Green Tea And Stomach Cancer

Researchers have studied green tea in cancer prevention because they suspect that the drink's antioxidants may protect against the disease. In particular, it may include compounds that fight bacteria that have been linked to stomach cancer. A new study by Dr. M. Inoue, at the National Cancer Center in Tokyo, examined six older studies.

Together, these studies involved more than 219,000 men and women 40 years and older, who were followed from about 7 years to more than 11 years. Overall, about four in five of the participants reported drinking green tea daily, with about a third drinking five or more cups per day.

During follow-up, about 2500 of the approximately 100,000 men, and about 1000 of the more than 118,000 women in the studies developed stomach cancer.

The researchers found no link between more tea drinking and reduced stomach cancer risk among men.

The 20 percent reduced stomach cancer risk they saw among women drinking 5 or more, versus 1 or less, cups of green tea daily remained true even after the researchers took smoking into account.

Read more about this study >>

Don't fancy drinking green tea? then take a green tea supplement instead.

laptops wanted for community workers in Zambia

I have just returned from a trip with the charity Village Water to Zambia.

I’ve seen the charity pics but actually being taken by a villager to be shown the scoop hole they use for their drinking water is a whole different experience.

Village Water works in western Zambia providing safe water and hygiene and sanitation education for rural villages.

Three amazing ladies run the Mongu office – Clare, Precious and Albertina. I’m in awe of their strength, energy, optimism and dedication. They often work for 6-7 days a week. They think nothing of working long days going out to remote villages miles from electricity, mobile phone coverage or even tarmac roads.

They work with the villagers cajoling and teaching them, so that the villagers really own the wells put in by Village Water – they make a financial contribution to the cost of the well, someone in the village is trained to make repairs, and a village water committee (5 men and 5 women) ensures that the villagers put a little aside each month so they have the money to repair the pump when they need it. They build latrines and install simple hand washing facilities. Construct high tables so that pots and pans can be kept out of the reach of animals.

Since Village Water worked with them, many of the villages have started growing additional vegetables for sale and for consumption. One village got so excited by the water pump project they’ve now built a village community school and persuaded the Zambian government to provide them with a teacher. Another village has started pressing the government to provide a rural health centre close to them. All the villages reported that diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases had been virtually eliminated. Women are clearly empowered by the whole process.

Village Water funds are naturally concentrated on the water, sanitation and hygiene program, but at the end I asked the ladies what they needed to make their work easier. They said more office furniture and two more laptops. They already have one.

So here’s my questions: does anyone have a laptop they could donate (not more than 3 years old) or would like to buy a new one for these amazing ladies? Can anyone help with shipping them out to Western Province, Zambia?

If a laptop is beyond your means, you can still donate to the work of this amazing charity http://www.villagewater.org/home.html

I’m attaching a pic so you can see the ladies who would use it – Albertina on the left of the pic and Precious on the right of the pic.

Thanks

Jane Thurnell-Read

High-Fiber Diets Prevent Polyps

High-fiber diets may help prevent colon cancer, according to new results from the Polyp Prevention Trial. Previous studies yielded ambiguous findings about whether fiber could reduce the recurrence of colon polyps, which are often a first indication of colon cancer. The new report looked at participants who were the most compliant to a high-fruit-and-vegetable diet, finding that the diet reduced their odds of polyp recurrence by up to 35 percent and reduced their odds of advanced polyp recurrence almost 50 percent. The 1,905 participants were at least 35 years old and had at least one confirmed colorectal polyp. The test diet limited fat to 20 percent of calories, with 18 grams of fiber and 3.5 servings of fruits and vegetables per 1,000 calories.
In previous studies, plant-based and vegetarian diets have been associated with a much lower incidence of colon cancer.

Sansbury LB, Wanke K, Albert PS, et al. The effect of strict adherence to a high-fiber, high-fruit and-vegetable, and low-fat eating pattern on adenoma recurrence. Am J Epidemiol. 200;170:576-584.

Fraser GE. Associations between diet and cancer, ischemic heart disease, and all-cause mortality in non-Hispanic white California Seventh-day Adventists. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999;70(suppl 3):532S-538S.

Source: www.pcrm.org/

Smoking And Surgery

People who start nicotine replacement therapy at least four weeks before surgery can halve their risk of poor wound healing. This is what the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) concludes in information published on www.informedhealthonline.org.

"It is not easy to quit smoking just before an operation," appreciates Professor Peter Sawicki, the Institute's Director. "But people who smoke are more likely to have complications after surgery than people who do not smoke," he adds.

IQWiG has now analysed current research results that show that nicotine replacement therapy can help people quit smoking and avoid complications after surgery. Nicotine replacement therapy helps reduce withdrawal symptoms when people stop smoking by giving them nicotine through a patch or chewing gum. Trials showed that only 14 percent of the patients who smoked had problems with wound healing if they had nicotine replacement therapy at least four weeks before surgery, compared to 28 percent of the patients who did not have nicotine replacement therapy. Poor wound healing is one of the most common complications after surgery.

Read more >>

Use hypnotherapy to help you overcome addictions >>

Wheat Sensitivity And Type 1 Diabetes

here is some very interesting information on type 1 diabetes ( not mature onset diabetes, but the type that often strikes young people) may involve an abnormal reaction to wheat:

Scientists at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the University of Ottawa have discovered what may be an important clue to the cause of type 1 diabetes. Dr. Fraser Scott and his team tested 42 people with type 1 diabetes and found that nearly half had an abnormal immune response to wheat proteins. The study is published in the August 2009 issue of the journal Diabetes.

Early in life, the immune system is supposed to learn to attack foreign invaders such as viruses and bacteria, while leaving the body’s own tissues and harmless molecules in the environment alone (including food in the gut). When this process goes awry, autoimmune diseases and allergies can develop. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the pancreas, the organ that regulates blood sugar. Dr. Scott’s research is the first to clearly show that immune cells called T cells from people with type 1 diabetes are also more likely to over-react to wheat. His research also shows that the over-reaction is linked to genes associated with type 1 diabetes.

Learn more about this >>

Exercise helps prevent weight regain after dieting by reducing appetite and by burning fat before burning carbohydrates, according to a new study with rats. Burning fat first and storing carbohydrates for use later in the day slows weight regain and may minimize overeating by signaling a feeling of fullness to the brain.

The University of Colorado Denver study also found that exercise prevents the increase in the number of fat cells that occurs during weight regain, challenging the conventional wisdom that the number of fat cells is set and cannot be altered by dietary or lifestyle changes.

Read more ..

Take Probiotics When You take Antibiotics

Up to one in five people on antibiotics stop taking their full course of antibiotic therapy due to diarrhea. Physicians could help patients avoid this problem by prescribing probiotics, according to a study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University published in American Family Physician.

The Einstein scientists reviewed the medical literature and found seven, high-quality studies in which probiotics were administered to people. The researchers concluded that the studies support the use of probiotics for avoiding diarrhea resulting from antibiotic use or from gastrointestinal viral or bacterial infections. In addition, the probiotics used in these studies were found to rarely cause adverse effects, even in children.

Read more >>

Water For Health For Everyone

Water is really important for our health. the UK charity WaterAid has launched a fun new campaign with a purpose.

The charity is collecting photos of toilets with a purpose. You can add your own. To find out more go to the WaterAid site and

• show the UK Prime Minister you are watching his progress as a "sanitation champion"
• urge him to talk toilets at the Annual High-Level Meeting on Sanitation and Water in April 2010

Vegetarian Nutrition

the UK Vegetarian Society web site is full of information and recipes for new and long-standing vegetarians. You will also find the resorces useful if you have a vegetarian coming to eat or stay.

people often worry about nutrition and whether they can live healthily on a vegetarian diet. I know from personal experince that the answer is 'yes', but if you're in any doubt check out what the Vegetarian Society has to say about nutrition and the vegetarian.

Travelling With Irritable Bowel Syndrome

I recently had a query about our travel probiotics. This is a product you start taking before you go on holiday and continue while on holiday. It uses special probiotic strains. The probiotics help to maintain a coating of friendly bacteria in the intestines to support natural immunity and digestive health. This means that unfriendly bugs find it difficult to get attached to the intestinal wall and multiply. Instead they are likely to be flushed away.

This was the query:

I am soon to travel to the Maldives and am an IBS sufferer and also have an intolerance to yeast. Can you tell me if this would be a good product for me please.

This was my answer:

I would expect the Travel probiotics to be very good for you. Check out my recommendations for irritable bowel syndrome too.

Antioxidants Not Associated With Increased Melanoma Risk

There has been a rceent study suggesting that taking supplements can have alarming results - leading to a four-fold increase in melanoma risk in women. This is scary stuff as melanomas are a particularly aggressive form of skin cancer.

Even more recent researhc contradicts these findings:

Maryam M. Asgari, M.D., M.P.H., of Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, and colleagues examined the association between antioxidants and melanoma among 69,671 women and men who were participating in the Vitamins and Lifestyle (VITAL) study, designed to examine supplement use and cancer risk. At the beginning of the study, between 2000 and 2002, participants completed a 24-page questionnaire about lifestyle factors, health history, diet, supplement use and other cancer risk factors.

Intake of multivitamins and supplements during the previous 10 years, including selenium and beta carotene, was not associated with melanoma risk in either women or men. The researchers also examined the risk of melanoma associated with long-term use of supplemental beta carotene and selenium at doses comparable to the previous study and found no association.

Read more about this ..

Are Children Working Too Hard?

It's very clear that a lot of people don't get enough rest, relaxation and sleep. Now a a large study of third-graders conducted by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has shown this applies to children to!

The study showed that school children who receive more recess behave better and are likely to learn more.

Since the 1970s, children have lost about 12 hours per week in free time, including a 25 percent decrease in play and a 50 percent decrease in unstructured outdoor activities.

Dr Barros one of the researchers says: "When we restructure our education system, we have to think about the important role of recess in childhood development... Even if schools don't have the space, they could give students 15 minutes of indoor activity. All that they need is some unstructured time."

Read more>>

A remedy for children's stress >>

PCOS Remedies

Here's an email I had from a customer:

i'm 20 and have just been diagnosed with PCOS, i suffer from almost all the classic syptoms, but im not over weight. The doctor told me that all they can do is put me on the contraceptive pill, but that hasn't releived my symptoms, except for my irregulatr periods.

I've read in a number of places that herbal supplements can help, but there are so many i got confused, i was just wondering if you could give me any advice?

Also, this will probably seem like a stupid question but can you take a vit.B complex tablet and a mutlivitamin tablet at the same time?

Thank you

Here's my reply:

Herbs may help (such as Vitex or Black Cohosh), but if I were you I'd probably try taking a good quality Vitamin B complex first and seeing how that goes. I'd also use our Wild Yam and Soya Cream.

I wouldn't recommend taking B complex and a multi vit - it's not a stupid question. It's a good question. High doses of vitamin B6 can lead to problems with nerve damage, so if you take a B complex and a multivit you could exceed the safe levels of B6. I wouldn't take more than 50 mg of B6 in total per day except under the supervision of a properly qualified heath or nutrition professional.

The Secret Language of Money

McGraw Hill have published David Krueger's book, The Secret Language of Money.

The Secret Language of Money is a guided tour to the subconscious meanings we give money, the conflicted ways our brain deals with money, the reasons we tend to make the same money mistakes over and over – and most importantly, how you can change all that.

I think you’ll find the book useful professionally and personally as an exploration of understanding our relationship with money and how to change our money stories.

David is having “An Evening with the Author” (September 21 or 22, 7:00 PM Eastern US time)
to discuss the book. When you sign up, you’ll get Chapter 1, a download of Excerpts from Your New Money Story™ Workbook as well as information about the discussion. To sign up + purchase the book, please go to this page of the book site:
www.TheSecretLanguageofMoney.com/Evening

At the book site, you’ll find an audio interview, brief video and Blog relating to the book.

You can read a piece David wrote for our site entitled Your Money Attitude.

Health & Goodness has been revamped

Our health web site has gone through a major overhaul and has completely new clothes. I'm really delighted with it - navigation is easier and I like the new more bibrant colour scheme. Laoding time is fast as well. I hope you like it too.

Some of the old internal links from within articles won't work at the moment, and we will be updating those as fast as we can. The site has over 1000 article pages so it's going to take a while as they all have to be done manually.

In the mean time you can use the search facility to find the page you want.

Gum Health And Disease

There's some great information on gum and teeth health and it's relation to gum disease and disease in other parts of the body.

It’s a question and answer session with Dr George Meinig, D.D.S. In the interview he talks about some amazing research by Dr. Weston Price, D.D.S.

Here’s a snippet to whet your appetite:

“Dr. Price's first case is very well documented. He removed an infected tooth from a woman who suffered from severe arthritis. As soon as he finished with the patient, he implanted the tooth beneath the skin of a healthy rabbit. Within 48 hours the rabbit was crippled with arthritis!

Further, once the tooth was removed the patient's arthritis improved dramatically. This clearly suggested that the presence of the infected tooth was a causative agent for both that patient's and the rabbit's - arthritis.

In the years that followed, he repeated this procedure many hundreds of times. He later implanted only a portion of the tooth to see if that produced the same results. It did. He then dried the tooth, ground it into powder and injected a tiny bit into several rabbits. Same results, this time producing the same symptoms in multiple animals.”

In general I'm not in favour of animal research, but this is an amazing piece of research. The research was, in fact, done many years ago and ought to be much better known.

Read more of this article >>

Check out our gum health products >>