THOSE B-VITAMINS!!!

Recently I seemed to have strained one of my hip joint (don’t ask me how) and I started to experience some mild discomforting pain, which I ignored for a while as it seemed to appear and disappear at times. Anyhow I had mentioned it to my husband’s Aunt who is a nurse and she suggested that I start taking some B-50 Complex vitamins as that should help. Well I recalled that my Naturopath had also recommended that I take the B-Complex and I had actually bought a bottle of B-50 and had been taking it for a while but had stopped. I therefore started to take them again and the pain went within a day or 2.  So the bottle finished after about 2 weeks and I felt all was well (as the pains had completely disappeared by then) so I just said ok I would pick up another bottle at some time in the future. Well within a week the hip pains returned!! It started off mild at first and so I made a couple of days pass and then I went and got myself a b-12 supplement, but realized there was hardly any relief! So the pains got furiously worse (to the extent that I had to seek my husband’s assistance to put on my stockings for work! By the way, helpful and supportive though he was, I discovered that men are no good with stockings!!). Anyhow I therefore immediately went back and got a bottle of B-75 Complex quickly and resumed taking them, and believe it or not, within 2 days I got complete relief! Within a day I went from being almost unable to go up or down the stairs to start running up and down! I found this truly amazing! The difference was like night and day and so it is because of this I decided to research those B Vitamins. In particular I wanted to know which one of them was responsible for the relief of my joint pain. I found some interesting facts which I would like to share with you.

Firstly, I had no idea that there were so many B-Vitamins! As much as 8 of them! And the recommendations are that they are most effective if taken together (hence the B-Complex).

These B-Vitamins are very helpful in preventing cancer; they are essential to treating depression, as well as the nervous system and so much more! They cannot be stored in our bodies, so we depend entirely on our daily diet to supply them. B vitamins are destroyed by alcohol, refined sugars, nicotine, and caffeine, so it is no surprise that many people may be deficient in these. My recommendation therefore is that if you have not yet started to take a B-Complex supplement then you should definitely start soon!

I have taken the following directly from the American Cancer Society’s web page on B-Vitamins: http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/HerbsVitaminsandMinerals/vitamin-b-complex

How is it promoted for use?

Scientists know that B vitamins are part of many important bodily functions:

• Vitamin B1 (thiamin) and vitamin B2 (riboflavin) help the body produce energy and affect enzymes that influence the muscles, nerves, and heart.
• Vitamin B3 (niacin) has a role in energy production in cells and helps keep the skin, nervous system, and digestive system healthy.
• Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) influences normal growth and development.
• Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) helps the body break down protein and helps maintain the health of red blood cells, the nervous system, and parts of the immune system.
• Vitamin B7 (biotin) helps break down protein and carbohydrates and helps the body make hormones.
• Vitamin B9 (folic acid) helps the cells in the body make and maintain DNA and is important in the production of red blood cells.
• Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) plays a role in the body's growth and development. It also has a part in producing blood cells, nervous system function, and how the body uses folic acid and carbohydrates.

Deficiency of certain B vitamins can cause anemia, tiredness, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, depression, numbness and tingling in the arms and legs, muscle cramps, respiratory infections, hair loss, eczema, poor growth in children, and birth defects.

Some alternative medical practitioners claim that deficiencies in B vitamins weaken the immune system and make the body vulnerable to cancer. They recommend high doses of B vitamins as treatments for people with cancer. Many researchers are studying the relationships between vitamin intake and risk of developing certain cancers.

What does it involve?

Nutritionists maintain that a balanced diet that includes 5 daily servings of fruits and vegetables, as well as grains, gives most people with all the B vitamins they need. Only small amounts of these vitamins are needed to reach the recommended dietary intakes. But many people do not eat enough fruits, vegetables, or other healthy foods to get the recommended amounts. The National Academies of Science (NAS) recommends that adults over the age of 50 take B vitamin supplements, or eat foods enriched with these vitamins, in order to prevent deficiency, which is common in this age group.

Women who are pregnant or breast-feeding need more folic acid than others. The Public Health Service recommends that women of childbearing age who can become pregnant should consume at least 400 micrograms of folic acid daily through dietary supplements and fortified foods, in addition to a diet containing folate-rich foods, to help prevent certain birth defects in their children.

Food sources of B vitamins:

• B1 and B2 are found in cereals and whole grains. B1 is also found in potatoes, pork, seafood, liver, and kidney beans. B2 is found in enriched bread, dairy products, liver, and green leafy vegetables.
• B3 is found in liver, fish, chicken, lean red meat, nuts, whole grains, and dried beans.
• B5 is found in almost all foods.
• B6 is found in fish, liver, pork, chicken, potatoes, wheat germ, bananas, and dried beans.
• B7 is made by intestinal bacteria and is also in peanuts, liver, egg yolks, bananas, mushrooms, watermelon, and grapefruit.
• B9 is in green leafy vegetables, liver, citrus fruits, mushrooms, nuts, peas, dried beans, and wheat bread.
• B12 is found in eggs, meat, poultry, shellfish, milk, and milk products.

Supplements that contain several B vitamins, usually in combination with other nutrients, are sold in grocery stores, health food stores, and over the Internet in pill form. Dosages vary by manufacturer.

 American Medical Association

"Insufficient vitamin intake is apparently a cause of chronic diseases...Most people do not consume an optimal amount of all vitamins by diet alone.   Pending strong evidence of effectiveness from randomized trials, it appears prudent for all adults to take vitamin supplements."

Be blessed and stay healthy!
sharbs

Sources:

http://www.doctoryourself.com/bvitamins.html

http://depression.about.com/cs/diet/a/vitamin.htm

So what about those alternative cancer treatments that have been blowing through our emails? Tune in next week…

CANCER CAUSING HORMONES IN MEAT

How many of you are aware that American and Canadian Beef has been banned from Europe for over a decade now? Why is this? Because the growth hormones that they are using in North American beef is harmful and dangerous! One of them is a complete carcinogen - estradiol (i.e. it  exerts both tumour  initiating and tumour promoting effects!). Even though the European Commission placed a ban on the meats, the health authorities in North America have to this day refuse to stop using these hormones on the basis that the levels being used are not enough to put the consumers at risk! They do this despite the common scientific consensus that there is no way of setting safe levels for carcinogens. Well I don’t know about you but as far as I am concerned, I do not want to be consuming these hormones at any level whatsoever! Now is there any wonder why since 1950 there has been a 55% increase in breast cancer; 120% increase in Testicular Cancer and 190% increase in Prostate cancer? [See Los Angeles Times March 24 1997 article in the News link page]

Now you might ask why are they doing this? Well the simple answer is money! Pure and simple math! These growth hormones will get the livestock to the slaughter house much faster than if they wait until Mother Nature pursues her normal growth phase. The farmers who use these hormones gain at least $80 per cow, hence the reason they are unwilling to stop this using these growth hormones.
I grew up in the country and I can distinctly recall that when my parents used to raise chickens for sale, these chicks took at least 6 to 8 weeks to grow before they were ready to be plucked. Well today these same chicks are being grown to maturity within 2 weeks all due to the use of these hormones.  (Do you notice the excessive slabs of fat that you see underneath the skin of the chickens you purchase in the supermarket?). It is my understanding that some of these poor chickens are unable to withstand such a fast growth rate and so their tiny hearts explode and they die before time! 

Apart from cancer, there are other harmful consequences of consuming meat that has these hormones such as shrinking of testicles, damage to liver, early onset of puberty, sterility, fibroids in women, feminizing of boys and the list goes on.

The best thing to do is to purchase only those meats that have a clear indication that they are hormone free (note that ‘grain fed’ does not necessarily mean ‘hormone free’). Make sure that the label says ‘hormone free’. It will cost you a couple of dollars more, but isn’t your life and your health worth more than the couple of extra dollars? You decide.

Another issue that is worthy of note is that Processed Meat also promotes cancer. Processed Meats contain Sodium Nitrate, which is a cancer-causing chemical additive that meat companies use as a color fixer to turn their meat products a bright red "fresh-looking" colour.  Stay away from it as much as you can and don’t feed your kids on it! These are items such as bacon, sausage, beef jerky, pepperoni, deli slices, sandwich meats etc. Just remember Processed meats = Sodium Nitrate = Cancer!

Stay blessed and stay healthy!

sharbs

Sources:

http://www.preventcancer.com/consumers/general/hormones_meat.htm

http://www.naturalnews.com/022288_sodium_nitrite_processed_meat.html

http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/chemicalsafety/contaminants/hormones/index_en.htm

TOXINS AND HOW THEY ARE DESTROYING YOUR HEALTH

“Most of the diseases of aging – vascular, most cancers, arthritis and others – have been shown to be associated with toxic metals and persistent organic pollutants. Vascular diseases, stroke, heart attack plus most of the cancers and macular degeneration have been directly linked to lead. And that’s just lead!” Robert Nash M.D

What are toxins and where do they come from?

Toxins are simply any material or compound that is foreign to the human body which has an undesirable negative effect on it. They can originate from various sources such as industry, burning, waste processing, manufacturing etc. Most toxins are synthetic (man made) compounds that are found around the average household that somehow find their way in our food, our drinking water, the air we breathe and in our soil. Toxins are more prevalent now in this industrial age than before and they are becoming even more prevalent with the increases in technology and industrialization. This prevalence is being discovered more and more to have lead to a toxic state of the average human body which results in the onset of a myriad of diseases! It is not coincidence that you know more persons dying from cancer and other degenerative diseases than your parents did! Thankfully, science is now discovering the relationship between persistent exposure to toxins and the human body’s systems with the resulting health conditions that occur because of the dysfunction of these systems.

Some common toxins:

[adapted from soundconcepts: www.healthyagingtools.com]

PCBs: Industrial insulators and lubricants. Banned in the US in 1976. Persist for decades in the environment. Accumulate up the food chain to man. Cause cancer and nervous system problems.

DIOXINS: Pollutants, by-products of PVC production, industrial bleaching and incineration. Persist for decades in the environment. Very toxic to developing endocrine (hormone) system.

FURANS: by-products of Plastics production, industrial bleaching and incineration.  Expected to cause cancer in man. Persist for decades in the environment. Very toxic to developing endocrine (hormone) system.

METALS: Lead, Mercury, Arsenic and Cadium. Cause lowered IQ, developmental delays, behavioural disorders and cancer (at doses found in the environment).

PHTHALATES: Plasticizers, cause birth defects of male reproductive organs. Found in a wide range of cosmetic and personal care products as well as children’s toys. Some phthalates recently banned in Europe.

VOLATILE/SEMI-VOLATILE ORGANIC CHEMICALS: Industrial solvents and gasoline ingredients like xylene and ethyl benzene. Toxic to nervous system, some heavily used SCOCs (benzene) cause cancer.

ORGANOCHLORINE INSECTICIDES: DDT, Chlordane and other pesticides. Largely banned in the US. Accumulate up the food chain to man. Cause cancer and numerous reproductive effects.

ORGANOPHOSPHATE INSECTICIDE METABOLITES: Potent nervous system toxicants. Most common source of exposure is residues in food. Recently banned for indoor uses.

“Toxicology textbooks list the first symptoms of chronic poisoning as low energy, fatigue, muscle weakness, inability to concentrate and intestinal complaints.” Jeffery Bland Ph.D., The 20 Day Rejuvenation Diet Program

How to Detoxify:

 

First of all you should lighten up your toxic load by eliminating alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, saturated fat, refined sugar as they all act as toxins to your body and are obstacles to your healing process (did you know that 1 teaspoonful of sugar compromises your immune system for up to 4 hours? I was shocked when my Naturepath told me this recently!) You should also eliminate the use of chemical based household cleaning products and personal care products and substitute with natural alternatives as soon as you can. You should also make every effort to eliminate stress from your life as it triggers your body to release stress hormones into your system.  The stress hormones can (in large amounts) create toxins which slows down the detoxification enzymes in the liver. So in detoxifying, you should also include a process of detoxing stressful situations from your life (detoxifying your soul). You can do this by developing a meditative relationship with your creator and draw on the inner peace which comes from that.

There are many methods that are in use these days to detoxify the body. Here are the most common ones [http://www.homemadebodycleanse.com/

]:

• Colon cleansing: colon is the sewer system of the body and if this gets choked then you can imagine the problems that occur if the sewer of the street is choked. The choking of colon can lead to constipation and production of poisonous gasses which in turn is harmful for the body. The cleaning of this part of the body is really easy. The doctor will insert a pipe inside your body and then a flow of warm water is thrown into the body. This cleans the colon and it might take 4-5 sittings with the doctor.
• Ion footbath detoxification: this is the most relaxing way to get rid of the toxins present in the body. You just have to sit on the chair, with your feet dipped into the water container. A flow of warm water will flow under your feet and the positive and negative ions in the water will attach themselves to the toxins present in the body. Toxins that are insoluble will also dissolve in this water.
• Herbal way to clean your body is the best way for inner body cleaning. Not only this is cheap but also improves your eating habits. There are herbal products also available in the market. The other advantage of this method is that it does not have any side effects and hence is safe.

The herbal supplements that are most effective are ones containing Zeolites; Chlorophyll; Spurilina; Wheat Grass. A juice fast is also quite effective. A simple effective home remedy for detoxifying is warm water with lemon juice.

“In my opinion, based on the evidence, every single chronic insidious disease process is related to one word – toxicity. You cannot address the issues of aging unless you address detoxification.” Rashid O. Buttar, D.O.

Stay Blessed and Stay Healthy!

sharbs

Do you want to know what is in the meat you are eating? Check back next week!

THE SOY STORY….

To say that Soy has been a nutritional star in the health food world is almost an understatement! Soy is now in almost everything we eat and drink and what is even more important is that we are feeding it to our kids! Vegetarians eat it in every way and form as it is used to replace protein. So what really is the Soy story?

The results of my search have been quite alarming and not many people will want to hear this, however, I feel compelled to share what my findings are. In summary, Soy can adversely affect your health:

1. Soy is cross reactive with wheat and can set off a range of inflammatory conditions in your system! It has potent allergen properties.
2. Soy is also packed with estrogen and since this is believed to be a link to breast cancer in women then women should seriously contemplate whether they want to be drinking soy milk or eating tofu on a daily basis! If you have ancestors and other family members who have had cancer then you should definitely be staying away from soy. Also, is there any wonder why so many little boys these days are thinking they should be girls and then grow up in sexual confusion?
3. Soy can compromise the thyroid function and lead to a condition called hypothyroidism (do you notice how many persons have been suffering from this lately?)
4. Soy can block the absorption of protein and interfere with the function of the pancreas ( do you also notice how pancreatic cancer has been on the rise?)
5. Soy can block the absorption of key minerals such as calcium, magnesium, zinc and iron (which is the main reason why people with cancer cells will deteriorate rapidly if they are feeding their body with soy!)

Below I have attached the transcript of 2 interviews done by Raena Morgan [host of iHealthTube] you can go on the link provided in my sources below and watch the actual videos of the interviews, however I believe things have a better impact when we read it in black and white…so I suggest you read the transcripts first.

Description

In this health video you will learn the truth about soy.

Transcript

Raena Morgan: Hi, I’m Raena Morgan with iHealthTube, visiting with Dr. Sherrill Sellman.We’re talking about good nutrition. And Dr. Sellman—soy—it’s been a nutritional star in the health food world, but there’s been some controversy about it lately. Could you discuss that with us?

Dr. Sherrill Sellman: I’d love to. You know, soy has been promoted, has been marketed to be a nutritional star. We’ve heard so much about it. It took about 50 years to convince the American public that soy should be eaten. But there’s another side to soy that we really need to understand. I used to eat a lot of soy as a vegetarian, which I am no longer, I’m a recovering vegetarian. I would eat tons of soy and I thought it was a really good food. So, let me just dispel some of those myths and give you some of the facts. First of all, the Asians are not healthier people because they eat soy. Soy is not a staple in Asia and I have actually lived in Asia, Southeast Asia, and I can tell you, for a fact, it is not. The Chinese eat an average of two teaspoons a day of soy, and the Japanese may do a couple of tablespoons a day.

Raena Morgan: That’s not very much.

Dr. Sherrill Sellman: No, it’s not very much. And the kind of soy these people eat is basically in a fermented form. So, soy came from Asia. It was never considered a very nutritional food. It was when they learned to ferment it, in the form of miso by the Japanese, particularly, and in another form called naso, that they were able to make it digestible. Up until that point it was only used in times of famine when they had nothing else; they would never eat the soybeans. It was used more to put nitrogen into the soil. So, the best way, and the only way I really recommend people eat soy is in fermented form. The reason why we have a problem with soy is because there are some health concerns [about the] effects of eating soy. Right now soy flour is just in about every bread you buy.

Raena Morgan: That’s right.

Dr. Sherrill Sellman: You have soy milk, you have soy nuts, you have soy oil, [it’s] just proliferated. But the fact of the matter is, soy is a very dangerous food, it’s one of the top most allergic foods you can eat. We know wheat is allergic, we know milk—these are highly allergic foods, [regarding] food allergies. Soy is cross reactive with wheat; it’s extremely allergic, it will create a range of inflammatory conditions. And we’re a very allergic society. You know, people have lots of allergy issues, and soy contributes to that. The other thing about soy is that it interferes with thyroid function. Actually it’s called goitergenic, the term; it actually will block the action of your thyroid. Several tablespoons a day [are] enough soy to actually have an effect on your thyroid, and we’re a society that also has a tremendous amount of issues with thyroid problems.

Raena Morgan: Right.

Dr. Sherrill Sellman: So, one of the known effects of soy is that its goitergenic and it will compromise thyroid function leading to hypothyroidism….It increases the need for the body’s vitamin D, you have to take more vitamin D. It’s a very inefficient form of B12; it will not supply the body’s requirement for B12. It also is a trypsin inhibitor; it will block the absorption of protein and interfere with the function of the pancreas. And aside from that, it also blocks the absorption of key minerals such as calcium, magnesium and zinc and iron. So it's (soy) a terrible food to give to children. And one other thing I have to say is it’s very estrogenic. Now, the popular form of some infant formulas and a lot of people are using soy because their babies are allergic to milk, or whatever, but, in actual fact, it’s a very poor, it’s a very bad form of formula for children. One of the reasons why? If a baby is fed solely on soy formula it’s like giving that baby 5 birth control pills a day, [that’s] the amount of estrogen. You get 13,000 to 22,000 times more estrogen in, circulating in a baby’s body, then if they were taking a milk formula. And that can lead to conditions later in life, such as, this growing problem of early puberty that we have—1 out of 6 8 year olds going through puberty. Feeding children, little girls and little boys, who also have reproductive abnormalities from doing the soy infant formula, can create a whole host of problems that can be with these children for the rest of their lives. So, if you’re going to do soy, it’s nutritious as a fermented food. Tofu, by the way, is not fermented. We’re talking tempeh, we’re talking miso and we’re talking naso, and any other form of soy be very judicious of its use. Only use a small amount. I occasionally use a little soy milk in my coffee because I don’t like milk, but that’s about it. And there are much more nutritious foods out there that will not have the health effects, the detrimental effects, and can really provide us with our nutritional needs much better. And there’s one more thing I want to add about soy. Most of the soy you get, unless it says organic, is a GMO— genetically, modified organism, which means it has been tampered with. More and more research is coming out showing that GMO foods have serious debilitating effects to our health. So, you do not want to be eating GMO foods, and unless it says organic soy, it is probably GMO. And also the major grower and distributor of soy tried to get the government to give it a GRAS labeling, generally recognized as safe, but when all the literature and science was presented, that request was denied. So, it is not recognized as a generally recognized as safe product, which should be telling us something quite important about the effects of soy on our health.

Raena Morgan: Well, thank you for telling us the other side of the soy story. Thank you very much Dr. Sellman.

Dr. Sherrill Sellman: You’re welcome

Description

In this health video you will learn why eating soy isn't always the best for you.

Transcript

Raena: Soy is something that remixed estrogen and we shouldn’t be using that right?

Ori: The soy is one of the biggest food policy that human encounter. And I’d like to address it in couple second.

Raena: Okay.

Ori: Soy, based on question is an estrogenic food. The soy is flame special ganister has shown again and again that—estrogen combined. Research of soy is done by soybean manufacturer, so yes, we see a lot of positive that it have anti-cancers and anti—but what they don’t show is the disturbing evidence. That soy actually can cause cancer in men and women who are prone, who suffer from cancer that soy can cause retardation of growth in amount of infants. That soy does promote, especially product of soy like soy milk, soy protein isolate can definitely cause damage. You cannot ignore it. There are other few foods that promote estrogen like Omega 6 oil or the oil that you think that has canola, Mazola, corn oil. All these oils have shown in other species, I mean use to promote estrogen. We need to counteract it. Yes, soy which is one of the most popular health food item. You should avoid it in my opinion.

Raena: I will do that from this point on. Thank you.

In concluding I am not suggesting you should cut soy entirely from your diet, however, as you can see above, it is definitely not an item to be ‘feeding on’ on a daily basis!

Love and Blessings and stay healthy!

sharbs

http://www.experts123.com/q/whats-the-story-with-soy.html

Toxins…do you know how much is in your system?...check back next week for more on this!