed to light at night on a regular basis experience biological rhythm (i.e., circadian) disruption including circadian phase shifts, nocturnal melatonin suppression and sleep disturbances.

Additionally, these individuals are not only immune suppressed, but they are also at an increased risk of developing a number of different types of cancer. There is a reciprocal interaction and regulation between sleep and the immune system quite independent of melatonin.

Sleep disturbances can lead to immune suppression and a shift to the predominance in cancer-stimulatory cytokines. Some studies suggest that a shortened duration of nocturnal sleep is associated with a higher risk of breast cancer development …

The mutual reinforcement of interacting circadian rhythms of melatonin production, the sleep/wake cycle and immune function may indicate a new role for undisturbed, high quality sleep and perhaps even more importantly, uninterrupted darkness, as a previously unappreciated endogenous mechanism of cancer prevention."

The Sleep-Stress-Immune Response Link

Other research has also demonstrated just how intimate and direct the connection between sleep and immune function is. For example, a 1998 study10 discovered that people who were more likely to awaken during the first sleep cycle also tended to have lower levels of natural killer cells (NKC).

Overall, the age of the patient was the greatest determinant of NKC level, but sleep disturbances were responsible for about 12 percent of the variance in NKC level.

Stress is known to interfere with immune system function and has been found to increase susceptibility to the common cold and slow wound healing. Lack of sleep is a stressor, causing the release of stress hormones, and this was thought to be one of the first studies to provide direct evidence linking sleep with the human stress-immune relationship.

Other research11 suggests deep sleep strengthens immunological memories of previously encountered pathogens. In this way, your immune system is able to mount a much faster and more effective response when an antigen is encountered a second time.

Your Circadian Clock Is Intimately Tied to Your Immune Function

Another study,12 published in 2012, found that the circadian clocks of mice control an essential immune system gene that helps their bodies sense and ward off bacteria and viruses. When levels of that particular gene, called toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), were at their highest, the mice were better able to withstand infections.

Interestingly, when the researchers induced sepsis, the severity of the disease was dependent on the timing of the induction. Severity directly correlated with cyclical changes in TLR9.

According to the authors, this may help explain why septic patients are known to be at higher risk of dying between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.. According to study author Dr. Erol Fikrig, professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine:13

"These findings not only unveil a novel, direct molecular link between circadian rhythms and the immune system, but also open a new paradigm in the biology of the overall immune response with important implications for the prevention and treatment of disease.

Furthermore, patients in the ICU often have disturbed sleep patterns, due to noise, nocturnal light exposure and medications; it will be important to investigate how these factors influence TLR9 expression levels and immune responses."

Other Consequences of Insufficient Sleep

Considering the key role sleep plays in your immune function, it's easy to see how poor sleep can cascade outward, affecting a wide variety of health conditions. But that's not all. Sleep also affects gene expression, hormone regulation and brain detoxification, just to mention a few, which further strengthens its importance.

Aside from lowering your immune function, making you more susceptible to infections and cancer, other health problems linked to insufficient sleep include but are not limited to:

Increased risk of neurological problems, ranging from depression to dementia and Alzheimer's disease14— Your blood-brain barrier becomes more permeable with age, allowing more toxins to enter.15 This, in conjunction with reduced efficiency of the glymphatic system due to lack of sleep, allows for more rapid damage to occur in your brain and this deterioration is thought to play a significant role in the development of Alzheimer's.

Increased risk of Type 2 diabetes — In one study,16 "excessive daytime sleepiness" increased the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 56 percent.

Increased risk of obesity.

Increased risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks and cardiovascular disease — Research has demonstrated that women who get less than four hours of shut-eye per night double their risk of dying from heart disease.17 In another study,18 adults who slept less than five hours a night had 50 percent more coronary calcium, a sign of oncoming heart disease, than those who regularly got seven hours.

Increased risk of osteoporosis.

Increased risk of pain and pain-related conditions such as fibromyalgia — In one study, poor or insufficient sleep was the strongest predictor for pain in adults over 50.19

Increased susceptibility to stomach ulcers.

Impaired sexual function.20

Increased risk of depression and anxiety (including post-traumatic stress disorder), schizophrenia and suicide — In fact, researchers have been unable to find a single psychiatric condition in which the subject's sleep is normal.

Premature aging by interfering with growth hormone production, normally released by your pituitary gland during deep sleep.

Increased risk of dying from any cause21— Compared to people without insomnia, the adjusted hazard ratio for all-cause mortality among those with chronic insomnia was 300 percent higher.

Optimizing Your Sleep Can Help Stave Off Chronic Health Problems

There's simply no doubt that sleep needs to be a priority if you intend to live a long and healthy life. Anyone struggling with chronic disease — which is at least half of the American adult population — would be wise to take sleep seriously, as it can have a significant impact, not only contributing to the problem but also counteracting any other healthy lifestyle strategies you're using to address it.

As a general guideline, seek to get right around eight hours of sleep every night. Anything below seven hours really starts to impact your health (if you're an adult). For many, this means forgoing night-owl tendencies and getting to bed at a reasonable time. If you need to be up at 6 a.m., you have to have a lights-out deadline of 9.30 or 10 p.m., depending on how quickly you tend to fall asleep.

The good news is there are many ways to improve your odds of sleeping well, even if you're currently struggling. I've listed my top suggestions gleaned from research and various sleep experts in "Top 33 Tips to Optimize Your Sleep Routine" and "Sleep — Why You Need It and 50 Ways to Improve It."

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/28/how-proper-sleep-lowers-infection.aspx

[jakehglover]

The Gut's Role in Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease is a neurological disorder in which neurons and dopamine-producing cells in your brain begin to die. Symptoms progress over time and include tremors, slow movements, rigid limbs, shuffling gait, stooped posture and an inability to move. Patients may also experience a reduced ability to make facial expressions.

While patients suffer significant physical disability, the condition may also trigger depression, speech impediments and personality changes. There is also an association with dementia. Parkinson’s affects as many as 7 million to 10 million adults worldwide, and approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson's every year.1

Although incidence of the disease increases with age, an estimated 4 percent of those with Parkinson's are diagnosed before the age of 50. Men are 1.5 times more likely to have Parkinson's than women, and treatment can be expensive. Medications can an average $2,500 a year, while therapeutic surgery may cost up to $100,000 per patient.

A recent study2 published in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease once again demonstrates an association between the development of this neurological disease and your gut microbiome.

The featured study focused on alpha-synuclein pathology, biomarkers and gut microbiome, and as other studies3 found alpha-synuclein plays a role in the development of familial and sporadic cases of Parkinson's disease.

Research Highlights Gut-Brain Link in Parkinson’s Disease

Unfortunately diagnosis often occurs after brain cells have already been affected and died. For this reason, it's more difficult to slow the progression of the disease, so researchers have been investigating ways to detect the condition earlier, which might positively impact treatment.

Past studies have demonstrated a link between the gut microbiome and Parkinson's disease. This current review paper set out to investigate the most recent research available on this gut-brain connection.

Lead author Dr. Filip Scheperjans, from the department of neurology at the Helsinki University Hospital in Finland, believes understanding the role the gut plays in the development of the disease will help improve treatment.4

The review evaluated the involvement of an abnormal amount of protein aggregates associated with local inflammation and the impact on the gut microbiome. As noted by Scheperjans:5

“Our understanding and appreciation of the importance of the gut-brain connection in [Parkinson's have] grown rapidly in recent years. We are confident that the coming two decades of microbiome-gut-brain-axis research will see an even accelerated development in this area that will reshape our understanding of the pathogenesis of [Parkinson's]."

To this aim, the authors identified four key research areas where additional focus is needed:6 

Although deposits of alpha-synuclein have been found in the enteric nervous system of people suffering from Parkinson's disease, more research is needed to determine if these aggregates are similar to ones found in the brains of Parkinson’s patients.

Research has theorized intestinal hyperpermeability may be what triggers the aggregation in the enteric nerves. The researchers suggest further study should focus on whether those with Parkinson's also have a higher intestinal permeability.

Utilizing immunohistochemistry to study alpha synuclein aggregates in the enteric nervous system has yielded mixed results, leading the authors to suggest alternative methods of detecting aggregate deposits in the gut should be developed.

The authors suggest large multicenter studies of individuals with Parkinson's, as well as animal studies, are necessary to definitively identify the mechanism underlying the connection between the gut and Parkinson's disease.

Protein Aggregates May Start in the Brain and Travel to the Gut

Alpha-synuclein is a presynaptic protein linked neuropathologically and genetically to Parkinson's disease.7 While it may contribute to symptoms in a number of ways, the aberrant cells are toxic to cellular homeostasis, triggering neuronal death and affecting synaptic function.

Secreted alpha-synuclein may have negative effects on neighboring cells, including seeding aggregations, which contributes to progression of the disease. Detection of alpha-synuclein lesions in peripheral tissues has important clinical implications in the brain and peripheral organs.

Researchers have sought to identify potential pathways involved in the long-distance transfer of the protein from the brain to the gut, where it is found in those suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Although researchers have identified the alpha-synuclein protein in the development of the disease, the real function before the disease is triggered had remained a mystery.

Using a mouse model, researchers8 found increasing the expression of alpha-synuclein inhibited the mechanism of releasing neurotransmitters, essentially producing Parkinsonian symptoms. At normal levels however, the protein accelerated the release of these molecules if it was already occurring.

In another rat study,9 researchers were able to identify a specific transmission of the protein from the brain to the stomach. As explained by the authors:

“Following targeted midbrain overexpression of human alpha-synuclein, the exogenous protein was capable of reaching the gastric wall where it was accumulated into preganglionic vagal terminals.

This brain-to-stomach connection likely involved intra- and interneuronal transfer of non-fibrillar alpha-synuclein that first reached the medulla oblongata, then gained access into cholinergic neurons of the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus nerve and finally traveled via efferent fibers of these neurons contained within the vagus nerve.”

The researchers believe the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus nerve is a key relay center for transmission of alpha-synuclein proteins from central to peripheral locations. The presence of these proteins may represent an ongoing pathological process originating within the brain that can then affect other organs innervated by the motor vagal nerve.

Autophagy Defects Contribute to Parkinson’s Disease

Currently there is no cure for Parkinson's disease. In one study,10 researchers described aspects of the disease as suppression of the autosomal-lysomal autophagy system, a systemic degradation of your body’s functional components due to cell destruction, characterized by the loss of dopamine transmitting neurons in a section of the midbrain.11

By activating autophagy, in essence repairing the dysfunctional mechanism, researchers believe neurodegenerative diseases may be successfully treated. Autophagy literally means “self-eating” and refers to the process of eliminating damaged cells by digesting them.

It is a cleaning out process that encourages the growth of new healthy cells and is foundational to cellular rejuvenation and longevity. Researchers explain the process in a paper published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery,12 saying the pathway is involved in a variety of human health conditions, including metabolic disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and infectious diseases.

In response, there has been considerable pharmacological interest in inhibiting the pathway and upregulating autophagy as a means of therapeutically benefiting those with neurodegenerative diseases. In essence, this would clear out harmful protein aggregates that trigger symptoms and disease progression.

Research has demonstrated specific cancer drugs can trigger autophagy by activating a protein called parkin.13 Charbel Moussa, assistant professor of neurology at Georgetown University, talks about the delicate balance involved when medicine attempts to manipulate cell processes:14

“Activating autophagy is a double-edged sword. One [sic] the one hand, the process clears toxic or infectious materials from cells. On the other hand, if the autophagy process goes beyond 'recycling' and clearing out proteins, it can start to destroy the cell, leading to cell death.

This means that autophagy must be carefully manipulated to avoid the death of nonrenewable and irreplaceable neurons."

The good news is you don’t have to wait for a drug to be developed to improve autophagy. One of the easiest ways to do this is through fasting, which I discuss further below.

Annual Legume May Help Treat Parkinson’s Disease Naturally

Mucuna pruriens (M. pruriens) is a climbing legume best known as a natural source of L-dopa, a dopamine precursor that affects energy, motivation and well-being, and is often used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease in Ayurvedic medicine.

M. pruriens is a well-known source of protein in tropical areas of the world. Also known as the velvet bean, kapikacchu and cowhage seed, these legumes are a vigorous, annual plant, boasting nearly 100 different varieties. The legume originated in southern China and Eastern India, but now grows in tropical areas worldwide.

The plant has dark brown or speckled seed pods that are about 4 inches long and contain four to six seeds each. Although the bean is highly beneficial, contact with the pod may result in severe skin irritation and itching. When the beans are used for food, they are soaked until they sprout, then boiled and ground into a paste used in cooking.15

When used medicinally, the beans are boiled to remove the enzyme coat, then strained and dried. The kernels are ground into a fine powder commonly mixed with water and taken orally. The practice of using M. pruriens can be traced back thousands of years within the practice of Ayurvedic medicine.

The seeds are roughly 4 to 7 percent L-dopa, which easily crosses your blood-brain barrier, accounting for the interest in those seeking natural treatments for Parkinson's disease.16

Although clinical trials have demonstrated its ability to produce equivalent or better results than medications, without side effects, Western medicine continues to use and promote a synthetic form of L-dopa in the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

If you have the disease and would like to investigate this natural treatment, consult with your doctor or an Ayurvedic medicine practitioner before taking M. pruriens, especially if you are currently taking prescription medication, to ensure this remedy is right for you.

It may also be possible to prevent neurodegenerative diseases or reduce symptoms by addressing your gut permeability and autophagy dysfunction through natural means.

How to Decrease Your Gut Permeability

Your gut microbiome is an important part of the future of medicine. Nearly 15 years ago scientists believed the Human Genome Project would find information necessary to create gene-based therapies to produce cures for most health conditions.

Now science has learned genetics are responsible for only 10 percent of all human disease, while the remaining 90 percent are triggered by environmental factors.17 With further research and study, science is now coming to realize your gut microbiome is actually driving genetic expression, turning genes on and off depending upon which microbes are present in your gut.

You can improve the health of your gut microbiome, and thus may make significant changes to your health, through small lifestyle changes, such as eliminating sugar, using a cyclical ketogenic diet and including plenty of fiber rich foods.

For a list of simple changes to your lifestyle you may consider to optimize your microbiome and reduce your potential for disease, see my article, "Gut Microbiome May Be a Game-Changer for Cancer Prevention and Treatment."

How to Improve Autophagy

Your body was built for periodic cycles of feast and famine. Through intermittent fasting, you can enjoy improved cardiovascular health, reduced cancer risk and better gene repair and longevity. Fasting also helps support your immune system function and has a beneficial impact on your brain function as well, by boosting brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

Depending upon the region of the brain you may experience a boost from 50 percent to 400 percent. BDNF activates stem cells to convert into new neurons and triggers numerous other chemicals promoting normal health. This protein also protects brain cells from changes associated with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.

Fasting is a powerful way to activate autophagy, but should not be done willy-nilly. If you are on medication, you need to work with your doctor to ensure safety as some medications need to be taken with food. Diabetics who are on medication also need to use caution and work with a health professional as they may need to adjust their medication dosage to avoid adverse effects. I also recommend you continue taking nutritional supplements and to take a high-quality salt.

One of the reasons I’ve reverted back to advising caution with water-only fasting is because multiday water fasting is very effective at liberating stored toxins from your fat, which can cause problems if your detoxification system isn’t properly supported.

While I’ve done several five-day water-only fasts in the past, I’ve now switched to a partial fast that supplies many of the nutrients your body needs to support your detox pathways instead. It involves a base of intermittent fasting for 16 to 18 hours, and once or twice a week you have a 300- to 800-calorie meal loaded with detox supporting nutrients, followed by a 24-hour fast. So, in essence, you’re then only eating one 300- to 800-calorie meal in 42 hours.

Using an infrared sauna and taking effective binders, like chlorella, modified citrus pectin, cilantro and even activated charcoal can help eliminate liberated toxins from your body and prevent their reabsorption.

A gentler way to still improve autophagy is daily intermittent fasting, providing you are not eating for at least 16 hours. You can also activate autophagy by alternating high intensity interval training or resistance training with a day of rest.

Activating adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) through proper diet and nutritional supplements also supports natural autophagy. You can learn more about this process in my previous article, “Autophagy Finally Considered for Disease Treatment.”

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/28/parkinsons-gut-bacteria.aspx

[jakehglover]

Hop Oil: A Safe Sleep Aid

Table of Contents

What Is Hop Oil?

Uses of Hop Oil

Composition of Hop Oil

Benefits of Hop Oil

How Is Hop Oil Made?

How Does Hop Oil Work?

Is Hop Oil Safe?

Hop Oil Side Effects

If you're familiar with the plant hop or hops, you're probably aware that it gives beer its characteristic bitter flavor and acts as an antiseptic to inhibit spoilage.1 However, as an essential oil, it has several uses and offers a number of health benefits. Read on to discover more about the uses and benefits of hop essential oil.

What Is Hop Oil?

Hop oil is an essential oil extracted from the flowers of the hop plant through steam distillation. Hop (Humulus lupulus) is a perennial plant that produces vines from a permanent rootstock or crown. From the rootstock also grows underground stems called rhizomes. Attached to these are numerous buds, which are used for vegetation.2

Hops are dioecious,3 meaning they have separate male and female species. Male plants possess no commercial value, except to pollinate the female plant. The female produces the flowers required for the brewing of beer. It also has the therapeutic properties that the plant is known for.4

Hops belong to the same plant family as marijuana.5 Like hemp,6 hop stems were used for fiber to make cloth and paper.7 Across history, the hop plant was used as a sedative in the United States and Europe. When used therapeutically, hop oil induces a sedative effect, as well as calming, antibacterial and astringent characteristics.8

Uses of Hop Oil

Hop flower oil gained attention in aromatherapy because of its ability to help relieve several health conditions, particularly insomnia.9 In the past, the hop herb was used as a mild sedative and was placed inside a pillow. Referred to as a "hop pillow," its scent helped people relax.10 Today, people who have difficulty sleeping can use three drops of this essential oil in a diffuser.11

The hop plant is also known worldwide for the flowers that grow from its vines. Within the flowers' petals are highly fragrant resins that are responsible for hops' spicy scent, making hop essential oil very valuable in perfumery.

When mixed with other herbs, hop oil may be used to help alleviate fever and pain. It may also help stimulate the appetite of those who are anorexic or are recovering from certain diseases.12

Composition of Hop Oil

Hop oil is harvested from the flower cones of the H. lupulus plant. Each of the cones has resin glands that come with a permeable membrane.13 The glands contain molecules, which include hop resin that is made of various chemical compounds, many of which are antioxidants.14

Chemical constituents found in hop essential oil include myrcene, dipentene, caryophyllene, humulene, linalool, and methyl nonyl ketone.15 The most important one is myrcene, which accounts for about 30 percent of the oil.16 It’s a type of monoterpene that’s found in most essential oils and is most known for its antiseptic, antiviral and antibacterial properties.17

Benefits of Hop Oil

Hop essential oil is known to help ease sleeping problems by way of steam inhalation, baths or aromatherapy techniques. Hop oil is often combined with valerian root oil to help lower the risk for insomnia and anxiety. In fact, studies have shown the efficacy of the hops-valerian combination for sleep disturbances.18

One study published in the journal Sleep showed mild sleep-inducing effects from the combined mixture of valerian root and hops relative to placebo, which was in turn associated with better quality of life. The study also suggests that the blend may be used against mild cases of insomnia.19

Another study helped explain the beneficial effects of the plants' impact to sleep. Valerian may help support sleep with its adenosine-like function, while hops have properties similar to melatonin, which may help regulate sleep.20 Hop flower oil also contains the chemical compound dimethyl vinyl carbinol, which is a sedative volatile alcohol.21

Besides helping improve sleep, this plant oil may be used to help in the management of health conditions like tuberculosis,22 cancer,23 liver disease24 and postmenopausal issues.25

How Is Hop Oil Made?

The volatile oil of the hop plant is obtained through steam distillation from the dried membranous cones of the female plants.26 The product is a light yellow to greenish-yellow liquid with an aromatic scent.27

How Does Hop Oil Work?

You may experience the benefits of hop oil in a number of ways. You may use it in a bath or through steam inhalation. It also blends well with citrus oils, and nutmeg and pine oils.28,29

Exercise caution when using this essential oil. Exposure to air for long periods can cause the oil to form resins, which can affect the fragrance and efficacy of the oil.30 Proper storage of hop oil can help avoid this and retain stability for up to a year. Store it in a tightly sealed glass container, in a cool, dark place.31

Is Hop Oil Safe?

Studies have shown that hop essential oil possesses estrogenic activity, which suggest that it's beneficial for some women who are dealing with menstruation pains and menopause.32

The phytoestrogens daidzein and genistein have been detected in hop essential oil, albeit in very low amounts.33 These compounds imitate the natural female hormone estradiol. These two phytoestrogens also appear in soy, although in larger concentrations.

High exposure to these compounds may disrupt endocrine function, which may increase your risk of estrogen-related cancers and diseases.34 I suggest erring on the side of caution when using hop essential oil.

Because it has sedative and narcotic properties, people suffering from depression or who are taking sedatives should avoid hop oil. If you're having sleep problems, it's best to consult your physician before trying hop oil.

Pregnant and nursing women should also seek the advice of a doctor or an experienced aromatherapist before using hop oil, while children should be kept away.35 Hop oil is also toxic to dogs and should be kept away from them.36

Hop Oil Side Effects

While hop oil is considered nontoxic and nonirritating, it may still cause sensitizations in certain people. Like other essential oils, it should not be used without dilution. Blend it with a carrier oil like coconut oil, olive oil or almond oil. Afterward, you can check for any adverse effects through a skin test, or by simply applying a drop of hop oil on a small area of your skin.

Despite the many benefits of hop oil, it is always wise to use it, as well as other essential oils, with the guidance of an experienced aromatherapy practitioner or with the advice of your doctor.

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/28/xdjm18-herbal-oils-18mcsa-hop-oil.aspx

[jakehglover]

What You Must Know About Gluten

A few years ago, the term "gluten free" was mostly associated with wheat allergy and celiac disease. Those afflicted with either condition who adopted a gluten-free diet often reported a resurgence of health and well-being.

Today, gluten-free eating continues to attract attention, and there are likely more wheat-tolerant people eating gluten-free food than those who medically need it. Eating trends aside, here's what you need to know about gluten.

What Is Gluten?

Gluten is a protein found in wheat and cereal grains that is made up of glutenin and gliadin molecules. In the presence of water, these substances form an elastic bond that gives bread and other baked goods a springy, stretchy and spongy consistency. Because gluten gives dough elasticity, comparable gluten-free items are often dense and tend to crumble easily.

Gluten is found not only in wheat, but also other grains like barley, oats, rye and spelt. Beyond the whole grains known to be glutinous, gluten can hide in processed foods under a variety of names, including, but not limited to:1

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP)

Malts

Natural flavoring

Starches

Texturized vegetable protein (TVP)

While many foods such as whole fruits and vegetables are naturally gluten free, as are most dairy and meat products, grocery stores are full of gluten-containing products. Many of them fall into the category of ultra-processed foods. Some of the most common gluten-laced foods include:

Beer

Cookies

Processed broth

Bouillon

Crackers and other snack foods

Sausages and hot dogs

Bread (white and wheat)

Lunch meat

Seasoning mixes

Cereal

Pasta

Soy sauce

Obviously, wheat-containing foods like wheat bran, wheat flour, wheat germ and wheat starch also contain gluten. Even though many think otherwise, white bread is also a source of wheat because it is made from wheat flour after the bran and germ are removed. Furthermore, because wheat is often used as a thickening agent, gluten is commonly found in canned soups and bottled sauces, as well as salad dressings.

How Gluten Can Negatively Impact Your Health

Gluten is known for its tendency to impede proper nutrient breakdown and absorption of foods, regardless of whether they do or do not contain gluten. Proper digestion can be impeded in the presence of gluten because in excess amounts it forms a glued-together constipating lump in your gut.

Some people react negatively to even small amounts of gluten because their body identifies it as a toxin, which causes their immune cells to overreact and attack it. In this scenario, the continued consumption of gluten will create inflammation and damage to the lining of the small intestine that may trigger more serious health issues over time, particularly if you have celiac disease.

Left unchecked, excessive gluten consumption and the inflammation that results may predispose you to malabsorption, nutrient deficiencies, osteoporosis and neurological and psychological conditions, as well as its potentially negative effects on your joints, liver, nervous system, skin and more.2

Beyond this, the Celiac Disease Foundation asserts undiagnosed celiac disease may contribute to the development of "autoimmune disorders like Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis (MS), dermatitis herpetiformis (an itchy skin rash), anemia, osteoporosis, infertility and miscarriage … epilepsy and migraines, short stature and intestinal cancers."3

Signs of Gluten Intolerance

Signs of gluten intolerance include bloating, belly pain, diarrhea, fatigue and a general feeling of being unwell. Beyond this, other noticeable warning signs of your body's inability to handle gluten may include:

Anxiety

Confusion

Headache

Joint or muscle pain

Nausea

While just 1 in 100 people worldwide have celiac disease, countless others may simply be undiagnosed, including an estimated 2.5 million Americans.4 Lack of a proper diagnosis may put you at risk of long-term health complications, some of which were mentioned above.

If you think you might have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, it's best to talk to your health practitioner before you go gluten free. Once you have avoided gluten for a while, it becomes difficult to establish a conclusive relationship between gluten and your health problems.

You have a better chance for an accurate diagnosis of gluten-related illness if you are actively eating gluten at the time of the testing. Blood tests are usually the first step toward confirming celiac disease.5 If the blood tests and your symptoms indicate celiac, your doctor will likely suggest a biopsy of the lining of your small intestine to confirm the diagnosis.

If you suspect your body may not be able to tolerate gluten, pay attention to how you feel immediately after eating it. Feeling poorly after eating glutinous food may be a signal your body cannot handle gluten. For best results, you may want to keep a food diary, and you will definitely want to discuss your symptoms with your health practitioner.

Most Packaged Gluten-Free Food Is Glorified Junk Food

While the availability of gluten-free food options can be perceived as a help for those affected by a wheat allergy or celiac disease, I advise you approach a gluten-free diet and lifestyle cautiously. The reason: Most processed, packaged gluten-free food is glorified junk food.

I say that because packaged gluten-free foods are some of the most ultra-processed foods on the planet. They lack fiber and are often loaded with toxic amounts of sugar, salt and unhealthy fats, which increase the number of empty calories derived from these foods. About this aspect of gluten-free foods, U.S. News and World Report states:6

"[G]luten-free packaged foods have one important thing in common with their glutinous counterparts: The majority of them are absolute junk.

These include empty-calorie chips, crackers and bars that are high in starchy carbs and sugar, while low in fiber; breads made from the least nutritious starches on the planet and held together by food gums; and high-glycemic cereals made from white rice flour or refined corn that's been sprinkled with vitamin dust."

You're Likely to Gain Weight on a Conventional Gluten-Free Diet

Given the higher amounts of sugar in many packaged gluten-free foods, it's common for people to gain weight after going on a gluten-free diet. With respect to eating gluten-free and weight gain, nutrition communications expert Rachel Begun, a scientific/medical advisory council member for Beyond Celiac, said:7

"Now that we have an ample supply of gluten-free foods on the market, we're seeing extended weight gain. Many gluten-free products are high in … sugar, while also being low in nutrients. When people go gluten free and eat too much of these highly processed, low-nutrient foods they're likely to gain weight.

There's also a 'health halo' surrounding gluten-free right now. It's important that consumers understand that just because something is gluten free doesn't necessarily mean it's healthful or is a good option for weight loss."

Watch Out: Arsenic Often Found in Rice-Based Gluten-Free Food

If you decide to go gluten free, but are not doing so in response to a diagnosed medical condition such as a wheat allergy or celiac disease, proceed carefully to avoid unintentionally damaging your health.

Registered dietitian Laura Moore, who is on the nutrition faculty at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, warns, "If you go completely gluten-free without the guidance of a nutritionist, you can develop deficiencies pretty quickly."8

Part of how that can happen, especially if you eat a mostly processed food diet, relates to the enrichment and fortification of foods, which is a common practice in the food industry. The simple fact is fewer gluten-free foods are enriched or fortified with nutrients like folic acid and iron, as compared to products containing wheat.9,10

Rather than depend on processed foods for these and other vital nutrients, I recommend you eat a whole-food diet and take a high-quality supplement as needed. Beyond that, Consumer Reports says eating gluten free may increase your exposure to arsenic.

This is the case mainly due to the use of rice flour in many gluten-free foods and the uptake of arsenic in most of the world's rice crops.11 As such, you may want to think twice before choosing rice-based gluten-free products and risking exposure to a known cancer-causer like arsenic.12 About this, Consumer Reports stated:13

"About half of the gluten-free products Consumer Reports purchased contained rice flour or rice in another form. In 2012, we reported on our tests of more than 60 rices and packaged foods with rice (such as pasta, crackers and infant cereal).

We found measurable levels of arsenic in almost every product tested. Many of them contained worrisome levels of inorganic arsenic, a carcinogen."

In your attempts to avoid rice-containing gluten-free foods, you'll also want to steer clear of nonorganic products containing corn starch, corn flour, potato starch, potato flour and soy. That's because most conventional corn and soy crops are genetically engineered, while conventional potato crops are heavily sprayed with toxic herbicides and pesticides.

Not All Packaged Food Labeled Gluten-Free Is Necessarily Free of Gluten

Another potential obstacle to gluten-free eating is the unfortunate reality that many packaged gluten-free foods have been found to be tainted with gluten.

"Cross-contamination can occur," Andrea Levario, senior public policy advocate for the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C., explains. "Gluten-free products may be manufactured on the same equipment used for wheat or other gluten-containing products."14

The potential for cross-contamination is also of concern in instances where wheat is grown next to other grains, such as oats. Even though some suggest oats are a gluten-free food, you have to be careful to ensure the brand you purchase is certified gluten free.

Otherwise, it is very likely the oats were grown in or near wheat fields, in which case the product may be contaminated. A 2014 study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition15 evaluated 158 food products labeled as gluten-free over a three-year time frame.

When testing for the presence of gluten, the researchers discovered 5 percent of the packaged items they tested — including some certified gluten-free — failed to meet the limit set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for less than 20 parts per million of gluten. If you have questions about foods labeled as gluten-free, I encourage you to contact the manufacturer.

"They should be transparent about what tests they use to determine whether a product is gluten-free," said study author and registered dietitian Tricia Thompson, founder of Gluten Free Watchdog and creator of the Gluten-Free Dietitian website. "If they insist that it's proprietary information, that should set off an alarm."16

Finally, take care when purchasing food items labeled "wheat free," because being wheat-free doesn't automatically make a food gluten-free. That's because barley, rye and spelt-based ingredients, all of which contain gluten, may be used in products labeled wheat free.

Is a Gluten-Free Diet Right for You?

Whether or not you have a medical reason for choosing a gluten-free diet, nearly everyone can benefit from this style of eating. Grains, even whole sprouted varieties, tend to cause problems not only because of the presence of gluten, but also due to concerns around fructans, glyphosate contamination and wheat hybridization.

Furthermore, grains may damage your skin. Grains also have high net carbs and many people eat too many carbs. A healthier approach would be to reduce your consumption of grain-based carbs and increase your intake of healthy fats, thereby training your body to burn fat for fuel. (Be sure to moderate your protein intake, too.)

Becoming a fat burner will free you from the cycle of energy highs and lows that often result from overindulging in carbs. Learn more about the value of low-net-carb eating in my article "Why Low-Carb Diets May Be Ideal for Most People, Including Athletes."

While reducing your carb consumption may be a challenge, eating a gluten-free diet is relatively easy to do. You can accomplish this by focusing on whole, unprocessed foods that are naturally wheat- and gluten-free. As always, I recommend eating foods as close to their natural state as possible.

For that reason, I advise you forego the packaged gluten-free foods found online and in grocery stores. Below are a few of the foods you may enjoy on a naturally gluten-free diet:

Avocados

MCT oil

Organic fruits and vegetables

Coconut oil

Nuts (macadamias, pecans and walnuts)

Organic, grass fed meat

Fish (anchovies, herring, sardines and wild-caught Alaskan salmon)

Olives and olive oil

Organic, raw, grass fed dairy products (kefir and yogurt)

Grass-fed butter

Organic pastured eggs

Seeds (chia, pumpkin and sunflower)

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/27/what-you-must-know-about-gluten.aspx

[jakehglover]

Processed Foods Lead to Cancer and Early Death

The struggle with weight gain and obesity is a common and costly health issue, leading to an increase in risk for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and cancer, just to name a few.

According to the latest available data,1 18.5 percent of American children and nearly 40 percent of adults are now obese, not just overweight. That's a significant increase over the 1999/2000 rates, when just under 14 percent of children and 30.5 percent of adults were obese.

Research has linked growing waistlines to a number of different sources, including processed foods, sodas and high-carbohydrate diets. Risks associated with belly fat in aging adults includes an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.2

Researchers have actually predicted obesity will overtake smoking as a leading cause of cancer deaths,3 and recent statistics suggest we're well on our way to seeing that prediction come true as obesity among our youth is triggering a steep rise in obesity-related cancers at ever-younger ages.

Millennials More Prone to Obesity-Related Cancers Than Their Parents

As obesity rates rise, so do related health problems, including cancer. According to a report4 on the global cancer burden, published in 2014, obesity is already responsible for an estimated 500,000 cancer cases worldwide each year, and that number is likely to rise further in coming decades.

As reported in a recent Lancet study5 by the American Cancer Society, rates of obesity-related cancers are rising at a far steeper rate among millennials than among baby boomers. According to the authors,6 this is the first study to systematically examine obesity-related cancer trends among young Americans.

What's more, while 6 of 12 obesity-related cancers (endometrial, gallbladder, kidney, multiple myeloma and pancreatic cancer) are on the rise, only 2 of 18 cancers unrelated to obesity are increasing. As noted in the press release:7

"The obesity epidemic over the past 40 years has led to younger generations experiencing an earlier and longer lasting exposure to excess adiposity over their lifetime than previous generations.

Excess body weight is a known carcinogen, associated with more than a dozen cancers and suspected in several more … Investigators led by Hyuna Sung, Ph.D., analyzed 20 years of incidence data (1995-2014) for 30 cancers … covering 67 percent of the population of the U.S…

Incidence increased for 6 of the 12 obesity-related cancers … in young adults and in successively younger birth cohorts in a stepwise manner. For example, the risk of colorectal, uterine corpus [endometrial], pancreas and gallbladder cancers in millennials is about double the rate baby boomers had at the same age …

'Although the absolute risk of these cancers is small in younger adults, these findings have important public health implications,' said Ahmedin Jemal, D.V.M., Ph.D., scientific vice president of surveillance [and] health services research and senior/corresponding author of the paper.

'Given the large increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among young people and increasing risks of obesity-related cancers in contemporary birth cohorts, the future burden of these cancers could worsen as younger cohorts age, potentially halting or reversing the progress achieved in reducing cancer mortality over the past several decades.

Cancer trends in young adults often serve as a sentinel for the future disease burden in older adults, among whom most cancer occurs.'"

Changes in Diet Drive Obesity Epidemic

Studies8,9,10 have repeatedly demonstrated that when people switch from a traditional whole food diet to processed foods (which are high in refined flour, processed sugar and harmful vegetable oils), disease inevitably follows.

Below are just a few telling statistics. For more, see nutrition researcher Kris Gunnars', June 8, 2017, article, which lists 11 graphs showing "what's wrong with the modern diet."11

Over the past 200 years, sugar intake has risen from 2 pounds to 152 pounds per year.12 While Americans are advised to get only 10 percent of their calories from sugar,13 equating to about 13 teaspoons a day for a 2,000-calorie diet, the average intake is 42.5 teaspoons per day.14

It's important to realize that a goal of 10 percent is nearly impossible to achieve on a processed food diet. Research15 shows only 7.5 percent of the U.S. population, namely those with the lowest processed food consumption, actually meet the U.S. dietary recommendations of getting a maximum of 10 percent of your daily calories from sugars.

To burn off the calories in a single 12-ounce soda, you'd have to walk briskly for 35 minutes. To burn off a piece of apple pie, you'd be looking at a 75-minute walk.16

Soda and fruit juice consumption is particularly harmful, studies17,18 show, raising a child's risk of obesity by 60 percent per daily serving.19 Research has also shown refined high-carb diets in general are as risky as smoking, increasing your risk for lung cancer by as much as 49 percent.20

Between 1970 and 2009, daily calorie intake rose by an average of 425 calories, a 20 percent increase, according to Stephan Guyenet, Ph.D.,21 who studies the neuroscience of obesity. This rise is largely driven by increased sugar and processed food consumption, and the routine advertising of junk food to children.22

To attract customers and compete with other restaurants, companies often add salt, sugar, fat and flavor chemicals to trigger your appetite. Unfortunately, it turns out additives and chemicals supplemented in processing kill off beneficial gut bacteria, which further exacerbates the problems created by a processed food diet.23

According to epidemiology professor Tim Spector, even eating a relatively small number of highly processed ingredients is toxic to your gut microbiome, which start to die off just days after a eating a fast food heavy diet, suggesting excess calories from fast food may not be the only factor to blame for rising weight.

Processed vegetable oils, which are high in damaged omega-6 fats, are another important factor in chronic ill health. Aside from sugar, vegetable oils are a staple in processed foods, which is yet another reason why processed food diets are associated with higher rates of heart disease and other diseases.

Soybean oil, which is the most commonly consumed fat in the U.S.,24 has also been shown to play a significant role in obesity and diabetes, actually upregulating genes involved in obesity. Remarkably, soybean oil was found to be more obesogenic than fructose!

"Ultraprocessed diets cause excess calorie intake and weight gain," recent research25 concludes, showing that when people are allowed to eat as much as they want of either ultraprocessed foods or unprocessed food, their energy intake is far greater when eating processed fare. In just two weeks, participants gained between 0.3 and 0.8 kilos on the ultraprocessed diet, and lost 0.3 to 1.1 kilos when eating unprocessed food.

As Ultraprocessed Food Has Become the Norm, so Has Chronic Illness

Unfortunately, Americans not only eat a preponderance of processed food, but 60 percent of it is ultraprocessed26 — products at the far end of the "significantly altered" spectrum, or what you could typically purchase at a gas station.

The developed world in general eats significant amounts of processed food, and disease statistics reveal the inherent folly of this trend. There's really no doubt that decreasing your sugar consumption is at the top of the list if you're overweight, insulin resistant, or struggle with any chronic disease.

It's been estimated that as much as 40 percent of American health care expenditures are for diseases directly related to the overconsumption of sugar.27 In the U.S., more than $1 trillion is spent on treating sugar and junk food-related diseases each year.28

Any foods that aren't whole foods directly from the vine, ground, bush or tree are considered processed. Depending on the amount of change the food undergoes, processing may be minimal or significant. For instance, frozen fruit is usually minimally processed, while pizza, soda, chips and microwave meals are ultraprocessed foods.

The difference in the amount of sugar between foods that are ultraprocessed and minimally processed is dramatic. Research29 has demonstrated that over 21 percent of calories in ultraprocessed foods comes from sugar, while unprocessed foods contain no refined or added sugar.

In a cross-sectional study30 using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of over 9,000 participants, researchers concluded that "Decreasing the consumption of ultraprocessed foods could be an effective way of reducing the excessive intake of added sugars in the USA."

Definition of Ultraprocessed Food

As a general rule, ultraprocessed foods can be defined as food products containing one or more of the following:

Ingredients that are not traditionally used in cooking.

Unnaturally high amounts of sugar, salt, processed industrial oils and unhealthy fats.

Artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners and other additives that imitate sensorial qualities of unprocessed or minimally processed foods (examples include additives that create textures and pleasing mouth-feel).

Processing aids such as carbonating, firming, bulking, antibulking, defoaming, anticaking, glazing agents, emulsifiers, sequestrants and humectants.

Preservatives and chemicals that impart an unnaturally long shelf-life.

Genetically engineered ingredients, which in addition to carrying potential health risks also tend to be heavily contaminated with toxic herbicides such as glyphosate, 2,4-D and dicamba.

As described in the NOVA classification of food processing,31 "A multitude of sequences of processes is used to combine the usually many ingredients and to create the final product (hence 'ultraprocessed')." Examples include hydrogenation, hydrolysation, extrusion, molding and preprocessing for frying.

Ultraprocessed foods also tend to be far more addictive than other foods, thanks to high amounts of sugar (which has been shown to be more addictive than cocaine32), salt and fat. The processed food industry has also developed "craveabilty" into an art form. Nothing is left to chance, and by making their foods addictive, manufacturers ensure repeat sales.

Processed Food Diet Linked to Early Death

In related news, recent research33 involving more than 44,000 people followed for seven years warns that ultraprocessed foods raise your risk of early death. The French team looked at how much of each person's diet was made up of ultraprocessed foods, and found that for each 10 percent increase in the amount of ultraprocessed food consumed, the risk of death rose by 14 percent.

This link remained even after taking confounding factors such as smoking, obesity and low educational background into account. As you'd expect, the primary factors driving the increased death rate was chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer.

Nita Forouhi, a professor at the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, who was not part of the study, told The Guardian:34

"The case against highly processed foods is mounting up, with this study adding importantly to a growing body of evidence on the health harms of ultraprocessed foods … [W]e would ignore these findings at public health's peril.

A vital takeaway message is that consumption of highly processed foods reflects social inequalities — they are consumed disproportionately more by individuals with lower incomes or education levels, or those living alone.

Such foods are attractive because they tend to be cheaper, are highly palatable due to high sugar, salt and saturated fat content, are widely available, highly marketed, ready to eat, and their use-by dates are lengthy, so they last longer. More needs to be done to address these inequalities."

Ultraprocessed Foods Linked to Cancer

Another French study35,36 published last year also found that those who eat more ultraprocessed food have higher rates of obesity, heart problems, diabetes and cancer. Nearly 105,000 study participants, a majority of whom were middle-aged women, were followed for an average of five years.

On average, 18 percent of their diet was ultraprocessed, and the results showed that each 10 percent increase in ultraprocessed food raised the cancer rate by 12 percent, which worked out to nine additional cancer cases per 10,000 people per year.

The risk of breast cancer specifically went up by 11 percent for every 10 percent increase in ultraprocessed food. Sugary drinks, fatty foods and sauces were most strongly associated with cancer in general, while sugary foods had the strongest correlation to breast cancer.

According to the authors, "These results suggest that the rapidly increasing consumption of ultraprocessed foods may drive an increasing burden of cancer in the next decades." Study co-author Mathilde Touvier told CNN:37

"It was quite surprising, the strength of the results. They were really strongly associated, and we did many sensitive analysis and adjusted the findings for many cofactors, and still, the results here were quite concerning."

Diet Is a Key Factor That Determines Your Health and Longevity

Research38 published in 2017 linked poor diet to an increased risk of cardiometabolic mortality (death resulting from Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke).

According to the authors, suboptimal intake of key foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and animal-based omega-3, along with excessive consumption of processed foods such as meats and sugar-sweetened beverages accounted for more than 45 percent of all cardiometabolic deaths in 2012. In other words, the more processed foods you eat, and the less whole foods you consume, the greater your risk of chronic disease and death.

Other research published that same year found that eating fried potatoes (such as french fries, hash browns and potato chips) two or more times per week may double your risk of death from all causes.39 Eating potatoes that were not fried was not linked to an increase in mortality risk, suggesting frying — and most likely the choice of oil — is the main problem.

In a 2013 presentation40 at the European Ministerial Conference on Nutrition and Noncommunicable Diseases by Dr. Carlos Monteiro,41 professor of nutrition and public health at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monteiro stresses the importance of creating "policies aiming the reformulation of processed foods," and limiting children's exposure to junk food marketing, in order to tackle the rise in diet-related noncommunicable diseases.

In my view, eating a diet consisting of 90 percent real food and only 10 percent or less processed foods is an achievable goal for most that could make a significant difference in your weight and overall health. You simply need to make the commitment and place a high priority on it. To get started, consider the following guidelines:

Focus on raw, fresh foods, and avoid as many processed foods as possible (if it comes in a can, bottle or package, and has a list of ingredients, it's processed).

Severely restrict carbohydrates from refined sugars, fructose and processed grains.

Increase healthy fat consumption. (Eating dietary fat isn't what's making you pack on pounds. It's the sugar/fructose and grains that add the padding.)

You may eat an unlimited amount of nonstarchy vegetables. Because they are so low in calories, the majority of the food on your plate should be vegetables.

Limit protein to less than 0.5 gram per pound of lean body weight.

Replace sodas and other sweetened beverages with pure, filtered water.

Shop around the perimeter of the grocery store where most of the whole foods reside, such as meat, fruits, vegetables, eggs and cheese. Not everything around the perimeter is healthy, but you'll avoid many of the ultraprocessed foods this way.

Vary the whole foods you purchase and the way you eat them. For instance, carrots and peppers are tasty dipped in hummus. You get the crunch of the vegetable and smooth texture of the hummus to satisfy your taste, your brain and your physical health.

Stress creates a physical craving for fats and sugar that may drive your addictive, stress-eating behavior. If you can recognize when you're getting stressed and find another means of relieving the emotion, your eating habits will likely improve.

The Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) can help reduce your perceived stress, change your eating habits around stress and help you create new, healthier eating habits that support your long-term health. To discover more about EFT, how to do it and how it may help reduce your stress and develop new habits, see my previous article, "EFT Is an Effective Tool for Anxiety"

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/27/health-effects-of-processed-foods.aspx

[jakehglover]

Why Flight Attendants Are More Prone to Cancer Than the General Population

While many professions have health risks, some have a particularly high risk for cancer. Female firefighters aged 40 to 50 are six times more likely to develop breast cancer than the national average, for example, thanks to the high levels of dioxins and furans firefighters are exposed to when flame-retardant chemicals burn.

Shift workers are also at high risk for cancer due to disrupted circadian rhythms and inhibited melatonin production. In fact, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a research arm of the World Health Organization, classified shift work as a probable human carcinogen in 2007.1 Another high-risk group is flight attendants, who have higher rates of cancer than the general population, and that includes every cancer examined.

Flight Attendants Have Higher Risk for Cancer

While previous research has found flight attendants have higher rates of breast cancer and melanoma, recent research2,3 published in Environmental Health expands that list, noting the same trend for every cancer examined, including non-melanoma, uterine, cervical, gastrointestinal and thyroid cancers.

Compared to the general population, female cabin crew report 1.5 times higher rates of breast cancer, over twice the melanoma and four times the rate of non-melanoma skin cancer. Interestingly, only male crew exposed to secondhand smoke had significantly higher rates of these cancers. According to the authors:

"We also found associations between each five-year increase in net job tenure as a flight attendant and non-melanoma skin cancer among females, with borderline associations for melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers among males. Overall job tenure was not related to breast cancer, thyroid cancer, or melanoma among females …

Consistent with previous studies reporting on cancer incidence and mortality among flight attendants, we report a higher prevalence of breast, melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers (comprising basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas) among this occupational group relative to the general population.

This is striking given the low rates of overweight and smoking among flight attendants in our study population, which we take to be indicators of general health and healthy behaviors, as well as being independent risk factors for some cancers."

Breast cancer rates are also higher among flight attendants with multiple children, a finding that surprised researchers since childbirth and breastfeeding lower a woman's risk of breast cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, a woman who has given birth to five or more children has half the risk of those who have not given birth.4

Risk Factors Associated With Frequent Flying

What's causing this elevated cancer risk in flight crews? Like shift workers, flight attendants often work irregular schedules, and circadian rhythm disruptions have already been identified as a risk factor for cancer.5 Other possible explanations include exposure to carcinogens such as pesticides, fire retardant chemicals and jet fuel, and exposure to high levels of cosmic ionizing radiation,6 all of which are known to raise your cancer risk.

As a general rule, European aircrews are better protected from ionizing radiation, as exposure to ionizing radiation is monitored and doses are limited by law in Europe. No such dose limits exist for American flight crews. The goal of the present study was to gather evidence that can be used to, hopefully, create safer work rules for American airline workers.

It's also worth noting that while few studies have assessed the risk faced by frequent fliers, there's reason to suspect their risk for cancer would be similar to that of flight attendants, although matching a flight attendant's frequency of flight would be a challenge for most frequent fliers.

Cosmic Radiation Is a Significant Health Hazard in Large Doses

According to the authors, the results suggest several environmental exposures — including ionizing radiation, circadian rhythm disruption, past exposure to secondhand smoke during flights (for those who worked during years prior to the in-flight smoking ban) and a variety of chemical agents with known carcinogenic potential — contribute to flight crews' elevated cancer risk, although ionizing radiation may be one of the most significant factors. On the issue of cosmic radiation, the researchers note:

"Ionizing radiation is a known causal factor for non-melanoma skin cancer and breast cancer, whereas the studies regarding melanoma in relation to ionizing radiation are more conflicted.

It should be noted that cabin crew have the largest annual ionizing radiation dose of all U.S. workers (e.g. 3.07 mSv vs. 0.59 mSv for U.S. Department of Energy workers). These exposures can easily exceed guidelines released by the NCRP or the International Commission on Radiological Protection.

Although we evaluated job tenure prior to age 45 or age 40 in relation to cancer prevalence, in part to isolate the potential effects of ionizing radiation exposure at younger ages, these restrictions generally did not meaningfully alter our results.

This may be because ionizing radiation exposure is also important to cancer risk at older ages, and because it is difficult to disentangle the relevant exposure years in our study population, which has a median tenure of 19 years of employment and for which cancer diagnosis date was not recorded.

One possible exception is for breast cancer, for which associations were somewhat stronger when evaluating tenure prior age 45 rather than lifetime tenure. These results, while imprecise and requiring replication in a study that estimates cosmic ionizing radiation exposure directly (rather than using tenure as a proxy), may suggest that flight-related exposures are most important to breast cancer risk when occurring at earlier ages."

My New Research Paper

I am in the process of writing three books, and about three months ago I went on a deep dive tangent seeking to compile a coherent explanation of how EMFs damage your biology. I now believe I have compiled a unified explanation for how nonionizing and ionizing radiation exposure that occurs during commercial air travel causes DNA damage and, more importantly, how it can be effectively biologically remediated.

I have read thousands of pages of detailed scientific studies thus far and have compiled a 50-page document with over 200 references. The paper has been reviewed by Dr. Martin Pall, Thomas Seyfried and an associate of Dr. Richard Veech, along with a few other molecular biologists, and I have gotten much positive feedback. There's still more work to be done, but I hope to publish the paper later this year and make it available to all.

When I saw this recent study documenting the health effects of commercial air travel, I thought I should share some highlights of my paper. The damage observed in this study is largely a result of subatomic particles from the sun and deep space that bombard the Earth's atmosphere.

When you are flying at 30,000 feet, reactions between those particles and the atmosphere produce secondary particles. Those secondary particles penetrate planes, and your skin, where they can damage your DNA unless you are properly protected.

How Ionizing Radiation Causes Damage

Commercial flight at 35,000 feet will expose you to ionizing radiation, but you are also exposed to them during X-rays. CAT scans are far worse and should be avoided if at all possible. MRIs typically can be substituted and do not damage your DNA like CAT scans do. So, the protocol I describe below not only can be used for air travel, but also for unavoidable X-ray exposures.

There is no question that exposure to the high-energy frequencies of ionizing radiation will cause single and double strand breaks in your DNA. The real question is, how does your body repair the damage? Fortunately, we have built-in repair systems that can accomplish this. There is a family of 18 enzymes called poly ADP ribose polymerases (PARP) that function as DNA damage sensors. PARP binds to both single- and double-stranded DNA breaks.7

On binding to damaged DNA, PARP forms long branches of ADP-ribose polymers that may reach up to 200 units on target proteins such as histones and PARP itself.8 However, this repair process results in cellular energetic NAD+ depletion and, ultimately, when PARP is overactivated, necrosis by bioenergetic collapse. PARP was not known when I was in medical school. It was first described in 1963.9

When your DNA is damaged, PARP is activated to repair the damage. This activation, however, is correlated with loss of mitochondrial potential and decreases mitochondrial oxygen consumption along with steady reductions of cellular NAD+.

This slows the rate of glycolysis, electron transport and ATP formation, and eventually leads to functional impairment or death of cells, as well as upregulation of various proinflammatory pathways, and in the worst case scenario, irreversible damage and necrotic cell death.

If you didn't already know, NAD+ is one of the most important metabolic cofactors in all eukaryotic cells, as it plays a critical role in regulating cellular metabolism and energy homeostasis through redox balancing. NAD+ in its reduced form (NADH) serves as the primary electron donor in the mitochondrial transport chain resulting in ATP production.10

The key to note here is that the primary fuel for PARP is NAD+. It appears that if you supply your body with NAD+ by supplemental precursors, you can radically limit the damage the ionizing radiation will cause, as PARP will have enough fuel to repair the damage. I will discuss my new protocol for limiting this damage when you fly. It is still incomplete but will help many of you that regularly fly to avoid the biological consequences of the damage being done.

How to Remediate Gamma Radiation While Flying

There are actually three strategies that can be taken. The first is to augment NAD+ levels, the second is to increase your ketone levels and the third would be to activate the Nrf2 antioxidant pathway.

• NAD+ — There are four dietary NAD precursors: niacin, nicotinamide, nicotinamide riboside (NR) and nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN). You can also use IV NAD+ but that is obviously not possible while flying, and I'm not sure I would advise it even if it were possible.

The least expensive, and my best recommendation, is to take niacin. The only problem is that it will cause flushing, which is uncomfortable for most. Nearly everyone will develop flushing at 50 milligrams (mg) unless you've already developed tolerance. It is best to start with small doses of 25 mg and work your way up to 50 mg.

The least expensive way is to purchase niacin powder and start with s tiny dose that doesn't cause you to flush and work your way up to one-sixteenth teaspoon. The advantage of the powder is a year's supply is under $20, and there are no fillers or flow agents like magnesium stearate.

I would not advise nicotinamide, which does not cause a flush, as in higher doses it suppresses sirtuin activation. However, I do believe there is value in NR and I think 50 mg with the niacin is a good dose as they work synergistically to increase NAD+. I may change my mind in the future as I still have more material to evaluate, but at this time I prefer NR to NMN.

• Ketones — Ketones are another great strategy to lower oxidative damage from ionizing radiation. Unlike antioxidants such as vitamin E, C and glutathione, which are highly charged molecules that cannot easily penetrate cellular membranes if you supplement with them, ketones are readily transported into the cell via a monocarboxylate transporter, and once inside the cell ketones do their magic.

Part of the magic is that they increase NADPH, which is the primary way that your antioxidants are recharged. NADPH supplies the electrons to recharge C, E and glutathione. But it gets even better, as ketones are potent histone deactylase (HDAC) inhibitors and activate FOXO3a, which causes your body to produce antioxidants inside your cells that can be readily recharged by the increased NADPH.

So, how do you increase ketones? Well, if you are intermittently fasting you can typically get to 0.5 mmol. If you are on a five-day fast, you can get to 6 or even 8 mmol of ketones, but fasting is something that you can't conveniently do every time you fly but you can do a partial fast and not eat for at least 18 hours prior to your flight and don't eat until you land. This is my standard strategy when flying.

But there are also supplements such as ketone esters and salts that can increase your levels to 0.5 to as high as 8 mmol. The esters are far more effective but also far more expensive. The D isomers likely are far superior to the racemic versions. They are pricey though and cost $1/gram and one typically needs 15-25 grams.  KetonAid is a good example.

I will discuss these more in future newsletters, as this is a new field and there are new supplements that are coming to the market. You might be interested to know that NASA is currently testing the use of ketones for the space program to decrease oxidative damage in space.

• Nrf2 Activation — The Nrf2 is the master antioxidant pathway that regulates the expression of antioxidant proteins that protects you against oxidative damage triggered by injury and inflammation. It is similar in many ways to FOXO3a. You can activate this pathway with healthy cruciferous vegetables like broccoli sprouts that are loaded with sulforaphane.

Other easy ways to activate it would be through molecular hydrogen. I prefer the high dose (9 mg/liter) nanobubble tablets that you can take several hours before your flight, as it takes a number of hours for them to maximize their antioxidant expression. CBD is also another excellent Nrf2 activator, but it also takes several hours to be maximally effective.

• Exercise — If you don't want to take any supplements, even ones that cost less than a penny (niacin), then consider exercise. Actually, I believe exercise is a crucial component of this and would recommend doing the Nitric Oxide Dump while you are waiting for your luggage. Ideally, you could do it also before you board the plane but you may garner some stares. Nevertheless, I regularly do this before and after flights.

We all know exercise is fundamental to good health, but why is it good for DNA damage from ionizing radiation? Very simply, exercise is known to stimulate the transcription factor PGC-1 alpha, which is the most potent stimulus for mitochondrial biogenesis known, and we all appreciate how fundamental mitochondria are to your health.

But PGC 1-alpha also activates FOXO3s and Nrf2 that cause your body to produce more glutathione, superoxide dismutase and catalase, which will radically lessen the oxidative damage from the ionizing radiation.

Simple Strategies Can Lower Your Cancer Risk

While the recommendations above apply to airline workers and frequent fliers specifically before and during flight, there are also a number of other lifestyle strategies that can help lower your risk of cancer. If you're in the air a lot, you'd be wise to tackle your risk from several angles, including the basics below:

Address your diet and eating schedule — Control your insulin level by limiting your intake of processed foods and sugars, especially fructose, as much as possible. This is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risk. By avoiding processed foods, you'll also minimize your exposure to pesticides, herbicides, genetically engineered ingredients and factory farmed foods. Ideally, choose organic or biodynamic locally grown whole foods whenever possible.

Once you're used to eating whole foods, seriously consider switching to a cyclical ketogenic diet, and then intermittent feasting and fasting. You'll find the exact steps detailed in my book, "Fat for Fuel."

(A cyclical ketogenic diet along with fasting are also important allies in cancer treatment. To learn more, please see "Metabolically Supported Therapies for the Improvement of Cancer Treatment," in which Travis Christofferson and Dr. Abdul Slocum discuss how nutritional ketosis and fasting can radically improve treatment outcomes and minimize the need for chemo, even in advanced-stage and hard to treat cancer cases.)

Again this approach will increase ketones which have benefits describe above. Lastly, boil, poach or steam your foods rather than frying or charbroiling them to avoid the creation of acrylamide, a known carcinogen. Avoid all processed meats for the same reason.

Optimize vitamin D and omega-3 — Make sure your vitamin D and omega-3 levels are both optimized. In a study11 published in 2010, data collected over a decade from more than 67,000 women showed that women with high vitamin D levels were at a significantly reduced risk of breast cancer. For health and disease prevention, aim for a vitamin D level between 60 and 80 ng/mL and an omega-3 index of at least 8 percent.

Exercise — One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Also make sure to get more movement into your waking hours. Simply sitting less can make a profound difference in your health.

Minimize your exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) — This includes both wireless technologies and household wiring. To learn more, see "The Real Dangers of Electronic Devices and EMFs," and "The Harmful Effects of EMFs Explained."

Address emotional factors — Have a tool to permanently erase the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. My particular favorite tool for this purpose is the Emotional Freedom Techniques.

Optimize your sleep — Aim for seven to nine hours of high-quality sleep each night. The researchers acknowledged that the jet lag could be an issue and I believe they were right on target as NAD+ is under tight chronobiological control and disruption of your circadian rhythm will clearly lower your NAD+ levels.

Detoxify your home and your body — Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution, and take steps to detoxify. One of the simplest and perhaps safest ways is to use a low EMF, infrared sauna coupled with a near-infrared light, as your skin is a major organ of elimination.

Breastfeed after giving birth — Breastfeed exclusively for up to six months. Research shows this too will reduce your breast cancer risk.

Blood Tests That Help Reveal Your Cancer Risk

While a healthy diet and lifestyle are recommended for everyone, a number of standard blood tests can help you determine your cancer risk, thereby putting you on notice that more radical lifestyle intervention may be prudent. Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy, whom I've interviewed on this topic, details these tests in her book, "The Cancer Revolution: A Groundbreaking Program to Reverse and Prevent Cancer." Valuable blood tests include:

• High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) test, which is a nonspecific marker for inflammation. Ideally, you'll want your C-reactive protein to be below 1.

• Hemoglobin A1C test, which reflects your blood sugar over the past 90 days. The reason for this test is because high blood sugar is a cancer-friendly environment

• A cancer profile test (fasting blood and urine) from American Metabolic Laboratories, which checks for:

Quantitative human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)

Phosphohexose isomerase (PHI), the enzyme of hypoxia or low oxygen, which allows cancer to thrive

Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA), a stress hormone

Thyroid hormones, as low thyroid levels may predispose you to cancer

Gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), a liver marker and a sensitive screening tool for inflammation

Arachidonyl-2-chloroethylamide (ACEA), a nonspecific marker for many cancers

• ONCOblot, which can identify up to 33 tissue types of cancer and has a 95 percent accuracy rate. It measures the ENOX2 protein

• Circulating tumor cell test by the Research Genetic Cancer Center. The vast majority of people die not from the tumor itself but from circulating cancer stem cells, which allow the cancer to metastasize and spread throughout the body. This test is used after cancer treatment, to determine whether or not you might need to continue an anticancer program

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/27/flight-attendants-radiation-exposure.aspx

[jakehglover]

Beware the Latest ‘Diet’ Fad: Artificial Sweeteners Fortified With Vitamins and Minerals

According to the latest statistics1 nearly 40 percent of American adults, over 18 percent of teens and nearly 14 percent of young children are now obese, not just overweight, and processed foods and sweetened beverages are clearly driving factors.

Unfortunately, many make the mistake of thinking artificially sweetened products are a healthier option as it cuts down your calories. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Over the years, an ever-growing number of studies have shown artificial sweeteners raise your risk of both obesity and Type 2 diabetes — perhaps even to a greater degree than sugar does. Among the most recent examples is an animal study2,3 presented at the 2018 Experimental Biology conference in San Diego.

The study, which explored how different sweeteners affect the way food is used and stored in the body, and how they affect vascular functioning, found both sugar and artificial sweeteners result in impairments, albeit through different pathways.

After being fed a diet high in either artificial sweeteners (aspartame or acesulfame potassium) or sugars (glucose or fructose) for three weeks, detrimental effects were seen in all groups. All had increased blood lipids (fats), but the artificial sweeteners also accumulated in the blood of the animals, which harmed the blood vessel lining to a greater degree.

The results indicate that artificial sweeteners alter how your body processes fat and produces energy at the cellular level. So, while operating on completely different chemical pathways, they produce the same kinds of health consequences as sugar.

The Latest Fad: Nutritionally Fortified Artificial Sweeteners

Despite such evidence, the artificial sweetener market continues to thrive. As reported by Food Navigator,4 Merisant launched a new zero calorie sweetener called Sugarly Sweet exclusively on Amazon in late January 2019, and has also created a brand-new line of artificial sweeteners fortified with vitamins and minerals.

The fortified sweeteners are sold under the company's Equal Plus brand, and are available in three versions: vitamin C and zinc,5 vitamins B3, B5 and B12,6 or vitamins C and E.7 The products are marketed as a "good source" of these nutrients, as a single packet provides 10 percent of the daily recommended value of the added vitamins and minerals. E.G. Fishburne, director of Merisant marketing in North America, told Food Navigator:8

"Consumers are looking to get more out of their foods, including more vitamins and nutrients, and that hasn't really permeated into the sweetener space. So, we thought it was a natural fit with someone adding a sweetener to their coffee or beverage in the morning. Why not have that added benefit of getting a good source of a vitamin in that as well?"

Well, just because something sounds like a good idea doesn't mean it actually is, and that's certainly the case here. The added vitamins and minerals do absolutely nothing to change the artificial sweetener's detrimental impact on your health.

The Metabolic Effects of Zero Calorie Sweeteners

It's important to realize that while artificial sweeteners have no (or very few) calories, they are still metabolically active.9 As explained in the 2016 paper,10 "Metabolic Effects of Non-Nutritive Sweeteners," many studies have linked artificial sweeteners to an increased risk for obesity, insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The paper presents three mechanisms by which artificial sweeteners promote metabolic dysfunction:

They interfere with learned responses that contribute to glucose control and energy homeostasis

They destroy gut microbiota and induce glucose intolerance

They interact with sweet-taste receptors expressed throughout the digestive system that play a role in glucose absorption and trigger insulin secretion

In addition to the sweet taste receptors on your tongue, you also have sweet taste receptors in your gut, which release signaling molecules into your bloodstream in response to sweet taste, thereby triggering your pancreas to release insulin in preparation for a glucose spike (which is what would happen if you ate sugar).

In short, the artificial sweetener basically tricks your body into storing fat by raising your insulin level, even though the sugar never arrives. Studies have also demonstrated that when sweet taste and caloric intake are mismatched, your body loses its ability to properly regulate your blood sugar. Sweet taste without calories also increases appetite11 and subjective hunger ratings.12

Artificial Sweeteners Are Toxic to Gut Bacteria

Artificial sweeteners also have significantly different effects on your gut microbiome than sugar. While sugar is detrimental because it tends to feed health-harming microbes, artificial sweeteners could easily be considered the worst of the two, as they have been shown to be downright toxic to gut bacteria.

In a 2008 study,13 sucralose (Splenda) was shown to reduce gut bacteria by as much as 50 percent, preferentially targeting bacteria known to have important human health benefits. Consuming as few as seven little Splenda packets may be enough to have a detrimental effect on your gut microbiome.

Aside from the countless side effects associated with an impaired gut microbiome, sucralose has also been linked to a wide variety of other health effects. A sampling of studies are listed in "Research Reveals Shocking Information About Splenda Side Effects," where you'll also find a long list of studies demonstrating artificial sweeteners cause weight gain and metabolic dysfunction.

More recent research has confirmed and expanded these findings, showing that all currently approved artificial sweeteners disrupt the gut microbiome. The animal study,14 published in the journal Molecules in October 2018, found aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, neotame, advantame and acesulfame potassium-k all cause DNA damage in, and interfere with, the normal and healthy activity of gut bacteria.

While all six artificial sweeteners were found to have toxic effects on gut bacteria, there were individual differences in the type and amount of damage they produced:

Saccharin caused the greatest, most widespread damage, exhibiting both cytotoxic and genotoxic effects, meaning it is toxic to cells and damages genetic information in the cell (which can cause mutations).

Neotame was found to cause metabolic disruption in mice, and raised concentrations of several fatty acids, lipids and cholesterol. Several gut genes were also decreased by this sweetener.

Aspartame and acesulfame potassium-k — the latter of which is commonly found in sports supplements — were both found to cause DNA damage

Artificial Sweeteners May Cause Muscle Breakdown

Other recent research,15 mentioned at the beginning of this article, found that in addition to harming blood vessels and raising the risk of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, artificial sweeteners also caused the breakdown of muscle.

As explained by lead author Brian Hoffmann, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering at the Marquette University and Medical College of Wisconsin,16 "[Artificial] sweeteners kind of trick the body. And then when your body's not getting the energy it needs — because it does need some sugar to function properly — it potentially finds that source elsewhere." Muscle is one such alternative source.

The Neurobiology of Food Reward and How Artificial Sweeteners Trick Your Body Into Eating More

A paper17 published in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine in 2010 specifically addressed the neurobiology of sugar cravings, and the effect of artificial sweeteners in light of the neurobiology of food reward. As explained in this paper:

"Food reward consists of two branches: sensory and postingestive … The postingestive component depends on metabolic products of the food … The postingestive effects contained both positive and negative neuronal signals separate from mechanical satiety.

For moderately concentrated nutrients, rats learned to prefer the food associated with regular feeding than "sham feeding," in which the ingested food flowed out of the body through a gastric fistula.

However, rats did not show preference if highly concentrated nutrients were used. Hypothalamus has been shown to mediate the postingestive food reward. Hypothalamus secretes various neuropeptides to regulate energy, osmotic balance and feeding behavior … Increasing evidence suggests that artificial sweeteners do not activate the food reward pathways in the same fashion as natural sweeteners.

Lack of caloric contribution generally eliminates the postingestive component. Functional magnetic imaging in normal weight men showed that glucose ingestion resulted in a prolonged signal depression in the hypothalamus. This response was not observed with sucralose ingestion.

Natural and artificial sweeteners also activate the gustatory branch differently. The sweet taste receptor … contain several ligand-binding sites … On the functional level, sucrose ingestion, compared to saccharin ingestion, was associated with greater activation of the higher gustatory areas such as the insula, orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala.

These pilot investigations are consistent with a revised hypothesis: Sweetness decoupled from caloric content offers partial, but not complete, activation of the food reward pathways.

Activation of the hedonic component may contribute to increased appetite. Animals seek food to satisfy the inherent craving for sweetness, even in the absence of energy need. Lack of complete satisfaction, likely because of the failure to activate the postingestive component, further fuels the food seeking behavior."

'Diet' Beverages Linked to Increased Risk of Stroke and Heart Attack

In related news, a recent observational study18 by the American Heart Association (AHA) found that, compared to drinking none or just one "diet" drink per week, drinking two or more artificially sweetened beverages per day raises the risk of stroke, heart attack and early death in women over 50 by 23 percent, 29 percent and 16 percent respectively.

The risk is particularly high for women with no previous history of heart disease, those who are obese and/or African-American women. The study included more than 81,700 women from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, a longitudinal study of the health of nearly 93,680 postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 79. The mean follow-up time was close to 12 years. According to the authors:

"Most participants (64.1 percent) were infrequent consumers (never or <1/week) of [artificially sweetened beverages] ASB, with only 5.1 percent consuming ≥2 ASBs/day.

In multivariate analyses, those consuming the highest level of ASB compared to never or rarely … had significantly greater likelihood of all end points (except hemorrhagic stroke), after controlling for multiple covariates.

Adjusted models indicated that hazard ratios … were 1.23 for all stroke; 1.31 for ischemic stroke; 1.29 for coronary heart disease; and 1.16 for all-cause mortality.

In women with no prior history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes mellitus, high consumption of ASB was associated with more than a twofold increased risk of small artery occlusion ischemic stroke … High consumption of ASBs was associated with significantly increased risk of ischemic stroke in women with body mass index ≥30 …"

In an accompanying editorial,19 "Artificial Sweeteners, Real Risks," Hannah Gardener, assistant scientist, department of neurology at the University of Miami, and Dr. Mitchell Elkind suggest drinking pure water instead of no-calorie sweetened beverages, as it is by far the safest and healthiest low-calorie drink there is.

If you want some flavor, just squeeze a little bit of fresh lemon or lime into mineral water. In instances where your cooking, baking or beverage needs a little sweetener, be mindful of your choice.

Healthier Sugar Substitutes

Two of the best sugar substitutes are Stevia and Lo Han Kuo (also spelled Luo Han Guo). Stevia, a highly sweet herb derived from the leaf of the South American stevia plant, is sold as a supplement. It's completely safe in its natural form and can be used to sweeten most dishes and drinks.

Lo Han Kuo is similar to Stevia, but is my personal favorite. I use the Lakanto brand vanilla flavor which is a real treat for me. The Lo Han fruit has been used as a sweetener for centuries, and it's about 200 times sweeter than sugar.

A third alternative is to use pure glucose, also known as dextrose. Dextrose is only 70 percent as sweet as sucrose, so you'll end up using a bit more of it for the same amount of sweetness, making it slightly more expensive than regular sugar.

Still, it's well worth it for your health as it does not contain any fructose whatsoever. Contrary to fructose, glucose can be used directly by every cell in your body and as such is a far safer sugar alternative.

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/26/artificial-sweeteners-health-risks.aspx

[jakehglover]

Collapse of Insects

Insects worldwide are declining at a dramatic rate, according to a scientific review, and modern-day agriculture is largely to blame. Worldwide, more than 40 percent of insect species are threatened with extinction in the next few decades.1

Lepidoptera, insects that include butterflies and moths, hymenoptera, which are insects that include bees, and dung beetles are those most at risk on land. As for aquatic insects, those most affected include those in the odonata order (dragonflies and damselflies), along with plecoptera (stoneflies), trichoptera (caddisflies) and ephemeroptera (mayflies).

Overall, the total mass of insects is said to be falling by a “shocking” 2.5 percent a year. If this rate continues unchecked, insects could disappear within 100 years. “It is very rapid. In 10 years you will have a quarter less, in 50 years only half left and in 100 years you will have none,” study author Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, at the University of Sydney, Australia, told The Guardian.2

Industrial Agriculture to Blame for Vanishing Insects

The researchers cited “compelling evidence” that agricultural intensification is the main driver of population declines in birds, small mammals and insects. In order of importance, habitat loss due to land converted to intensive agriculture, as well as urbanization, are major problems. The next most significant contributor is pollution, primarily that from synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.

“A large proportion of studies (49.7 percent) point to habitat change as the main driver of insect declines, a factor equally implicated in global bird and mammal declines,” the researchers wrote “Next on the list is pollution (25.8 percent) followed by a variety of biological factors (17.6 percent) …”3

For instance, between 2008 and 2013, wild bees declined 23 percent in the U.S., particularly in the Midwest, Great Plains and the Mississippi valley, where grain production, primarily corn for biofuel, nearly doubled during the same period.4 Further, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), more than 8 million acres of grassland and wetlands have been converted to corn from 2008 to 2011.5

Overall, since the U.S. government began requiring ethanol in fuel in 2007, more than 1.2 million acres of grassland have been lost to corn (and soy) crops.6 Along with direct loss of habitat, agricultural intensification also involves other practices that are damaging to insects, namely:

Stream channelization

Draining of wetlands

Modification of floodplains

Removal of canopy cover near rivers and streams

Loss of soil and nutrients

Monocrops Cannot Support Biodiverse Insect Populations

At one time, all food was grown organically in concert with nature and surrounding ecosystems. This all changed with the Green Revolution, which sounds beneficial but actually describes the conversion of natural farming to one dependent on chemicals and industry.

The Rockefeller Foundation funded the Green Revolution that led to the introduction of petroleum-based agricultural chemicals, which quickly transformed agriculture, both in the U.S. and abroad. Monoculture was the outcome, with a focus on monocrops, i.e., growing acre upon acre of only one crop at a time. The very definition of monoculture is a system of agriculture with very little diversity.

It defines the wide swatches of corn and soy being grown across the U.S. and worldwide. A whopping 35 percent of cereal and soy harvested globally is actually fed to animals being raised on CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations).7 The featured review, published in the journal Biological Conservation, pointed out that monoculture has played an integral role in the loss of insect biodiversity worldwide:8

“Major insect declines occurred … when agricultural practices shifted from traditional, low-input farming style to the intensive, industrial scale production brought about by the Green Revolution.

The latter practices did not necessarily involve deforestation or habitat modification (e.g., grassland conversion, drainage of wetlands) but rather entailed the planting of genetically-uniform monocultures, the recurrent use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, the removal of hedgerows and trees in order to facilitate mechanization, and the modification of surface waterways to improve irrigation and drainage.

Monocultures led to a great simplification of insect biodiversity among pollinators, insect natural enemies and nutrient recyclers, and created the suitable conditions for agricultural pests to flourish. A quarter of the reports indicate these agriculture-related practices as the main driver of insect declines in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.”

‘Relentless’ Pesticide Usage Devastating Insects

The featured review also noted that agricultural crops comprise about 12 percent of the total land surface on Earth, which means farming directly affects a large proportion of insect species, particularly in areas that rely on synthetic pesticides.

Among honeybees, for example, the researchers noted pesticides have been involved in losses “from the very beginning.” They highlighted the systemic pesticides known as neonicotinoids, are typically applied to seeds before they’re planted, then taken up by plants as they grow, contaminating flowers, nectar and pollen.

“Neonicotinoids are suspected to pose an unacceptable risk to bees, partly because of their systemic uptake in plants, and the European Union has therefore introduced a moratorium on three neonicotinoids as seed coatings in flowering crops that attract bees,” a study published in Nature revealed in 2015.9

The chemicals are known to impair the immune system of bees, making them more vulnerable to infection and death when exposed viral or other pathogens.10 Pesticides intended to control crop pests (insecticides) are said to be the most toxic to a number of insects, followed by fungicides.

Herbicides, which are used to control competing weeds, may be less toxic on a direct scale compared to insecticides, but they still pose a significant hazard by reducing the biodiversity of vegetation that insects depend on to survive.

For instance, numbers of Monarch butterflies have decreased by 90 percent since 1996. As usage of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide) has skyrocketed, milkweed, which is the only plant on which the adult monarch will lay its eggs, has plummeted.

In 2013, it was estimated that just 1 percent of the common milkweed present in 1999 remained in corn and soybean fields and, tragically, while milkweed is not harmed by many herbicides, it is easily killed by glyphosate.11 A 2017 study published in the journal Ecography further noted a strong connection between large-scale Monarch deaths and glyphosate application.12,13

Bee-Killing Pesticide Cocktails

In California, beekeepers provide pollination services for almond orchards, but recently have reported dead bees immediately after almond bloom, which they believe is related to pesticide exposure.

A recent study from Ohio State University indeed found that exposure to insecticides applied during almond bloom not only has the potential to harm honey bees but may be particularly dangerous when exposure to insecticides and fungicides occurs at the same time.14

“Fungicides, often needed for crop protection, are routinely used during almond bloom, but in many cases growers were also adding insecticides to the mix. Our research shows that some combinations are deadly to the bees, and the simplest thing is to just take the insecticide out of the equation during almond bloom,” study author Reed Johnson said in a news release.

“It just doesn’t make any sense to use an insecticide when you have 80 percent of the nation’s honeybees sitting there exposed to it.”15

The featured study researchers also believe that the application of herbicides may have more negative impacts on insect biodiversity than any other agronomic practice. They, too, noted that the synergistic effect of these chemicals together may be most damaging of all:16

“Pesticides have caused the decline of moths in rural areas of the U.K. and pollinators in Italy; broad-spectrum insecticides reduce the abundance and diversity of beneficial ground-dwelling and foliage-foraging insects; systemic insecticides reduce populations of ladybirds and butterflies in gardens and nurseries, and inflict multiple lethal and sublethal effects on bees and other arthropods.

Fungicides are not less damaging to insects, and synergism of a particular group of compounds (i.e., azoles) with insecticide toxicity is certainly involved in honey bee collapses.”

Loss of Insects Would Lead to ‘Wide-Ranging Cascading Effects’

The review paints a somber picture in which a future world without insects could at one point become a reality. Declines in insects were said to be “substantially greater” than those that occurred in birds or plants in the same study periods, which could “trigger wide-ranging cascading effects within several of the world's ecosystems.”

The researchers called the state of insect biodiversity worldwide “dreadful,” explaining in no uncertain terms that unless we “change our ways of producing food” insects will become extinct in a matter of decades.

“The repercussions this will have for the planet's ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least, as insects are at the structural and functional base of many of the world's ecosystems since their rise at the end of the Devonian period, almost 400 million years ago,” they noted.17

Indeed, pollinators alone are necessary to help 80 percent of flowering plants reproduce and are involved in the production of 1 of every 3 bites of food. A sampling of the produce that would disappear without bees is below.18

Apples

Onions

Avocados

Carrots

Mangos

Lemons

Limes

Honeydew

Cantaloupe

Zucchini

Summer squash

Eggplant

Cucumbers

Celery

Green onions

Cauliflower

Leeks

Bok choy

Kale

Broccoli

Broccoli rabe

Mustard greens

Beyond pollinators, insects are necessary for soil health, recycling of nutrients, pest control and much more, professor Dave Goulson at the University of Sussex in the U.K. told The Guardian. “Love them or loathe them, we humans cannot survive without insects.”19

Buy Organic to Save Insects

The light at the end of the tunnel appears to be organic, regenerative agriculture, which is a savior to insects worldwide. A change from industrial agriculture to organic farming led to increases in the abundance and diversity of moths, for instance, and organic farms have been found to have an overall higher insect abundance than conventional farms.20,21

Aside from far-reaching policy changes to cut down on the use of pesticides on conventional farms, the best course of action to reduce the harm industrial agriculture is having on insects is to support organic, grass fed farms that are not relying on synthetic chemicals and other intensive agriculture practices.

“Because insects constitute the world's most abundant and speciose animal group and provide critical services within ecosystems, such event cannot be ignored and should prompt decisive action to avert a catastrophic collapse of nature's ecosystems,” the researchers warned, adding that:22

“A rethinking of current agricultural practices, in particular a serious reduction in pesticide usage and its substitution with more sustainable, ecologically-based practices, is urgently needed to slow or reverse current trends, allow the recovery of declining insect populations and safeguard the vital ecosystem services they provide.”

In addition to choosing organic food as much as possible, you can protect insects in your own backyard by planting native plants in your garden, including wildflowers, avoiding the use of fertilizers and pesticides in your yard and mowing your lawn less often — such as once a year instead of once every two weeks.23

Even if you live in an urban area, an organic garden planted in your own backyard provides an important respite for insects and a significant conservation opportunity that we can all take part in.24

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/26/insect-population-decline.aspx

[jakehglover]

Polluting Pigs in Politics

It's common knowledge that academic research is often funded by corporations and tainted by industry interests, from the food industry to pesticide makers alike. Big agriculture is also among those with a heavy hand in academia, working to cover up the polluting practices of its concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

The late Steve Wing, a researcher with the University of North Carolina, a state that's the second largest pork producer in the U.S. and home to numerous, densely-packed hog CAFOs, is just one example. Wing worked on research such as a 2015 study that tracked fecal waste from pigs in surface water near hog CAFOs.

Not surprisingly, he found surface waters near and downstream of hog CAFOs to be high in counts of fecal bacteria with "overall poor sanitary quality."1 When the North Carolina Pork Council heard about Wing's research looking into hog CAFOs and health, they filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to see the results.

Wing was reluctant to hand it over, as it contained information about community members who stood to lose their jobs if their identities were uncovered by the industry, The Guardian reported.2 The university forced him to hand it over nonetheless, suggesting he could be arrested otherwise.

Wing succeeded in having the records redacted before turning them over, and the industry continued to harass him about it until he died the next year.

Pig Industry Puts Pressure on Academia

Wing's story isn't unique, unfortunately, and The Guardian highlighted a number of examples where the industry put pressure on academia to further its own agenda:3

"The levers of power at play can seem anecdotal — a late-night phone call here, a missed professional opportunity there. But interviews with researchers across the U.S. revealed stories of industry pressure on individuals, university deans and state legislatures to follow an agenda that prioritizes business over human health and the environment."

The U.S. government has encouraged universities to partner with the private sector when it comes to research, for example, and it's known that the Iowa Farm Bureau and the Iowa Pork Council contribute financially to universities in the state, although the details of private-sector funding to universities isn't available to the public.

From scholarship opportunities to direct contributions, agribusiness influence can be felt at both Iowa State University and the University of Iowa, according to researchers there.

"And then there are the politically influential businessmen Charles and David Koch, intensely pro-free market billionaires … who owe their immense fortunes in part to manufacturing fertilizer," The Guardian reported. "In 2017, the Koch Foundation announced a donation of nearly $1.7 million to Iowa State University for an economics program."4

Such contributions aren't supposed to influence the university's research, but the reality is that it often does. A number of scenarios highlight the industry's attempts to quiet research that wasn't in its favor:5

• The Aldo Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State lost its funding into alternative methods of agriculture after 30 years; the state budget bill depriving the funds was signed by former governor Terry Branstad, who also received campaign funding from the Iowa Farm Bureau.

• Jim Merchant, the founding dean of the University of Iowa College of Public Health, conducted research that found a link between pig CAFOs and asthma in children. He planned to continue his research after he retired, but "was told he couldn't do research as an emeritus professor, even though it had been permitted in the past."

Merchant told The Guardian, "[T]he administrators and the faculty at these land-grant universities are heavily influenced, if not beholden, to agricultural interests."6

• A team of two dozen researchers reached a consensus on a study looking at CAFOs' impact on air quality, but the universities distanced themselves from the report.

• Researchers working on a study on the role of antibiotics in meat production asked to have their names withheld from the list of authors out of fear of retaliation from the industry.

Big Ag Undermines Academic Freedom

The common thread running through The Guardian's interviews was an unspoken rule that research painting the industry in an unfavorable light would not be tolerated and perhaps never published:7

"A number of researchers we spoke to across the country echoed similar concerns. Their experiences range from seeing their published work undermined in industry magazines to being discouraged from conducting certain research or feeling undermined by their own deans, and one person was even driven out of the field entirely.

Another researcher, who agreed to testify in a lawsuit that threatened to hold industry accountable for pollution, saw his position eliminated just before the court battle began. As soon as the plaintiffs lost, he was rehired."

Lack of transparency is another problem. Donors often give money to foundations instead of to the university itself, in part because foundations have a fiduciary responsibility to represent the donors' interest. Also important, money given to a foundation can be kept private in order to protect the donor's identity and does not become public record.8

It provides the perfect opportunity for industry corporations like Syngenta and others to pay for research on their behalf without receiving any public scrutiny for doing so.

The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, which is dedicated to improving higher education in North Carolina and the U.S., noted that many researchers refer to foundations as "slush funds" and "shadow corporations" "that too often operate in secrecy, despite spending taxpayers' money [although foundations are often supported by donations as well]."9

Universities and foundations often claim that protecting donors' privacy is key to keeping fundraising avenues open, but making such information public is in the public's interest.

Local governments are also known to turn a blind eye to the industry, allowing legal loopholes that allow pollution and animal cruelty to continue. The Chicago Tribune revealed that nearly half a million fish from 67 miles of rivers were killed by pig waste that had entered local waterways over a 10-year period.

The consequences for this massive environmental destruction were insignificant; only small penalties were enforced against multimillion-dollar corporations, many of them repeat offenders. Further, the investigation revealed that Illinois officials were not taking whistleblower allegations of animal cruelty seriously. According to the Chicago Tribune:10

"Inspectors dismissed one complaint, state files show, after simply telephoning executives to ask if it was true that their workers were beating pigs with metal bars.

Other states and local agencies have moved aggressively to address the problems caused by large hog confinements. Illinois has not, the Tribune found, even as consumers demand more humane treatment of livestock and stronger environmental protections."

North Carolina Becoming One Giant CAFO

North Carolina continues to make headlines for pollution caused by its heavy concentration of pig CAFOs, but the poultry industry is also a powerful force in the area. In fact, a report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the Waterkeeper Alliance found there are now more than twice as many poultry CAFOs in the state as there are pig CAFOs.11

North Carolina put a moratorium on new pig CAFOs in 1997, but poultry CAFOs have continued to flourish. From 2008 to 2016, more than 60 new poultry CAFOs were added in North Carolina per year, with the rate doubling to 120 between 2016 and 2018.

"In total, between 2008 to 2018, 735 new industrial-scale poultry farms were added," EWG reported. Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of the new poultry CAFOs were added in two counties that are already home to nearly half of the pig CAFOs in the state — Duplin and Sampson counties, which now house 82 million poultry and 4 million pigs.

As we've highlighted in our Polluting Pigs Series, the CAFO pigs living in the state produce copious amounts of waste — up to 10 times the amount of an average human12 — for which there is no easy, or environmentally friendly, disposal solution. But EWG found that chickens may be producing even more pollution than the pigs:13

"North Carolina's 4,700 poultry farms create 5 million tons of nutrient-laden poultry waste a year. That's on top of the 2,100 swine operations, which generate enough liquified waste to fill more than 15,000 Olympic-size swimming pools every year.

EWG's calculations show there is 4.8 times more nitrogen waste from poultry than from pigs and 4.1 times more phosphorous waste from poultry than from pigs."

Polluting Pigs and Chickens Threaten the Health of North Carolina Residents

In North Carolina, CAFO neighbors report increased headaches, runny noses, sore throats, coughing, diarrhea and burning eyes,14 while the odors alone are also associated with tension, depression and anger.

Children living near pig CAFOs also have a higher incidence of asthma,15 and these polluting CAFOs are found most often in areas with larger African-American, Latino and Native American populations. CAFOs in North Carolina are far less likely to appear in white communities, especially those low in poverty. "This spatial pattern is generally recognized as environmental racism," researchers wrote.16

A number of nuisance lawsuits have been filed against Murphy Brown LLC, a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer. In July 2018, for instance, a federal jury ruled that Smithfield should pay two neighbors living near a North Carolina Smithfield contractor's pig farm $25 million due to bad odors, flies and loud trucks caused by the CAFO.17

In June 2018, however, North Carolina legislators passed a law restricting future nuisance lawsuits aimed at pig CAFOs. While those already filed will not be affected, future lawsuits will be nearly impossible for CAFO neighbors to file. Now with the growing number of poultry CAFOs in the state as well, residents' health may be further threatened.

EWG noted that North Carolina regulators must consider both types of agriculture in their future talks about the agricultural and environmental fate of the state, with its residents' health hanging in the balance:18

"The deluge of nutrient-saturated, biohazardous material churned out by North Carolina animal agriculture poses serious threats to public health. As such, the rampant growth in the state's poultry industry must be factored in when state regulators meet in the coming days to renew the anemic general permit governing swine animal feeding operations.

NC regulators are required under state law to consider the cumulative impact of similar operations — hogs and poultry — on the environment because toxic runoff from both poultry and swine operations pollute the very same water bodies."

For more details, you can read the past articles in our Polluting Pigs series:

Polluting Pigs Hit With Big Penalty

Polluting Pigs Hit Again Over Air Emissions in Iowa

Polluting Pigs Part III

Polluting Pigs Part IV

Grass Fed Heritage Pork Is the Only Pork You Should Eat

At one time, all pigs raised on U.S. family farms were heritage pigs, accustomed to roaming on pasture and in forests. The pigs don't take well to confinement conditions, however, and were soon replaced by commercial pigs bred to grow fast and tolerate crowding.

Whereas commercial pigs reach market weight in about six months, heritage pigs take about a year to do so. They're raised by a number of small farms, which typically sell the meat through farmers markets, food co-ops and occasionally to restaurants or niche markets.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) doesn't define heritage breeds of pork, but the Livestock Conservancy defines them as heritage breeds if they have a long history in the U.S., are of noncommercial stock, thrive outdoors and on pasture and are purebred animals of their breed, according to Civil Eats.19

If you choose to eat pork, I encourage you to avoid CAFO meats and instead either buy your meat direct from a trusted grass fed farm raising heritage breeds or look for the American Grassfed Association (AGA) logo, a much-needed grass fed standards and certification for American-grown grass fed meat and dairy.20

The AGA standard allows for greater transparency and conformity21 and is intended to ensure the humane treatment of animals and meet consumer expectations about grass fed meat and dairy, while being feasible for small farmers to achieve.

The AGA pastured pork standards include a forage-based diet derived from pasture, animal health and welfare, no antibiotics and no added growth hormones. Because of the atrocious state of the CAFO pig industry, grass fed heritage pork is the only pork you should eat.

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/26/polluting-pigs-in-politics.aspx

[jakehglover]

Eating Organic Significantly Reduces Health Risks

According to polls, the No. 1 reason people choose organic food is to avoid pesticide exposure.1 Not only do these chemicals threaten the environment, but they also pose a very clear and direct risk to human health.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, has made headlines because it's the most used agricultural chemical in history and because the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has identified it as a probable human carcinogen.

New Meta-Analysis Strengthens Link Between Glyphosate and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

A meta-analysis2,3,4,5,6 of six epidemiological studies published between 2001 and 2018 now adds further weight to such suspicions, showing glyphosate increases the risk of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) — a group of blood cancers — by 41 percent in highly exposed subjects.

According to the research team, led by Luoping Zhang, a University of California, Berkeley toxicologist and a member of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) scientific advisory panel (SAP) on glyphosate carcinogenicity,7 there is indeed a "compelling link" between glyphosate exposure and NHL.

Two other researchers on the team were also members of the EPA SAP that met in 2016. At the time, all three expressed concerns about the EPA's determination that glyphosate was "not likely to be carcinogenic" to humans,8 noting the EPA failed to follow proper scientific practices in its assessment of the chemical.9

Senior author professor Lianne Sheppard told Investigative journalist Carey Gillam,10 "It was pretty obvious they didn't follow their own rules. Is there evidence that it is carcinogenic? The answer is yes."

Evidence also emerged suggesting the EPA had colluded with Monsanto to protect the company's interests by manipulating and preventing key investigations into glyphosate's cancer-causing potential.

Of the six studies included in this new analysis, five showed a positive correlation. One of the studies, known as the Agricultural Health Study11 (AHS), published in 2018, found no effect.

However, the team points out that results were watered down in that study due to the inclusion of people with very low exposure. It's only when you look at high-exposure groups independently that a clear link between exposure and NHL emerges.

Scientists Convinced Glyphosate Is a Dangerous Carcinogen

These findings are bad news for Bayer, which now owns Monsanto and its toxic product line. At present, some 9,000 individuals have lawsuits pending against Monsanto-Bayer. All blame their NHL on Roundup exposure. In its defense, Monsanto has relied heavily on the AHS study's findings showing no correlation between exposure and NHL risk.

However, as noted in the new meta-analysis, published online February 10, 2019:12

"Using the highest exposure groups when available in each study, we report the overall meta-relative risk (meta-RR) of NHL in [glyphosate-based herbicide-exposed] GBH-exposed individuals was increased by 41 percent …

For comparison, we also performed a secondary meta-analysis using high-exposure groups with the earlier AHS (2005), and we determined a meta-RR for NHL of 1.45, which was higher than the meta-RRs reported previously. Multiple sensitivity tests conducted to assess the validity of our findings did not reveal meaningful differences from our primary estimated meta-RR.

To contextualize our findings of an increased NHL risk in individuals with high GBH exposure, we reviewed available animal and mechanistic studies, which provided supporting evidence for the carcinogenic potential of GBH.

We documented further support from studies of malignant lymphoma incidence in mice treated with pure glyphosate, as well as potential links between GBH exposure and immunosuppression, endocrine disruption, and genetic alterations that are commonly associated with NHL.

Overall, in accordance with evidence from experimental animal and mechanistic studies, our current meta-analysis of human epidemiological studies suggests a compelling link between exposures to GBHs and increased risk for NHL."

Sheppard told Sustainable Pulse,13 "Our analysis focused on providing the best possible answer to the question of whether or not glyphosate is carcinogenic. As a result of this research, I am even more convinced that it is." Gillam also quotes Sheppard, saying,14 "This paper makes a stronger case than previous meta-analyses that there is evidence of an increased risk of NHL due to glyphosate exposure. From a population health point of view there are some real concerns."

New Lawsuit Focuses on Roundup's Effect on Gut Bacteria

Even if you're not exposed to glyphosate-based herbicides via application (which is the case with most who claim glyphosate exposure caused their NHL), your health is still at risk, as most foods (processed foods in particular) are contaminated with this chemical, and more than 70 percent of Americans have detectable levels of glyphosate in their body.15

A limited food testing program by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2016 revealed virtually all foods tested were contaminated with Roundup.16 The Health Research Institute Labs (HRI Labs), an independent laboratory that tests both micronutrients and toxins found in food, has also discovered widespread glyphosate contamination.

According to HRI data, people who eat oats on a regular basis have twice as much glyphosate in their system as people who don't (likely because oats are desiccated with glyphosate before harvest), and people who eat organic food on a regular basis have an 80 percent lower level of glyphosate than those who rarely eat organic.

Glyphosate kills weeds by inhibiting the shikimate pathway in the plant, and Monsanto has long defended the chemical's safety, saying it cannot affect humans because we do not have this pathway. However, the shikimate pathway is found in human gut bacteria, which we now know play a vital role in human health.

As reported by Bloomberg,17 a lawsuit filed against Monsanto February 13 now specifically focuses on this link. But glyphosate can also affect your health via a number of other mechanisms. For example, research has shown glyphosate also:18,19,20

Mimics glycine, an amino acid your body uses to make proteins. By acting as a substitute for glycine in your body, glyphosate can cause damaged proteins to be produced.

Glycine also plays a role in quenching inflammation, as explained in "Glycine Quells Oxidative Damage by Inhibiting NOX Superoxide Production and Boosting NADPH," and is used up in the detoxification process. As a result of glyphosate toxicity, many of us may not have enough glycine for efficient detoxification.

Interferes with the function of cytochrome P450 enzymes, required for activation of vitamin D in the liver, and the creation of both nitric oxide and cholesterol sulfate, the latter of which is needed for red blood cell integrity.

Chelates important minerals, including iron, cobalt and manganese. Manganese deficiency, in turn, impairs mitochondrial function and can lead to glutamate toxicity in the brain.

Interferes with the synthesis of aromatic amino acids and methionine, which results in shortages in critical neurotransmitters and folate.

Disrupts sulfate synthesis and sulfate transport.

Disrupts and destroys the gut microbiome via its antibiotic activity.

Inhibits sulfur metabolism.

Impairs methylation pathways.

Inhibits pituitary release of thyroid stimulating hormone, which can lead to hypothyroidism.

How Much Glyphosate Do You Have in Your Body?

HRI Labs has developed home test kits for both water and urine, available in my online store. If your levels are high, you would be wise to address your diet and consider buying more organic foods.

You may also want to consider some form of detoxification protocol, and take steps to repair the damage to your gut caused by glyphosate and other agrochemicals. Chances are, if your glyphosate levels are high, you probably have a number of other pesticides in your system as well.

Fermented foods, particularly kimchi, are potent chelators of these kinds of chemicals. Taking activated charcoal after a questionable meal can help bind and excrete chemicals as well. Remember to stay well-hydrated to facilitate the removal of toxins through your liver, kidneys and skin.

Glycine is an important detox aid for glyphosate in particular. Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, recognized as an international authority on metal toxicity and its connection with chronic infections, recommends taking 1 teaspoon (4 grams) of glycine powder twice a day for a few weeks and then lower the dose to one-fourth teaspoon (1 gram) twice a day. The least expensive way to do this is purchase glycine bulk powder,21 which is very inexpensive.

This forces the glyphosate out of your system, allowing it to be eliminated through your urine. Using a sauna on a regular basis is also recommended to help eliminate both pesticides and heavy metals you may have accumulated.

Organic Diet Significantly Lowers Your Pesticide Load, Study Finds

An obvious answer to concerns about glyphosate exposure via your diet is to switch to organic foods. A study22,23 published in the journal Environmental Research, February 12, 2019, again confirms you can significantly reduce your toxic pesticide load by going organic, and results can be rapid.

On average, pesticide and pesticide metabolite level for neonicotinoids, organophosphate pesticides (OP), pyrethroid, 2,4-D and others (14 compounds in all, representing about 40 different pesticides) were reduced by more than 60 percent, on average, in just six days of eating an all-organic diet.

Urine samples were collected from four "racially and geographically diverse" U.S. families — seven adults and nine children in all — before and after they were switched to an all-organic diet. As a group, OP's were reduced the most, dropping by 70 percent overall.

Chlorpyrifos, linked to autism and reduced IQ in children, was reduced by an average of 61 percent, and malathion, a probable human carcinogen, was reduced by 95 percent while 2,4-D dropped by just 37 percent. The fact that 2,4-D appears to stay in the body longer could be a concern, considering we're bound to see far more of it in our food in coming years as genetically engineered crops are now being developed with 2,4-D resistant traits.

According to the authors:24

"We observed significant reductions in urinary levels of 13 pesticide metabolites and parent compounds representing OP, neonicotinoid and pyrethroid insecticides and the herbicide 2,4-D following the introduction of an organic diet.

The greatest reductions were observed for clothianidin … malathion dicarboxylic acid, a metabolite of malathion … and 3,5,6-trichlor-2-pyridinol, a metabolite of chlorpyrifos … This study adds to a growing body of literature indicating that an organic diet may reduce exposure to a range of pesticides in children and adults."

To Avoid Toxic Pesticides, Go Organic

Other studies have found very similar results, including:

A 2006 study25 in Environmental Health Perspectives, which found OP pesticide levels were lowered to undetectable levels in elementary school-aged children fed an all-organic diet for five days; levels rose as soon as a conventional diet was reintroduced

An Australian study26 published in 2014, which found a diet of at least 80 percent organic food lowered pesticide levels by 89 percent in seven days

A 2015 study,27 which found OP pesticide levels were reduced between 25 and 49 percent in Mexican-American children aged 3 to 6, after being fed organic food for seven days

Bruce Lanphear, a professor at Simon Fraser University who was not part of the study told Civil Eats,28 "Families need this type of information. In the absence of a robust regulatory system that protects consumers, these types of studies are critical for consumers or families to make these choices."

Many Studies Support Eating Organic to Minimize Pesticide Exposure and Improve Nutrition

A 2016 report29 by the European Parliament, "Human Health Implications of Organic Food and Organic Agriculture," detailed the many benefits of organic farming, based on a global literature search. The report is unusually comprehensive in that it also reviews a wide range of effects of organics, from nutritional content and the benefits of fewer pesticides to environmental impacts and sustainability.

Its conclusions are based on hundreds of epidemiological and laboratory studies and food analyses. Again, the clearest benefits of organics on human health were found to be related to lowered pesticide, antibiotic and cadmium exposure. And, while U.S. regulators insist that set limits on pesticide residues in conventional produce are enough to protect the public's health, the report found negative health effects may occur in children even at current levels of exposure.30

According to research31 presented at a 2017 Children's Environmental Health Network (CEHN) conference in Washington, D.C., women exposed to higher glyphosate levels during pregnancy had babies born earlier and with lower adjusted birth weights.

What's more, the chemical was detected in more than 90 percent of the mothers in the study. Studies have also demonstrated that an organic diet provides better nutrition. Among them:

A Hungarian study32 published in 2006, which compared the nutritional value of organically and conventionally grown plant foods, found organics contained "significantly higher amounts of certain antioxidants (vitamin C, polyphenols and flavonoids) and minerals."

A 2010 study33 looking at grass fed beef versus grain fed beef found the former had healthier fat composition and higher CLA levels. As noted by the authors, "[C]hanges in finishing diets of conventional cattle can alter the lipid profile in such a way as to improve upon this nutritional package.

Although there are genetic, age-related and gender differences among the various meat producing species with respect to lipid profiles and ratios, the effect of animal nutrition is quite significant."

A 2013 study34 found organic milk contains about 25 percent less omega-6 fats and 62 percent more omega-3 fats than conventional milk, along with more vitamin E, beta-carotene and beneficial conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).

A British study35 published in 2014 found organically grown foods contain "significantly" higher levels of antioxidants than the conventionally grown variety, including beneficial compounds linked to a reduced risk of chronic diseases, including heart and neurodegenerative diseases and certain cancers.

A group of scientists at Newcastle University in the U.K. evaluated 343 studies published over several decades. The analysis,36 published in 2014, found that while many nutrient levels were comparable, a key nutritional difference between conventional and organics was their antioxidant content, with organic fruits and vegetables containing anywhere from 18 to 69 percent more antioxidants than conventionally grown varieties.

The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture37 in Frick, Switzerland, has confirmed organic apples contain higher levels of antioxidants than conventional varieties.

A 2010 study38 partially funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) found organic strawberries were more nutrient-rich than conventional strawberries.

Research has also found that true organic free-range eggs typically contain about two-thirds more vitamin A, double the amount of omega-3, three times more vitamin E, and as much as seven times more beta carotene than conventional eggs.39

Organic Food Resources

While most people tend to think of organics only in terms of produce (fruits and vegetables), it's important to remember to buy organic, grass fed beef, poultry and dairy, as well, as conventionally raised animals are routinely fed a diet of genetically engineered grains that are loaded with glyphosate and other potentially hazardous ingredients.

If you live in the U.S., the following organizations can help you locate farm-fresh foods grown in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly manner:

Demeter USA — Demeter-USA.org provides a directory of certified Biodynamic farms and brands. This directory can also be found on BiodynamicFood.org.

American Grassfed Association — The goal of the American Grassfed Association is to promote the grass fed industry through government relations, research, concept marketing and public education.

Their website also allows you to search for AGA approved producers certified according to strict standards that include being raised on a diet of 100 percent forage; raised on pasture and never confined to a feedlot; never treated with antibiotics or hormones; born and raised on American family farms.

Weston A. Price Foundation — Weston A. Price has local chapters in most states, and many of them are connected with buying clubs in which you can easily purchase organic foods, including grass fed raw dairy products like milk and butter.

Grassfed Exchange — The Grassfed Exchange has a listing of producers selling organic and grass fed meats across the U.S.

Local Harvest — This website will help you find farmers markets, family farms and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce, grass fed meats and many other goodies.

Farmers Markets — A national listing of farmers markets.

Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals — The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns, hotels and online outlets in the United States and Canada.

Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) — CISA is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and promoting the products of small farms.

The Cornucopia Institute — The Cornucopia Institute maintains web-based tools rating all certified organic brands of eggs, dairy products and other commodities, based on their ethical sourcing and authentic farming practices separating CAFO "organic" production from authentic organic practices.

RealMilk.com — If you're still unsure of where to find raw milk, check out Raw-Milk-Facts.com and RealMilk.com. They can tell you what the status is for legality in your state, and provide a listing of raw dairy farms in your area. The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund40 also provides a state-by-state review of raw milk laws.41 California residents can also find raw milk retailers using the store locator available at www.OrganicPastures.com.

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/25/organic-food-health-benefits.aspx

[jakehglover]

Higher Daily Fiber Intake, Less Risk for Disease

Doctors have a lot to say about how people can avoid catastrophic health events like strokes and heart attacks, but scientists in New Zealand recently perused thousands of studies spanning more than 40 years and identified a nutrient that can be a genuine game-changer in the alleviation and prevention of many diseases: fiber.

Researchers from the University of Otago conducted their review to verify why fiber has such a stellar reputation in helping to maintain overall health. They scrutinized 185 observational studies, which involved 135 million person-years and 58 clinical trials, comprising 4,635 adult participants.

Results of the study, published in The Lancet, revealed that people who make a habit of eating high amounts of dietary fiber are 15 to 30 percent less likely to die prematurely from any cause compared to people who include the least amounts of fiber.1

The researchers also disclosed that eating foods containing lots of fiber is directly correlated to a 16 to 24 percent lower incidence of stroke, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, as well as colorectal cancer.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the authors noted that the impact could translate to 13 fewer deaths and six fewer cases of coronary heart disease per 1,000 participants, and that eating plenty of high-fiber foods is also linked to decreased weight and optimized cholesterol levels.2

The Lancet study wasn't the first to show how important fiber consumption is. A 2014 study published by the American Journal of Epidemiology showed much the same thing: that a 10 percent reduced risk for all-cause mortality was observed for every 10 grams of fiber participants added to their overall fiber intake.3

A Call for Nutrition Guidelines to Emphasize Fiber Intake

The scientists in New Zealand used only healthy participants so their findings couldn't be applied to people with existing chronic diseases. Jim Mann, a professor at the university and corresponding study author, noted several significant findings in regard to increased fiber consumption and the reduced risk of disease and death. According to Mann:

"The health benefits of fiber are supported by over 100 years of research into its chemistry, physical properties, physiology and effects on metabolism. Fiber-rich whole foods that require chewing and retain much of their structure in the gut increase satiety and help weight control and can favorably influence lipid and glucose levels.

The breakdown of fiber in the large bowel by the resident bacteria has additional wide-ranging effects including protection from colorectal cancer."4

Besides looking at the causes of premature deaths from certain cancers, the researchers focused specifically on cancers associated with obesity, such as endometrial, esophageal, breast and prostate cancers, the study stated.

In recommending a healthy amount of fiber to consume, the authors noted that for every 8 grams of increased fiber intake per day, the study subjects showed a 5 to 27 percent decrease in incidences of Type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer. Protection against stroke and breast cancer also increased.

So how much fiber is recommended to optimize your health? According to the study, consuming 25 to 29 grams every day is merely adequate; their data indicated that higher intakes would be more protective, and therefore advised. Further, diets stressing a low glycemic index and low glycemic load, besides allowing added sugars, were shown to provide limited protection against Type 2 diabetes and stroke.

Mann emphasized that findings from the study point to a dire need for a change in nutrition guidelines to focus on an overall increase of fiber intake, not just because it's "good for you," but because it's shown to literally change the dynamics of disease.

One thing to note is the mention that bacteria in your gut impacts so much of your overall health, not to mention your ability to maintain a healthy weight and fight off disease. It's no secret that I believe gut bacteria to be a huge key to health, and maintaining a good balance of bacteria to ensure a healthy microbiome is crucial to many aspects of health, particularly for those fighting cancer.

Brush Up on Your Fiber Knowledge, as Well as Your Intake

There are two different types of fiber, and both are important. Soluble fiber easily dissolves in water and becomes gel-like in your system, acting as a sponge in some respects, as it moves into every crevice of your colon and helps to slow your digestion while also slowing the rate at which other nutrients are digested. The positive effects of soluble fiber come from actions that it both fosters and prevents.

Insoluble fiber, which does not dissolve, stays basically intact as it moves through your colon. Besides being completely devoid of calories, it helps prevent constipation because it "gathers" the byproducts and fluids you don't want; it forms the waste that will eventually — and optimally — leave your body in the form of waste.

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics,5 25 grams of fiber per day is sufficient for women, while 38 grams is recommended for men. However, in my opinion, this is one case where more really is better: My recommendation for daily fiber intake is 25 to 50 grams per 1,000 calories consumed.

How Fiber Works, Which Kinds Are Best and What to Avoid

Offering a synopsis of how fiber works in your body, Mann noted that when you eat fiber-rich foods that require extra chewing, and which also retain their basic structure in your gut, it can accomplish several goals. It satisfies food cravings and contributes to weight control, while positively impacting your lipid and glucose levels.

As bacteria break down fiber in your large intestine, they impart a number of additional benefits, not the least of which is protection from colorectal cancer. There are a number of ways to increase your fiber intake.

According to Mann's team, "Foods rich in fiber include whole grains, vegetables, fruit and pulses, such as peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas."6 Vegetables and fruits are whole foods that should be the backbone of your diet, but there are issues with both grain, including whole grain, and beans, such as those listed.

Yes, lentils are an example of a highly nutritious legume as they contain high amounts of folate, protein, manganese, iron, thiamin and phosphorus. But beans, lentils and chickpeas are also examples of foods that contain lectins that bind to carbohydrates and attach to cells that allow them to wreak havoc as part of the plant's self-defense mechanism against pests, and have the potential to harm humans.

Steven Gundry, the doctor and author who in recent years has called widespread attention to the problems you can experience when you eat foods with lectins, notes that lectins can trigger uncomfortable physical symptoms similar to those caused by gluten, although in both cases, it depends on your system, and everyone's system is different.

In addition, beans are high in net carbs, and therefore best avoided due to their toxic or allergenic effects. And that brings us to wheat, which also contains lectins.7 In fact, wheat and other seeds of the grass family, including soy, soy products, peanuts and some nightshade foods such as potatoes, bell peppers, eggplant and tomatoes, are among foods that contain the highest amounts of lectins.

One of the reasons wheat ends up being toxic is that it's attracted to glucosamine, a monosaccharide found in your joints.8 (You may know that glucosamine, a compound your body produces, is a common supplement many people take to alleviate joint pain, although how glucosamine works should be researched by individuals before beginning a regimen.)9

Anyone with autoimmune conditions such as arthritis, heart disease, obesity, diabetes or thyroid dysfunction, among others, is advised to be careful when eating foods containing lectins. You should at least curtail your intake of lectin-containing foods, Gundry advises.10

Cooking them correctly — read: thoroughly, such as with a pressure cooker, and with lots of water to help rid them of the toxicity — is important to avoid what can result in painful symptoms.

Fortunately, it's easy to get plenty of fiber in your diet without focusing on grains. Healthy foods with high amounts of fiber include green peas, artichoke, baked sweet potato with the peel intact, spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and many other vegetables.

Additional foods that are also excellent in providing fiber include pears, raspberries, stewed prunes, dried figs or dates (eaten in moderation due to high sugar content), pumpkin, almonds, apples with the skin intact, bananas (also eaten in moderation) and oranges. Organic psyllium seed husk (nonorganic psyllium is typically loaded with pesticides) is another excellent way to optimize your fiber intake.

Benefits From Fiber Are Innumerable, Long-Lasting and Crucial for Health

When food gets "stuck" in your colon and refuses to leave, it causes a number of issues, not the least of which is pain. Eating a high-fiber diet has been shown to help prevent and alleviate leaky gut, suffered by as much as 80 percent of the population in the U.S.11 It starts in your small intestine and involves toxins caused by undigested foods, leading to allergies and worse.

Fortunately, few risks are associated with a high intake of fiber, although the featured study noted that people who have low iron or mineral levels who consume fiber in the form of bread, pasta and/or processed foods may further deplete their iron stores. In addition, "the study mainly relates to naturally-occurring fiber rich foods rather than synthetic and extracted fiber, such as powders, that can be added to foods."12

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/25/dietary-fiber-health-benefits.aspx

[jakehglover]

Weekly Health Quiz: Toothpaste, Protein and Sunburn

1 The following supplement has been shown to boost testosterone and improve semen quality in infertile men:

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha supports sexual and reproductive health in both men and women. In men, it helps boost testosterone levels, and has been shown to improve semen quality in infertile men. Learn more.

Vitamin A

Astaxanthin

Curcumin

2 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Children and the American Dental Association recommend children younger than 3 use the following amount of toothpaste when brushing their teeth:

Enough to cover half the length of the toothbrush

A rice-grain sized amount

The CDC and ADA recommend using no more than a pea-sized amount for children between the ages of 3 and 6. Children younger than 3 should use no more than the size of a rice grain on their toothbrush. Learn more.

Enough to cover the length of the toothbrush

A pea-sized amount

3 What controversial event occurred two days after the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) awarded its Scientific Freedom and Responsibility award for 2019 to two Sri Lankan researchers who linked glyphosate exposure to chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology in Sri Lankan farmers?

The researchers were accused of scientific fraud by the government of Sri Lanka

The research paper upon which the award was based was retracted by the scientific journal

AAAS rescinded the award following criticism from pro-industry sources

The 2019 Scientific Freedom and Responsibility award was slated to be given to two human health researchers who have published papers linking glyphosate exposure to chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology in Sri Lankan farmers. The AAAS rescinded the award, saying they are reassessing their decision due to concerns "voiced by scientists and members." Learn more.

Two researchers nominated for the award accused AAAS of making their award selection based on conflicts of interest

4 Recent research offers a clue as to why women tend to maintain their mental acuity longer than men, as this study found:

Women's brains use more ketones for fuel than glucose, thereby slowing brain deterioration

Men are more prone to head injuries, which skews the data

Men have more brain cells than women, which use more energy and speeds brain aging

Women's brains are metabolically about three years younger than men's brains of the same chronological age

Recent research shows women's brains are about three years younger, metabolically speaking, than men's brains of the same chronological age. The finding offers a clue as to why women tend to maintain their mental acuity longer than men. Learn more.

5 Which of the following remedies is the most effective for the treatment of sunburn, aside from prevention?

Fresh aloe vera gel

For sunburn, fresh aloe gel is likely the most effective remedy available, besides prevention. Learn more.

Astaxanthin

Vitamin C

Cucumber slices

6 Biosolids

Are a good source of nutrients on which to grow crops

Pose health dangers and should not be used

Biosolids are not safe for farm or garden application. Learn more.

Are purified by waste treatment plants like drinking water

Should be applied to home gardens

7 Why is it important to cycle high and low protein intake?

To ensure you're getting enough protein, as the ideal amount of protein is impossible to calculate

To minimize overall protein intake, as protein at any amount is a major driver of aging and cancer

To counteract muscle loss while optimizing autophagy, the process by which damaged cells are removed and new, healthy cells are rebuilt

Cycling high and low protein intake will optimize autophagy and counteract muscle loss. Ideally, combine protein restriction with fasting, followed by increased protein intake on strength training days. Learn more.

To maximize muscle growth, as muscle only grows during low-protein intake

  from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/25/week-67-health-quiz.aspx

[jakehglover]

How Potassium Can Help Your High Blood Pressure

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly one-third of Americans suffers from high blood pressure (hypertension).1 Another 33 percent have pre-hypertension, where their blood pressure is higher than desirable but not high enough to be classified as hypertension.

Hypertension carries a high cost to your health. It is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and stroke,2 which are in the first and fifth position for leading causes of death in the U.S.3

The financial burden is over $48 billion each year in direct medical costs and lost work days, but does not include a number of other health conditions worsened by hypertension, including kidney disease and cognitive decline.

Only 54 percent of those with hypertension have their blood pressure under control.4 Unfortunately, while blood pressure monitoring has become commonplace at the dentist's and eye doctor's offices, the CDC estimates 1 in 5 people are not aware they have hypertension.

There are several ways to reduce your blood pressure without drugs, which I discuss below. Among them is balancing your potassium level, as this electrolyte has a significant effect on muscle contraction and arterial wall relaxation, but most Americans barely get half of the recommended daily allowance.5

What Is High Blood Pressure?

When your physician takes your blood pressure, he uses a sphygmomanometer to measure the amount of pressure your heart exerts to push blood through your arterial system. The top number represents the highest pressure and the bottom number is the lowest pressure needed. These numbers are related to the elasticity and diameter of your arterial walls.

When the pressure required to circulate your blood is high, it places an abnormal amount of stress on your heart muscle and smaller arteries, and reduces the amount of oxygen delivered to the smallest blood vessels in your body. Both of these consequences account for many of the secondary effects of hypertension.

Your blood pressure reading can vary throughout the day, so one high reading is not a concern. It is only when your blood pressure is consistently or chronically higher than normal that significant health conditions may occur.

The validity of your blood pressure reading will be affected by the size of the blood pressure cuff, the position of the cuff on your arm and whether you're nervous. Measuring your blood pressure in both arms at the same office visit may also give your vital information about your circulatory health.

A number of studies have revealed that a significant difference between your right and left arm pressure may indicate circulatory problems that raise your risk for stroke, peripheral artery disease or other cardiovascular problems.

While small differences between your arms is normal, researchers found when there is a difference of 5 points in the systolic reading (top number) it doubled the risk of dying from heart disease in the following eight years.6 The difference suggests the presence of plaque in the artery supplying the arm with the higher pressure.7

In a meta-analysis evaluating mortality rates of over 17,000 participants with inter-arm systolic blood pressure differences, researchers found participants with less than 10 points difference compared to those with greater than 10 point difference between arms suffered a 58 percent increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease.8 However, when the difference increased to 15 points, the risk increased to 88 percent.

Potassium Level Impacts High Blood Pressure

Potassium is a naturally occurring mineral that your body uses as an electrolyte, or substance in solution that will conduct electricity, and is vital for normal functioning.

Diarrhea, vomiting, excessive sweating (such as when using a sauna) and some drugs may deplete or disrupt your potassium balance. But, the most common reason your potassium levels are not within normal limits is due to poor dietary choices.

The average reported intake of potassium from food is about half of the 4,700 milligrams (mg) recommended.9 Research demonstrates that these low levels of potassium may have a significant impact on blood pressure, especially as it relates to the amount of salt normally found in a Western diet.

Dr. Paul Welton, professor of epidemiology at Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, did an analysis in 1997 of over 29 trials that demonstrated low levels of potassium resulted in higher systolic blood pressure readings.10 Studies performed since then have found similar results.11,12 According to Welton:13

"The evidence is very strong and very consistent. A higher potassium intake may blunt the effects of excess salt on blood pressure. Potassium's effect is bigger in people who have higher blood pressure, bigger in older people, bigger in people who are consuming a lot of salt and bigger in black people."

Potassium works in your body to relax the walls of your arteries, keep your muscles from cramping, and lowers your blood pressure.14 The reduction in blood pressure with added potassium has also been associated in studies with a reduced risk of stroke.15

The Many Benefits of Potassium

Recent research found that women without hypertension who consumed the most potassium (nearly 3,200 mg/day) had a 21 percent reduced risk of stroke. Further, women who consumed the most potassium were 12 percent less likely to die during the study period than those who consumed the least.16 According to the study's lead researcher:17

"Potassium may play a role in improving blood vessel function in our brains. This could allow better oxygenation of our brain tissue, and prevent tissue death that occurs from lack of oxygen to the brain …

The effect of potassium consumption on reduced stroke risk could also be due to a better diet overall, though we did not investigate this in our study."

Potassium should be the third most abundant mineral in the human body. Adequate amounts of potassium are also associated with quicker recovery from exercise and improved muscle strength.18,19 As an electrolyte, potassium helps to regulate the fluid balance in your cells and throughout your body.20

Fluid balance is essential to maintaining life, preventing dehydration at the cellular level and maintaining brain function.21 Potassium is important in the transmission of nerve impulses in your brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system.22

Nerve impulses transmitting information from one nerve to the next happens as the result of electrical activity. This activity is what an electrocardiogram measures as it tracks heart activity.

Low levels of potassium have been linked with high levels of insulin and glucose, associated with metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.23 These results have been found in several studies,24 leading researchers to recommend dietary choices that boost potassium levels and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Effects of High Blood Pressure on Your Body

Unfortunately, 20 percent of people who suffer with high blood pressure are unaware of the condition, significantly increasing their potential risk of health problems. With uncontrolled or poorly controlled hypertension, you increase the risk of significant health effects that reduce your quality of life and have a negative effect on the length of your life.

Hypertension increases your risk of stroke as it can cause blood vessels in your brain to rupture or clog more easily. In both instances, oxygen supply to a portion of the brain ceases and a stroke results.25 The increased workload on the heart muscle may result in heart failure, and damage to the arteries supplying the heart muscle with oxygen may result in a heart attack.

Hypertension may damage the smaller arteries, reducing the amount of oxygen delivered and severely impacting the ability of organs to function, such as your kidneys and eyes. This may result in kidney failure and vision loss. The damage to smaller blood vessels is called microvascular disease and may lead to angina, or chest pain when the heart muscle doesn't get enough oxygen, and sexual dysfunction.

Atherosclerosis is another form of damage to the arterial system from hypertension that may result in peripheral vascular disease. The narrowing of the arteries may occur in the legs, arms, stomach and head, triggering pain and fatigue.

Sodium/Potassium Ratio Is Key to Strong Muscles and Relaxed Arteries

The key to relaxing your arterial walls and reducing your blood pressure is the sodium to potassium ratio. In the United States and many other developed countries, salt has been vilified as a primary cause of high blood pressure and heart disease. According to research presented at last year's American Heart Association meeting,26 excessive salt consumption contributed to 2.3 million heart-related deaths worldwide in 2010.

However, it's important to realize that most Americans and other Westerners get the majority of their sodium from commercially available table salt and processed foods — not from natural unprocessed salt. So, not only is the ratio between potassium and sodium important, so is the type of sodium consumed.

If you eat a lot of processed foods and not many vegetables, there's a good chance your sodium-to-potassium ratio is unbalanced. If you're not sure, try using cron-o-meter.com/mercola, which allows you to enter the foods you eat and then calculates the ratio automatically. It's generally recommended that you consume five times more potassium than sodium, but most Americans get the opposite ratio, eating two times more sodium than potassium.

This ratio is more important than your overall salt intake.27 A better strategy to promote public health would be to forgo the strict sodium reduction element and focus recommendations instead on a high-quality diet rich in potassium, as this nutrient helps offset the hypertensive effects of sodium. Imbalance in this ratio can not only lead to hypertension (high blood pressure) but also contribute to a number of other diseases, including:

Kidney stones

Memory decline

Cataracts

Osteoporosis

Erectile dysfunction

Stomach ulcers

Rheumatoid arthritis

Stomach cancer

Why a Balanced Diet Is Your Best Option to Improve Your Potassium Level

Getting nutrients from your food instead of supplements is preferable as your food contains more than a single nutrient and in different forms. For instance, potassium found in fruits and vegetables is potassium citrate or potassium malate, while supplements are often potassium chloride. The citrate and malate forms help produce alkali, which may promote bone health28 and preserve lean muscle mass as you age.29

Bone loss may lead to brittle bones or even osteoporosis. While potassium in fruits and vegetables may help build bone health, potassium chloride may not. As researcher Dr. Bess Dawson-Hughes from Tufts University explains:30

"If you don't have adequate alkali to balance the acid load from the grains and protein in a typical American diet, you lose calcium in the urine and you have bone loss … When the body has more acid than it is easily able to excrete, bone cells get a signal that the body needs to neutralize the acid with alkali … And bone is a big alkali reservoir, so the body breaks down some bone to add alkali to the system."

Research by Dawson-Hughes found that people who were in the neutral range for net acid excretion, meaning they had a fairly healthy balance for bone and muscle health, were eating just over eight servings of fruits and vegetables a day along with 5.5 servings of grains.

When they rounded this out, it came to about half as many grains as fruits and vegetables. For many Americans a simple recommendation to increase your alkali (and potassium) while reducing acid is to eat more vegetables and fewer grains.31

Other Drug-Free Methods to Keep Blood Pressure Under Control

Here are several suggestions to help keep your blood pressure under control and reduce your risk of organ damage.

Address insulin and leptin resistance to impact magnesium and nitric oxide — High blood pressure is associated with insulin resistance, which results from eating a diet too high in sugar. As your insulin level rises, so does your blood pressure. Insulin stores magnesium, but if your insulin receptors are blunted and your cells grow resistant to insulin, you can't store magnesium so it passes out of your body through urination.

Magnesium stored in your cells relaxes muscles. If your magnesium level is too low, your blood vessels will constrict rather than relax, and this constriction raises your blood pressure.

Fructose also elevates uric acid, which drives up your blood pressure by inhibiting the nitric oxide in your blood vessels. (Uric acid is a byproduct of fructose metabolism. In fact, fructose typically generates uric acid within minutes of ingestion.) Nitric oxide helps your vessels maintain their elasticity, so nitric oxide suppression leads to increases in blood pressure.

If you're healthy, and want to stay that way, the general rule is to keep your total fructose intake to 25 grams per day or less. If you're insulin resistant and/or have high blood pressure, keep your total fructose to 15 grams or less per day until your condition has resolved.

Eat real food — A processed food diet, loaded with net carbohydrates (non-fiber carbs like sugar, fructose and grains) and trans fat (margarines and vegetable oils) is a recipe for hypertension. Instead, make whole, ideally organic foods the focus of your diet.

Also remember to swap non-fiber carbs for healthy fats such as avocados, butter made from raw, grass-fed organic milk, organic pastured egg yolks, coconuts and coconut oil, raw nuts such as pecans and macadamia, grass-fed meats and pasture raised poultry. To learn more about healthy eating, please see my optimal nutrition plan.

Mind your sodium to potassium ratio — According to Lawrence Appel, lead researcher on the DASH diet and director of the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research at Johns Hopkins, your diet as a whole is the key to controlling hypertension — not salt reduction alone.

He believes a major part of the equation is this balance of minerals, i.e., most people need less sodium and more potassium, calcium and magnesium. According to Appel,32 "Higher levels of potassium blunt the effects of sodium. If you can't reduce or won't reduce sodium, adding potassium may help. But doing both is better."

Indeed, maintaining a proper potassium to sodium ratio in your diet is very important, and hypertension is but one of many side effects of an imbalance. A processed food diet virtually guarantees you'll have a lopsided ratio of too much sodium to potassium.

Making the switch from processed foods to whole foods will automatically improve your ratios. Include foods high in potassium such as sweet potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, beets, black beans, wild caught salmon, edamame, butternut squash, Swiss chard, apricots, cantaloupe, mushrooms and tuna.33,34

Load up on veggies — Juicing is a simple way to increase the amount of vegetables in your diet, and many NO3-rich veggies (which raise your nitric oxide level) are suitable for juicing, such as beets, kale, celery, spinach, carrots and more. Allicin-rich garlic, leeks, shallots and chives also help improve your blood pressure, and are easy to add to salads and various dishes.

Optimize your vitamin D level — To learn more about vitamin D testing, please see my previous article, "How Vitamin D Performance Testing Can Help You Optimize Your Health."

Boost your animal-based omega-3 intake — The best way to boost your omega-3 is to eat plenty of oily fish that are low in mercury and other pollutants. Good options include wild caught Alaskan salmon, sardines and anchovies. Alternatively, take a high-quality krill oil or fish oil supplement. Krill oil has advantages over fish oil, which is why I prefer it.

Consider intermittent fasting — Intermittent fasting is one of the most effective ways I've found to normalize your insulin/leptin sensitivity. It's not a diet in conventional terms, but rather a way of scheduling eating in such a way as to promote efficient energy use.

Essentially, intermittent fasting means eating your calories during a specific window of the day, and choosing not to eat food during the rest. When you eat, your body reacts by elevating insulin and leptin.

Exercise regularly — A comprehensive fitness program can go a long way toward regaining your insulin sensitivity and normalizing your blood pressure. To reap the greatest rewards, I recommend including high intensity interval exercises in your routine.

I also recommend training yourself to breathe through your nose when exercising, as mouth breathing during exercise can raise your heart rate and blood pressure, sometimes resulting in fatigue and dizziness. To learn more about this, please refer to my previous article on the Buteyko breathing method.

Avoid smoking and other forms of pollution — Smoking is known to contribute to high blood pressure, as are other forms of air pollution, even noise pollution. To address these, avoid smoking, consider using ear plugs during sleep if you live in a noisy neighborhood (provided you cannot move), and take steps to improve your indoor air quality.

Walk barefoot — Going barefoot will help you ground to the earth. Experiments show that walking barefoot outside (also referred to as Earthing or grounding) improves blood viscosity and blood flow, which help regulate blood pressure. So, do yourself a favor and ditch your shoes now and then.

Grounding also calms your sympathetic nervous system, which supports your heart rate variability. This in turn promotes homeostatis, or balance, in your autonomic nervous system. In essence, anytime you improve heart rate variability, you're improving your entire body and all of its functions.

Address your stress — The connection between stress and hypertension is well documented, yet still does not receive the emphasis it deserves. In fact, it has been shown that people with heart disease can lower their risk of subsequent cardiac events by over 70 percent simply by learning to manage their stress.

Suppressed negative emotions such as fear, anger and sadness can severely limit your ability to cope with the unavoidable every day stresses of life. It's not the stressful events themselves that are harmful, but your lack of ability to cope.

The good news is, strategies exist that quickly and effectively transform your suppressed, negative emotions, and relieve stress. My preferred method is the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), an easy to learn, easy to use technique for releasing negative emotions.

EFT combines visualization with calm, relaxed breathing, while employing gentle tapping to "reprogram" deeply seated emotional patterns.

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/25/how-potassium-can-help-prevent-hypertension.aspx

[jakehglover]

The Longevity Solution — Rediscovering Centuries-Old Secrets to a Healthy, Long Life

Dr.Jason Fung, a nephrologist and author of two previous books, "The Obesity Code" and "The Complete Guide to Fasting," has now released a third, "The Longevity Solution," which is the topic of this interview. This book was also co-written with James DiNicolantonio, Pharm. D, who also happens to be the co-author of my latest book, "Superfuel."

The motivation for "The Longevity Solution" came from a discussion with DiNicolantonio. "He'd already talked about salt in his book, 'The Salt Fix.' In 'Superfuel,' he talked about good fats, bad fats and super fuel. We thought it would be great to tie everything together in terms of the real dietary determinants of longevity," Fung says, adding:

"I spend a good section of the book talking about protein — the different types of protein, animal versus plant protein, for example, and how much protein [you need]. These are really important questions because there's so much [information] out there, and you don't know who to believe."

From my review of the book, I think that is probably one of the most valuable pieces, because there's so much confusion about protein. There's good reason for this confusion, because it's a complex topic. An important part of the equation is the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), also known as the mechanistic target of rapamycin, a very important pathway responsible for controlling autophagy.

If you inhibit mTOR — which you can do by restricting protein — you activate autophagy, which is a good thing. However, I've personally made the mistake of not eating enough. While excess protein can activate mTOR, your protein needs do increase with age, as you need to counteract progressive loss of muscle mass. So, your age really needs to be taken into account as well.

Understanding the Role of mTOR

As noted by Fung, mTOR is basically a nutrient sensor. While insulin primarily senses your intake of carbohydrates, mTOR primarily senses protein. Different proteins will stimulate mTOR more than others. Fung explains:

"The reason is that mTOR senses the availability of protein and increases these growth pathways. If you're trying to increase muscle, like bodybuilders will, for example, then this might be a very good thing. On the other hand, it impacts aging. One of the real interesting theories of aging is that there's a sort of trade-off between the growth program and the longevity program.

That is, if you grow, it's actually the same pathway as aging. Whether it's good or bad depends on your age. When you're young, you want to grow, so you activate all these growth pathways. But as you get older, if you keep revving that growth engine, it's just going to burn out.

Just like your car engine, revving it is great if you want to go fast. But if, on the other hand, you want to keep that car for a long time, you don't want to rev it that much. Things change as you go along.

During childhood and early adulthood, you want that growth program to go forward, but that growth program is intrinsically at odds with the longevity program. After a certain point, you may want to cut things back. That's the understanding of mTOR; mTOR drives all this growth. But then as you get older, you wind up with diseases of too much growth …

There are all these chronic metabolic diseases where increasing the growth pathway, which is the same as the longevity-aging pathway, is not good. At some point, you want to slow it down. But as you get older, your body actually becomes resistant to some of these growth pathways.

Therefore, you actually need to take a little bit more. If you're elderly and you're at risk of falls, for example, then taking more protein might be a good thing. This is one of the reasons that protein is so hard to understand because everybody's so different … You just have to look at your own situation."

What Are Your Real Protein Needs?

All of that said, there are some general guidelines you can use to estimate your protein needs. Children, for example, generally need higher amounts of protein since they're in growth mode.

Now, when calculating your protein needs, it's important to make the calculation based on grams per kilograms (kg) of lean mass, not total body weight. The reason for this is because you do not need protein to maintain your fat mass. You need it to maintain your lean muscle mass. The following amounts can be used as a general guideline:

Children — 2 grams of protein per kg of lean body mass

Young adults — 0.8 grams of protein per kg of lean body mass

Adults — 0.6 to 0.8 grams of protein per kg of lean body mass

Bodybuilders — 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per kg of lean body mass

Endurance athletes — 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per kg of lean body mass

Seniors — 0.8 grams of protein per kg of lean body mass; possibly more if muscle wasting is a problem

The Importance of Cycling High and Low Protein Intake

The challenge here is find the balance so that the whole system is optimized. Muscle loss is a more or less inevitable consequence of age. But with age you also have more damaged cells that need to be removed by autophagy. My solution has been to devise a program in which I combine protein restriction with fasting, followed by increased protein intake on strength training days.

"I think that makes a lot of sense," Fung says. "If you look at the literature on longevity, the only really well-established thing that makes people live longer is calorie restriction, but it's very hard to do. One of the things is to cycle it back and forth, so that … some days, you're taking very little; some days you're taking a lot. I think that's actually how people were actually meant to live …

I think it makes a lot of sense because it's this sort of growth-versus-longevity paradigm. If you're always eating the same thing, then you're not going to be able to get that balance right. Because [when] you're in a pro-growth [pathway], that's also a pro-aging pathway.

You really want to go in between the two. Some days, you're going to take a lot. That will stimulate your mTOR, as well as insulin, for example, and put you in this growth pattern. Then you'll have days where your mTOR is going to be driven down very low. Those are the days your body's going to go into more of a survival mode, if you will. That's going to activate autophagy.

When you eat protein, for example, mTOR, which is a nutrient sensor, goes up. It basically just shuts off autophagy. Autophagy is this sort of cellular recycling process. It's very important for aging because it's a rejuvenating cycle for your cells …

When mTOR is very low, then your body will start to break down some of the subcellular parts. Those that are going to be broken down first are those older damaged parts. You're going to get rid of them all. Everybody thinks breaking down protein is bad. But it's not, because that's the first step in renewing yourself. You've got to get rid of all the old stuff and you've got to rebuild the new things. That's why it's important to cycle it …

I think you should, one day, maybe take 100 [grams of protein], and the next day zero. I think that's much better [than eating a specific amount of protein each day], because on the day you're taking zero, you get rid of all your old cells. Then on the day you're taking 100 grams, you're going to rebuild."

In addition to protein, other nutrients can also activate or inhibit mTOR:

Nutrients that activate mTOR include branched-chain amino acids, glutamine, methyl folate and vitamin B12

Nutrients thatinhibit mTOR include polyphenols like curcumin, fisetin quercetin, resveratrol (found in wine) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG, found in green tea). Organic coffee and dark chocolate also contain high amounts of mTOR inhibiting polyphenols

The Importance of Fasting for Longevity

In his book "Circadian Code: Lose Weight, Supercharge Your Energy and Sleep Well Every Night," Satchidananda Panda, Ph.D., cites research showing that 90 percent of people eat across 12 hours a day or more, and compressing this eating window may in fact be one of the most important things you can do for your health.

Fung recently published a case series paper1 detailing how fasting can be used as a therapeutic alternative for Type 2 diabetes. Three diabetic patients between the ages of 40 and 67 participated in a supervised fasting regimen to evaluate the effects on their insulin requirements. The patients had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes for 10, 20 and 25 years respectively, and were taking high doses of insulin daily.

Of the three patients, two did alternating-day 24-hour fasts, while one fasted for 24 hours three times a week over a period of several months. On fasting days, they were allowed to drink unlimited amounts of low-calorie fluids such as water, coffee, tea and bone broth, and to eat a low-calorie, low-carb dinner.

On nonfasting days, they were allowed both lunch and dinner, but all meals were low in sugar and refined carbohydrates throughout. (The complete manual of the fasting regimen used is described in Fung's book, "The Complete Guide to Fasting."2) Two of the patients were able to discontinue all of their diabetes medications while the third was able to discontinue three of his four drugs. All three also lost between 10 and 18 percent of their body weight.

"It was stunning because the time it took to get them off the insulin was between five and 18 days. The longest it took was 18 days … He had been told he'd be on it for the rest of his life … We got him off everything in 18 days," Fung says.

"We still follow those three … They're still off of all their medications. They manage it with their diet. The point is that if you have a disease that causes so much disability — Type 2 diabetes — you can allow your body to simply use up that excess sugar. It's like the body has too much sugar. That's the whole disease. Don't eat, and allow your body to burn it off. Now you have a completely free solution, a completely natural solution …

I don't know of anything that could be better for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. It turns out there are all kinds of other benefits [as well] … Some of the research shows the average person is actually eating for 14 hours and 45 minutes per day. If you start eating breakfast at 8 a.m., you don't stop until 10:45 p.m. on average. This is the average American. That is unbelievable.

The point is [you need to] cycle. You have to put your body in a fed state. That is, you eat and your insulin goes up. Your mTOR goes up. But then you have to fast. There's a daily cycle that we're not respecting. There's a fed state. There's a fasted state … If you don't ever use that energy that you're putting into your body, you're just going to store it, and then it makes you sick."

Finding the Sweet Spot for Time-Restricted Feeding

Opinions about how long one should fast each day when intermittently fasting varies. Clearly, if your eating window is less than 12 hours, you're doing better than most. As a general rule, the recommended range is between 12 and 18 hours of fasting each day.

I'm of the opinion that 16 to 18 hours of fasting might be the sweet spot, as this allows your body to deplete the glycogen stores in your liver more and suppress mTOR and activate autophagy better. Fung agrees, saying:

"I think that somewhere around 12 to 14 hours is a sort of a baseline … The next step up is somewhere around 16 to 18 hours. That's so easy to do. Once you get used to it, it's so easy. You can build that right into your day without any problems at all. I think that's where you're exactly right. Your glycogen stores last about 24 hours.

But if you're following a lower carbohydrate diet, you're not going to build up those glycogen reserves. Therefore, in 16 to 18 hours, you're going to get down to that point.

Remember, when you've gotten rid of a lot of those glycogen reserves, then your body's going to go into this mode where you're going into gluconeogenesis, which is starting to break some of the proteins down, which everybody thinks is bad, but I actually think is a highly beneficial thing, because you will rebuild that.

Then you start to get into burning fat. That's really where you want to be on a daily basis, 16 to 18 [hours of fasting]. It allows you to just jump into the 20- to 24-hour [fasting] range without any difficulty if you're at that baseline already."

How Growth Hormone Is Affected by Fasting and How It Can Help You Optimize Your Fitness

Many hormonal shifts occur during fasting. Paradoxically, growth hormone, which would appear to stimulate mTOR, does increase when you fast — increasing two to three times its baseline level within 24 hours of fasting — yet mTOR is suppressed during fasting. Fung explains:

"The growth hormone question is really interesting, because it does seem paradoxical. Why would your body make all this growth hormone if you've got nothing to eat? It's because the growth hormone acts through the liver to produce insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) … which mediates all the effects of growth hormone. If you knock out IGF-1 and give growth hormone, it has no effect.

During fasting and calorie restriction as well, your liver downregulates the growth hormone receptor in the liver. So [while] the growth hormone level goes way up, your body's not that receptive to it. Therefore, there's not a lot of IGF-1 going on. That's very interesting.

Because then when you eat again, this is when that big surge of growth hormone can start to hit you, and then you can start to rebuild all your muscle and so on … That's, again, is [part of] this rejuvenation process and this anti-aging process."

Since your growth hormone level will remain elevated for up to 48 hours, you can further optimize your fitness by doing strength training on the day you break your fast, as then you will enter your workout with a very high growth hormone level, allowing for maximum muscle growth.

"That's what people do [when] training in the fasted state. They fast for 18 to 24 hours, get the high growth hormone levels, train and then they eat. That's when you got the big growth hormone surge. What they found also was that when you exercise, your body becomes more responsive to this growth, of course, because it wants to rebuild. But it'll last for like48 hours," Fung says.

"You don't have to eat before you exercise. You can exercise, then anytime within the next 24 to 48 hours, if you eat a lot of protein or whatever, you're going to have that rebuilding, because the growth hormone is there. The body is in that state where it's trying to rebuild."

One slight caution here is that fasting, being a stressor just like exercise, will also increase the stress hormone cortisol. While for most people, exposure to this mild stress every day will make them stronger and healthier, for some it may be problematic, and may require you to tweak your fasting schedule. You may find your body responds better to a once-a-week 24-hour fast, for example, opposed to daily intermittent fasting.

More Information

Fung also discusses the benefits of tea, known for their longevity-boosting effects. Green tea is rich in catechins such as ECGC. Fung likes Pique Tea Crystals, which contain far higher amounts of catechins than regular green tea. Just remember, for tea to be beneficial, you need to drink it "straight," without sweeteners and milk.

Whole leaf teas will also typically be of higher quality than bagged teas. Black tea contains thioflavins, which also appear highly beneficial. "Tea, I think, is one of the underappreciated sorts of things. I think it's just a part of a healthy lifestyle," Fung says, adding:

"The book itself, I think, is fantastic. It goes through everything sort of in a shorter form. If you want to get more information on fasting, you can go to 'The Complete Guide to Fasting.' If you want to get more information on salt, you can go to James' book, 'The Salt Fix.' If you want to get more information about healthy fats, you can go to 'Superfuel' or 'Fat for Fuel' … ['The Longevity Solution'] is sort of a synthesis of all that.

Then what we do is we look at the blue zones, which is these long-lived populations, and … see how they stack up [against] these simple ideas that we put out there for healthy living.

We also looked at this very interesting study called the 'Ramucirumab monotherapy for previously treated advanced gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction adenocarcinoma' (REGARD), which looked at the Southern diet, which is of the southern United States.

Turns out that fad diet is highly, highly detrimental. Why? It's a lot of processed foods, a lot of processed meats, processed fats, high in salt but not good because it's all processed …"

If you're intrigued by what you've heard so far and want to learn more, be sure topick up a copy of "The Longevity Solution." In addition, my latest book, "Ketofast" arrives in April and is now available for preorder.

>>>>> Click Here <<<<<

>>>>> Click Here <<<<<

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/24/longevity-solutions.aspx

[jakehglover]

Fresh and Zesty Spaghetti With Prawns, Pesto and Pistachios Recipe

Recipe by Pete Evans

If you’re looking for a recipe that’s quick and easy to make but still packs the full flavors of a home-cooked meal, then this spaghetti with prawns, pesto and pistachios recipe from world-class chef Pete Evans is a must-try. With juicy prawns and zucchini noodles drenched in homemade pesto sauce, there’s no doubt that this is a dish that everyone will enjoy. Best of all, it’s loaded with nutrient-filled ingredients that make every bite a treat for your health.

For more scrumptious ketogenic recipes like this one, grab a copy of the “Fat for Fuel Ketogenic Cookbook,” which will hit the shelves November 14. I teamed up with Pete to create this cookbook to help people start a ketogenic diet more easily through flavorful and healthy dishes.

Serves: 4

  Ingredients:

4 tablespoons coconut oil

1 1/2 pounds wild-caught raw prawns or shrimp, shelled and deveined, with tails intact

4 to 5 zucchinis, spiralized into thin noodles

  Pesto:

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 large handful of basil leaves, plus extra to serve

1 large handful of mint leaves

2 ounces pine nuts, toasted

1/2 cup olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

  To serve:

Extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup pistachio nuts, toasted and roughly chopped

Lemon wedges

Chili flakes

  Procedure:

To make the pesto, place all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until the herbs and nuts are finely chopped. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Melt 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Season the prawns or shrimp with salt and pepper, then cook, in batches, for one minute on each side until just cooked through. Remove the prawns or shrimp from the pan and set aside, cover to keep warm.

Wipe the pan clean and place over medium heat. Add the remaining coconut oil and the zucchini spaghetti and sauté for two minutes until the zucchini is almost cooked through. Season with a little salt and pepper.

Remove from the heat, add the cooked prawns and the pesto and toss to combine.

5.       Transfer the spaghetti mixture to a large platter or serving plates, drizzle on some extra-virgin olive oil, sprinkle over the pistachios, add a squeeze of lemon juice and scatter on some basil leaves and a few chili flakes, if desired.

Tip: Zucchinis contain plant lectins, which may have problematic effects on your health. To safely reduce their lectin content, I advise deseeding and removing the skins, as these are what contain the most amount of lectins.

Use a spiralizer that removes the seeds or manually peel and deseed the zucchinis, and then cut them into thin strips using a knife. It may take a bit more effort, but the results are worth it.

  Check Out the Numerous Health Benefits of Zucchini Noodles

There’s no doubt that the star of this tasty dish is the zucchini noodles. They are a healthy no-grain and no-wheat alternative to pasta, which is made from processed flour and contains gluten that may disturb your gut flora and promote yeast overgrowth.[i] But aside from keeping your digestive tract in check, zucchini noodles also provide an impressive array of nutrients, including:

Antioxidants

  Zucchini contains a variety of flavonoid antioxidants, including zeaxanthin, carotene and lutein — all of which help fight off free radicals, prevent diseases and delay the process of aging.

Potassium

  Zucchini is an excellent source of potassium, a nutrient that helps regulate blood pressure levels, support cardiovascular health and improve bone and muscle strength.[ii]

Vitamin B

  Zucchini is rich in vitamins B6, B1, B2, B3, choline and folate, which are all important for supporting the production of new cells, fighting free radicals, regulating the digestive system and balancing the blood sugar levels.[iii]

Zinc

  Zucchini is a good source of zinc, which helps regulate blood glucose levels and supports the immune system.[iv]

Magnesium

  A hundred grams of zucchini contain 4 percent of the daily recommended value for magnesium, which is one of the most important minerals in the body, as it affects numerous biochemical reactions.

Phosphorus

  Zucchini contains high amounts of phosphorus, an essential mineral that boosts digestion, promote bone growth and support cognitive development.[v]

  Keep in mind, though, that most zucchinis available in the market today are genetically modified, so make sure that you purchase this vegetable from a healthy and organic source. The seeds and skin of zucchini also contain lectins, which may have a negative effect on your health. As mentioned above, don’t forget to peel and deseed them to reduce their lectin content.

What Makes Pesto Sauce Good for Your Heath?

A homemade pesto sauce makes for a zesty and nutritious dish, thanks to its herbs and spices. The main ingredient for this sauce is basil, which is considered one of the healthiest herbs.

Basil is rich in vitamin K, which is essential for maintaining good bone health, clear arteries and healthy blood clotting. It also contains vitamin A, which can help fight the effects of free radicals. Plus it has antibacterial properties, thanks to its volatile oil content. Some of the other herbs and spices that make pesto sauce nutritious include:

Garlic

  Garlic contains a variety of vitamins, minerals, essential enzymes and antioxidants that can help prevent cancer and heart disease, as well as bacterial and fungal infections.

Mint

  Mint contains antioxidants and minerals, such as zinc, copper and magnesium. It also has vitamins A, B2 and C.

Olive oil

  Olive oil is known as a healthy oil that’s rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), making it useful for weight management and preventing cardiovascular diseases.

Pine nuts

  Pine nuts can help suppress the appetite, which makes it an ideal food for people who are trying to lose weight.

  It may also help boost energy, improve heart and eye health and prevent premature aging.

Black pepper

  Black pepper is an excellent source of manganese, vitamin K, iron and fiber. It may also help get rid of toxins, control blood pressure levels and improve bone health.

Lemon juice

  Lemon juice doesn’t contain fructose, which makes it safe to consume by diabetics. Its citric acid content is also a natural antioxidant.

  Beware of Farmed Seafood: Make Sure That You’re Buying Only Wild-Caught Prawns

Seafood farms, also known as aquaculture, are touted as a “sustainable solution” to overfishing. However, numerous investigations have shown that these seafood farms are actually causing more ecological destruction by using immature fishes as feeds.

To make matters worse, antibiotics and toxic pesticides are also being routinely used in shrimp farming. Exposure to these harmful chemicals may put you at risk of brain damage and antibiotic-resistant diseases.

You can avoid these health hazards by avoiding all types of farmed seafood. Always choose wild-caught prawns, and make sure that you check the label of seafood products to determine where they were caught.

   About Pete Evans

Pete Evans is an internationally renowned chef who has joined forces with Dr. Mercola to create a healthy cookbook that’s loaded with delicious, unique Keto recipes, ideal for people who want to switch to a ketogenic diet. The “Fat for Fuel Ketogenic Cookbook” will be released November 14.

Pete has had numerous noteworthy contributions to the culinary world. He has not only cooked for the general public, but he’s also cooked a royal banquet for the Prince and Princess of Denmark, a private dinner for Martha Stewart, and even represented his hometown at the gala GʼDay USA dinner for 600 in New York City. Pete’s career has moved from the kitchen into the lounge room with many TV appearances including Lifestyle Channel’s “Home show,” “Postcards from Home,” “FISH,” “My Kitchen Rules” and “Moveable Feast.”

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/24/spaghetti-prawns-pesto-pistachios-recipe.aspx

[jakehglover]

Whooping Cough Symptoms, Causes and Treatments

Table of Contents

What Is Whooping Cough?

Whooping Cough Causes

Is Whooping Cough Contagious?

How Long Is Whooping Cough Contagious?

Whooping Cough Symptoms

What Does Whooping Cough Sound Like?

Whooping Cough Diagnosis

Whooping Cough Treatments

Whooping Cough Prevention

Diet for Whooping Cough

Croup Versus Whooping Cough

Whooping Cough FAQs

Coughing fits can be irritating and embarrassing, especially when you're in a public place. There may be instances when you could not control it, but know that coughing is the body's way to get rid of foreign particles or mucus from your lungs.

Commonly caused by viruses, a cough may ease on its own without having to be medicated.1 But when a cough persists or you get a "whoop" as you inhale, it may not be a mild cough anymore — it could be that you have whooping cough.

What Is Whooping Cough?

Whooping cough, also known as pertussis or the 100-day cough, is a highly contagious respiratory disease brought on by the Bordetella pertussis bacterium. Its name was derived from the prolonged and intense coughing fits that produce a whooping sound when inhaling.

A person with pertussis can infect up to 15 people2 when the whooping cough bacteria3 spread from their coughing or sneezing. It generally starts off with cold-like symptoms such as mild fever and occasional cough, but the coughing spells can last for more than two weeks.4

Whooping Cough Causes: How Does It Spread?

As mentioned, the Bordetella pertussis bacterium causes whooping cough. When an infected person coughs or sneezes, the droplets of fluid with the bacteria coming from their mouth or nose spread into the air and get inhaled by people close by. When inhaled, the bacteria will reproduce in the cells of the nose and throat. This process generates toxins that inhibit the clearing of airways in the lungs and windpipe.5

A milder illness that's similar to whooping cough is caused by Bordetella parapertussis. Though parapertussis has a shorter duration and is less common,6 both can be fatal when acquired.7,8

Is Whooping Cough Contagious?

Whooping cough is highly contagious and is a common infectious disease in the United States. A recent peak in the number of cases occurred in 2012, with 48,277 reported cases of pertussis,9 although there was a 37 percent decrease in the number from 2014 to 2015.10 The latest report shows 18,975 cases in 2017.11

Outbreaks in day care centers and schools that happen annually12 may have contributed to the significant increase in the number of pertussis cases in 13- to 16-year-olds. But among age groups, the majority of deaths occurred in babies younger than 3 years old.13

How Long Is Whooping Cough Contagious?

Infected people may likely spread the disease during the first stage of the illness, known as the catarrhal stage, and two weeks after the coughing fits start. This is when coughing fits begin to get worse and the "whooping" sound is produced.14

Whooping Cough Symptoms You Should Look Out For

Symptoms of whooping cough in adults may be determined through the three stages that an infected person undergoes.15,16

Catarrhal stage — Lasting for one to two weeks, symptoms may include sneezing, occasional cough, runny nose and nasal congestion. In some cases, mild fever may occur.

Paroxysmal stage — The common symptoms are vomiting, exhaustion, bluish discoloration of the skin or mucous membrane, choking and acute coughing. The whooping sound may also be evident in this phase.

Convalescent stage — At this point, the prolonged coughing fits become less intense.

Other symptoms of pertussis may include:17

Dehydration

Loss of appetite

Inflammation of the middle ear

In many cases, babies do not cough but they experience apnea, a condition that turns their skin blue and causes their breathing to temporarily stop.18

What Does Whooping Cough Sound Like?

The whooping cough sound may be characterized by a high-pitched "whoop" when you breathe in. This sound may be heard after coughing fits during the paroxysmal stage of the disease.19 Not everyone infected with pertussis may produce this sound, though, and some may not even cough, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).20

Whooping Cough Diagnosis

If you have been coughing for 14 days or more, it is important to consult with your health care provider to verify if you have pertussis.21 A number of laboratory tests will determine pertussis including culture, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and serology.22 Other tests that you may undergo are blood tests and chest X-rays.23

Whooping Cough Treatments You May Follow

Babies who have been infected by whooping cough may need hospitalization or attentive care from their physician, as this can become a very serious condition for a baby.24 For children and adults, who may not need to be admitted to a hospital, here are lifestyle and home remedies for whooping cough that you may follow:25,26,27,28

• To decrease vomiting, eat small, frequent meals.

• Avoid foods that trigger mucus production such as peanuts and wheat. Even healthy foods like raw milk and eggs should be temporarily avoided or minimized while you're suffering from the symptoms.

• Consume vitamin C-rich foods such as lime, tangerine, berries, bell pepper and broccoli to boost your immune system. A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal29 found that vitamin C, when taken in substantial doses, may help ease coughing fits in the paroxysmal stage of pertussis.

• To avoid dehydration, drink at least 70 ounces of pure water per day if you're a 75-kilogram (165 pounds) individual. Refrain from consuming commercial fruit juices and sports drinks, as they not only may contain inflammation-causing sugars, but are lacking in a variety of organic nutrients.

• Get rid of irritants in your home that may cause coughing fits, such as aerosol sprays and smoke from tobacco and stoves.

• Rest and relax in a cool and quiet bedroom.

• Help ease coughing fits by using a cool-mist vaporizer.

A 2014 study found that antihistamines, pertussis immunoglobin and salbutamol may not help ease coughing fits caused by pertussis.30 If you plan to take these medications to help relieve whooping cough, seek your health care provider's advice before doing so.

Also, unless advised by your doctor, cough medicines are not recommended to be taken by people with pertussis, especially children under 6 years old. Coughing is the body's way of clearing airways, which is why it must not be suppressed.31

Whooping Cough Prevention: Is There a Way to Restrain This Disease?

Whooping cough is an airborne respiratory disease that targets the immune system. Simply inhaling the tiny droplets released from an infected person's mouth might put you at risk. Here are some ways to help prevent acquiring this disease:32

If you have pertussis, cover your mouth and nose when sneezing or coughing — doing this may help restrain the spread of bacteria in the air.

Promote proper hygiene everywhere you go. Pertussis is as contagious as the common cold. As much as possible, wash your hands using mild soap and water. While many hospitals and health care factions also endorse using hand sanitizers, actually many of these sanitizers contain isopropyl alcohol, which can dry your hands and increase your risk of absorbing toxins, so if you do use sanitizers, do it minimally.

A 2007 study showed that whooping cough in infants is largely transmitted from household members — including asymptomatic persons who were fully vaccinated33 — who come in close contact with the babies.34 To avoid this, keep infants away from known infected persons, especially those in the early stages of the disease.35

Boost your immune system by getting enough sleep and including foods rich in B vitamins, protein, vitamins A, C and D, fiber and probiotics to your diet.

Diet for Whooping Cough: Which Kinds of Food Should You Eat?

Since pertussis is an airborne disease, it is essential to boost your immune system to prevent it. One way to do this is by keeping an eye on what you eat. To help reduce the risk of having pertussis, here are the kinds of nutrients that you may need to consume:

• Protein — Commonly found in lean meat, bone broth, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds, protein may help fight infections. However, be mindful of your protein consumption, as too much protein can also be detrimental to your health, putting you at risk of insulin sensitivity and even cancer.

• Vitamin C — Good sources of vitamin C include broccoli, berries, leafy greens, citrus fruits and bell peppers.

• Vitamin A — Add carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, organic, pastured eggs, grass fed beef and dark, leafy vegetables to your diet to lower your risk of infection.

• Fiber — Help balance your gut microbiome by adding fibrous foods like blueberries, cucumbers, nuts, celery, carrots, banana, papaya and mango to your diet.

• Vitamin D — Best acquired through sun exposure, vitamin D may help support your immune response. Raw grass fed milk, wild-caught Alaskan salmon and organic, pastured eggs also contain vitamin D.

• Probiotics — Fermented foods are rich in probiotics that help balance the intestinal bacteria. These include fermented vegetables, natto, kimchi, pickles, miso, kefir, tempeh and raw grass fed yogurt.

• B vitamins — Boost your immunity by consuming foods with vitamin B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B7 (biotin), B9 (folic acid) and B12 (cobalamin) such as dark, leafy greens, mackerel, sardines, anchovies, pastured organic chicken, yogurt, cheese and raw, organic grass fed milk.

Croup Versus Whooping Cough: What's the Difference?

Whooping cough, as mentioned, is a respiratory disease caused by Bordetella pertussis. Its notable symptoms are runny nose, mild fever and coughing bouts that produce a "whoop" sound when inhaling.36

On the other hand, croup is another name for laryngotracheobronchitis and laryngotracheitis. Croup is commonly caused by the parainfluenza virus, but respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), rhinovirus, enterovirus, influenza and adenovirus may also lead to croup. It is an infection that interferes with breathing and is common in children because they have small airways.

Croup symptoms include nasal congestion, rhinorrhea and fever. An infected person may develop a hoarse voice, a high-pitched wheezing sound or stridor and a seal-like cough. Similar to pertussis, croup may be fatal to infants, but it is rare.37

Unlike whooping cough, croup may not be as serious. Home treatments may help ease it, and only about 5 percent of infected children will require hospitalization.38

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: How is whooping cough spread?

A: Bordetella pertussis, the type of bacterium that can cause whooping cough, spreads when tiny drops of fluid are released from an infected person's mouth or nose when they cough or sneeze. These droplets are then inhaled by other people nearby, leading to infection.39

Q: How long does whooping cough last?

A: The coughing fits caused by pertussis may last for 10 weeks or more.40

Q: How is whooping cough diagnosed?

A: Whooping cough may be diagnosed through medical tests such as culture test, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, serology,41 blood tests or chest X-rays.42

Q: Can adults get whooping cough

A: Yes. In fact, adults comprise 25 percent of pertussis cases. They experience milder symptoms compared to children.43

Q: How can you get rid of whooping cough?

A: Lifestyle and home remedies that may help mitigate pertussis include eating small, frequent meals, avoiding mucus-triggering foods such as eggs, milk, peanuts and wheat, consuming vitamin C-rich foods, drinking pure water to avoid dehydration, using a cool-mist vaporizer and eliminating irritants in your home such as tobacco and stove smoke and aerosol sprays.

Q: Can you get whooping cough twice?

A: While it was once believed that once you had pertussis, you would always be immune to it except in rare cases, recent research has found that loss of immunity is more widespread than originally thought. Additionally, it's been found that immunity from a vaccine has even shorter duration.44

Q: Is croup similar to whooping cough?

A: Yes, they are similar in a way that they both affect mostly children or babies rather than adults. But whooping cough is caused by Bordetella pertussis bacterium and is more fatal to babies, while croup is a less serious infection caused by parainfluenza virus.45

Q: Is whooping cough a virus or bacterium?

A: As mentioned, whooping cough is a disease caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacterium.

Q: What are the three stages of whooping cough?

A: The three stages of pertussis are:

Catarrhal — Characterized by mild fever, occasional cough and nasal congestion

Paroxysmal — Symptoms are "whoop" sound when inhaling, vomiting, exhaustion and acute coughing

Convalescent — less intense coughing fits

Q: How serious is whooping cough?

A: Acquiring whooping cough may be severe and fatal especially in babies. They may not cough at all, but instead may experience apnea or temporary breathing pauses. On the other hand, adults generally experience prolonged coughing fits that may lead to rib fracture and blood vessel breakage.46

Q: Is whooping cough worse at night?

A: According to WebMD, whooping cough may be worse at night, specifically in its paroxysmal stage.47

Q: How contagious is whooping cough?

A: Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease. Tiny drops of fluid that carry the bacteria spread in the air when an infected person laughs, sneezes or coughs. When you inhale these drops or when you touch the infected person's mouth or nose, it may be possible to have pertussis.48

Diseases Directory

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/24/xdjm18-whooping-cough.aspx

[jakehglover]

Peppermint Tea May Help Relieve Headaches

Table of Contents

What Is Peppermint Tea?

Check Out These 3 Peppermint Tea Health Benefits

Nutrition Facts of Peppermint

Does Peppermint Tea Have Caffeine in It?

Here's How You Can Brew Your Own Peppermint Tea

Store Your Peppermint Correctly so You Can Benefit From It Longer

Watch Out for These Peppermint Side Effects and Contraindications

Sip on Peppermint Tea the Next Time You Get a Headache

Peppermint tea may be one of the most well-known and most widely consumed teas in the world, and not just because of its refreshing taste. Peppermint tea is loaded with various antioxidants and minerals, offering people a surplus of health benefits. Learn more about this tea, its history and benefits, and techniques on how you can brew your own cup.

What Is Peppermint Tea?

You've probably seen peppermint on the packages of toothpastes and gum, but this herb has actually been around for far longer than you might think, with the Romans using it to adorn their heads and dining tables for feasts and other festivities. Dried peppermint leaves were even found inside the pyramids, meaning Egyptians have put it to good use as well.1

Today, peppermint products are widely available in the market, with peppermint essential oils and peppermint tea being used to promote wellness. Peppermint tea is an infusion of the peppermint plant's leaves (Mentha piperita), the hybrid of watermint and spearmint.2 This herb is often sold as loose leaf tea or in teabags, either of which can be used to brew your daily mug or two of peppermint tea.

Check Out These 3 Peppermint Tea Health Benefits

Peppermint may be famous for its ability to put a stop to bad breath, but its benefits don't end there. Drinking peppermint tea may help regulate numerous body processes due to the surplus of active compounds it contains. Here are some health benefits you may get when you make peppermint tea part of your daily routine:

May protect you from harmful pathogens — Peppermint contains numerous metabolites with antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties, potentially working against numerous pathogens like Escherichia coli (E. coli), salmonella, Streptococcus thermophilus, Shigella dysenteriae and more. This means that peppermint tea may provide you with protection against infections and other problems caused by these microorganisms.3

May help relieve headaches — A 1994 study from the Cephalalgia journal found that peppermint oil, together with eucalyptus oil, has muscle-relaxing and mentally relaxing properties that may help alleviate headaches and other painful conditions.4

May assist in alleviating abdominal pain — The essential oils in peppermint have anesthetic and analgesic effects on gastrointestinal tissues. Its effect on your smooth muscles may help dampen pain caused by cramps, even for a short time.5

Nutrition Facts of Peppermint

The peppermint herb contains vitamins and minerals, such as magnesium, potassium, calcium and vitamins A and C. Some of these may be carried over to the tea when brewed, but only in trace amounts.6

A good bulk of peppermint tea's health benefits are also attributed to its high content of menthol, menthone and menthyl acetate.7

Does Peppermint Tea Have Caffeine in It?

For people who are caffeine-sensitive, the good news is that peppermint tea does not contain any caffeine. If you usually have issues with falling asleep or staying asleep, drinking peppermint tea would be a good idea because it will not cause any side effects.8 Some people even drink peppermint tea before sleeping to help themselves relax.9

Here's How You Can Brew Your Own Peppermint Tea

You can use loose dried tea leaves, teabags or even fresh mint leaves to make your own peppermint tea. To help you brew your first batch, here's a recipe from the blog, Fearless Fresh.10

Peppermint Tea With Fresh Mint Leaves

Ingredients

1 handful of fresh mint

2 cups boiling water

Raw honey, to taste

Procedure

Wash and tear the fresh mint leaves.

Put the leaves in a teapot. Pour the boiling water over the leaves.

Steep for three to seven minutes, depending on the flavor strength you prefer.

Add honey to taste. Serve.

Store Your Peppermint Correctly so You Can Benefit From It Longer

Like other tea leaves, peppermint leaves need to be prepared and stored correctly to preserve its beneficial active compounds. If you're lucky to have a peppermint plant in your garden, you can follow this guide to dry and properly store peppermint leaves:11

Carefully wash the mint leaves in cold water without removing the stems.

Using paper towels or other absorbent towels, dry the mint leaves.

Remove the leaves from the stems once the leaves are dry.

Place the leaves on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Warm them in the oven at 180 degrees Fahrenheit (80 degrees Celsius) for two hours. Once the timer's up, check if the leaves are completely dry. If not, continue warming them in 15-minute intervals to avoid accidentally burning them.

Store dried mint in glass airtight containers. Keep them away from direct sunlight and heat to prolong their shelf life.

Watch Out for These Peppermint Side Effects and Contraindications

While peppermint offers impressive health benefits, there are certain subpopulations who need to avoid this herb to protect themselves from the possible side effects that peppermint may trigger. If you fall under any of the following categories, it's best that you steer clear of this tea as much as possible:

Pregnant women — Peppermint tea may contain emmenagogue properties,12 meaning they can stimulate menstrual flow even when the cycle is not yet due.13

People who suffer from acid reflux — Those with acid reflux may aggravate their symptoms by drinking peppermint tea due to its muscle relaxant properties. Peppermint may cause the esophageal sphincter to relax, letting bile and undigested food travel back up the esophagus.14

Sip on Peppermint Tea the Next Time You Get a Headache

There's no question that peppermint tea is popular — the multiple peppermint tea products in the grocery stores can attest to that. But if you're not fond of sipping tea, the health benefits of peppermint may just change your mind. It may even prove to be one of the best natural remedies for some of your most common daily healthy woes. The next time you get a headache or you start feeling nauseous, don't reach for those painkillers. Just get a hot cup of peppermint tea.

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/23/xdjm18-teas-18mcsa-peppermint-tea.aspx