My recent blog discusses the key factors to attaining body balance: attention, restoration, sequence, and time. Finding the right nutrition and supplements for your individualized biochemistry is a key to restoration. Below are some highlights of scientific support on how nutrition and supplements modulate body balance.
Green Tea Helps Heart Health and Metabolism
A study with 56 participants classified with obesity and high blood pressure were supplemented with 379 mg of green tea (GT) for 3 months of treatment. After 3 months, measurements in blood pressure, glucose, insulin, oxidative stress, lipid profiles and inflammation were all improved.
In conclusion, daily supplementation with 379 mg of GTE favorably influences blood pressure, insulin resistance, inflammation and oxidative stress, and lipid profile in patients with obesity-related hypertension.
Source: Pawel Bogdanski, et al. Green tea extract reduces blood pressure, inflammatory biomarkers, and oxidative stress and improves parameters associated with insulin resistance in obese, hypertensive patients. Nutrition Research. Volume 32, Issue 6 , Pages 421-427, June 2012. http://www.nrjournal.com/article/S0271-5317%2812%2900106-6/abstract
Fatty Eyes–A Good Thing!
Just as amino acids are the building blocks of protein, fatty acids are the building blocks of fat. And although the word F-A-T makes many people cringe and hotfoot it to the gym, we all need this blubbery substance for hormone synthesis, complex neural pathways, musculoskeletal integrity–and vision!
Here’s the low-down on EFA roles within the body:
· Supports the cardiovascular, reproductive, immune, and nervous systems
· Acts as key players for cellular receptor action, membrane-bound enzyme activity, hormone binding, cellular membrane fluidity & integrity, signal transduction, and ion channel function
· Serves as precursors to inflammatory-modulator messengers
· Insufficiency of EFAs has been linked to other illnesses including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, and cancer
And specifically in the eye . . .
· Adequate consumption of EFAs is essential for optimal visual development and retinal function
· Low levels of certain EFAs have been linked to dry eye syndrome and associated with eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration (AMD)
Source: Dr. Rachel Marynowski. What you SEE is what you get! Or is it? Metametrix Institute Blog. August 2012. http://www.metametrixinstitute.org/post/2012/08/01/What-you-SEE-is-what-you-get-Or-is-it.aspx?utm_source=August+2012%2C+Vol+7%2C+Issue+8&utm_campaign=August+2012+e-newsletter&utm_medium=email
What about something as critical as a diagnostic label of cancer? Truly, nutrition and lifestyle can’t help that, some may think. This is not so, nutrigenomics is a scientific evolution validating the healing potency of nutrients, phytochemicals in plants, and other constituents found from plants and herbs.
Dr. Lise Alschuler is a naturopathic oncologist who recently wrote an article in Integrative Practitioner discussing some of the cancer modulating mechanisms utilizing the power of plants. She writes:
Breaking this vicious cycle of inflammation can be accomplished by interrupting the production of NF-kB and its subsequent messenger molecules. Basic lifestyle adjustments can go a long way towards minimizing inflammation. Sufficient sleep, adequate exercise, fresh air, a plant-based whole foods diet, and minimal stress singly and synergistically alter cytokine production patterns in our tissues away from NF-kB stimulation and inflammation. This has been demonstrated in overweight individuals with insulin resistance. Weight loss reduces inflammatory markers such as NF-kB, Il-8 and IL-6. Sufficient sleep decreases IL-6 levels. Adequate exercise lowers C-reactive protein, a powerful stimulator of inflammation. These are but a few of numerous well established links between lifestyle and inflammatory biomarkers.
Source: Lise Alschuler, ND, FABNO. The Inflammatory Landscape of Cancer. Integrative Practitioner. August 2012. http://www.integrativepractitioner.com/article.aspx?id=17806
Therefore, there is hope for all that a label of a disease process doesn’t have to be a destiny or create chronic anxiety and hopeless. Another article in Integrative Practitioner with Dr. Davis summarizes this concept (great articles this month!):
Dr. Devra Davis was the Founding Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and Professor of Epidemiology at the Graduate School of Public Health (2004-2009…..
…..
The first and most important point is that most cancer is not born but made. By that I mean, that only one in ten cases of cancer comes about because you have inherited a defective gene by your mother or father. Nine out of ten cases of breast cancer, colon cancer and even more for brain cancer arise because of something that happens to you after you’re born.
As I have always said, the genes give us the guns and the environment pulls the trigger. My presentation will include a discussion of the work in my three books: the first one, When Smoke Ran Like Water, published in 2002, focusing on air and water pollution, and my second book, The Secret History of the War on Cancer, published in 2007, which talked about asbestos, tobacco, benzene, vinyl fluoride and toxic chemicals and speculated about radiation and cell phones. I will also be discussing my new 2010 book, Disconnect, and talk about the truth about cell phone microwave radiation.
Source: Sharon Ufberg, DC. An Interview with Dr. Devris Davis. Integrative Practitioner Update. August 2012. http://www.integrativepractitioner.com/article.aspx?id=18078
Bonus Fun:
Gluten Free Recipe Highlight:
Kick Up Your Hummus Quotient
Read how to make Jalapeno and Lime Hummus at the link below.
Karina. Gluten Free Goddess Blog. Jalapeño and Lime Hummus. http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2006/03/jalapeno-lime hummus.html?utm_source=August+2012%2C+Vol+7%2C+Issue+8&utm_campaign=August+2012+e-newsletter&utm_medium=email
