Mourning Can Lead To Cardiac Arrest

People mourning the loss of a loved one are six times more likely to suffer cardiac arrest, potential proof that you can, indeed, die of a broken heart, Australian researchers say.

Grieving people are at significantly higher risk of heart problems, according to a Heart Foundation study of the physical changes suffered immediately after a profound loss, lead researcher Thomas Buckley said on Tuesday.

"We found higher blood pressure, increased heart rate and changes to immune system and clotting that would increase the risk of heart attack," Buckley said.

Half of the 160 people studied were mourning the loss of a partner or child, and their risk of heart attack increased six-fold, he said. The risk, which was evident in people as young as 30, reduced after six months and leveled out after two years.

A sudden flood of acidic stress hormones is believed to be behind the grief-induced heartache, a condition that earlier studies have found is more likely to affect women.

According to Dr. Robert O. Young, Director of the pH Miracle Living Center, "the mourning of a loved one requires energy which results in excess metabolic acid. If the acidic waste products from the sadness is not eliminated through the four channels of elimination, they can make one sick and even cause death - even a heart attack I refer to as a thought attack."

Read More

Chronic Acidic Inflammation Reduced and/or Eliminated With Bicarbonates

The appended article below is another in a long string of recent articles illuminating how "chronic inflammation" in the human body results in a wide range of serious and often fatal complications. For example, inflammation has long been known to be the prime contributing factor to atherosclerosis, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, etc., etc.. In repeated lectures and writings I have noted the consequences of chronic acidic inflammation, and pointed out that stabilizing systemic bicarbonates results in better cellular oxygenation, and decreased acids that cause inflammation. It has been known for years, that bicarbonates will increase athletic performance in untrained athletes. Now we know that such increased athletic performance is the result of better tissue oxygenation mediated by the bicarbonates that reduces metabolic acids.

The appended article points out that the dramatic oxygen-deprived conditions in fatty tissue apparently contribute to (stimulate) an increase in angiopoietin-like protein 2 (Angptl2) resulting in the increased inflammation. There is a cascade into serious illness started by the accumulation of acidic stored, oxygen-deprived, fatty tissue resulting in wide-spread chronic inflammation.

I have encouraged the use of bicarbonate salts, such as pHour Salts, coupled with a life-style shift to the pH Miracle Alkaline Diet, drinking active, ionized / alkalized water, and engaging in age-appropriate exercise, to decrease fat accumulation, increase tissue oxygenation, reduce acid tissue inflammation and boast overall health. pHour Salts helps to properly alkalize body tissues and blood, increase oxygen transport, buffer excess metabolic acid which in turn will successfully decrease chronic inflammation.

We have not always known precisely all of the reasons "why" bicarbonate supplementation, with products such as pHour Salts, works so dramatically to improve health, but now every day we hear more from scientific communities around the world, as they discover and learn more about the "whys", and validate my teachings on "Alkalizing and Energizing" for health.

--------------------Referenced Article-------------------

From Fat to Chronic Inflammation

September 7, 2009

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Chronic inflammation within fat tissue is now recognized as a contributor to the many negative consequences that come with obesity -- from diabetes to cardiovascular disease, according to Yuichi Oike of Kumamoto University in Japan. Researchers hope a new discovery will point to a targeted therapy designed to limit the impact of the obesity epidemic.

The new culprit Oike's team identified is a fat-derived protein called angiopoietin-like protein 2 (Angptl2). In mice, Angptl2 levels are elevated in many organs, but especially in fat tissue. Those levels increase further under the oxygen-deprived conditions typically found within obese fat tissue. Researchers also found higher Angptl2 levels in the blood of humans with higher body mass index and insulin levels.

Obese mice lacking Angptl2 show less inflammation in their fat tissue and are less insulin resistant, researchers report. Likewise, otherwise healthy mice made to have higher than normal Angptl2 levels in their fat tissue develop inflammation and insulin resistance.

The researchers conclude that Angptl2 is a key adipocyte-derived inflammatory mediator linking obesity to systemic insulin resistance, and they have identified it as a new molecular target that could be used to improve the diagnosis and treatment of obesity and related metabolic diseases.

Oike is quoted as saying he thinks drugs that would act on Angptl2 not only have considerable promise, but are also likely to come with limited side effects.

"In healthy animals and people, the precise role of Angptl2 has not been clarified," he said. "However, mice in which Angptl2 was deleted genetically were born normally and showed normal growth compared to genetically normal mice. Therefore, we speculate that the possibility of the occurrence of a serious unfavorable side effect due to treatments that decrease Angptl2 expression in animals or people is low."

SOURCE: Cell Metabolism, September, 2009

Reference: http://ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=22364

Read More

Diabetics on a Low-carbohydrate Diet

Diabetes is a disorder of glucose intolerance. What happens when a diabetic eats a low-carbohydrate diet? Here's a graph of blood glucose over a 24 hour period, in type II diabetics on their usual diet (blue and grey triangles), and after 5 weeks on a 55% carbohydrate (yellow circles) or 20% carbohydrate (blue circles) diet:


The study in question describes these volunteers as having "mild, untreated diabetes." If 270 mg/dL of blood glucose is mild diabetes, I'd hate to see severe diabetes! In any case, the low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet brought blood glucose down to an acceptable level without requiring medication.

It's interesting to note in the graph above that fasting blood glucose (18-24 hours) also fell dramatically. This probably reflects improved insulin sensitivity in the liver. The liver pumps glucose into the bloodstream when it's necessary, and insulin suppresses this. When the liver is insulin resistant, it doesn't respond to the normal signal that there's already sufficient glucose, so it releases more and increases fasting blood glucose. When other tissues are insulin resistant, they don't take up the extra glucose, also contributing to the problem.

Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), a measure of average blood glucose concentration over the preceding few weeks, also reflected a profound improvement in blood glucose levels in the low-carbohydrate group:

At 5 weeks, the low-carbohydrate group was still improving and headed toward normal HbA1c, while the high-carbohydrate group remained at a dangerously high level. Total cholesterol, LDL and HDL remained unchanged in both groups, while triglycerides fell dramatically in the low-carbohydrate group.

When glucose is poison, it's better to eat fat.

Graph #1 was reproduced from Volek et al. (2005), which re-plotted data from Gannon et al. (2004). Graph #2 was drawn directly from Gannon et al.

Read More

Do you smoke?

I don't smoke myself but I do chew nicotine gum and I don't know why I started. I intend to look at alternative health ways of replacing the gum, perhaps with some natural remedy.

I don't have anything against smokers, my dad smoked cigarettes and then a pipe, although he did die quite young, at 64 from lung disease.

What I would like to know is would you be prepared to stop if you could find a way to stop the craving?.

Do you want to stop?.
Do you know of any alternative ways to stop smoking?.
I would be very interested to know. Please add your comments.
Thank you.

Free Blog Promotion - Blog and Blog resource Directory







I

Read More

Ear Adrenal Acupoint helps craving for smoking.

By using this Acupressure point this is a simple, natural way to stimulate the adrenal gland and thus helps to remove cigarette craving.

Use your thumb and forfinger to locate the top of the ear, on the border of the indentation. Gently stimulate the point for about sixty seconds on each ear. This should be done each time you have a craving to smoke. Take care not to damage sensitive skin of the ear.

Natural Health Strategies

Read More

Necrotizing fasciitis: A deadly bug

A deadly bug called Necrotizing fasciitis: has killed a 54 year old man from Devon. The man had complained of a sore throat a week earlier, he was prescribed painkillers. He then developed pain in his left ankle less than 24 hours before he died. His condition deteriorated quickly until his family rushed him to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital at 3.10am. He was taken straight to theatre where surgeons tried to cut away the diseased tissue but the infection was spreading too quickly. He died a few hours later>

I am posting this blog as I am very concerned at the speed that this bug can kill, we need to know more information about it and what can be done to stop it. My heart goes out to this mans family and friends.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2624465/Flesh-eating-bug-kills-dad-in-four-hours.html

http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/treat/penicillin.htm

Read More

Paleolithic Diet Clinical Trials Part IV

Dr. Staffan Lindeberg has published a new study using the "paleolithic diet" to treat type II diabetics (free full text). Type II diabetes, formerly known as late-onset diabetes until it began appearing in children, is typically thought to develop as a result of insulin resistance (a lowered tissue response to the glucose-clearing function of insulin). This is often followed by a decrease in insulin secretion due to degeneration of the insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cells.

After Dr. Lindeberg's wild success treating patients with type II diabetes or glucose intolerance, in which he normalized the glucose tolerance of all 14 of his volunteers in 12 weeks, he set out to replicate the experiment. This time, he began with 13 men and women who had been diagnosed with type II diabetes for an average of 9 years.

Patients were put on two different diets for 3 months each. The first was a "conventional diabetes diet". I read a previous draft of the paper in which I believe they stated it was based on American Diabetes Association guidelines, but I can't find that statement in the final draft. In any case, here are the guidelines from the methods section:

The information on the Diabetes diet stated that it should aim at evenly distributed meals with increased intake of vegetables, root vegetables, dietary fiber, whole-grain bread and other whole-grain cereal products, fruits and berries, and decreased intake of total fat with more unsaturated fat. The majority of dietary energy should come from carbohydrates from foods naturally rich in carbohydrate and dietary fiber. The concepts of glycemic index and varied meals through meal planning by the Plate Model were explained [18]. Salt intake was recommended to be kept below 6 g per day.

The investigators gave the paleolithic group the following advice:

The information on the Paleolithic diet stated that it should be based on lean meat, fish, fruit, leafy and cruciferous vegetables, root vegetables, eggs and nuts, while excluding dairy products, cereal grains, beans, refined fats, sugar, candy, soft drinks, beer and extra addition of salt. The following items were recommended in limited amounts for the Paleolithic diet: eggs (≤2 per day), nuts (preferentially walnuts), dried fruit, potatoes (≤1 medium-sized per day), rapeseed or olive oil (≤1 tablespoon per day), wine (≤1 glass per day). The intake of other foods was not restricted and no advice was given with regard to proportions of food categories (e.g. animal versus plant foods). The evolutionary rationale for a Paleolithic diet and potential benefits were explained.

Neither diet was restricted in calories. After comparing the effects of the two diets for 3 months, the investigators concluded that the paleolithic diet:

• Reduced HbA1c more than the diabetes diet (a measure of average blood glucose)
• Reduced weight, BMI and waist circumference more than the diabetes diet
• Lowered blood pressure more than the diabetes diet
  
• Reduced triglycerides more than the diabetes diet
• Increased HDL more than the diabetes diet

However, the paleolithic diet was not a cure-all. At the end of the trial, 8 out of 13 patents still had diabetic blood glucose after an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). This is compared to 9 out of 13 for the diabetes diet. Still, 5 out of 13 with "normal" OGTT after the paleolithic diet isn't bad. The paleolithic diet also significantly reduced insulin resistance and increased glucose tolerance, although it didn't do so more than the diabetes diet.

As has been reported in other studies, paleolithic dieters ate fewer total calories than the comparison group. This is part of the reason why I believe that something in the modern diet causes hyperphagia, or excessive eating. According to the paleolithic diet studies, this food or combination of foods is neolithic, and probably resides in grains, refined sugar and/or dairy. I have my money on wheat and sugar, with a probable long-term contribution from industrial vegetable oils as well.

Were the improvements on the paleolithic diet simply due to calorie restriction? Maybe, but keep in mind that neither group was told to restrict its caloric intake. The reduction in caloric intake occurred naturally, despite the participants presumably eating to fullness. I suspect that the paleolithic diet reset the dieters' body fat set-point, after which fat began pouring out of their fat tissue. They were supplementing their diets with body fat-- 13 pounds (6 kg) of it over 3 months.

The other notable difference between the two diets, besides food types, was carbohydrate intake. The diabetes diet group ate 56% more carbohydrate than the paleo diet group, with 42% of their calories coming from it. The paleolithic group ate 32% carbohydrate. Could this have been the reason for the better outcome of the paleolithic group? I'd be surprised if it wasn't a factor. Advising a diabetic to eat a high-carbohydrate diet is like asking someone who's allergic to bee stings to fetch you some honey from your bee hive. Diabetes is a disorder of glucose intolerance. Starch is a glucose polymer.

Although to be fair, participants on the diabetes diet did improve in a number of ways. There's something to be said for eating whole foods.

This trial was actually a bit of a disappointment for me. I was hoping for a slam dunk, similar to Lindeberg's previous study that "cured" all 14 patients of glucose intolerance in 3 months. In the current study, the paleolithic diet left 8 out of 13 patients diabetic after 3 months. What was the difference? For one thing, the patients in this study had well-established diabetes with an average duration of 9 years. As Jenny Ruhl explains in her book Blood Sugar 101, type II diabetes often progresses to beta cell loss, after which the pancreas can no longer secrete an adequate amount of insulin.

This may be the critical finding of Dr. Lindeberg's two studies: type II diabetes can be prevented when it's caught at an early stage, such as pre-diabetes, whereas prolonged diabetes may cause damage that cannot be completely reversed though diet. I think this is consistent with the experience of many diabetics who have seen an improvement but not a cure from changes in diet. Please add any relevant experiences to the comments.

Collectively, the evidence from clinical trials on the "paleolithic diet" indicate that it's a very effective treatment for modern metabolic dysfunction, including excess body fat, insulin resistance and glucose intolerance. Another way of saying this is that the modern industrial diet causes metabolic dysfunction.

Paleolithic Diet Clinical Trials
Paleolithic Diet Clinical Trials Part II
One Last Thought
Paleolithic Diet Clinical Trials Part III

Read More