An ever-growing body of research shows thatNigella sativa, also known as black seed, is a powerful “remedy for everything but death,” as they used to say about this medicinal food back in ancient times.
(Natural News) An ever-growing body of research shows thatNigella sativa, also known as black seed, is a powerful “remedy for everything but death,” as they used to say about this medicinal food back in ancient times.
One of nature’s most powerful healing remedies, black seed, and specifically the oil thereof, has been studied extensively as of late for its ability to fight all sorts of nasty conditions, including MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), Helicobacter pylori infection, epilepsy, high blood pressure, asthma, acute tonsillopharyngitis, cancer, and even opiate addiction and withdrawal.
To remain aligned with federal regulations, black seed oil cannot legally be touted as something that diagnoses, treats, cures, or prevents any disease, otherwise, it becomes a “drug.” Because of this, all of the claims made in this article are for educational purposes only, stemming from published, peer-reviewed science.
“This humble but immensely powerful seed kills MRSA, heals the chemical weapon-poisoned body, stimulates regeneration of the dying beta cells within the diabetic’s pancreas, and yet too few even know it exists,” reads an article summarizing all of the known peer-reviewed and published research on black seed oil.
Can Nigella sativa help you and your family? Have a look at the science
Have a look at the following 16 additional potential health benefits associated with black seed oil, as demonstrated in published scientific literature (once again, the following is what science has found – these are not health claims). See published scientific sources below:
1) Prevents radiation damage: Nigella sativa oil (NSO) and its active component thymoquinone may create a shield of protection around brain tissue affected by radiation-induced nitrosative stress.
2) Protects against heart attack damage: Thymoquinone extract derived from Nigella sativa may protect against damage in the event of a heart attack.
3) Prevents morphine dependence and toxicity: An alcohol extract of black seed may reduce morphine-associated conditioned place preference, a sign of morphine intoxication, dependence, and tolerance.
4) Prevents diabetes-associated kidney damage: Thymoquinone extract may protect against diabetic nephropathy.
5) Prevents postsurgical adhesions: Peritoneal surfaces covered with Nigella sativa oil after peritoneal trauma may help decrease peritoneal adhesion formation.
6) Prevents Alzheimer’s-associated neurotoxicity: Thymoquinone extract from black seed may prevent neurotoxicity and A-beta-1-40-induced apoptosis in the cells of diabetics.
7) Suppresses breast cancer growth: Taking black seed extract may inhibit tumor growth and induce programmed cell death (apoptosis) in breast cancer patients.
8) Shows anti-psoriasis properties: Alcohol extract of Nigella sativa seeds may stop psoriasis, which is also how it was used in ancient traditional medicine.
9) Prevents brain pathology associated with Parkinson’s disease: Thymoquinone extract may help protect cultured neurons against alpha-SN-induced synaptic toxicity, a type of pathology observed in the brains of patients with Parkinson’s and dementia.
10) Destroys highly aggressive glioblastoma brain cancer cells: Brain cancer patients may find healing with thymoquinone extract.
11) Kills leukemia cells: Nigella sativa extract may induce mitochondria-mediated apoptosis in acute lymphoblastic leukemia cases.
12) Suppresses liver cancer growth: Thymoquinone may prevent chemically induced cancers of the liver.
13) Prevents diabetic pathologies: A water and alcohol extract of black seed at low doses may help to lower blood sugar levels while providing an ameliorative effect on the regeneration of pancreatic islets, suggesting high therapeutic value in the management of diabetes mellitus.
14) Suppresses cervical cancer cell growth: Thymoquinone derived from Nigella sativa may provide anti-proliferative, apoptotic, and anti-invasive properties against cervical cancer cells.
15) Prevents lead-induced brain damage: To avoid the brain-damaging effects of lead exposure, Nigella sativa might do the trick.
16) Kills oral cancer cells: Programmed oral cancer cell death may occur when consuming a thymoquinone extract derived from black seed.
There is also evidence to suggest that Nigella sativa is a powerful remedy against the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) as well.
Scientific sources, via TheEpochTimes.com article linked below:
Molecular hydrogen is a selective antioxidant, meaning it doesn’t indiscriminately suppress free radicals but, rather, helps your body make the antioxidants it needs
Glycine and NAC are glutathione precursors; your body uses glutathione to increase the effectiveness of antioxidants such as vitamin C, which is why it’s known as the “master antioxidant”
Magnesium is involved in the functioning of more than 300 enzymes, and many people are deficient
The best supplements for you depend on your age, health status, diet and health goals
I mention a bonus supplement at the end of the article
*
While dietary supplements cannot take the place of a healthy lifestyle, they can be used strategically to boost your health, especially in cases of deficiency. In the U.S., 57.6% of adults aged 20 and overuse supplements, with multivitamins, vitamin D and omega-3 fats representing the top three.1 Another survey put the percentage of Americans using supplements at 86%.2
So, it’s safe to say that many people are interested in taking control of their health with the support of supplemental vitamins, minerals and other compounds. But, when it comes to supplements, more isn’t always better.
To ensure you’re using only supplements you need — avoiding wasting your money while maintaining your body’s balance — I recommend using dietary interventions first. Next, work with a holistic health care practitioner who can guide you on which supplements your body truly needs.
19 Supplements I Consider Essential
The best supplements for you depend on your age, health status and health goals. If having a practitioner guide you isn’t possible, essential supplements may be next on your list — and I’ve compiled the list in rank order of what I believe to be the most important ones.
Some of the most important individual variables you need to consider would be if you are plant-based or choose to eat animal products. While many plant-based diets are fundamentally healthy, they do lack some vital nutrients, like vitamin B12, retinol, vitamin K2, carnosine, carnitine, collagen and choline. If you are plant-based, you will certainly want to consider adding these to your regimen.
1. Molecular Hydrogen (H2)
Molecular hydrogen acts as a selective antioxidant, meaning it doesn’t indiscriminately suppress free radicals. Rather, it’s unique in that it helps your body make its own endogenous antioxidants. This is important because excessive use of antioxidants can be counterproductive, while molecular hydrogen serves as a redox regulator.
The H2 molecule is the smallest in the universe, which allows it to diffuse through all cell membranes, including the blood-brain barrier and subcellular compartments, and into the mitochondria. According to Tyler LeBaron, Ph.D., it’s been shown to have therapeutic benefits in more than 170 different animal disease models.3 While there’s no risk of overdosing on molecular hydrogen, intermittent exposure produces the best results.
2. Vitamin D
Vitamin D has multiple actions on the immune system, including enhancing the production of antimicrobial peptides by immune cells, reducing damaging pro-inflammatory cytokines, and promoting the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokines.4
A recent study found giving vitamin D to people with COVID-19 cut the risk of death from SARS-CoV-2 by 51% and reduced the risk of admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) by 72%.5,6 Vitamin D also plays a role in heart disease, as it improves circulation and may be beneficial for high blood pressure. In addition, due to its effects on endothelial function, vitamin D may also help improve or prevent heart failure, heart attack, vasculopathy, stroke and diabetes.7
Ideally, optimize your vitamin D levels via sensible sun exposure, as there are many benefits to sun exposure even aside from vitamin D, such as increasing mitochondrial melatonin by near-infrared (IR) exposure.
My vitamin D level is typically between 80 and 100 and I haven’t taken any vitamin D supplements so you can get your levels high if you are disciplined about your sun exposure. Just be sure to make sure you are eating a very low linoleic acid (LA) diet as it is excessive omega-6 fats that virtually everyone consumes, that cause sun-induced skin cancers.
However, if getting healthy sun exposure simply isn’t an option for you due to your location or lifestyle, daily vitamin D3 supplementation of 8,000 to 10,000 units is likely needed to reach a vitamin D level of 60 to 80 ng/mL.
Data from GrassrootsHealth’s D*Action studies suggest the optimal level for health and disease prevention is between 60 ng/mL and 80 ng/mL, while the cutoff for sufficiency appears to be around 40 ng/mL. In Europe, the measurements you’re looking for are 150 to 200 nmol/L and 100 nmol/L respectively.
The only way to gauge whether you might need to supplement, and how much to take, however, is to get your level tested, ideally twice a year — in the early spring and early fall — when your level is at its low point and peak, respectively. Make sure that your supplemental vitamin D intake is balanced with other nutrients, including vitamin K2 (to avoid complications associated with excessive calcification in your arteries) and magnesium.
3. Niacinamide
NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is one of the most important biomolecules in your body. It’s involved in the conversion of food to energy, maintaining DNA integrity and ensuring proper cell function. Together, these functions help protect against or delay aging and virtually all chronic diseases.
NAD+ also acts as fuel for longevity proteins called sirtuins. Sadly, NAD levels dramatically decline with age, contributing to aging and chronic disease states. NAD is also used up by DNA repair enzymes and enzymes involved in inflammation and immunity, such that chronic inflammation, or acute illness in old age, can rapidly result in depletion.
To restore NAD_, you need to fix the root cause for NAD+ depletion, which primarily involves addressing the decline in the NAD salvage pathway. By increasing enzymes in that pathway, which decline with age, your body can recycle NAD_ like it did naturally when it was younger. For more information, please review my fantastic interview with molecular biologist Nichola Conlon, Ph.D.
In addition to optimizing NAD+ levels, it also blocks lipolysis which is important if you are the more than 99% of the population that have elevated linoleic acid (LA) levels. Reducing the release of LA from your tissues will lower the amount of oxidative stress in your body.
Niacinamide, like progesterone, inhibits the production of nitric oxide, and also like progesterone, it improves recovery from brain injury and also:
Niacinamide can also lower your triglycerides, which are a potent cardiovascular disease risk factor. It also has a direct anti-adrenaline effect and increases the oxidation of glucose which is your primary metabolic fuel.
The best way to supplement niacinamide is by taking a very low dose of 50 mg three times a day. This is an order of magnitude less expensive than taking NAD precursors like nicotinamide riboside or nicotinamide mononucleotide to increase NAD+ levels.
Please do NOT take high doses like 500 mg or even 1,000 mg, because taking more is not better and will be highly counterproductive as higher doses will impair your sirtuin longevity proteins.
You can purchase a niacinamide powder and take one-sixty-fourth of a teaspoon three times a day or take a 50 mg niacinamide tablet three times a day. Because a 50 mg niacinamide tablet currently is not being made commercially, we will be launching one very soon.
4. B Complex
Vitamin B complex is important for your health because it’s involved in a wide range of bodily functions and processes including cell health and the growth of red blood cells, energy levels, eyesight, brain function, digestion and appetite, proper nerve function, hormones and cholesterol production, and cardiovascular health.
B vitamins have a direct impact on your energy levels, brain function and cell metabolism. Vitamin B complex helps support or promote cell health, growth of red blood cells, energy levels, eyesight, brain function, digestion, appetite, proper nerve function, and cardiovascular health and may help prevent infections.
Vitamin B complex is also important for pregnant women as it helps to form the neural tube, which is the precursor to the baby’s brain and spinal cord. It also helps to prevent birth defects of the baby’s brain and spine. It is important to note that vitamin B complex is water-soluble, which means it is not stored in the body and needs to be taken more than once a day.
5. Magnesium
Magnesium is necessary for the healthy functioning of most cells, especially your heart, kidneys and muscles. It’s involved in the functioning of more than 300 enzymes,8 and low levels of magnesium impede cellular metabolic function and deteriorate mitochondrial function.
Magnesium is also required for the activation of vitamin D, and deficiency may hamper your ability to convert vitamin D from sun exposure and/or oral supplementation. Unfortunately, deficiency is common and rarely diagnosed.9
When it comes to oral supplementation, my personal preference is magnesium threonate, as it appears to be the most efficient at penetrating cell membranes, including your mitochondria and blood-brain barrier. Magnesium is also absorbed through your skin, so you can use a topical solution or take Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) baths to increase your levels.
6. Vitamin E
Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant that I believe is important for nearly everyone to take. Why? Because it limits the production of very dangerous free radicals from the metabolism of the omega-6 fat, linoleic acid (LA), which virtually everyone reading this has too much of. It does this by inhibiting lipolysis, or the release of the stored LA in your tissues.
While exercise and fasting are wonderful tools to improve your health, the downside is that virtually everyone has too much LA in their tissues and both of these strategies will increase lipolysis of LA stored in your tissue and produce loads of free radicals and oxidative stress.
Vitamin E not only can prevent oxidative stress from too much LA, but it may also help your body convert this dangerous fat to a non-dangerous saturated fat. Bacteria in your intestine can use vitamin E to saturate the LA. So, vitamin E can actually transform the polyunsaturated fat rather than just protect against it after effects.
Vitamin E is an aromatase inhibitor, which means it blocks the enzyme that converts androgens like testosterone to estrogen, which is useful in reducing the risk for many cancers, especially breast and prostate cancers. Not only does it prevent the production of estrogen, but it also detoxifies xenoestrogens from synthetic chemicals.
Vitamin E is an iron chelator and can also remove age spots or liver spots and scars on your skin if applied topically. It does this because it is an iron chelator. Another term for liver spots is lipofuscin, which is an accumulation of oxidized fats like LA and iron.
While cosmetically unattractive, removing lipofuscin spots is key because what you see on your skin is the tip of the iceberg. They are also in your tissues and organs and will contribute to premature aging. Thankfully, taking vitamin E orally seems to help lower lipofuscin levels. Vitamin E also lowers prolactin, which helps counteract high estrogen levels which tends to increase fertility. Finally, it also blocks adrenaline and reduces cortisol and inflammation.
All of these are major reasons why I am huge fan of vitamin E and believe most people would benefit by taking it. However, you just need to be very careful in selecting your vitamin E supplements as most on the market are counterproductive. Natural vitamin E is a family of eight different compounds: four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. If you eat certain wholesome foods, all eight of the different vitamin E compounds are naturally available.
So, please be careful and make sure to avoid all synthetic vitamin E supplements. You also want to make sure that it has no soy oil in it as soy is typically a GMO, loaded with glyphosate and high in LA.
Your vitamin supplement should have all tocopherols (alpha, beta, gamma and delta) with the majority of tocopherol as alpha. Similarly, it should have balance tocotrienols (alpha, beta, gamma and delta). The most common vitamin E supplement on the market is made from GMO soy, is synthetic and only has alpha tocopherol with no other isomers and has no tocotrienols. You definitely don’t want to use supplements like that.
7. Vitamin C (Not Ascorbic Acid)
Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that can strengthen your body’s natural defenses. It may reduce your risk of chronic disease, including protection against immune system deficiencies, cardiovascular disease, prenatal health problems, eye disease and even skin wrinkling.
Vitamin C plays an essential role in your body, particularly for skin and immune health. It also boosts collagen production and helps protect your skin from UV damage. Some research has found that supplementing with vitamin C can shorten the duration of a cold and may help prevent and treat other infections, such as tetanus and pneumonia.
There are basically two types of vitamin C: that derived from whole foods with all the vital and important micronutrients and synthetic ascorbic acid. They both are important and serve crucial biological roles.
The best of the synthetic ascorbic acid would be liposomal forms as they can more easily penetrate cell membranes, especially when needed in large doses as when treating an acute infection, sepsis or cancer. However, it is best to avoid taking synthetic ascorbic acid daily as this can impair copper utilization by your mitochondria.
It is better to take whole food vitamin C daily as this will support the integration of copper into the electron transport chain in your mitochondria and allow you to generate cellular energy more efficiently. Ideally, this can be in the form of fruits that are high in vitamin C, like oranges, tangerines, amla (also known as gooseberry) and, my favorite, acerola cherries. It is best to take it a few times a day as vitamin C is water soluble.
8. Probiotics
If you don’t eat fermented foods on a regular basis, a probiotic supplement can be useful for maintaining your gut health and microbial diversity. Your gut microbiome affects nearly all your physiological systems, but gut microbial diversity decreases with age.10
For each gram-per-day increase in the average national consumption of fermented vegetables, the mortality risk for COVID-19 decreased by 35.4% in one study.11 Beneficial bacteria found in fermented foods may even be effective for suppressing colon cancer,12 while your mental health is also affected.
One randomized controlled trial demonstrated that high-dose probiotic supplementation is beneficial for people with depression,13 while Lactobacillus has been found to produce gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter that inhibits excessive neuronal firing, helping to induce a natural state of calm,14 in animal studies.15
9. Omega-3 Fat as DHA and EPA
Omega-3 fats are important for brain health, warding off autoimmune disease16 and decreasing mortality from cardiovascular disease, while also reducing heart attacks and coronary heart disease events.17 An omega-3 index test is one of the most important annual health screens that everyone needs, and it’s a more important predictor of your heart disease risk than your cholesterol levels.
Even research supported by the National Institutes of Health suggests an omega-3 test is a good predictor of overall health and all-cause mortality.18,19 The ideal sources for EPA and DHA omega-3s include cold-water fatty fish, like wild-caught Alaskan salmon, sardines, herring and anchovies. If you do not eat these fish on a regular basis, consider taking a krill oil supplement.
Fish oil is among the most popular supplements in the U.S. Globally, the fish oil market was valued at $1.9 million in 2019, with estimates suggesting this will rise to $2.8 million by 2027.20 Many of these dollars may be wasted, however, due to a chemical process that leaves many fish oil supplements lacking in actual EPA and DHA.
The issue with most fish oil supplements is the chemical process used — trans-esterification — which transforms the oil into a synthetic product that’s far removed from the oil you’d get when eating fish or a high-quality cod liver oil.
When you eat fish or a high-quality cod liver oil, the omega-3 is in a triglyceride form. However, the omega-3s in most all fish oil supplements are in an ethyl ester which is essentially a synthetic substrate, created through the micro distillation process of crude fish oil, in which ethanol and/or industrial alcohol is added. This mix is heat distilled in a vacuum chamber, resulting in a concentrated omega-3 ethyl ester condensate.
The problem with ethyl esters is they’re the least bioavailable form of omega-3. Manufacturers could convert them back into the triglyceride form by detaching the ethyl alcohol molecule and reattaching a glycerol molecule in a process known as re-esterification,21 but most don’t because it’s so costly.
Additionally, not only does this molecular distillation process remove vital resolvins and protectins that are important in reducing inflammation, but it also concentrates the EPA and DHA. You can tell the concentration of these two fats in any given supplement by looking at the label. In fish, the oil consists of 20% to 30% EPA and DHA, whereas purified fish oil concentrate typically contains between 60% and 85% EPA and DHA.22
In my view, it is best to avoid most omega-3 supplements as there are many dangers with them. Krill or a high-quality cod liver oil are some of the best choices I know of, but you must be careful here also, as most are very low quality and add synthetic vitamins A and D into the oil.
Krill oil stands out in this regard, however. It’s more bioavailable because the EPA and DHA are bound in a phospholipid form, allowing you to take lower doses while still reaping similar results. Research also suggests krill oil alleviates oxidative stress and iron accumulation, such that it could be used as a treatment for toxicity caused by iron overload.23
10. L-Glycine
I personally take a teaspoon (about 5 grams) of glycine twice a day, in the morning and before bed. Glycine is an amino acid and is an important methyl-group donor. Methyl groups are found in DNA, where they play a role in cellular reactions. Glycine helps protect against intracellular calcium overload and hypoxia and has anti-inflammatory effects.
In addition to supporting brain function,24 supplemental glycine may be useful for the “prevention and control of atherosclerosis, heart failure, angiogenesis associated with cancer or retinal disorders and a range of inflammation-driven syndromes, including metabolic syndrome.”25 Importantly, glycine is also a glutathione precursor, discussed below. Ray Peat has shown that glycine is:
11. N-acetylcysteine (NAC)
NAC, is a form of the amino acid cysteine. It’s most well-known to help increase glutathione and reduce the acetaldehyde toxicity26 that causes many hangover symptoms. Anyone who overdoses on acetaminophen (Tylenol) also receives large doses of NAC in the emergency room, as it helps prevent liver damage by increasing glutathione.
NAC can be combined with glycine (known as GlyNAC) for even more benefits. In a pilot trial of older adults, GlyNAC supplementation for 24 weeks corrected glutathione deficiency and improved multiple measures of health, including:27
12. Quercetin
Quercetin, an antioxidant flavonol found in foods such as onions, apples, plums and green tea, is a natural antiviral28which helps drive zinc into the cells to stop viral replications. It also combats inflammation and works as a natural antihistamine. A number of studies have also shown quercetin, when used early, also lowers your risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19,29 and improves clinical outcomes.
Quercetin is one of the supplements I recommend keeping in your medicine chest for times when you feel you’re “coming down” with something, be it the common cold or influenza. This is because it helps drive zinc ions into your cells, which then serves to halt replication of the virus that you are infected with.
Like vitamin E, quercetin also chelates iron. Like niacinamide, it also increases NAD+ levels but through a different mechanism. Rather than serving as a substrate to make NAD+, it helps to activate the rate limiting enzyme in the NAD+ salvage pathway, NAMPT, thus increasing NAD+ levels. Finally, it can also help with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Plant-Based Diets Essential Supplements
If you are eating a plant-based diet or you do eat animal foods but are avoiding any organ meats, which are some of the most nutrient dense foods that we know of, then please seriously consider adding these supplements to your regimen.
13. Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is likely the most important nutrient that is missing from a plant-based diet and it is absolutely essential that you take it if you choose not to eat animal foods. Left undetected and unaddressed, a vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to fatigue, muscle weakness, intestinal issues, limited nerve development, mood disturbances and much more.
But it is not only vegetarians that can be deficient in this important B vitamin. There are three factors are involved in the widespread B12 deficiency we’re seeing today:
Many people don’t have enough stomach acidity due to lower levels of pepsin secretion to release the vitamin B12 from dietary proteins.
Factory-farmed meat and poultry (the most common types consumed today) contain lower levels of vitamin B12.
Insufficient production of intrinsic factor, a special protein, required for B12 to be absorbed in your small intestine may be the result of aging or an autoimmune condition.
Your body needs vitamin B12 to make red blood cells, maintain nerves, produce DNA and to carry out essential functions for your heart, arteries and veins, nervous system, brain and cognitive function. There’s no way you can enjoy optimal health without adequate B12 levels.
When you supplement with vitamin B12 be sure to choose the more biologically active, methylcobalamin, or “methyl B12,” is the most bioavailable and most absorbable form of vitamin B12. Avoid using the most common form of B12, cyanocobalamin.
14. Retinol (Vitamin A)
Retinol, also known as Vitamin A, is a fat-soluble vitamin that is essential for many bodily functions, including vision, growth, cell division, reproduction and immunity. It is not to be confused with beta-carotene. Even though many nutritional labels conflate the two, they are completely different. Since many are unable to easily convert beta-carotene to vitamin A, it is important to make sure you are getting retinol not beta-carotene.
One of the most important benefits of retinol would be to help your body’s immune system and natural defense against illness and infection to work optimally. It also works synergistically with vitamin D with many similar benefits. Also, like vitamin E, retinol has anti-estrogenic properties.
Retinol is responsible for making the pigments in your eye’s retina, improves your vision and promotes good night vision. It also can help protect against cancer. It likely also improves skin health and helps keep your skin moist, and may help reduce the risk of skin and other cancers. Doses are typically from 5,000 to 10,000 I.U.s.
15. Copper
Copper is an essential mineral that plays a vital role in many bodily functions, including the production of red blood cells, the absorption of iron and the maintenance of nerve cells. Most importantly, it is vital to the proper functioning of your mitochondria so you can generate enough ATP.
Copper and its master protein, ceruloplasmin, are instrumental for mitochondrial function. Ceruloplasmin is what drives the copper into the mitochondria, and each mitochondrion needs about 50,000 atoms of copper to do its work.
There are five cytochrome complexes embedded in your inner mitochondrial membranes. Their purpose is to shuttle electrons created from the food you eat that is ultimately converted to acetyl-CoA to produce ATP. If these complexes are deficient in copper, you will not be able to generate enough cellular energy.
Despite its bad rap, most people are deficient in copper. To raise your copper level, you could use a copper bisglycinate supplement (about 4 to 8 mg), or foods like grass fed beef liver, and whole food vitamin C that has the enzyme tyrosinase which is loaded with copper. For additional information please review my podcast with Morley Robbins.
16. Zinc
Zinc plays many roles in your body. It is required for the healthy functioning of all your cells, tissues, organs and bones. Zinc is the second most abundant trace mineral in your body, coming in just after iron. It’s found in foods like beef, poultry, shellfish and mushrooms.
Zinc deficiency is not just an issue with vegetarians, but for those with GI and digestive disorders who can experience decreased zinc absorption. Those who eat seeds, grains, nuts and legumes that are loaded with phytates which can bind zinc and also prevent absorption, may also be deficient. Pregnant and nursing women require higher levels of zinc and those with excessive alcohol consumption also need extra zinc to metabolize the alcohol.
Researchers have discovered hundreds of ways zinc supports health in your body, and every year, they continue to discover more. In the last decade alone, there have been tens of thousands of studies investigating the roles zinc plays in promoting good health.
Zinc provides support for immune function, healthy cell growth, respiratory health and healthy metabolism. It also helps support brain health and healthy function of your taste, smell and vision.
One of the biggest challenges with zinc for people of any age is that zinc isn’t stored in your body, so you must consume the amount your body needs each and every day which is about 15 mg. If you are eating sufficient animal protein or organs, you should not need to supplement unless you are sick, as supplemental zinc can be quite useful to limit viral replication especially if taken with quercetin.
17. Vitamin K2
Vitamin K2 is needed to activate the protein osteocalcin, which is found in your bones. Without vitamin K2, this and other vitamin K2-dependent proteins remain inactivated, and cannot perform their biological functions.30 Vitamin K2 also facilitates the transfer process of calcium from your arteries to your bone. Without it, your risk of arterial calcification increases. It does this by increasing the production of an important hormone for bone health, osteocalcin.
In one study, those who consumed foods with the highest amount of vitamin K2 were less likely to experience severe calcification in their arteries or less likely to die from heart disease over a seven- to 10-year period.31 Vitamin K2 also works in tandem with vitamin D and magnesium. As a rule, if you have osteoporosis, heart disease or diabetes, you’re likely deficient in vitamin K2.
If you are eating fermented foods such as natto, or vegetables fermented using a starter culture of vitamin K2-producing bacteria, then you may not need to take a supplement. Certain cheeses such as Brie, Munster and gouda, are also particularly high in K2, as are grass fed organic animal products such as egg yolks, liver, butter and dairy.
18. Collagen
Collagen, in addition to being rich in glycine, is well-known for its role in skin health, including helping mitigate age-related wrinkles.32 It may also reduce joint pain and stiffness33 while improving glucose tolerance34 and high blood pressure.35
My personal preference is to use a less denatured (unhydrolyzed) organic collagen supplement, as it has a more balanced amino acid profile or, better yet, simply boost your collagen intake by making homemade bone broth using bones and connective tissue from grass fed, organically raised animals.
19. L-Carnosine
Carnosine is a dipeptide composed of two amino acids: beta-alanine and histidine. It’s a potent antioxidant as it binds to advanced lipoxidation endproducts (ALEs) that are the result of oxidized seed oils in your diet. The highest concentrations of carnosine are found in your muscles and brain.
If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, you will have lower levels of carnosine in your muscles. This is one reason why many strict vegans who do not properly compensate for this and other nutritional deficiencies tend to have trouble building muscle. Eating beef is known to efficiently raise carnosine levels in your muscle,36 which is why if you’re a vegetarian or vegan this supplement may be particularly important.
Bonus Methylene Blue
While methylene blue is clearly not a vitamin or mineral and is, in fact, the oldest known modern drug, I consider it an important and, in many cases, essential supplement for most because it is the best product out there to increase mitochondrial electron transport efficiency and your production of cellular energy currency or ATP. In simpler terms, most anyone who is fatigued or tired will benefit from using methylene blue.
Additionally, it is very inexpensive if you avoid buying it in foolish ways. If you purchase 1 ounce (25 grams) of the bulk powder it will last you over three years if you take 20 mg/day, which is a solid maintenance dose, but if you are tired you can easily double or triple that.
Twenty mg is a very small amount and is about half of one-sixty-fourth teaspoon. That would be a one-one hundred twenty-eighth teaspoon, but those are not available. Just be really careful, though, as methylene blue is a dye and will stain your countertop. It’s best to measure over a stainless-steel sink. A dose of 50 mg is best taken by putting one-sixty-fourth teaspoon into an empty gel cap, as it can irritate your mouth at higher concentrations.
When and how you take supplements — such as with or without food and in the morning or evening — can make a difference in their safety and effectiveness. For instance, fat-soluble vitamin K2 is best taken with your largest meal that contains fat, while magnesium, which helps your body relax, is best taken in the evening. In the infographic above, you can see a simple breakdown of some of the most common supplements and when it’s best to take them.
AYUSH, by the way, stands for Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy. It is a system of healing that many hope will be amplified by this latest revelation about ayurveda and covid.
Only 300 people who received Ayurvedic medicine had to be hospitalized for the disease, Rajesh Kotecha, the union minister, explained, further noting that the other 64,700 patients experienced only mild symptoms and recovered relatively quickly.
The 9th World Ayurveda Congress and Expo recently took place in India, and a top official from the Union Ministry of Ayush revealed that among the 65,000 covid patients there who were treated with Ayurveda throughout the pandemic, not a single one ended up dying from the virus.
Only 300 people who received Ayurvedic medicine had to be hospitalized for the disease, Rajesh Kotecha, the union minister, explained, further noting that the other 64,700 patients experienced only mild symptoms and recovered relatively quickly.
All of this was uncovered by Seva Bharathi, the Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS), and various universities that conducted research into the matter over the past several years.
“Out of these patients, 65,000 people were in home isolation, and only 300 of them required hospitalization,” Kotecha said about the work of his ministry. “This is less than half a percent whereas the hospitalization rate at the time was 7-10 per cent.”
AYUSH, by the way, stands for Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy. It is a system of healing that many hope will be amplified by this latest revelation about ayurveda and covid.
Kotecha revealed that AYUSH is only conducted by the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN), CCRS, and Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCMRUM). More needs to be done, he added, to incorporate these latest findings into that system.
“There is a great mismatching of skilling in the sector and all stakeholders must act together to find a solution,” he said. “We need to find a mechanism that will open up possibilities for the sector, the country as well as the globe as there are lots of unanswered questions to be answered.” (Related: In early 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that drinking cow urine and dung could cure coronavirus.)
Indian doctors are strategizing about how to incorporate more Ayurveda into mainstream medicine
Dr. Nandini Kumar, a former deputy director general at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), also gave a speech at the event about ayurveda and covid. In it, she stressed the importance of working together in an interdisciplinary and interprofessional capacity to figure out how to approach the ethics committee about this discovery.
Dr. K. Madangopal, a senior consultant with NITI Aayog, expanded upon this by stating that patients need a supportive system based on research data from the AYUSH industry.
Dr. Ram Manohar, director of the Amrita Centre for Advanced Research in Ayurveda (ACARA), Amritapuri, added to this that there needs to be a dramatic change in the way Ayurveda research and practice takes place across India.
Appearances at the expo were also made by Dr. Avind Chopra from Pune and Dr. Kishore Kumar Ramkrishnan, a professor at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS).
The following five Ayurvedic remedies can help you to naturally boost your immune system, which is especially important during the cold winter months:
1) Kadha or herbal tea possesses strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It often contains Tulsi (holy basil), kalimirch (black pepper), dalchini (cinnamon), shunthi (dry ginger), and munakka (raisin), as well as jaggery and lemon juice for flavor.
2) Golden milk or turmeric tea is just what it sounds like: milk or hot tea containing turmeric.
3) Nasya involves the application of oil (i.e., ghee, sesame, or coconut) in the nostrils using a Neti pot.
4) Chyawanprash is a blend of Amla and thirty other herbs with jaggery that is consumed.
Dr. Gupta got in trouble with the medical establishment when he was ‘misunderstood’. What he meant was ‘prevent’ cancer, not ‘cure’ cancer. Of course, he is banned on Youtube. Yet, he can be found on FB, the censoring network of robotic algorithms, and I don’t mean the robots.
(1). The first step is to stop eating sugar, when there is no sugar in the body, cancer cells die naturally.
(2). The second step is a glass of lemon juice mixed with a glass of warm water and after about 1 month the cancer cells will decrease, drinking hot lemon juice can prevent cancer. Just don’t put any sugar in it. Hot lemon juice is more beneficial than cold lemon juice. A study from the University of Maryland found that natural medicines are 1,000 times better than chemicals.
(3). The third step is to reduce the risk of cancer by using 3 tablespoons of organic coconut oil in the morning and night.
You can use both treatments to prevent diabetes. Ignorance is no excuse; I’ve been sharing this information for over 5 years. Tell those around you.
Yellow and purple potatoes prevent cancer.
01. Eating and drinking often can increase the risk of stomach cancer.
02. Never eat more than 4 eggs a week.
03. Eating chicken back (thigh etc) ) may cause stomach cancer.
04. Never eat fruit after a meal. We must eat the fruit before we eat.
05. Let’s not drink tea during menstruation.
06. Let’s consume less soy milk…
07. On an empty stomach (hungry stomach) to eat tomatoes
08. For a glass of water every morning before meals to prevent fatigue.
09. Never eat 3 hours before bed.
10. Avoiding water can cause diabetes and hypertension. The main basis of nutrition should be high water consumption.
11. Eat oven baked toast or toast.
12. Keep the phone away from you in the time of sleep .
13. Drink 10 glasses of water a day to prevent bladder cancer.
14. Drink more water during the day except at night
15. Consuming more than 2 cups of coffee a day can cause insomnia and stomach problems.
16. You should consume less fat. Digestion lasts between 5-7 hours, which makes you feel more tired.
17. Eat less after 5:00 pm
18. Bananas, grapes, spinach, squash, peaches make you feel happier.
19. Sleeping less than 8 hours a day affects brain function. A half-hour break in the afternoon allows you to look younger.
20. Boiled tomatoes have better healing properties than raw tomatoes.
21. Hot lemon juice kills cancer cells. Warm lemon juice improves our quality of life and allows us to live longer.
Add 2-3 slices of lemon to warm water to get our daily drink.
Lemon leaves a bitter smell in hot water, which is the best ingredient to kill cancer cells.
Cold lemon juice contains only vitamin C, it prevents hypertension.
Hot lemon juice prevents cancer tumors from developing.
Clinical tests have shown that hot lemon juice works.
Treatment with this type of lemon not only destroys evil cells, but does not affect healthy cells.
To be continued …. Citric acid and lemon, lemon juice, reduce blood pressure and prevent deep vein thrombosis. Reduces blood clots by regulating blood circulation – After reading this article, let’s not forget to share it with others!
– Let’s share to protect your health and inform the people around you !!!
-I tried to convert as much as I could. I hope you like it
Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating degenerative brain condition that affects millions of people in the U.S. While pharmaceutical treatments have long lists of side effects, there is a natural food-based intervention that has proven effective in improving key brain functions. The best part is, it’s probably in your food pantry right now
If you’re a regular reader of GreenMedInfo.com, you’re likely to have seen numerous articles detailing the dozens of healthy uses for coconut oil that are backed by science. From balancing blood sugar[i] and hormones[ii] to healing burns[iii] and ulcers,[iv] it seems there is hardly an ailment that is not soothed or supported by adding this nutrition-dense fat to your diet.
Coconut Oil: The Brain’s Preferred Fuel?
In 2018, researchers added to the knowledge base with confirmation of coconut oil’s usefulness as a brain-boosting superfood. The pilot study,[v]published in July 2018 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, has shown that a Mediterranean diet, rich in coconut oil, improves the main cognitive functions in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Catholic University of Valencia, Spain, the aim of the study was to detect changes in key cognitive functions of patients with AD after following a traditional Mediterranean diet boosted by therapeutic doses of coconut oil.
Study methods were prospective, longitudinal, qualitative and analytic, meaning participants’ health and behaviors were studied across time to observe unknown and unpredicted changes in outcomes. Inclusion criteria were diagnosed AD patients, aged 65 to 85 years old, who were institutionalized in the Alzheimer’s Family Association of Valencia (AFAV).
A representative sample size of 44 participants was ultimately selected from the original pool of 458 AFAV patients, with criteria excluding patients who were diagnosed with other types of degenerative cognitive disorder or verbal disability that prevented them from answering test questions, and excluding patients with any metabolic chronic disease or who had been treated with drugs such as antidepressants, antipsychotics or hypnotic drugs, which could alter cognitive functions.
The 44 participants were randomly divided into two homogenous groups comprised of 22 patients each: an experimental group receiving coconut oil supplementation and a control group that did not receive coconut oil. Both groups followed an isocaloric Mediterranean diet that was shown in previous studies to be associated with a decrease in cognitive impairment in AD patients.
In the Mediterranean diet implemented in this study, proteins accounted for 15% of total calories, carbohydrates for 55% and lipids for 30% of overall energy intake. Calorie intake was the same for all participants, taking into account that in the experimental group, lipids were reduced so that by adding the coconut oil supplement, the daily lipid amount for all study participants was the same. The dietary intervention was conducted over a period of 21 days.
Cognitive changes in participants were measured by the same institutional psychologist, blind to study protocols, who conducted the “7-Minute Screen,” an assessment that measures “temporal orientation, visuospatial and visuoconstructive abilities.” Visuoconstructive disabilities are represented by difficulty doing math, driving and writing, among other common daily tasks. Patients were assessed the day before dietary therapy and the day after therapy throughout the 21-day intervention.
Alzheimer’s: Most Prevalent Brain Disorder
According to researchers, “Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder, and new therapies are needed.” This study was a method of proving their hypothesis that coconut oil can be a beneficial source of ketone bodies, an alternative brain fuel to glucose for AD patients whose hypometabolism, or poor glucose utilization, is a factor in their disease.
In addition to serving as a fuel source for brain metabolism, ketone bodies, in adequate doses, regulate glutamate release in the synaptic cleft, the space between neurons that transmits impulses.[vi]Glutamate is a neurotransmitter that is involved in most aspects of normal brain function.[vii]
Researchers stated that gender is a significant factor in AD, with women more commonly affected than men.
The trial groups had 75% female and 25% male patients, reflecting the same percentages of gender distribution as the disease itself.[viii] In the published paper, the scientists noted the insidious onset of Alzheimer’s disease, which initially becomes apparent through “progressive loss of episodic memory, followed by gradual impairment of declarative and non-declarative memory.
Later, loss of other main cognitive functions, such as language, executive functions, attention span, and working memory, have also been observed as well as alterations in temporal orientation, visuospatial ability, and visuoconstructive ability.”[ix]
After a baseline assessment of all participants using the 7-Minute Screen, dosing commenced consisting of 20 milliliters (mls) of coconut oil, twice daily, for a total daily dose of 40 mls. This amount of coconut oil had previously demonstrated effectiveness at improving cognitive functions over 21 days in human[x] and mice studies.[xi]
Coconut Oil Improves Information Processing and Memory in AD Patients
Results were both confirming of the researchers’ hypothesis regarding the benefits of coconut oil and encouraging for proponents of natural disease interventions:
“Taking a closer look at the changes observed in the group that received coconut oil, these changes seem to point to the fact that certain cognitive functions improved … such as temporal orientation (information processing), semantic memory and episodic memory …
[These improvements] … could be explained by the decrease in insulin resistance due to the action of ketone bodies, since memory improvement has been observed after intranasal administration of insulin in AD patients, which increases glucose metabolism.”[xii]
An important observation was made regarding the potential for brain recovery with coconut oil: “It could be deduced that not all regions of the cerebral cortex recover to the same degree.”[xiii]Regarding gender differences, researchers observed that “female patients recover more easily than male patients, which confirms our previous results, where a global cognitive improvement was shown in women.”[xiv]
They hypothesize that these results could possibly be explained by hormonal differences in sex, “but not only with respect to low estrogen levels but also … by testosterone, whose levels of production are much lower in women with AD and cause them to have higher insulin resistance.”[xv] Researchers concluded that the positive effects of coconut oil are not gender- or state-specific, however, the benefits are “more evident in women with mild-moderate state [AD].”
Final conclusions of the study were that an isocaloric, coconut oil-enriched Mediterranean diet improves cognitive functions in patients with AD, with differences according to patient sex and degree of severity of the disease.[xvi] They issued a call for further studies of this type to add to this important body of evidence.
To learn more about the health benefits of coconut oil, GreenMedInfo.com has more than 70 abstracts in the world’s most widely referenced natural health database.
References
[i] Protective and Antidiabetic Effects of Virgin Coconut Oil (Vco) on Blood Glucose Concentrations in Alloxan Induced Diabetic Rats. Nur‘azimatul Quddsyiah H. Maidin, Norhayati Ahmad. International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Vol 7, Issue 10, 2015. ISSN: 0975-1491. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/62d6/b586d89f623b4be84ac93c828b31f1070b76.pdf
[ii] Effect of dietary saturated fatty acids on hormone-sensitive lipolysis in rat adipocytes. Awad AB, Chattopadhyay JP. J Nutr. 1986 Jun;116(6):1088-94. PMID: 3014093
[iii] Burn wound healing property of Cocos nucifera: An appraisal. Srivastava P, Durgaprasad S. Indian J Pharmacol. 2008 Aug;40(4):144-6. doi: 10.4103/0253-7613.43159. PMID: 20040946
[v]Improvement of Main Cognitive Functions in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease after Treatment with Coconut Oil Enriched Mediterranean Diet: A Pilot Study. de la Rubia Ortí JE, et al. J Alzheimers Dis. 2018;65(2):577-587. doi: 10.3233/JAD-180184. PMID: 30056419
[vii] Improvement of Main Cognitive Functions in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease after Treatment with Coconut Oil Enriched Mediterranean Diet: A Pilot Study. de la Rubia Ortí JE, et al. J Alzheimers Dis. 2018;65(2):577-587. doi: 10.3233/JAD-180184. PMID: 30056419
[viii] Improvement of Main Cognitive Functions in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease after Treatment with Coconut Oil Enriched Mediterranean Diet: A Pilot Study. de la Rubia Ortí JE, et al. J Alzheimers Dis. 2018;65(2):577-587. doi: 10.3233/JAD-180184. PMID: 30056419
[ix] Lazarov O, Hollands C. Hippocampal neurogenesis: Learning to remember. Prog Neurobiol. 2016;138-140:1–18. doi:10.1016/j.pneurobio.2015.12.006. PMID: 26855369
[x]Farah BA (2014) Effects of caprylic triglyceride on cognitive performance and cerebral glucose metabolism in mild Alzheimer’s disease: A single-case observation. Front Aging Neurosci 16, 1-4. PMID: 25076901
[xi] Reger MA, Henderson ST, Hale C, Cholerton B, Baker LD, Watson GS, Hyde K, Chapman D, Craft S (2004) Effects of beta-hydroxybutyrate on cognition in memory-impaired adults. Neurobiol Aging 25, 311-314. PMID: 15123336
[xii] How does coconut oil affect cognitive performance in alzheimer patients? de la Rubia Ortí JE, et al. Nutr Hosp. 2017 Mar 30;34(2):352-356. doi: 10.20960/nh.780. PMID: 28421789
[xiii] Improvement of Main Cognitive Functions in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease after Treatment with Coconut Oil Enriched Mediterranean Diet: A Pilot Study. de la Rubia Ortí JE, et al. JAlzheimers Dis. 2018;65(2):577-587. doi: 10.3233/JAD-180184. PMID: 30056419
[xiv] Improvement of Main Cognitive Functions in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease after Treatment with Coconut Oil Enriched Mediterranean Diet: A Pilot Study. de la Rubia Ortí JE, et al. J Alzheimers Dis. 2018;65(2):577-587. doi: 10.3233/JAD-180184. PMID: 30056419
[xv] Improvement of Main Cognitive Functions in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease after Treatment with Coconut Oil Enriched Mediterranean Diet: A Pilot Study. de la Rubia Ortí JE, et al. J Alzheimers Dis. 2018;65(2):577-587. doi: 10.3233/JAD-180184. PMID: 30056419
[xvi] Improvement of Main Cognitive Functions in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease after Treatment with Coconut Oil Enriched Mediterranean Diet: A Pilot Study. de la Rubia Ortí JE, et al. J Alzheimers Dis. 2018;65(2):577-587. doi: 10.3233/JAD-180184. PMID: 30056419
The GMI Research Group (GMIRG) is dedicated to investigating the most important health and environmental issues of the day. Special emphasis will be placed on environmental health. Our focused and deep research will explore the many ways in which the present condition of the human body directly reflects the true state of the ambient environment.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.
As if it were not humiliating enough for orthodox oncologists to learn that the lowly chemical sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is important in the treatment of cancer now they have to swallow the research pointing to the fact that bicarbonate can also be used to diagnose cancer in its earliest stages.
Oncologists do understand and know that bicarbonate is necessary to protect their patients from the toxicity and harm done by highly toxic chemicals used in chemotherapy.
They also know it is of extraordinary help to patients receiving radiation treatments protecting as it does the kidneys and other tissues of the body from radioactive damages.
Oncologists should also know that bicarbonate-induced extracellular alkalinization leads to significant improvements in the therapeutic effectiveness of certain chemo agents.
A number of studies have shown that the extracellular pH in cancers is typically lower than that in normal tissue and that an acidic pH promotes invasive tumor growth in primary and metastatic cancers.
The external pH of solid tumors is acidic as a consequence of increased metabolism of glucose and poor perfusion. Acid pH has been shown to stimulate tumor cell invasion and metastasis in vitro and in cells before tail vein injection in vivo.
Researchers have investigated the very reasonable assumption that increased systemic concentrations of pH buffers would lead to reduced intratumoral and peritumoral acidosis and, as a result, inhibit malignant growth. It has been shown that increased serum concentrations of the sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) can be achieved via oral intake.
These researchers found that consequent reduction of tumor acid concentrations significantly reduces tumor growth and invasion without altering the pH of blood or normal tissues.[1]
Oral NaHCO3 selectively increased the pH of tumors and reduced the formation of spontaneous metastases in mouse models of metastatic breast cancer.
NaHCO3 therapy also reduced the rate of lymph node involvement and significantly reduced the formation of hepatic metastases. Acid pH was shown to increase the release of active cathepsin B, an important matrix remodeling protease.[2]
We know that bicarbonate turns to CO2 easily when dissolved in water as it enters the stomach but few know that cancerous tissue turns bicarbonate into carbon dioxide.
A few years ago a United Kingdom Cancer Research team found MRI scans were able to track changes in bicarbonate and therefore identify cancers even in the very early stages.
Sodium Bicarbonate and Cancer Research
All cancer has a lower pH, meaning it is more acidic than surrounding tissue. Working with mice, the researchers boosted the MRI sensitivity more than 20,000 times. Using MRI, they looked to see how much of the tagged bicarbonate was converted into carbon dioxide within the tumor.
In more acidic tumors, more bicarbonate is converted into carbon dioxide.
Lead researcher Professor Kevin Brindle, from Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, said:
“This technique could be used as a highly-sensitive early warning system for the signs of cancer. By exploiting the body’s natural pH balancing system, we have found a potentially safe way of measuring pH to see what’s going on inside patients.
“MRI can pick up on the abnormal pH levels found in cancer and it is possible that this could be used to pinpoint where the disease is present and when it is responding to treatment.”
It should always be used in conjunction with a full protocol that includes most importantly magnesium chloride, iodine and selenium plus a naturopathic approach to diet, intestinal cleaning, sun exposure and many other helpful things.
An oral administration syringe loaded with CBD hemp oil for treating a severely-ill child is shown at a home in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2014. (Brennan Linsley/The Associated Press)
Cannabidiol, or CBD oil, is promoted for a wide range of medical conditions. Recently, a review for doctors weighed the science behind the claims.
The Clinicians’ Guide to Cannabidiol and Hemp Oils was published earlier this month in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
CBD is a compound found in the cannabis plant. It is not intoxicating, Health Canada said.
As of October 2018, the sale of dried cannabis, fresh cannabis, cannabis oil, cannabis plants and cannabis seeds are permitted under the the Cannabis Act.
As consumer interest in CBD grows ahead of the Oct. 17 legalization of cannabis edibles, extracts and topicals, here’s a primer to answer common questions about its health claims for seizures, pain and other conditions.
What is CBD approved to treat?
Epidiolex, a purified form of plant-based CBD, is the only CBD-related treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is used to treat severe forms of epilepsy. Epidiolex isn’t listed in Health Canada’s database of medications approved for use in this country.
Health Canada assigns a drug identification number (DIN) to all drug products evaluated and authorized for sale in this country. To qualify, a drug manufacturer needs to provide information including dosing, strength and how it’s taken.
“Currently, there are two cannabis-related drugs that have a DIN and are authorized for sale in Canada,” a spokesperson for Health Canada said in an email.
Nabilone, a synthetic tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, product is approved to treat nausea. THC is the main psychoactive component in cannabis that gives users a high.
The other drug with a DIN is Sativex, which is manufactured from whole botanical extracts and contains THC and CBD, according to Health Canada. Sativex is added to treatments aimed at relieving spasticity in adults with multiple sclerosis. Spasticity is a muscle-control disorder.
No CBD-specific product has a DIN.
As well, no other “cannabis-related drug (including fresh or dried marijuana or cannabis oil) has been approved to be marketed as a drug for therapeutic use and sale in Canada,” Health Canada said.
What is CBD commonly used for?
There are anecdotal reports from users of CBD helping with certain types of pain, such as nerve-related back pain.
“Chronic pain management continues to challenge patients and physicians alike, and investigation into potential therapies such as CBD and hemp oils is a promising area for the future of clinical pain management for both pain relief as well as addiction management,” Dr. Karen Mauck, an internist at Mayo Clinic, and her co-authors wrote.
Dr. Hance Clarke, director of pain services at Toronto General Hospital who wasn’t involved in the U.S. paper, said he starts by asking patients what symptoms they want to use CBD to treat.
It’s one of the first times in Canadian history where a medication has made it to the population without the science actually leading us there.– Dr. Hance Clarke, director of pain services at Toronto General Hospital
“The evidence has not caught up to the story that’s in the public,” Clarke said. “It’s tricky. It’s one of the first times in Canadian history where a medication has made it to the population without the science actually leading us there.”
The world is looking to Canada for answers on CBD, said Dr. Hance Clarke. (University Health Network)
Physicians need to work with patients to figure out what people are using, the levels in their body and what’s actually helped and what hasn’t.
“The world is looking to Canada over the next five to 10 years,” Clarke said. An evidence-based perspective on cannabis is needed rather than solely industry’s, he said.
Canada’s Arthritis Society said there’s limited clinical evidence so far on the relative benefits and risks of medical cannabis to treat osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
CBD now is widely used by people for all kinds of disease, in particular anxiety, panic attack, bipolar disorder, depression. But we don’t know if CBD is really good for these kind of diseases.– Dr. Gabriella Gobbi
“CBD now is widely used by people for all kinds of disease, in particular anxiety, panic attack, bipolar disorder, depression,” said Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, the study’s author and a psychiatrist at McGill University’s faculty of medicine in Montreal. “But we don’t know if CBD is really good for these kinds of diseases.”
Only clinical trials in humans can show if CBD is really effective for an illness, Gobbi said.
In Canada, pharmaceutical companies are sponsoring clinical trials to test CBD products in people.
How do you know what’s in the product?
Depending on what part of the plant is extracted, different components will be present in the oil, the Mayo Clinic authors said. Their list of what clinicians should look for include:
Manufacturing standards certification, such as pesticide or herbicide testing.
European Union, Australian or Canadian organic certification.
Lab testing to confirm cannabinoid levels and the absence of heavy metals.
“We see variations from batch to batch where patients are doing well on something, and potentially the next time they seek that same product, potentially they’re not seeing the same effects,” Clarke said.
A research letter published in 2017 in JAMA found nearly 70 per cent of CBD extracts sold online were mislabelled.
“A lot of CBD oil can have very little or contain lots of THC, so you must be very careful,” Gobbi said. “We need more quality control.”
What side-effects have been reported?
In larger studies on CBD treatment for epileptic patients, it was associated with drowsiness, decreased appetite and diarrhea in up to 36 per cent of people, the Mayo Clinic authors said, adding the side-effects were less severe and frequent compared with a conventional anticonvulsant medication.
CBD oil products can have very little of the active ingredient or contain a lot of THC, the main psychoactive component in cannabis that gives users a high. (Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press)
The FDA said its review of a marketing application for Epidiolex suggested potential for liver injury associated with CBD.
You can’t just self-treat.– Dr. Gabriella Gobbi
“You can’t just self-treat,” Gobbi said.
What about drug interactions?
The main drug interactions doctors and pharmacists look for are drugs, such as morphine, oxycodone, sleeping pills, antidepressants or antipsychotics, that already make you sleepy, confused or impair co-ordination.
“If you’re taking those medications to begin with and you use cannabis, we’d expect that those side effects would get worse,” said Kelly Grindrod of the University of Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy.
Doctors should look for lab testing to confirm cannabinoid levels when looking for products for patients, researchers say. (Guillaume Payen/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty)
People should talk to their physician, nurse or pharmacist to discuss potential drug interactions when determining whether to try CBD.
Maddie Brown, a registered practical nurse and cannabis consultant based in Ottawa, helps patients with medical cannabis prescriptions understand how CBD works and obtain it.
“I’m definitely most concerned about blood thinners,” Brown told CBC Radio’s White Coat, Black Art. “CBD can make Coumadin [a blood thinning medication] more potent.”
The general advice is to start low and go slow, especially if taking medications that are known to interact, Grindrod said.
Stunning new research has confirmed that cannabis has liver-protective benefits, and can even help prevent alcohol-induced liver damage. However, researchers caution that while cannabis may help keep your liver healthy, alcohol should still be consumed in moderation. While the benefits of cannabis for liver health are incredible, alcohol is still a dangerous drug. While it may be legal to drink once you’re of-age, that doesn’t mean that alcohol can’t be harmful to your health. It is easy to over-consume alcohol, even without binge drinking.
The daily recommendations for alcohol are far lower than one might expect: One a day for women, two a day for men. If you’re drinking more than that on a regular basis, evidence shows you’re at an increased risk of high blood pressure, stroke and several types of cancer. Science shows cannabis might help reverse that risk — but that isn’t a free pass for binge drinking.
Cannabis for liver health?
Many people use cannabis to treat current health conditions, including everything from seizure disorders to cancer. But new research shows that the compounds in cannabis may help prevent some health conditions, too. Specifically, research shows that regular use of cannabis may help prevent alcohol-induced liver damage. As Vice reports, researchers from the National Institute of Scientific Research at the University of Quebec recently conduced one of the largest surveys on the subject. After examining patient records from 320,000 people with a history of alcohol abuse, the team discovered that patients who smoked cannabis were less likely to have alcoholic liver disease.
Dr. Terence Bukong, hepatologist and lead study author, commented on the findings and stated, “We found that if people are using cannabis in the dependent manner, they actually are much more protected from alcoholic liver disease.”
The difference was astounding: Bukong and his team found that patients who drank heavily and did not use cannabis had a 90 percent chance of developing alcoholic liver disease. Conversely, patients who were heavy drinkers and “light users” of cannabis had just an 8 percent chance.
The risk of alcoholic liver disease in heavy drinkers was lowest in “dependent” cannabis users, who boasted a 1.36 percent risk. To put it simply, the reduction in risk of liver disease among heavy drinkers who smoke weed is remarkable. However, that is no excuse to binge drink. While it appears cannabis can help protect your liver, there are still other concerns to be had.
What kind of damage does alcohol do?
Alcohol is easily the most socially accepted “drug” on the market. Most people don’t even consider it a drug at all. But it also has the potential to be extremely damaging. While the average drinker may think they imbibe with moderation, statistics show that nearly half of American adults who drink are drinking too much.
“These findings suggest that not only do many people who drink, drink amounts associated with health consequences, but that without intervention they are likely to continue to do so,” study leader Richard Saitz, professor at Boston University of Public Health, said.
Drinking too much on a regular basis is bad for your health. While research shows that cannabis can help prevent some of the damage booze does to your liver, it is not a cure-all and damage to the liver can still occur. Additionally, there are other health consequences of high alcohol consumption to be concerned about. For example, over-consumption can cause damage to your heart and inflame your pancreas. It can also increase your risk of multiple cancers, including liver, throat and stomach cancer. Drinking too much can also inhibit your immune system, leaving you vulnerable to infection. In other words, don’t start drinking more with the hopes cannabis will keep you healthy.
Through the years most of us have seen essays that try to turn people off to supplements. And most of us have read from the mainstream that diet does not really matter and it is perfectly fine, according to many oncologists, that after one goes home it is perfectly OK to have a whisky or martini. There are still dinosauric type of doctors that still insist emotions don’t matter in medicine either.
To be fair, before going into this essay, know that I make a difference between supplementation and concentrated nutritional medicine. When it comes to natural or complementary medicine administering low dosages and high dosages really matters. Low dosages would be considered supplementation high dosages is the practice of natural, orthomolecular and even ICU and emergency Allopathic medicine. Just ask a doctor who injects magnesium into a patient dying of cardiac arrest.
The official line from the mainstream is: Most multivitamins and supplements are a ‘waste of Money.’ “Not only are vitamin and mineral supplements a waste of money, they can in some instances actually harm the body,” reports The Guardian.
According to the FDA, “Three out of every four American consumers take a dietary supplement on a regular basis. For older Americans, the rate rises to four in five. And one in three children take supplements.” According to Dr F. Perry Wilson, “There has never been much rationale as to why a super-intake of any of these chemicals (supplements) would give super-benefits to health.”
You can easily imagine how I feel about this statement: “Plenty of research suggests that taking vitamins isn’t helpful unless you’re addressing a specific deficiency in a doctor-monitored way.” Since doctors have received little to no training in nutrition it is hard to understand this gross misconception. Forty billion dollars in supplement sales gives us an idea how many people are not buying into the mainstream propaganda.
The lies nutritionists and doctors say to themselves runs something like this:
You should be able to get most of the vitamins and minerals you need from your diet without having to take supplements. “Dietary supplements don’t replace wise meal and snack patterns. As their name implies, supplements are intended to supplement—not replace—healthy and wholesome food choices. The vast majority of healthy adults can—and should—obtain all of the nutrients they need from food alone.” This is delusional because the foods we eat today do not have the nutritional value they once did.
According to Scientific American fruits and vegetables grown decades ago were much richer in vitamins and minerals than the varieties most of us get today. The main culprit in this disturbing nutritional trend is soil depletion: Modern intensive agricultural methods have stripped increasing amounts of nutrients from the soil in which the food we eat grows. Sadly, each successive generation of fast-growing, pest-resistant carrot is truly less good for you than the one before.”
According to the report, Still No Free Lunch, food scientists have compared the nutritional levels of modern crops with historic, and generally lower-yielding, ones. Today’s food produces 10 to 25 percent less iron, zinc, protein, calcium, vitamin C, and other nutrients, the studies show.
Thus the assertion that we can obtain all of the nutrients we need from food is cruel for it guarantees nutritional deficiencies that scientists know cause disease. Many professionals are health terrorists and do not know it or just will not admit it. One cannot live and be healthy on food and pharmaceuticals alone. We need to supplement with the best and most natural substances to make up the difference between the foods we eat today and the ones that our ancestors ate even in the recent past.
Complicating the entire nutrition story that ups the need for nutritional supplementation is the junk foods we eat today. And their is a whole class of foods, that might not even be considered as junk food, that is junk. White foods have been deliberately stripped of their nutritional values. I am talking about white rice, white bread, white pasta, white sugar and even white salt. These popular foods are white because they have had the fiber and minerals removed. If the food people eat is nutritionally poor who is going to make up the difference?
More is Better?
In an environment where “more” is often perceived as being “better,” consumers tend to think that if a supplement provides 100% of their needs, then something that provides 1000% must be 10 times better. The truth, those in the mainstream say, is it doesn’t work that way with supplements. They insist that there is no data that supports megadosing of supplements for health outcomes. (Megadosing is generally considered to be the practice of consuming 10 times or more the recommended amount of a vitamin or mineral supplement.)
However, when we think of certain basics like magnesium, iodine, selenium and bicarbonates, we can easily trash the above assertion. Take the case of iodine supplementation. Governments around the world conceded a century ago that the worlds populations needed more iodine, just enough though to avoid goiter but not enough to avoid cancer and other diseases due to iodine deficiency. When we look at the fact that iodine is an antiviral, anti-fungal and even effective against bacteria one would have to say high dosages, which were routinely given a hundred years ago, are called for in many medical situations.
Magnesium is an effective medicine at high dosages yet it is a common supplement as well. The recommend dose for magnesium is 320mg for adult women and 420mg for men. That might be a reasonable maintenance dose for healthy individuals but it is not near enough if one is suffering from a deficiency of the mineral and certainly not enough if one is suffering from cancer or diabetes or one of a many variety of diseases. Then five to ten times the recommended amount would certainly be in order.
Bicarbonates are not generally recommended at all yet it too is a supplement and a medicine doctors use all the time in ICU and emergency situations. Just to see how ridiculous Google can be, search for ‘iodine and goiter’ and you will see under the question, ‘How is Goiter Treated,’ they do not even mention iodine, though they concede that iodine deficiency causes the disorder.
Although supplements are often confused with drugs, supplements are not drugs. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) supplements are, “Not intended to treat, diagnose, mitigate, prevent or cure diseases.” Well certainly supplements cannot diagnose anything but the point I make in Natural Allopathic Medicine is that nutritional substances like magnesium, iodine, bicarbonates, potassium and even selenium, when injected or administered intravenously are certainly medicines.
The medical industrial complex will stop at nothing to put down supplements. They say that in the supplement world, there is no legally defensible definition for the term “natural.” In fact, when it comes to the natural products industry, the word “natural” more often than not means nothing. The perception of a natural supplement product is that it is not artificially fabricated. There is some truth because many supplements are synthetically created in a laboratory environment and do not contain any natural, plant-based or non-synthetic ingredients. That is what the mainstream likes to point out.
“Vitamins and dietary supplements may kill you, and they often provide little or no health benefit,” concludes one writer for Time. Doctors killing you with their pharmaceuticals are not mentioned even if the number of dead in the United States alone goes over the hundred-thousand mark from properly prescribed medicines. It would be more accurate to say that doctors and pharmaceutical medicine may kill you and most often provide little of no health benefit.
Conclusion
Many people take long lists of supplements and yet do not live in anywhere near perfect health. Supplements are not the answer to everything. For the past forty years Spirulina and Chorella have been my favorite supplements yet they really are whole foods that one can take at high dosages instead of multivitamins and minerals. If one wants to believe in even a sliver of what mainstream medicine puts out about supplements being a waste of time then try these nutritional super-foods that come to us directly from God.
Special Note: That said most supplements are not a waste of time and money. To make blanket statements that they are is scientifically stupid. Yet one must choose carefully and know what dosages make sense for one’s medical or health situation.
One must raise the usage of dietary supplements up to the level of a medical art, especially if one wants to heal from disease. Learn how to apply and combine the above nutrients in the Conquering Cancer course, when it comes out in a few months, or starting next week in my online cancer support group.
This article is copyrighted by GreenMedInfo LLC, 2019
Brain regeneration: long considered a feat impossible to accomplish, compelling research now reveals how a simple spice might contribute to stimulating the stem-cell mediated repair of the damaged brain.
Turmeric is hands down one of the, if not the, most versatile healing spice in the world with over 800 experimentally confirmed health benefits, and an ancient history filled with deep reverence for its seemingly compassionate power to alleviate human suffering. It may also represent the pharmaceutical industry’s single most existential threat, given that the preliminary science signals turmeric is at least as effective as 14 drugs, and orders of magnitude safer as far as toxicological risk.
That said, most of the focus of turmeric research over the past decade has been centered on only one of its many hundreds of phytocompounds: namely, the primary polyphenol in turmeric known as curcumin which gives the spice its richly golden hue. This curcumin-centric focus has lead to the development of some very good products, such as phospholipid bound curcumin concentrate (e.g. Meriva, BCM-95) which greatly helps to increase the absorption and bio-activity of curcumin. But, curcumin isolates are only capable of conferring a part of turmeric’s therapeutic power – and therein lies the limitation and hubris of the dominant model where the focus is on isolating the presumably primary “magic bullet ingredient.”
Indeed, it has become typical within the so-called nutraceutical industry to emulate the pharmaceutical model, which focuses on identifying a particular “monochemical” tree within the forest of complexity represented by each botanical agent, striving to standardize the delivery of each purported ‘active ingredient’ with each serving, as if it were a pharmaceutical drug. These extraction and isolation processes also generates proprietary formulas which are what manufacturers want to differentiate their product from all others and henceforth capture a larger part of the market share; a value proposition that serves the manufacturer and not the consumer/patient.
Truth be told, there is no singular ‘magic bullet’ in foods and herbs responsible for reproducing the whole plant’s healing power. There are, in fact, in most healing plants or foods hundreds of compounds orchestrated by the intelligent ‘invisible hand’ of God or ‘Nature,’ or whatever you wish to call it, and which can never be reduced to the activity of a singularly quantifiable phytocompound or chemical.
Beyond The Curcumin ‘Magic Bullet’ Meme
Not long ago, a highly compelling study published in the journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy provided additional support for the concept that curcumin alone is not enough to explain the healing power of turmeric as a whole plant. The study found that a little known, fat-soluble component within turmeric – Ar-tumerone – may make “a promising candidate to support regeneration in neurologic disease.”
The study found that when brain cells were exposed to ar-tumerone, neural stem cells increased in number through enhanced proliferation. Moreover, these newly formed neural stem cells also increased the number of fully differentiated neuronal cells, indicating a healing effect was taking place. This effect was also observed in a live animal model, showing that rats injected with ar-tumerone into their brains experienced increases in neural stem cell proliferation and the creation of newly formed healthy brain cells.
This study did not go unnoticed by major medical news channels. Here are some good reviews if you wish to explore the implications in greater depth:
The GreenMedInfo.com Turmeric Database Confirms It’s Brain-Saving Power!
As you may already know, our database is the world’s most extensive open access natural medical database on over 1,600 different natural substances, with over 2700 study abstracts on turmeric’s healing properties indexed thus far: view the Turmeric research page here to view! (Watch the video below for more details about our public resource).
If you take a look at the laundry list of over 800 diseases that this spice (or its components, e.g. curcumin) has been studied for to prevent and/or treat, the sheer volume of supportive literature is astounding. Amazingly, we have identified over 270 physiological pathways – according to their conventional pharmacological characterization, e.g. COX-2 inhibitor, Interleukin 6 down-regulator – by which turmeric or its components heals the human body. In addition, you will find over 217 articles on turmeric’s neuroprotective properties on this page: Turmeric as a Neuroprotective agent. (Find out how we generate these results in the video below)
The research clearly indicates that turmeric is a great brain supportive plant. For a more layperson oriented review, read the following articles:
One of the most frequent questions we field is ‘what is the best type of turmeric or curcumin to use’? Obviously, given the aforementioned research, the whole plant is going to carry a wider range of therapeutic compounds than curcumin alone. And yet, most have been heavily enculturated to focus entirely on the ‘how much’ question, opting to identify the molecular weight (i.e. how many milligrams in a serving) of a particular compound as more important than the qualitative dimensions (e.g. is it organic? It is delivered within its natural context as food or a whole plant?) which reflect the type of nutrigenomic information the substance contains, and therefore the ‘intelligence’ it embodies.
And really, there is no generic answer to a generic question about the best way to take turmeric/curcumin. The question always comes from an individual with a particular need, and so, recommendations must be bio-individualized.
For instance, if you have colonic inflammation or polyps, and you are trying to use turmeric to reduce inflammation there or regress precancerous growths, then using the whole plant is best versus a highly bioavailable form of curcumin in capsule form (e.g. Meriva), for instance, which will likely be absorbed by the small intestine and mostly pass through the liver never getting adequate quantities to the large intestine. So, in this person’s case taking a teaspoon of relatively difficult to absorb turmeric may result in painting the diseased surfaces of that person’s intestinal or colonic lumen with exactly the form needed to reverse disease.
But what if you have someone who wants to experience a systemic effect, say, for arthritis or for brain cancer? In these instances, getting turmeric compounds such as curcumin through the glucuronidation barrier in the liver with a phospholipid-bound or black pepper (piperine) combination could be ideal. There is certainly a place for the ‘nutraceutical’ model when properly applied, especially when provided as an adjuvant to the pharmaceutical model within an integrative medical setting.
Ultimately, the goal is not to wait to have such a serious health problem that you have to force yourself to take a ‘heroic dose’ of any herb or food extract. Better is to use small amounts in culinary doses in combination with ingredients that synergize on a physiochemical/informational and sensual basis (producing the all important vitamin P [pleasure] as well!). Recently we actually featured a study that showed culinary doses of rosemary helped improve memory whereas higher ‘heroic’ doses impaired it!
This is why exploring the use of turmeric in curries, or by adding a pinch in a smoothie, may be an ideal daily supplementation approach, versus capsules, whose questionably ‘natural’ capsules and excipients all can add up to cause some stress on the liver you are trying to protect with these natural interventions. Just remember quality is everything and less can be more!
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.
There are over 2,700 studies on the GreenMedInfo database demonstrating the power of turmeric to heal, but this time-tested, safe, and affordable healing substance still has not received FDA approval to “prevent, treat, or cure” disease despite the fact that it is capable of doing exactly that
One of the greatest triumphs of biomedical science today is its role in validating ancient healing modalities that long before the advent of science, and even recorded history itself, were passed down “orally” from generation to generation in the vast body of folkloric medical knowledge that still forms the basis for the majority of the world’s primary health care system. These so-called “natural” or “alternative” modalities, which our species owes its present day survivorship to after eons of dependency on them, are increasingly gaining the attention of men and women in white lab coats intent on unlocking the mysteries of how they work, and in many cases, why they work better than patented, synthetic, chemical-based medications. No better example of this today exists than turmeric.
The Immense Body of Research Substantiating Turmeric for the Prevention and Treatment of Disease
Over the course of the past seven years, we have indexed over 2,700 studies investigating the health benefits of turmeric (or its components) in disease prevention and treatment, discovering an astounding 800+ different diseases that it may be of value in ameliorating. The complexity of this substance in modulating over 150 biological pathways in the body, simultaneously, in a way that almost invariably produces positive results is simply astounding, and could be interpreted as exemplifying a type of plant intelligence if not also inter-species compassion between the plant and animal kingdoms.
The research continues to pile up, with a new published study added to Medline every few days; as of the writing of this article, there are over 9,000 published studies on the topic. In fact, our database on turmeric has grown so large that it takes an entire server just to load the data for professional members performing dynamic filtering by study type, date, etc.
This is only a small subset of studies available that demonstrate the exceptional versatility of turmeric (curcumin) in disease prevention and treatment. You can search through more such research on our Turmeric Research database.
Why Turmeric Has Not Received FDA Approval
Considering the sheer density of data available today to support the health promoting effects of this safe and time-tested culinary ingredient, you would think the government would allow its use to “prevent, treat, or cure disease” — the technical criteria for something to be defined as a legitimate “drug” by the FDA. Indeed, the FDA mission statement includes the following objective:
FDA is also responsible for advancing the public health by helping to speed innovations that make medicines more effective, safer, and more affordable and by helping the public get the accurate, science-based information they need to use medicines and foods to maintain and improve their health.”
When something so safe, so affordable, so thoroughly time-tested across a multitude of cultures, has so much evidence behind it demonstrating its ability to alleviate suffering, isn’t it highly unethical not to use it, especially in cases where conventional treatments fail?
Sadly, the FDA requires prohibitively expensive clinical trials to be conducted in order to grant the legal right for the populace to be treated by medicinal substances of any kind. In fact, the average FDA-approved drug on the market today required between four to eleven billion dollars in capital to be invested on the front-end. Non-patented substances, no matter how well they work to produce positive health outcomes, are obviously not capable of producing a return on investment as they grant no market exclusivity. Economic considerations (i.e. profit motives), therefore, are the primary reason why natural medicine is still only being practiced outside the medical industrial establishment’s mile high walls.
How did we arrive at this clearly cognitively dissonant place in time? I addressed some of these issues in a previous article, Why The Law Forbids The Medicinal Use of Natural Substances,” looking at one of the historical roots of the impasse:
It is an interesting footnote in history that shortly after the Declaration of Independence, Congress declared that natural substances, e.g. water or salt, were God’s gift to mankind and that therefore products of nature should be limited in their patent protection. While this was a noble declaration, it has actually been used against those whose rights it would protect. It has forced private interests to synthetically alter natural substances — for instance the burgeoning biotech field of recombinant DNA technology, i.e. genetically modified organisms (GMOs) — for the sole reason that it guarantees them ownership/patent rights.”
And so, because natural substances are a God-given gift [insert the word “Nature-given” if you prefer], freely available without adulteration to be used to treat and even cure disease, the medical system — whose present day focus is profiting off of disease instead of alleviating suffering — goes out of its way to avoid their use, even ostracizing and/or punishing those medical professionals who do incorporate their use in their practice. Likewise, capitalized pharmaceutical interests tinker with natural lead compounds to alter them in such a way that they are converted into xenobiotic chemicals, virtually guaranteeing their toxicity, and making their subsequent FDA drug approval as a novel patentable chemical compound the equivalent of the kiss of death.
This situation has created a great rift between those who believe the government should have the authority to tell us what we can and cannot do medically speaking, and those who believe it is our inborn right to choose food or natural substances to prevent or treat disease regardless of what the Sate deems legal. Obviously, I stand on the side of health freedom. As long as what you choose to do for yourself does no harm to anyone else, that right to choose should be considered inviolable and sacrosanct. Truth be told, turmeric harms no one but the bottom of line of drug companies. Ultimately it is highly unethical for the medical establishment to pay lip service to evidence-based medicine, and turn a blind eye to the accumulating research that this spice, and the 1,700 other natural substances we have indexed on our database, have no legitimate value as treatments for the wide range of ailments that now plague members of our society.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.
(Natural News) Many parts of the United States are still stuck in the stone ages when it comes to their antiquated stance on cannabis (marijuana), and the World Health Organization (WHO) has a message for them all: stop prohibiting it already!
Not only is the WHO recommending that legislators take a “more rational” approach to laws dealing with cannabis, but the international agency is also stressing the fact that, contrary to the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) official position on the matter, cannabis is medicinal.
The WHO’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) recently made an official proposal that cannabis be rescheduled – constitutionally speaking, it should be de-scheduled entirely – in light of new scientific findings demonstrating an extensive array of medical benefits.
Last fall, the committee held its first formal discussion on cannabis laws since the advent of the International Drug Control Conventions in 1961. This one discussion brought to bear the obvious: that it’s basically a crime against humanity to keep cannabis illegal.
“The Committee recognized the public health harms presented by these substances, as well as their potential for therapeutic and scientific use,” reads an official press release from the committee following the meeting.
“As a result, the Committee recommended a more rational system of international control surrounding cannabis and cannabis-related substances that would prevent drug-related harms whilst ensuring that cannabis-derived pharmaceutical preparations are available for medical use.”
It’s time for all countries, states, and municipalities to finally “free the weed”
Among the emerging research in favor of ending cannabis prohibition is a 2015 study which found that cannabis is at least 114 times safer than alcohol, as well as a study published last year which found that nobody has ever died from using cannabis.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people die annually from drinking toxic alcohol, which damages the liver and other vital organs from normal use.
We also now know that in states were cannabis is legal, opioid use is way down – as opposed to prohibition states where abuse of opioids and other damaging drugs is on the rise.
Studies also show that cannabis is highly beneficial for the brain and nervous system, helping to slow brain aging and even reverse it.
Cannabis really is God’s medicine – and the Bible supports this claim
This and so much more proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that cannabis really is nature’s medicine – the literal fruit of one of God’s seed-bearing plants, which he declared to be goodin Genesis 1:29.
“These recommendations are of monumental importance as they may lead to the overcoming of barriers to research, enhance access of patients to cannabis-based medicine, and allow free commerce of cannabis products internationally,” stated Ethan Russo from the International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute in response to the WHO’s new official position on cannabis.
Michael Krawitz, a global policy adviser at the non-profit cannabis advocacy group FAAAT, agrees, having told Newsweek that the WHO’s placement of cannabis in the 1961 Convention was a “terrible injustice.”
“The WHO has gone a long way towards setting the record straight,” he’s quoted as saying in response to the news.
“It is time for us all to support the World Health Organization’s recommendations and ensure politics don’t trump science. Advocates thank the WHO Experts for their work, and WHO leadership for consistently defending the medical needs of our world.”
To learn more about the many health benefits of medical cannabis, including its potential role in the natural treatment of cancer, be sure to check out MarijuanaToday.news.
You can also keep up with the latest cannabis news from an unbiased perspective at MedicalMarijuanaUpdate.com.
It is not every day that one’s medical work is confirmed so utterly. On January 3rd of 2013 medical scientists published vindication for Dr. Tullio Simonini and even more so for my own work, which favors oral and transdermal use of bicarbonate instead of using it intravenously. It is not only vastly less expensive to use bicarbonate (baking soda) orally and transdermally in baths, but it is safer and now proven to be effective.
I find it very gratifying to have written and published Sodium Bicarbonate – Rich Man’s Poor Man’s Cancer Treatment. It is the only complete medical review on the subject. I hope it is clear to everyone, after reading the research below from the mainstream of medical science, the importance of becoming familiar with bicarbonate medicine and what it can do for cancer, kidney and diabetic patients as well as for those seeking relief from the worst symptoms of the flu. “The results of this study suggest that tumor cells do, indeed, perform niche engineering by creating an acidic environment that is non-toxic to the malignant cells but, through its negative effects on normal cells and tissue, promotes local invasion.”
The great advantage of using bicarbonate orally (reinforced by strong magnesium and bicarbonate baths) is that one can dose during all the waking hours and receive a full course of treatment in about ten days. Anyone can drive up their pH and saturate all their cells to a much higher extent through these methods. This is in contrast to Dr. Simoncini’s method that uses the blood for delivery and thus changing the pH is strictly limited by enforced blood parameters.
Exactly how high the pH is driven up using bicarbonate orally can be controlled simply by using pH test strips. One can do this continuously for up to ten days keeping the optimal anti-cancer pH level constant. Using sodium and potassium bicarbonates (seawater offers a parallel reinforcing treatment) involves increasing carbon dioxide levels, which increases oxygen levels as well as cell voltage—something not generally known or understood.
This is the abstract for Dr. Robert J. Gillies and team from Wayne State University School of Medicine paper, “Acidity generated by the tumor microenvironment drives local invasion.”[1]
The pH of solid tumors is acidic due to increased fermentative metabolism and poor perfusion. It has been hypothesized that acid pH promotes local invasive growth and metastasis. The hypothesis that acid mediates invasion proposes that H+ diffuses from the proximal tumor microenvironment into adjacent normal tissues where it causes tissue remodeling that permits local invasion.
In the current work, tumor invasion and peritumoral pH were monitored over time using intravital microscopy. In every case, the peritumoral pH was acidic and heterogeneous and the regions of highest tumor invasion corresponded to areas of lowest pH. Tumor invasion did not occur into regions with normal or near-normal pH. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed that cells in the invasive edges expressed the glucose transporter GLUT-1 and the sodium-hydrogen exchanger NHE-1, both of which were associated with peritumoral acidosis.
In support of the functional importance of our findings, oral administration of sodium bicarbonate was sufficient to increase peritumoral pH and inhibit tumor growth and local invasion in a preclinical model, supporting the acid-mediated invasion hypothesis.
In their discussions these researchers summarize the basic mechanisms of pH and cancer virility:
The propensity of cancers to invade adjacent normal tissues contributes significantly to local tumor growth and formation of metastases, which are largely responsible for tumor-associated morbidity and mortality. The mechanisms by which tumor cells invade are complex and can be modified in response to environmental conditions. Due to increased glucose metabolism, H+ production and excretion are generally increased in cancers. This, combined with poor perfusion, results in an acidic extracellular pH in malignant tumors (pH = 6.5-6.9) compared to normal tissue under physiologic conditions (pH = 7.2-7.4).
Cancer cells, because of their enhanced evolutionary capacity, develop adaptive mechanisms that allow them to survive and even proliferate in acidic environments. Extracellular pH of tumors is typically highly acidic, and this will inevitably result in acid diffusion into the surrounding stroma.
We propose that the acidic pH of the tumor microenvironment represents a “niche engineering” strategy that promotes local invasion and subsequent in vivo growth of malignant tumors. Support for this model has come from recent observations that neutralization of the tumor derived acid with systemic buffers (e.g. bicarbonate, imidazole, lysine), can inhibit spontaneous and experimental metastases.
Dr.MarkSircus AC., OMD, DM (P)
References (1)
Acidity generated by the tumor microenvironment drives local Invasion; Veronica Estrella, Tingan Chen, Mark Lloyd, et al; Cancer Res Published OnlineFirst January 3, 2013; doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-12-2796
A powerful clinical study shows that pennies worth of magnesium a day provides an effective, safe, affordable alternative to dangerous and relatively ineffective pharmaceutical antidepressants.
A powerful clinical study shows that pennies worth of magnesium a day provides an effective, safe, affordable alternative to dangerous and relatively ineffective pharmaceutical antidepressants.
Depression is one of the most widely diagnosed conditions of our time, with over 3 million cases in the U.S. every year, and 350 million believed affected worldwide.1 Conventional medicine considers antidepressant drugs first-line treatments, including the newly approved injected postpartum drug costing $34,000 a treatment, to the tune of a 16 billion dollars in global sales by 2023. Despite their widespread use, these drugs are fraught with a battery of serious side effects, including suicidal ideation and completion — the last two things you would hope to see in a condition that already has suicidality as a co-morbidity. For this reason alone, natural, safe, and effective alternatives are needed more than ever before.
While research into natural alternatives for depression is growing daily — GreenMedInfo.com’s Depression database contains 647 studies on over 100 natural substances that have been studied to prevent or treat depression — it is rare to find quality human clinical research on the topic published in well-respected journals. That’s why a powerful study published in PLOS One titled, “Role of magnesium supplementation in the treatment of depression: A randomized clinical trial,” is so promising. Not only is magnesium safe, affordable, and easily accessible, but according to this recent study, effective in treating mild-to moderate symptoms of depression.
While previous studies have looked at the association between magnesium and depression,2-7 this is the first placebo-controlled clinical study to evaluate whether the use of over-the-counter magnesium chloride (248 mg elemental magnesium a day for 6 weeks) improves symptoms of depression.
The study design was a follows:
“ An open-label, blocked, randomized, cross-over trial was carried out in outpatient primary care clinics on 126 adults (mean age 52; 38% male) diagnosed with and currently experiencing mild-to-moderate symptoms with Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scores of 5–19. The intervention was 6 weeks of active treatment (248 mg of elemental magnesium per day) compared to 6 weeks of control (no treatment). Assessments of depression symptoms were completed at bi-weekly phone calls. The primary outcome was the net difference in the change in depression symptoms from baseline to the end of each treatment period. Secondary outcomes included changes in anxiety symptoms as well as adherence to the supplement regimen, appearance of adverse effects, and intention to use magnesium supplements in the future. Between June 2015 and May 2016, 112 participants provided analyzable data.”
The study results were as follows:
“Consumption of magnesium chloride for 6 weeks resulted in a clinically significant net improvement in PHQ-9 scores of -6.0 points (CI -7.9, -4.2; P<0.001) and net improvement in Generalized Anxiety Disorders-7 scores of -4.5 points (CI -6.6, -2.4; P<0.001). Average adherence was 83% by pill count. The supplements were well tolerated and 61% of participants reported they would use magnesium in the future. Similar effects were observed regardless of age, gender, baseline severity of depression, baseline magnesium level, or use of antidepressant treatments. Effects were observed within two weeks. Magnesium is effective for mild-to-moderate depression in adults. It works quickly and is well tolerated without the need for close monitoring for toxicity.”
For perspective, conventional antidepressant drugs are considering to generate an “adequate or complete treatment response” with a PHQ-9 score “decrease of 5 points or more from baseline.” At this level of efficacy, their recommended action is: “Do not change treatment; conduct periodic follow-up.” The magnesium’s score of -6.0 therefore represents the height of success within conventional expectations for a complete response, which is sometimes termed “remission.” In contradistinction, conventional antidepressant drugs result in nearly half of patients discontinuing treatment during the first month, usually due to their powerful and sometimes debilitating side effects.8
To summarize the main study outcomes:
There was a clinically significant improvement in both Depression and Anxiety scores.
61% of patients reported they would use magnesium in the future.
Similar effects occurred across age, gender, severity of depression, baseline magnesium levels, or use of antidepressant treatments.
Effects were observed within two weeks.
The study authors concluded:
“Magnesium is effective for mild-to-moderate depression in adults. It works quickly and is well tolerated without the need for close monitoring for toxicity.”
Beyond Depression: Magnesium’s Many Health Benefits & Where To Source It
Magnesium is a central player in your body’s energy production, as its found within 300 enzymes in the human body, including within the biologically active form of ATP known as MG-ATP. In fact, there have been over 3,751 magnesium binding sites identified within human proteins, indicating that it’s central nutritional importance has been greatly underappreciated.
Research relevant to magnesium has been accumulating for the past 40 years at a steady rate of approximately 2,000 new studies a year. Our database project has indexed well over 100 health benefits of magnesium thus far. For the sake of brevity, we will address seven key therapeutic applications for magnesium as follows:
Fibromyalgia: Not only is magnesium deficiency common in those diagnosed with fibromyalgia, 9,10 but relatively low doses of magnesium (50 mg), combined with malic acid in the form of magnesium malate, has been clinically demonstrated to improve pain and tenderness in those to which it was administered.11
Atrial Fibrillation: A number of studies now exist showing that magnesium supplementation reduce atrial fibrillation, either by itself, or in combination with conventional drug agents.12
Diabetes, Type 2: Magnesium deficiency is common in type 2 diabetics, at an incidence of 13.5 to 47.7% according to a 2007 study. 13 Research has also shown that type 2 diabetics with peripheral neuropathy and coronary artery disease have lower intracellular magnesium levels. 14 Oral magnesium supplementation has been shown to reduce plasma fasting glucose and raising HDL cholesterol in patients with type 2 diabetes.15 It has also been shown to improve insulin sensitivity and metabolic control in type 2 diabetic subjects.16
Premenstrual Syndrome: Magnesium deficiency has been observed in women affected by premenstrual syndrome.17 It is no surprise therefore that it has been found to alleviate premenstrual symptoms of fluid retention, 18 as well as broadly reducing associated symptoms by approximately 34% in women, aged 18-45, given 250 mg tablets for a 3-month observational period.20 When combined with B6, magnesium supplementation has been found to improve anxiety-related premenstrual symptoms.19
Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality: Low serum magnesium concentrations predict cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.21There are a wide range of ways that magnesium may confer its protective effects. It may act like a calcium channel blocker,22it is hypotensive,23 it is antispasmodic (which may protect against coronary artery spasm),24 and anti-thrombotic.25 Also, the heart muscle cells are exceedingly dense in mitochondria (as high as 100 times more per cell than skeletal muscle), the “powerhouses” of the cell,” which require adequate magnesium to produce ATP via the citric acid cycle.
Migraine Disorders: Blood magnesium levels have been found to be significantly lower in those who suffer from migraine attacks.26,27 A recent Journal of Neural Transmission article titled, “Why all migraine patients should be treated with magnesium,” pointed out that routine blood tests do not accurately convey the true body magnesium stores since less than 2% is in the measurable, extracellular space, “67% is in the bone and 31% is located intracellularly.”28The authors argued that since “routine blood tests are not indicative of magnesium status, empiric treatment with at least oral magnesium is warranted in all migraine sufferers.” Indeed, oral magnesium supplementation has been found to reduce the number of headache days in children experiencing frequent migranous headaches,29and when combined with l-carnitine, is effective at reducing migraine frequency in adults, as well.30
Aging: While natural aging is a healthy process, accelerated aging has been noted to be a feature of magnesium deficiency,31especially evident in the context of long space-flight missions where low magnesium levels are associated with cardiovascular aging over 10 times faster than occurs on earth.32 Magnesium supplementation has been shown to reverse age-related neuroendocrine and sleep EEG changes in humans.33 One of the possible mechanisms behind magnesium deficiency associated aging is that magnesium is needed to stabilize DNA and promotes DNA replication. It is also involved in healing up of the ends of the chromosomes after they are divided in mitosis.34
It is quite amazing to consider the aforementioned side benefits of magnesium consumption or supplementation within the context of the well-known side effects of pharmaceutical approaches to symptom management of disease. On average, conventional drugs have 75 side effects associated with their use, including lethal ones (albeit sometimes rare). When considering magnesium’s many side benefits and extremely low toxicity, clearly this fundamental mineral intervention (and dietary requirement) puts pharmaceutical approaches to depression to shame.
Best Sources of Magnesium In The Diet
The best source of magnesium is from food, and one way to identify magnesium-containing foods are those which are green, i.e. chlorophyll rich. Chlorophyll, which enable plants to capture solar energy and convert it into metabolic energy, has a magnesium atom at its center. Without magnesium, in fact, plants could not utilize the sun’s light energy.
Magnesium, however, in its elemental form is colorless, and many foods that are not green contain it as well. The point is that when found complexed with food cofactors, it is absorbed and utilized more efficiently than in its elemental form, say, extracted from limestone in the form of magnesium oxide.
The following foods contain exceptionally high amounts of magnesium. The portions described are 100 grams, or a little over three ounces.
Fortunately, for those who need higher doses, or are not inclined to consume magnesium rich foods, there are supplemental forms commonly available on the market. Keep in mind, for those who wish to take advantage of the side benefit of magnesium therapy, namely, its stool softening and laxative properties, magnesium citrate or oxide will provide this additional feature.
For those looking to maximize absorption and bioavailability magnesium glycinate is ideal, as glycine is the smallest amino acid commonly found chelated to magnesium, and therefore highly absorbable.
2) Jacka FN, Overland S, Stewart R, Tell GS, Bjelland I, Mykletun A. Association between magnesium intake and depression and anxiety in community-dwelling adults: the Hordaland Health Study. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2009;43(1):45–52. Pmid:19085527.
3) Huang JH, Lu YF, Cheng FC, Lee JN, Tsai LC. Correlation of magnesium intake with metabolic parameters, depression and physical activity in elderly type 2 diabetes patients: a cross-sectional study. Nutrition J. 2012;11(1):41. pmid:22695027; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3439347.
4) Tarleton EK, Littenberg B. Magnesium intake and depression in adults. J Am Board Fam Med. 2015;28(2):249–56. Pmid:25748766
5) Yary T, Lehto SM, Tolmunen T, Tuomainen T-P, Kauhanen J, Voutilainen S, et al. Dietary magnesium intake and the incidence of depression: a 20-year follow-up study. J Affect Disord. 2016;193:94–8. Pmid:26771950
6) Eby GA, Eby KL. Rapid recovery from major depression using magnesium treatment. Med Hypotheses. 2006;67(2):362–70. pmid:16542786
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.
I used to be a chubby kid. Most people thought that was cute. But it got out of hand when was in my early teens.
At age 15 I weighed 230 pounds (105 kg). I was fat. Three years later, I weighed 55 pounds less and I was bench pressing my old weight.
The truth is that being overweight sucks. And if you want to change, you need a reason. At that age, I wanted to impress girls. So I dropped the weight. It was surprisingly simple once I put my mind to it.
On the left: (chubby) Me and my little brother Daniel chilling on our dad’s busted Mitsubishi with a ripped up football. On the right: Looking like a lean mean running machine on one of my daily runs past summer.
And I stayed in good shape until I finished college in 2010. But after that, I put on weight again. I started working a lot, traveling, drinking, eating unhealthy, and I worked out very irregularly.
And about three years ago I was a tired, unfocused, and lazy 27-year old idiot with a beer belly. I decided to change. And it took me more than two years to build a solid exercise habit.
Why do you want to exercise every day? How about more energy and focus? Or looking and feeling better? I don’t know why, but people have a health fetish these days.
I get it, boys and girls. Stop showing your incredibly muscular gluteus maximus on Instagram! They should call that app GuyswithoutshirtsandwomeninlegginsGram.
Anyway, we get it. Daily exercise has benefits. We know the why. In this article, I’ll tell you how I formed an (almost) daily exercise routine.
1.Think Of A Reason
Okay, let’s start with the cliché. But this is actually very important. When I was a teenager, I wanted to impress girls. Three years ago, I didn’t have to impress my girlfriend, but I wanted to have more energy so I could be more productive.
No reason? No change.
It can be as simple as, “I don’t want to be that person who is out of breath after three flights of stairs.”
Just make something up and believe in it. If you want to exercise daily and you have no idea why, you’ll think this when it gets tough: “What the fuck am I doing.” That’s the end of your daily exercise habit.
2. Exercise DAILY At The Same Time
This is where I messed up before. Have you ever said, “I’m going to work out three times a week.” And could never find the time? Your brain is constantly thinking.
“Should I go Monday, Wednesday, Friday? How about, Monday, Tuesday, Friday? Or how about Sunday, Wednesday, Friday?”
In May of 1995, Ruth Patras realized that something was wrong with her 5-week-old daughter, Ciara. Initially happy and healthy, about a month after Ciara was born, the whites of her eyes started to turn yellow. Over the next few days, the color deepened, and her appetite diminished. Patras took Ciara to her pediatrician, who sent the family to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Tests revealed that Ciara had biliary atresias, a rare liver disease in which the ducts that pass bile from the liver to the gallbladder and the first section of the small intestine become blocked. Bile serves two functions in the body, helping to digest fat and carry waste out of the liver. When trapped, the excess bile damages liver cells, eventually leading to liver failure.
Doctors told Patras that the only hope for Ciara was a complex surgery known as the Kasai procedure, in which the gallbladder and bile ducts are removed and the liver is connected directly to the small intestine. The Kasai procedure is hardly a cure, though: It’s only successful 30 to 50 percent of the time, and when it fails, patients need a liver transplant as early as age 1 or 2; even when it works, around three-quarters of patients still require a liver transplant by their 20th birthday.
After the procedure, doctors explained, the rest was up to Ciara’s immune system. Hearing this, Patras felt the first spark of hope she’d had since the diagnosis. She walked out of the room, away from other shell-shocked parents, to the pay phone at the end of the hall, where she called her husband. She told him that she was bringing the baby home that weekend, and that he needed to open a package that was waiting on the kitchen counter.
While pregnant with Ciara, Patras had heard a guest on the daytime talk show Leeza discussing a drink that could boost the immune system. Patras had already lost her mother, uncle, several aunts, and both grandmothers to cancer, so strengthening her immune system seemed appealing. She ordered a kit to make the beverage, a fermented tea called kombucha.
Through the confusing whirlwind of doctor’s appointments leading up to Ciara’s diagnosis, Patras began bottle-feeding kombucha to her sick child. One week after Ciara underwent the Kasai procedure, Patras continued the kombucha regimen. Ciara’s pediatrician objected, but within a few weeks, bile began to drain from her liver, and in follow-up exams, Ciara’s liver appeared softer and smaller. Patras knew this could be the result of a successful Kasai procedure, but suspected that, somehow, the kombucha was involved. She waited nearly a year before telling Ciara’s pediatrician about it again. When she did, the doctor ordered her to stop giving it to Ciara immediately. “She actually reprimanded me,” Patras told me.
The doctor said that there was no scientific evidence for kombucha’s safety or efficacy, but Patras didn’t need any: Her daughter’s health was proof enough.
Some $600 million worth of kombucha was sold last year, peddled everywhere from bodegas to bars to Bed Bath & Beyond. It’s on tap at cool coffee shops; it’s in your neighbor’s fridge; it’s on Entourage and The Mindy Project and Flaked. Its ubiquity in post-Portlandia America has been largely powered by the reverberations of the claims that attracted Patras over 20 years ago: that it supports digestion, metabolism, cell integrity, immunity, appetite control, weight control, liver function, and healthy skin and hair — or as artsy labels put it today, by promises that it will “rejuvenate, restore, revitalize, recharge, rebuild, regenerate, replenish, regain, rebalance, renew.”
A small fraction of today’s kombucha drinkers consume it in hopes of curing cancer or alleviating psoriasis. The vast majority are just taking part in the recent aspirational hegemony of “wellness” — the cultural tidal wave that has given us skincare as coping mechanism, turmeric lattes with almond milk, and brain dust — hoping that kombucha might be part of the recipe, whether it balances their microbiome or simply boosts their energy levels.
Bruce Chassy, a professor emeritus in the department of food science and human nutrition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says there’s a short explanation for why people have turned to kombucha to be healthy, or at least for a whiff of wellness: “More and more people are mistrusting of many, many different things, whether it’s politicians or corporations or traditional medicine.”
Americans are choosing to believe in their intuition, to choose whole foods and natural products instead of processed foods and pills. “The more important part of this is that people have changed remarkably in what they will consider as evidence or reason for forming an idea about something,” Chassy says. “We’re inundated with information and conflicting claims. People are believing what they want to believe, and ignoring the rest.” (Case in point: The debate over genetically modified organisms, in which Chassy is embroiled after documents showed that he accepted money from Monsanto even while presenting himself as an independent academic researcher.) Seeded by dubious prophets with tidings of good health, and stoked by thrifty entrepreneurs, the kombucha phenomenon took root in America at a perfect moment — just as some people began to lose trust in modern medicine and wanted to believe in something more.
A few months before Ruth Patras heard kombucha touted on a daytime talk show, a group of housemates in Portland, Oregon, tried it for the first time after a friend left some behind. One of them, Robert Deering, was especially intrigued. Deering holds a BS in biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a master’s in microbiology from the University of Washington; after grad school, he spent a few years working in a cancer research lab in Seattle before moving to Portland. Curiosity led him to the library at nearby Portland State, where he found a 1940s book on fermentation with a short section on kombucha. It explained that kombucha starts with a SCOBY — a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast — which forms in the organic compound cellulose.
In your hand, a SCOBY feels like Play-Doh that’s soaked in water; in the bottom of your glass, it looks about as appetizing as a loogie. Kombucha is produced when a SCOBY is combined with sugar and brewed tea — black, oolong, or green, as long it’s from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. The entire process takes about two weeks. First, the sugar and hot tea are combined. Once the sweetened tea has cooled, an acidifier — often matured kombucha — can be added to prevent unfriendly bacteria. Then the SCOBY is placed on top and the container is covered with a breathable cloth, so that air can get in but dust and fruit flies can’t. As the SCOBY lowers the pH of the sweetened tea, its rising acidity kills off pathogenic bacteria, and acid-tolerant microbes consume the oxygen in it, beginning fermentation. When the oxygen is gone, the yeast starts breaking down the sugar, converting it to alcohol; the bacteria in the SCOBY then breaks that down to form various acids, resulting in the final product: kombucha. It smells like diluted vinegar and malty yeast, and when poured into a glass, it bubbles like champagne. Once bottled, the bubbles remain, making it more interesting than water, less sweet than juice, and less potent than soda.
Deering learned that no two SCOBYs are exactly the same, and no two batches of kombucha are exactly alike, in part because each batch picks up different yeast microbes from the air. Room temperature and the water also affect the flavor, the speed of fermentation, and the development of gases. Alcohol continues forming as long as there is yeast and sugar in the mixture, so the final alcohol content depends on when the SCOBY is removed, or when the kombucha is pasteurized. If kept unpasteurized, or raw, fermentation continues, and so does alcohol production. When treated properly, each SCOBY can be used to start a new batch — or two, because every few days SCOBYs sprout a thin layer of cellulose that easily peels off the bottom and can be used on its own.
Science has yet to offer a better explanation of how kombucha develops than what Deering found in that 70-year-old book, and no one has definitively determined where the first SCOBY came from — only that kombucha has almost always been synonymous with miraculous health claims.
Egyptologist Zahi Hawass once claimed kombucha was first brewed during the reign of Khufu, who commissioned the Great Pyramid, around 2500 BCE; The Big Book of Kombucha points to a legend claiming it originated in northern China in the third century BCE, but wasn’t regularly consumed there until the seventh century CE at the earliest; authors Harald Tietze, Andra Anastazia Malczewski, and Marie Nadine Antol each claim a Korean physician named Kom-bu brought it to Japan in 414 CE, as he attempted to treat the Emperor Inkyo’s various disorders. Some say Genghis Khan’s armies carried it west, others say it traveled along the Silk Road. Whatever its ancient origins, German scientists were referencing it in their work by the 1850s.
Dozens of far-fetched stories detail the drink’s healing powers. In one tale, people live to over 100 in the 8,500-person village of Kargasok on the Ob River because they drink kombucha. There, legend has it that kombucha allowed an 80-year-old woman to give birth to her first child, fathered by a 130-year-old man. Russian and German doctors mentioned kombucha in more than 100 publications between 1917 and 1935. During that time, it came to be known as the “tea of immortality” in various parts of Europe; in France, it was known as l’élixir de longue vie.
These claims traveled predominantly by word-of-mouth, including informational leaflets, until 1994, when Tietze, a German-born kombucha drinker, perpetuated its mythos in a dubiously sourced book called Kombucha: The Miracle Fungus, which claimed to summarize the various medical benefits that European doctors, as well as people who wrote him letters, ascribed to kombucha — and which devoted kombucha drinkers once pointed to as evidence of its medical efficacy. Tietze describes, for instance, a 1987 study by Reinhold Weisner, a possibly made-up physician and biologist working in Bremen, Germany, who conducted a trial with 246 patients to compare kombucha treatment with Interferon, a common immune-boosting drug used in the treatment of various illnesses. According to Tietze, Weisner found kombucha more effective in treating asthma, 92 percent as effective in treating rheumatism, and 89 percent as effective on kidney disorders. (“There’s a long history of bad studies coming out of the former Soviet Union,” Chassy notes. “The medicine was deeply rooted in folk beliefs, and what they wanted to come out influenced what came out.”)
Tietze questionably claims that kombucha made its first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean on the strength of those Soviet health studies, when Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with cancer in 1985. According to Tietze’s fantastical account, Reagan read the semi-autobiographical novel of Nobel Prize recipient Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and credited kombucha with helping him overcome cancer in the 1950s; inspired, Reagan acquired a SCOBY from Japan and started drinking a liter of kombucha every day, stopping the cancer from spreading. (Reagan in fact had a polyp and two feet of his lower intestine surgically removed.)
The White House has never confirmed whether Reagan drank kombucha, and it’s not mentioned in any official biographies — if he did drink it, he was one of the few known to do so outside niche hippie communities in the U.S. until 1992, when it emerged on the alternative health scene in California. (A mycologist in Olympia, Washington, once told the New York Times that a pharmaceutical company asked him to research kombucha in 1980.) That year, a German-born instructor offered it to a class at an LA meditation center, saying it would “help heal the planet.” In that meditation group was a graphic designer named Betsy Pryor, who might have been the first person to commercialize kombucha in the U.S. “One evening after class, where I’d silently asked God to help me keep people alive … the meditation instructor emerged from the center kitchen clutching an odd, pancake-looking thing encased in a clear plastic bag,” Pryor wrote on her now-defunct website. “[The instructor] paused, looking at me intently. ‘It’s going to help heal the planet.’ A few weeks after I started to drink the Kombucha Tea, I felt like I’d been reborn.” An immediate believer, Pryor and her partner began selling SCOBYs by mail order the next year, charging $50, or $15 if a customer was ill. A sticker on each package said to “Expect a Miracle,” and Pryor repeated this claim in various interviews.
(Natural News) Magnesium is more than an essential mineral: It’s responsible for over 300 biochemical reactions needed by the body to function well. According to a study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, this essential mineral can even regulate vitamin D levels in the body, increasing it in people with deficient levels and reducing it for people with elevated levels. This study is the first to provide evidence of magnesium’s crucial role in optimizing vitamin D levels and preventing adverse conditions from having too much or too little of it.
“Magnesium deficiency shuts down the vitamin D synthesis and metabolism pathway,” explained Qi Dai, the lead author of the study and a professor at Ingram.
In conducting the study, the researchers recruited 250 participants who were between 45 and 85 years old. The participants were considered at risk for developing colorectal cancer based on their risk factors or had precancerous polyps removed in the past. The researchers then gave them either magnesium doses or placebo based on baseline dietary intake. The doses of magnesium used in the study were in line with the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) guidelines.
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The results of the study indicate that optimal magnesium status may be essential for optimizing vitamin D status. These findings are important because unlike vitamin D deficiency, magnesium deficiency is an under-recognized health problem.
“Up to 80 percent of people do not consume enough magnesium in a day to meet the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) based on those national estimates,” said Martha Shrubsole, one of the researchers of the study.
This study is part of an ongoing effort to determine the link between vitamin D and colorectal cancer, as well as other chronic diseases.
Eat foods rich in magnesium: The best food sources of magnesium include kelp, almonds, cashews, molasses, buckwheat, Brazil nuts, dulse, hazelnuts, millet, and pecans. Make sure to soak nuts for 12 hours, then rinse them before eating. Soaking nuts will trigger them to release enzyme inhibitors called phytic acids. Not soaking nuts will still increase magnesium levels, but will decrease levels of zinc, which is also an essential mineral.
Avoid magnesium-depleting foods: To keep your magnesium levels high, avoid eating foods with gluten, refined products, non-organic farmed foods, cheap common table salt, as well as drinking alcohol, regular and decaffeinated coffee or black tea, and tap water laced with poisonous sodium fluoride.
Get enough of these other nutrients: You need to have sufficient levels of vitamins D3, B1, B6, E, and selenium. These nutrients will help utilize, absorb, and keep magnesium in the body.
Try high-quality magnesium supplements: You can also take a high-quality magnesium supplement, such as magnesium amino acid chelate and magnesium citrate, twice a day with your meals. Avoid taking magnesium oxide because it creates a caustic magnesium hydroxide in the body, which is very poorly absorbed and can burn the intestine walls.
Apply magnesium oil topically: Applying magnesium oil on your feet before going to bed can also help restore magnesium levels.
Experts recommend getting about 2,000 milligrams (mg) of magnesium every day for people leading an active life.
Using data from a large, ongoing study, researchers have discovered what they think is a direct link between increased coffee consumption and better heart health.
That direct link is a strong one, too. Researchers, funded by the American Heart Association (AHA) and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, found that for every additional 8 oz. cup of coffee people drank, their risk of experiencing a heart failure, stroke, or coronary disease decreased by 8%, 7%, and 5%, respectively. [1]
The data comes from the Framingham Heart Study, the country’s longest-running epidemiological study, which began in 1948 and originally focused on 5,209 people living in Framingham, Massachusetts. Over time, younger generations of Framingham residents were added to the study. [2]
Researchers were able to sift through the mounds of data from 3 generations of participants using machine learning. They backed up their findings by “using traditional analysis in two studies with similar sets of data” that had previously noted an “association between drinking coffee and a decreased risk of heart failure and stroke,” the AHA said in a press release.
Study author Laura Stevens said:
“The challenge here is there are so many potential risk factors, and testing each one using traditional methods would be extremely time consuming, and possibly infeasible.”
The findings, presented at AHA’s Scientific Sessions in 2017, don’t prove that increased coffee consumption reduces heart disease risk, but it points to a clear overlap. Plus, it’s not like coffee hasn’t been linked to a myriad of health benefits before. In fact, the healthy components of coffee are one of this coffee snob’s favorite subjects to write about.
Other Potential Benefits of Drinking Coffee
Moderate coffee consumption has been linked to a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, which is important because those with Type 2 diabetes have the same risk of heart attack and dying from heart disease as people who already have had heart attacks. [3]
Harvard Medical School said in August 2017 that “coffee, which contains polyphenols and other anti-inflammatory compounds, may protect against inflammation.” What makes polyphenols so special? Look at the powerful effects of these compounds.
Polyphenols:
Fight cancer cells and inhibit the growth of blood vessels that feed tumors;
Protect the skin against ultraviolet radiation;
Fight free radicals and reduce the appearance of aging;
Promote brain health and protect against dementia;
Support normal blood sugar levels;
Promote normal blood pressure. [4]
So if you’re debating having another cup of coffee, fill up, kick back, and enjoy better health.
“Our citizens should know the urgent facts…but they don’t because our media serves imperial, not popular interests. They lie, deceive, connive and suppress what everyone needs to know, substituting managed news misinformation and rubbish for hard truths…”—Oliver Stone
Tales from the Conspiratum 
