Alpha Lipoic Acid & Wrinkles

Does alpha lipoic acid reduce wrinkles? Can it improve health?

Popularized by Dr. Nicholas Perricone, alpha lipoic acid is widely touted as a "wrinkle cure" more effective than skin-care ingredients of the past, such as alpha hydroxy acids. But the anti-aging substance alpha lipoic acid is more than just a skin-care ingredient. Called "possibly the most powerful antioxidant," alpha lipoic acid may increase health and lifespan.

Personal anecdotes reflect that alpha lipoic acid improves the texture and smoothness of skin. Alpha lipoic acid is also used to eliminate the puffiness around the eyes. Another product that works very well to reduce puffiness and dark circles under the eyes is Camocare, which contains extract of chamomile flower. Eye puffiness is a sign of the kidneys being taxed and overworked. Very large bags under the eyes indicates that water has built up around the heart. Along with topical treatments for eye bags and puffiness, it is wise to consume foods and other nutritional products that will increase kidney and heart health. Taking alpha lipoic acid orally may be useful in treating these conditions, as well as any that may be caused by inflammation.

For the rest, please see Alpha Lipoic Acid.

Noni: Nature's Medicine

Does Noni reduce the effects of aging? What are the health benefits of consuming noni? Are there any risks?

The Pacific Islands plant commonly known as "noni" has been the subject of much interest in the field of nutrition, health and longevity. Known in the scientific community by its Latin name Morinda citrifolia, noni is found under many names throughout the Pacific and elsewhere such as Africa, Australia, Asia, India, Malaysia and Vietnam. Noni's names include bumbo, cheesefruit, Grand Morinda, Indian mulberry, kura, lada, mengkudo, nono, nhau, Painkiller Tree, Polynesian bush fruit and 'ura.

A bitter and generally inedible plant, noni is beneficial through the use of its extracts, including infusions from its leaves, as well as juice and other substances. Modern Fijians, Tahitians, Australians and Samoans are known to use noni both raw and cooked. Noni has been claimed to be a tonic for practically every illness and disease known to mankind. It is further claimed that noni contributes to a long, healthy life, by reducing the overall aging of the human body. Cited as evidence - considered anecdotal by the scientific community - are the healthy and youthful Polynesians who utilize noni. Noni is thus held up as a virtual "cure" for aging, with citations of foreign communities such as French colonies who consume it becoming healthier and more youthful.

Does noni really produce these effects? Is the youthful natural state of the Polynesians, known for their thick and smooth skin, as well as ageless hair, attributable to noni? It is difficult to say whether or not noni has this extraordinary effect on human health and longevity, as the noni used has only been available in its present form for a few years and has not been held up to enough rigorous scientific testing.

For the rest, please see Noni: Nature's Medicine.

Meditation can help many ailments

It's about time scientific studies were done of this phenomenon, which for centuries has been reported upon by Westerners traveling to Tibet and elsewhere. These findings have consistently been pooh-poohed by the skeptical scientists and Western religionists, who labeled these practitioners are "charlatans." Obviously, they are not, and their techniques are highly useful, as is meditation in general, demonstrated for millennia by yogis and the like.

The form meditation in which one sits quieting the mind for hours on end is called "vipassana," but there are other forms as well, or methods one can use in order to be able to achieve vipassana. Vipassana can be difficult to accomplish, as the mind can carry on endlessly chattering. However, with these other methods, which are sometimes quite physical, quieting the mind can become much easier. Making sure one is sitting comfortably and not attempting the cross-legged "lotus posture" can also facilitate attaining to a state of peacefulness and reduced stress.

Harvard Gazette: Meditation changes temperatures
Mind controls body in extreme experiments
By William J. Cromie
Gazette Staff

In a monastery in northern India, thinly clad Tibetan monks sat quietly in a room where the temperature was a chilly 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Using a yoga technique known as g Tum-mo, they entered a state of deep meditation. Other monks soaked 3-by-6-foot sheets in cold water (49 degrees) and placed them over the meditators' shoulders. For untrained people, such frigid wrappings would produce uncontrolled shivering.

If body temperatures continue to drop under these conditions, death can result. But it was not long before steam began rising from the sheets. As a result of body heat produced by the monks during meditation, the sheets dried in about an hour.

Attendants removed the sheets, then covered the meditators with a second chilled, wet wrapping. Each monk was required to dry three sheets over a period of several hours.

Why would anyone do this? Herbert Benson, who has been studying g Tum-mo for 20 years, answers that 'Buddhists feel the reality we live in is not the ultimate one. There's another reality we can tap into that's unaffected by our emotions, by our everyday world. Buddhists believe this state of mind can be achieved by doing good for others and by meditation. The heat they generate during the process is just a by-product of g Tum-mo meditation.'

Benson is an associate professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School and president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He firmly believes that studying advanced forms of meditation 'can uncover capacities that will help us to better treat stress-related illnesses.'

Benson developed the 'relaxation response,' which he describes as 'a physiological state opposite to stress.' It is characterized by decreases in metabolism, breathing rate, heart rate, and blood pressure. He and others have amassed evidence that it can help those suffering from illnesses caused or exacerbated by stress. Benson and colleagues use it to treat anxiety, mild and moderate depression, high blood pressure, heartbeat irregularities, excessive anger, insomnia, and even infertility. His team also uses this type of simple meditation to calm those who have been traumatized by the deaths of others, or by diagnoses of cancer or other painful, life-threatening illnesses."

Breast Cancer, Shaving and Deodorants

Some years ago, Kris McGrath, MD, agonized over the tragic death of his young wife from breast cancer and theorized that it was caused by antiperspirants and deodorants entering into her bloodstream via nicks created while shaving her armpits. McGrath subsequently set out to prove his theory and seemingly did so. In 2004, headlines around the world shouted that a connection had been made in his study of 400 women. The study has since been challenged as being inconclusive.

Nevertheless, it is logical to assume that toxic chemicals placed under the arms - a very sensitive part of the body, especially after shaving - will do little to contribute to good health and quite probably will contribute to poor health. Despite the seeming lack of a proven connection between shaving, toxic substances and breast cancer, there is no reason to take the risk that there may indeed be such a connection. Women need not shave all the time - or at all, especially if they are not going to be exposing their armpits to anyone else. Women all over the world do not shave. Now, with sleeveless shirts and bathing suits, that habit is somewhat unaesthetically pleasing, as well as odorous, but the latter can be combatted. One more "natural" but highly effective substance to remove or prevent underarm odor is the deodorant crystal. Unfortunately, like the typical commercial brands of deodorants, the crystal contains aluminum, although it is purportedly a more "naturally occurring" metal and the risks are likely less with this type or this amount of aluminum. Also, some people sometimes get very painful rashes from the deodorant crystal.

In any event, it seems prudent for the health of your body as well as that of the earth to cut down on the typical commercially produced deodorants and antiperspirants.

GABA: Anti-Anxiety Cure?

GABA is a potent anti-anxiety medication that can be used safely. It may be useful in helping overcome sleep and mood disorders, as well as drug dependency.

A breakthrough in mind medicine may be a hand with the study of the amino acid and brain chemical gamma butyric acid or GABA. GABA is a naturally occurring chemical found in the brain that is responsible for an upbeat mood, positive self-image, goodwill and sound sleep. A neurotransmitter, or chemical that allows brain cells or neurons to interact, GABA apparently regulates the "anti-anxiety" part of the brain. People who suffer anxiety attacks may have a chemical imbalance that includes GABA depletion.

For more, please see GABA: Anti-Anxiety Cure?

The Obesity Epidemic and Women's Health

The epidemic of obesity in the U.S. is astounding and very dangerous to personal and national health. It seems like every other person I see is grotesquely overweight, many of them women. Although it may be a metabolic or hormonal problem, the fact is that you do not see such obese people in areas where food is scarce. You also do not often see grotesquely overweight individuals who eat healthy, organic whole foods. It is unfortunate and frightening that the dietary advice being pushed in schools today is extremely faddish, focusing on a low-fat and low-salt diet. This diet actually contributes to health problems. Just eat a low-fat, low-salt meal and see if you don't feel sick - and hungry. This type of diet will actually cause you to overeat because your body is not satisfied with necessary nutrients, including fat and salt. Of course, it is best to consume the proper kind of fat and salt: Namely, unhydrogenated saturated fats such as organic virgin coconut oil and butter; monounsaturates such as olive oil; and some fish and flax oils containing omega 3s, etc. The proper salt is sun-dried Celtic sea salt.

Women's Health Risks Rise Along With Weight

WEDNESDAY, July 5 (HealthDay News) -- Another major study finds that the more obese a woman is, the greater her risk for coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, high blood pressure and death.

Reporting in the July 5 Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh analyzed data on weight, death, and cardiovascular disease among more than 90,000 ethnically-diverse U.S. women followed for an average of seven years.

They concluded that the health risks of women who are extremely obese may have been underestimated."

Amish Man Busted for Selling $2 of Raw Milk

The authorities have nothing better to do than bust a farmer for selling a whole food. Meanwhile hardened violent criminals and child abductors go on the loose.

The fact is that raw milk has been consumed around the world for thousands of years. It is a real and proper food. Only when the community becomes degraded, hygiene is poor and the animals are badly fed and treated does raw dairy pose any health risk. On the contrary, the degraded and corrupted commercial milk products of today, being poured into our kids at every opportunity, are linked to a number of significant health products. I have no doubt that my own health suffers when I do not have access to raw milk. It's time to support the campaign for real milk.

Amish farmer says milk law opposes beliefs

JOE MILICIA
Associated Press

MOUNT HOPE, Ohio - Arlie Stutzman was busted in a rare sting when an undercover agent bought raw milk from the Amish dairy farmer in an unlabeled container.

Now, Stutzman is fighting the law that forbids the sale of raw milk, saying he believes it violates his religious beliefs because it prohibits him from sharing the milk he produces with others.

'While I can and I have food, I'll share it,' said Stutzman, who is due in Holmes County Common Pleas Court on Friday to tell a judge his views. 'Do unto others what you would have others do unto you.'

Last September, a man came to Stutzman's weathered, two-story farmhouse, located in a pastoral region in northeast Ohio that has the world's largest Amish settlement. The man asked for milk.

Stutzman was leery, but agreed to fill up the man's plastic container from a 250-gallon stainless steel tank in the milkhouse.

After the creamy white, unpasteurized milk flowed into the container, the man, an undercover agent from the Ohio Department of Agriculture, gave Stutzman two dollars and left."

Are Vaccines Toxic?

This information should be of concern to just about everyone on this planet, as it affects us all. The amount of research that has shown vaccines to be not all they are portrayed to be is staggering. This subject is one that brings about great fear, mostly of raging epidemics supposedly caused by the lonely unvaccinated person. The fact will remain, no matter who the mainstream attacks, that mercury is extremely toxic and should not be injected in any quantity, much less these huge quantities, into a child or anyone else's bloodstream. What were they thinking? Vaccines themselves, even minus the toxic heavy metals and other pollutants, have not been conclusively proved to be the cause of health improvement.

Considering the following exchange with a world-famous pediatrician. This pediatrician stated that he did not believe in indiscriminate use of vaccines, but he did recommend them to babies and children who were in daycare, because daycare staff have a notoriously high turnover rate and bring in diseases, as well as the fact that the children themselves were constantly sick. But why, came the response, if vaccines are so effective, are these children so sick? If all these children have been vaccinated against various diseases, why are they at risk of getting them? The same question can be put forth to healthcare professionals who apparently panic at the idea that a child or a few children of a lone family are unvaccinated - I saw this panic portrayed in an episode of "ER," in which a woman failed to vaccinated her child for measles - and the child died! The nurses and doctors started freaking out that now they would have a measles epidemic on their hands because of this one child. Why, the logical question is asked, would all those vaccinated children be at risk of an epidemic, if vaccines are effective?

In other words, if your child is the "lone man out," so to speak, what is the risk to the other children? It should be zero, zilch, none, if vaccines really work.

To my knowledge, these questions have never been answered.

BBC NEWS | Health | MMR doctor 'to face GMC charges

Dr Andrew Wakefield stands by his findings
The doctor who first suggested a link between the MMR vaccine and autism is to be charged with serious professional misconduct, it is reported.

The Independent newspaper reports that the General Medical Council will accuse Mr Andrew Wakefield of carrying out 'inadequately founded' research.

Vaccination rates fell sharply after Dr Wakefield questioned the safety of MMR, raising fears of a measles epidemic.

AIDS Hysteria Kills People!

Here is a horrible story that clearly illustrates the need for humankind to be absolutely sure that the HIV=AIDS thesis is correct. Questioning the science - as AIDS dissidents of many disciplines have done worldwide - is no more dangerous than accepting it, as this awful story demonstrates. And there are many other stories like this one.

Kenyans protest brutal killing of HIV-infected boy: "NAIROBI (Reuters) - Several hundred Kenyan AIDS activists took to the streets of Nairobi on Thursday to protest at the killing of an HIV-infected boy, whom they say was hacked with a garden fork by his uncle because of his status.

A week after 15-year-old Isaiah Gakuyo was killed in Nyeri in central Kenya, police were still looking for his uncle, who was the orphaned boy's guardian.

About 300 people demonstrated on Thursday, saying the killing highlighted the stigma faced by those living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya.

'The boy was facing violence on a daily basis,' said Inviolata Mwali Mmbwavi, one of the march organisers who runs a group working with Kenyan AIDS victims.

'We don't want this to happen again,' she added to Reuters.

Gakuyo was often beaten and denied food at home, added Asunta Wagura, executive director of the Kenya Network of Women with AIDS.

'We supported him as he was an unwelcome dependent in the family,' Wagura said, adding that the organization had been trying to find him another home.

HIV/AIDS prevalence in the east African country has declined to seven percent in 2003 from about 10 percent in the late 1990s.

Thousands of Kenyans living with the virus cannot access even the cheapest anti-retroviral drugs, which are too expensive in private hospitals and not available in public ones."

Fluoride debate may surge as treated water linked to cancer

Finally, mainstream science is catching up with what the alternative health community has known for decades. It's always the way, so...caveat emptor when it comes to health information put out by the mainstream. Let us not forget that medical doctors for decades pooh-poohed the idea that nutrition had anything whatsoever to do with health. In specific, they did not believe in supplements. While many supplements are not particularly effective, and some are dangerous, the concept that human health is positively affected by proper nutrition is certainly sound science, and some supplements are quite efficacious.

Fluoride debate may surge as treated water linked to cancer

Young boys who drink fluoridated tap water are at greater risk for a rare bone cancer, Harvard researchers reported yesterday.
The study, published online yesterday in a Harvard-affiliated journal, could intensify debate over fluoridation and mean more scrutiny for Harvard’s Dr. Chester Douglass,accused of fudging the findings to downplay a cancer link.

“It’s the best piece of work ever linking fluoride in tap water and bone cancer. It’s pretty damning for (Douglass),” said Richard Wiles of the Environmental Working Group, which filed a complaint with the National Institutes of Health against Douglass.

Douglass, an epidemiology professor at Harvard’s School of Dental Medicine, is paid as editor of the Colgate Oral Care Report, a newsletter supported by the toothpaste maker.

Harvard and the NIH are investigating whether Douglass misrepresented research findings last year when he said there was no link, despite extensive research to the contrary by one of his doctoral students. The NIH gave Douglass at least $1 million for the research.

That student, Dr. Elise Bassin, wrote in yesterday’s Cancer Causes and Control that boys who drink water with levels of fluoride considered safe by federal guidlines are five times more likely to develop osteosarcoma than boys who drink unfluoridated water. About 250 U.S. boys each year are diagnosed with osteosarcoma, the most common type of bone cancer and the sixth most common cancer in children. Bassin notes that more research is needed to “confirm or refute this observation.”

Douglass, in a letter to the editor published in the same issue, said Bassin’s study was a “partial view of this ongoing study,” and urged readers to be “especially cautious” when interpreting the findings."