Herbal Health
Herbal Remedies Blog
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FOODS THAT PREVENT AND CONTROL CANCER: OLIVE OIL
Eating too much fat has been linked with breast cancer. This has been adequately proved by a research study of 750 Italian women. It was found in this study that the women who eat the most saturated fats have triple the risk of breast cancer as compared to those eating the least. Eating too much fat can influence the spread and virulence of an existing breast cancer, its recurrence and survival chances. Some researches show that the more saturated animal fat in your diet, the greater the odds of auxiliary lymph node involvement or spread of the cancer, and the more total fat in a diet, the greater the chances of dying from breast cancer. Monounsaturated fat, the type predominant in olive oil, is however, not cancer a culprit. In fact, new evidence suggests that olive-oil-type fat can help counteract cancer. Mediterranean women who eat lots of olive oil have low rates of breast cancer, as do Japanese women who eat lots of fish oils but little animal fat.*37/355/5*
Cancer -
IMMUNE POWER DIET: AMINO ACIDS: YOUR ENERGY THERMOSTAT
Amino acids make your body’s energy thermostat—the way you absorb, digest and use protein, carbohydrates, fats, and sugars—run more smoothly. Ideally, our body should work to keep us on a smooth course of constant high energy and cheery moods. But for many people, it doesn’t work that way because imbalances in the body’s energy regulators cause periodic bouts of low blood sugar.In my opinion, this is one of the most common undiagnosed medical problems in this country. The medical term for it is reactive hypoglycemia. This means that instead of smoothly maintaining the constant sugar and protein balance we need, the body responds jerkily, flooding itself with sugar energy (“hyperglycemia,” or “high-sugar”) then abruptly slamming on the energy brakes (“hypoglycemia,” or “low sugar”). We all know people who are “touchy,” apt to fly off the handle, with what psychiatrists call “mood lability.” Often, such people are stuck on this “hyper-hypo” seesaw, victims of a faulty energy thermostat.People suffering reactive hypoglycemia may also be susceptible to every passing germ that comes along, and often plagued with hay fever, skin rashes, or allergies. In short, their erratic energy thermostat seems to go along with a weakened immune system. I am indebted to Dr. Jeff Bland, a noted nutritional researcher, for first bringing this constellation of symptoms to my attention.*61\242\2*
Weight Loss -
TREATING MIGRAINE WITHOUT DRUGS: MEDITATION AND YOGA
MeditationThe many different forms of meditation can be grouped into two general categories: those concerned with ‘emptying the mind’ and those in which internal thoughts are built up and maintained by an effort of concentration.Transcendental meditation became very fashionable in the West during the 1960s and much is claimed for it by headache sufferers. It is not surprising that an act of relaxation or withdrawal from everyday activities is associated with relief of tension which produces a reduction in headache frequency. It is less likely to be effective once a headache has started, presumably because the metabolic changes which occur during the headache make it difficult to maintain the appropriate state of mind.
Pain Relief-Muscle Relaxers
YogaYoga is an ancient Indian technique of achieving total bodily and mental control in an attempt to reach new heights of awareness and in promoting relaxation. There have been several trials of yoga methods of meditation in the prevention of migraine and the results, although preliminary, are encouraging.’Yoga of the body’ is concerned with making the body a fit vehicle for the mind as it meditates. The first precepts of control are based on the type of foods ingested, and are similar to much of the dietary advice often given for migraine: no citrus fruits, little cheese, no alcohol or wine, no garlic or onions and, in addition, no smoking. Garlic and onions are excluded because they may cause gastric upset. Meals are taken three times a day, the stomach being ‘half filled with food, a quarter filled with water and one quarter left empty’, to avoid any feeling of fullness. Food has to be chewed thoroughly and eaten slowly (in contrast to the gulping of quick snack lunches seen in British pubs). Constipation is avoided by adding bran to the diet. Much of this advice is commonsense and it is understandable that, with this regime, the body will function in a better way.The exercises of yoga are divided into those in which breathing is the main concern, and those which exercise the rest of the body. The breathing exercises are designed to establish conscious control over respiration as well as using the stomach muscles to ensure that the lungs are fully inflated.The bodily exercises are performed very slowly and involve either stretching movements or the maintenance of particular positions for periods of time. Physiologically, the maintenance of posture utilizes the stretch reflex of muscles. The whole system can be likened to a cat stretching and rolling, with movements being slow and graceful. It is essential that these exercises become comfortable and patience is needed for this but, after three months’ practice, many patients find they feel much better, fitter, and much less likely to develop headaches.There are many techniques of teaching yoga. The meditation aspect of yoga is the most important so that those techniques controlling thought, or holding thoughts in the mind and so building on them, are likely to be of benefit in developing control.Current approaches involve combining certain yoga techniques with biofeedback and it will be interesting to see how much this will achieve; it is conceivable that migraine patients who practice these techniques will not be so much at the mercy of stress and therefore will suffer fewer headaches.
*46/152/5*