Healing Foods
If you’re depending on potentially harmful prescription drugs to maintain your health, I’ve got some exciting news for you: There are foods that could be helping you instead of the drugs you are currently taking. We like to call them “healing foods” but you’ll call them food miracles. And each month in Dr. Victor Marchione’s Food Doctor newsletter, we’ll reveal the latest healing foods available to you. Even better, most of these healing foods are probably sitting on your grocer’s shelves right now. And if a monthly newsletter on healing foods isn’t enough, you can also find the latest healing foods through our free daily e-letter, the Doctors Health Press e-Bulletin. Every day, we send you the latest natural health breakthroughs including information on supplements, herbal remedies and healing foods. And the best part of all, a lot of these healing foods aren’t just good for you, they’re also delicious as well.
Whether you’re concerned about preventing breast cancer, lung cancer or any other form of the dreaded disease or you want to know how to prevent the onset of diabetes or properly maintain your diabetes or you simply want to maintain your healthy blood pressure, the Doctors Health Press will reveal to you the healing foods that can help you treat these health problems. That’s right, healing foods that have the power to help you combat all of your health problems, revealed here at the Doctors Health Press.
Health Breakthrough for Diabetics with Kidney Problems
There is news of a health breakthrough that may help diabetics who have impaired kidney function. It comes in the form of healing foods. Researchers have for the first time found that a special high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet may reverse that impaired kidney function. Those with type 1 and type 2 diabetes might be interested in learning more about the “ketogenic” diet.
Researchers evaluated mice that were genetically predisposed to have type 1 or 2 diabetes. The mice were allowed to develop “diabetic nephropathy”, a.k.a. kidney failure. Half the mice were put on the ketogenic diet, while the control group maintained a standard high-carbohydrate diet. After eight weeks, kidney failure was reversed in the mice on the ketogenic diet.
This is the first health news to show that using diet alone can be enough to reverse this serious complication of diabetes. And it may be very positive for adults diagnosed with diabetic kidney failure.
What is a ketogenic diet? It is a low-carbohydrate, moderate protein, and high-fat diet typically used to control epileptic seizures. “Ketones” are molecules produced when blood glucose levels are low and blood fat levels are high. When cells use ketones instead of glucose for energy, it means blood glucose is not used. The researchers believed that a ketogenic diet could block the toxic effects of glucose.
It is a relatively extreme diet and should not be used over the long term. But exposure to the diet for as little as a month may be sufficient to reset the entire process that led to kidney failure. In the study, they also found an array of genes that are expressed during kidney failure as a result of stress. The expression of these genes was reversed in the mice on the ketogenic diet.
The researchers believe that this special diet could help treat other neurological diseases and retinopathy — a disease that results in vision loss. It is a promising natural remedy that may make the news more and more in the coming years. For now, speak to your doctor about possibilities with this diet.
Tags: diabetes, diet, healing foods, health breakthrough, Health News, ketogenic diet, kidney
Organic, Local Produce is Best for Fighting Cancer
Adding a variety of vegetables to one’s diet could help lower your risk of lung cancer, according to a new study. It also found that adding a variety of fruits and vegetables may decrease the risk of squamous cell lung cancer — especially among smokers.
The results appear in the “Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention” journal.
There is no substitution for quitting smoking. While proactively trying to do so, also focusing on what’s in your diet can be of great advantage. Consuming a mix of different types of fruit and vegetables can further deflate risk of lung cancer all by itself, and that discovery appears to be stronger in smokers than non-smokers.
Using information from the ongoing, multi-centered European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, researchers evaluated more than 452,000 people, about 1,600 of whom were diagnosed with lung cancer.
They then honed in on 14 commonly eaten fruits and 26 commonly eaten vegetables. All the produce consisted of fresh, canned or dried products.
Older studies have shown that the amount of vegetables and fruits you eat could lower your risk of lung cancer, particularly one specific type of lung cancer: squamous cell carcinoma. The new study didn’t focus on the amount being consumed, but rather the variety of fruits and vegetables in the diet.
They found that, when this was the case, lung cancer risk went down. Also, the risk of squamous cell carcinoma decreased substantially when a variety of fruits and vegetables was eaten. These foods contain a slew of natural chemicals that have direct biological actions in the human body. Getting the largest mix you can of these “bioactive compounds” is your best bet.
It may be the first study that focused on diversity of produce. The researchers say the results are “very interesting” and show that these extremely healthful foods could protect anyone from lung cancer, even smokers.
Tobacco smoke contains a complex mixture of cancer-causing agents. Therefore, a mixture of protective agents is needed to have any beneficial effect in reducing one’s chance of lung cancer. When shopping in the produce aisles, it’s best to grab a variety of colors: dark greens, bright yellows and oranges, deep reds, and the like.
Optimally, organic and local produce is best for fighting cancer and for your health overall.
Tags: Free Health Advice, health articles, Health Articles, lower lung cancer, lung cancer, Nutritional Information, nutritional information, veggies, veggies cancer
Take this to Reduce Diabetes Risk
Magnesium is one of those “big players” when it comes to maintaining good health. It’s required for 300 biochemical reactions in your body, including its incredible ability to stop calcium from entering places where it would cause harm, such as the cells of your heart and muscles. For this reason, it is known as “nature’s calcium channel blocker.”
The mineral is also essential for the production of something called “adenosine triphosphate”, or ATP. ATP is your body’s primary energy-producing molecule. It helps your muscles to function properly.
Magnesium deficiency is relatively common in North America, due to either losing too much in your urine, poor absorption, or not getting enough in your diet. Some traits of a deficiency include low levels of calcium and potassium, confusion, disorientation, loss of appetite, depression, muscle cramps, fatigue, personality change, and tingling or numbness.
Want another reason why you should make sure to boost your dietary intake of magnesium? Take a look at the results from a recent clinical trial conducted at the University of North Carolina. Researchers there discovered that people who consumed the most magnesium were less likely to get diabetes.
The research team looked at magnesium intake and diabetes risk in 4,497 men and women 18 to 30 years old. None of the study participants were diabetic at the study’s outset. During a 20-year follow-up period, 330 of the participants developed diabetes.
The researchers found that people with the highest magnesium intake, who averaged about 200 milligrams of magnesium for every 1,000 calories they consumed, were 47% less likely to have developed diabetes during follow-up than those with the lowest intakes.
The research team also found that, as magnesium intake rose, levels of several markers of inflammation decreased. And, surprisingly, higher blood levels of magnesium also were linked to a lower degree of insulin resistance.
The results may help to explain, the researchers say, why consuming whole grains, which are high in magnesium, is also associated with lower diabetes risk. When looking for the reason why magnesium might be implicated in better insulin regulation, the researchers suggest that the mineral is needed for the proper functioning of several enzymes that help the body process glucose.
The research team concluded that increasing magnesium intake may be important for improving insulin sensitivity, reducing inflammation, and decreasing diabetes risk. They would like further large-scale clinical trials to be conducted to investigate the link between diabetes and magnesium intake, as well as the potential benefits magnesium supplementation could offer.
Tags: ATP, Free Health Advice, Health Articles, Health News, magnesium and diabetes, magnesium intake and diabetes, potential benefits of magnesium, reduce diabetes risk, Vitamins and Minerals
The Benefits of Fatty Fish for Your Heart, Part 2
(Note: This week, Dr. Juan will be focusing on the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, especially for your heart. Here’s part two of his three-part series)
The second part of this in-depth look at the monumental food cure, omega-3 fatty acids, takes aim at high blood pressure. Hypertension is one of society’s most prevalent health issues and any doctor’s advice would begin with maintaining healthy levels in order to protect yourself from serious disease. One good step is to introduce fatty fish to the diet.
Strong evidence says that if your blood pressure drops by five or six millimeters of mercury (mmHg), your risk of stroke drops by 40% and coronary heart disease (CHD) by 15% to 20%. How does fish oil’s blood-pressure-lowering effect compare with traditional drugs? In a meta-analysis published in 1993, which reviewed 31 placebo-controlled studies with a total of 1,356 individuals, the results show:
— There was no effect of fish oil on blood pressure of healthy individuals with normal blood pressure on 4.2 grams a day of fish oil — but there was a significant lowering effect in patients with high blood pressure on a daily intake of four grams of fish oil.
— Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were both responsible for blood-pressure-lowering effects.
— Average mean reduction in systolic (upper number) and diastolic (lower number) blood pressure by fish oil was 3.0 mmHg and 1.5 mmHg, respectively.
— There was a dose-response relationship seen; namely, the more fish oil ingested, the greater the drop in blood pressure.
— A fish oil dose less than or equal to 3.0 grams a day: 1.3-mmHg systolic and 0.7-mmHg diastolic drop.
— A fish oil dose of 3.3 to 7.0 grams a day: 2.9-mmHg systolic and 1.6-mmHg diastolic drop.
— A fish oil dose of 15 grams a day: 8.1-mmHg systolic and 5.8-mmHg diastolic drop.
In 2002, a meta-analysis of 90 randomized clinical studies in which 22 were of the highest quality, a daily intake of 3.7 grams of fish oil in those with normal blood pressure was linked with a reduction of systolic blood pressure by 2.1 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 1.6 mmHg. Greater blood pressure-lowering effects were seen in those older than 45 years old and in people with hypertension. Therefore, one can say that the blood pressure-lowering effects of fish oil in patients with hypertension are similar to that of drug treatment.
However, several smaller studies showed no such effects using daily fish oil dose between one gram and four grams on blood pressure in patients after heart attacks, as well as those who suffer high blood pressure.
Tags: doctors’ advice, fatty fish, fish oil, food cure, hypertension, Omega-3 Fatty Acids
